#not sure about his eyes tbh i was using the current model

[socksandbuttons]

so out of the beans you made what do you think ruin eclipse bean? one or would he be twins?

Im??? I think this is asking for Ruin Bean you get Cured Ruin Bean

He looks like magic wizard.

[starberry-cupcake]

After a weekend that exhausted me, I am finally able to come back to this book. My reacts proved useful to remind me where I left of, who would have thought.

previously, on harrowberry the ninth:

this happened

also, harrowberry is courtesy of @lady-harrowhark

after which I suggested the following album cover as a representation of her

currently, chapters 14-16:

"The Mithraeum, the seat of the First Reborn! The Sanctuary of the Emperor of the Nine Houses, the bolthole of God"

I don't want to sound like gideon

I really don't

but I have to be entirely honest here

I read that sentence twice, at separate times

and neither of those times did I read "bolthole"

MOVING ON

harrowberry is settled in a room which was made for a lyctor that never was

I don't know if this is at all important but it caught my eye

I wonder what happened there

and I am, as we have established, fixating on very particular things

the emperor johnny bravo has a room that's described as a locked tomb, but harrow says that, unlike the other locked tomb, she's not interested to see what's in this one

on the one hand, I want to know what this guy's actually doing but, on the other, I don't care about what's going on in his intimacy

harrow is also surprised that he gets embarrassed

which I don't, because he should be embarrassed and ashamed about all of the stuff that is going on in general

I don't know specifics and I don't know details, but I know he's at fault

like we say over here, I've got no evidence but I've got no doubt

he tells harrowbean about the BOE

he says they hate the nine houses and that they have agents who turn planets against them

they got themselves a leader about 25 years before harrow was born, who made things more difficult for johnny man

let's bring back the timeline I'm constantly discarding and bringing back

we've been told now that: this leader showed up 25 years before harrow was born, they disappeared nearly 20 years ago and gideon was born 18 years ago in space to a mom who was brain dead upon arriving at ninth

there's also the whole eggs thing that idk if it has something to do with this or not but we're not totally throwing anything away here

we've moved from a cork board to a 3d model at this point

emperor johnny boo is blaming these people for not!dulcinea going ballistic

idk johnny man, you kind of fucked that up on your own I think, but go off, I guess

he also says that the BOE folks hate necromancers and necromancy

I don't wanna be making assumptions with little to no info (literally all I've been doing) but all I've seen so far is these people teaching harrow to kill planets

that's not what miss frizzle told me I should be doing when she wore the most iconic looks in television history

maybe if the emperor dressed like this I'd be trusting him more

emperor johnny also clocked harrow being a ninth kid smoothie

because harrow was doing theorems in the river and only one other person ever did that before

the person who founded the sixth

we're ok with the sixth because camilla came from there

when harrow starts telling him the smoothie story, the emperor says "This was...all so different...before we discovered the scientific principles" and proceeds to tell her that her parents basically did a mini resurrection

he says "I have committed the same act, and I know the price I had to pay" and calls her "a walking miracle"

to which harrow responds "I have just told you that I am the product of my parents' genocide"

emperor, my man

he says "nobody has to know" about the kid smoothie

there sure are a lot of things people aren't supposed to know or ask about over here in the emperor's bolthole

*me, high fiving gideon's force ghost*

he says the initials of BOE mean "blood of eden" and that Eden is "someone they left to die"

then he quotes shakespeare??? I think king lear???

“How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is To have a thankless child”, that quote

I'm not super knowledgeable when it comes to shakespeare tbh but...ominous

he also says "once you turn your back on something, you have no more right to act as though you own it"

and harrow thinks "at the time, that had made perfect sense to you"

that's pinned under the "hope for later" category

NEXT CHAPTER

harrow talks to ice cube barbie in her dreams

ice cube barbie says she's died twice

THEN, AND THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT

harrow asks her if she has ortus's eyes or if her eyes are hers and what her eyes are like

and ice cube barbie says "she asked me not to tell you"

this is me, adding another thing to the "hopeful hints for gideon" shrine I am building

chapter 16

harrow asks yandere twin about her diary and she says it has been burned on her own orders

more hints for my theory of past!harrow knowing a lot and planning ahead

harrowcita calls lyctortus (name suggested by the reply gang, thank you reply gang) "the other one"

which could be "other" as in "other lyctor" or as in "other ortus", so it's fine either way

harrow is worried about not!dulcinea still being a threat

AREN'T WE ALL

AREN'T WE ALL

I SURE AM, ALWAYS

she should have been flushed into space

harrow thinks not!dulcinea is moving and yandere twin calls her "crazycakes"

then we start going a bit more in depth about augustine

I have come to understand that he isn't called "saint of patience" because he's patient

he's called "saint of patience" because that's what you have to practice when you're around him

good god, this man

he has the charisma of the fifth but the disagreeable nature of the eighth

here I am, making judgment on these people I only know like 2 representatives of, but anyway

he's like if magnus hadn't discovered a passion for baking and had instead decided his hobby was to be passive aggressive and thinking too highly of himself

his cav was his brother, apparently

harrow thinks he's hollow inside

he is absolutely horrendous to mercygirl

BUT, MOST IMPORTANTLY

he also alludes to not!dulcinea moving and thinks mercygirl is doing it

I don't know about this, you guys

two mulders in one recap is what you get when I have been forced to not read for a couple days

I think fox mulder represents my energy in these recaps

Augustine The Unpleasant mentions that johnny j has "spent the last 10 thousand years on a perpetual search-and-destroy mission out of, as far as I can tell, purely symbolic retribution"

great, that sounds fantastic for god to do

and that "I wouldn't set myself up as his replacement A.L. He doesn't need another bodyguard, and even she was significantly more lucid than you are" (you being mercygirl)

I had mentioned the possibility of ice cube barbie being this AL person, we still don't know, but this AL is "she"

let's put that in the 3D model

augustine calls chad a "nice boy", which tracks for him being a Senior Chad

he treats harrow badly, which we absolutely don't stan over here in the harrow respect corner

harrow obliterates him with a comeback and he calls her Anastasia (You were born in a palace by the sea / A palace by the sea? Could it be?) like the previous ninth

these people love comparing their old pals to everyone they meet, even if they supposedly didn't get along much

harrow also makes fun of yandere twin for being what gideon would call "a weenie" over augustine

then we get the augustine and johnny explanation of how to kill the beast

I am all for information but this whole thing gives me the worst vibes

basically he says the beasts (disrespectful name) eat planets like oysters and then keep the thanergy as armor

the beast can inhabit anything it's thanergetically connected to it via their death

like that which they kill

they travel as river projections

they have agents, which he describes like the borg in star trek

individual forms connected to its hive

the whole lyctor thing, having a necromancer's ability with a cav's training to take over the body, seems to be a key to fighting these things

because the necro part goes down into the river to do the thing and the cav can take over the defense of the body

this, I think, could be what we saw harrow doing in the prologue, the projection thing

but harrow's body isn't protected, because she's "lyctor lite"

because there's hope for gideon or so help me john

which might be why yandere twin was telling her she would not be guarded if she did what she was about to do

I am very intrigued as to what harrow will come to know to push her to do what she did

also, she got stabbed, so I'd like to know if she's fine

but we have 0 guarantees of anything over here in the mithrandir or whatever

the emperor's bolthole

god, what has gideon done to me

they say the point of the combat is to throw the beast's soul into the abyss and hope it doesn't come back

that's what I've been trying to do with not!dulcinea all this time

ALSO still no camilla

see you next time and thank you for not hating the length of these things ♥

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

Love seeing what stats you get from reading each of the books about your teammates’ Personas because I like to think it gives you a little more insight into what they’re strong in and what their awakening helped them improve:

Arsène- Knowledge (Joker’s awakening was about him deciding to take action, which he does mostly by gathering information and learning various new skills and maximizing his advantages)

Captain Kidd- Guts (Ryuji’s is pretty straightforward; he just decided to be less apologetic about who he is and take risks to help others)

Zorro- Kindness (we don’t see Morgana’s awakening, which makes me kind of sad tbh, but we do know he is very much about acting the gentleman, and his arc has a lot to do with letting go of his insecurities related to his very pragmatic way of viewing relationships and opening himself up to being a true part of a team and a family)

Carmen- Charm (again, very straightforward. Ann takes back her beauty and sexuality and uses it to inspire others and find her own strength)

Goemon- Guts (Yusuke had averted his eyes from the truth for so long because of his precarious situation and because it hurt him. his choice to stand up to Madarame took a tremendous amount of courage, as does his ability to keep forging onwards through his doubts about his art)

Johanna- Kindness (Makoto is all about coming out of her role as model student and attempting to learn how to relate to her classmates and friends so she can support others better)

Necronomicon- Guts (Futaba is very similar to Yusuke - she faces her fear head on and finds the truth she buried, and is also training herself to overcome her fears in the real world as well)

Milady- Proficiency (haven’t gotten very far with Haru’s SL yet but it does seem like she’s now in control of the company so she’s going to have to learn how to be quite skillful. She has a very finicky hobby (gardening), her persona is great for technical damage, and what I love most about Haru being associated with proficiency is that it directly flies in the face of her father treating her like an object with no value other than family business ties. Haru is skilled as hell. Fuck you)

Cendrillon- Charm (I don’t currently know what to make of this yet. Kasumi’s awakening was really weird in the first place. I guess it’s because all eyes are on her and she has a lot of expectations - her routines are about grace and strength and flexibility)

Robin Hood- Guts (tbh I don’t know what to do with this either. I thought for sure Akechi was going to be knowledge like Joker… but apparently not. I guess detective boy is gutsy.)

[destinyc1020]

By the way Hollywood is i would just b content with Kaia being in her late 20s n Austin in his late 30s bt 20 (wen they met) is just so.. young. I actually enjoy Kaias book club n she said in the last one that was told a lot that she was very "mature" n a "old soul" when she was young n i definetly get that vibe from her, i feel like she thinks shes more mature bt by her interviews she sounds like her age to me tbh (nt a bad thing though shes still seems more stable than a lot of other nepo baby models).

I did think her n JE were going to last longer, they give off the same kinda vibe imo. In his print interviews he seems pretentious/wanting to emulate old hollywood stars or Health Ledger n Kaia mentioned smthin about how an artist isnt going to sacrifice their movie for someones kid (wrong lol) cuz thats not how art is made n she wants to "make art". Just by those comments i got why they were a couple ☠️ both of them can just sound very eye rolling to put it plainly lol kaia seems a lil more geniune wen shes nt ignorant about nepotism tho lol

Im srry bt the "rent a model gf" gave me a lil chuckle lmao it def helps wen her last n current bf have been actors n she wants to b an actress now. Anytime someone mentions her its either cuz her mom or shes "_'s gf". I think shes prob going to continue to have a deal with the paps until or if her acting career takes off cuz they give her visibility in hollywood

Late 20s would be fine....shoot... even 25 would be better and just fine imo lol 😆

I've always liked the fact that Kaia had her book club, and it's smthg she's done for years. She's a VERY avid reader, so I'm not even surprised that Austin was attracted to her, coz he loves to read also! 😊 Like, I can totally understand why they clicked, cuz they actually have quite a bit in common.

While I do think that Kaia has been forced to grow up VERY quickly in the modeling world, and probably isn't a "regular person's" 21 year old, she's STILL very young (imo), and pretty naïve and out of touch.... You can tell by her interviews. The funny thing is, she doesn't even realize it yet, which is why it's so ironic.

I'm not sure of the context of what she meant by "making art", so I won't comment on that, but part of me almost feels like she's just repeating buzz words lol. At least with JE, I feel like that's who he truly is, and what he truly wants. Although they sometimes looked miserable together lol, I actually think they were better matched? They were closer in age, and seemed to have similar backgrounds.

ALL of us were more naïve at that age though, so it's not a slight towards her, it's just a reminder that she doesn't have much life experience yet. 🤷🏾‍♀️ According to Psychologists, your brain isn't even FULLY developed until your mid-late 20s!

JE grew up pretty privileged, and so did Kaia. When you've been raised around wealth your entire life like Kaia has, it's hard to know how to relate to "common folk".

Re: JE.....

I'm not even surprised he's with Olivia Jade rn lol. 😅 They've actually lasted waaaay longer than I expected, so I guess he stopped cheating on his gfs lol. 🤭

Re: Rent-a-Model-Girlfriend...

Lol I'm sorry rofl 🤣 But after dating Pete Davidson, Jacob Elordi, and now Austin Butler lol, it just seems like I'm noticing a pattern here rofl 🤣 (Hot, up-and-coming actors who are going places lol)

As far as Austin is concerned.....

I'm probably gonna ruffle some Kaustin/Kaia feathers by saying this lol, but I'll say it anyway since I'm ALWAYS 💯% honest here on my blog....

First off, I'll just say, I think Austin is actually a very nice guy, and definitely seems way more humble and in touch with reality due to his background.

But boy does he have a bad woman picker lol 😂 Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the women he's been with have been "bad women" at all (I actually didn't mind Vanessa back when they were dating pre-covid 🥴), I just think that his personality doesn't always align with who he's dating. So his choices are sometimes like, "seriously?" to me lol. Almost like, he doesn't realize that he could do better. 👀

Tbh, I've often wondered if maybe he got with Kaia because after the lengthy Vanessa rlshp and breakup, maybe he just wanted smthg more low-key, easy maintenance, a pretty girl on your arm for movie premieres and press tours so you're not asked about your ex all the time 🙄, and just someone who can be private, and not rustle feathers too much, or be overly obnoxious on social media. 👀

I could be dead wrong, but I kinda get the impression that he's more so focused on his career right now. Yes, he's been in the business for almost 20 years, but he's JUST now getting his big break, so he's a bit behind than some others who got their big breaks in their early 20s or younger. He could def date an older woman again in the future, but I don't think at this moment in his life that he's really looking for an older woman who might be wanting or pressuring marriage right now.... hence, KAIA. 👀 🤷🏾‍♀️

I actually wouldn't mind Kaia too much if she were at least 25 and came from a regular background like himself. She's private, she doesn't say anything about the rlshp, and many famous ppl need you to be that way when you're dating such a high-profile man. Maybe she took notes from Zendaya lol 🤭

Anyway, I think his focus at the moment is his career. You saw how QUICKLY those engagement rumors got squashed right lol? Rofl 🤣 😂 I'd be a little surprised if he gets engaged to Kaia anytime soon. (I could be totally wrong though)

But he is def a guy who seems to prefer stable, long-term rlshps though, so they will probably last quite a while! They might even surprise everyone and get engaged one day, but I don't see it happening tomorrow, in other words. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Honestly?? I actually think Austin would do well to just be SINGLE for 6 months lol. I know that's a TALL order for a handsome, nice guy in the industry lol, but imo I think it would do him well. He's been through a LOT. Not just his mom's death, but other things in his life as well.

Relationship-wise, he went from an 8-yr rlshp with Vanessa, to then a massive breakup, to then a rebound "situationship" with his Elvis costar Olivia, to then another rebound fling with Lily Depp lol.... like laawwwd dude rofl 🤣 😂 Can't you just be single lol? 🤣

I'll give him a slight pass though, cuz 8 years is a very long time to be with someone, and then NOT have anybody.... I always say that the longer your relationship was, the longer you rebound also. I don't even think they broke up in person face-to-face. 👀

Anyway, IF he and Kaia do breakup one day, I'll be looking to see who he gets with next, cuz if it's some young 21 year old again I'm gonna be giving him the MASSIVE side-eye.

🤨

Anyway, those are my thoughts/opinions.... you don't have to agree. 🤷🏾‍♀️

[cultofsappho]

WIP WEDNESDAY

I don't have a fancy banner for wip wednesday, but I thought the bi flag would do. I don't usually do these, and the rwrb fandom rarely has these posts, but idc bc i'm very excited about the rwrb fic im working on!

I'm going back to work on my art school AU after a long break from it, with renewed energy!

Quick summary:

Alex transfers to a private art school in New York and ends up sharing a studio space with Henry, the golden boy of the school who just got back from an artist's residency in Paris. Henry is everything Alex thought he'd be by now. He already has such a sucessful career, not having even graduated yet, and Alex can't help but feel behind in comparison.

Excerpt below the cut:

[this scene takes place during a crique in thier shared Figure Drawing class.]

.

“Yes, thank you for starting us off.”

Alex gives her a winning smile. “There’s a lot of talent here, everyone did really well for the first project. I’m new here, so let me know if I’m out of left field, but it looks like everyone, myself included, might have focused too much on the torso and not enough on the limbs. We’re all a little hesitant, maybe?” 

Sarah nods “I agree, good observation. Don’t worry, we’ll have plenty of time to practice arms and legs in a few weeks. I might be able to squeeze in an extra session on that if we think we need it then.” 

Alex sees movement out of the corner of his eye. 

“Yes, Henry.” Sarah turns to him. 

“Just, on the same note,” His eyes dart to Alex then back. “Weren’t we to focus on the overall proportions this time, and not to get caught up in the fine details?” 

Alex scowls at him, he crosses his arms and looks away, back towards the drawings as if he were unaware of Henry’s tone.  

“Yes, that was the intent. But it’s also good to take stock of overall weaknesses as well, so we know how best to spend our time for the rest of the semester.” 

Alex bites his lip so he doesn’t smile. Get fucked, Mr. Perfect.

He inspects Henry’s drawing, looking for a weakness to exploit. His limbs are all on point. Elbows at the waist, shoulders just under three heads apart, accounting for the model’s lean build. 

It’s too perfect. There’s always a flaw. 

If he squints, he sees a hint of cross hatching on the edges, like Henry got bored too, and couldn’t stop himself from a little shading. 

Alex smirks and gestures to the piece next to Henry’s. “But this one- I’m sorry, I don’t know everyone’s names yet- This one is great. I can still kind of see how many times you erased and started over, whoever made this one is really focused on measuring. They have more patience than me, for sure. But the one next to it,” He gestures to Henry’s. “Is that shading? I can’t really tell.” 

Henry glares at him from across the room. Alex imagines steam coming out of his ears.

“Yes, that’s mine, I had lost track of the internal oblique muscle and used a little cross hatching on the edge to find it again.” 

Henry takes a step closer to Alex’s piece. He eyes it carefully, the corner of his lip twitching up. 

“You put a lot more emphasis on the skeleton than I did. I can almost see it peaking through.” It was a harsh dig; the model wasn’t skinny by any means. Meaning that- “I think it’s affecting the likeness. I don’t quite recognise Martin in it.”

Of course he learned the model’s name. Of fucking course.

.

.

.

I'm still working away at this, but I honestly can't tell how long this is going to end up being, so I'm hesitant to post ch 1 until I have more done!

Idk who to tag bc i dont which mutuals i have that actively work on fic... so, if you're working on something, please join and tag me in your excerpts!! or reply here so we can start this up in the fandom! the fic rec fridays have been so fun, time for wip wednesdays!!

If you made it this far tysm!!!! I'm! very! excited! (and currently working on some slutty ass pottery scenes rn tbh. just another teaser.)

Keep an eye out for this fic in the near future on my ao3: notcanoncompliant

[enchanted-tatas]

Hi! Your Hivecraft server looks really interesting! I've seen someone play on a server modded with what is essentially a first person rpg version of Sburb, but I've never seen anyone do an Alternia based map before! That's really cool!!!!! I have a few questions about it tho:

1. Will you be able to choose if you're a Human or a Troll?

2. If you can, will you be able to choose your blood colour as a Troll? Or is there some kind of mechanism for that?

3. Will Trolls have lusii? And if they do, can you choose what they are?

4. Will the server be private?

5. If it's not, will it be only PC accessible or will there be PC and Mobile versions?

6. Will you add the Minestuck mod or is this more of a 'Slice of Life, Living on Alternia' kinda thing?

7. Any unique resources like Sopor Slime?

8. Will there be any Persterchum or Trollian-like thing on to allow players to communicate?

9. Even if there isn't, can the players still have speech quirks?

That's all of my questions for now! Hopefully you'll have time to answer them!

Thank you! I've heard of people doing stuff like that but I was always more of a fan of the alternia themed world building etc. This is my first time playing Minecraft though so this project is sort of a learning experience.

Lots of good questions here so I'll do my best to answer

1. I don't think that's something I'm gonna manage for people, they can change their skins if they want or make custom models but I'm not sure that I could implement that for other people myself

2. As far as I know I don't think Minecraft has any sort of blood effects unless a mod or resource pack is installed but I don't have anything like that here so far. I AM planning to make some placeable items that look like blood splatters in different colors though

3. I can make mobs of lusii in the future that just act as animals do in game so I'm sure people could tame them and give them name tags so they don't despawn. I've already made some purple bees and I do wanna play with custom mob models later

4. I think I'll probably make a discord for it later where I can see how many people are interested and get it opened once things are more built out. It'll be open publicly then but I don't wanna pay for server hosting every month so it can only be open if I'm actually online

5. I think Minecraft in general is capable of cross console play?? I could be wrong but I'm working on PC so idk how well mobile would work especially with resource packs

6. I've never heard of that mod before tbh but I'm trying so far to not use mods and only use resource packs I'm making because that way everything can be server side and people don't have to download to join. This might change depending on what I wanna put in though. I sort of imagined more as a "slice of life thing" in survival mode. Just a fun alien sandbox for people to play in

7. FUNNY U SAY THAT I did TRY to make a sopor liquid in MCreator and technically succeeded. It had its own properties and everything

Unfortunately, MCreator only works on 1.19.2 and I've been making everything else on 1.19.3 😔 I tried testing it out in a 1.19.2 world but it just didn't wanna cooperate. I'll probably just have to wait until MCreator updates to 1.20...

8. I think just the current in game chat will be what's used or people can discord each other if they like

9. They can if they type that way sure! I think there's websites where u can basically "translate" whatever you type into a custom quirk but it won't be implemented in the server specifically. People will have to type that way themselves, same as making skins

Thanks for your interest! I hope these answers were helpful I'm not experienced enough to put in all these gui type ideas lol but maybe someday 🤷 I'll be posting updates here and there on this blog so keep an eye out 👀

[crystal-meloetta12]

hello, I would love to see your yokai watch ocs 💖

Ok so Ive been putting this one off a little bit for a multitude of reasons, most of which are some variant of "god Im so cringe", but I absolutely will ramble about them now that Ive been asked. This will be going under a read more because I go through 5 breakdowns and again am very cringe. I will also be showing each OC through a Picrew because trust me when I say my art is absolutely god awful, but all of them will be sourced.

Catherine

(Source: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1787745)

Ok, so she's basically the main protagonist of my little sector of hell. Her main watch model is the same as Katie's, but she does get upgrades overtime. Overall, she presents herself as a pretty stereotypical nice girl to those she talks to, and also shows a genuine interest in wanting to use her watch and skills to help those around her. Outside of yokai activities, she really enjoys all that she deems to be "cute", like Next HarMEOWny and clothing. She tends to be the most sympathetic of the party, opting to want to help yokai through words and actions as opposed to fighting them.

While a lot of her interests are genuine, some of her mannerisms are put on for those around her. She was very isolated for a lot of her childhood between consistently working parents and just not really being included in social circles, so a lot of her stereotypical cutesy vibes are just as much the only way she knows how to gain attention as much as they are for her own enjoyment. Because of this, she has a really bad tendency to become dependant on her relationships to the yokai around her, thinking that it's her only worth as a person and resultinf in an almost hero complex. So much so she often has a Pepillion on hand for when smiles are much harder to force.

(I KIND of want to add some neurodivergencies onto her, but I want to make sure I understand what Im talkkng about as well as I pretend I do before I actually go through with it)

Despite that, her primary go-to yokai is a Frostina she bonds with early on. She also usually has a Ratelle on hand for fashion-based things.

Her relationships with people are overall really chill, as she's generally nice to people. She is more open with the other watch users and her own friend group, allowing herself to be a bit more silly and goofy around them. The main stand out as of right now is I like to think Kyubi tried to flirt with her at one point as part of his "quest for hearts", and ended up learning what a lesbian is that day.

Hana

(Source: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/186583)

Hana's somewhat inspired off of the whole "robot from the future" line of yokai, and is actually a robot herself who was designed to help humans and yokai get along better. While designed to look like a human child, her whole body basically serves as a yokai watch, with her eyes basically acting as lenses that can pinpoint yokai. Because of this, she most often takes on the "navigator" role in more combat based scenarios, basically acting as the player in game. She was pretty much sent to current time as soon as it was confirmed shw was functional, so she has no real memories or way to travel to the time she came from.

Hana's the most carefree and childlike member of the cast, knowing a lot of things logistically but still experiencing them for the first time. Sometimes her curiosity and wonder can actually lead to trouble, but can usually be pulled out of it by others if not herself. She's actually probably the most emotionally well rounded of all of them tbh, mostly just having the occasional "Im not human" crisis and some trauma I'll get to later.

In terms of her yokai team, she mainly gets access to Don-chan who shares in her sometimes endless seeming energy, as well as Komajiro (not for any major reason, I just say so). She also has a Bruff in her team, mainly to act as a somewhat older brother figure who can ward off trouble if needed.

Mariah

(Source: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/3595)

Okay,

This girl is definitely the most subject to change, mostly because I made her core concepts back when I only played up to Yokai Watch 2 and was unaware I'd be submitting myself to Nightmare Lore! She's honestly recieved a ton of edits up to this point as well, my main strategy being "fuck it we ball" every time new lore presents itself to me. The current hurdle I have to pass for peak Blorbo Writing is Forever Friends, which I will watch after the Ensemble Stars interest dies down a little bit and I can actually continue Shadowside.

All that being said, as of writing this post, Mariah is a half human half yokai experiment facilitated by Ancient Enma to further push the "yokai human get along" thing until his ideals eventually shifted. Thus, she is treated as a member of the Enma family even if not related by blood. She is incredibly powerful with a high aptitude for yokai skills, althlough nowhere neae as strong as the man of all time himself. In terms of scaling, she probably is in between Zazel and Enma, though there is a sizable gap between all three of them. Because she was meant to be human, though, overexertion is a serious issie. She can only exert so much power without collapsing without other external circumstances. But with power like that doesn't just come responsibility, but pressure.

In the main group, she's the more collected one of the three, reeling in Catherine and Hana when they get more out of hand. Although, this is not to say that she doesnt get into antics of her own. Given her half yokai status, she doesn't really have much need for a watch, though she isn't above summoming Venoct for a fight. Shw does havw a slightly more human disguise, though it mainly changes her hair and eyes to be black.

Mariah and Enma get along really well, and share a sibling sort of bond. They tend to conversw over food, and she occasionally joins in for the "Enma's Holiday" manga shenanigans. She does end up in major conflicts of interest with Zazel on occasion, thus causing them to butt heads now and then, but they also genuinely care for eachother's well being.

Also I might rename her to be just Mari idk lol

Peg + some Shadowside discussion

(Source: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/1403004)

(I know, I know, Im gonna rename her eventually. It was an i side joke that isnt rlly funny anymore tbh)

... okay so is now a good time to mention Catherine fucking dies-

I don't really have the specifics planned out, but I do want her to eventually fall to some greater threat. She is remembered lovingly, albeit not much of the front-less her survived. Enough for her to be out of the way by the time the watch is banished. I am admittedly breaking ome of the rules of Shadowside, that being she is very much remembered by everyone.

Anyways, enter Peg, a shut in living in 2040 who ends up coming across the Arcane. Like Catherine, Peg lived most of her life in isolation from overworking parents and hitting bad luxk in social circles, only she copes through using her alone-ness as a shield, going out of her way to avoid letting people in. For most of her life, this has been fine, as she's able to excell in all sorts of random things completely on her own. Yokai, however, are one of the few things you can't go through alone. She actually has the most trouble out of the cast trying to get things done with them, as her abrasive nature ends up pissing off the yokai she tries to talk to if anything. And while Hana and Mariah are clearly traumatized by what happened and trying to work through it, everything Peg learns about Catherine builds a really bad imposter syndrome, and another person's shadow so big it feels impossible to crawl out.

She does get along with Hana the best, who still retains a lot of her wonder in the world, which opens up Peg's eyes somewhat in turn. Where she and Mariah sometimes feel more like work partners, Hana could be much more considered a friend. Im not really familiar enough with the Shadowside yokao to give her a proper team (as I only have the anime to go off of), but if we are ripping canon rules apart further, I think she'd largely have a Wydeawake amd a B3-NK1. I also want to give Hana something kinda similar to the Yokai Watch Ogre but idk Im indecisive lol

I've also been considering the possibility of Cath wandering around as a yokai, but the ideas I've had are more "trauma demon" than anything.

Alice

(Source: https://picrew.me/en/image_maker/41329)

Okay so a lot of her core development has also been largely put on hold in a hellscape of "Crystal needs to watch Forever Friends but hrrng no motivation", but she is alive during tne time period that would take place, which according to the wiki is also when Nathaniel woild havw been a kid. She comes from a largely traditional family who doesn't give her much agency, and often sneaks out at night to do the things she'd really like. She's generally kind and open to the world, but doesn't have a single clue who she is as a person or what she wants to do in life.

I'd LIKE for her to be friends with a significantly younger Mariah (who has weird aging bc yokai growth stuff), but I don't know how possible that is because Enma Bullshit. Her party largely consists of classic yokai, a standout being a Smogling she befriends early on. She has the marble component of the yokai watch zero built into a necklace.

And that's just about everyone's basic introductions! Ive had these characters anywhere from "about a year" to "many, many years", but this is really the first time Ive openly discussed them, so I hope you enjoy! Please feel free to ask any questions about them if you'd like, and thank you again!

[unspeakable3]

15 questions | 15 people

thanks so much for the tags @constitutionalweasleymonarchy @mundrakan @anemicc-royalty !!

1. are you named after anyone? it was once claimed that my dad named be after a russian ~erotic model~ but idk if that's true and tbh i'd rather not find out 😶

2. when was the last time you cried? about half an hour ago lmfao. happy sappy tears!!

3. do you have kids? no

4. do you use sarcasm a lot? i'm british

5. what’s the first thing you notice about people? i used to think it was hair, bc hair/facial hair is usually the only way i can identify people (do NOT talk to me about the time my ex cut his hair off) but it actually takes me like 3-4 times meeting someone to remember even that so. vibes. vibes are all i have to go on.

6. what’s your eye colour? brown

7. scary movies or happy ending? SCARY SCARY ALWAYS SCARY!!! i bloody love horror films. i like comedy-horror and so-bad-it's-good horror and gives-you-nightmares-for-months horror and those weird experimental 60s/70s horror films and i have a spreadsheet of like 150 horror films by decade that i want to watch and i work through them every october and it's my favourite tradition thank u

8. any special talents? er. a hairdresser once told me that my hair is like a duck's back? in that water just slides off it and it takes fucking ages to get wet enough to wash?

9. where were you born? english/welsh border grimzone

10. what are your hobbies? writing, reading, crafty needle-based things (currently: sewing a pair of mad pyjamas; i also like knitting [badly] + embroidery), gardening, vintage shopping, learning languages (currently: ancient greek [intermediate], british sign language [beginning of beginner]), lego (currently: the delorean!!!) and also going to the cinema and eating out at restaurants and all that sort of thing (@constitutionalweasleymonarchy i think we are kindred spirits i could've just kept yours 💛)

11. do you have any pets? I WISH

12. what sports do you play/have you played? i used to play netball and hockey at school but i'm not really a team player so.

13. how tall are you? just short of 5ft4

14. favourite subject at school? history + art + french + english literature

15. dream job? you know how like in The Past you'd get wealthy benefactors sponsoring the favourite pets people to just like, lounge about writing/painting/whatevering? yeah, that.

i'm sure everyone has already been tagged but if you have not and you would like to do this CONSIDER THIS ME TAGGING YOU! 💛

[dorefasolsido]

13. Hello, my alien, we’re each other’s mystery

***credit to original creator***

pick five random friends:

what is # one's name?

I’ll just call her Sam here.

guy or girl?

Girl.

his or her age?

26.

exactly where did you meet?

We first met online, on YT (it was a different time lol), and then we met officially when she came to visit me in my home country.

how long ago did you meet?

It’s going to be 12 years since online meeting and 7 years since irl meeting.

pick three words to describe # one.

Reliable, artistic, psychic lol

what is # two's name?

Chris.

guy or girl?

A guy.

his or her age?

27.

exactly where did you meet?

On a tennis court in Germany, when I went there to visit my cousin.

how long ago did you meet?

12 years ago.

pick three words to describe # two.

Chaotic, talkative, dramatic.

what is # three's name?

I’ll call her Sophie.

guy or girl?

Girl.

his or her age?

28.

exactly where did you meet?

At university, we were in the same department and group.

how long ago did you meet?

Soon gonna be 9 years. Which is actually wild.

pick three words to describe # three.

Introspective, careful, sarcastic.

what is # four's name?

Mimi.

guy or girl?

Girl.

his or her age?

30.

exactly where did you meet?

Also at uni, same friend group as number 3.

how long ago did you meet?

Also gonna be 9 years soon.

pick three words to describe # four.

Sweet, open-minded, understanding.

what is # five's name?

Ivy.

guy or girl?

Girl.

his or her age?

28.

exactly where did you meet?

In high school, we were in the same class.

how long ago did you meet?

Soon gonna be 13 years ago :o

pick three words to describe # five.

Assertive, outgoing, confident.

have you ever kissed # two?

Nope.

how about # one?

Nope.

have you ever smacked # one?

Maybe in a playful way.

will you see # three soon?

Yup, we should go to the cinema together.

how about # five?

When I go to my hometown, yes.

is # one cute?

Sure.

does # four have blue eyes?

I think so, they’re kind of blue-green.

does # four have good hair?

Yes?

does # two have a crush?

I’m not sure. My cousin used to say he had a crush on me, but let’s hope that’s not the case anymore.

rate # four's looks.

Lol not gonna do that to a friend.

rate # five's personality.

Or that.

are you dating # one?

Nopes.

do you want to date # one?

No, but tbh, it would be easier if we were romantically into each other because then everything would just make sense. We’re not, though -- both aces, and she’s aroace too.

is # three outgoing?

Nope. Most of my friends aren’t lol

is # three goofy?

I wouldn’t describe her as that, but she has her moments.

would you kiss # two?

Nope. But if you asked me a few years ago, the answer might have been a little different.

is # five fun to hang with?

Of course she is.

is # three easy to get along with?

I think she may come off as aloof or stand-offish at first, but she’s really super chill, so I’d say yes.

does # one have a sibling?

Yes, a younger sister.

does # two have a pet?

Not currently.

is # five taller than you?

Lol now that I think about it, all the friends I listed are taller than me.

is # three skinny?

Yup.

is # four tan?

Nope, she’s very pale.

where is # five from?

From here.

could # two be a model?

Lol probably not. I think he might be too short for a model, idk what the standards are.

would # four ever run away?

Like, from home? Nah, I don’t think that would even cross her mind.

were you ever drunk with # two?

He was drunk with me, but not vice versa because I don’t get drunk (my emetophobia could never). I was probably the tipsiest I’ve ever been one time when I was with him, though. He felt kinda sick and couldn’t finish his cocktail, so I took it instead, although I drank a 1L beer sometime before that and didn’t really want to. Luckily, I ate enough and took a one hour break between these two drinks, so it didn’t affect me as badly as it could have.

would # three ever smoke cigarettes?

Lol she doesn’t, but this reminds me of that one time she said that she was thinking she should start smoking at some point. She made it sound like she was gonna set an exact starting date in her calendar, which would kind of be in character too.

does # four like country music?

Nope.

does # five play a sport?

I don’t think she does now.

has # two ever been high?

Oh yes. Once we were high together.

could # three kill an animal?

I don’t think so.

could # four eat a box of oreos?

Probably? 

does # one live near you?

Sadly no, she’s over 1000 km away and I haven’t seen her in person for almost 5 years.

is # five going to college?

Not anymore, graduated.

could # three become a doctor?

I’m sure she could if she wanted to, but what a jump in career that would be.

ever been to a movie with # two?

We watched movies together and went to theatre once, but I don’t think we went to movies.

ever had a sleepover with # four?

Actually yes.

would you die for # one?

I don’t know if I would die for anyone tbh. Like, I’d do a lot for her, but I’d rather live for her than die. I also don’t want anyone to be willing to die for me.

would you lie for # five?

Sure.

does # one like pizza?

Who doesn’t?

would # two buy you lunch?

I’m sure he did once or twice, just like I did for him a few times.

where is # four right now?

Probably at home.

what is # five's favorite color?

I actually don’t know lol. Probably never came up. I expect she likes brighter, bolder colours though.

ever been to the movies with # three?

Yup.

ever slept in a bed with # four?

Hmmmm I’m not sure, but we might have shared it one time.

ever shared food with # five?

Maybe?

when did you see # one last?

In 2018 when she came to visit me for three weeks.

does # two play an instrument?

He was learning to play ukulele, but I’m pretty sure he dropped it by now lol

does # three speak spanish?

Actually yes. She’d say no, but she’s just very humble.

[primalspice]

Leslie - ✈️, 📚, 🩸, 🔱, 🐈, 🤍, 🧡, 🖤 , 🍔, 😖, 🤓

💉

✈️ AIRPLANE — does your oc like traveling, or do they consider themselves a more homey person?

She’s pretty much the same as Selma in this sense in that she doesn’t really travel because shes licenseless and busy, but she does enjoy it when she somehow has the opportunity. She enjoys new things and new places so in a perfect world she really would do it a lot more. The most she really gets to do is travel to different hospitals n such LOL.

📚 BOOKS — what level of education has your oc most recently completed/is currently in (GED, undergraduate, grad school, phd, etc)?

She’s like the only person here with an actual almost traditional educational path. She’s graduated highschool, undergrad, and medical school. So her schooling/residency to become an MD is really her most recent thing. She’d probably do more school to get a PhD in something if it wasnt a health crisis and if she didn’t have a grudge against schooling Institutions.

🩸 DROP OF BLOOD — what is your oc's blood type?

I have no idea what her blood type is. If we’re doing the like blood type personality thing then maybe O?

💯 HUNDRED POINTS SYMBOL — share three random facts about your oc that others may not know.

1. I definitely said she was an only child before and ig its not super relevant but I think she actually has siblings??? Shes a middle child perhaps. This is to say the family-disowning thing she did was messy as fuck LOL. They’re also doctors now but I think the potential of being a bad role model/looking as if she was raised poorly was certainly used as leverage. What do you tell people when one of your prestigious doctor daughters suddenly disappears from everything you ever do.

2. Her cigarette habit is pretty severe and long-running but somehow she never faces many side effects. She’s one of those people who can just do and consume whatever the fuck they want and still live to be healthily 90 years old. She takes great joy in trying to peer pressure selma to join her.

3. She was the official editor of the commie zine because her writing skills/creativity aren’t that great but she can definitely point out an error or 20.

🔱 TRIDENT EMBLEM — can your oc swim? do they enjoy swimming?

She can swim but god knows no one is swimming in this contaminated ass water. She’s somewhat athletic and energetic tho I’m sure she enjoys it when the opportunity arises.

🐈 CAT — does your oc prefer a wide circle of friends or a few close friends?

A few close friends, although it just happens that her current setup is more like the wide-circle situation considering….. What happened to her closer friends 😬. Shes in her loner era tbh tho all having friends does is leave her HURT and ANGRY in the end clearly.

🤍 WHITE HEART — what are three of your oc's neutral/questionable traits?

Difficult question LOL. I think she’s…. BLUNT and INTENSE and ANALYTICAL.

🧡 ORANGE HEART — does your oc tend to prioritize family or friends?

She prioritizes friends, especially since she pretty much disowned her family/they disowned her. The blood relation means Nothing to her and she will always prioritize those whom she has mutual respect with and those whom stand for the things she stands for. Some may say it is ungrateful or picky but SOMEONES gotta be mean here.

🖤 BLACK HEART — has your oc killed or seriously wounded anyone before? have they broken someone's heart and/or broken someone's trust?

I mean she’s a surgeon in a health crisis so people have died under her care but thats not really her fault. She’s yet to resort to violent activism but i think she Would if tested LOL. She probably thinks she’d do better in a fight than she actually would tho. As for the hearts and trust part, probably a little bit throughout her life just because of how uncompromising and mean she is but I dont think its ever been like PERSONAL apart from selma. She broke his heart and stomped it into a billion tiny pieces then threw it in his big beautiful eyes.

🍔 HAMBURGER — is your oc good at cooking? are they good at baking? which one do they prefer?

No one wants her to cook or bake because she’s making whatever the equivalent of Mac n Cheetos is in region zero. With that being said, she prefers cooking because she doesn’t really like sweets LOL

😖 CONFOUNDED FACE — is your oc an introvert, an extrovert, or an ambivert? do they let people in easily, or are they more reserved?

Idk if ambiverts are an actual thing but I feel like it describes her pretty accurately. She’s willing to socialize plenty for the right reasons, especially if you get her going about something she’s interested in or angry about. She’s pretty reserved until she properly feels out the type of person she’s speaking with. Doesn’t take that long tho.

🤓 SMILING FACE WITH GLASSES — is your oc chatty or quiet? are they at ease in social situations, or are they more shy?

Pretty much the same answer as above, she’s relatively chatty once the situation is felt out. She’s definitely got many opinions and many stories to tell so there’s no shortage of conversation topics with her, she’s just also not the type to go out of her way to discuss if it’s not particularly relevant (definitely also finds a way to make shit relevant tho. Does this make sense.)

[atlaese]

Mr. Incredible

summary: one of your favourite restaurants gives out free desserts for couples in matching costumes. Unfortunately, Bucky isn’t your boyfriend and he isn’t too keen on dressing up. Oh well, maybe he does end up liking the costume and you. pairing: college!bucky x fem!reader tw: talking about food, talking about alcohol, eating, just very fluffy! words: 1.2K a/n: hi hi!! i wanted to kickstart my writing again, so i decided to write a little something centering halloween!! also, decided to try out the college au for myself, never thought i'd like that tbh haha. anyway, hope you guys enjoy! i wrote it in like an hour, haha!!

p.s. i now have a library blog! go follow @aeristhotle and turn on notifs to get notified when i update! p.p.s. dividers by @firefly-graphics

reblogs and comments are appreciated ✨💗

BUCKY BARNES MASTERLIST | MARVEL MASTERLIST

“C’mon Buck! We have to go tonight! For Halloween they’re giving out free desserts to couples who’re dressed up together!” you tugged on Bucky’s sleeve of his sweatshirt.

Bucky was currently sitting at his desk in his dorm, working on a last minute assignment that should be turned in before 6 am, a small frown on his face as he watched the red costume you had laid on his bed.

“Darling,” he sighed, “I really gotta finish this tonight.”

“Also, we’re not a couple, so I don’t think this deal applies to us,” he added, squinting at the bright screen in front of him again.

“Bucky,” you whined, letting go of his sleeve and closing his laptop. “You’ve been staring at this screen for two hours already, just humour me with this and I’ll help you finish it after our date.”

This got his attention, as he turned his head just a little sideways, a small smirk now forming on his face as you pressed your lips together, realising your mistake.

“Date huh,” he teased flicking your wrist as you grabbed his laptop, holding it flush against your chest. “So what’s in it for me?”

You rolled your eyes, trying your best to not let his smug look distract you from getting free dessert.

“Well, free dessert, on top of a date with me,” you wiggled your eyebrows, shaking off the feeling that this could be something more.

It had been on your mind for quite some time, actually. Bucky always had a certain look and attitude around you, one he didn’t have around his friends or others.

His demeanor was just that bit softer, always looking out for you, making sure you’re okay.

During parties, you had heard he was quite the force to be reckoned with. The keg was his best friend and apparently you couldn’t keep him away from the table of shots that most parties had. But this never seemed to be the case when you went to one of those parties.

Whenever you were there too, his cup of beer never seemed to empty. The table of shots didn’t even seem interesting to him anymore. The only thing that mattered to him then, was if you were having fun at the party, and if the music was to your liking.

“A date? With you?” He asked surreptitiously, as if you were telling him a secret. “Are you sure? We’ll have to sell the whole thing.”

“Well, I- I mean, the dress-up part is the most important, I think?”

Was he? Was he enjoying this? Seeing you flustered? God, this man might be the death of you.

“Right, I saw something red flying by when you got in, what is it?” He now stood up and released his laptop from the titan hold you had on it.

“Oh!” You turned around, grabbing the costumes from his bed. “Only the best animation movie ever!”

Bucky tilted his head again, trying to figure out what the costume was supposed to be. It was mainly red, with some yellow accents on the chest.

“What’s that supposed to be? A knock-off deadpool?” He chuckled, his laptop now ignored on his desk as he took the costume from your outheld hands as you had another similar costume hanging over your arm.

“Hey hey, don’t discredit Mr and Mrs incredible, okay?” You scoffed, “they’re my role models.”

“The Incredibles you say,” he sighed, “must I wear this slinky spandex whilst on campus? I’m not ready to let go of my jock reputation.”

“It has a little mask, no one will recognize you, please Bucky.”

His gaze shifted from the costume to your face, your eyebrows pushed up and big eyes now on display, your lips in a little pout that he just couldn’t resist.

“Ugh, you’re a minx, you know that?” he turned around to go change in the bathroom, but also to hide the small smile that was now gracing his face.

“Thank you Bucky, I love you!” you shouted after him, pressing your lips together as you watched him shake his head.

“Okay, but this dessert is worth all the hassle, right?” you asked, shoving another spoonful of the tiramisù you were sharing with Bucky in your mouth.

“I guess,” he sighed, throwing a dirty look at the masks that were laying on the table. “The dessert is pretty good.”

“See! I told you so!” you grinned, leaning your chin on the tops of your hands as you smiled at him. “Aren’t you glad I saved you from that boring paper for a night of delicious food and good company?”

His faced softened a bit at your last words as he let on of his hands pluck at the spandex on your upper arm, his touch sending little sparks up your spine as his eyes connected to yours.

“Yeah, the food was alright, but the company was even better.”

His hand moved up, his fingers stroking over the fabric on your upper arm to your elbow, even higher, over the little bump of your wrist.

His touch felt magnetic, so much so that you dropped your right hand to the table, and his fingers encircled your wrist, his fingers then stroking over your hand and effectively grabbing in his without any doubts.

“Uhm, yeah, the company was great,” you croaked out, almost forgetting how to speak as his warm hand held onto yours.

“So when does this happen again?” he asked, his eyes still holding onto yours as the tiramisù was forgotten.

“I mean, the halloween deal? Next year,” you thought logically, a little bit confused by his question.

“So you mean to tell me I have to wait a full year before we can go on another date?”

Bucky now had a full-on smile on his face, not hiding his feelings anymore as he lightly squeezed your hand, “don’t tell me you can’t pencil me in sooner, sweetheart.”

“Oh,” was the only thing that came out of your mouth, as you tried to hide your embarrassement behind your hands, failing miserably as he now got a hold of both of your hands on the table.

“Uhm, we could do this again next week,” you said after clearing your throat. “Without the costumes, obviously.”

“Obviously,” he raised his eyebrows, his thumb rubbing soft circles on the back of your hand, a mesmerizing feeling.

“So, you ready to go?” he said as he stood up, pulling you up right as you looked around the restaurant to see other couples in matching costumes trickling out of the restaurant that was closing soon.

“Where to?” you said, still a bit shaken by everything that just happened.

“My dorm, you promised to help me with that paper,” he squeezed your hand, looking down at you with a smile.

“Man, the things I do for you,” you rolled your eyes good naturedly, happy to spend some more time with him.

“Hmm, I have a feeling you don’t mind,” he mused, his arm coming to rest around your shoulders as you walked towards the cash register to pay.

The only thing you could do is smile up at him, happy that whatever this weird date was, turned out to be so much better than you could ever expect.

[slasherhaven]

Could you possibly write brahms revealing himself to his s/o after they had a bad nightmare? S/o woke up screaming and crying and he came out of the walls and just listened through the door to make sure it was alright, then once he realized it was a nightmare he uses his kid voice to ask if he can come in and s/o just says "mhm.." too shaken up to even process that bras was asking to come in their room so he comes in and s/o is too upset to even care that well he literally just revealed himself and they just do grabby hands for him( tbh s/o is probably actually just half asleep-) so he comes over and cuddles them back to sleep petting them and using his adult voice to tell them it's ok and that hes there

That was a lot I'm sorry-

Brahms revealing himself to his future S/O when they have a nightmare:

It was strange. You were living alone in a big, creepy house, baby sitting a doll, and you were sure that the house was haunted by the ghost of the little boy the doll was modelled after. Yet, none of that freaked you out, that had become your normal, but a nightmare had you shooting up in bed in a cold sweat.

Brahms was hidden away in the walls, as usual, and was unable to sleep. His head was too busy, thoughts of you floating around. He wanted to show himself to you, he wanted you to see him. You had accepted the doll and the...ghost, so maybe you would accept him. 

But he was disturbed when he heard a scream coming from your bedroom. He jolted up and rushed towards your room, slipping out of the walls and creeping up to your bedroom door. Placing his ear against the door, he could hear you. You weren’t screaming now, you must have been startled by something. Now, you were crying, your breathing unsteady and ragged.

He recognised that sound. You must have had a nightmare...and it didn’t sound like you were calming down much. 

“Y/n?...can I come in?” a child-like voice asked from the other side of your door.  

You recognised that voice. You had heard it every now and again. It was unsettling at first but you had grown used to it, it was just little Brahms. Your new normal. 

Honestly though, you were too shaken to even process what was going on. “Mhm...yeah...” you answered, running your hands through your hair and trying to collect yourself.

Brahms smiled at your answer before quietly opening the door, stepping inside and closing it behind him.

The room was dimly lit, the moonlight seeping in through the curtains being the only light source. So, a tall figure of a man standing in your room when you were certain that you lived alone should have been more unsettling than it was.

Instead of reacting appropriately, you just looked at him with an expression of desperation. He moved closer, surprised when you reached a hand out for him. Your eyes were hazy and teary.

It seemed that you hadn’t fully woken up from your nightmare. Half asleep, which was probably why you weren’t reacting like he expected you too. Instead you were encouraging him to come closer. 

So, he did. 

Once you fully woke up, you would probably come to your senses and panic a little but right now you needed comforting so he was going to focus on that. He didn’t like seeing you so upset, not at all.

Approaching the bed, Brahms climbed on beside you, cautiously wrapping an arm around your shoulders. Without even thinking, you threw your arms around his waist, clinging to him as you cried into his shoulder.

“Y/n...” there was the voice of little Brahms again, the familiar voice putting you at ease. Maybe that was why you reacted so well, or didn’t react at all, you recognised the voice and that meant you weren’t scared of him. 

He was glad about that but...the voice didn’t feel right for this. He wanted to comfort you, to let you know that he was here for you, that you could rely on him when you were scared and upset.

“Y/n...” he repeated, his voice deeper this time, older, real.

Still, it didn’t make you panic, it only made you cling tighter to him.

“It’s okay, Y/n. I’m here now and I won’t leave you” he wrapped his arm around you a little tighter, using his other hand to stroke your hair. “It was just a bad dream, it wasn’t real. Everything is going to be okay” he continued to soothe you as your crying stopped and your breathing evened out. 

The change of voice was a little startling but it was pleasant, even comforting. While you had grown used to the childish voice, this one made you feel safe, you liked it.

Somewhere in the back of your mind, you pieced together the clues. Things moving around when you left the room, the sounds and voices, the man that was currently holding you. This was Brahms, your Brahms, not someone what you should be afraid of.

Your hold on him loosened, your body relaxing, but you didn’t pull away. Brahms looked down at you, smiling to himself when he saw that you had fallen back to sleep. That was fast...you really must have been only half awake.

Brahms knew that when you woke up tomorrow, you would likely have a different reaction to him being here but that was something to worry about tomorrow. For now, he was just enjoying that he was finally holding you, finally touching you. Now you knew about him, he wouldn’t have to hide. He didn’t expect everything to be like nothing happened, but he was confident that you would accept him.

[qqueenofhades]

Re: the post you reblogged about Bush. I'm 21 and tbh feel like I can only vote for Bernie, can you explain if/why I shouldn't? Thanks and sorry if this is dumb or anything.

Oh boy. Okay, I’ll do my best here. Note that a) this will get long, and b) I’m old, Tired, and I‘m pretty sure my brain tried to kill me last night. Since by nature I am sure I will say something Controversial ™, if anyone reads this and feels a deep urge to inform me that I am Wrong, just… mark it down as me being Wrong and move on with your life. But also, really, you should read this and hopefully think about it. Because while I’m glad you asked this question, it feels like there’s a lot in your cohort who won’t, and that worries me. A lot.

First, not to sound utterly old-woman-in-a-rocking-chair ancient, people who came of age/are only old enough to have Obama be the first president that they really remember have no idea how good they had it. The world was falling the fuck apart in 2008 (not coincidentally, after 8 years of Bush). We came within a flicker of the permanent collapse of the global economy. The War on Terror was in full roar, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were at their height, we had Dick Cheney as the cartoon supervillain before we had any of Trump’s cohort, and this was before Chelsea Manning or Edward Snowden had exposed the extent of NSA/CIA intelligence-gathering/American excesses or there was any kind of public debate around the fact that we were all surveilled all the time. And the fact that a brown guy named Barack Hussein Obama was elected in this climate seems, and still seems tbh, kind of amazing. And Obama was certainly not a Perfect President ™. He had to scale back a lot of planned initiatives, he is notorious for expanding the drone strike/extrajudicial assassination program, he still subscribed to the overall principles of neoliberalism and American exceptionalism, etc etc. There is valid criticism to be made as to how the hopey-changey optimistic rhetoric stacked up against the hard realities of political office. And yet…. at this point, given what we’re seeing from the White House on a daily basis, the depth of the parallel universe/double standards is absurd.

Because here’s the thing. Obama, his entire family, and his entire administration had to be personally/ethically flawless the whole time (and they managed that – not one scandal or arrest in eight years, against the legions of Trumpistas now being convicted) because of the absolute frothing depths of Republican hatred, racial conspiracy theories, and obstruction against him. (Remember Merrick Garland and how Mitch McConnell got away with that, and now we have Gorsuch and Kavanaugh on the Supreme Court? Because I remember that). If Obama had pulled one-tenth of the shit, one-twentieth of the shit that the Trump administration does every day, he would be gone. It also meant that people who only remember Obama think he was typical for an American president, and he wasn’t. Since about… Jimmy Carter, and definitely since Ronald Reagan, the American people have gone for the Trump model a lot more than the Obama model. Whatever your opinion on his politics or character, Obama was a constitutional law professor, a community activist, a neighborhood organizer and brilliant Ivy League intellectual who used to randomly lie awake at night thinking about income inequality. Americans don’t value intellectualism in their politicians; they just don’t. They don’t like thinking that “the elites” are smarter than them. They like the folksy populist who seems fun to have a beer with, and Reagan/Bush Senior/Clinton/Bush Junior sold this persona as hard as they possibly could. As noted in said post, Bush Junior (or Shrub as the late, great Molly Ivins memorably dubbed him) was Trump Lite but from a long-established political family who could operate like an outwardly civilized human.

The point is: when you think Obama was relatively normal (which, again, he wasn’t, for any number of reasons) and not the outlier in a much larger pattern of catastrophic damage that has been accelerated since, again, the 1980s (oh Ronnie Raygun, how you lastingly fucked us!), you miss the overall context in which this, and which Trump, happened. Like most left-wingers, I don’t agree with Obama’s recent and baffling decision to insert himself into the 2020 race and warn the Democratic candidates against being too progressive or whatever he was on about. I think he was giving into the same fear that appears to be motivating the remaining chunk of Joe Biden’s support: that middle/working-class white America won’t go for anything too wild or that might sniff of Socialism, and that Uncle Joe, recalled fondly as said folksy populist and the internet’s favorite meme grandfather from his time as VP, could pick up the votes that went to Trump last time. And that by nature, no one else can.

The underlying belief is that these white voters just can’t support anything too “un-American,” and that by pushing too hard left, Democratic candidates risk handing Trump a second term. Again: I don’t agree and I think he was mistaken in saying it. But I also can’t say that Obama of all people doesn’t know exactly the strength of the political machine operating against the Democratic Party and the progressive agenda as a whole, because he ran headfirst into it for eight years. The fact that he managed to pass any of his legislative agenda, usually before the Tea Party became a thing in 2010, is because Democrats controlled the House and Senate for the first two years of his first term. He was not perfect, but it was clear that he really did care (just look up the pictures of him with kids). He installed smart, efficient, and scandal-free people to do jobs they were qualified for. He gave us Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor to join RBG on the Supreme Court. All of this seems… like a dream.

That said: here we are in a place where Biden, Bernie Sanders, and Elizabeth Warren are the front-runners for the Democratic nomination (and apparently Pete Buttigieg is getting some airplay as a dark horse candidate, which… whatever). The appeal of Biden is discussed above, and he sure as hell is not my favored candidate (frankly, I wish he’d just quit). But Sanders and Warren are 85% - 95% similar in their policy platforms. The fact that Michael “50 Billion Dollar Fortune” Bloomberg started rattling his chains about running for president is because either a Sanders or Warren presidency terrifies the outrageously exploitative billionaire capitalist oligarchy that runs this country and has been allowed to proceed essentially however the fuck they like since… you guessed it, the 1980s, the era of voodoo economics, deregulation, and the free market above all. Warren just happens to be ten years younger than Sanders and female, and Sanders’ age is not insignificant. He’s 80 years old and just had a heart attack, and there’s still a year to go to the election. It’s also more than a little eye-rolling to describe him as the only progressive candidate in the race, when he’s an old white man (however much we like and approve of his policy positions). And here’s the thing, which I think is a big part of the reason why this polarized ideological purity internet leftist culture mistrusts Warren:

She may have changed her mind on things in the past.

Scary, right? I sound like I’m being facetious, but I’m not. An argument I had to read with my own two eyes on this godforsaken hellsite was that since Warren became a Democrat around the time Clinton signed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, she sekritly hated gay people and might still be a corporate sellout, so on and etcetera. (And don’t even get me STARTED on the fact that DADT, coming a few years after the height of the AIDS crisis which was considered God’s Judgment of the Icky Gays, was the best Clinton could realistically hope to achieve, but this smacks of White Gay Syndrome anyway and that is a whole other kettle of fish.) Bernie has always demonstrably been a democratic socialist, and: good for him. I’m serious. But because there’s the chance that Warren might not have thought exactly as she does now at any point in her life, the hysterical and paranoid left-wing elements don’t trust that she might not still secretly do so. (Zomgz!) It’s the same element that’s feeding cancel culture and “wokeness.” Nobody can be allowed to have shifted or grown in their opinions or, like a functional, thoughtful, non-insane adult, changed their beliefs when presented with compelling evidence to the contrary. To the ideological hordes, any hint of uncertainty or past failure to completely toe the line is tantamount to heresy. Any evidence of any other belief except The Correct One means that this person is functionally as bad as Trump. And frankly, it’s only the Sanders supporters who, just as in 2016, are threatening to withhold their vote in the general election if their preferred candidate doesn’t win the primary, and indeed seem weirdly proud about it.

OK, boomer Bernie or Buster.

Here’s the thing, the thing, the thing: there is never going to be an American president free of the deeply toxic elements of American ideology. There just won’t be. This country has been built how it has for 250 years, and it’s not gonna change. You are never going to have, at least not in the current system, some dream candidate who gets up there and parrots the left-wing talking points and attacks American imperialism, exceptionalism, ravaging global capitalism, military and oil addiction, etc. They want to be elected as leader of a country that has deeply internalized and taken these things to heart for its entire existence, and most of them believe it to some degree themselves. So this groupthink white liberal mentality where the only acceptable candidate is this Perfect Non-Problematic robot who has only ever had one belief their entire lives and has never ever wavered in their devotion to doctrine has really gotten bad. The Democratic Party would be considered… maybe center/mild left in most other developed countries. It’s not even really left-wing by general standards, and Sanders and Warren are the only two candidates for the nomination who are even willing to go there and explicitly put out policy proposals that challenge the systematic structure of power, oppression, and exploitation of the late-stage capitalist 21st century. Warren has the billionaires fussed, and instead of backing down, she’s doubling down. That’s part of why they’re so scared of her. (And also misogyny, because the world is depressing like that.) She is going head-on after picking a fight with some of the worst people on the planet, who are actively killing the rest of us, and I don’t know about you, but I like that.

Of course: none of this will mean squat if she (or the eventual Democratic winner, who I will vote for regardless of who it is, but as you can probably tell, she’s my ride or die) don’t a) win the White House and then do as they promised on the campaign trail, and b) don’t have a Democratic House and Senate willing to have a backbone and pass the laws. Even Nancy Pelosi, much as she’s otherwise a badass, held off on opening a formal impeachment inquiry into Trump for months out of fear it would benefit him, until the Ukraine thing fell into everyone’s laps. The Democrats are really horrible at sticking together and voting the party line the way Republicans do consistently, because Democrats are big-tent people who like to think of themselves as accepting and tolerant of other views and unwilling to force their members’ hands. The Republicans have no such qualms (and indeed, judging by their enabling of Trump, have no qualms at all). 

The modern American Republican party has become a vehicle for no-holds-barred power for rich white men at the expense of absolutely everything and everyone else, and if your rationale is that you can’t vote for the person opposing Donald Goddamn Trump is that you’re just not vibing with them on the language of that one policy proposal… well, I’m glad that you, White Middle Class Liberal, feel relatively safe that the consequences of that decision won’t affect you personally. Even if we’re due to be out of the Paris Climate Accords one day after the 2020 election, and the issue of climate change now has the most visibility it’s ever had after years of big-business, Republican-led efforts to deny and discredit the science, hey, Secret Corporate Shill, am I right? Can’t trust ‘er. Let’s go have a craft beer.

As has been said before: vote as far left as you want in the primary. Vote your ideology, vote whatever candidate you want, because the only way to make actual, real-world change is to do that. The huge, embedded, all-consuming and horrible system in which we operate is not just going to suddenly be run by fairy dust and happy thoughts overnight. Select candidates that reflect your values exactly, be as picky and ideologically militant as you want. That’s the time to do that! Then when it comes to the general election:

America is a two-party system. It sucks, but that’s the case. Third-party votes, or refraining from voting because “it doesn’t matter” are functionally useless at best and actively harmful at worst.

Either the Democratic candidate or Donald Trump will win the 2020 election.

There is absolutely no length that the Republican/GOP machine, and its malevolent allies elsewhere, will not go to in order to secure a Trump victory. None.

Any talk whatsoever about “progressive values” or any kind of liberal activism, coupled with a course of action that increases the possibility of a Trump victory, is hypocritical at best and actively malicious at worst.

This is why I found the Democratic response to Obama’s “don’t go too wild” comments interesting. Bernie doubled down on the fact that his plans have widespread public support, and he’s right. (Frankly, the fact that Sanders and Warren are polling at the top, and the fact that they’re politicians and would not be crafting these campaign messages if they didn’t know that they were being positively received, says plenty on its own). Warren cleverly highlighted and praised Obama’s accomplishments in office (i.e. the Affordable Care Act) and didn’t say squat about whether she agreed or disagreed with him, then went right back to campaigning about why billionaires suck. And some guy named Julian Castro basically blew Obama off and claimed that “any Democrat” could beat Trump in 2020, just by nature of existing and being non-insane.

This is very dangerous! Do not be Julian Castro!

As I said in my tags on the Bush post: everyone assumed that sensible people would vote for Kerry in 2004. Guess what happened? Yeah, he got Swift Boated. The race between Obama and McCain in 2008, even after those said nightmare years of Bush, was very close until the global crash broke it open in Obama’s favor, and Sarah Palin was an actual disqualifier for a politician being brazenly incompetent and unprepared. (Then again, she was a woman from a remote backwater state, not a billionaire businessman.) In 2012, we thought Corporate MormonBot Mitt Fuggin’ Romney was somehow the worst and most dangerous candidate the Republicans could offer. In 2016, up until Election Day itself, everyone assumed that HRC was a badly flawed candidate but would win anyway. And… we saw how that worked out. Complacency is literally deadly.

I was born when Reagan was still president. I’m just old enough to remember the efforts to impeach Clinton over forcing an intern to give him a BJ in the Oval Office (This led by the same Republicans making Donald Trump into a darling of the evangelical Christian right wing.) I’m definitely old enough to remember 9/11 and how America lost its mind after that, and I remember the Bush years. And, obviously, the contrast with Obama, the swing back toward Trump, and everything that has happened since. We can’t afford to do this again. We’re hanging by a thread as it is, and not just America, but the entire planet.

So yes. By all means, vote for Sanders in the primary. Then when November 3, 2020 rolls around, if you care about literally any of this at all, hold your nose if necessary and vote straight-ticket Democrat, from the president, to the House and Senate, to the state and local offices. I cannot put it more strongly than that.

[sanstropfremir]

Hey love, hope you're having a nice day

My mom strongly believes Taemin has a thing for using some sort of element to cover his head in most of his MVs. Obviously we're both too dumb to catch the symbolism (if any) so I thought why not ask someone who knows?

So what do you think? Is there any deep reason behind the head bags or is it just an aesthetic thing?

anon!!!! mwah!!! i'm having a better day because you sent this in!!!!

your mom is right, taemin absolutely has a thing for covering his head, specifically his face! you can see masks and/or veils (under the cut):

in the hit the stage performance of sayonara hitori

in the offsick concert teaser

in the nippon budokan performance of i’m crying

in the move mv here (there are several shots from this scene), and here

in the want mv here

there’s a quick shot of him pulling off a veil in criminal

and of course, advice. and again.

also some other images:

1. from the ngda act 1 promo photos

2. from the 2kids promo photos

3. from the move album scans

4. the cover of ngda act 2 messiah version

5. an actual bag over his head in the criminal mv

6. from the most recent short vcr in the ngda beyond live

7. from the sayonara hitori album scans

this is not an exhaustive list because i know i’ve missed some; i'm 80% sure there was a mask with the red outfit in the ngda act 1 scans but this is enough examples i think to show that it’s definitely deliberate. and i'm not even bringing up all the times he physically covers his face with a body part or it’s obscured through an effect, because then we gotta talk about the famous choreography, the idea choreography, the just me and you vcr, and countless promo photos and album scans from essentially every era in his entire solo career.

the backbone of the kpop industry in its current state is the idols' faces. human nature has proven time and time again that the easiest way to catch an audience is through a pretty face (by whatever the standards are at the time), and in an industry built on militant commercialism, of course the emphasis is going to be on those faces. you can see it in every bit of content. turning physical albums into mass collectibles, with multiple versions, giant photobooks, photocards. an idol’s face IS their uniform. when an idol doesn’t want to be seen, what's the first thing they do? cover their face. (and people still take pictures of them anyways). i’ve seen countless times on vlives and ig lives where an idol is wearing a mask and there will be a stream of “show us your face <3”’s until they do. their face is their brand. every decision a stylist, a publicist, a company makes is to optimize exactly how beautiful they can make their idols look, because that’s by and large what the fans want. obviously it's a product of the larger trend in unattainable beauty standards fueled by social media, but i'm not going to talk much about that, because it's a lot. if you’ve followed me for long enough (probably just for more than a few days tbh, since i talk about it constantly), you’ll have noticed that i'm a huge proponent of ‘ugly’ hair trends, and i'm a huge proponent of ugly styling in general. when idols have to be fashion models as well as inhuman performing machines, you’re setting them up to everything that plagues that industry as well, which means massive complexes about their faces and bodies, in the most mild of terms.

‘ugliness’ has freedom in it. part of the reason why i’ve gone extra insane for advice as a whole is because it IS ugly. taemin’s extensions ARE awful. his hands are blackened and dirty the whole mv, and so are portions of his body. he’s visibly flaunting his real tattoos*, which are still deeply stigmatized in the east. we see him get in a car crash. in arguably the most flattering/conventionally attractive outfit, he’s got heavy mascara tear tracks. the song isn’t particularly melodic, the choreography is childish and jerky, the lyrics directly call out the people that treat him like an object. and of course, the mask. all of these are cracks in the facade, confronting us, on purpose, with the crumbling of his perpetually pretty, perfect persona. he's hurt, he's angry, he's got his hands deep in the grime of living in the public eye that the public refuses to see, and now he's going to smear it all over himself until you DO see it. at the end of the mv his triumph is not that he washes himself clean, but that he paints overtop. gesso on an old canvas; a fresh start, but fundamentally informed by the things underneath.

taemin uses masks as a way to deface himself. both in the literal sense of removing his face from the equation but also in the synonomic sense of the destruction, the obliteration, the vandalization of himself. of his brand. known as sm’s pretty boy since he was 14, who is he if he doesn’t have his face?

as a general device the masks are an entreaty to address him on his own artistic merit. but they do often have specific meanings within their contexts. in the i’m crying performance it is to remove himself as an entity all together; he is anonymous now, an unseen narrator to the performers on stage.** in move and want it’s for emphasis on his body; proof that he can still ensnare you with his limbs alone. pulling off the veil/reversing it back on in criminal as a revealing/concealing of the two sides of himself on display in the mv. the literal suffocation of one of those sides with a plastic bag. the voice in idea says ‘you are my messiah,’ but the cover of the album denies confirmation of that identity.

there’s more to be dug into here, especially with the ngda act 2 photos but i’d have to go back through my catholic iconography notes again and this would be a lot longer than it already is. i’m also looking at this from a western perspective, there are undoubtedly double meanings specific to a korean context that i haven’t clocked. but that’s the reason i love his work so much! it stands up to a lot of rigorous analysis and there’s always going to be something that i don’t catch right away, something more to learn.

---

* we learned like yesterday that his hip tattoo is a peony, which he named as symbolizing freedom. peonies tend to have primarily positive meanings across east asian cultures, but in victorian floriography, they mean shame and sometimes anger.

** this style of performance is very common in cirque du soleil shows, especially the older ones from the early 2000s. it's pretty common to have a ballad or operatic singer featured as a ‘narrator’ to a specific story section of routine. i’m sure this is probably frequent in other places as well, but i’m naming cirque specifically because that’s where i’ve seen it the most, and also because there is an actual circus performer on stage during this. plus there’s a guy in a pierrot costume, who is probably the most famous clown***. (although the costume is technically wrong because pierrot is supposed to be unmasked. (ironic plays loudly in the distance))

*** clown of the technical variety and not clown of the honk honk birthday variety.

[out-of-this-dimension]

Hypothetically Rewriting Assault’s Story + Some General Assault Opinions

There’s a game my husband and I like to play when we watch a movie, play a game, or read a book that has a story that we don’t really enjoy or we enjoy certain parts of but not others.  We look at things we’d keep and things we’d change and we build a story from there-- sort of like an AU but we don’t really go into the writing part, we just stick to theorizing and mapping a general story.

I decided to play that game with Star Fox.  Not because I think Star Fox has a bad story but because sometimes I think the stories could have been handled better.  Note: for the rewrite game, I only really look at story, even for video games, I don’t really look at gameplay mechanics, but I do understand those have a lot to do with story potential so I do take it in as a factor... I just don’t bother to “rewrite” the mechanics, if that makes any sense at all.  Some of my list today will include boss encounters but I wouldn’t necessarily say those are mechanic-related... more like “event-related”.

I’ve mused a bit in the past about rewriting Adventures and Command and I do have plans to do a mock up of an Adventures remake eventually.  However, today I was thinking about how I would go about handling an Assault re-write in particular.  Much like Command and Adventures, I don’t have any beef with the core story but I do think there’s a few things that could’ve been better about Assault’s storyline-- like they had good ideas rolling but they didn’t quite refine them.

Under the cut because SUPER long.

My basic feelings on Assault are pretty positive.  I think the game is generally just fun and I like that it feels like the natural progression from SF64.  I liked getting to see planets we haven’t seen since the N64 era in better graphics and I liked seeing Star Wolf return.  I also just thought the aparoids were neat enemies. 

Generally speaking, though, when it comes to Assault, I think it suffers from the thing it tries to push the most-- the story.  I think a lot of people get caught up in thinking the story is better than it is because it’s the first game since SF64 that really follows the same Star Fox vibe without retelling the Lylat Wars.  Don’t get me wrong, the overall plot is great but the execution and pacing are... wonky.  Certain characterizations also take a hit in some regards but no one really talks about that when Command exists. That’s something we’ll talk about later on with this post.

That being said, Assault really does have a lot good going for it.  An absolute banger of a soundtrack, some great dialogue, a neat story synopsis, the introduction of cool characters like Panther and Beltino (who existed but was always off-screen), and just good levels.  

So, here’s what I would add, I suppose, if I were to somehow have the ability to rewrite Assault.  Originally I had this in paragraph form, but I’ve made it into more of a list under topic segments with main points bolded for your viewing pleasure.  Some of these points might be considered nitpicky and while I do understand that yes, this is a game about space animals, I do hold the developers in high enough regard to make a game with a continuity that makes sense.

The Story Changes

- Reduce Pigma’s storyline in Assault.  This is the biggest one for me because a bulk of the plotline feels like a giant chase to just get at Pigma and it feels like it derails from the actual plot with the aparoids.  We only go to Sargasso because of Pigma.  We only go to Fichina and then back to Meteo again, because of Pigma.  That’s 3 levels in a 10 level game devoted to just tracking down Pigma and chasing him.  While it makes the build up to fighting Pigma kind of nice, I personally feel like the plot could be reduced to 2 levels.  If Assault overall was a longer game, I could see them making it 3 levels.  Overall, though, in its current state, I feel like the side plot overstays its welcome and the aparoids promptly get shoved to the side in favor of “Oh no, we gotta get to Pigma!” And I get the main motive here is to show how the aparoids affect people and because of the build up, it does a good job at showing how utterly terrifying the aparoids are.  But it’s still too long given the length of Assault’s story. The only alternative to this is make Assault longer, which... honestly, it should be.  

- Revise the scene with Tricky.  I’m obviously not well-versed in dinosaur biology but I’m pretty sure dinos didn’t grow that fast from what studying I HAVE done.  And why is he suddenly king now?  Did his parents die?  He seems not affected by this at all?  Like it’s a funny scene with him, Fox, and Krystal, but it’s odd if you really look at it.  Give us, as players, more context because I’m still not even sure what happened to make Tricky suddenly the leader and... big.  As a note, you’re gonna hear me gripe a lot about the Sauria level in this post.

- The Star Wolf + Peppy sacrifice is a low effort way to raise tension/stakes and then cop out.  Oldest trick in the book, imo, is to act like you’re going to kill off important characters only for them to be alive miraculously.  And let’s face it, as an audience we all know they aren’t going to kill those characters because it’s Nintendo and those characters are too beloved.  I would’ve forgiven them for only doing this with Peppy or Star Wolf, but when you tack them both together and throw in the fact they make it seem like you’re going to have to kill General Pepper too... yeah, it’s just a bit much of the same trope over and over again.  I wanted to put a note in here about how I’m fine with the Great Fox being “sacrificed” but overall, it needed to return to the series because of it’s icon status, but I think that’s more of a gripe at Command instead of Assault.

- Keep Pigma alive.  This will conflict with a point I have later on about the game consistently having characters cheat death for easy drama points but with Pigma, I would’ve kept him fully alive... but maybe with some physical damage from the aparoids.  I understand he’s semi-alive in Command and tbh I don’t know where I stand on that.  Why keep Pigma alive, you might ask?  I feel like his character has a lot more potential than being “just the greedy guy”.  Like he’s got good potential future villain material for future games and... if I’m honest?  I just don’t see Nintendo wanting to keep Pigma dead so why even bother killing him off?  They couldn’t even commit to him being dead in Command anyways so it seems very moot.

- Bring Bill and Katt back.  Assault is acts a bit like a big reunion of all of our SF64 favorites but our two favorite side characters are suspiciously missing.  Wouldn’t Bill be out on the front lines fighting against Andrew in the beginning?  Or maybe back in Katina?  And wouldn’t Katt inevitably show up in the midst of the invasion, maybe to pointedly check in on Falco?

- Bring Andrew back for the final fight. I think Andrew being defeated early into the game is fine overall but I think bringing him back in for a reunion final fight against the aparoids would serve to really solidify that it’s really everyone vs the invading aparoid force.  It would show that not only is Star Wolf willing to put aside their differences but so is basically everyone in the Lylat System in the name of survival.  Imagine the Venomians and Cornerians working together against an aparoid fleet, giving Star Fox and Star Wolf time to attack the queen?  I just think it’d be neat and it’d open up the potential for some fun banter mid-mission.  I do understand that quite a few people consider Andrew canonically dead after Assault but personally, I feel that his defeat left his fate questionable (I’m a staunch believer that unless there’s a body, they’re probably alive, especially for Nintendo games because, again, they never like to kill people off) so him returning in Command never really bothered me.  

- In general, reconsider some of the character portrayals.  Unfortunately, when a series has a different studio for each game, character portrayals will inevitably have inconsistencies.  While I give Namco a lot of credit for putting in oodles and oodles of detail into the game (particularly the levels), I think they failed in their portrayal of Fox, at the least, and Wolf is a considerable offender as well.  While it’s obvious that Fox in Adventures was effectively modeled off of Sabre even in terms of personality, Rareware was at least able to justify Fox’s newfound jaded attitude with the passing of many years and a distinct lack of steady income, resulting in the team being in disarray.  Assault’s Fox is a stark contrast to his cynical interpretation with seemingly no explanation other than maybe “Oh, I have more money and a gf, maybe I should behave myself”.  As if the sudden change in personality wasn’t random, Fox also just seems very blah, like a blank slate stereotypical shooter game protagonist dude with little to no emotion.  Wolf is less obvious but gets slated into a mentor-like role midway through the game and ends up in a respectful rivalry with Fox... which there’s nothing inherently wrong with that except for it happening abruptly (and, I mean, Peppy is right there).  But I take less issue with this and more of an issue with the fact that there’s an entire level establishing that Wolf now runs a crime den with effectively what seems to be an army and no one bats an eye at this.  He doesn’t even call on them to help with the aparoids.  Did they all die when the aparoids attacked Meteo?  Are they safe somewhere else?  Where do they go?  How was Sargasso able to operate without the CDF being on their doorstep with warrants for arrests?

- Don’t kill all the dinosaurs.  A bit of a dramatic statement but the ending screen that showed all the damage to Sauria really bothered me.  While I understand that the dinosaurs had less of a chance against the aparoids than a more technology-focused society like Corneria, I was a bit disappointed that the decision was made to just state that a lot of tribes had been wiped out.  I know this could easily be retconned in a future game and I feel like it should be.  “But why, Amalia?  Why are you disappointed by that?”  1) It’s a little too grimdark for my tastes.  2) The fact it all happened off-screen felt very hand-wavy.  And 3) It brings into question the entire point of Adventures.  Why did we bother to save this planet if it was going to be reduced to rubble and ash 1 year later?  Where were the Krazoa in all of this?  Why did they not make an appearance at all to try to stop the invasion with their alleged powers?  It just raises too many weird questions and I feel like Namco didn’t think it through too much.  Which I mean, sure.  Family, kiddo game.  I’m not asking for bigbrain plot and lore but I’m squinting at this bit because it does feel very contrary to the lore from the previous game.

- Make the aparoids more relevant.  As nice as it is to have a random bad guy from another galaxy, I feel like there was more that could be done with the aparoids in terms of their origins.  Tiny things, mind you, not huge revelations.  Off the top of my head, they could have been tied into Krystal’s backstory to help alleviate some of the complaints that she was too random to be added to the series’ main cast.  Alternatively, they could have been a product of Andross or even a weapon prototype from Corneria that fled the lab (I actually thought the game was leaning in that direction for a bit then just Nothing Happened).  I get that the vagueness of their origins leaves room for people to speculate and speculation is nice but... when you leave too many things unknown, it starts to feel less like giving fans room to interpret and more like just doing random things for the sake of it.  I think a lore tidbit here or there would work wonders for the aparoids instead of leaving them as just borg/zerg clones.

Level-Based Changes

- Add either Aparoid RedEye or Aparoid General Scales as a boss to Sauria.  Given that this level mysteriously lacks a boss, which is just weird compared to the other levels, I think that they had the opportunity to add something cool to go along with the cinematic feel they were going for with Assault.  Assault’s cutscenes do play in a movie-like fashion and it’s clear they’re trying to make the game as epic as possible.  It’s a shame they had so much fodder for a great boss here but they failed to go through with it.  Alternatively: Add a Krazoa-Aparoid fusion.  Why?  Because Star Fox is about cool epic sci-fi and that would be cool epic sci-fi incarnate.

- Add a boss to the Aparoid Homeworld Level, aka the penultimate level.  Another one I felt was personally weird that there was no “final defense system” to challenge the team.  Would be cool to do an aerial battle over the aparoid planet with some giant flying aparoid.

- Be kinder to Sauria.  The level had some good homages but overall was incredibly small and incredibly short.  It felt like a bone tossed to Adventures fans but was not entirely true to the setting built by Rareware.  I’m... not even sure where the Sauria level is supposed to take place?  I presume it’s Walled City but it doesn’t really have the same color scheme or aesthetic?  Also where is my revised Adventures music?  Why do all the other levels get it but Sauria doesn’t? 

- Put some of those funky items from the multiplayer into the main campaign.  I don’t know why some of these things, items especially, were omitted unless it was purely due to time constraints.  I remember having missile launchers and jetpacks in the multiplayer and was a bit sad that they were not in the main campaign.  Retuning the levels and adding those in would be a nice breath of fresh air for the more tedious on-foot missions.

- More levels.  Self-explanatory.  Still sad we didn’t get the Zoness or Titania levels in the single-player mode.  

I think all of the above changes would improve the game, though I recognize all of this is being said 16 years later after lots of time to contemplate Assault’s weaker points.  I’m not entirely certain how long Star Fox Assault took to develop but given that there’s obviously quite a bit scrapped from the game (an entire arcade mode was scrapped as well), I’m going to assume that the studio felt pressured to shove the game out the door and into the hands of customers.  It’s a shame, really, because I think a little bit longer in the oven would have done a lot of good.  Still, the product we got was good in its own right and a game that many people look back on fondly.  I haven’t gotten to replay it in years but I hope to quite soon.

You might wonder why I bothered typing this all out and I guess my point was this-- Assault was great but it wasn’t perfect, and while a lot of other games fall under a crushing amount of scrutiny, Assault seems to dodge it.  And don’t get me wrong-- I adore Assault.  But given that not many takes exist out there about rewriting it, I decided to give it a shot.  For variety’s sake.  

I do want to a mock up of a revised Assault story, which I think I will get to work on after completing this while all my ideas are still fresh in mind.  So stay tuned for that sometime in the near future.  I will also be doing my Adventures mock up at some point but probably not for a little bit as I do wanna focus some of my free time on actual fic-writing.

Anyways, if you stuck around this long, thank you for reading!  Have any changes you’d like to see to Assault if you could time machine your way back to the early 2000s?  Feel free to post in the comments, I’d love to read your ideas!

[cherrycheolliesc]

Let Me Hear You Say

part 46: Joshua’s Weeb Closet. (46/50)

red below 👇 (1.5k words)

“You know I can break out of this, right?” you say to Mingyu who is currently holding you down. He just scoffs knowing you can't move anywhere, but entertains you, “I know, it just makes me feel strong”

“You already strong, Gyu. Anyways where is everyone?” Seokmin asks. You look around the room only seeing half of your friends in Seungcheol’s small living room. Seungkwan and Wonwoo are sitting on the couch quietly talking. You wonder how they became friends because you've never seen them talk to each other. You assume Jeonghan and Joshua are probably somewhere making out so they don't have to deal with actually setting up the party. Seungcheol and Jihoon seem to be lecturing Chan about who knows what. Things are finally quieting down when everyone decides to watch the movie that's playing until someone bursts through the doors, “I'm here motherfuckers. The party is finally getting started”

“She drunk, isn't she,” Cheol asks as he points towards the small blonde girl in Mina’s arms. Seoyeon nods as she brings Chaeyoung to one of the rooms in the apartment. When she comes back, everyone turns towards the commotion at the front door. “You can't make me go inside. I'll bite you, you know I will” 

“Soonyoung, if you just go inside, it'll make everything so much easier,” Jun says as he continues to try and push the smaller boy in. Everyone just watches him, Minghao, and Vernon struggle to bring Soonyoung in until Cheol eventually just picks him up and holds him down, “You two are gonna talk like two grown adults or I’m firing Jihoon”

“Woah why am I getting involved in this?” Jihoon asks walking over to the rest of the group. Everyone looks confused before Chan talks, “How can you even fire him?” 

“Yea and with what job exactly,” Soonyoung says causing Cheol to roll his eyes, “Look if guys talk to each other, I'll tell you where I work” 

“One, no one cares. Two, stop lying to yourself, it's okay if you're unemployed. We won't stop loving you just because you don't have a job, Cheollie” you say which only annoys him more. Jihoon confused asks, “Why do you guys really believe he's unemployed? The dude is literally our boss.”

“ ‘Our’ boss?” Seungkwan says, “yes our boss. He's at the building all the time. How did you not know that?”

“To be honest I thought he was just going there to hook up with you, Ji,” Jeonghan says before getting a drink. “Ew, why would I hook up with Cheol? He's like my brother. That would just ruin your friendship.”

“And that is exactly why I’m not admitting my feelings for Y/n!” Soonyoung screams before trying to run away but failing as Cheol is still holding him down. You decide yelling back is the best option, “like I would ever admit my feelings for you.” 

“That’s it! Time out for you two until you can figure out your issues. Bring them to Shua’s weeb closet and don’t let them out until they're cool with each other.” Cheol says before lifting Soonyoung. Mingyu sees the message Cheol sends and brings you to Joshua’s room as well. “Hey hey, why are you taking them to my closet? What if they fuck in there?”

“Then they'll be happy again,” Vernon says with a smile on his face. Shua rolls his eyes before giving in. Eventually, you and Soonyoung are both shoved into the small closet. You try to stay as far as you can from him, putting a blowup titan in between the two of you. To ease the awkwardness after a few minutes of silence, Soonyoung asks, “You think Shua uses this thing as a sex doll?”

“If he does, I regret touching it,” you reply. The boy beside you laughs and says, “If I remember correctly, you and Joshua sleeping together for a whole two years after college, right?” 

“Yeah well, it was kinda weird. Let's just say, you aren't the only furry in our friend group.” This makes him laugh again before finding a place to sit down. You take a seat beside him as he leans his head on your shoulder, “I’m sorry, Y/n.”

“For what exactly, Soonie?” You ask back wanting a better explanation than just a small sorry. He rolls his eyes before saying, “You already know why. For being immature and not dealing with things like an adult.”

“To be honest, none of us deal with things like adults. We're just the worst. I guess I’m sorry too.” you say back to him. The two sit comfortably in silence just relaxing in each other’s company. Why did we make things so hard for no reason? you wonder. That thought quickly goes away when you remember that the two of you are friends and you never want to ruin that, but your thoughts are interrupted, “I love you, Y/n. But I mean even if it's pretty obvious, I know I'm not very good at showing it.” 

“But we're friends, Soon,” you say back before walking to the other side of the closet. You glance at his face for a second and see a bit of hurt in his eyes. Why am I still hiding how I feel? What’s the point of lying to myself and everyone else? You ask yourself before he breaks your thoughts once again, “Y/n, you say that, but then you're willing to fight with me for months because of the whole situation. Why are we just continuing to do this to each other?” 

“I don't know, Soon. I really don't know,” you reply, overwhelmed, burying your face into your hands. He walks behind you and gives one of his famous, familiar back hugs to comfort you. You relax into the hug as he softly kisses your shoulder, “it's okay, Y/n. You don't need to have an answer right now. It's not wrong to want to take everything at your own pace. I just don't want to feel like I have to constantly avoid you because like you said, you are my best friend.“

“Are you trying to say ‘the power of friendship is so strong’ that we can get through things like this?” you sarcastically say as you laugh and lean into his arms. He giggles and replies, “That's exactly what I’m saying.” The two of you once again sit in silence. You take in everything from the moment you first saw Soonyoung as a small boy eating dirt in the playground to this exact moment You wonder when everything changed, “When did you realize you loved me, Soon?” 

“There isn't an exact moment. I think just over time my love constantly grew for you. I didn't realize it at first and never really wanted to accept it because, well I'm pretty sure it's obvious why,” he responds. You feel the same way. You've always just told yourself it was because of that dance, but you know those feelings have always been there. More importantly, you know you've acted on those feelings before. “Why did you leave me after graduation? After I told you I love you?” 

“Because I was stupid and a coward. I got jealous of Joshua, but then I started to think I wasn't as good as him. I wouldn't be good enough like him. I thought I wouldn't be able to make you happy like he would, ” he says honestly. You don't understand how he could ever think he wasn't good enough. You loved everything about the kid, from his weird tiger obsession to his incredible dance skills. “Soonie, you know I never believed you weren't good enough. And to be honest, Shua wasn't the greatest boyfriend. He was an amazing friend, but there's something off about knowing your boyfriend is denying his feelings for someone else”

“I guess that's how Seoyeon felt. It was just seeing you in the arms of a model like him brought up my insecurities I guess. I thought it would be too hard to compete. So I ran away because I didn't want to deal with the feelings, ” he explains still holding you in his arms. You feel how much bigger his arms got over the years and decide to ask him another question, “When did you start working out? Not that I'm complaining, but the last time Cheol asked you to work out with him you called him a loser and told him there's no reason to work out when you have a cute face.”

“Yes, my face is adorable, but I figured I'd just work out because why not. Also, Ji paid for a year's gym membership in China by accident,” he answers while softly laughing. The two of you continue to talk about random things for the next few hours without anyone interrupting you. You hear soft snoring on the other side of the door. Soonyoung quietly opens the door to not wake the sleeping person on the other side. You walk out to see Seungcheol and Wonwoo fast asleep on each other and quickly take a photo before sneaking away. You and Soonyoung decide to leave through the window to avoid questions or stares from anyone else. For the rest of the night, the two of you wonder who knows where and finally you feel happy to be with your best friend for once.

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↣ summary: after not seeing each other for years, Yn is ecstatic when she finds out all of her friends will finally be in the same place at one time. but unfortunately an unwanted dream turns a 12 year friendship into hateful relationship between yn and soonyoung.

↣ pairing: reader x soonyoung.

↣ genre: angst, comedy, youtube au, sm au. friends to enemies to lovers.

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a/n- tbh i don’t really know how i feel abt this chapter. but also i don’t really see myself as a good writer when it comes to like written things like this but i really want to get better because i want to open requests soon when i get the time.