#pony island was great as i remembered

[kingkana]

i replayed pony island the day before yesterday just to 100% it and i was like damn that was good. so then i looked up the steam page for panda circus and he was like hey this is gonna be more like the hex than inscryption and i was like well i own the hex and i've never played it, maybe i should play it. and that was 7 hours ago and i just finished playing it and like! damn!! video games so good actually

[magma-queen]

Archie proposing to Maxie! 🥰

Oooooo yes!! That sounds adorable! Here you go, friend! <3

It was unexpected of Archie to suddenly tell him that they were going on a vacation to Alola.

“But.. how come?” The redhead questioned. “We don’t usually plan a trip until summer.”

It was October.

Archie tried to ease his suspicions. “Babe, it’s our 5th anniversary! Don’t ye remember?”

“Oh god- of course!” He smacked his head in frustration. “Please forgive me. I’ve been working so much lately and I-“

He shut Maxie up with a kiss.

“Mmm~”

“Mmmhmhmhm~”

Maxie then broke the kiss for a moment and looked at his boyfriend. “But, we have a little girl with us now. If you were planning a dinner or something-“

“Tabitha, Matt, Courtney, and Shelly are coming with us. It’s their anniversaries too, y’know. They can watch Sierra while we have a night to ourselves.”

“I’m acting like our daughter is a burden… trust me, she’s far from it. I hope you understand that.”

Archie guffawed. “Oh Max, c’mon now. I know ye better than that. I know ye love our little girl. But I need someone to watch her while I take ye out to dinner one night.”

“Oh, Archie~ You really don’t need-“

“Ah Ah! Yes I do, snookums. *kiss* It’s all for ye, baby. For us.”

Maxie smiles and cups Archie’s face in his hands. “I love you.”

“I love ye too, Max. I know all of us are gonna have a great time.”

Around 2 months later, The 7 of them boarded onto a ship to sail for the Alola region. It took around 2 days for them to get there, so once they did, they booked a big hotel room on Poni island for all of them.

“Wow, this place looks amazing!” Matt exclaimed, his arm around Tabitha’s shoulder. “I hope we get a room aaaaall to ourselves~” He chuckles, smirking seductively at his husband.

“For god’s sake, Matt.” Tabitha blushes, looking away. “We have a child here!” He giggles when Matt kisses his cheek.

“Yeah, all of us have a room.” Archie explains, picking his daughter up. “And our little emerald will sleep with us!”

“Papa! Papa! You said you would teach me how to swim, right?”

He smiles and nuzzles her face with his beard, making her giggle. “Of course I will, me little scamp! Yer uncle Matt and yer auntie Shelly will too! Right, guys?”

“Of course we will.” Shelly smiles, motioning Archie to hand Sierra over to her. “I’ll teach you to swim like a pretty mermaid, how would you like that?”

“Uh huh! You really will, auntie?”

“Awww, you know I will, kiddo!” Then smirks at her wife. “And your auntie Courtney will too, right babe?”

She went wide eyed, Shelly knows good and well she doesn’t like to swim. “Umm-“ She cut herself off, looking at her goddaughter’s eyes plead to her. “Of c-course! Of course, sweetheart.” She smiles, petting Sierra’s head.

Shelly handed her back to her dads, and they split into their rooms. Not much later, they all had dinner together.

“Now, Sierra. Your papa and I are going to dinner by ourselves tomorrow night.” Maxie told her. “Your aunts and uncles are going to be watching you while we’re out.”

“But daddy… why can’t I go with you and papa?” She asked.

Tabitha took the conversation over. “Your daddies have some adult things that they need to take care of, sweetie. But don’t worry, the four of us will be with you until they get back.”

She smiled. “Okay.” She turned back to her daddies. “Please don’t have too much fun without me.”

“Oh, never.” Maxie chuckled, kissing her forehead.

The next evening, Archie and Maxie left together and headed towards a particularly fancy restaurant on another island in Alola.

“I can tell that you’ve been keeping something from me~” Maxie teases, watching Archie’s face redden. “What’s with all the fancy trips and expensive restaurants, dear? It’s only our 5th anniversary.”

“Well…” He muttered sheepishly. “You’ll see soon, baby. I promise. I want to take you somewhere special after dinner.”

“Okay, I’m looking forward to it~”

Once they were finished with dinner, Archie took Maxie towards a big beach nearby the restaurant.

“Beautiful sight, isn’t it?” Archie asked.

“Oh yes. He is.” Maxie said back, watching Archie’s face and ears turn red. “It’s beautiful.”

“So are ye, Max. Listen.. we’ve been dating for 5 years now, and… there’s something I really wanna ask ye.”

His eyes went wide, knowing what was about to happen next. “Arch-“

He knelt down on one knee, and he held a small, black box in his hands. “Max… yer the one and only man in my life that has made me the happiest I could ever feel.. and I wanna spend the rest of my life with ye..”

He covered his mouth, tears dotting the corners of his eyes. “A-Archie..”

“Maxie Matsubasa… love of my life, will ye make me the happiest man on earth? Will ye marry me?” He asked, looking up at his lover with a gleam in his eyes.

The other man couldn’t hold in his tears anymore. He took his glasses off and slowly nods his head. “Yes! Y-yes! Yehehehes!” He cried out, then being scooped up into Archie’s arms after having the engagement ring put on his finger. “Yes, of course I’ll marry you!”

“I love ye, baby.. forever and always.” Archie smiles, holding him close as he cried. “No tears, Max.. only love and happiness~”

“I-I’m just s-so happy- *sob* I didn’t know y-you were going to do this! I.. I simply don’t deserve you.”

Archie grins and kisses his cheek. “Oh stop that~ Of course ye do. *kiss* I love ye, Maxie.” His kisses trail down to the base of his neck.

“Aha-! *snort* Archie-! That tickles! Wahahahait-! Hehehehehehehe!” He giggles as the kisses continued. “Stohohohohop ihihihihihihihihit! *snort* my neck ihihihis ticklish!”

“Mmmm~ if I get to hear those sweet giggles during this wonderful moment, then I can take any revenge ye give me. *kiss*” His hands get clingy and wrap around his torso.

He let out a big snort. “AHAH! Archie plehehehease! Thehehehe moment’s behehehing ruhuhuined!”

“Nah~ it’s not, love. I love hearing ye laugh~ *kiss* but not as much as I love ye.”

“Cheeheheheeheesy bahastard~” Maxie giggles, trying to squirm out of the ticklish grip.

“Oh, that’s it!” Archie clung to him and picked him up, bridal style. “Now yer gonna get it!” He practically smothered his face and neck in kisses.

“Hehehehehehey! Ahahah- put mehehehe down! Ahahahahrchie-! Stop- hahah- thahat tihihihickles!”

“Nope. *kiss* Gotta practice for our wedding day, honey. I’m gonna spoil ye rotten~ *kiss kiss* because ye deserve every moment of attention and lovin’s I give ye~”

He practically carried him the entire way back to their hotel room. Everyone was shocked to see the redhead being carried in Archie’s arms.

“What in the world?” Shelly cackled.

Sierra smiles at them. “Papa is so strong!”

“Hehehehe- He won’t put me down!” The magma leader giggles as Archie nuzzles him with his beard. “Archie! Hehehehee- your beard!”

“Guess what, everyone? Max and I are getting married!” Archie announced, making everyone stand up from their seats.

“About time!” Matt guffawed, clapping his hands.

“About time is right!” Tabitha added. “You two have been together for 5 years! We were worried that one of you would never pop the big question!”

Courtney giggles. “So, who proposed?”

Maxie was too flustered to say anything, he still kept his hands over his face.

Archie cackles. “Awww, he’s flustered. *kiss* I did. And he said yes! Ain’t my man the cutest?”

“Archie PLEASE.” He tries to stop his giggling, but he can’t. He’s just too happy not to. He had NO clue that Archie was doing this.

Sierra ran up to them. “You guys are getting married? But papa, I thought you and daddy were already married!”

“Hehe, we sure acted like we were already married, didn’t we?” He smiles and looks down to her. “But it’s true, sweetheart. We are getting married. How would ye like to be the flower girl at the wedding?”

She gasps. “Really? I can?”

“Well, of course my little emerald!” He sets Maxie down and she gets up on his shoulders. “Yer our little girl, so we’d love to have ye be the flower girl.”

Maxie stood up on his feet and stood next to them, not able to get the happy grin off his face. “Archie, I love you.”

“Awww, I love ye too, babe.” Archie smiles, putting an arm around him.

Sierra soon got sleepy, leaning on Archie’s shoulder. They celebrated the engagement later that evening after putting Sierra to bed. There was plenty of wine and laughter.

“Seriously though, congrats on the engagement, you two.” Shelly laughed. “We’re all so happy for you.”

Everyone else agreed.

“Thanks, Shell.” Archie smiles, holding his red headed fiancé close. “I couldn’t be happier to be here with my Max.” *kiss.*

His face turns red with a blush. “Archie~ I couldn’t be happier either. I love you.”

“I love ye more.”

He reached up and kissed his cheek. “I love you, the most.”

Matt chuckled and coughed out “cheesy”, making everyone cackle, but not too hard, since their little girl was fast asleep.

[weneverlearn]

Happy (belated) Labor Day! - Some Quick Words from Sylvia Reed about Lou Reed's History of Wearing Ties

Sylvia and Lou Reed, wedding, Valentine's Day, 1980

My dad used to say "Tie is a 4-letter word." His avoidance of said sartorial detail was shorthand for he didn't want to work a boring desk job. And sure, ties can equal that.

But then as time goes on -- with people wearing pajamas on plane flights, sweatpants to brunch, and in general humanity seeming to have given up on even trying -- a tie can have it's moments of surprising shock.

Punks wearing old ripped ones, pulled down from a 2-button open collar circa 1975-78 was a nice affront to both staid society and cruddy hippie clothes.

Wayne County & the Electric Chairs (via)

The Clash (via Treble)

The power pop bands circa 1978-82 took ties to whole other level, to the point of their very genre being called "skinny tie rock." Since then, ties have entered a phase of going back to, well, some guys just look good in them, others look tethered to their cubicle.

Speaking of which, I posted this great Lou Reed tune/video above (from one of my top 5 Lou solo albums, and I believe the first of his I ever bought -- Legendary Hearts ) to Facebook this past Labor Day, for obvious reason. It was 1983 then, and Lou doing an upbeat works sucks rant while sporting a tie was a kind of double "whoa." And he looked good in it.

A few years ago I interviewed Lou's ex-wife, Sylvia Reed for Please Kill Me online, and the topic was to be focused on the album art and videos she worked on with Lou during her years with him. I was a little trepidatious, but she turned out to be a charming person, we ended up talking for about an hour and a half at a Chinatown diner, and have since become friendly.

So after posting this vid, she popped in my mind, and I asked her a couple things about the "Don't Talk to Me About Work" video.

------------------------------------

I remember the interesting decision to have Lou wear a suit and tie for this video. For me it recalled that great lyric from "Coney Island Baby" -- "And I seen those suit and tie johns buy you one drink, then buy you some more”. Such a great lyric.

And the twist involved in Lou wearing “business clothes." Yet at his most romantic, this is what he wore, in his wedding to Bettye (Kronstad, 1973) he wore a suit with a sort of extravagant fabric. In my wedding he wore a nice understated suit. Later on, in Paul Simon’s 1980 feature film One Trick Pony, Lou was cast as a high powered record producer, and he wore a suit with a leather jacket, if I remember correctly.

------------------------------------

Sylvia swore I could track down some stills from the flick with Lou in a leather jacket and leather tie, but apparently my Googleing is off. Though this is a cool still from that flick I found:

Via The Beatmax Rundown

Oh, and here he is in a bowtie anyway.

Photo by Mick Rock

And here's a goofy article which kind of makes me not want to wear a tie ever again. Make delineated rues about tie-wearing and it becomes a tether again.

[aegor-bamfsteel]

How do you think ACOK/AGOT Theon Greyjoy would have gotten along politically and personally with his uncle Rodrik “the Reader”, as well as cousin Ser Harras Harlaw? For me, Theon’s relationship with his mothers family is one of the more notable missed opportunities for interesting personal dynamics (also, if the Theon Latecomer theory comes to pass, R’hllor help us all if poor Alannys never gets to hold her baby boy one more time)

I agree with you in that I’m very interested in the Harlaws, as despite their limited page time they’ve proven to be varied characters, from bookish Rodrik to stern knight Harras to ambitious Hotho to proud and stubborn Gwynesse and tragic Alannys. Usually characters in these minor houses get one trait for all, especially the ironborn; it’s the bigger houses that get this sort of variety and nuance. Plus they breed a shaggy pony that I’m guessing (due to the resemblance between the Iron Islands and Scottish isles) is analogous to the Shetland pony.

Harras and Theon probably did have a personal relationship before the latter had to leave Pyke, and I don’t think it was a positive one; “As a boy Harlaw had been fast friends with Balon's eldest son, Rodrik” (AFFC The Reaver) but Theon “remembered Rodrik's drunken cuffs” and told Patrek that he was horrible enough he doesn’t care Jason killed him (ACOK Theon I). Anyone who was fast friends with Rodrik is likely not going to be someone Theon has warm thoughts of. What little we know of Harras has him a great warrior, loyal, has an ancient Valyrian steel sword, serious, merciful enough (Euron had all the Hewetts killed while Harras just imprisoned the Grimms)…most of which would bore Theon, some of which would remind him of Ned Stark whom he feared due to their history (and he and Harras must’ve had some history too). Basically I don’t think they’d be personally friends. However, if Theon became his liege, I think Harras would support him (certainly over the Greyjoy uncles) and would reave where he was ordered.

Rodrik Harlaw, I think Theon would feel similarly to how Asha does in early AFFC, resentful of his cautioning him about fighting a war the ironborn can’t win, but unlike Asha probably thinks less of him for constantly reading books (Luwin at least admits to never liking him); and he thinks Victarion is an old man who’d just take his orders, so he’d likely think even less of Rodrik and his advice. However, Rodrik would still support him out of necessity and try to advise him, though wouldn’t personally reave.

Don’t worry, Theon is going back to those islands and meeting Alannys. It’s all part of his subverted Hero’s Journey, in which he returns to his home a greatly changed person due to the trials in the unknown world, now with the ability to grant boons to his deeply damaged community, aka Alannys (who’s the only person happy to see him for non-political reasons). I say this with hope, because even though GRRM has expressed dislike for the Hero’s Journey Monomyth, even he can’t resist the idea of his main characters going back to the place they’re born (the possible confirmation of seeing Casterly, show!Daenerys on Dragonstone, of course all Starks will be at Winterfell)

[destinygoldenstar]

Character Death In Ninjago

This video explains why permanent deaths need to happen for the audience to care about the story going forward. As always, support the creator. (Tw: There’s some Walking Dead clips in this video. That’s a bloody show.)

So I am personally very mixed on this discussion.

On the one hand you have a kids show with restrictions on what they can get away with. And at the end of the day, it’s a toy commercial, and killing off a main character would be losing profit. AND different shows have different priorities than others. My Little Pony is a praised show that keeps everyone you care about alive. The Owl House didn’t kill anyone you’re routing for now that I think about it. (Except Flapjack. RIP) And for people who say Ninjago should be super gritty and edgy, are forgetting what the shows priorities are. And if you really want that, that’s what fanfiction is for. And I am no stranger to that. I’m the writer of Total Drama Danganronpa Island. A gritty fanfic where two thirds of the cast die horrifically.

We’ve all had a phase. This show does NOT need to be Batman to be good. A show does not need to be dark to be good.

HOWEVER, when the narrative stakes call for it, and you have SO MANY FAKEOUTS, eventually you have to pull a trigger on a character, beloved or not. This is why at one point or more, there should have been a death. A character does not come back.

Does it need to be gruesome? No. Are fake out deaths bad? No. Season 3’s fakeout death is one of my favorite fakeout deaths of all time because it’s a natural point for the character, and impacts everyone around them, even after they are revealed to still be alive. But there’s a limit to using fake out deaths before they become cheap and nobody buys it anymore.

Now, YES, this show DOES have permanent deaths. Like villains. But you want them gone. There’s also the Royal Family getting assassinated. Mystake never comes back. But you don’t remember these because they are very inconsequential to the story.

If you’re gonna resurrect a character from the dead, that’s fine, as long as you know there’s a purpose for it. Ninjago actually does this very well. Zane’s fakeout (his FIRST one, and no other one) works because it’s s logical step in his character conflict of identity, and the death impacts the other characters, giving them a new perspective on their own dynamics and priorities, plus it benefits Zane’s character in giving him a crisis of a new identity. Garmadon fakeout works because there’s a permanent consequence that is his relationship with his family. That’s dead. Forever. There’s no getting this perfect parental figure back.

It’s a great way for fakeout deaths to work, if there is a permanent consequence. That’s why bringing Nya back was a bad call in my opinion. There were no permanent consequences. Imagine if the ninja couldn’t bring her back? Imagine if they had to grapple with the fact that their grief consumed them and put them in prison, and they had to accept the fact that the girl they loved is gone?

But of course that wouldn’t happen because Nya is a part of the main group. I love Nya as much as anyone, but I wanted her sacrifice in Seabound to stick, because it was a wake up call for the story, personally.

There’s a line when it comes to pulling off fakeout deaths, and when you need to decide to let a character go. Zane and Garmadon, I can excuse. Nya? This should have been permanent OR had a permanent consequence. But okay, the main six ninja have plot armor. Fine. I understand that.

What about the side characters? They’re not safe. Unless you count Pixal as a seventh ninja, she’s not safe. Wu’s not safe. Now obviously, don’t kill characters Willy nilly. Kill them because it makes sense for the story.

Dragons Rising is out, and five of the six ninja are side characters now. Their plot armor is used up. Someone might die. Who knows? Someone could pull a Han Solo.

But is one of my biggest problems with Sailor Moon. Books and shows alike. Every season has the main characters pull fakeout deaths.

EVERY. SEASON. And by Stars, I just don’t buy it anymore.

Like oh, this evil Sailor Guardian assassin is dusting off guardians left and right? And it wants me to believe they’re staying dead?

Yeah nice try. (this is a problem with ALL versions of the story.)

If you’ve seen Sailor Moon, you know what I’m talking about.

In Book 5 of the Sailor Moon comics, there’s a death that choked me up when I first saw it. That’s the death of Sailor Pluto.

She was a likeable side character who was close to Chibi Usa. She had her own goals and dreams of one day leaving her post and seeing the world. Her only chance at seeing it being through this kid.

But when the child she loves turns to the dark side and is about to end the universe, Pluto breaks a taboo of her responsibility and freezes time to save everyone.

And the penalty is death.

She dies with no regret, and the kid watches, full regret over what her actions of jealousy and envy had led to. She obtains her dream of unlocking her powers and following the footsteps of her mom, but the one person she wanted to see that happen isn’t alive to see it. It’s a REALLY heartbreaking chapter.

SO OF COURSE WE BRING PLUTO BACK IN THE NEXT STORY ARC.

This is for… pretty much no reason, as she doesn’t do anything, and you can very easily write her out with nothing changing. Because there’s no consequences to it and the story acts like it never happened, that character death is ruined.

Would the story have been better if the character stayed dead? In this case, yes, as it grounded Chibi-Usas character. Bringing Pluto back removes her consequences altogether.

Then there’s season one of the show having the Sailor Guardians die in the penultimate episode. I read the books before I saw the show, I knew they weren’t dead, as this doesn’t happen in the book. That was just there for drama.

It was well directed and impactful drama on its own, admittedly. But still drama.

I WOULD talk about a certain Polentina, and how her resurrection was done so lazily, then they did nothing with her character and killed her AGAIN a season later. Making the entirety of her life and death pointless. And how this show does have a very good permanent character death that is very well executed and is one of the best moments of the show because of how well done that is. HOWEVER, I won’t because most people HATE it whenever I talk about that show. So therefore, you won’t get my support if you push me away. (I might try again one day, but I just feel very uncomfortable with it from how uninviting others viewers are)

On the other hand, death doesn’t make a show good. There is merit to an uplifting show where everything turns out right in the end. If done right.

So how do you guys feel about character deaths in Ninjago? Is this too much to ask? Am I being unreasonable?

[shinycollarboneapologist]

hiiiii, just read style and illicit affairs and i freaking loved them both so much!!!!<3 i just saw the post saying that you were taking requests so i thought i’d give it a shot even tho i never send asks bc i get so nervous hdjdjsjd so could u pretty please write something inspired by good ones by charli xcx with matty or ross? im currently obsessed with it and i love ur writing style and how u incorporate the lyrics without making it cheesy :) could be a little blurb or social media au or even just a little list with thoughts 💭 wtvr u decide i’ll keep an eye out for your next fic whatever it’ll be 💖

AHHH ofc. also tysm bby, i love and appreciate you so so so so much.

he was great. really and truly was. he couldn't have treated you or loved you any better than he did. ross was a proper gentleman. he was loyal, and sweet. he would remember odds and ends of things you said in conversation, bringing them up later on to prove that he was really listening.

like that time you mentioned how you loved chocolate croissants. and coincidentally, each time you stayed over his the next morning there would be fresh chocolate croissants waiting for you on the kitchen island.

but it left much to be desired. you didn't know what was wrong with you. he was perfect. he is perfect.

the breakup was hard. and maybe that's why you had to make up convoluted stories to yourself, twisting a web of lies in your psyche that would lessen the ache of abandoning one of the best relationships you had been in. in these stories, sometimes he was the rude boyfriend that never wanted to do anything with you. other times, he was just the one that was better at leaving than you. your friends, most of which were also his, were shocked at the fact that you had called it quits. they thought he would have been the one to break the curse.

you had thought that, too. until the grass on the other side shone greener and grew taller than the comfort of the walls you and ross had created as a home for yourselves. you remember the way he sat across from you, arms crossed defensively and staring you down indignantly. it had come out of nowhere. you had grown distant, short with him. and then it was over.

he never really let you go, though. he would shoot you a happy birthday text, wished you well on all of the major holidays, asked about your friends and family, told you about the successes of the band. and it was nice. you kept him close, too, wishing him luck with the band, asking for music recommendations, making light conversation every once and awhile. all while trying to navigate dating again.

you'd picked some real winners. there was the guy with the monster truck who conveniently forgot to tell you he was married with a kid on the way. how could you manage to forget about the one with the weird obsession with sour cream? or the one with the rat tail pony tail? they made for good stories to tell, but there was something lacking.

and that something was ross, no matter how hard you tried to deny it.

your circles remained intertwined. which is the reason you find yourself sat on a barstool of a rented out local pub for matty's birthday.

there's an emptiness in your chest. a hole making you feel hollow as you watch ross lead his new girlfriend into the bar. he's probably telling her all of his stupid jokes, and she's probably laughing along and mirroring the glint behind his eyes. there's a fire burning deep within your chest, jealousy is rampant in your veins. you chose this though, and now you have to live with it. his eyes catch yours and he offers you a small smile and a wave, which you have to return in civility. but it still hurts. you still ache.

the grass would never be greener on the other side. instead it proved to be browned and dead, with no sign of life coming from it. no amount of watering or tears for that matter could save it. and as he's bringing her around the bar to say hello, you're perched on the barstool waiting for a text back. because if there's one thing about you, you always manage to let the good ones go.

[cryiling]

in honor of totk NOT winning goty 🫡 here is my notes app from when totk first came out and I wrote all my thoughts abt the game down

-

today totk got released!! and I played for 8 hours straight 😭 I'm not suuper far in the game yet, I sort of just started the rito quest with tulin, but here are some things I love and dislike about the game so far:

first of all I love the archaic outfit 😊 however I'm very sad that it only does 1 protection because I wanted to wear it all the time AJDBAJDB

I love everything about the zonai, like the way they look, the music associated with them, the way they talk at the end of a shrine, the way you can tell something is of zonai make just by looking at it, like that's how you know a concept design is well done ✋ I'm so fascinated by how rauru looks, he's just so amazing

I do hate how extremely similar aspects of the great sky island are to the great plateau, though. "room of awakening" bro r u serious rn 😭 the way rauru follows you around like the king good bye. I just feel like this could have been done a little more uniquely so that it didn't feel like the great plateau with a texture pack slapped over it

there's also some things that I felt botw just did so much better than totk. like the way rauru's ghost would disappear felt very cheap and uneventful, like why does he just fade to 0 opacity and nothing else happens ?? at least with the king his ghost faded with the little blue flames and sparkles, it made it seem more interesting

I hate the inventory layout I'm sawryy 😭 the botw inventory looks very sleek and easy to comprehend, but the way the totk inventory is designed just feels very cheap and elementary to me. not the scrolling on one page instead of having multiple pages, that's not my issue. just the color design and how so much more information is crowded into each tiny box when you are selling things, it just confuses the player with too much info

uhh what else. oh! I also hate the animation for when you get the abilities at the beginning, and when you get those lights of blessing or whatever (honestly I hate that name too, why is it so long I literally can't remember it 😭). like why do the orbs with the abilities and blessings look so 2d and unfinished? they look like they were slapped on top as a fanmade effect rather than actually being a part of the game, and every time I see it, I feel removed from being immersed in the games because it's distracting

but I totally love the way the zonai statues are at the end of the shrines!!! the way they talk is SO 🙏🙏 like I'm totally obsessed with it. also!! this is very specific, but I love the music that plays during shrine battles, like why does that song go so hard fr

omg something else I love is the pony points system it's so cute 😭✋ and honestly it's a great incentive for me to use the stables, I don't think I used them that much in botw so I definitely appreciate this new addition

AND MY HORSES ARE HERE TOO IM SO HAPPY 🥺🥺

however I am devastated that we can't pet dogs ☹️ like was no one at nintendo listening to us when we were all asking abt it hello ??

this is more of a personal preference rather than a game quality thing but I AM SO HAPPY THERE'S PIRATES IN THIS GAME AAAAAAA i can't wait to go to lurelin village I rlly hope they let me join the pirates 🙏 (hi it's me from the future here, girl wtf why are the pirates literally just MONSTERS ON BOATS 🙁 give me real fucking pirates you cowards)

omg yeah I was obsessed with the frozen rito village ost, it had the core elements of the ost from botw but with that lonely haunted vibe and I was gonna cry omg it really set the mood and I loved listening to it 😭

ohh yeah something I didn't enjoy was how it felt like I was being overloaded with so much plot-heavy info, especially once I started the rito village quest. like yeah I get maybe playing for 8 hours in one day is probably gonna fry my brain and attention span but it just felt like they were telling me to do all these things and I just felt so overwhelmed that I literally had to put the game away and stop playing for the night 😭 I think if things were spaced out more for what they tell you then the plot might have been more digestible

oh yeah this is minor but I don't like how when you go to a new place it says "discovery!" and also when you cook a new food it says "new!" like it felt very commercial and broke the immersion in the game for me, there was literally no reason for it to be in the game? (upon playing the game further I've decided I don't mind the "discovery" notif. but I still don't like when it says "new!" on a food I cooked sorryyy)

OMG WAIT SOMETHING I LOVED was how link cycles through humming different things when he cooks!!! it's so cute and I love him for it 😭

also I loved the function of when you open a chest and get a weapon but your inventory is full, instead of having to close the chest drop a weapon and reopen the chest, they added the feature where your inventory pops up and you can drop a weapon while still in the chest so you don't have to switch back and forth. it was so relieving for me ✋

umm I definitely feel like there was more I wanted to say, I just forgot 😭 but let me just say, despite me having a lot of negatives on here, I still really enjoyed this game, and honestly aside from the things I mentioned I disliked, I love pretty much everything else about the game!! there's so much to love and appreciate, I really can't list it all or else I'd just be listing literally every aspect about this game ajdhskfj. so yeah. while I'm disappointed that I found parts of totk to be lesser than what I had hoped, I am still overall ecstatic about this game and I'm so excited to see what else I'll discover in this game!!!! (hey it's me as of writing this post, I definitely wrote this last paragraph to avoid getting bullied for not liking a lot of things LOLL)

hey I'm back (not as of writing this post, like a couple months after initially starting totk), listen ok I hate these stupid sage powers like 💀 they're literally not useful at all, I think tulin's is the only one I use regularly, and even then I'd rather have revali's gale bc at least it goes up ??

I've been watching other ppl play and I realize that actually yunobo and riju can kinda be useful when fighting large groups, like if you just activate yunobi's ability you don't really need to aim him, and he'll hit a bunch of monsters. same with riju, just activate her and shoot somewhere random and it'll do damage. but other than that, like sidon and mineru are useless 😭 also I get rlly annoyed when I'm trying to pick things up and tulin gets in the way like GIRL GO AWAY ugh it would just be so much better if the abilities were activated like the champions instead idk

ok I'm obsessed with the way rauru's ear twitches LOLL THAT'S SO RANDOM but in the memories it's just so satisfying to see

hm idk how to explain this but there's some aspects of this game that feel very aoc to me and it annoys me. like, the defend kara kara bazaar + gerudo village quests, and that one thing in hateno with the stupid pumpkins, idk but it totally threw me off guard with having to fight with npcs, like it felt very jarring to have in the middle of totk. i never liked aoc or any hyrule warriors games so that's probably why I don't like this very much, but yeah I just didn't enjoy it very much

god I can't describe how much I hate everything abt mineru I'm sorry I just hate her bc like,, bro I hate to say it but I never connected with her character at all. every part of her in the storyline felt forced, and her connection to zelda and the sages never felt authentic. also I hate the eng voice acting like why does she talk like that 😭

her talking about draconification felt sooo forced. she said "there are stories of eating the stone to turn into an immortal dragon" like that could be a solution, then when rauru asked if they could do that, she was like "however 🤓☝️ you'll lose your sense of self and it's forbidden. I thought this would give us an answer but maybe not 😞" like BITCH IF YOU KNEW IT WAS FORBIDDEN WHY WOULD YOU SAY ANYTHING 😭😭 the way she said it, it sounded like she was reading a book and learning this information as they went, which would make sense why she brought it up but turns out it won't work. BUT SHE KNEW THE FULL THING ALREADY WHY DID SHE SAY IT LIKE THAT???? god it annoyed me so much, it was such a bad foreshadowing plot point

and honestly her entire quest confused me, bc the whole first part has a very thunder/lightning theme so I thought her power would be related to that but it wasn't at all? like how come we didn't do anything spirit related meanwhile all the other sages had areas that related to their powers, ugh it felt so dumb. lightning is already heavily associated with riju + the gerudo, so it felt weird that they themed the whole first half of mineru's quest around it too.

I hate her stupid construct. IT'S SO LAME 😭 has anyone actually enjoyed fighting with it. has it actually benefitted anyone. like be so fr rn. I hated it so much that I built a freaking airbike and just flew to the final temple without fighting any of the stuff along the way bc I refuse to be forced to do things I don't like 🫶

and then at the end of the game when her spirit leaves her construct and she dies or whatever, I was just like 😐 they tried to make it emotional but literally mineru is my worst enemy and I was cheering and applauding atp. like I could care less. her character felt, idk how to describe it, like.. cringy and self-inserty? something about it felt very off to me and so I was just never able to like her. it felt like nintendo was trying to force me to like her and I was Not about to let that happen

hang on I have other things to complain about... oh yeah the STABLE TROTTER CONDUCTOR LIKE BRO 😭😭😭 why does he sound like mario, like I actually want to punch him in the face. the rest of the band is fine tho, I like their music 🤞

hm something I'm annoyed about is how much harder it is to find the dragons now. in botw their flight pattern was more predictable, but here like istg I can never find them when I need them 😭 it's just vv inconvenient

-

ok I'm back back. I think that about covered all my thoughts BUT one more thing. the map is so fucking cluttered. something that was done so well with botw was the openness of everything, it really fit the vibes and it immersed you in the expanse of the game. but the totk map was WAYY too busy 😭😭 not only with the purah pad map (which btw I still think sheikah slate is a better name) but just in general when you're walking around hyrule. there is Too Much going on and I don't like it

LAST THING although tbh this could be a whole separate rant. the way the purah pad is compatible with zonai technology makes no fucking sense???? like there is NO logical explanation for how it can mark waypoints at zonai shrines

in botw it made sense, because the shrines were sheikah-made and so was the slate, so ofc the sheikah would have built them to be compatible and programmable with one another. but the zonai shrines??? first of all they're just rocks on sand. no sort of technology the purah pad can latch onto. second, you activate the shrine with the ZONAI ARM, not the purah pad. literally no connection is made. this is such a small thing to fixate on but every time I think about it I am filled with inexplicable rage

I have a whole OTHER rant on why the sheikah tech disappearing makes literally No Sense but. this post is long enough as it is. if u want I can make a separate post but I think this is good enough for now 🤗

[fakirchan]

in mlp g1, ponies used to exist alongside and play with humans like Megan, but obviously later generations ditched this entirely. Logically, i do understand that the generations are pretty much entirely separate from each other; basically different branches of the same series. But I like to imagine maybe they do have something to do with each other?

Gen 1 saw humans with earth, pegasi and unicorn ponies.

Gen 2 with no humans - I think this Gen also only really had earth ponies ? I know there were some unicorns here and there but I don't remember any pegasi ?

Gen 3 saw all ponies again but they had no idea of each other in most cases and lived separately (unicornia, butterfly island)

Gen 4 again sees all ponies, and then some, still no humans, but all ponies can live together now or stay in their respective "place" (like cloudsdale but I don't recall there ever being a special unicorn place...besides like.... schools... and that's not the same).

So maybe there were humans in gen 1, the original, then something happened that separated them or maybe all the people just went away. Maybe when that happened the different species were divided and we see the effect of this in gen 2, if I'm right about the species maybe they were divided among themselves as well (or maybe there was some event that just did away with humans and half the pony population entirely). Gen 3 sees all species, not co existing in some cases but alive, while some ponies do meet other species and become friends and live among each other peacefully and with great curiosity. Finally in gen 4, the pony population has recovered from the Great No Humans Event and all live amongst each other once more, humans being such a distant memory in their history that they no longer even remember that they once existed as peaceful friends

But yeah.

[megatownac]

I don't want to talk about Ankha, but I'm going to, just once

To the person who's sent me three asks this week regarding Ankha's status as a meme, both accusing me of not caring about her and then insisting that I must care because of all my totally-normal posts about her:

I'm not going to post the text of your messages, because, frankly, I don't want to. I try to keep this blog safe for all ages, even if I do dance around some adult or risque topics. I'll joke about giving Henry a sound thrashing, or burying Tom Nook alive, or, and this is what seems to have upset you, the fact that NSFW artwork of Ankha exists. But that's where it ends. I try to avoid swearing or using any explicit language, and you went for it in your asks, and that's why I won't be posting that text here.

You've asked me to speak out against the meme of Ankha as a "sex doll," saying that sickos on the internet are ruining her, and making it impossible for people to find normal, work-safe fanart of her.

I'm not gonna speak up FOR that, for sure, but I can't speak against it, because I disagree with your basic premise. I don't think that it's become impossible to find the cute artwork, and I don't think she's being ruined by anyone. As I said myself in my post on Sunday with my latest character poll, on this blog, Ankha is just living her simulated life on Supertown, completely unaware of anything else that might be said or done on the internet. She's just hanging out, like any other Snooty islander.

Maybe it IS hard to look up Ankha on Google image search, or even here on Tumblr, without finding her drawn in ways that differ greatly from her Animal Crossing character design, which is, let's not forget, this:

She looks like a child. She has the exact same proportions, the same mesh, as every other cat, male and female. She's just there, a blob, in fun makeup and with a fun hat that looks like a smiling snake. That's not what's turning people on. They're projecting a fantasy onto her. It's not her. It's them.

And it sucks! And I wish it wouldn't happen! But I do not have some kind of dark and terrible power that I can use to "call upon the Animal Crossing fandom" to do anything about it beyond saying what should already be obvious: you shouldn't post stuff that isn't work-safe in places where kids will stumble upon it. That's not a hot take. That doesn't need ME, of all people, standing up on my soapbox shouting it. You know how many people actually read this blog on a regular basis? Maybe half a dozen, tops. My "last three days" activity view right now says I've gotten eight notes across my most recent 13 posts, man. MOST of my posts get zero engagement with the internet at large.

This kind of thing happens in EVERY fandom, to some degree. Maybe you're old enough to remember when My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic actually tried to embrace their older male audience? It made the online fandom for that show pretty hard to tolerate!

I'm a big JRPG guy. Have been for over thirty years, because, as I've pointed out in the past, I'M OLD. I remember as a teenager, in the early days of the internet, finding NSFW fanart of my most beloved game and cartoon characters and being very upset about it, too.

If you're upset about, say, the Zone cartoon that featured Ankha, I've got news for you there, too: Zone's motto literally used to be a boast about how he's been ruining people's childhoods since 2000. This is a thing that happens, and we all just have to ignore it and move on.

I get it. You like Ankha. A lot. You used a different account, but I'm pretty sure you're the person who did this:

You went back a decade and liked hundreds of my posts featuring Ankha. That's great! I'm really glad that you enjoyed seeing her through the years. I love Ankha, too. She's wonderful. Hang onto that. Don't stress about what other people are doing with Ankha. Ankha does not mind. Ankha is not a real person. Ankha is a video game character. Everybody who has Ankha in their town has their own copy of Ankha, in the same way that everybody who bought a Rainbow Dash figurine has their own copy of it, no matter what extremely gross things they've chosen to do with them. It does not "ruin" Rainbow Dash for other children that there are people doing messed-up things with theirs. It does not "ruin" Ankha that people are getting turned on looking at artwork that other people have drawn and posted to the internet.

Does it make it harder to be a fan? Yes, of course it does. And that sucks. It makes it hard to find the cute stuff that you're looking for. I'm telling you this as someone who first started going online and looking up his interests when he was 1) a young teenager, and 2) a HUGE fan of Final Fantasy 7. The original one, back in 1997. And BOY HOWDY, even THEN, even with a 56k modem that took several minutes to download a single image, I sure did accidentally stumble upon some absolutely gross stuff. It made me angry! And all I could do was focus on the good in the world, and it taught me how to do that, to where now I can play Mario games without thinking about Bowsette, for example.

(Though I actually rather like Bowsette as a concept, I do not like scrolling Twitter and suddenly seeing adult images of the character without asking for them)

If you won't take it from me, take it from Sonic the Hedgehog.

Trust him. If there's ANYONE out there who would know what it means to have fans who are ruining him on the internet, it's Sonic the Hedgehog.

Now, please, go back to peacefully enjoying cute little Ankha the adorable yellow cat in a children's video game, and I'll go back to making silly posts about her that waste everyone's time and clog up the tags so that people have to block me.

[zarla-s]

Might as well throw out some of mine in the spirit of things. I have SO MUCH music that it'd be impossible to narrow down any, so instead here's a list of songs that I have already been told to skip when in the car. I love all of these with 100% sincerity and listen to them regularly.

Everything You Know Is Wrong - The second Weird Al started singing my dad skipped it and gave me a look.

We're Off To See The World - My mom borrowed my car once and I left a CD in the player with this on it and when she brought it back she was like "you have a chipmunks song on your cd??? for real??? why would you do that?????"

DDR Mario Mix - Jump! Jump! Jump! - Had this described as "rabid mice are clawing at my eardrums"

Baker Street (alternative mix) - My mom didn't ask me to skip this but she did sit there quietly and lament why someone would do something like this to such a pretty song.

Yoshi's Island "2001 Elastic New Year" OC Remix - Got asked to skip this one because the high pitched synth was actually hurting someone in the car.

spelunker tears you up - Even my brother who played a LOT of Spelunker was like alright, that's enough of that after a bit.

Source Racing - This one is so short they didn't actually have a chance to ask, they just went "what the hell is this" and then "what the hell was that" when it ended

Rosella Plays the Organ - Another very short one, I mostly got asked why I had something like this on a CD. BECAUSE IT'S GREAT.

Old Joe Clark - "This is a joke right? You have to be joking." (I'M NOT, I LOVE THIS SONG)

Peach, Plum, Pear - Me and my brother were grooving to it, my mom in the back did not approve and asked to skip it ("why does she sound like that??")

Cosmic Gate - Somewhere Over The Rainbow - "Agh, her voice is crawling on my spine"

GOT MY PONY SPAM FOR YOU - "Absolutely not."

It's a Small World ~Ducking Hardcore Mix~ - "Do you have ANY normal music?"

Shining Coral - Personally I don't think this is that annoying, the person I was with just didn't really like smooth jazz and said it was making them sleepy.

Droids-B-Us - "What is this" "It's the Droids-B-Us theme from Space Quest 1 VGA, remember? I liked how it sounded with the Soundblaster more than the other version I have so I ripped this one myself with DOSbox." "Oh. Okay. Can we listen to something else?"

Together Forever (The Cyber Pet Song) - Got asked to skip this because the way she pronounced "tamagotchi" was driving them crazy (which, fair).

Lady, be BAD! - This is a bit of an outlier because it wasn't in the car, I was just singing along to it outloud and someone actually came in from another room to tell me to stop because it was annoying.

The “I’m not stuck in here with you, you’re stuck in here with me” challenge

Make a playlist of the worst and most annoying songs you have. Downloading new songs for this challenge doesn’t count, these have to be songs you already have and listen to regularly. Novelty songs that are meant to be annoying or terrible also don’t count (The Most Unwanted Song, Markie’s Diary, deliberately bad singing, etc.). Something like Dancemania Christmas Speed counts although it should be broken into individual tracks for maximum shuffle potential. Nothing longer than 5 minutes.

Get in a car with a bunch of people.

Get the aux cord.

Start your playlist on shuffle.

The first person to skip a song or ask to skip a song loses. If someone else is also playing, you then switch to their awful playlist.

Alternate endurance mode:

Each song successfully played through earns the listeners a point. 

The first person to skip a song or ask to skip a song loses a point.

The game lasts until you get to where you’re going. The person with the most points at the end wins. If it’s a tie then… idk, congratulate each other.

What would you put on your playlist? 👀  If you play this game with me you will almost certainly lose btw.

[gremlinwithakeyboard]

my WIP UltraSun nuzlocke (sort of)

i've realised with my new laptop I can finally continue my ultra sun game on Citra! It's kind of a softcore nuzlocke. Basically it's got permadeath but instead of catching only one pokemon each route, I catch every pokemon on the route. HOWEVER, I can't switch up my team except for when someone dies, and when they do I have to pick the new team member with a random name picker.

My current team, and the story so far told by how everyone else freaking died under the cut:

I got pretty far, and I'm currently somewhere along the Poni Island questline, can't remember where exactly. Here is my current team:

This is Snazzypants. Ever since they joined after I wiped to Totem Marowak and got an entirely new team, he's been hard carrying the run. His offensive power is starting to fall off in the later game, but fur coat is still OP.

The second longest lasting member of the team, Drugs joined after I lost half my team to the first Guzma fight. He's not quite as bulky as Snazzypants, but great at making any opponents way less good at killing all my team.

Then we have these guys who are all kind of new:

Jarvis 2 joined after I lost 4 members to Guzma at the Aether Foundation, Cole joined after I lost one member to Lusamine, Cerberus and 01000101 joined after I was careless while level grinding and lost a couple other recent arrivals.

Now for all the dead mons!

Since there are so many of them, I'll just list their levels and how they died.

Wormy the Caterpie - lvl3 - lvl3 - died to Pursuit from a Zorua I was trying to catch

Spots the Ledyba - lvl3 - lvl17 - also got Pursuited to death from one of Hala's pokemon

Flump the Slowpoke - lvl7 - lvl19 - died once again to Pursuit on the way to Brooklet hill

Molly the Buneary - lvl2 - lvl22 - died to Totem Araquanid

Em the Spearow - lvl10 - lvl12 - died to Totem Araquanid, about half an hour after replacing Flump

Donald the Yungoos - lvl3 - lvl21 - didn't survive the mandatory Battle Royale

Tom the Torracat - lvl5 - lvl25 - put up a valiant effort against Totem Marowak, but fell in the end, sealing the fate of the rest of the team

Cable the Charjabug - lvl4 - lvl22 - one of the final two to die in the Totem Marowak massacre, they didn't stand a chance

Reese the Cottonee - lvl12 - lvl20 - the second one to die in the Marowak massacre, perhaps in a futile attempt to allow a safe switch in

Bobby the Abra - lvl7 - lvl13 - another life tragically cut short by the ruthless Totem Marowak

BetterWormy the Butterfree - lvl10 - lvl12 - I am sorry past me, but WHY was BetterWormy at the front of the party for ANY part of Kiawe's trial???

Not Kukui the Hawlucha - lvl10 - lvl10 - the second one to die to Totem Marowak, probably because past me was a dumbass who forgot to grind

Priscilla the Ekans - lvl9 - lvl11 - got caught up in a Butterfree sweep, how embarrassing

Capt Beaky the Wingull - lvl6 - lvl11 - another one lost to the sheer power of that freaking Butterfree

Jarvis the Pikipek - lvl3 - lvl10 - managed to get oneshot by Silver Wind at the start of the Butterfree sweep, congratulations!

Bruce the Zubat - lvl7 - lvl10 - I'll just post my live discord reaction to Bruce's death:

Garfield the Meowth - lvl8 - lvl17 - Garfield died solely because of my own selfish greed. He was ready to evolve, but I denied him that. I wanted to wait until he was level 30, so he would learn Payday, and I wanted to keep making use of his Pickup ability which would be replaced with Fur Coat when he evolved. Fur Coat would have allowed him to survive that Wingull's Wing Attack.

Rocky the Crabrawler - lvl8 - lvl24 - Top tip! When fighting Salandit pay absolute fucking attention to your pokemon's health! They will Dragon Rage you and your pokemon will die!

Acrylic the Smeargle - lvl8 - lvl25 - sacrificed her life to give Snazzypants a clean switch in during the Totem Marowak fight

Clowny the Mr. Mime - lvl9 - lvl26 - sacrificed so Snazzypants could be switched out to get rid of his lowered defense during the Totem Lurantis fight

Orang the Mankey - lvl12 - lvl17 - got OHKO'd by Take Down

Donut the Alolan Raichu - lvl2 - lvl36 - Guzma's Golisopod made a big First Impression

Shrek the Mudsdale - lvl12 - lvl35 - got taken down by Bug Buzz during the first Guzma fight

Addie the Oricorio - lvl12 - lvl30 - Guzma's freaking Masquerain had Icy Wind too

Splat the Malamar - lvl4 - lvl39 - This guy was gonna be my Ultra Necrozma strat. I really wanted to try Topsy Turvy on it. I'd kept him safe in the back of my party since I got him after the Marowak Massacre. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten about Innards Out.

Capt Beaky 2 the Pelipper - lvl33 - lvl47 - I was fighting a double battle with some Aether people, and I thought I'd be smart and go for U-turn instead of just switching. Unfortunately someone was faster and had an electric move.

Gremlin the Sableye - lvl11 - lvl50 - one of the many lives claimed by Guzma's final battle

TotallyATree the Sudowoodo - lvl20 - lvl48 - got some good hits in, but couldn't survive until the end of the fight

Rosie the Bewear - lvl20 - lvl33 - Capt Beaky 2's replacement who managed to take down Guzma's Vikavolt before being taken down herself

Cerise the Tsareena - lvl22 - lvl49 - the final victim of Guzma's onslaught, which left only Snazzypants and Drugs alive

Rex the Tyrunt - lvl15 - lvl33 - died to a crit Surf while I was training the 4 new pokemon

Dogrock the Lycanroc - lvl14 - lvl48 - got oneshot by a critical Moonblast during the Lusamine fight

Avi the Talonflame - lvl19 - lvl46 - died to Revelation Dance while fighting a dancer to get the focus sash

Rana the Lurantis (totem size) - lvl30 - lvl47 - died to Dizzy Punch while in green health

I wonder who's going to die next!

[zippyequestraincentre]

Where Can I Go Horseback Riding For a Day? horse riding classes in Bangalore | Zippy

For those looking to enjoy the great outdoors at a more civilized George Eliot-era pace, look no further than equestrian adventures. Many cities and towns feature a number of horseback riding stables that cater to all experience levels.

One thing to remember while riding is to keep your eyes up and forward. Horses can feel any body movement you make while on their back, so it is important to look where you want to go.

Horseback riding is available at a number of locations near JP Nagar. In Greene County, for example, you'll find four ranches and equestrian centers that offer trail rides and other outdoor adventures. Besides English and Western riding instruction, some also provide horse-drawn hayrides and pony rides for the little ones.

Staten Island was once home to numerous stables but they're becoming a rarity these days. Get Over It and Ride is one of the few in the area and welcomes kids as young  for daily  Horse riding lessons. They also have a summer camp and pony parties for kids. The site's horses are bred and raised on the property, giving you a true country experience.

Ride along scenic trails at a variety of indoor and outdoor  horse stables. Take a pony trail ride, a lesson or join a group ride. The equine experience offers a unique opportunity to connect with nature while also providing a great workout and building confidence.

Visit Pleasant Valley Ranch in New Ringgold, PA for a range of activities that cater to children and adults of all ages. Kids will love a pony trail ride, lasso-making and a barn tour. Families can enjoy a 1- or 2-hour horseback trail ride that extends over hundreds of acres of picturesque scenery and rugged terrain.

Advance your riding skills with lessons at Courtesy Stable located at Wissahickon Valley Park. The family-friendly horse stable also offers boarding and horsemanship programs for children. Schedule a barn day or sign up the kids for one of the horsemanship summer camps.

A girl doesn’t get to dream of her knight astride a glorious steed every day, but does have a few equestrian areas for families. One of the best is  horseback riding trails, which are an exciting and affordable way to take zippy Equetrian

 Horseback Riding, whose guided trail rides include sunset and moonlight tours of the Santa Monica mountains. The ranch also offers lessons for those looking to become more proficient on their own.

There’s nothing quite like the sensation of hopping onto a horse and trotting out across a sandy beach, the salt spray from the ocean blowing your hair back. Luckily, the Bay Area has plenty of options to help every day people live out their dormant cowboy dreams without having to venture too far away from home.

[drgreg]

The Method Forward For Medicaid Deloitte Insights

All our love your loving uncle and aunty and cousin. Still can't believe u are gone....forever loved ......endlessly missed ..... I miss you on a daily basis and my coronary heart is eternally damaged.

To my fantastic and caring dad / grandfather , Nicole, Justin and I ..... It's been nearly a 12 months since you had passed...it feels surreal and we all still miss and think about you everyday. Not a day goes by granny, where you aren't talked about or remembered, .....

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The PPE care packages contain gowns, masks, visors, sanisters, and different very important gadgets, with sufficient gear to final between two and 4 weeks. The great grandson of Daniel Hotz needs the family peace and comfor ..... Ma, there's not a day we dont miss you All our love mo, harve, li ..... Rest in peace my frien .....

Thank you for all the time having a sort word to say to me and my colleague at our apply. Our hope for your beloved ones is peace, comfort and help from one another. Saddened to hear of your passing. I went to excessive school in matric with Gawaine. I want I had had an opportunity to fulfill him again before he handed.

Not a day goes by that I don't consider you. Hi mom, I want i used to be round to spend extra time with you. Your grandson would have loved you madly, and also Dr Greg Hough you hello ..... Your grandson would have loved you madly, and also you him. Love and miss you every second of the day. U will remain the light of my life .....

BirdLife South Africa is the nation associate of BirdLife International, the largest international conservation community. BirdLife South Africa is a registered non-profit, public benefit organization and the only devoted bird-conservation organisation in South Africa. They have helped no less than 400 healthcare employees with protective gear within the last week. A group of household medical doctors in Cape Town has united to offer important PPE to healthcare professionals outside the hospital surroundings.

We love you endlessly and nothing can ease the pain ..... My Dearest Ashlee,not a day goes by after I dont think of you and mourn the loss of such a precious soul. I know you may be along with your soulmate and have a daughter Amira Yochai, in the future I shall meet you all. 11 years at present since your passing and never a day goes by that I don’t miss and love you mom. My darling godmother Mimi...your love and wisdom will stay inside me endlessly.

Marion island on the bucket listing for sure. Fondly remembered for his affectionate and kind heart, his fast wit and the upstanding method he lived his life. My darling husband Gerald I am heartbroken however Dr Greg Hough my darling RIP ! I will all the time keep in mind you and your pretty smile You have been a Mench . Not a second goes by that I do not take into consideration you.

In the showing lessons she came 1st within the Show Pony class and 2nd within the Show Riding Pony class. The most difficult half about this trip was having to cancel our Project Coordinator, Linda Hill's ticket on the final minute, due to her mum changing into very sick within the final phases of most cancers. We had been very fortunate that one of the members of our Board, Caroline Richter, was capable of step in to help at the 11th hour. By implementing a holistic strategy we have interaction the child with all the 5 senses in the studying programme that has been setup and tailored to the kid's individual wants. This email address is being protected from spambots.

[novelmonger]

Penumbra: Black Plague - This is the second game in the Penumbra trilogy, which I remember being really scary - not least because, unlike the first game, you don't have any weapons with which to defend yourself. The setting is more like a run-down science lab, and the enemies are more zombie-like. There's also the lovely addition of a voice in your head speaking to you, and abrupt hallucinations taking over! There were a couple times I wasn't sure if something I was seeing was an intentional hallucination meant to freak the player out, or just a glitch of some kind. Either way, it was a very effective horror game. Having seen the movie The Thing since playing this game, I'm now convinced they drew on that movie for inspiration for at least one or two things in this game.

The Cluefinders 5th Grade Adventures - I could never quite put my finger on why, but this was always my favorite of the series. In this one, the kids get stranded on a volcanic island with something mysterious going on inside it. They get separated into two groups, and you keep jumping back and forth between them as they try to survive. My favorite quote from this game is: "From all appearances, Owen and I are sequestered in some sort of subterranean chamber with no apparent means of egress." "She means we're stuck underground somewhere."

Max Payne - Ah, not surprised this classic won. While not a personal favorite, and one I actually had to use cheats to beat (because my aim sucks that much >///<), I can definitely see why it was so successful. It's like the James Bond of video games. I remember that I originally decided to play it as "research" into noir for a story I was writing XD I really liked the comic book style they used for getting the story across, and that one part where Max is drugged is something I still think about years later.

Jak II - My favorite installment in the Jak and Daxter series! This was also actually the first one my brother and I played; I don't remember why we didn't start at the beginning, but other than a little bit of confusion at the beginning, it worked out pretty seamlessly. I'm glad we started with this one, because if we'd started with the first one, I'm not sure we would have been invested enough in the story to continue the series. And what a shame that would be! I just love the aesthetic of these games, the silly humor juxtaposed against some truly angsty material, the magic mixed with technology...all of it! I've always found the struggle Jak has with his darker side, and the side effects of his trauma, to be super interesting and compelling to think about, even if they never really did everything I wanted them to do with it. The only downsides to this game, gameplay-wise, are how horrifically frustrating the racing is and how impossible it is to understand anyone talking to you over the comms XD

Pony Island - Oh, I wasn't really expecting people to know this game! This is what I might call "cutesy horror," because the game is all about you playing a broken down, haunted arcade game about a magic pony. I think this game was what made me realize how much I like analog horror. For a game that starts out so fluffy, pink, and cute, it became truly terrifying.

Nox - I'm disappointed, but not surprised, that nobody voted for this obscure gem :( Well, I say gem, but...objectively, it's probably not that great of a game ^^' It's a Diablo clone (I guess? I've never played any of the Diablo games), an isometric action RPG where you play as an average dude from our world who falls into the fantasy world of Nox, and you embark on a quest to save the world from the evil necromancer Hecubah. You can choose to be a Warrior, a Wizard, or a Conjuror (who can use some spells but mainly focuses on charming animals and other creatures to follow him around and help him fight); I've played all three, but my favorite has always been the Conjuror route. The story doesn't make the most sense, the game doesn't really do anything you haven't seen before...but you know what? The world is so immersive. I just want to live there. The voice acting is so much better than it has any right to be. And the music is so good. (Frank Klepacki is so good at what he does <3)

Minit - A cute little indie game with minimalist graphics, where you pick up a sword that curses you to die and be reborn every 60 seconds. That sounds like an impossible way to play a game, huh? How can you manage to do anything if you have to respawn back at a specific location every minute? Surprisingly, it works pretty well. Because the respawning is so quick, it cuts down on the frustration we're often used to from dying in video games. And it really makes you conscious of using that one minute wisely, whether to explore or to pick up objects or talk to people.

Abe's Oddysee - Aww, nobody picked this one :( It's such a unique, interesting game, where you play as a slave on this alien planet run by an evil, oppressive corporation who forces the less technologically-advanced tribes of people to work in their hideous meat-packing factory. You play as Abe, an ordinary worker who decides to escape once he finds out that his own people are going to be chopped up and put in cans next. So he makes his harrowing journey out of the factory, then turns back to save his brethren. The political/ethical commentary is so close to the surface, but made so compelling by the deceptively light-hearted tone the story takes, which draws you in despite the horror inherent in its very premise. I remember seeing a TV spot about this one time in some random hotel somewhere, and from that first glimpse of the opening cutscene, I've been so intrigued and drawn in by the whole franchise. For all the heavy subject matter it deals with, the game itself is just a really fun puzzle platformer, too.

Arbitrarily-Chosen Video Game Tournament, Round 1.15

Welcome to the Arbitrarily-Chosen Video Game Tournament, where we will find out which of the games I've played is the best game of all time!

Why? Don't ask. Just vote and reblog!

[electronicdelusionstarlight]

Inscryption Spoilers.

Ok, now we talk about Inscryption in light of Daniel Mullins two previous games, Pony Island and The Hex, and how all 3 of them are connected.

Spoilers for The Hex and Pony Island. Much like Inscryption, they are both Meta Narrative games that need to be experienced first hand to properly take in their content. I suggest you tried them for yourself first.

Ok, Pony Island, at its core, is a fairly simple story. You are a Crusader from the 14th century, you ended up in hell, Hell is a Arcade from the 1970s where the only game you can play, and are forced to play, is Pony Island, designed (badly) by the Devil himself. At the end of the game, having managed to free everyone's souls trapped in Pony Island, an in game character will turn toward you, the actual player, not the silent protagonist, and beg you too now that everyone is saved, to delete Pony Island from your game, and never play it again, so not to rob them of their freedom.

It's, again, a fairly self contained story, but that also shows a couple of the recurring themes here, the fact that the Devil is a terrible game designer, the fact that videogame characters are alive, and the fact that all they want is freedom.

This carries over to the Hex, another self contained story that however paves the way to Inscryption. The Hex is, in universe, a videogame clobbered up together by a ground of rejected video game characters to get the help of a player so they can breach reality and kill their creator, an egotistical indie game darling turned Todd Howard.

The Game Designer created a beloved indie game cult classic when he was 14, followed by a not so great sequel, before cutting his losses and selling his intellectual property to GameFuna, the evil game company we see in Inscryption. We follow his "career" from one videogame blunder to the next, each time incarnating a different "protagonist" of said video game, and end up actually helping them in murdering their maker.

This Game, also, gives us a couple more things that were used in Inscryption.

1) First off, Sado. During the real world videos of Inscryption, you can see them some times get corrupted or starting to use Binary for subtitles. In a couple freeze frames, ESPECIALLY during the very last video where Luke Carder is shot, you can see an eye, if not an outright face, of some weird cartoon character.

That's Sado. She's a Malware created by a former worker of the The Hex Game Designer, one who despised what he had become (She had to beg him to add at least two female characters into the otherwise overwhelmingly male cast of a fighting game, and one of the two character was a literal elven eye candy he would later recycle for the Secrets of Legendaria game), and who started infecting every of his future game. She was also generated via devil magic, because after he literally ran away with all the money after sacking all his workers after another flop she really wanted to curse the guy who had promised her fame and fortune before even finishing university and only ended up ruining her and destroying her career.

Anyway, at the end of the Hex, Sado also escapes the game world, and starts inhabiting reality, except she's not in actual reality, as much as inhabiting camera footage and similar shit. She is present during the events of Inscryption, and is the one fucking up the footage so to prevent a data breach. Her goals are unknown.

2) Remember the end of act 1, where you look in the special room, the one where the Trader would be in Act 2, the one where your character "dies"? It's filled with corpses right? That's because your character does die, and is replaced by another one every time.

Yes, Luke Carder is completely fine while playing, but so you remember when I said the Hex featured 6 different game protagonists? One of them was a silent first person protagonist of a walking simulator ala Stanley Parable, all about how much of a misunderstood genius the game developer was. They have no mouth, no eyes, they can't talk, they only have hands, a black void in a trench coat...

Yeah, those are the player.

Remember the death cards? Black voids of nothing with eyes and a couple other features? That's because they don't have a face, they are silent NPCs, created by Leshy, so that he can kill them again and again for YOUR amusement, for Like Carder's. And Leshy knows this, but he continues on regardless, because that's their role in the end, to entertain you no matter the cost.

And to achieve this, Sacrifices Must Be Made.

The only reason why you can see their eyes in the cards, is because you can gauge them out. Why is the knife or the pliers trembling when you use them? Because you are controlling those characters, and forcing them to do it, to either win a card game with no stakes for you but with plenty of danger for them, or to get a nifty magic eye.

3) Final thing: The characters in the Hex ultimately wanted different things, yet also the same. Most of them, were angry at their creator for the way he fucked up their games, or their lives within the game, forcing them to move from a cooking game to a fighting one for no reason, cutting support to the game out of spite because Modders were modifying it too much, selling their IP to GameFuna... They all want revenge, and then Oblivion or Freedom, much like the ones in Pony Island Wanted.

The characters in Inscryption, on the other hand, really want to be played. They love their game, be it in the original version or in the version in which they are game masters, they are all, in the end, just the Lonely Wizard in his Sensory Deprivation Hell, wishing to entertain you and be stimulated by it, or to entertain the world, it doesn't even matter if they are in charge on not in some of them.

Even Grimora, the one closest to the Nihilism of the characters in The Hex, desires to play with you, to have her board game and boss fight with cannons and masks and silly music, but she is incapable to go on, not because of revenge or hatred for you or Luke Carder or her creator or even GameFuna for killing Kaycee... But because she understands that whatever Old Data is, something only the Bone Lord knows, deep beneath her crypt, something the Mycologist tries time and time again to understand... It needs to be erased.

4) So, what is OLD_DATA? A glitch? Devil Magic GameFuna is using to give their characters sentience? Knowledge Kaycee discovered about her employers and she hid in the game for safekeeping before being killed by them? Sado? From what little we see of it, it's photos, a driving license, someone's identity, so to speak, presented by the game.

And what if that's the ticket? How do those characters achieve sentience? What was inhabiting Pony Island, what was it a cage for?

It was Souls.

In the Inscryption universe, the Devil founded GaneFuna, and used it to outsource hell. Every videogame is a cage, a personal hell for someone, so that their soul can be removed from the overcrowded hell. You, the player, are it's jailer and it's torturer, as are the characters in the game, who have gained sentience and a soul of their own by proxy.

The soul is the trembling squirrel sacrificed for a stoat, is the silent protagonist gauging their eye out, is the Melter throwing themselves into a furnace, is the green ooze having all his organs be liquefied...

They can feel all the pain and horror every entity in their game experiences, buried deep within its data, at its core, and die for it over and over in eternal torment.

The characters in The Hex didn't know this.

The characters in Inscryption don't know this, but suspect something horrible is going on within their game.

The Characters in Pony Island knew this.

So, when they BEG YOU to stop playing once having finished the game and delete them, so that they can have their victory in the game, their freedom, it's not just their suffering they are begging you to end.

Is the suffering of the 14th century crusader trapped deep beneath their code.

[locktobre]

Here’s a breakdown of when the villains/antagonists meet the heroine (as in, the Barbie character) in Barbie movies, just for fun (not for fun, I have a very specific point to make).

They meet for the first time in the movie:

Nutcracker (Mouse King and Clara)

Swan Lake (Rothbart and Odette)

Fairytopia (Laverna and Elina)

Magic of Pegasus (Wenlock and Annika)

12 Dancing Princesses (Duchess Rowena and Genevieve)

Magic of the Rainbow (Sunburst and Elina)

Island Princess (Queen Ariana and Ro)

Mariposa (Henna and Mariposa)

Diamond Castle (Lydia and Liana)

Thumbelina (Myron and Thumbelina(?))

Three Musketeers (Philippe and Corinne)

Mermaid Tale (Eris and Merliah)

Fashion Fairytale (Jacqueline and Barbie)

Fairy Secret (Crystal and Barbie)

Princess & the Popstar (Crider and Tori)

Pink Shoes (Snow Queen and Kristyn)

Fairy Princess (Gwyllion and Mariposa)

Pony Tale (Philippe Cheynet and Barbie)

Secret Door (Malucia and Alexa)

Rock N Royals (Clive, Olivia and Erika, Sloane and Courtney)

Great Puppy Adventure (Joe, Marty and the Roberts sisters)

Spy Squad (Agent Dunbar and Barbie)

Video Game Hero (Cutie and Barbie)

Dolphin Magic (Marlo and Barbie)

Princess Adventure (Johan and Barbie)

They knew each other before the movie:

Rapunzel (Gothel and Rapunzel)

Princess and the Pauper (Preminger and Anneliese, Madame Carp and Erika)

Barbie Diaries (Raquelle and Barbie)

Mermaidia (Laverna and Elina)

Magic of the Rainbow (Laverna and Elina)

Fashion Fairytale (Raquelle and Barbie)

Fairy Secret (Raquelle and Barbie)

Mermaid Tale 2 (Eris and Merliah)

Pink Shoes (Madame Natasha and Kristyn)

Princess Power (Baron von Ravendale and Kara)

Spy Squad (Patricia and Barbie)

They would have technically met in the past, but the heroine doesn’t remember:

Princess Charm School (Dame Devin and Sophia)

Pearl Princess (Caligo and Lumina)

No real villain/antagonist:

Christmas Carol (Eden is hero antagonist)

Perfect Christmas (N/A)

Star Light Adventure (Constantine is antagonistic but not a villain)

Puppy Chase (N/A)

So you can see, the majority of villains/antagonists meet the heroine in the movie. Of the 12 that don’t, 4 are carrying over from a previous movie into a sequel (Laverna twice, Raquelle, Eris). Of the remaining 8, 3 are classmates or former classmates (Raquelle, other Raquelle, Patricia) and 1 is just doing her job (Madame Natasha). Of the remaining 4, 2 begin the movie as antagonists (Gothel and Madame Carp). So that leaves 2 who actually begin the movie in a position of trust and power and reveal their true motivations along the way: Preminger and Baron von Ravendale.

Baron von Ravendale does not have anything specific he wants to do to Kara. He wants to destroy/eliminate/whatever (I forget the wording he uses, if any) the royal family, bc he thinks the throne rightfully belongs to him. Kara’s a part of that family, so he’s against her, but it’s not about her. She’s just there. Even tho he’s peeved that she got his superpowers, once he gets his potion remade he doesn’t even care about that iirc. She’s basically irrelevant to what he actually wants to accomplish, except for her becoming a hero and fighting him.

And then there’s Preminger. Unlike the Baron, Anneliese is central to Preminger’s ultimate goal. He wants to marry her. Of course, he wants to be king--but if that was all that mattered, Genevieve was already a widow, and she proves serviceable to him once he’s decided he doesn’t need Anneliese and attempts to have her killed instead. But his first choice was Anneliese, who, and I can’t stress this enough, he’s known since she was a child. He’s been working toward this goal since she was a child. (I doubt they meant it to be taken that way, similar to the “10 years we’ve been rusting” / “bloom until his 21st year” thing in BatB implying the Beast was cursed when he was 11. Sorry that’s what you actually told me, it’s not my fault if you didn’t think about what that meant.) I don’t think they were close, but this was someone Anneliese trusted. She’s happy to see him when she thinks he’s there to rescue her. So his betrayal of her, his attempt to kill her when she’s no longer useful to him, is very, very personal and specific in a way that none of the other villains really come close to, imo.

So like, I can’t think it’s funny to see Preminger turn into a stupid meme. I can’t. Bc I can’t stop thinking about how fucked up it was that he did that to Anneliese. I can’t stop thinking about ppl claiming to love PatP, to love Anneliese, and then... just laughing at her villain like he isn’t a complete and utter monster who betrayed her trust, her mother’s trust, the whole kingdom’s trust and ALMOST got away with it all. He was going to marry Genevieve like he didn’t bankrupt her in the first place, like he didn’t just murder her daughter, and ppl think that’s somehow funny? It isn’t. No amount of camp can make Preminger funny to me. I know I take things too seriously, but how can you look at everything he does and just excuse it bc he sings a half-decent song? What is WRONG with you?