#patch 5 spoilers ahead!

[sailorgundam308]

SPOILERS of BG3 Epilogue (Karlach’s, more specifically).

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So we learn that while in Avernus, Karlach found the location of Zariel’s infernal forge and some blueprints that might allow her to get a new engine or fix her current one.

This is awesome in itself, but I thought it was extra cool because this was so close to my headcanon and is neatly connecting to DnD lore about Avernus!

Zariel wasn’t the only Archdevil of Avernus. Before her, a devil called Bel was the Archdevil of that hell. Bel still lives and actually works for Zariel now - BUT he still schemes and patiently waits for a chance to reclaim his rule.

Do you know where Bel works now? The forge.

… >>

You see that, right??

“After being deposed, Bel made his home in an iron fortress carved out of a volcano. The bastion acted as a forge for Blood War weapons and armor and was protected by infernal legions and dark magic that divined intruders.”

“Bel oversaw the production of Blood War arms and armor while scheming to retake his throne after Zariel supplanted him.”

Both quotes from the Forgottten Realms wiki.

SO. Bel is the ‘owner’ of Zariel’s forge, and he doesn’t like her very much. In fact, he wants to depose her and is waiting for an opportunity to fuck her up. And Karlach is going to the forge to get her heart fixed. I always imagined in my head that Karlach and Bel would end up meeting and joining forces (temporarily) to take on Zariel - or at least take a swing at her. And what better swing than to get Karlach a new engine and let her loose on Zariel’s forces for a bit - or even at Zariel herself? Seems perfectly canon compliant to me! Plus, Bel is a devil that is known to honor his promises and one that sometimes doesn’t request a soul in exchange for a contract or deal - he often requires other types of contributions (kicking Zariel’s ass or sabotaging her efforts might fit the bill perfectly!).

If before I was inclined to headcanon this sort of deal with Bel to help Karlach, now I’m pretty much sure that is the path implied by the canon story. I can see it not being easy and Zariel lashing out but… as Astarion said to Karlach, her just never being able to return to Faerun “is not fair, not after everything we’ve been through”.

So, for me, this is what happens: Karlach and Astarion go to Avernus. She won’t burn, he won’t burn there. They fight and struggle, but pick on cues and plan to infiltrate the forge with the help of Flo. There they find Bel who proposes a deal to give Karlach a new, more powerful and Faerun-proof engine - in return to sabotaging Zariel. It’s rough, difficult, but they manage. She gets her engine. And then it’s time for Karlach to return the favor to her beloved vamp - to turn Faerun inside out in search for a way to get Astarion to be in the sun again!

[cybertron-after-dark]

what the FUCK happens in cyberverse

Here's a list just off the top of my head, in no particular order. MASSIVE spoilers ahead.

-Wheeljack keeps making party drugs. This is not only accepted but wholly encouraged by the Autobots. He's made the bot equivalent to cocaine so strong it made grimlock physically unable to stop himself from running around the ship at mach 5. This was the basis for an entire episode. He's also made patches that give you a direct link to the Allspark that he passed out at a party specifically to get everyone as fucked up as physically possible. I cannot overemphasize that Optimus make no effort to stop this until things turn destructive on both occasions.

-Soundwave and Shockwave completely fucking hate each other and have a whole rivalry trying to be a better and more useful follower for Megatron than each other.

-Soundwave is a fucking memelord who will play clown music or dramatic riffs to dunk on people from the soundboard he has built into his hardware.

-theres a sort of liminal dimension referred to as Unspace that you can get stuck in and if you are there for too long you will straight up disintegrate. We see this happen to the entire crew aboard the arc from different timelines several times while the main timeline crew we follow tries to escape this fate, thus dooming dozens of other timelines.

-Cheetor is basically Allspark Jesus, and he's tired of all the fighting, so he tries to have Optimus and Megatron settle their differences once and for all. The chosen method for this was making them both play the Newlywed Game. They were both terrible at it, the MegOp Divorce agenda is alive and well.

-the Quintessons invade Cybertron and stick the entire population into a simulation a la The Matrix, which slowly drains their life force until they die. This kills countless unnamed Cybertronians, both Autobot and Decepticon, as well as Hound, who does not get to appear on screen.

-the Quintessons also catch Starscream, rip his face off, and modify him into an Eldritch tentacle beast with his brain attached to two other aliens, and then appoint that amalgamation as the judge that decides the fate of the universe in regards to whether they exterminate all life within it.

-Shockwave commits suicide for Megatron's approval. He launches his spark straight into the Allspark to taint it specifically as a last desperate fuck you to the autobots.

-Soundwave acquired laserbeak by just kind of grabbing a random bird out of the sky.

-Soundblaster is an ex-decepticon that left out of shame. That shame being Soundwave beating his ass in a beatboxing competition so fuckin hard he couldn't show his face around his faction anymore.

-The autobots keep starscream captive and try to get him to take a therapy session with the Arc's AI, and he starts out willing to actually give it a shot but said AI is kind of Stupid and screamer ends up tricking him into letting him escape through an air vent to go wreak havoc instead.

-Starscream also starts a suicide cult with the other Seekers, gains control of Vector Sigma and the Allspark, has the seekers forfeit their sparks to him, thus resulting in a cosmically powered Starscream. He uses that power to "remake" his followers into scraplets that he refers to as, with nothing but love in his tone, his "children."

-Shockwave and Wheeljack are shown to be ex lab partners. Shockwave has an army of drones that look exactly like his altmode that Wheeljack helped program. They are programmed to be able to break out into a coordinated dance number at any given time. Originally this was just to make Wheeljack laugh. Shockwave kept that function in throughout the entire war and initiates it the second there's a truce and Wheeljack asks to see it again.

-Shockwave kidnaps Wheeljack at one point for Science Under Duress purposes and Wheeljack is too invested in all the sweet fuckin tech Shockwave's been making while they were apart to really care that he's being held against his will, and then proceeds to escape without too much issue because he knows Shockwave well enough to know exactly how to disable everything.

-Bumblebee distracts the Decepticons by running in front of their surveillance cameras and shaking his ass in the most underwhelming way imaginable.

-Grimlock is only stupid when he's in his altmode because it takes a lot of power to sustain and he has to sacrifice some of his higher brain functions to keep it manageable. In robot mode he talks like he went to an Ivy League college and knows what champagne tastes like. He throws upscale parties every chance he gets.

-Grimlock also helped start an anticapitalist revolution with Bumblebee when he found an underground society of insect transformers that had a rigid caste system. This was within moments of finding out that the ultra wealthy were hoarding the limited energon reserves for themselves. Grimlock is a comrade and he does not fuck around.

-Skybyte is here and he sounds like Skeletor.

-Windblade and Slipstream are nemeses and somehow it's even more toxic yuri coded than Arcee and airachnid in tfp.

-speaking of Arcee, she's besties with Grimlock. They at one point have a physical fight over who gets to die to protect the other.

-hot rod and soundwave are forced to share leadership over the team of bots and cons that escaped the quintessons' simulation and it's packed with so much homoerotic tension its unreal.

-Maccadam is some kind of lovecraftian war machine that can unfold himself into a whole armory whenever he feels like it. We have no idea what his whole altmode looks like, all we see are the ominous shadows of the weapons on the walls. He uses this specifically as a threat to keep anyone from fighting in his bar bc he's insistent it remain neutral ground. He also can kinda just. See into the future. And casually drops prophecies that get written off as spoonerisms until they turn out to be relevant.

-Optimus Prime has horrific social anxiety that he can kind of power through when he's in a crisis, but the second things are chill and he has to give a speech at a party or something he simply does not know how to function.

-the entire planet of Velocitron gets taken over by cosmic rust and everyone inhabiting it that couldn't escape in time was killed horrifically.

-cosmos is a girl and she hangs out with a dude named Meteorfire who is, for all intents and purposes, just robot Steve Irwin.

-Astrotrain keeps closing doors in people's faces for the funny

-Megatron is killed by a version of himself from an alternate universe that went nuts and starting creating a master race of perfect Decepticons to inhabit Cybertron. Said perfect Decepticons were carbon copies of idw Tarn in all but personality.

-Acidstorm is canonically genderfluid and keeps switching between male and female seeker frames whenever they feel like it

-Kup, who had not been in the show at all until this point, decides to show up and narrate an entire episode like hes giving a political speech.

And, the infamous one we all know and love

-Megatron is a twitch streamer and he livestreams Starscream's fucking funeral. The chat has custom Decepticon emotes.

[rolanpilled]

BG3 Patch 5 Spoilers

WARNING: BG3 SPOILERS AHEAD!

New content from the ending scene of BG3. This is all from the perspective of a redeemed Dark Urge who romanced Shadowheart and Halsin, and recruited every "good" ally possible.

people at the party: all your companions, scratch, owlbear, volo, and a bard in the middle playing a song (his name is milil)

lae'zel is the only one who isn't here physically, she sent an astral projection instead because she's been busy fighting vlaakith

astarion explains why he ran away (ashamed) when the sunlight hit him, he's become a "hero" who adventures and has accepted himself

(romanced halsin) you can hug halsin, he's missed his friends and you. you can do both the hug and the kiss, it's really sweet. he's turned the shadowlands into a community, repursing reithwin and moonrise towers into homes for people

jaheira's daughter rejoined the flaming fist, she's been working on rebuilding the harper network. the upper city was entirely destroyed by the battle but has been mostly rebuilt. she jokes that you might be a parent soon

wyll gives you a choice between three stories, a stegosaur/dinosaur battle, an impossible lich, or a young dragon. he lost his warlock powers but has been managing the best he can, and has become a RANGER ("a true hunter of monsters"). duke ravengard is commanding the flaming fist and help rebuilding the city, and he's very proud of his son

minsc and boo guard the streets while jaheira is "occupied with harperish manners". they "went to give a tickle" to the zhentarim, then got locked up in a zhentish cell, awaiting execution? idk if i'm reading incorrectly but he seems to be implying that he actually GOT executed but withers brought him back just in time lmfao

gale has become "professor gale dekarios of blackstaff academy, educator of the esteemed school of illusion". tara is with him. he surrended the crown of karsus to mystra, who cured him of the orb in exchange (his tattoo is gone), though his students still think he's explosive (he implies that he uses it as a threat to keep his class under control). he tells his students about your adventures together. he also implies you're welcome to visit his tower

shadowheart (main romance) - the game told me that we settled down together to live a happy, peaceful life on a farm in the countryside. shar still hurts her (if parents are saved), especially when she can sense that SH is enjoying herself, but it's been getting less frequent because she's been "losing interest". there's a new hug and kiss scene for her too, so i'm assuming this is for ALL companions and not just halsin/SH/whoever

withers will speak to you about karlach, explaining that she won't be able to come back. he jokes about her, which is rare for him, and you're given to opportunity to grieve her loss. in "a dozen tendays" (assumedly how long bg3 is), "an entire life was lived, she lived several centuries" (not exact quote).

milil, the bard playing in the center, does NOT want to be there. he's pissed that no one recognizes him (he's pissed specifically that i'm a bard and don't recognize him), i had to pass a deception check to recognize him and he cheered up and offered to change the song he's playing

there's a chest called "Chest of Grateful Words" filled with letters from your allies!

"Official Guild Letter"

"Letter from Barcus"

"Letter from Art"

"Letter from Valeria"

"Letter from Ravengard"

"Letter from Sebastian"

"Letter from Florrick"

"Letter from the Gur" (unascended Astarion)

"Letter from Alfira" (durge, killed quil grootslang)

"Letter from Dammon"

"Letter from Elminster"

"Letter from Nocturne"

"Letter from Voss"

"Letter from Hope"

"Letter from Mayrina"

"Letter from Nine-Fingers"

"Letter from Zevlor"

"Harp-stamped Letter"

Baldur's Mouth Gazette

If you find anything interesting I missed, please let me know.

[laudanine]

How to make a back-patch: Hancock edition

Hey guys! So the tutorial for the Hancock patch is here! So the standing rule on this patch is "you can use my art and make your own, but you are not permitted to make money off it." But man, make your own, go nuts!

Steps 1 to 5 are mostly about how I made the image itself. Steps 6 to 9 are about making a patch once you have your final image. Skip ahead if you need!

So here's the supplies I personally use for these patches -

Tulip fabric paint, black and white

Talc powder

Charcoal powder

Tracing paper

Paintbrush

Fine-tip squeeze bottles

Fabric

My computer

Tape

A thumbtack

A pencil

And to be clear, these are NOT the only options. I've done this with black or white acrylic paint instead of fabric paint, it works fine. If you don't want to bother with the squeeze bottles you can use a paintbrush instead. If you don't have talc powder, cornstarch would work. If you can't find powdered charcoal, you can crush some up like I did, or use graphite, or literally whatever. You get the idea.

If you're going to be using the fine-tip squeeze bottles, now is the time to put your paint (fabric or acrylic) into the bottles and thin them with water to your level of comfort. You WILL need to test the paint on some fabric first, to be sure you can apply it evenly and that it flows well. If you're going to use acrylics, I highly suggest you add a drop of retardant to the mix ALONG with water.

2. I find my images for the figure I'm drawing. Yes, we're tracing: this ain't fine art and we're not gonna be snobs. Here we have John Hancock from the game and John Hancock IRL Danny Shorago.

3. I trace my images! You may notice my two reference images are the same pose! I'm gonna trace the first one by taping my paper over my computer screen and drawing LIGHTLY.

When I had the basics for Danny's proportions down, I left the paper where it was and moved the image of Hancock underneath the paper and traced what I needed from that image. That gets me this double-layer image.

4. I decide which of these lines I want to keep. Even with the faces for John and Danny lined up proportionally the shoulders and neck length of the two figures are pretty different. I decided that I wanted to go with narrower shoulders, and free-handed in the ruffles for his shirt.

5. Now I merge the two faces. I have to get the skin texture from John onto the face I have, which is mostly Danny. I kept up a whole screen of reference images for this process so I could decide what I wanted to pull from where.

And I leaned hard into the skull for his cheekbones and nose. You can see I actually used a colored pencil to outline those skull-like elements before I chose my final lines, and used another piece of my own darn art to add a chin scar I just really like. It is NOT a bad idea to trace a SECOND COPY of this image AT THIS TIME. Your image will be getting really dirty and messed up in the future, so unless you want to start over, you should make a spare copy (spoiler: I didn't do that and had to do this whole thing a second time to make a second patch...)

6. Align your fabric and your tracing paper up and tape first the fabric down THEN the paper on top, separately.

7. Poke holes! Use your thumbtack to poke holes along the lines you're trying to transfer. The way I'm doing this patch most of the image is white lines on black fabric, with SOME black lines on white for his face, neck, and shirt. For that reason, my transfer process is gonna be in TWO parts, one to lay down the white portions and then later to put the black lines ON TOP of the white areas as needed. I don't have a photo for this step: poke holes, you know how to do that.

8. Apply talc/powder to the image and use a paintbrush to gently brush the talc over the surface. You can use the brush perpendicular to the surface to GENTLY push the powder into the holes from the thumbtack holes.

9. Peel off the paper GENTLY. As you can see, I didn't even poke holes for the lines in his face, just the outlines for what's going to be painted in white. What you have is a little connect-the-dots to apply white paint to.

10. Apply white paint and allow to DRY COMPLETELY.

11. Once the white paint it TOTALLY DRY you're going to repeat steps 7 to 9, poking holes in the locations that you want to have BLACK lines appear. For me that's the details on his face and shirt. Instead of talc, the powder I used was crushed vine charcoal. You can see I'm starting to apply the black paint along the lines of black spots of charcoal.

12. Add, like, words and stuff! Also clean up, and fine tune, etc. You did awesome, and if it didn't turn out, well you DEFINITELY made a spare copy like I suggested you do in step 5, right?!?! Right.

Some notes:

This process also works on tee shirts if you want, but definitely use the fabric paint and not acrylics or the paint will flake off when you wash the clothing. Instead of taping the shirt down, I suggest you thumbtack it to a board or to some thick cardboard to keep it still while you work.

If you don't have a computer/screen you can trace on then print the images you want to work with and tape them to a window to use as alight-box.

You don't need to use the charcoal, honestly. If the design is simple or you're feeling like a BAMF, you can skip the black paint and the black powder and just use the negative space of the black fabric instead.

Tracing, and I cannot say this clearly enough, is not cheating when you're not tracing someone else's art. Trace a face. Trace a figure. Trace a landscape. I don't care. If you're tracing any image, you're going to need to do a lot of work to make your shitty traced image (my step 3) into something that looks like art (my step 5). That act of work, that's making art. Congratulations.

If you made it this far and REALLY want to donate money to me over this, don't! Maybe donate to the Palestine Children's Relief Fund instead at pcrf.net because that'd be SUPER cool.

Hope some or all of this helped someone somewhere be a cool punk badass like everyone's favorite Mayor.

[dame-edward]

Raphael and Gale specific spoilers for the Patch 5 epilogue:

So I know the epilogue is bugged for those of us who took Raphael's deal and want him to have the Crown, but apparently if you 1. Take Raphael's deal, 2. Have Gale keep the Crown and become a god, and (maybe?) 3. Are romancing Gale, Raphael shows up at the party and demands the Crown? And he shows up in ascended form???

Some screenshots from the video I was watching:

I think him being in ascended form is a bug, because when he appears and starts talking the camera focuses on his crotch as though it's his face, and later it switches to his actual face? Also there's no emoting on his ascended form's face, so the visual delivery of the dialogue looks a little silly. The humanoid Raphael gestures in ascended form were so funny they sent me into orbit though 10/10. I need to see his "But a savior? That's for certain" and "Our hero thought but of treasure ahead" lines delivered in ascended form now.

His appearance at the party in this epilogue has me hopeful he'll show up at the party in the epilogue where we take his deal and give him the Crown, once Larian fixes it. (Please, Larian, I'm on my knees. Fix it and let him be at the party 😭)

Edit: There are some screenshots of data mining from patch 5 that show he does indeed make an appearance at the party! Seems like it's either bugged or not implemented yet?

Here's the link to the video I got the screenshots from, starting where Raphael appears:

[blank-slate-jay]

Louder than Words

Joel Miller x Male!Reader

Summary: Joel feelings for you start to come to light while talking with Henry. Things between you two take off when Joel finds you alone, and finally takes his chance. (Setting and story moments from Episode 5)

Tags: Fluff, Kissing(Slightly Smutty), Soft Joel, mention of violence

Word Count: 2.7K A/N: Time for some more Joel Miller! This time something more sweet and passionate. Writer's block made this one take forever to finish, but here we are. Any who enjoy!

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR EPISODE 5*

A loud crack at the wall echoed within the sealed room. Ellie excitedly jumped up, cheering after scoring a goal. Ellie and her new friend, Sam, were occupying themselves with a game of soccer to past the time.

You were setting your supplies down on a desk that hosted a stereo and lamp in a dark part of the settlement. Seemed like a perfect place to get yourself situated, so you got to work turning both the devices on and getting your things organized in your bag.

Joel and Henry, both sitting at small tables on the other side of the room, were watching the kids play. Whether it was out of boredom or just seeing them entertained brought them the same emotions, wasn't clear.

"If you were collaboratin' to take care of him...I shouldn't have said what I said. I don't know your situation." He offered his apologies to Henry, explaining the cruelty of FEDRA's intention of trying to kill him.

Due to Joel's show of empathy, Henry took the opportunity to open up about his first kill. "There was a man, a great man". By the way Henry explained him, his death almost seemed unwarranted. His selfishness, forgiving nature...having to kill somebody like that must've been difficult. His face made it obvious.

Henry continues after a short pause, "Have you ever met someone like that? Kinda man you'd follow anywhere."

Joel felt his heart jump at said words, his eyes instinctively looking over at you. You were moving your head in sync with the music while patching up your weapons, unnaturally calm about their coming mission. You were just like that, seemingly levelheaded even if the worse was to come. It was something Joel just couldn't get his head around. Yet he still found it comforting, perhaps he knew he could lean on someone in dire situations.

While Joel's attention was brought back to Henry's further explanation, you proceed to set your gun down after making some modifications to it. You turn the volume of the stereo down some, eyes catching a softball just off to the side. You stopped what you were doing, picking the ball up with an idea coming to mind.

Ellie and Sam began chasing each other around, but you were about to ruin their fun. You came out of your dark corner shouting to the two, "Heads up". You threw the ball at Ellie who didn't have enough time to react and ended up being hit in the shoulder. She turns to you with a confused look.

"Ooo..did that hurt?" you say in a mocking manner.

"Screw you" she retorted, retreating the ball off the ground and throwing it back at you.

You of course caught it with ease, "Dodgeball ain't your sport kid."

Ellie scoffed, "I didn't even get a chance, pass it here...I'll show you."

Your eyebrows raised before looking over to the 'Goal' writing on the wall. You walk over to the goal frame, passing the ball too Ellie. "Alright, you two you gotta hit me. Best-" As quick as the words came out of your mouth, Ellie threw the ball at you.

Ellie giggled, watching your expression changed to one of shock. "What? You said hit you..."

You sighed, passing it back to them, "When I say go, Ellie. Like I was saying, best game out of three. I dodge and you two try to hit me. Each round is complete after one attempt from both of you." Sam was then notified how to play the game via his magic slate board and they begun.

Unfortunately for the kids, your reaction time was unmatched. Not a single throw had landed. Ellie decided then and there to hand the ball to Sam, pointing her fingers down at the ball and then towards you. She then charges toward you and jumps onto you. You yelp as the her weight and grip kept you in place.

It clicked then for Sam what Ellie was trying to do, and he proceeds to bombard you with blows from the softball. The kids laughing and smiling in taking their revenge got a smirk out of Henry.

"It's nice seeing that boy happy..." Henry mentions, referring to his brother, "Very rarely does he even crack a smile." Both Joel and him watched as the chaos unfolded, certainly clear to them now that they were entertained. “And your friend is something. Don’t come by someone like that often”.

Joel replies trying to hide his smirk from forming, “Yeah, something for sure.”

Henry looks at Joel, who still had his eyes on the chaos. He thought for a second before stating, "He's a good guy, you know”.

Joel could only give Henry a puzzled look as a response, trying to figure out what the man was getting at.

“You may not be his, and she not be your daughter, but you were someone’s at some point. I can tell,” Henry exclaims.

All Joel could think was how perceptive Henry had to be to figure that out. They had just met not even half a day ago and he seems to have a general idea about them. Joel couldn’t tell if he feels relief or offended by his feelings being plastered out in front of him.

Seconds later, Joel decides to end the conversation entirely by getting up, “We need to leave. We’ve waited long enough.”

———

It was far late into the night now. The group had posted up at a motel after just barely making it through a fight between FEDRA and a horde of clickers. Everyone by this point was exhausted and getting ready for bed, except you weren’t back inside yet.

Earlier you had stepped out, saying you needed some air. So instead of getting comfortable on the floor, Joel gets up to leave the apartment.

Stepping out into the night, he's hit with the night's cool air. He looks in both direction and spots you half way down he open hall with your arms leaning against the railings. Gently, he closes the door behind him and walks over to you. His heavy footsteps alerting you of his presence.

You greeted him, “Joel.”

“Y/n”, he says, rubbing his hands together. The man stood a few feet from you, “Cold ain’t it?”

“No…weather is quite nice. And you're not warm in that,” pointing out his light brown jacket.

Joel shook his head, moving closer to the railing, "Barely." An awkward silence lingered over the two as there wasn't much either one of you wanted to say.

Even with very little on your mind, you tried to spark up a conversation,"Today was quite eventful.”

Joel hummed, leaning against the rails like you were, “Yeah, we’re lucky nobody got hurt.”

“Seriously. I could barely tell what was happening. I honestly thought we were done for", a small bit of fear was noticeable through your tone. “Thankfully we had you watching our backs”.

Joel could sense his heart picking up hearing you say that. His compliment was well rewarded after saving you and Ellie multiple times from being bitten. The man could snipe for sure. “I’m just glad that massive clicker didn’t get ahold of any of ya.”

“The massive what?”

“Some overgrown clicker just emerged among the horde and started attacking everyone in sight.”

You raised a brow, a bit skeptical on how you didn't manage to see it. “Uh huh…you sure you weren’t just seeing things?”

"I'm certain of what I saw",

You backed off, "Okay then. I do wonder how you didn't shit your pants seeing that." Joel let out a quick laugh with a look of slight amusement and disgust. "What? I mean I would've shit pants. I would've even screamed it out loud."

"Y/n..."Joel cracked up some, trying to keep himself from bursting out in laughter by hiding his face in his shoulder. "That is a stupid thing to do."

"Hey at least everyone would feel ok to admit it as well."

Joel just couldn't help but imagining that scenario playing out. One guy screaming it first, creating a domino effect where everyone around just begins to say it too. The absurdity of a situation like that only made it funnier to Joel as he failed to hide his laugh. For a guy who hid his emotions a lot, his silent giggles were quite contagious.

You chuckle along with him asking, "What?"

The older man couldn't get a word out to respond, his face turning redder by the second. He buried his face in his palm and continued to laugh, trying hard to get it out of his head. There was no use, you had put that image in his head and was now irreversible. Both of you went on for almost a full minute before your amusement began to subside.

Joel was the last of the two to pull himself together, sniffing and clearing his throat up to gain control of himself. The silence before that plague the air was now back, only this time, things felt a lot more comfortable. Having Joel there, and the fact that he was a lot more loose played into it. You wished the man was like that more often. Sadly though you knew you needed as much rest as you could get. Tomorrow was undetermined, so it pained you to have to cut your time with Joel short.

"Alright Joel, we should probably head back in now", you suggested, removing your arms from the rails to stretch them out.

Joel nods, "Yeah we should," he really didn't want to. His voice shivered a bit with hints of disappointment. As you were beginning to walk past him, Joel thought about today...what Henry had told him. 'He may not be yours...but you were someone's at some point'. His longing for someone else, was that desire so obvious that a stranger like Henry could figure it out so quickly? Is that the way he treated you, like his partner? The prospect brought Joel brief happiness before thinking about the possibility of you getting killed. A reasonable fear given the world they were in, but Joel wagered the odds. Would he rather you die without ever telling you how he feels, or have you know he much he cared about you before you pass.

The ladder seemed like Joel's choice in the end cause before you could make it fully pass him he says your name. You stop in place directly behind Joel who still faced the open air. You let out a questioning hum, awaiting a reply.

Joel took a moment to collect his thoughts, trying to figure out the best way to go about this. Due to time and their environment, he wasn't as smooth as he use to like back in his earlier years. He begins by saying, "Thank you", turning his head enough to see your figure behind him, but keeping his posture still.

You tilt your head slightly, "For...?"

Joel fully turns to you, "For everything. Your support, your extra hands, protectin' Ellie...just sticking by us through all this madness".

That to you was a bit unexpected, but you weren't going to turn down some appreciation from Joel of all people. You took the praise with a gentle smile on your face, "Of course."

The older man's eyes lingered with yours for sometime. Both of you had a soft gaze, just observing and expecting the other to say something. Joel was the first to react, stepping forward he inches closer to you, comfortable in doing so since you weren't changing your expression or moving. His eyes then traced over to your lips, looking at them before gazing down at his boots. Joel was oblivious to how tense things were. Sure stalling gave him time to figure out his next move, but he couldn't hold out forever.

Locking eyes with you once more, he was met with a gentle look that nearly sent him over the edge.

You couldn't help but say his name in a near whispering tone, "Joel."

By then, Joel felt he could tell you everything, tell you how much you meant to him. But words wouldn't do his emotions justice. He knew one thing would say all he wanted with one action.

Joel steps within a foot of range from you, his hands grabbing both sides of your face and leaning in for a kiss. He inhales, surprised by how soft your lips were when making contact. He initially wanted to keep the kiss to be brief, but it turned out to be much deeper with you kissing him back.

Upon parting from your lips, Joel traces his hands down your chest and all the way down to your hips, getting ready to speak. You were quick then to pull him back in for more, grappling onto the collar of his jacket and locking your lips back together. Joel lets out a heavy sigh into the kiss, grateful that you didn't want it to stop.

The older man wrapped his arms around the small of your back, reeling you in until you were chest to chest. The man's heart was racing, you could feel it pounding against your shirt, just as fast as yours was going. You guessed the man really did have a heart under all that thick skin, is if the moment didn't already confirmed that.

Your arm ran around Joel's shoulder to get a grip the back of his smooth grey hair. Gripping him causes him to moan; loudly. He could feel you smiling into the kiss as you both continued basking in each other's taste. Joel took the initiative and bites softly into your bottom lip to get a reaction out of you. On queue, you groan separating your lips from him.

Heads still close together you speak, "Don't infect me now".

Joel bites his lips, “You want me to?” His voice turned devious, like he had something they’ll make you infatuated by him. You were curious, what did this man have in store for you?

You might end up regretting it later but saying ‘no’ meant missing out. You reply with a breathily, “Yeah,” hands still playing with Joel’s hair. The man didn’t say a word, he began kissing your cheek and trailed all the way down to your neck. You had lowered your arm so that he had room to bury his face inside. Joel started off gentle but was now starting to become more passionate with him introducing his tongue. It made you quiver, your hands grabbing onto his arms that held your hips tightly. You tried your best to keep your voice low, but between Joel’s warm breath and his repetitive licks, it became impossible to hide.

Joel, mere seconds away from nibbling on your skin, is stopped by a sudden rattling noise. His hand quickly grabs his holster, retreating from the small of your neck. Both of your attention's are now down the hall, awaiting the sound to return. It did, and when one of the motel doors opened, you two relaxed when Henry stepped out from within.

Henry lets out a quick, “Oh…” realizing that he might be intruding once seeing Joel’s hand on your hip, “Sorry…sorry I got worried.”

Joel lets out a sigh, taking his other hand off his holstered. “Thought you were in bed.”

“The door wasn’t locked and neither of you were back yet, so I just wanted to check,” he replies.

Slightly annoyed Joel comments, “Very kind of you,” not giving the other man much room to response.

You could tell the poor wanted to get out of your hair. You thankfully reassure him, “It’s alright, Henry. We were just about to head back in.”

Henry nods, “Right,” taking his chance to remove himself from the awkward situation by heading inside.

You and Joel look at each other, both still needy for each other but tired nonetheless. With that desire for you still lingering in Joel’s eyes, you pat the man on the chest offering a suggestion. “So, wanna continue this next time?”

Joel thought for a second, that you were just sending Henry away so that things could proceed between the two of you. You actually meant it though, bringing some level of disappointment to Joel. But the smile you had on your face, no way he could say no to you. Joel simply smiles back agreeing, “Next time it is.”

[taki118]

IruClarAzz Master Post Part 12

Just collecting all of the cuteness of the Love Trio and adding my commentary. Spoilers ahead very current with the manga. (Also warning I may make jabs at the IruAmeri ship here and there just small comparisons showing why I don’t like it as much, no hate but if you don’t like your ship being talked about even slightly negatively probably look away.)

If you didn’t see it Part 1 is here, Part 2 is here, Part 3 here Part 4 here  Part 5 here Part 6 here Part 7 here Part 8 here Bonus here Part 9 here Part 10 here Part 11 here

Getting ready

Clara making sure the pair take care of themselves during the event

They are so proud of themselves

Look he has dolls of Azz and Clara and patches of Opera and Sullivan (The closest you can get of ameri imagery are the other designs if you squint)

So the haunted house was a success and Iruma gets the prize but theres an issue and Azz and Clara are so upset for Iruma

But as it turns out this rank can't be given by the teaching staff and will have to leave and work with one of the 13 crowns as a test, which Iruma has mixed feelings about. Again the focus is how he does not want to be separated from those he cares about again, but the focus is Azz and Clara followed by Sullivan and Opera, this could have easily been a group shot but its not, these are the people most important to Iruma

Soooooooo I didn't take a shot of the gag (curse you tumblr photo limits) but the Crown Iruma is working with gives him a bell that he can use once during the test to get him something important he needs and Iruma rings it immediately and its followed by this and when I tell you I DIED at this moment of my god haha.

The crown is undeniably confused but sir you don't understand you cannot separate them, and I am so happy it's been so long since these three got to do a thing together and oddly they are incredibly helpful.

So the test is establishing a kingdom for the many eared demons and they gotta wear these cute ears to blend in

I just love how delighted Clara is and if you'll notice Azz took out his phone to get a pic of her and Iruma before getting annoyed by what is very likely a scam

I just love Azz stopping Clara

The crown is talking up Iruma and the pair are so delighted

A rather unfriendly boy of the many ears is brought on to be a guide and he's not happy about it I love that this is basically the "He asked for no pickles" meme

Its just cute

Again just cute, but this was kinda the perfect test for Iruma theres no way he'd want to rule over these demons

I love that Azz is now fluent in Clara ..... to a degree.

Haha the rare moments they share a braincell

They see the boys room is full of books and I just like Iruma and Clara sharing a book

So Iruma comes up with an interesting plan and again ask for the pairs help and god Azz's face

We get a rare chapter from Clara's POV where we see just how miserable she was at school before Iruma and Azz came into her life

And we get to see the important people to Clara and I think its nice how much she cares about her teachers

I like that the center focus of Clara's Luck montage is her laughing with Iruma and Azz

SO part of the plan is to teach the many ears magic while Iruma and Azz are having poor luck but suprisingly Clara's weird explaination works

I love how Iruma is just delighted while Azz and Clara are being smug and teasing the kid

Iruma is lucky he's with them as again he can't really cook but I love how they immedietly after hearing the growl clock it as Iruma but for once its not

Again surprisingly (not really) Clara is the best for the situation they are in, currently taking care of kids to teach them.

Clara goes full in on the school giving them looks that resemble their teachers and slight uniforms for kids, and again it actually helps to settle them down and focus.

These outfits are so great though you can kinda see influences from the Bablys teaching staff in their designs but it's still undeniably them and I love the little like titles they have.

[rowan-of-waterdeep]

How to get Wyll's Act 3 greeting

Patch 5 & 6

This is another one that trips up a lot of people, and given that Wyll is notoriously monotonous in his greetings, it sucks just that bit more if you like Wyll and don't get the change in greetings.

This mini-guide applies to getting:

Wyll's Act 3 platonic greeting

Wyll's Act 3 romance greeting

So. Wyll's greetings aren't so much bugged at the moment as ridiculously over-specific in the trigger they use.

You have one shot at enabling this change, and if you miss it, your only option is to go back to an earlier save (as far as I know).

If you're reading this post-patch 7, it probably won't be relevant.

Spoilers ahead. Click through to see.

Leave the shadow-cursed lands for Baldur's Gate

Rest in that one odd camp outside of Baldur's Gate

Deal with your dream visitor's bullshit

Wake up the next morning and leave camp

STOP DON'T MOVE - don't go down into Rivington yet

Talk to Wyll

Get his conversation about returning to Baldur's Gate (if you haven't talked to him in a while, you might have to cycle through queued-up remarks)

That's it. As far as I know, what you say doesn't matter; what matters is that you speak to him at that point in space and time.

[ohemgeeejay]

WARNING: UMBRELLA ACADEMY SEASON 4 SPOILERS AHEAD

I am ranting about something that makes me incredibly angry. So if you’re reading, buckle up.

I cannot fucking believe that I am seeing people posting positive things about Five and Lila’s “romantic” relationship. Fuck that. You can dislike Diego and Lila together, but you can’t deny how absolutely smitten they were with each other. They had fantastic chemistry, and even though their relationship was in a bit of a rough patch, it was evident they still loved each other and wanted things to work out.

Five and Lila, in all honesty, never had any romantic chemistry, they never gave those vibes. Their dynamic was one of best friends, two people forced together by trauma and terrible circumstances; two people who can’t stand each other, but understand each other better than anyone else could. Five and Lila would have never developed romantic feelings for each other because that just was not their dynamic. And neither of them would have ever done something so fucked up, that would damage their relationships with Diego, and tear apart the family. That’s not in their characters.

They both bury their feelings deep under a steely surface, because that’s what the commission taught them to do, but they love fiercely and unconditionally. Betraying Diego like that is not accurate to the established personalities of these characters. Continuing with that point, their relationship would never work, and could never be healthy because of their tendency to bury their feelings, and hide the truth. Whether that truth be in relation to their emotions or not. We saw that with Five finding and hiding that journal from Lila for 5-6 entire months. That’s an incredibly deceptive and selfish thing to do, and while it is not something the Five Hargreeves of any previous season would do, season 4 Five did this. It supports what I’ve been saying; these two just do not belong together.

Now all of this is just me talking character wise, disregarding the fact that this relationship had NO EFFECT ON THE PLOT and that writing this relationship in was FUCKED UP. I just don’t see how you could possibly be happy with this. Because even if Five and Lila are your OTP (which, if they are, that’s fucking gross), the execution was awful, every character suffered from it, and it ended up having no impact whatsoever on the storyline.

[taellise]

A (very) long (and probably pointless) analysis of Gale of Waterdeep's Act 3 Quest (Patch 5)

[Original post on Reddit] WARNING: BG3 Act 3 and Epilogue spoilers ahead! Careful!

Hello! I am not very active around here, but let's go!

I was one of the (apparently) few people who managed to obtain Gale's mortal ending back on Patch 2 by choosing to have a neutral audience with Mystra, and not the forgiveness one.

With the same save, I managed to make him return the Crown to Mystra and be cured from the orb, and also leave the Crown in the Chionthar.

On my playthrough it worked normally, and just recently I discovered through Reddit that this route was bugged to some people and Gale chose to ascend even when the player said to him not to.

Knowing this fact and that his quest has been fixed since then, I got really intrigued about how it works and how our choices change the underlying flags and, therefore, Gale's choices.

And then... well... I kinda ended up getting too invested and wrote a 20-page study about Gale's Act 3 quest. Embarrassing, I know :,D

But I am completely normal, I swear! Maybe a tad bit hyper focused about subjects that interest me. Such as, well, Gale Dekarios. And perhaps a bit too curious as well. It is important to notice that I did it for fun. I can't ensure everything I said is 100% correct. I just built some thoughts based on the data I had.

Anyway, here is the link if anyone is curious about my conclusions: 

A (very) long (and probably pointless) analysis of Gale of Waterdeep's Act 3 Quest (Patch 5)

Now excuse me, I am going to touch some grass.

[sbeep]

Reminder ahead of patch 5 and the new ending content to refresh your use of BG3 spoiler tags, please!

[kiribread]

Headcannon time?! >:)))

so uh since it's been a while since I've actually drawn edgeshot I thought I would do some general headcannons on him! I did a similar post to this when I had JUST started posting and may've done another one like it so if any of these sound familiar that's why.

Some slight manga spoilers ahead

I'm pretty sure it's obvious that's he's on the introvert side of things but I also feel like he's a huge people pleaser by nature.

Before he gave me a daddy issues now he just gives me general parent issues and undiagnosed autism

Emotionally absent mom perhaps?

He could be in a room for like 5 minuets with someone and can pretty accurately diagnose them with whatever mental/physical problem they have and encourage them to get treatment for it but he's one of those guys that refuses to get treated himself

Workaholic

a mom/therapist friend tm

I feel like he got really good grades in school (mainly for the academic validation) and even went to college

He went to college for some sort of medical training probably something like paramedics or ER doctor

While in high school him interning under Recovery girl gives me life <3333

During his 3rd year I could see him taking over for Recovery girl on occasion so she could have a well deserved break

Also, I don't know why but for some reason he gives me oopsy single dad vibes? Like a random baby that he knew nothing about showing up on his door step like" 🧍‍♂️ ok."

He loves that lil girl to death in back though <33333

He always knew he wanted kids in the future so he was pretty happy despite him thinking it was too early for him to be a dad (I'm thinking he was about 19-21 when this happened.)

He does feel pretty guilty often since he can't spend as much time with her as he would like to due to work (this didn't mix well with being a workaholic)

The decision to become a hero was a last second decision on his part he originally wanted to be a full time doctor

What could've changed his mind could be that he either was or he saved someone and inspired him to at least give it a try

I also think he could've considered therapy as a possible option as well

while he was genuinely impressed with Kamui woods during that raid with it being one of the main reasons for the team up one of the other main reasons was that he was a little lonely and thought he be a cool friend <3333. The only reason anyone knows that is bc he got hit by some confession quirk on duty... Kamui cried.

Him and mt lady i feel like sass eachother a lot.

Also probably help straighten her out a bit more.

Was perfectly ok with leaving the media up to mt lady. (Neither him or kamui were particularly fond of doing so.)

Definitely a good cook

I could just be biased bc i like salmon but i feel like he makes some GOOD salmon dishes.

Also definitely eats very healthy.

Won't pass up a good pizza though.

Before I thought that he'd be a huge naruto fan but now I think it'd be hilarious if everyone assumes he is but in reality he never seen a single episode.

He was thinking of watching it but got spoiled on pretty much the entire plot so he decided against it.

He met jeanist when jeanist noticed Edgeshot patching up his jacket during lunch time.

It was jeanist's idea to start the textiles club and Edgeshot was just dragged right along with it.

Many shenanigans happen there.

Edgeshot overall is pretty artsy and likes to try a bit of everything.

He particular likes pen & ink, ceramics, and digital art.

Also enjoys trying other hobbies out like gardening and hiking.

Participated in gymnastics till he got to ua were he used it to train.

Was really good at it but didn't care for the competition part of it.

used to be super cuddly as a kid but has moved away from that and is now picky of who touches him.

People he is close to he does allow them to snuggle up with him.

Likes flattening himself like a blanket and cuddling with people then.

[firephoenix2305]

This is a Rory Williams appreciation post

Because I have recently finished season 6 and I need to shout about it to someone.

(Disclaimer: Severe season 5 and 6 spoilers ahead. If you haven't watched them yet, run away very very fast. Or don't, it's up to you. But you have been warned)

Okay, don't get me wrong. I love Amy, she's great. And I love The Doctor, because well, he's The Doctor, and also Matt Smith, so he's great too.

But.

But. But. But

If I had to pick a favorite...

Rory. Fucking.Arthur. Williams.

I don't even know where to start with this man.

The way he loves Amy. The way he cares about her more than the entire goddamn universe. The way he DOES NOT BUDGE from her side even when she kisses another man the night before their wedding, then proceeds to severely third-wheel him in a very Mickey Smith sort of way for the better part of two episodes (which in retrospect isn't really that much, but STILL) and takes her sweet time to realize she is in love with him.

We are talking, ladies and gentlemen, about the Last goddamn Centurion. This is a man who willingly lived through every single second of 2000 years of human history only to protect Amy Pond. 2000 years without so much as a wink of sleep, or rest, or any synonym of the word. How does this man's heart not physically burst from the sheer amount of love he has for Amy?!?!

I just...I want one. I want a Rory. Does anybody know where I can find a Rory? Pretty please?

And another thing. I'm not sure what it was that Rory did to the writers of this show but JESUS CHRIST. Why so much hate?

And just to prove I'm not even exaggerating, here's a brief summary of some of the things which have happened to this poor guy in seasons 5 and 6. (From the point where he officially joins Amy and The Doctor in the TARDIS onwards, that is)

- S5E7. Killed by the Eknodine in the Dream Lord's fake reality. (And given that horrible ponytail, btw)

- S5E9. Murdered in cold blood by a rogue Silurian, then absorbed by a time crack and hence deleted from the memory of the entire universe. (Being murdered obviously wasn't enough, no)

- S5E13. This is a big one. Revived as an Auton, realized Amy doesn't remember him, then when Amy finally does remember he unwillingly kills her because of his programming (which he eventually breaks free from), stays with the Pandorica for 2000 odd years and finally, after all of that, gets erased from reality. Again. (But it's okay because The Doctor has rebooted the universe, so real Rory came back. Or, rather, never left in the first place. Doctor Who is complicated, okay?!)

- S6E3. To start off the season well, he drowns and practically dies, and is then transferred to a spaceship healing facility where he is essentially hooked to a live support system until Amy brings him back to life.

- S6E4. Tortured and "killed" by the thing controlling the TARDIS, who had a blast warping time and making him go crazy and ultimately making him die of old age. (Not sure if it even counts as a death, but his rotting skeleton was there, so I'm counting it)

- S6E6. Finds out that his wife is not actually his wife but is instead a bunch of sentient flesh which is pretending to be his wife; and that his actual wife is nine months pregnant and currently giving birth to their daughter God knows where. (I did say it was complicated).

- S6E7. Finds Amy and baby Melody, only to lose Melody to the creepy eye patch lady because having lost Amy in the exact same way the previous episode clearly wasn't enough torture for him.

- S6E10. Has "other" Amy (the older version) absolutely hate his guts for something which isn't his fault at all, and has to re-convince her that she loves him. Again. (Seriously, Amy?). Then, he has to sacrifice the other Amy to save his Amy, which was extremely painful for him. (Man, this season gets weirder and weirder, doesn't it?)

- S6E13. Suffers inhumane amounts of pain and almost dies (again) when he lets himself be electrocuted by the eye patch thingy to give Amy, River and The Doctor time to escape. (I know this wasn't technically the same Rory that went through all those other things, but I decided to include it anyway)

AND I HAVEN'T EVEN STARTED SEASON 7 YET. Give the man a break! And stop killing him, for God's sake!

(I know this won't happen, because although I haven't watched S7 I accidentally spoiled the whole weeping angel business to myself, so yeah)

And lastly, this scene >>>

Do. Not. Fuck. With the roman.

I just love him.

That is all. Thanks for hearing me out, I feel better.

(@capinejghafa was the furthest back I could track these gifs, but I don't know if they were the one who made them).

[going-to-ikea-for-the-fries]

Bereavement (Simon "Ghost" Riley)

[MY MASTERLIST]

Rating: M Words: 800-ish words CW: SPOILERS FOR MW3, grief, mentions of death, stealing from the dead Tags: SPOILERS FOR MW3, Ghostxf!OC (but not in this part), Soap MacTavish's family (mentioned), grief, mentions of death, stealing from the dead Summary: Ghost is going to visit Soap's resting place. He has a lot of feelings. a/n: This is part of my fic, but I had so many feelings while writing this that I wanted to share it as a 'standalone'-ish. Also it made me cry. Also I write a lot of angsty grief.

December 20th, 2023.

Loch Torridon, Scotland

57°35'57.3"N 5°43'39.4"W

2348Hours, T-Minus 12 minutes until midnight

Ghost wasn’t a bereaved man. 

He had buried his family and plenty of teammates before. He knew grief, and how to move on; there was no need to dwell on it, relive it, reminisce about it…

But minutes before the one-month anniversary, he, nonetheless, found himself trekking over the uneven terrain toward the cliffs.

If you asked him why he was doing this, he wouldn’t provide an answer. He didn’t have one. He had just gotten in his car and started driving… and eight hours later, here he was.

With only a flashlight to guide him (thanks to his preparedness of always keeping a toolbox in the boot), he moved under cover of night toward the place where they had laid Soap to rest.

Ghost wasn’t a spiritual man.

But something about Soap’s spirit not being honored on the one-month anniversary of his death felt wrong.

Or maybe it was just that Simon didn’t want to be alone in his quarters.

And so he walked.

And walked.

And walked.

The place they had picked for the release of the ashes was one that Johnny’s 3rd older sister had mentioned that he always liked to go to. A couple of klicks south of a bothy, aka a rain shelter for travelers, there was a set of rocks at the edge of a cliff, where Johnny had once carved his initials: JMT, like all teenage boys do.

Pippa MacTavish had told the three men that her baby brother had taken a girl on a date there once, and had gotten his first kiss on that spot. Ghost was almost sure that the young Johnny and his crush had done more than just ‘kiss’ that night. But he kept his mouth shut. Though, on the inside, he did cheer on the youngin.

Ghost wasn’t a sentimental man.

But he had kept a set of Johnny’s dog tags for himself.

The kid might have been a bit of a wild child and a loose cannon, but he took his gear seriously. Or maybe he was just that proud of his military service. Either way, he had multiple sets of dog tags.

Besides the patch indicating his blood type on his vest, he wore a set of metal tags around his neck, kept another in a small pocket in his pack, and another in his childhood bedroom at home.

Ghost had stolen from the dead many times… both enemies and teammates alike. He never felt guilty before, because it was needed: weapons, ammo, FAKs... Sometimes those stolen pieces of gear had kept Ghost alive when a more morally sound man would’ve died.

He hadn’t been stupid enough to take the ones he was wearing on him, those were his family’s to keep. But Ghost had stuck his hand in Soap’s pack while riding on the convoy and pocketed the spares.

And keeping a set of Soap’s dog tags for himself felt wrong.

So he didn’t tell anyone.

Ghost wasn’t a friendly man.

But he had grown fond of Johnny.

Ghost tried to keep people at a distance, but Johnny had an issue with giving people their personal space, it seems. The bloody Scot had crashed through Simon’s barriers and taken his trust by force.

Soap had made his way into Simon’s cold, dead heart like he was breaking and entering… Then proceeded to say “This is nice and cosy, mind if I stay ‘ere a while?” and despite his objections, the kid had just set up shop and stayed perfectly nestled in.

Like an annoying younger brother…

And Simon couldn’t get mad at that.

Ghost kept moving over the grass, his flashlight pointing downward and a bit ahead so he didn’t trip over a rock or something.

If spirits do exist, then Johnny would surely mock him from the afterlife if he tripped on his way to the ‘memorial’.

With that thought in mind, Ghost decided to be even more careful.

Just as he was coming up the hill, however… He spotted it. The dark silhouette of a person sitting over the rocks.

Only Soap’s family and the 1-4-1 knew about this spot…

Maybe it was a family member of Johnny’s...

But he couldn’t help but feel like it was an intruder… And with Makarov still on the loose, he wasn’t taking any chances.

His right hand slowly palmed the handle of his sidearm as his left quickly turned off his flashlight. He went back to blending in with the darkness of the seaside cliffs.

Then, he slowly began to take silent tentative steps through the darkness, hoping that the cold wind would be enough to mask the sounds of his footfalls as he approached.

He was going to find out who this was.

[digamma-f-wau]

Who Did What for Sonic the Hedgehog's 900th Adventure

So the 900th Adventure was basically this years Annual in spirit, but instead of multiple shorter stories, it told one big story, but with the number of writers and art teams that you would get in a multi-story annual anyways. Sure you could easily read the credits, but it's more fun this way. Obviously spoilers ahead so everything past part 1 is is gonna be under a Read More

Part 1 (pages 1-6): Set-up with Tails

Writer: Ian Flynn (the original main writer on IDW Sonic and post-Metal Virus continues to be one of the main writers, including being the main writer of IDW's Classic Sonic specials. Been with the franchise since becoming a writer for the Archie comics back in '06 and served as the writer for Sonic Frontiers)

Artist: Adam Bryce Thomas (one of the main IDW Sonic artists. been around since the latter half of Archie's reboot)

Colors: Valentina Pinto (initially a secondary colorist whose biggest credit was doing the Imposter Syndrome miniseries, recently seems to have graduated to being one of the main colorists this year)

Part 2 (pages 7-12): Amy and the Orca

Writer/Artist: Evan Stanley (the other main writer of IDW Sonic post-Metal Virus as well as one of the main artists, been around since late in Archie's pre-reboot era)

Colors: Gigi Dutreix (regular cover artist and occasional inker and has even written a few stories; co-authoring Victory Garden from the 2019 Annual and its follow up Future Growth, which they also colored, and solo-writing The Catalyst from 2020's Annual)

Part 3 (pages 13-18): Knuckles and Metal Sonic

Writer: Nigel Kitching (one of the main writers of the old UK Sonic the Comic published by Fleetway Editions back in the 90s)

Artist: Mauro Fonseca (regular artist, major credits so far include Sonic Learns to Drive from the 30th Anniversary Special, co-designing Surge & Kit, doing the A-covers for the Imposter Syndrome miniseries, and doing a bunch of stuff in the concurrent and upcoming main book issues. Also relevantly used to be a regular contributor to the Sonic the Comic-Online fan continuation)

Inks: Rik Mack (recent regular inker, being the main inker on Mauro's more recent interior art for the comic as well as inking other artists, most notably on Tails' 30th Anniversary Special. Recently did some coloring on the back-half of issue 61 as well. Also another former StC-O regular)

Colors: Reggie Graham (one of the main colorists on IDW Sonic post-Metal Virus, after having been a regular on covers beforehand, as well as being another former StC-O regular)

Part 4 (pages 19-24): Eggman and his Mech

Writer: Daniel Barnes (writer of Weapons from the 2022 Annual and the Scrapnik Island miniseries)

Artist/Colors: Min Ho Kim (fairly recent addition of the IDW Sonic crew, being a regular cover artist since Scrapnik #1. Also the character artist on The Murder of Sonic)

Color Assistance: Evan Maly

Part 5 (pages 25-30): Blaze and Cream

Writer/Artist: Aaron Hammerstrom (regular artist, most prominently being the main artist for IDW's Classic Sonic stuff. Also previously wrote/drew the 2022 Annual story Rough Patch)

Inks: Matt Froese (regular inker, mainly works on Aaron's art. Most notable non-Aaron credits include the two Yardley-drawn issues of Zeti Hunt and the first and last parts of Trial by Fire)

Colors: Nathalie Fourdraine (The 1:10 Retailer Incentive variant cover artist for every issue the main book as well as semi-regularly doing covers for side books. Served as the colorist for the Classic Sonic stories Dr. Eggman's Brithday and Amy's New Hobby, as well as the colors and A covers for the Scrapnik Island miniseries)

Part 6 (pages 31-36): Babylon Rogues & Shadow/Rouge

Writer: Caleb Goellner (writer of the Team Sonic Racing one-shot, the 2019 Annual story Jet Set Tornado, and the 2020 Annual story Reflections)

Artist: Abby Bulmer (regular cover artist, as well as artist of the 2020 Annual story The Catalyst and the 2022 Annual story Hero Camp. Notably way back in the day was the artist of the very first StC-O story, and her time on 2000 AD often involved her serving as a colorist for Richard Elson, one of the main StC artists.)

Colors: Heather Breckel (IDW MLP's main colorist, who's been a recurring secondary colorist throughout IDW Sonic's run, often filling in for other colorists)

Part 7 (pages 37-40): The Warp Topaz Cave

Same team (Flynn/Thomas/Pinto) as part 1

[hedonists]

CJ OST first listen reaction under the cut. Spoilers ahead.

Too long; didn't read version: I love what they've done with this. I have so much respect for them as artists. To get this much for a deluxe album is insane.

(I didn't include every track because, for example, we obviously know Artificial Suicide live fucking slaps, I don’t need to tell you this)

1. C:\Projects\CJOST\BEATDEATH- the urge to overanalyze the ever living shit out of this is strong

2. V.A.N (feat. Poppy) - she is glory she is beauty she is everything

3. The Drain (feat. HEALTH, Swarm) - 10/10, duh

4. Terms & Conditions (feat. Bob Vylan) - first reaction: ????????, then: this kinda vibes

5. Hedonist [Recharged] (feat. WARGASM) - she's a bad bitch, she takes no one's shit.

6. Even - she's a 10/10, I love her; vulnerable vibes, 3 am rainy vibes, baby talk to me what's on your mind, do you need kisses, hugs, a shoulder to cry on? talk to me

7. Loading Screen - we love instrumentals in this house

8. Anything > Human (feat. Erra) - hands down best (new) track on this album together with Even, 100/10, fucking SLAPS; lyrics hurt my soul though, chorus instantly got stuck in my head, these men need several HUGS!!! (I seriously could scream about the lyrics all day because LORE)

9. Digital Footprint - instrumental. Slaps.

10. Nervous System (feat. iRis.EXE) - LORE. these guys want to shake their booties to some beats, love the tone of her voice, I can see why shes on this

11. C:\Projects\CJOST\FINDPEACE - one more chopped up interlude Noah and I'll hop on a plane and hunt this band down, WHAT IS HE SAYING?!

12. Artificial Suicide [Unzipped] (feat. Thousand Below) - I felt that vibrating in my core. That’s all.

13. The Grey [Unzipped] (feat. Thousand Below) - this is what my generation would have called a "nightcore edit". Honestly? Not so bad. It’s intriguing. They were definitely having fun with these unzipped versions

14. The Death of Peace of Mind [We Are Fury Patch] - felt that vibrating in my core part 2; fic trailer enemies to lovers music, loop loop loop

16. Bad Decisions [Lofi] (feat. Dahlia) - sad chill vibes. if you wanna be sapphic and sad with me, let's be sapphic and sad together. love her

17. Just Pretend [Credits] (feat. Let's Eat Grandma, Chief) - oh I absolutely adore her voice, I genuinely love this version

18. C:\Projects\Cjost\Clearmind - dude idk what you're saying except "we're sorry" and "good morning"??

21. The Grey [Live 2024] - vocal Queen, masterpiece, impressive, stunning, earth-shattering, never done before, cannot be topped etc. etc.

22. What Do You Want From Me? [Live 2024] - this is probably what changed Noah's brain chemistry and made him decide that he's a club whore now. Can’t blame him, this goes hard

23. Nowhere To Go [Live 2024] - Folio's song 10/10

24. V.A.N [Live 2024] (feat. Poppy) - BARK

25. The Death of Peace of Mind [Live 2024] - this is what heaven must sound like

26. Just Pretend [Live 2024] - angelic vocals, what else is there to be said? Oh, also it’s 9 minutes long. Why? Find out. Might have maybe perhaps mayhaps cried just a little? Maybe. Definitely. It’s late. I love them. I love Bad Omens. The urge to hop on a plane and hunt them down to give them kisses and hugs is painful.