#oh also attention i feel like every human wants attention tho its kind of natural

[nightfallsystem]

hi guys do u think ill ever b able to draw as good as the pros one day or that ill just die with nothing good made

[wickedgamesoyaoya]

Congrats on 1200 followers!🎉🎉

Could I request a matchup for the haikyuu boys

This is a bit difficult but I'd say my weaknesses are that I can be really stubborn,  I tend bottle up my emotions (I thin that counts) and that I hate confrontation and avoid it like the plague.

My strengths would be that I'm open minded, kind and I'm not very judgmental.

My every days pretty boring, I wake up play some video game or with my dogs.  Sometimes I'll draw or do some sort of crafts and usually a bit of h/w.

3 qualities in our relationship: I kinda want it to be layed back. We don't have to go on fancy dates 24/7 and go out, we can just chill at home and do fun activities. I want it to be open so we can just casually talk about things without getting anxious and secure. (I hope I explained that right).

For my partner I'd want them to be patient, understanding  with a slice of chaotic energy.

I'm pretty introverted and I have adhd (pretty impulsive). I'm not very good with social cues and sometimes just need things explained to me...alot, I also sometimes unintentionally come of as rude without realising. I'm pretty creative tho and have a wild imagination. I'm also pretty disorganised and sometimes I tend to overthink, I especially get overwhelmed in loud crowded places.

I wouldn't want to be paired with ushijima,  terushima,  kita or daichi. Thank you!

𝙸 𝚖𝚊𝚝𝚌𝚑 𝚢𝚘𝚞 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑....

𝘒𝘰𝘻𝘶𝘮𝘦 𝘒𝘦𝘯𝘮𝘢

Your relationship with Kenma is one that starts online, but you two don’t know much about one another at first. You just talk every now and then. He doesn’t think much of it at first, but then whenever you’re not online since you’re doing homework, he’ll feel something stir inside him. What is that? OH he misses you!

But nothing would happen at first, however, I can see fate pulling its strings by making you two run into each other at a social function. You both were dragged to it, and somehow you end up on the same couch.

One accidental conversation later, you realize you two know each other!! Cue Kenma asking for your number in a very smooth way.

Kenma would fit into your everyday lifestyle without much work, but don’t ask him to walk your dogs with you because he will flat out say no </3 That being said, he’s usually around you since your days are similar. So, eating meals together is a big thing!

He isn’t big on cooking, but sometimes he’ll offer to help in the morning when you’re really tired! 

When it comes to your ADHD, Kenma isn’t one to judge. Rather, he makes it his mission to adjust himself to that he can accommodate you better. And if anyone else tries to make your life for difficult… well, cue chaotic Kenma! He’ll deal with the confrontation for you once he’s in that mode.

I think the two of you will have an interesting time trying to figure out who has what responsibility when you move in together, since your minds are often consumed by other thoughts. For him it’s videogames and making money, and for you it’s overthinking about other matters.

What I think is wonderful about this pairing is that you both are generally good with staying home, and being outside with others isn’t something you both need. It’s an occasional thing, and when you do go out, if you’re in a loud crowded space, Kenma will be glued to your side, holding your hand to make sure you’re okay.

What works with your relationship is that Kenma is patient and understanding, but sometimes when you get into your stubborn ways, he’ll just respond with the silent treatment. </3 You two will have to learn ways to communicate your emotions and rely on one another emotionally. But it’s a natural process, and if anyone will be willing to try it’s Kenma! Plus, since you’re very open minded, finding mutual agreements won’t be difficult at all.

Overall, you two are similar and different in a way that works!

Small drabble 

“Ken, what is this?” Your eyes went from the large box that was placed in front of you to your boyfriend in disbelief. The package was large enough to fit a regular sized human. “Please don’t tell me it’s a robot.” A half-hearted laugh was exhaled as you tried to guess what was inside. 

“Open it.” The male shifted his gaze away from you shly, which only caused your heart to complete a flip. Sometimes he could be unexpectedly affectionate. 

“Okay.” Returning your attention to the gift, you began to remove the colourful wrapping paper. Once you discarded most of the packaging you found yourself staring at the world’s largest art set. There were over 500 pieces within the set from varying brands. 

Expensive. Yeah, this was extremely expensive. 

“Ken... What? I don’t understand.” Inside your heart brewed excitement and love. Kenma was always so supportive of you and your creative outlets. “You didn’t have to, you know.” 

“You were out of supplies...” A small shrug was added to accompany his words. But you knew he was content with your reaction. 

“You’re always looking after me, aren’t you? Come here.” Curling your bottom lip into a pout, you motioned your boyfriend over. The gamer made his way to you silently, not bothering to disagree with your comment. After curling his arms around your waist, he placed his chin over your shoulder. 

“That’s my job, isn’t it? To make you happy?” 

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this! thank you for playing <3 

[piduai]

You live in japan, right? but you’re not asian or am i wrong? do you feel any sort of special treatment there, be it positive or negative? my friend used to live in japan for a couple of years for work, and she’s a blue eyed blonde girl, and men at her office were kinda weird... during the day they were all polite etc but if they went drinking at the end of the day several men always tried touching her hair, told her how she’s a “rare beauty” and shit like that... she stopped going to bars after work eventually because such things happened too often and made her really uncomfortable. most women were nice to her, but there also were a couple of girls who were either jealous or whatever and were giving her the silent treatment. i’m wondering if it was just a shitty workplace or if it’s something cultural for foreigners in japan? my friend ended up transferring and never wanted to come back cause even with all the things she genuinely enjoyed in japan, all those relationships with her colleagues left a bad taste in her mouth...

that’s right, i am eastern european. if you’re a foreigner (looking) you’re going to stand out a lot no matter where you go regardless of race but each breed of foreigner has its own stereotypes and attitudes, and men and women of the same ethnicity are treated very differently. 

i do get special treatment, both negative and positive. i can get away with a lot of stuff that japanese people couldn’t, you know rule-breaking, failure to adhere to norms, being individualistic, being ignorant, i’m extended the benefit of the doubt a lot and even if i do something blatantly stupid or wrong and a lot of people will just shrug and be like ‘well she’s foreign, it can’t be helped’. i work in an ultra traditional company with ruthless subordination and overwhelming corporate abuse but if i decide to use my legal days off, for example, i probably won’t get turned down or fired (tho i also get much more exploited than the locals). i sometimes get stuff or random small gifts for free (like in small locally owned cafes i got free coffee a couple of times, people gifted me veggies from their gardens upon seeing me walk down the street, co-workers sometimes bring me coffee or other drinks or snacks unprompted). people are generally kind, understanding and very helpful.

but yeah there’s the other side of the coin too. i am tall and very beautiful thus always attracted attention, but here it’s tenfold. for japanese men, white women are a p*rn category. my first 4 years here i lived in a tiny town in a prefecture not far from tokyo with a lot of old people and yakuza-owned businesses, the only other white women living there were employed by them, and if you’re a woman there’s only one way to make money for the yakuza. i’ve been approached by men during regular ass activities like walking or shopping asking me if i’m prostituting myself and if they can buy me. finding a (regular and non-teaching) job as a non-western foreigner female is difficult, and sexual harassment is pretty much guaranteed, i am extremely familiar with what your friend went through. my boss commented on my appearance during the interview which yeah was a red flag, but it only escalated. as i said my company is extremely traditional, there are very very few women, and most of my co-workers are men in their 40-50-60s. bossman routinely makes me go drink with him and his henchmen making it so i’m the only woman in a company of 5-10 dudes older than my father, one time he made me go to an important dinner with partners and seated me to his right so i can pour to him, and referred to me in front of the partners as ‘his beauty of a slave’. i’m often used for decorative purposes. there is no touching though because anti-sexual harassment laws were fortified in the last few years and he’s very wary of lawsuits, plus as i said i’m not small. 

women mostly avoid me, though. i’ve always been told that i’m extremely intimidating and look difficult to approach, and i guess here it’s the same... back in uni a friend told me that she initially was terrified of striking up a conversation with me because i seemed so intimidating, but again i don’t know how much of it is me being a foreigner and how much is just my natural energy because people told me the exact same thing in my uni in europe. doesn’t save me from unwanted male attention, though. i’ve been stalked to the point of involving the police, followed, harassed, assaulted, roofied a couple of times (long story), barely escaped being trafficked once (long story x2), my intimidating aura doesn’t stop them from hitting on me any fucking where including the gay district (there wasn’t a single time some dude hasn’t tried to hit me up there. like why do you even BOTHER coming here if you’re str8, i ask them this every single time and they’re all like ‘well, it’s fun’. good for you but why are you trying to pick women up here?????? go to shibuya or something), trying to approach me on the street, on the train, in stores, in lines, on the escalator... men are annoying in general but when you stand out like this you simply become a walking target lol. 

note that all of this and what your friend went through didn’t happen because we’re foreigners, it happens because we’re women. not that japanese men respect their women at all, most are proudly misogynistic unconditionally, BUT if your only encounters in your whole life with a particular category of people happens through p*rnography where you witness them being raped and humiliated on screen, it’s pretty damn difficult to consider them human when you meet people like them in flesh. because of that we have an ‘easy’, sex-happy, slutty image. white men aren’t told they’re ‘rare beauties’. white men don’t get groped on the street or asked if they’re willing to suck someone off for 10k yen. oh to be a white man here, most of the doors are open.

most people are still nice, though. as a foreigner you’ll be a foreigner for the rest of your life, an outsider, an alien, different, strange, unfamiliar, you’ll never be truly accepted or treated as one of their own, and it’s ok, it’s something that you’ll never be able to change and better come to terms with at an early stage. but people are nice. i absolutely love japan and am willing to put up with its negative aspects because to me the ones that i like outweigh them, but i do not blame your friend for choosing a different path, this really isn’t for everyone.

[nad-zeta]

Match up! (◠‿◠✿)

hiya!! can i pls get a matchup for ikesen, if its ok? 💞

bi girl i prefer guys! ambiverted intp, gryffindor, n true neutral. i have an older twin sis n i love/hate her sm lmao!!

i have medium-length straight-ish black hair (w/ a side bang to the right) & dark brown eyes!! im 5'5-ish, fun fact: im a filipina!

sooo im a complex daydreamer!! i NEED attention/affirmation or ill feel unwanted/sad. emotional scorpio, im quite sensitive. anxiety, i overthink too much! quiet w/ people im not close w/. easily annoyed but guilty after ‘cause im soft-hearted. im like half funny/playful/kind & half deep/mature/awkward- hopeless romantic! i have a way w/ words, sorta poetic? i wanna be the best! sorta socially anxious, i have a fear of judgement. im not innocent but ppl think i am at first. i look fine but deep down im a big mess. rlly smart & knowledgable. vv passionate, big nerd actually! im like a kid w/ my twin but w/ others im more mature. im the type to do fun stuff and loosen up but would also just cuddle and have long convos. im vv good w/ technology! very imaginative, i come up with stories a lot- around others im very quiet because i literally have no idea what to say. actually a big history fanatic, hehe. i act confident but im not rlly, actually vv insecure and i regret a lot of things.

a habit of mine is that i tend to drift away and just… think? i also tend to care a lot abt my appearance! i get competative but there are also times when im just chill. i get vv embarrassed when i lose control tho n i regret it sm :(( i have loads of trouble asking for help even if i like to help others a lot! i like being organised but i tend to be… chaotic.

hsjsh- fun fact: there are times where im just,, super hyper n say the weirdest things? im good in school but,, im lazy yknow- i love math (surprisingly, i got a natural talent?), science (esp abt stars n space), history, and english (actually my 2nd languange but im very fluent) the most. bilingual but im also learnin french! wanna learn latin too tho but id break down- i have the fear of the unknown, failure, n loneliness! im scared of the future cause its beyond human ability to know,, the only guys ive rlly talked to r family members so my awkwardness goes 100x hsjsjs

oh, i rlly love affection, but i need a lot of space too, tho! girls gotta have privacy- games r a hUge part of my life, so is technology and the modern era! i actually like sports too- not very good at em tho :((

some likes: gaming, jokes (esp corny/stupid/puns), space, stars, weapons (esp swords/guns), philosophy, psychology, testing myself, affection, animals, doing exhilirating things, music, movies, books, writing, astrology, astronomy, learning new things, & mythology.

some dislikes: too much heat, school presentations, creepy dolls, being under pressure, dirty things, blind faith, & annoying people.

tysm! omg i hope this isnt too long- i think this is too long?? yIkes i hope that this is ok!! love ur writing btw! stay safe 💞

Hi hi love! thank you so much for the request! You sound like a wonderful person and omw it soooo cool that you have a twin! I actually think she sent in a request right after you did lol! Anyways sorry for making you wait sooooo long and i hope you enjoy it! @x-joie-x

 So i match you with...................... Mitsuhide

The first time you meet this sneki boy, you were quiet and reserved. War council had just ended and you were named as a princess of the Oda forces. You were super socially awkward, and anxiety was slowly starting to creep in, as the curious warlords started to surround you. It wasn’t until Mitsuhide had pulled you away in a teasing manner to save you from the crowd that you finally started to calm down. He had noticed this new little mouse had been on edge since arriving. However, he didn’t suspect you of being an assassin or spy as, during the whole council, your hands shook, and you could barely speak up against Nobunaga’s demanding and commanding tones. 

Mitsuhide had found you incredibly amusing from the first moment you walked in, you caught this foxes eye. He didn’t know if it was the innocence or naïve purity that just seemed to radiate from you, but for some reason when he was looking at you, he found that he simply couldn’t look away.

It took all of one day for all the warlords to officially drop all suspicions of you. You were just such a sweetheart how could they not instantly love you and feel the need to protect you. You had started helping a few of the maids that first morning after you were named princess. You didn’t want to be a freeloader, so you worked hard to earn your keep and soon, the maids were fighting over who would get to work with you cause all of then just loved and adored you so much. 

You got annoyed with Hideyoshi when he first found you helping the maids, as he was 100% started micromanaging you. You lost you cool and raised your voice at him, TBH Hideyoshi didn��t think anything of it, but it wasn’t until you had pitched up at his manor an hour later to apologize for being so rude to him that he realized what a sweet and sensitive person you truly were. Of course from that moment onward you had gained yourself a big doting brother.

All the Oda forces agreed that you were too sweet and naïve for your own good, so Mitsuhude was assigned to give you princess lesson to prepare you for your new life as Oda princess. You were super excited when Mitsuhide had told you that he was going to teach you a variety topics such as economics, politics, history and self-defence. You even managed to impress the sneki boy, by getting all the questions correct on the first test he had handed you. You had found that first test incredibly easy as you were a bit of a history buff, and all the questions had been based on Nobunaga’s history. This low key shook the sliver kitsune a little bit, as this proved that not only were you pure and naive but you were also super smart. You kind of reminded him a little bit of Mitsunari, a cleaver professor with their head in the clouds. 

Mitushide praised you for your ability to pick up on concepts quickly and work diligently as a student, “I dare say little one, you are the best student a teacher could ask for.” You spend masses amount of time with sneki boi, and through that time you realized just how sweet Mitsuhide truly was, although he was a massive tease leaving you a blushy mess almost every day after lessons with his teasing comments. And naturally, the more time Mitsuhide had spent with you, the more in love he fell. It was also noted by the fellow warlords that, Mitsuhide always wore a soft gentle expression when it came to you, and in your experience he had been a kind gentle patient teacher. SO naturally you found yourself more and more drawn to this mysterious man.

Through all the time spent with the kitsune, you found yourself opening up more and more. He was one of the few people that got to see your playful side. You now would make the puniest, corniest jokes he has ever heard, leaving this kitsune in a fit of laughter mid-way through a lecture. Not only that, but he loved loved loved your competitiveness side. 

This side of you slowly started to surface after the 3rd or 4th self-defence lesson when you started challenging the kitsune to rematches whenever he would pin you down, ultimately beating you in your little makeshift sword fight. Boy oh boy, don’t even get me started on the shooting lessons, once you were able to fire the rifle, you were straight-up challenging this boy, the best marksmen around to a shoot-off. “Come on Mitsuhide, the first one to get 100 bulls-eyes in a row wins, and the loser has to buy tea.” Needless to say, you always lost and even though every day you would make that exact bet, Mitsuhide would always insist on sticking you for tea and lunch as reward for being such a good student. 

He really enjoyed spending time with you and would absolutely insist on holding your hands whenever the two of you were on your way to the tea house together after your lessons. “I can’t have my clumsy little mouse tripping and falling now can I.” Every day without fail, he would say that to you as he wraps his big hand around your small one, while leading you to your favourite tea house.

The two of you would talk about everything and anything over tea, these topics ranged from you making stupid jokes, to talking about random topics such as philosophy and psychology. Either way, Mitsuhide loved to spend time with you. He would always listen to and hang on to every word you said, storing every word in his memory. 

You were his precious little mouse, and he knew you were an extremely sensitive creature. If anyone dared say a single bad word to you or make you sad, they would face the wrath of this very protective kitsune. Like one time, one of the visiting daimyos had talked down to you for accidentally bumped into him. You were busy cleaning the windows when you accidentally lost your balance and bumped into him. He was so disgusted that a mere maid had touched him. He started yelling at you and insulting you, this escalated to such a point that he even had his hand raised ready to hit you for getting dirty window water on his shoes. That’s when sneki boi decided to intervene. Mitsuhide legit stood protectively in front of you with his rifle pointed at the man’s heart, with the full intention to shoot. “Golly me it appears like you are quite the troublesome little mouse, my dear.” He then turned his sharp gaze towards the daimyo “I do suggest you apologize to the Oda princess, lest you want to answer for your crimes directly to Nobunaga.” The man simply scoffed and walked away. Mitsuhide then turned to you and enveloped you in a warm hug while kissing the top of your head, “Are you alright, my dear little mouse?” Mitsuhide looked into your beautiful eyes and gently took your hands in his, “Come little one, I have something I wish to show you.”

The two of you walked hand in hand to Mitsuhide’s manor, Mitsuhide led you out into his garden, where you saw something so beautiful you could cry. The garden was filled with flowers and candles and in the centre was a table set up, with a feast laid out op top of it. 

Mitsihide had told you that night that he was hopelessly in love with you. He was overjoyed when he had discovered that you like him, was also a hopeless romantic and that you had an incredibly poetic, romantic way with words. You handed him a letter in which you had expressed your feelings for him in the form of a beautifully written poem. You were actually intending to leave the poem on his desk as a way of confessing your feelings. This instantly melted sneki bois heart into a giant puddle and he couldn’t help but pull you in for a sweet kiss. 

After diner Mitsuhide had led you deeper into the garden where a fluffy blankie was sprawled out on the grass, he guided you to sit down and the motioned for you to lookup. Above you, a thousand stares were shooting across the sky in a big meteor shower. Mitsuhide pulled you into his arms and kissed your cheeks as the two of you watched the sky. He always remembered every detail you had told him about yourself, so when you revealed that you loved the sky and the stars, he knew he had to incorporate this rare meteor shower in your date somehow. 

This had sparked a new tradition between the two of you, to stargaze and spend the whole night in deep conversation. These nights were full of love and affection as Mitsuhide would pull you into his lap and just hold you there for hours and hours as the two of you talked and watched the sky

Of course sneki boi also had a bit of a spontaneous side, and would take you on exhilarating trips around Nobunaga’s territories. They were mostly missions but after you had nagged Nobunaga to give you permission to go along on the missions, you and Mitsuhide would finish the official work asap so that the two of you cuties had plenty of time to enjoy yourself in the new environment.

Mitsuhide loves everything about you from your slight messiness, to your love of learning new things. He also knows that his sweet little mouse sometimes needs some space and alone time and will be sure to give you as much alone time as you need to recharge. He knows that you will seek him out when you have had enough of your own company. He will always welcome you back with outstretched arms when you have had enough alone time, and shower you with endless amounts of affection.

Whenever you are feeling insecure or worrying about the future Mitsuhide is right there by your side, whispering words of affection and reassurance in your ears. He makes sure to remind you every day just how perfect you are and just how much he loves you. 

Often you can be found in sneki boys lap with your head resting comfortably in the crook of his neck as he soothingly strokes your hair. Don’t be surprised if this sneaky kitsune drops a few kissed on your nose, cheeks or lips during these quiet and peaceful moments, just as a way to convey how much he loves and adores you.

Other potential matches……………..Masamune 

I hope you enjoyed it dear and i hope you have the best day! 

[ixnova]

Pathfinder x SO hcs

SINCE NO ONE ELSE IS REALLY DOING IT i GUESS i’LL HAVE TO PROVIDE IT MYSELF. GOTTDAMN AND Y’ALL CALL YOURSELVES A FANDOM. (I kid.)

He’s your friend first, boyfriend second.

Like he just genuinely cares about you romantic or not.

Literally info dumped everything on you the first day you two met, explained APEX, his goal to find his creator, etc.

Get’s a lot of dating advice from Mirage and the interwebs, is completely cheesy with it because of this.

Gives you flowers and gifts in excess amounts until he kinda learns for himself how to handle a relationship.

You’re his first and probably only.

Will take you on dinner dates and such even though he can’t eat. He just enjoys watching you eat and chatting to you while you eat.

Great for Netflix and chill, he loves watching new tv shows and such. He really wants to know what happens next but will wait for you.

Probably does too much “research” online and becomes paranoid about losing you sometimes.

Doesn’t get the concept of sleep but knows you need it and will keep you company while you sleep. Maybe move his charging station into the bedroom.

He can be cold or warm depending. Metal is naturally cooler to the touch but he’s warmer towards his core where his computer screen is. You can hear his fans going if you listen closely enough.

Not actually comfy to cuddle with, but you’d get used to it and find a position that works. Very chunky and bulky. Sometimes he puts pillows and such between himself so you can rest better.

He can actually wear certain clothing even tho he doesn’t need it. Got a few jackets from APEX and such, but they have to be oversized to fit him, so bonus for you when you steal them.

Honestly why steal them though just ask and he will give them to you, he doesn’t need them.

He’s not one to scare easily by normal means but he has his limits, will hide behind you and curl up with you when he does feel threatened. Lightning storms are one of the niche things that gets to him.

Always down to make you laugh, Will rehash jokes constantly, borderlines on telling dad jokes. Somehow he manages to get a chuckle out of you every goddamn time.

You love it though, you know you do.

He’s completely infatuated with you simply because you’re human. He likes seeing how you react to things, learning how you operate. He’s just interested in humans in general, but something’s special about you.

He’s not really sure what the emotions he feels really are, but he supposed based on research, “love” might be the closest thing to describe it.

Not many would expect it from his bubbly personality but he’s actually easily jealous when others flirt with you.

We’re talking rehashing some trash talk insults he learned online telling someone to leave you alone and go away when he’s had just about enough of them pestering you.

one of the few times hes actually mean, instantly feels bad about it later though... but not sorry.

You’re his. He doesn’t mean to be possessive and he doesn’t freak out when you’re out alone without him, but it’s just like, he’d like for you to be his.

He’d take you ziplining for fun sometimes, if you’re not afraid of heights.

Prepare for having to answer lots of questions, he’s curious about everything and if you’re spending time with him you’re gonna get the brunt of it.

Also expect to be told completely random facts, he loves learning about stuff!

“Turtles can breathe through their butts, how interesting!”

Would probably tell everyone that he’s dating you, even random strangers.

He’s called out to you live on APEX a few times making sure you’re watching or dedicating a win to you.

It’s a bit embarrassing but he means well.

“Everyone! This is my girlfriend!”

He’s just proud of you man.

He’d also be super supportive of you and whatever you’d want to do in life.

and when that doesn’t work out he’d be there to cheer you up.

Brings you all of your favorite things, including himself of course.

No more tears, let’s go watch our favorite Netflix show.

Takes pictures of you all the time without you even knowing, benefits of being a robot.

He just saves them for personal use, to look at when he misses you. Nothing weird though, its not like he watches you sleep or anything!

He thinks you’re beautiful all the time, even when you know you’re not at your best.

He just really, really likes you. He hopes you feel the same.

There that should fill the void for awhile. But while I’m here.... NSFW under cut.

As we all know, it’s canon that he can fuck. Of course he’d put that knowledge to use in a relationship if you were okay with it.

Probably learned about sexual intercourse while browsing the web and found porn or something.

Maybe picked it up from just learning about humans in general and with that comes information on mating patterns.

He’s extremely inexperienced though, so you’d have to personally show him how things are done.

He’d draw comparisons to videos and such he’d seen online, so at least he’d be aware if he was hurting you or not. Which he’d never do intentionally.

Your first time was probably extremely silly and awkward, but it was alright.

He doesn’t exactly have a dick or anything, naturally anyway, but he does have hands.

If you like being fingered you’re in for a real treat, he’s surprisingly good at that.

He’s always intrigued by your moans and like seeing how your body reacts to his touch. Sometimes he tries new things just to see how you’d react.

Even though he doesn’t really get much out of it, knowing you’re enjoying it is all he needs.

Extremely lame at dirty talk, he’s just too nice. He will read scripts and repeat quotes from online porno to try and get you going but it just falls flat because its rehearsed.

Probably would be best as a dom, no, he’s decided from watching videos and such that he wants to be the dom. Submissive just doesn’t suit him.

I can’t express how bad he is at dirty talk though, its funny. “I’ve been very bad.” “What? Who said that? I think you are doing wonderful, friend!”

Maybe later on you’d experiment with strap ons, or maybe someone in this wild universe can customize him a dick attachment. 

That’d get a bit more interesting, he’d again reference what he’d seen online and try to go down on you.

He gets to be closer to you this way, and its odd because he likes it though he can’t explain why.

Those handles around his screen and such are GREAT to hold onto while riding, FYI.

He’s a robot so he never runs out of energy so he can go for as long as you want to, and then some.

He might forget himself once or twice, perhaps get a bit too into it, but all you have to do is say stop and he will instantly drop everything.

He loves your body, he loves every inch of you, expect metal hands to explore and violate every part of your being.

Oddly enough, sexual intercourse really gets his motors going. Perhaps another one of his many emotions is possible arousal.

You’re often going at it above the sheets or in a colder room, he WILL overheat eventually.

You’ll have to pay attention sometimes, he won’t tell you he’s overheating for fear of ruining the mood, or interrupting your enjoyment.

Bondage? BDSM, yeah he’s heard of it. Maybe he’s itching to try a few things with you, if you wanted.

He’s not into the cuffs and whips though. Oh no he has a very special kind of kink.

Ropes are fantastic, you can zipline with them, grapple onto stuff... Tie people up.

You ever seen those very intricate rope art porno? Yeah.

Yes he uses the ziplines rope.

He’ll never tie it too tight though, just enough to keep you in place.

He makes cute patterns with it while he’s tying. small hearts, sometimes ties roses into the design.

You are a canvas and he is the artist, he’s quite proud of the tie when he’s done.

He’d much rather gaze at you and admire his work than fuck you sometimes when you play like this.

Extremely big on after care. He’ll cuddle you and tell you how well you did and that he enjoyed it too. He’d make sure you’re okay and tell you that he loves you!

Although he’d never hurt you purposely, sex is always a bit rough with him no matter how gentle he is. You’ll always have a few bruises here and there. Around the hips, thighs, wrists, it’s just the nature of the beast.

You kind of dig the markings though.

[askmyboys]

Taz

Name: Taz | Gender: Male | Age: Oh god who knows | Species/Race: Darkness (literally, he's just- a pitch black being of pure darkness) | Height: 3 inches tall (he can sizeshift tho, I mean, it seems only natural he can do that) | Appearance: See, he has a human form of his own that he takes on, he can sorta like, its like a copycat situation, any human he sees he could technically take a form of like a doppelganger but he has certain styles and bodies he fancies... BUT his actual human form that he has wears a lot of punk like clothing, leather jackets with spikes on them, pants with chains hanging on them, combat boots, he also has a circle beard, his eyes in his human form are a dull grey-ish kind of color, he also has razor sharp teeth, pointy ears, and claws but he does at least hide the claws with black gloves with spikes on them, oh and his hair is like jet black and p much just flows. His true form is literally just a shadow-y cloud of darkness, nothing too special bout it really except for his eyes, they are a red color (he can shape himself into someone's worst fear or really just whatever he feels like if need be, I mean it IS a cloud of darkness, its like a shapeshifter situation, yeah!) | Personality: Now THIS is a true bastard incarnate, like seriously, even tho he's probably an ancient being of pure darkness, he acts like a toddler when he doesn't get his way, he has somehow successfully managed to annoy even the OTHER beings of darkness, he's more annoying then scary but he can use that to his advantage, he has annoyed a human so badly they moved out and when he followed them, they just... kinda broke.... Which wasn't as fun, now if he puts his mind to it, I'm not saying he CANNOT actually be scary bc he can, oh my god he absolutely can if he puts his mind to it, but he just prefers to be the most annoying lil shit to people to drive them insane that way, its much more fun! (tl;dr: He's a bastard, like usually I joke bout that but nope, he is 100% bastard who will steal your food and drinks and toss them away bc he doesnt actually need to eat then he calls you a bitch, he'll steal anything he wants truth be told, he doesnt care- hell, he'll steal your fucking loved ones away from you if you mess with him too much, he has a short temper and can get angry p easily tbh, honestly he'll just do e v e r y t h i n g in his power to make your life a living hell and your mind? S h a t t e r e d- even tho its not fun anymore when they break but eh it happens every time) | Side Facts: Welp uh, it DOESNT happen every time, he's living with a human right now and they haven't been broken yet, they just seem tired and irritated all the time for no apparent reason, they always look like they haven't gotten a good night's sleep in ages which is probably true, there's also another being of darkness that was assigned to this human so Taz here is ALWAYS trying to one-up him, NO being of darkness is better than him after all! He has a bit of a narcissistic streak in him, I won't deny that- So anything he does to the human, Taz can ALWAYS do better! This other being of darkness, Aldrich- who's description you'll see in a second- Taz just, he doesn't seem to like him too good and for good reason, Aldrich is definitely a higher class than him, a higher rank, top tier even- He is absolutely above Taz, and that's what Taz absolutely cant STAND, nobody should be a higher class than him, anyone above him needs to be put in their place, the way Aldrich talks and just- his attitude towards things doesn't help, he's too classy n clean- So Taz gotta see to it he deals with this human before Aldrich does. Gotta prove that Aldrich isn't above him in any way, nope- not at all! He's actually secretly scared of Aldrich, yep, you heard me- a being of darkness is actually afraid of something, he just acts tough and not scared around him, but, secretly, he is ABSOLUTELY terrified of this being, Taz KNOWS what he's capable of, if he just so wanted he could plunge the world into eternal darkness, and who knows that might be his goals for the future, might not be, Aldrich can be a v e r y unpredictable being, ya never really know what he's gonna do next, but- Taz will NEVER reveal that he's scared, nope- Aldrich CANT find out, or else... Well let's just say something not good will happen... Ya know, there IS a reason Taz is like he is, even if he is a being of darkness, it was when he was... y o u n g, well to the other beings of darkness he was young, to a human his age would have still seemed ancient, but anyways, he actually did have a family, in fact, him and Aldrich both did but, eh, im not gonna reveal a n y t h i n g bout Aldrich's family just yet, for now its time to focus on Taz, his family ehhh well... they weren't the best, they weren't good at all- hell I wouldn't even call it a family, its more like just a gang where everyone fends for themselves, nobody helps each other, the weakest are always left behind to die or fade away. Taz, he was... one of the weakest, I won't say he was the weakest of EVERYONE of them bc he wasn't there was someone else but he doesn't... talk about them, he just sorta repressed his memories bout them, hell, probs for the best- their probably dead now... Or worse, but his family never did care for him, no affection was had for ANYONE, almost everyone was out for blood or something similar to it, if you even THOUGHT about asking for help with anything you were considered weak and affection? What kind of being of pure darkness needs that stupid shit?! That was VERY frowned upon in his "clan" yeah, let's call it a clan, he's pretty much had to fend for himself his entire life, nobody to help him, nobody ever showed him any love or affection, it'd have made him weaker than that other being, or that's his mentality, love, care, help, all of that, it makes you w e a k, pathetic, the only way to get by is to rely on yourself and yourself alone. His "clan" treated him like pure shit, at first when he was "learning" about the consequences of asking for help, it was horrid, he got picked on, called names and even got hit and beat up, by what humans would consider his "parents" even, his father and mother tolerated n o n e of that, no "child" of theirs is going to have any affection, help, etc- It'll make them weak and they. will. NOT. have. a. weak. member. of. the. clan... After Taz grew up, he definitely became stronger, for sure, he also became more.... chaotic, more unstable, and he'd do anything and everything he could to get attention, at this point he just began fucking CRAVING it, he'd act out, do anything he could to piss his "parents" and the rest of his clan off, never in his entire life has he ever gotten any positive attention whatsoever, so whenever he didn't have any attention at all, it.... he just began freaking out and throwing tantrums, he couldn't deal without having any attention on him w h a t s o e v e r. Essentially, like, even tho nobody cared for each other n shit, they did have some kinda mentality to stick around with each other, it was mainly just because, they did AT THE VERY L E A S T need their kids to survive, survive the baby stages, and grow on up so there could be more of their species/race, once they grew up though, they were all on their own, armies were an option of course if need be, but Taz? He didn't need anyone, he d o e s n t need anyone, he can take care of things himself, he can do what he needs to, after all, his mentality p much got fucked up so badly now that he thinks any being who needs an army, help, etc- just any of that is weak- His childhood, fam, its all wack yo- my fingers are tired and I cant think of a better way to describe this, basically, they are the cause of why he's so fucked up like he is, why he's so chaotic, a punk bastard, and just- honestly a fucking asshole in general- bc of the mentality they basically FORCED onto him.

[icequeen-shiva]

alright, you know what

about two weeks ago maybe by now, i made a post about how i’ve recently hit 200 followers and i’d like to do a q&a again, and even with a reblog from someone more ~*popular*~ than me, and multiple reblogs once a day for a few days by myself, i didn’t get a single fucking question. not one. earlier today i posted two pictures of myself where i felt pretty (i’ve since deleted them) and nobody i actually know of liked it and i got asked by a stranger who doesn’t even follow me if i had any nsfw pictures. i don’t get asks anymore, i don’t get shit. and that tells me that, you may be following me, but you aren’t connecting with me. and i feel that. i get on tumblr and i don’t feel like i’m friends with fucking anybody. and i did that. i know i did that. 9/10 times i let my fear of rejection and embarrassing myself overcome my desire to talk to people, so i don’t do it, or i let it fizzle out and we go our own ways and we don’t become friends. 1/10 times i actually function as a human being and make a connection or at least something that sticks a little.

so here, below the cut, is a comprehensive (loosely) list of things that i like, in no particular order at all, besides tickling, because apparently both sides of this need a little help connecting on any front.

scooby-doo

beetlejuice

the addams family

the sims

the mcu

classic disney animations; my favorites are dumbo, the great mouse detective, the rescuers, sleeping beauty, and oliver and company (it’s old enough that i consider it in the classic category)

~modern disney animations too; my favorites are treasure fucking planet, coco, and... i’m a sap, beauty and the beast. rise of the guardians too even though it isn’t disney.

musicals; i can’t pick a favorite just fucking ask me, but i don’t know a lot of newer ones honestly

empire records

the greatest showman still

cats (i mean the animals but i also like the show even though it is Weird As Hell)

my cat in particular

alice in wonderland

stranger things

space jam

tsum tsums

elvira, mistress of the dark

dice

kiki’s delivery service and specifically jiji things

winnie the pooh i don’t even fucking care i LOVE HIM AND ALL OF HIS FRIENDS

silly hats

playdoh

interesting earrings

exploring libraries or big bookstores

true crime mysteries; my favorite youtuber for this is georgia marie, bless her. i also watch bella fiori and kendall rae

fictional mysteries too

i have a kind of fascination with jack the ripper and with the lizzie borden case

shipwrecks! i don’t know why but shipwrecks fascinate me! why did they go down? all the stories that went with them!

i once read a novel that was told as a series of letters, or journal entries, by people on the titanic, including the iceberg and it was THE absolute saddest book i have ever read in my life. like, obviously i knew what was coming, but i got attached to the characters, the letters made them alive and it was just like... NO. NO I DON’T WANT THEM TO DIE. I KNOW THEY’RE GOING TO BUT THEY CAN’T. and it was awful. i had to put it down and cry.

cryptozoology

the bermuda triangle theories (i’m not saying i believe sOmEtHiNg’S gOiNg On but i think some of the theories are interesting)

ghosts

the nancy drew computer games

monopoly

i still play a lot of my snes games; my go-to time killer and head-clearer honestly is kirby’s avalanche. i also play a lot of super mario rpg legend of the seven stars, super mario world, kirby’s dreamland 3, and donkey kong 2 and 3

final fantasy x in which i’m guaranteed to call almost (i can’t stress that enough) every character at some point “my child”

hyrule warriors, i know it’s not a tRuE zelda game but it’s fucking fun

same with fire emblem warriors

red dead redemption

kingdom hearts

the uncharted series

splatoon but i don’t have it wahhhhh

mind you i am not very Good at videogames, i just like to play them anyway

game grumps

ninja sex party

jacksepticeye

markiplier

monty python

crocheting

tea

harry potter

classic rock. pretty big on queen lately. i like tom petty and the heartbreakers. i like joan jett and the blackhearts.

i just... like rock. across the board. i like the offspring. i like some rage against the machine songs. acdc on the radio makes me happy. def leppard on the radio makes me happy. beartooth, starset, powerman 5000, as long as it’s got a good beat and good stuff going on behind the vocals then i’m gonna be happy. i’m way more into the guitars and the bass and everything going on instrumentally than i am vocally, honestly. the whole big guitar solo to van halen’s “you really got me” and then that bassline that comes in, that bassline is sexy. it’s so simple but i LIKE it.

anyway music as a whole gets me right in the heart and can lift me up when i am at my literal worst point

it’s hard for me to name a favorite or specific bands that i like because there’s so many and i’m not really picky about it. 

pop vinyls

good ol’ vines

buffalo wings

mac and cheese

grilled cheese

dr. pepper

i drink a l o t of dr. pepper

pretending i know how to do makeup well

history; i watch a lot of expedition unknown and mysteries at the museum, and sometimes i’ll watch a free documentary on youtube if it catches my attention. last weekend i explained the donner party to my boyfriend. just.. on a whim. because i’d just watched a thing on it and he said he didn’t really know what it was. i’m that person.

OH I SHOULD HAVE MENTIONED THIS BACK AROUND TRUE CRIME BUT I READ A BOOK ABOUT H.H. HOLMES AND HIS MURDER CASTLE AND THE CHICAGO WORLD’S FAIR. it was by erik larson, i believe. larsen? i could google this. devil in the white city. there’s been talks to make it a movie. it’s a good read though i will admit i skipped a lot of the fair parts because i was there for the murder.

i also read a book about the lusitania by the same author and i was like ohhh my goooood what. it got a little boring sometimes, i had to push myself to keep going, but i would read dead wake again.

csi: miami reruns are the greatest thing don’t @ me

dark purple and black aesthetics

just like... witchy aesthetics. those colors and black cats

if you haven’t noticed by any selfies i’ve posted, i do have my lip pierced and i love finding new lip jewelry. i have a new opal stud in and i love its look

leather jackets

combat boots; i have a galaxy print pair and a pair with classic marvel comics stuff printed on the inside and you can fold down the sides to show it. they’re my faves.

owls

drunk history

the first 5 seasons of supernatural and i still have a soft spot for the winchesters and castiel

i’m slowly making my way through watching the librarians

i’m also making my way slowly through watching the magicians

(american) football

nature walks

going to the zoo

going to the aquarium

like really take me to either of the above and i will lose my shit

road trips

savannah, georgia

the smokey mountains

last august i drove by myself from ohio to boone, north carolina for a friend’s wedding and that wedding was smack on a mountain top and it was the coolest thing i think i’ve ever done

roller coasters BUT NOT EXTREME ONES baby steps ok

log rides tho, i don’t know why, i always love the water rides

ren faires!

cosplay, even though i’m not exactly active in it myself (but i want to be; one of my offline friends is an actually-getting-kind-of-internet-famous mei from overwatch cosplayer)

cards against humanity

foosball

pool but i suck at it

speaking of pools i love swimming ... but i suck at it, i just like boppin’ along in a pool

cookouts

summer

there is nothing like being out in the middle of nowhere in summer when the evening starts to fall and the sky is dark, dark blue and there’s a sea of shimmering lightning bugs out over a field. it’s beautiful. it’s peaceful.

there’s nothing like sitting outside on a calm spring night and listening to the spring peepers (they’re frogs) either.

if you couldn’t tell, i live in the middle of nowhere. i have to find enjoyment in the little things.

campfires

dancing around said campfire, you cannot have a campfire without good music. this is when a lot of my classic rock education came to pass.

elephants

my favorite books are the abhorsen trilogy by garth nix, tied with the serpent’s shadow by mercedes lackey

i am trying to get into comic books by way of the youtube channel comicstorian. they break comic books down for you and read them aloud with the images, altered slightly to avoid copyright strikes (and that’s all made very clear, it’s not done sketchily), and it’s been really easy for someone like me who doesn’t just have a comics store close (and i would otherwise continue on as i have been, forgetting to ever look for them on the internet). i listened to injustice 1 and 2, and they covered the game. i’m actively following scooby apocalypse, and there was some teen titans stuff i went all the way through up until now. i don’t think it’s finished yet from what i remember.

i love museums

candles

i actually kind of collect tea sets

i also have a collection of sand art bottles AND IF I’M EVER AT A FESTIVAL OR A FAIR WHERE THERE IS A SAND ART STAND YOU CAN BET I AM GOING TO MAKE ONE

yugioh duels; i’m definitely just a novice and it’s just a fun pastime my friends got me into when they found their giant binders of cards again

i’m not actually that big on pokemon, i don’t know a lot of them but it’s still fun and i know some. but i did love pokemon go when my friends still played it (don’t really have time anymore, and it kept crashing way too badly on one of their phones anymore anytime they tried to join a raid and it just wasn’t fun as a group then)

i don’t have any but i like the ~look of crystals and would like to have some, not for my own aesthetic but i just... like having pretty things!

listening to the rain

how the air smells (at least where i live) after a long rain and everything is just cleansed

depression has stopped me from writing for a long time but, in my heart, writing has always been something that has touched me ever since i knew how to do it and could put my stories down on paper instead of having to just talk about them... so i’m going to include that here

root beer floats

hotdogs

hard dip ice cream (if you don’t know what hard dip means... as my boyfriend didn’t... it means ice cream that you have to use a scoop with, not soft serve)

soft serve’s good too tho don’t get me wrong

strawberry milkshakes

this isn’t even stuff that anyone would need to know on this site to befriend me at this point, nobody’s gonna message me like HEY I READ YOU LIKE STRAWBERRY MILKSHAKES ME FUCKING TOO

you’re cool if you do that lmao

so bad they’re good creature features from the 50s and 60s

the old godzilla movies

i like the moon more than the stars, but i like them too

flower crowns

bouncy balls

original skittles

this has gone on way too long, nobody is reading this, your mom’s a hoe, goodnight

no she’s not, i’m sorry, if you got this far then i hope your mom is a nice person

[ask-shakespearehigh]

Q&A post with the Mods!!!!

This is going to be a long one oh boy

How strict is the delineation of creative control vis-a-vis characters/plays between the mods? (@pedanticlecturer)

We generally have the plays split up along lines of “what we know”— we have a list at the very beginning of the blog. Sometimes we’ll draw the others’ characters (mostly me drawing some of Star’s…) but even then the final say on characterization is up to the “main” mod for that play — mod aster

what aster said -- mod star

What is your favorite play? What is your favorite character in terms of how they were written in the source material? (@pedanticlecturer)

I think my favorite play overall is Macbeth, just because I like the vibes (and the fact that I too could kill Macbeth), the fact that you don’t say it’s name in theatres, and the fact that it’s a play I did a full read through and analysis of in class. Favorite character? Puck from Midsummer. — mod aster

uhhhh,, hmm. ive always had a soft spot for midsummer since i saw it with aster esp bc of how fun the costumes were. of the comedies it has the largest potential to be the most visually pleasing bc of the concept of fairies,,,and im gay and dramatic so i love that. id die if i got to costume design for midsummer,,,or be in it,,,yeah. fav character. hmm. probably mercutio?? i recently saw a version of romeo and juliet where mercutio was played by a woman and oh my god it was amazing!!! not to mention mercutio’s portrayal in baz luhrmann's INCREDIBLE version of r n j!!! (I based my mercutio design on him) he just spends the entire time making dick jokes. love that. -- mod star

How do you answer asks so fast? I mean it's great but I'm impressed 😂 (Anon)

Personally, it’s a mix of: notifications on, quick drawing speed, and using the blog to avoid my class work — mod aster

aster is fast and (as you can see from all of my answers) im lazey -- mod star

Are there any elements/characters of the plays you're covering that you would have liked to work into this blog's plot, but couldn't due to the constraints of the setting or the synthetic nature of the blog? (@pedanticlecturer)

I wanted to make everyone gay but unfortunately due to plot constraints we have to have some hets but that wont stop me from making it lgbt as possible. -- mod star

I did want to make The Tempest more of a central play, but it just didn’t translate well. Similarly, other supernatural elements like the witches in Macbeth. This isn’t so much a constraint mentioned, but my own time/energy means that I want to show the Macbeth backstory, in a specific format, but I can’t right now— mod aster

Is there a hierarchy of import when it comes to each play's individualized impact on shakespeare high's general arc? If so, what plays are crucial to the foundation of the story? Which ones did you do mostly for shits and giggles? (@pedanticlecturer)

This is phrased like an ACT question and i might not answer it right so sorry in advance but: mod aster and i only selected a few plays for each of us to do given we dont know all of shakespeare’s works, but we tend to put more emphasis on the the more well known. But it also comes down to 1. How much we have plotted out for each play and 2. What the followers ask about most. Our two most popular are hamlet and macbeth bc people are familiar w those but around march caesar always becomes relevant again. I didnt even have designs for some of the characters until someone asked about them. -- mod star

I would say the same as star— it generally comes down to what people ask about. I will say that the overall plot is sort of separated into “has happened” and “is happening”. Like, the human potion of Midsummer, Julius Caesar, and Macbeth are all in the “aftermath” portion, while Twelfth Night, Hamlet, and Romeo and Juliet, among others, are happening. We’re trying to incorporate as much as we can, and I don’t think any of them were really put in without some thought.— mod aster

What personal significance does shakespeare hold in ur guys' lives? (@pedanticlecturer)

I go to a theater school rn and so ive dealt w shakespeare (although not all of them) it also helps that i was in loves labours lost last year as moth and that i read hamlet and r n j. Theres also a theater in my state that always does One Big Shakespeare per season and they always do them super well!!! My love for shakespeare probably started w seeing midsummer at that theater w mod aster!!! So. Theater kid rights!! -- mod star

To be honest, I got back into Shakespeare Because of the blog. I’ve been friends with some people that got really Pretentious about Shakespeare, and it kinda put me off of it. I did have a book of abridged plays (the plays’ plots written out in prose, basically) that I read as a kid, which is what got me into not only the plots of a lot of the plays, but also the idea of having them illustrated. And, same as star, the theater in state does the One Big Shakespeare— and they tend to do some really cool things with the costumes, setting them in diff time periods. I haven’t been able to see any lately since I’ve moved, but they still slap. — mod aster

🥰😘💙🥰🥰💜💟🥰I 😍💗💚😍😍LOVE🖤🖤 YALL ♥️♥️🧡💛💚💝❣️💕💘💖💗💓💞💝❤️💛💜 okay now i have a question i swear— how long have the two of you been doing art??? and what were your first shakespeare plays??? (@hellaghosts)

Uhh i started drawing when i was like idk 12 and i have the giant boxes of sketchbooks to prove it!!! I moved to digital art at abt 14-15 but mostly stayed traditional until this yr when i got a Neat New Tablet so some of my sketchbooks are sitting abandoned rip. My first shakespeare was either romeo and juliet or midsummer nights dream and i love both of them v much!!! I have a very old piece of art that i did for r n j for my freshman class assignment on it and it hasnt aged well alsdjfjafd circa 2016 i think??? -- mod star

Oh man. I started drawing when I was about 10, but it was Bad. I don’t think I got much into drawing again until I was about 14? Sometime around the end of middle school/beginning of high school. I would say I started getting into drawing as more than doodling/coloring edits sometime around 2015-16? I would draw on my iPad with my finger, then I got a tablet for my computer, and now I pretty much stick to my iPad with an Apple Pencil. My first Shakespeare play was….. uh…… probably Midsummer???? I have No idea. We would go to plays when I was little, so I honestly don’t remember if I saw others before. It may have been Romeo and Juliet— I had that book where it was the original and the “modernized” with the little dog that explained things— which, if you know it makes sense, but if you don’t is probably a bonkers answer. — mod aster

Do you think this blog has like? An overarching thesis (be it b/c intentionally or simply b/c ur own take on the world has bled thru to the point where u believe it’s central to the piece at this point)? (@pedanticlecturer)

Not gonna lie, I had to read that like three times AND dm you to figure out what you were asking from us and all I have is “be gay, respect women, write your own happy endings”. — mod aster

This blog started with an ides of march shitpost and you think we have enough brain energy to write a whole thesis? I projected feelings of found family onto my half of the blog but idk if that counts. Be gay do crime 420 69 -- mod star

What’s the nature/rough dynamic of ur relationship? How do y’all know each other? (@pedanticlecturer)

Met mod aster when i was like 4 and even tho we didnt live close we became like, best friends although the Best part didnt start until we were like 13-ish and eventually we talked like non stop (about anime and homestuck. Yknow. 13 year old kid things) and we didnt see each other a lot bc of Distance and now its even worse bc aster is in colleg.,e but we consider each other siblings regardless of family bc we’re adopted into our own respective families so that bled over into our friendship and it would feel weird calling him anything other than my brother now. We’ve seen each other at our best and worst and if you really want a good insight on what we’re like as siblings watch griffin and justin mcelroy’s overview video of catlateral damage wherein i am griffin and he is the long suffering justin. -- mod star

Star is basically my long distance sibling and functionally the only cousin I recognize bc like their parents are basically an aunt and uncle and like our dads look enough alike that we’ve both accidentally gotten the wrong dad for a hug or similar so like. Anyways yeah Star is the Griffin to my Justin, complete with our absent middle brother who we love dearly— mod aster

Dubiously relevant q but what kind of music do y’all listen to when u do art (if that is indeed a habit either of u partake in) (@pedanticlecturer)

It can depend on the piece? I was working on some (unrelated) oc prints that were song-focused, and for those I just listened to said song on loop. Sometimes I have playlists. Sometimes I’ll just be in a Mood and throw a song on loop. But a lot of time for the blog, I’ll listen to The Adventure Zone for the billionth time, because I have Too Much Attention. I’ve also, on request from Star, linked the most recent “loop song”.— mod aster

I tend to obsess over the same like 3 songs every few weeks so those get listened to on repeat but it also depends on the tone of what im drawing or who im drawing i might genre switch bc of that. If im drawing ophelia i stick to lana del rey and if im drawing hamlet its the neighborhood, horatio is sufjan stevens etc. i have categorized,. Most of the characters i draw into different songs/genres/energies of music but not like i ever follow that. Sometimes i just pull up a really long nonsense video and forget to draw. Essentially: ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ -- mod star

How’d y’all come up with ur pseudonyms? (@pedanticlecturer)

I love space so much and my main blog is starryeydsailor space gay rights!! Im also tiny and full of energy and bright so basically i;m star -- mod star

Uhhhh i was like “hey i want to do uhhhhhh flower?” And then I google searched flower names until I found one I liked —- mod aster

How did you end up deciding the rough timeline of events in canon? (@pedanticlecturer)

It’s mostly determined by like. How we choose per story? If that makes sense. Like, we just take story by story, and decide “is it happening, has it happened, and when?” And then we fit them together in relation to each other just by dint of. All existing at once. Like, I knew I wanted Macbeth to be in aftermath, because like, even though there’s no murder, the way I’ve translated it to the AU is still kinda heavy, and it’s something that I don’t know that I could do properly if it were happening right now. Also, it’s more interesting IMO to have them at different times. Tl;dr we wing it per story and slot them together— mod aster (mod star agrees I just can word better, in theory)

If you could tell the story of shakespeare high in a different format than an ask blog, would you? Obviously y'all are making very good use of the format, but would you want to write this as a animated series or like? a comic book? or is the form inseparable from the story? (@pedanticlecturer)

I kinda wanted to do a webcomic or maybe to plot develop through like, animatics but the element of surprise comes from the asks we get and really makes us think so the blog is a good start. We didnt think we’d get this far -- mod star

Pretty much what Star said— there are certain elements where it’d be neat to do as a comic or as an animatic. Like, the fantasy dream is like, an anthology webcomic of each story, where you can like, see other characters in the background and stuff. But to be honest, we develop a lot by what we’re asked— there was a post about developing worldbuilding by being asked questions and then pretending you’ve thought about the answer, and it’s not far off. Personally, it’s hard to just lay out a story, because I have a whole WORLD and what’s relevant? What are people interested in? It’s by getting questions that I can then focus in on an area to develop. And yeah, we Super didn’t think we’d get this far lmao — mod aster

Any headcanons about your characters that you don't think will ever come up on the blog through asks or plot posts? (@pedanticlecturer)

I could make a whole separate post for this!!!!! Mostly its voice headcanons (and by mostly i mean like 1 or 2) or relationship hcs!!!! -- mod star

Honestly same. I don’t think I have voice headcanons for mine, though I bet I could find some. I’ve got a bunch of miscellaneous headcanons that just kinda float around, but like they’re scattered, too numerous for this post, and also not always things I’m sure are canon yet.— mod aster

[baebbaeby]

(B.A.P) Boyfriend!Zelo

my sugar pie honey bunch I love this boy

Seeing him grow from his little 15 year old self to now makes my heart hurt okay LET’S DO THIS

I think it would take him a little while to get to know someone really well to be able to date them

obviously he could have a crush on someone he doesn’t really know but to be fully comfortable with putting his feelings on the table he’d have to know them really well or at least for a good amount of time

He’s definitely not as shy as he used to be but i still think he’s a little bit reserved at first

but the more you both open up to each other the sweeter it will be uwu

I feel like the type of friends Junhong makes are friends for LIFE he’s like man we ride or die 

and i think that would translate into his relationship as well

I think yall would like casually start becoming just, pillars for each other? idk how to explain it other than the word CONSTANT you know? you’d just always be there for each other

and it wouldn’t even occur to you guys that it was happening it would just be natural like ‘yeah ____ sits with me almost every night in the studio while they do their schoolwork, so what?’

‘____ and i are gonna get ice cream’

‘____ and I were out walking mochi and the craziest thing happened!!’

and you guys would just so genuinely enjoy your time together

but because it was so natural I don’t think either of you would notice that you had feelings

until one day you’re texting junhong that you feel down and next thing you know he shows up with a care package full of food and is like let’s play games and watch movies so you feel better

and then you realize your heart is beating super fast and you’re like “oh....oh...”

and for him I think it would be as simple as him looking at you while you’re not paying attention, then you noticing his gaze, smiling at him and then going back to whatever it was you were doing

that would make his heart race and make him realize how much he LIKED you even more than just as a friend

I think after both of you realizing your feelings it would get a little awkward cause you both don’t want to overthink it

but i also think he’d be afraid of ruining the friendship too if he felt like maybe it was one-sided

but since he has loads of older friends and his members to look up to, he would definitely go to them for advice and encouragement

and while you guys would still do your regular hangouts, i think he’d want to do something a little extra/different if he was going to confess to you

like i mean it in a super simple way instead of walking mochi during the day at the park he’d ask you to go at night or something

idk im imagining a place with walkways and fairy lights that has interesting stuff to look at but is also calm enough for the lil pup mochi so maybe there’s a path by a river to walk on that would be cute too

a small thing like this makes it so its still your usual walk with him but now it has a romantic feeling? so when he does this you can kind of tell that he’s going to confess

unless you’re like me in that case you would have no clue no matter what aha

and he’d confess casually while you guys were sitting on a bench looking at the river

i don’t think he’d be able to look at your face though i think he’d have to say it while looking at Mochi hahaha

and then you’d say you felt the same

and he’d be like “really?!” dhsjsanj

I think the tough part at first would be trying to be romantic when you guys had been friends

but then you’d both realize you guys were being pretty romantic/couple-y before anyway so you could stop overthinking it dammit!!

the great part about this though is that you guys could be really honest about it i think

like the first time he holds your hand while walking with you and Mochi

you’d both get really flustered

but you’d both be able to say to each other like “wow i’m so flustered why?! ahhhh” and tease each other a little bit

and then he’d tell you he liked the feeling of your hand in his  bhjhbhds

anyway i see a relationship filled with laughter with this boy

cause yall know he’s weird

in that cute weird way

where he does random stuff just to make you laugh

I honestly have no idea if this boy is experienced or not now

but i think one of his struggles would be balancing putting you or himself first

obviously im not saying he’s selfish or anything its far from that

i just think he’d struggle to see where the line is on putting someone first and doing stuff for them but also doing stuff for you

i mean if its a good relationship in the first place you guys would resolve that because you’d both encourage the other to do stuff that they wanted to do

that being said, it kinda makes it seem like he’d take you for granted BUT THATS NOT WHAT IM SAYING AT ALL GET THAT OUT OF YOUR MIND OK

cause this boy would think about you all the damn time

like how i said before you guys were just consistent in each others lives you’d be consistent in his head too he’d always be thinking about ‘oh they would like this’ or ‘i can’t wait to tell them this’

you can tell junhong has loads of respect and admiration for people that have passion

so if you were really passionate about something i think he’d love that about you and would be super interested in it no matter what it was

but i think this could kind of put you on a pedestal for him? and then he’d have a moment where he forgets that you’re also human, and we make mistakes

but i think if something like this were to happen, he’d easily realize his own mistake and honestly, if he saw how you grew and learned from yours he’d be like YES THAT IS MY S/O!! I LOVE YOU!!

okok let’s get into the cutesy stuff now

he would blush if you have a cute nickname for him hands down

even just calling him ‘baby’ he’d be like omg uwu

and then if you called him a cute name when the members are around he’d be like uwuwuwu shhhh but uwuwuwu

and then the members would all awe bc he’s the baby and he’s so cute

except jongup

jongup would be like ew

ANYWAYS

YOU BET THIS BOY HAS CUDDLE MOODS

He’d just randomly come from behind you and back hug you tightly, probably pulling you and collapsing both of you onto the couch or something

and just WRAPPING his long ass body around yours

curling your hair around his fingers

just admiring you

uwu

I also think that he would have a thing for your hands

i think he’d love to play with them whenever he could

even just holding your pinky or something idk he seems like he’d do cute stuff like that

like just kissing all your fingers one by one 

and just intertwining his fingers with yours all the time

i also think he’d have a HUGE thing for having his hand on your leg/thigh

IDK WHY IM JUST A FIRM BELIEVER THAT HE’D ALWAYS WANT HIS HAND ON YOUR THIGH NO MATTER WHAT

LIKE NOT EVEN SEXUALLY OR ANYTHING

IT’S JUST A VERY WARM SPOT plus his hands are big so no matter the size of your thighs he can still cover a good amount of area

and he’d probably pat your thighs a lot too

and then use them as a drum set

and then go back to just calmly and casually having his hand on your thigh

I don’t think he’d be super affectionate with kissing as much as he would be with the rest of his body

he’d love giving you hugs and obviously he’d be touching your hands and thighs a lot

but i think he’d low key like it if you showered him in kisses

to me though he doesn’t seem like one to do that back unless he’s in a super cuddly mood and he’s trying to tickle you by kissing you or something

HONEST TO GOD I THINK HE’D LOVE COUPLE CLOTHES

LIKE AESTHETIC FASHIONABLE COUPLE CLOTHES

HE’D DIE HE’D LOVE IT

I just think he’d be super excited to have someone he could share his work and happiness with obviously he has his friends and members and family to do that with too

but it’s definitely different when you’re in a relationship

i think he’d love to explore new things and places with you, even places he’s been before cause it would be a whole new experience with you

he’d probably like to document it too with a camera and have cute little personal vlogs that you guys could just watch back from time to time fjdknj

for some reason i have a hard time thinking about sexy stuff with him

im a pretty soft person tho sooo thats probably just me

but i also just thought about his pillow talk solo stage and hjfdk

so i really think what he does depends on his mood

so if he’s you know, feeling it

he gets real intense and its honestly kind of shocking?? but in a good way?? like oh my gOD i forgot you have this side to you

i dont think the word to describe it would be rough but more intense?? 

especially if you tease him or something he’d definitely get intense

i think he’d have a weakness if you sat on his lap/straddled him tbh [insert eye emojis]

and you know how i said he liked your thighs? he still really likes your thighs if you catch my driFT

I think it would stay intense until you guys are done

and he’d just collapse and laugh or grin into your neck making you giggle because it tickles

he’d probably end up holding your hand as he’s sleeping?? i mean since his body is so big anyway some part of him is probably going to be touching you anyway

but i think he’d love to either hold your hand, have his hand on some part of you somewhere or have your hand on him

he would just ;;;; love you a whole lot okay

OKAY THIS IS GETTING KIND OF LONG IM GONNA END IT HERE NOW

ANYWAYS JUNHONG IS A PRECIOUS HARDWORKING BOY WHO PUTS HIS HEART AND SOUL INTO EVERYTHING AND IS SO POSITIVE UGH GO STAN MY KINGS BAP

[okaloid]

So now that you finally finished reading Fruits Basket what's the verdict? Favorite characters and least favorite characters and why? What about ships? Which did you love which did you hate?

Ooooo do I have a LOT to say about Furuba, let me tell you anon. Mostly good. I really enjoyed the manga and how it depicted the characters. I loved how they all changed and progressed over time for the better, the fact the manga showed all of their personal struggles, how even the mostly positive and seemingly cheerful characters had major flaws they had to work on and had real reasoning behind their behavior and choices….I think one of my favorite things in the manga is that most of the side characters weren’t there simply to interact with the main characters and make the scenes play out more naturally, they were given back stories and even had short or somewhat sizable arcs that depicted them as people with wants and needs, it showed them struggling but also enjoying life and experiences too. They were given substance and it made them feel more real.

At this point Ill give a ~spoiler warning~ to anyone who would want to get into the series so nothing will be ruined for them since I know the pain for this oh too well.

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My favorite characters are definitely the main three, so Kyo, Tohru and Yuki. I also really liked Hana, Shigure, Momiji, Kakeru, and towards the final chapters I started to like Machi.

As far as characters I hate…I don’t think I have any? I suppose there were moments I was annoyed with characters, or didn’t care for them (mainly because the few that weren’t given backstory/just there for comic relief so I didn’t have��much of a reason to care about them), but I would say I really hated Akito up to a certain point. This was really only up until we were shown why she acted the way she did, why she was so possessive of the members of the zodiac, and why she was so violent and mentally messed up. In the anime you don’t even find out what happens, you just see Akito as an evil and twisted…..well…man, haha. You don’t learn anything about her or have a chance to understand why the Sohma house is so messed up and why they have this nonsensical hierarchy with the “outside” members and the zodiac members. I’ve never been one who likes random action or vague, pointless themes or messages that anyone can loosely relate to in media. I really like being able to analyze people to their cores, or experience compelling storytelling that doesn’t rely on easy plot devices that catch people’s attention. Fruits Basket isn’t perfect, and it definitely has its cliches and silly, unnecessary things, but the good outweighs that in my opinion.

I GOT OFF TRACK THO, SORRY

But I started liking Akito after her first major arc and when her mother was introduced. Her anger was justified to me, her constant abuse to the other Sohmas was not in any way shape or form, but seeing how insecure in her own existence and importance to the family showed just how flawed and broken of a person she was. She wasn’t just an evil character thrown into the story to cause problems for the main characters. She wasn’t void of all human emotions for “””plot”””. She was shown to be an incredibly broken individual who wanted love and to feel needed so much that it drove her somewhat crazy. She was never given a chance to determine what she wanted to be, her birthright was to be “God” and was promised the love of the other zodiac members, forced to be something she was not based on her mother’s orders, father (who was really the only person who loved her for WHO she was not what) passing. I believe she could’ve been a very good person if given the chance…but suffering a lot from a young age really effects a person.

Now I liked the Sohmas for the reasons I mentioned above. For the main three, I’d say I loved Tohru’s unwavering enthusiasm. Even though in the final arc it was revealed she mainly started acting the way she did to seem more like her father, you could argue this was who she truly was at that point in time. I’d say this was who she always was, but since she started “acting” like her father when she was so young, she probably couldn’t remember or didn’t realize. Perhaps she couldn’t tell she was a good person, she often joked about it and refused praise from people being how humble she was. I think Tohru’s self worth was very low, though even so she wanted to make those around her happy any way she could. After seeing what her father’s death did to her mom, Tohru couldn’t stand seeing people she cared about be in any pain. It showed every time she learned something awful about another. She felt their pain in a way, the readers could see that. She was honest to goodness a pure hearted person who would do anything for anyone, even if that meant she would get harmed in the process of helping them (much like with Akito nearing the end of the manga and most definitely with Kyo when his true form was shown). 

I actually didn’t like Yuki at first, really. He kind of reminded of a Kuudere? He was very detached, cold, somewhat bland to me at first. Like a cardboard cutout character of the “prince” stereotype. He looked like the typical calm and collected cool guy in anime that I don’t really care for. Though as time went on and he started to come out of his shell, you were able to see what he was really like. He didn’t hide in fear of transforming anymore, he started to become more comfortable in himself and the thought of forming relationships with others. His fear and depression seemed to slowly fade the more he tried to “open the lid”. We saw him finally form a relationship with his brother (and towards the end of the manga it honestly warmed my heart to see), he became more tolerant of Kyo and seemed to care for his well-being, along with his and Tohru’s forming relationship. After he realized what he saw in Tohru and how he felt about her, he seemed to start learning more about himself with her help. From having that care and support on Tohru’s end, Yuki was able to find himself and really progress as a person. Seeing him in a healthier mindset made me very happy. I could see a little of Ayame in him towards the end too!

Now for Kyo, he’s easily my favorite character. I don’t know why I usually like Tsunderes (cause in real life they’d annoy the hell out of me) but with Kyo’s backstory and upbringing, his bad attitude made sense. I get being a sassy or rude teenager, but unnecessarily violent just because your parents are mean? Ehhhhh. But Kyo was literally damned at birth. He was the curse of the zodiac and his existence was literally to give the other members more comfort in their identities. Purely existing just so others will hate themselves less by comparing their situation to yours is horrible. By Akito’s own words and opinion, Kyo was worthless. A disgusting creature who’d rot in his cell when his time came. The cat was never given a fair chance like the others were. His isolation from people and constant abuse from his father and other Sohma’s tore him down, he saw no value in himself and only lived out of pure spite for Akito and Yuki. The “I’ll kill him and then myself” line always got to me. It’s shown his only purpose of living for a time was to get revenge for the cat. Not for himself, or for others, just for revenge. It was so sad to see. He grew on me instantly though, he was overly blunt, a little socially inept, bashful, and a bit violent, but he had a conscious. HE showed remorse when he’d really hurt Tohru’s feelings, and tried his best to make up for them in a way he could. Towards the end of the manga he most definitely grew up, matured, calmed down a lot, and became more tolerant of the things he once hated. He was able to heal, and I straight up C R I E D when his curse was lifted.

As for my shiiiiiips I obviously love Kyo/Tohru and Yuki/Machi are my main ones. though I definitely favor Kyo and Tohru over anyone else lol. 

I hope this isn’t too much to read? Lol/ Also sorry this took me forever anon, I’ve been busy. ; v ;

[olmopress]

The end.

week 13: Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, “Remediation”

Maghada Kingdom, Northern India. Somewhere around 2500 years ago:

I feel you Sha’

All beautiful things must end, and so also my smart-ass blogposts have to.

SAD

But I don’t know maybe you can pool some kind of financial resources and grant me a salary to write you reviews on stuff. It’d be cool, and I’d be constantly on strike to try and negotiate a better wage because

But anyways.

Before we start this last ride about digital media, I have a kind message addressed to my dear friends Bolter & Grusin

No for real guys. Don’t get me wrong here, your paper is great and you sound like chill dudes, but

DUDE

your points are SIMPLE, and we’re all grown ups with an education. You DO NOT have to state and re-state the obvious and make multiple and equally obvious examples

LIKE, WE GET IT

Instead NO, it takes these two little bitches something like

THIRTY PAGES

to get to the main point of the essay.

But oi, maybe I get it. Maybe you were writing for some whiny-ass professor/boss who gave you a nasty word count, or maybe editorial draconian policies by the journal forced you to do this. Boh. I don’t know. Don’t wanna antagonize her but reading you kids was a tour de force.

BUT LET US NOT GET DISTRACTED LIKE WE DO ALL THE FUCKING TIME

Bolter and Grusin’s article does something quite simple: it attempts to set theoretical lineaments to the three concepts of immediacy, hypermediacy, and remediation. Very cool.

The ‘core’ of the whole essay is something pretty much like this:

Our [sick-ass neurotic] Western culture is fixated on both immediacy and hypermediation. To achieve the first, we [very reasonably and not at all pervertedly] paradoxycally construct hypermediated environments. But we do also the reverse [again great reasoning abilities here]: in going all-in for hypermediacy we tend to rely on seemingly immediate devices. All this media push-and-pull is fucking bipolar implies a logic of remediation, in which the emergence of every new media generates reciprocal ‘borrowings’ and incorporations between the new and the old.

Now Bolter. Grusin.

DOES MY PARAGRAPH LOOK THIRTY FUCKING PAGES LONG?

B & G: No

GOOD. THEN WHY THE HELL YOURS DOES?

Fucking academics, man. They drive me crazy.

So the point is that this logic of remediation is based upon the mutual dependence of contradictiory determinations (the fact that immediacy depends on hypermediacy). And well, what is it if not another episode of my highly acclaimed sit-com series 

“What famous philosopher is featured in this paper?”

Our guest star today is a boy you’ve already seen in this post.

Oh yeah baby, keep those antithetical determinations struggling with each other!

And so yeah, “Immediacy depends upon hypermediacy,” and very much like an original synthesis that transcends thesis and antithesis, 

“the desire for immediacy leads to a process of appropriation and critique by which digital media reshape or ‘remediate’ one another and their analog predecessors” (314).

From this point, B. & G. write words upon words to disscuss the concepts of immediacy and hypermediacy, constructing what they define a “genealogy” of the two concepts. But they means this in a very specific way. Is another guest star of “What famous philosopher is featured in this paper” coming to join us?

OF COURSE

but surprises don’t end here, because

IT’S A RETURN!

Oh yeah, your favorite bald philosophical sex symbol is back to tell you that by saying “genealogy” he means 

“an examination of descent” which “permits the discovery, under the unique aspect of a trait or a concept, of the myriad events through which—thanks to which, against which—they were formed” (qtd. in 315).

Therefore Bolter and Grusin investigate the way in which these two concepts have been shaped by cultural discourse over history. Which is all fun and leisure, but not really that important to us.

One thing I did want to talk about tho is the political aspect of immediacy. So let me get this straight. When discussing VR, B&G write:

“All these enthusiasts promise us perceptual immediacy, experience without mediation. They expect virtual reality to diminish and ultimately to deny the mediating presence of the computer and its interface” (317).

Now, you have been blessed enough to encounter some Marxism in your life, you might be reminded of the crucial concept of ideology. An ideology is a set of beliefs shared by members of a society – or imposed upon them – that naturalizes artificial relationships and norms inside that community. The thing about ideologies, though, is that they are not immediately visible. They are, to borrow from B&G, transparent, because they are designed to be invisible and to provide a sense of immediacy in social dialectic. Moreover, the stronger an ideology is – the more rooted it is in culture – the less visible it is. We could say, for instance, that Mark Fisher’s concept of Capitalist Realism works as a very transparent ideology.

Rest in peace, comrade.

But going even deeper, it seems to me that this whole transparency thing is very totalitarian. Like VR is kind of totalitarian, because it seeks complete and utter control over your body and senses. Totalitarianism is like a transparent interface. It is a form of cultural VR. Or rather, ideology is a form of virtual reality.

And, oi, B&G make it clear enough that this works also when individuals have personal freedom. Sure, they’re talking about digital media, but still look at what they write:

“For if immediacy is promoted by removing the programmer/creator from the image, immediacy can also be promoted by involving the viewer more intimately in the image” (324).

That’s DEEP bruh.

Now let’s move on. So immediacy is essentially the dominant regime for much of the history of Western culture. Or at least ever since the Renaissance. It is the dream of being able to produce objects that trick us into believing that what we see is real. Fine.

Hypermediacy is sort of like its nemesis. It is the cultural regime of fragmentation, indeterminacy, multiplicity, heterogeneity and pretty much also of deliberate and explicit artificiality.

IT’S VERY POSTMODERN

VERY META-

It’s culture that is aware of its mediated nature, and breaks that suspension of disbelief stuff that makes you care for characters created by someone else.

See this at work in one of the greatest moments of digital media history.

Bolt ’n’ Grus have a lot of superfluous stuff to say about it, but unfortunately for them I am very postmodern too and my attention spans are short and so I’ll jump to remediation.

Remediation is B&S’s killer application. All their money is on this nice idea. The idea is that one of the defining characteristic of contemporary digital media – or rather, a phenomenon sparked by the emergence of them – is the fact that media represents other media in them. This, they say, can happen in four different modes.

1. Transparency: digital media highlights and re-presents an older media without any trace of irony or critique. This is like when you go search for that old album you really like on Apple Music. The platform does not ‘comment on’ the music. It just allows you to experience it by reproducing the older vynil/CD medium.

2. Emphasis on difference: digital media underlines and renders particularly evident the difference between itself and older media. Kinda like an improvement of older media through digital tools. This encompasses all the ‘expanded’ stuff you can get. Like library guides on our our library’s website. They are text-based like a physical library guide would, but they also have nice little video tutorials which improve them. Through the digital.

3. Refashoning: an ‘aggressive’ form of remediation that tries to refashion older media entirely while still signaling its presence and therefore retaining a sense of multiplicity. Here artificiality is explicit and discontinuity is visible. It is kind of like a new media collage. Something like this, perhaps:

4. Absorption and incorporation: the fourth and final mode is one in which discontinuity is minimized, because a media has entirely absorbed one or more characteristics of another one. Thus, we sort of come full circle, in the sense that absorption is superficially quite similar to transparency. Note that absorption works in both directions. Therefore you have it both in film through CGI and in videogames through cinematic cutscenes.

Our reading for this article ended with Bolter and Grusin saying that at the present moment (which for them is 1996, but non importa) all mediation is remediation, in the sense that “each medium or constellation of media […] responds to, redeploys, competes with, and reforms other media” (345). Which is also a way to offer a new connotation to the concept of media environment.

Now, sadly

WE ARE DONE.

It’s been a hell of a ride. I mean a hell. But also a ride. So we’re kind of even. It is time for me to bid you farewell; remind you to have protected sex always; assure you that, no, you won’t have panick attacks for the rest of your life (it’s the oppressive and ultra-competitive educational system’s fault); and re-assure you that, eventually, the dialectic of history will complete its cycle, unveil the inherent contradictions of capitalist societies, and prepare for the advent of a millenary communist civilization.

This come from Amazon, lol

Everything will turn out well. We will be fine. One day Donald Trump, Matteo Salvini, Boris Johnson, Marine Le Pen, Vladimir Putin, and Jair Bolsonaro will all rot in hell. We will probably have to deal with the catastrophic consequences of climate change brought about by capitalism but we’ll come out of this with a stronger, more inclusive, and more just society. Our dreams will come true and we’ll all become badass human beings who will be pillars of a reformed, humane society.

Enjoy the ride!

Today’s culture is a celebration of our struggles to become great and revolutionary individuals. Enjoy that too.

Coldplay - Lost!

William Blake, The Angel of Revelation (1805)

Adieu!

Image Sources: GIPHY, metmuseum.org, thenewpolis.com, micciacorta.it, amazon.com

[bma-2020]

POST-SERIES THINGS, HOW MALLY GOT TO THE OYSTER WORLD.

(Notice for spoilers to Sy/fy Alic/e if you haven’t watched it and care abt spoilers or smthn)

     WHICHEVER method of Mally during the miniseries we go with (Method one: She joins Hatter and Alice on their endeavors when Hatter goes to find her in the forest. Method two: She’s been trapped in the Casino for awhile, after Jack Heart finds out where she is, goes to interrogate Hatter, and she turns herself in to ensure he doesn’t get in trouble for it.) This is how it ends up.

As Bean pointed out in this one post from probably 2014 or so since I was already following bean by that point, that I will forever be linking to even tho Bean doesn’t write Hatter anymore n tries to hide the fact that Bean can do math better than basically everyone or at least me, before Hatter goes through the looking glass to find Alice, it’s at least three months in Wonderland time. That’s why he’s all healed up, has nicer hair, changed his hat, god better clothes, all that. 

Whatever happened, I do have it where Mally was with him during that time. Whether it’s the healing period from being trapped for so long, or just her trying to fix him up because he’s a wreck and in denial of being a wreck, either way, she’s not the kind to ditch her friend. Especially when the new king is the same dude who she was forcibly engaged to before she ran away, gaslit her, tried to convince her to ‘work with him’ and he could ‘convince his mother to let her go’ before she was sent down to the asylum, she’s not happy about the current royalty. That, on top of how he’s treated hatter in the past (I know the series doesn’t go into it but I highly highly highly doubt Hatter was that antagonistic towards Jack just out of jealousy and because he was the Queen’s son, it seemed a bit more personal than that. ) she ain’t about that.

But, she notices just about everything about Hatter. Now, of course, as much as I don’t say anything bc I don’t want ppl to be all ‘oh you’re trying to force ship’ when a: i’m not. b: unrequited shit. c: this was canon for her when I wrote w other hatters throughout 2013 or so through 2015, I didn’t say anything, I avoided saying anything, but Mally definitely has always had some kind of love for him. It’s in her nature, she is in love with Hatter, and she won’t say anything, so I don’t either. We all know how I am, I don’t even tell people when I do ship the muses and would wanna write it out cause yknow, I have massive anxiety about that and scaring people away so if I let them come to me abt it instead its not my idea first and I can’t be ‘awful or terrible’ for being a person yknow how it is. 

Anyways, she definitely would have noticed that he was missing Alice. And, while from how we know my writing goes, she has those reflections of the original wonderland, she has vague memories of the original alice ( which, in the version where she was taken by Jack and put back in the asylum, those memories expand a lot. Thus meaning, she remembers a whole lot more about the original wonderland because she can’t avoid it in that situation.) she liked Alice H, but she didn’t view her as the ‘legend’, she didn’t see her as an ideal, she honestly would have preferred if he wanted to go find the OG Alice, but long and behold.

She’d convince him to do what was best for him.

Even in the situation where he’d be trying to help her out of that trauma, she’d still tell him not to worry about her, because she only wants what would make. him. happy. 

And yeah, that fucks her up when he actually goes.

I don’t think she said that with the belief he’d actually go, so him actually going definitely wasn’t expected. She wouldn’t have wanted him to go, she wanted him happy, but I think inside she actually thought he’d just choose her over someone he knew for three days. That’s her headspace, don’t twist my thought process on this bc I actually ship this specific version of h/attice but mally would still be like ‘you knew her for three frickan days dude’

so she’s extremely not okay during the first few weeks after he left. Jack tried to contact her during that time, he’s still trying to get her to work with/for him, she’s not about that. Even in a completely damaged state of mind, she ain’t gonna go with Jack Heart for anything.

But, during that damaged period, is when the Cheshire Cat comes back. She’s talked to him before, he’s the only one with complete memories of the prior world and the current world, he doesn’t actually tell anyone anything. He talks to her about the Wonders. She does wander off to try and find the Vorpal Blade, and she does. In the process, she comes across Necros.

Necros spoke to her for a few moments, and ultimately when she said she didn’t want to be around him, he left her alone. One of the first people since Hatter to show her any ounce of respect like that, tbh. She does have a moment of time where she ends up in the Court of Swords, learns her mom is a Queen, all that jazz, realizes her own mother wants to use her for something, nothing pretty comes of that. 

But, within a few weeks, she ends up having a breakdown in the forest, she’s alone, she’s abandoned, nobody wants to help her, everyone she meets wants to use her, the one person she thought wouldn’t hurt her left her for a girl he knew for three days. and then Necros finds her, alone in the forest of Wabe, he doesn’t say anything to her, but he does offer her a hand, and she ends up going with him. That’s how she ends up coming to the underground.

Necros, Celeste, the underground just treats her nicely. She’s not used to it, she sees that nice treatment as a huge ‘what the fuck’ tbh, she’s just like ‘idk what’s happening rn but they arent hurting me so’ Necros has Monstrous Crow train Mally further, as Monstrous Crow can replicate others powers and helps them to fully achieve their ‘perfect’ status. From what she understood, they weren’t helping her to ‘use’ them, they were trying to help her not have to isolate herself anymore. With Monstrous Crow’s powers, they were able to develop a stronger version of her brother’s injectables that allowed others to touch her (as, March and Hatter were the only two that weren’t affected by her extremely cold temperature). 

This was a lot stronger than the one her brother developed. They made one that she could take instead. Granted, if she takes it, it weakens her excessively for days at a time, so Necros doesn’t recommend she take it over convincing whoever else to do it, cause they only need one injection and they’re done, never have to worry about it again. She’d have to do it every few days and it hurts her, they tried finding a way outside of that, because she could get to the point of her own power where she can stop it, but she’s not there yet. She might never get there. 

And, she chose to stay with them because the idea of completely getting rid of the Hearts family and bringing the true royalty back to Wonderland (the High Arcana, since the White and Red families weren’t around anymore, either finding a surviving relative fit to rule or convincing the court of fools to stop keeping away from it) and Mally actually made it go beyond that. She wanted Alice to come back and rule because nobody would be more fit to rule than her and Necros agreed, thus it seemed fitting to put her in charge of their operations in the Oyster land. 

Now, a lot of the underground are magical and they’re scientists. They learned methods to transfer back and forth from the oyster world without the time shenanigans that happen with others. This basically means that they can use the looking glasses they made to traverse back and forth and the time they spend in oyster land, when they go back to wonderland the same amount of time still passed. They went beyond the study of realm travel to ensure they didn’t lose anything. 

Monstrous Crow went with her, and the original idea was ‘saving’ oysters that... were better than average humans, and who were suffering in their realm and needed to be accepted, needed people to help them feel better about themselves, honestly because who better to convince to be on your side than someone longing for positive attention. Mally still helps with that, but she’s also going beyond that, and she’s trying to find out where Alice Liddell went. What happened to her. 

She knows that after 150 years of their time, it could have been more for the oysters, and she knows oysters dont live that long. But she also knows Alice wasn’t all human, that there was something supernatural about her that gave her the ability to control aspects of Wonderland. Therefore, she believes that she can’t be entirely gone. Part of her had to be reborn into someone or something else and that’s who Mally’s trying to find, particularly hoping that she’ll be like Mally is and have recollections of the past. That’s her main goal. 

But, there’s another goal she has too. She is actually trying to find Hatter. I think it’s more for closure on her end, to learn if he’s happy, see if his ‘ditching her’ made life better for him. That would lead to a lot more emotional spikes on her end cause, lbr, she’s gonna think abt the fact that he was only happy after leaving her behind, she acts extremely self confident but internally she’s a mess. 

[tumblunni]

More thoughts and stuff from this weird old dream I had the other day

* I’VE GOT REALLY ATTATCHED TO THE VIRUS HIVEMIND HOLY SHIT Like noooo this poor innocent friend that doesn’t understand it’s the villain I was just imagining its like “hey lets send an envoy of peace to the humans” and being so genuinely offended when they start shooting but... isn’t a horde of viral supermonsters the greatest fruit basket of all? :(

* Also like... Human assistant girl: We must destroy this wretched humanity Virus mind: That means hug them, right?

* Actually ended up thinking a lot about the design of the ‘hugging monster for hugging’! I’m thinking it has big spooky hand-wings and also hands for legs and maybe a hand tail similar to Yvetal? And either it has no head or maybe its like one of those fluffy birdy final fantasy dragons. Also a jewel on its head because Why Not.

like here’s my terrible 15 seconds scribble but i’m thinking maybe the body smaller and the wings super big so it can like.. deliver three power levels of hug hugs all the humans in its massive wings and its slightly less massive arms and then just rolls one last one up in a burrito hug on its tail

* Virus Mind: WHY DOES NO-ONE LOVE MY BEAUTIFUL MASCOT CHARACTER T_T alas they end up being melee attack units instead of making all the humans totally switch sides just at the sight of their cuteness

* it would totally just be like a super cute shoujo sparkles game of love and positivity and weird dark comedy laugh at poor virus mind thinking up silly strategies to make the humans love them, don’t pay attention to the fact you’re destroying 99% of civilization in every level Virus Mind: *puts tiny hats on the human assimilation army*

post is getting a bit long whoops

* I was also considering maybe this might even work better in an olden times jrpg setting? like, I was only thinking modern times cos thats your standard zombie game setting. or maybe future sci fi cos it could be an alien hivemind instead, but i just DO NOT LIKE sci fi so i wouldn’t be very good at writing that. But it could be like jrpg style and just like ‘the mysterious miasma that brings monsters’ and honestly there would be less Genre Rules if we’re defying tradition and mashing two genres together. And I wouldn’t be limited to what sorts of monsters I could design, which is the most important part! Also I wouldn’t really have to make it all super gross and gory and such. cos like.. i know the whole point is the subversion of the Doom Virus Of Zombies And Stuff being actually a good guy, and probably it’d be a bigger contrast if it was 100% stereotypical zombies, but also like.. i just don’t want to do it. It would be less playable by less people, and it’d be stressful to make too if i was designing characters that actually scare me. And when the whole point is that theyre NOT scary, then making them actually look it would probably just make the experience uncomfortable for everyone. But also of course like.. if they weren’t remotely MONSTERY or like SCARY IN-UNIVERSE then it also wouldnt work?? or not necessarily even scary but just like Cliche Dark Overlordy so the contrast exists. I DUNNO LOL I just know that its a hell of a lot more fun to design a whole lineup of fantasy monsters than just a bunch of gory crud. Also honestly wouldnt it be more terrifying to turn into a dragon or something instead of being exactly the same and just rotting slightly? THESE THINGS ARE SO DISSIMILAR IT IS FAR MORE SPOOKY, MY GUY also far more badass man i love dragons

* Also! a jrpg setting is just way less equipped to handle a ‘zombie phenomenon’. All the cliches would just totally not be there, they’d have to think up more creative and interesting solutions. And they also wouldnt have any perspective of seeing a bunch of movies about this, lol! And like.. wouldn’t it be interesting to think about a jrpg world where monsters have like.. a reason for being there? Theyre not a natural thing? And we’re seeing the genesis of when they first appeared in this world? Just imagine being a regular olden times peasant who’s never even seen a giraffe, and you just turn a corner and half your village is being destroyed by The First Dragon Ever And then this mysterious disembodied conciousness virus hivemind comes along and turns all the dead guys into more dragons and just What The Hap Is Fuckening, I Just Wanted To Churn Some Butter Today

* i dunno. I’m just trying to think about what should actually be changed to turn this from a weird dream into a real thing.

* Also like!! More creative ideas for the visuals! of how on earth it works! I was thinking maybe either The Mysterious Dark Fog or like The Black Snow or something? Some sort of ominous sign of reality being subtly wrong that foreshadows the impending approach of the monsters. And then the landscape itself is consumed and converted too, and its like ‘oh god do i try and venture into this twisted alien land to try and rescue my friend who got dragged off by that beast, or are they already dead?’ And then you see like a twisted corrupted reverse world of this town you’ve always known, where even the laws of physics don’t obey anymore. And its like... risking your own sanity with every second you run through this hellscape, and there’s the evil whispers from behind the trees that it would be so much easier to just give up and join the collective. Man, okay, that does actually sound like a good dark horror story, maybe it would be wasted on this premise lol? Maybe could have alternating chapters where you play as the virus and you play as the humans fleeing it? I DUNNO LOL

* I also had a vague idea for how it would work with there being poor sympathetic characters on the human side that you inevitably have to assimilate into the hivemind. I was thinking maybe they could also act like lesser ‘general’ units, like the one little girl assistant character but not quite as powerful. They wouldn’t retain as much sentience as she has, but they’d become particularly powerful monsters that could be super useful to the army. And maybe you could have sidequests to untangle their memories and resolve their last regrets? Like, get sympathetic and super depressed about these characters hours after you killed them. poor virus hivemind! it was all just a tragic misunderstanding!

* One idea I was thinking of was a duo of rival soldier guys, who I guess would be like.. warriors or town guards if this is gonna be olden times instead? Basically just generic early enemies in the first town. They’d be comic relief team rocket type guys, and hilariously inequipped to deal with the problem. And they’d kinda be jerks so you don’t feel bad for assimilating them. Not really bad guys or anything, just bad bosses who’re more obsessed with one-upping each other and getting fame and fortune than actually addressing the threat in front of them. They wouldnt believe any of the rumours about monsters until it’s too late, so its pretty much entirely their fault that the town gets so easily defeated by you. And I’m thinking maybe have them be a classic ‘grumpy and cheerful, serious and laid-back’ duo or something. though they both are equally as egotistical and competitive!

* So yeah you’d defeat them super early on in a tutorialy level, and then they’d become some of your most reliable army units for the rest of the game. I’m thinking they might actually be the ‘hug dragon’ type? And I was thinking of maybe the upgraded general version having more normal feathery wings, and these two would be colour coded. Purple and green rather than the more cliche red and blue, lol. And then like HOOOOOOOURS later you’d actually get some more backstory on these two and find out they weren’t really all that bad, and they never really hated each other. In fact they had a mutal crush that had gone unconfessed before they died, and that’s their last regret you need to fullfill to erase the last of their humanity :( Demon dragon things doing a little nose kiss :) But it symbolizes sadness :( And then maybe its possible to let one of them get away during the tutorial mission, but its impossible to spare both. And if one of them is left alive, he becomes a recurring enemy across the rest of the game and gradually develops from comic relief into a genuine threat because he’s gone mad from grief. And then in the final battle you could get an instant kill on him if you fight him with the monster that was once his friend. He just falls down crying and lets himself be taken so that he can see him again. THIS WAS WHAT I DREAMED ABOUT LAST NIGHT I KNOW I OFTEN ASK FOR SEQUELS TO MY DREAMS BUT THAT ONE WAS REALLY UNFAIR YO

* Tho I was also thinking that maybe in a golden ending you’d be able to restore the humanity of everyone you’d ever taken, at the cost of sacrificing your life. It’d be super depressing because lil girl assistant is the only one who ever knew you existed, and she’ll never be able to adjust back to a normal life knowing that you’re gone. And as far as everyone else knows you were just pure evil :( But i mean on the positive side you get to see grumpy guard and cheery guard all back to normal and like “wait why do i feel like i confessed my love to you while I was asleep, what happened”. And Then They Lived Happily Ever After

* Tho also i was thinking it’d be interesting and kind of a sequel hook if all the generals retained their powers even after being cured. Like they get their sentience back but theyre like.. were-dragons now. Thats one thing I think could actually work better in a modern day setting! Like, even after the whole thing is over, the government rounds up all the victims and experiments on them to try and discover more about the virus. “Hey please report to your local doctor for purely non sinister checkups” So were-dragon guard boyfriends have to go on the run from a shadowy government conspiracy that’s gained way too much power in the wake of this disaster. And maybe the villain in the sequel could be the government synthesizing a clone of the virus or something, and the original virus somehow comes back to fight it?

* I DUNNO LOL i just know it would be cute to imagine a were dragon wedding HOW DID THIS CONVERSATION GO FROM ZOMBIES TO END UP HERE

[thirstyfortom]

Can I request the RFA+V's reactions to MC working with animals? I'm a pet groomer so I always find myself imagining what they would think about that. Thank you!

Hope you and your pets like this :p

RFA + V with a MC who really like animals

Common: So MC works with rescued animals and she managed to take some of them to live with her.

Zen

You told him you reeeeaaally liked animals, he just had no Idea it was that much

Dogs, so many dogs! And bunnies, and a turtle.

Well, as long as you don’t have any cat… oh, there is a sphinx cat too, okay… no allergy, then.

He was never surrounded by animals, so it’s hard to get used to, but he really likes the big dogs

When it comes to your work, he’s always promoting you adoption events at his Tripter account

Having his amazing actor’s memory, he learns every pet’s name pretty fast

Likes to throw sticks and Frisbees to the dogs, lets the cat sleep on his lap and feeds the bunnies, he doesn’t really know how to interact with the turtle, tho

“Oh, MC, this bunny is the cutest!” he’s grinning so much when you tell you named this one after him.

Yoosung

He can train to be a vet, you can have free appointments with a vet. Match made in heaven

Three dogs, two cats and a goatling. All of them grown fond of him pretty fast.

Wants to impress you showing how much he’s studying by taking a look at the animal’s teeth and guessing their ages.

He can’t possibly choose his favorite, but the goatling is absolutely adorable, he won’t lie there.

Is a constant volunteer at your projects.

He’s always taking pictures of all of them and showing to his classmates, hates to be teased about preferring your animals over you.

If only they knew that sometimes he even gets a little jealous of all the attention you give to the pets…

Blushes furiously when you shoo one of the cats from his lap and fill its place.

Jaehee

She was aware about the 6 dogs and the iguana, but she was not ready to face the chaos that is your apartment

Okay, the iguana doesn’t do much, but the dogs… all of them so big and so energetic. One of them greeted her by throwing her at the floor and licking her nose.

Yes, she was never surrounded by animals either, so it is a little bit of a shock at first

But she understands now why you’re so responsible, having animals can make you get very diligent over things, and she likes it

She also volunteers for your events, usually she’s the one who planned the whole logistic of it

She eventually grows fond of this one dog who apparently really like her, as he always brings his toys for her or his leash, indicating that it’s time for a little walk, oh… he’s so polite!

You were so worried about her not liking animals, but soon it shows you had nothing to worry about, the only animal she didn’t really like that much was Elizabeth, after all.

Sometimes feels a little paranoid that the iguana is watching her…

Jumin

Well, he might have thought about finding Elizabeth a friend eventually, but this is on a whole another level…

Cats, bunnies, and an aquarium with some golden fishes, it’s not as fancy as his own, but it’s a pretty decent one

Your cats are… nothing like Elizabeth, they’re a lot more energetic and not that clingy, he feels like some of them don’t really like him.

It’s just an impression, though, he knows most cats are very independent creatures, especially being your cats… and he can always pat the bunnies, anyways

He doesn’t have the time to be more present, but is always making donations in cash or in old toys Elizabeth doesn’t want to play with it anymore

There’s this white little bunny that reminds him of Elizabeth, so it’s secretly his favorite.

He can’t wait to bring her along, but you tell him that this should be a slow process, since your cats are a little temperamental (so is Elizabeth, let’s not lie here)

“I’ve always believed that people who like animals can’t be bad, no wonder you’re the best person I know, my love.” This man has no chill, even when it comes to animals, oh lord…

Saeyoung

L-O-V-E-S!

3 dogs, a cat and a snake (!!!) He thought you might be the coolest person in the whole universe when he found about this on the background check

Now that he can actually live with them he’s just sure about your coolness.

When it comes to your work, he manages all the social media accounts and even takes a lo of the pictures that are posted

You don’t allow him to stay too close to the cats, since they’re old, and he surprisingly understands this, he holds back his urge to run around with them and bite their necks.

So he has fun with the dogs, the three are all over him when he comes to your place and he loves the attention.

He’s fascinated by the snake, he researches everything about it: gender, age, natural habitat, everything! He has the reptile around his neck more than you do.

But at the end of the day, he snuzzles to your chest  “Treat me like your kitty, meow~~” he says in a purr

V

He wouldn’t say out loud, but he imagines you as Snow White surrounded by animals in the forest when you told him about your pets

You’re definitely a princess, but it’s just 3 cats, 2 bunnies and a turtle. No squirrels, deers or birds that sing along with you, unfortunately.

Not that he’s complaining, he really likes your pets. If they’re yours, they’re the luckiest creatures in the universe, after all.

Now he gets where your kindness and empathy come from, animals give this kind of power to humans, and you’re the most powerful one to him.

He wishes he could take pictures of your events, but at least he can get you good photographers. Also makes lots of donations

He also admires how well treated they are, he can tell by the amazingly soft fur the bunnies and the cats have

But the one he really likes is the turtle, it’s quirky and doesn’t show any reaction, but he likes the sensation of feeling all the grooves on its shell.

Sometimes you even feel a little jealous of the turtle. Yes, you know it’s ridiculous, but it’s the perfect excuse to make him run after you and cuddle in the bed.

[tearasshouse]

Attack on Backlog 2017 - No. 9 

Final Fantasy XV

Breakdown: PS4 version at 80ish hrs for the Platinum. Plenty of post-game content left undone; plenty of pre-timeskip content left untouched; figure I’ll go back to the game someday (ha ha, not likely) and be like, oh wow, this single-player MMO still has a lot of questing left for me to do, cool (but that won’t happen).

Final Fantasy 15 is a big, beautiful, incomplete, incoherent but ultimately fulfilling and worthwhile experience that won’t disappoint if you have realistic expectations. So, it’s kind of like being in a relationship! Hah. Speaking of relationships, like the ones depicted in this game, and also like my own with the FF series...

TL;DR time! So far I’ve gotten as far as: 

Sephiroth’s fight in FF7 where I parked my characters outside of the crater and went, Nah, putting a stop to that glorious (ly pathetic) summer where I spent my 13th or 14th birthday leveling up Materia or something. Whew. Somehow I just lost the nerve to continue despite grinding for hours upon hours. I didn’t even have KotR, so naturally I skipped Ruby Weapon and that just made defeating Sephiroth kind of... pointless?

disc 3 in FF9, but because I’d neglected and refused to learn Tetra Master up to that point, I pretty much hit a roadblock and could not progress. Thanks a lot! Thanks a fucking lot. I really liked this FF. The soft limits on class specialization, with the way weapons conferred different skills to different party members, but everyone could use pretty much anything, the soundtrack, the characters; a lot of it was great. Ditto about the story tho, wasn’t paying attention ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

fhe first 5 minutes of FFIV on the NDS.

almost 50 hours into Bravely Default, but put it down because the storybeats were just too inconsistently delivered, the grinding, though greatly alleviated with some QoL features, was still a huge grind, and something about the game just... never clicked.

taking a glancing look at copy of FFX/X-2 HD and putting the thing down because I have commitment issues.  

the first 15 minutes of FF Type-0 HD.

and whoa, before I forget, Steam says I have 13.2 hours in FF13. So there’s that. Great music though! Paradigm Shifting is cool in theory too, I guess. But this game is just awful. And now I want to go back and play it. Why do I do this?

All in all a very poor showing from me. FFXV was, comparatively speaking, way easier to dig in. “A Final Fantasy for fans and first-timers” they say. Well, I’m not sure if I fall into either of those camps. I guess I am a fan? Sorta? I couldn’t tell you about the lore, plot or characters of many of the games, but I do own one of these. And I used to listen non-stop to shitty low-bitrate .mp3s of Nobuo Uematsu’s soundtracks on my Walkman. And I had wallpapers of Rinoa and Yuna, and still own a really embarrassing FF8 wallscroll that was gifted to me?

So! As a casual fan then, I found this one... pretty good. I mean, there’s elements of every past Final Fantasy in its DNA. It feels like a Final Fantasy game, which is to say it feels like the ones which came after 12, which did the most to change up the ATB/turn based combat, and perhaps the composition/interaction of the characters, outside of maybe Tactics or 11. 

There’s so much to like here that I’m willing to forgive its shortcomings and missed potential, even if, by the end, the things it gets right is in equal measure to the things it misses the mark on or flat out lacks. It has so much charm and warmth that I’m willing to forgive Square’s misguided reach for critical mass market appeal what with its numerous marketing tie-ins and cross-promotions, or its divvying up of exposition to tie-in films and DLC. At least it gave us that ridiculous Cup Noodle quest line. At least it gave us that. I’m even willing to forgive Chapter 13, and I didn’t even play Verse 2.

I’ve not followed the game at all, so its understandable the ones who clamoured for something like Versus XIII would be a bit irked. All those amazing tech demos and trailers they’ve released over the years? I understand the pain, but ya’ll only have yourself to blame for buying into the pre-release footage. 

Yes, the Insomnia chapter was wholly underwhelming. Yes the pacing is weirdly rushed after you’ve hit Altissia onwards and becomes hyper linear. Yes Lestallum and Altissia are in general hilariously undercooked, non-interactive, tiny and I haven’t encountered something this disappointing since maybe hitting Markarth in Skyrim, where the magic of Skyrim’s first 50 hours really started to wear thin. We’ve truly hit a point where graphics tech has outpaced the ability and feasibility to render more organic, more reactive and believable AI simulation in towns and cities. Maybe all this increased fidelity strikes a dissonance with how we think worlds should be populated and behave? I don’t know. Witcher 3 looks incredible though, and perhaps that’s the game that shows you can have your cake and eat it too. Meaty, meaningful content that isn’t just throwaway Hunt quests, or helping some asshole with his car troubles for the umpteenth time. I’m of the opinion that all sidequests in RPGs devolve into kill or fetch quests, and the rare exception requires you to talk your way to success or solve some kind of puzzle and mechanically speaking there isn’t a whole lot you can do. So, that’s where good writing comes in. Fallout New Vegas, if I recall had fantastic writing in this regard. More recently NieR Automata had really rudimentary sidequests that were carried along with quirky written snippets that expanded upon the world. Then there’s the Witcher games and to a lesser extent the Yakuza series that construct entire stories around side content. Yes FFXV’s sidequests are... uniformly underwhelming. They’re all more or less MMO-like filler content for the sake of inflating the completion time and giving you some kind of incentive for exploring the world. And yes, Luna and Noct’s relationship is hilariously undercooked; she does her Aerith moment and it’s tits up from that point on. It’s a shame you can’t be with Iris though the game teases this; Aranea only shows up to do her thing and disappears; Cor straight up disappears; Gentiana does her thing and disappears, etc. People just disappear, for no apparent reason other than selling you DLC, or they didn’t know what to do with these characters because they are plot movers, nothing more. Sigh.

But you know what? It’s been awhile since I’ve played something like the first half of the game so yeah, sure, whatever. Throw on a podcast and go about overleveling past the main campaign. Go ahead and throw on that FF13 soundtrack and go pick up nutmeg (such a great soundtrack). 

Speaking of which, I loved the music. I might even call it majestic. I loved oddball world design of mashing what seems to be not-Southwestern & not-Pacific Northwestern USA with not-Venice, briefly not-Rivendell (Tenebrae?) & not-Tokyo. I loved playing grab ass with my boys after camping out in the mornings. I loved Ignis being the mom friend and the my headcanon where the guys store all their cooking and crafting ingredients in the same astral plane where Noctis keeps his weapons. I loved the photography feature and Prompto’s arc. I fucking loved fishing more than I thought would. I loved that there’d always be some kind of incidental dialogue when you’d go exploring or take up a quest. I loved that Bahamut had a creepy human face. I loved how dangerous and crappy the Reglia Type-F is to handle. I loved that Gladio would give Noct shit, even undeservedly at times. I loved that Regis and his crew went on a similar journey all those years ago. I loved that there’d be super high level mobs just chilling in the overworld and that level scaling isn’t a thing, but there would still be things that could one-shot you. I can appreciate a game that helps me with completing its campaign, even if it does so kind of forcibly, since open worlds tend to induce some kind of completion anxiety in me. Will you please go and fucking fight Ardyn already? 

About that fighting: I like it? I briefly tried Kingdom Hearts on 3DS and it was... It was not great. But I like the automation in this that allows for just enough player input where positioning and timing is more important than anything else. It’s not very strategic, and you don’t have much in the way of tactical forethought, but it looks cool! Props to Square’s animation team for blending all of it together into a somewhat coherent whole. It’s mostly flash, with just enough engagement to not be a entirely mindless affair. 

I think at the end of the day we all have some kind of preconception of what we wanted FFXV to be, and we were all left somewhat disappointed that it didn’t turn out to be that figment of our fancy. But it exists, its more than playable, there’s a lot to do and soak in and those post-credits scenes with Noct and the lads, and Noct and Luna with the photo you chose were enough to wash away the cynicism and disappointment. 

It feels like, with the completion of the Episode Ignis campaign and the successful rebirth of A Realm Reborn, Square might finally close the chapter on 13/Versus 13/15 and do things a bit better and more efficiently. Or maybe we’ll be subjected to a mobile hell and more games in 15′s mould, the latter of which wouldn’t be the worst thing? I keep saying it but I never follow through with going back to play the older mainline FF games. Now’s the time! Maybe.

[eyedelater]

well i have my physics final tomorrow so naturally i’m consuming anime and manga out of stress instead of studying

so here’s a post about the first five episodes of ajin

i read a good amount of the manga a good while ago but i stopped paying attention to it for a while. like, a long while. but let’s do some catching up

first impressions: the soundtrack is quite good, and the OP is also quite good. the 3dness of the animation, or rather, the CGIness? is somewhat strange but well done and i do like cel shading

i don't remember much about the manga except that protagonist finds out he's an ajin in a society with a fear-based bias against ajin, the protag is kind of an unlikeable asshole, the mad scientist guy is way too into torture and generally a fucked up person, the guy who wears the newsboy cap and always squints is also a very fucked up person and likes video games, and i think the mad scientist's lady assistant may have been the one sympathetic character in the whole thing but i'm not entirely sure.

professor exposition here made the ultimate teacher mistake of saying "this won't be on the exam" BEFORE the lecture. you gotta do your lectures and then at the end of the last lecture before an exam, you give them a list of things that will be on the exam and they know not to study the things that aren't on the list, while still having been unable to ignore those non-exam topics the first time around

"the first ajin was discovered in africa" shows a map of the entire continent of africa. so they don't even know the country? it had to be somewhere there was a war going on with U.S. involvement at that time, right? can't narrow it down further than a continent?

i remember that nagai was a dick to kai, who was trying to be a good friend

this sound of ajin healing up, it sounds like if you play a dripping dribbling sound backward and maybe corrupt it

so nagai uses boku pronouns. being such an asshole, he struck me as an ore in retrospect

right, see?? kai is worried about kei right away! but if i remember correctly, kei is gonna snub the fuck out of him before long. though he has been snubbing him lightly for a while now

a) dumbass cop saying "ajin secured" when he has certainly not secured the ajin b) kai's flying dropkick to a police officer holy shit

RIGHT i knew there was some distinguishing feature about the head area, but not exactly the face, on the mad scientist guy, and it's HIS GLASSES with a silly bend in them. i had glasses with a bend in them when i was like 10

the soundtrack again strikes me as quite good, although this ED is a little too uhh... well i kinda love the animations of the ED actually, but the song is sappy and ballady and i'm very much not into that, why do 90% of anime EDs have to be a sappy ballad? like OPM, the ending was such a laughingstock of an inappropriately sappy ballad, what’s with that

that was all for episode 1.

now for episode 2.

in the flashback, they flash back to the teacher saying "they're deceased humans." did he say that the first time? i thought he said like "of course they're not humans." maybe i wasn't listening closely enough the first time

we saw the police earlier. i forgot this is a story with police characters, thereby increasing its similarity to both death note and tokyo ghoul. ajin is like tokyo ghoul, and tokyo ghoul is like parasyte, but ajin isn't like parasyte.

tosaki says "tosaki" exactly like "tozaki" even though i think i remember this is a running joke. why is it a running joke? perhaps there’s a pun i should investigate

ah, i get it now, i was just thinking "it's so silly that a tranquilizer can stop an ajin, because that means the only reason anyone would have to fear an ajin is if they were using regular old weapons, it's such an obviously exploitable weakness" but then i realized that that's where the black ghost comes in, for catching tranquilizer shots out of the air, right? i think i remember that happening at some point. maybe?

hmm this cgi aesthetic they've created isn't bad, honestly... i keep thinking about how it must have saved them lots of money in their budget compared to hand-drawn animation, you know? though obviously there are limitations in flexibility as a result, but it's not like this is an anime where anyone makes really cartoonish faces or anything, probably

this fits perfectly in the "there's some humanoid creature that everyone hates and i, the protagonist, grew up human but now partly or fully belong to that other group" genre, along with snk, tokyo ghoul, and parasyte, among many others i’m sure

shimomura izumi, that's her name. right.

can these guys in the van see the black ghost or not? it absolutely looks like they can see the black ghost. that guy cowered away from it. and i forgot, the ghost thing is like... like a stand...? like a really dumb stand that does things silently instead of with yelling fervor, and you have to train it like a dog, but like a really dumb deadly dog, and they come hang out with you and make you an ajin if you're like "sure would be nice to not die, ever."

episode 3 now

so tanaka-kun is the one who was being tortured in that ajin experiment video

has someone already done a joke about how the curly spring form of the ghost is similar to the arms in the new nintendo game Arms

tosaki calls hat guy "man with a hat"?? wait i call him that too but he does have a name, what is it

why is kai the best friend ever

bike guy's knife looks like a vegetable peeler

with kei's hard reset, kei grasps the brutal logicality of being an ajin and kai grasps the brutal logicality of kei being an ajin

right, hat man is satou. that's confusing because there's a satou in heroaca as well and he's not evil or immortal or hat-wearing

2396 people got lost in the mountains LAST YEAR??? 294 people died of being lost in the mountains LAST YEAR???????????? how does this compare to real world statistics? he's not talking about worldwide, right? even worldwide, that number is way too high, isn't it? and how specific a statistic is that, for mountains in general, worldwide???

well, i say "why is kai the best friend ever," but tbh it seems pretty clear he loves kei, unless he busts out some shocking ulterior motive later on

when eriko says it's disgusting that kei is an ajin, i'd say that's because she wasn't especially fond of her brother in the first place. (probably bc he wasn't very good to her, but still). and i do remember enough to know that shimomura is an ajin, so she kept an exceptionally straight face while eriko's words cut right through her

kuroi yuurei, huh. i was wondering what the exact words were for the black ghost, and it's just literally "black ghost." might be a tiny bit disappointing

i definitely forgot shimomura dies so early on. whose ghost is the one with three claws like that? they do have some distinguishing features once in a while, right, these ghosts?

time for episode 4.

ajins would sure have an easier time posing as a human if they could stop their body from spitting out obviously lethal quantities of blood every time they bleed to death

right, that’s a distinguishing feature, shimomura’s ghost has a blade for a head or some shit

kuro-chan...

nakamura shinya. thanatosis? not thanatopsis. anyway humans don’t have a playing-dead reflex like that. opossums do, though.

i love how eriko doesn't give a shit about kei unless kai is involved

eriko calls kei "kuzui." strikes me as meaning, like, "scum." i'll have to double check that

i forgot about kai's smiley face earring(s). i feel like they were very much focused on in the manga, but in the anime, they don’t really stand out

tosaki sure answers his phone a lot

episode 5

if only kei could control his ghost enough to just, like, bat away any researchers who try to plunge a knife into him, but NOT KILL THEM. that tanaka apparition made it seem like killing them is the only option, but clearly the black ghost can interact with things in a non-killing way, so just whack em

doesn't it seem like it would be a pain to clean blood off of those soundproof walls in the room where they're doing things that cause blood to spatter?

oh, right, it's ogura. all i remember is that he smokes a cigarette and acted like a cool guy even tho he's old.

"nagai" means "long" (probably/definitely with different kanji than his name), but i'm prety well able to ignore that and not think of him as being Long or anything. however. "tosaki" sounds too similar to "tosaka," which refers to a rooster's crest. so i keep associating tosaki with a rooster. yeah

so killing oneself resets the sedatives' effects? i want to say "i don't think that's how it works" but regenerating limbs and such from thin air isn't how it works either...

i’ll watch some more some other time