#probably will never be reused

[andthebubbles]

not me thinking about playing snowrunner again... maybe bc i just wanna buy myself a xmas present in the form of that year 2 pass or whatever it was. plus, i have plenty of time today except was i not posting the next chapter of superpowers fic lol 

but yeah i kinda wanna do more on the first michigan map and maybe the second... like, did what i’d done before when i... acquired the game via other means to try it out to see if i liked it. and then i bought it!! but yeah. plus, if i get the year 2 pass, i can check out new maps... last i checked i didn’t really like any of the new scouts though... i like my yar 87 :3

alternative self-bought xmas present would be buying some sims 4 packs grrrr i really want the paranormal pack, the werewolf pack and the dream home decorator pack, but they haven’t gone down to 50% off yet

(and then after xmas i plan on getting lots of things for the car if the sales are good, like the ERP thing, sound deadening, garmin overlander, another pair of maxtrax, a dashcam, maaaaaybe a roof rack, and i should work out the air compressor shit and get a tyre repair kit. yep!! that’s kinda a list in terms of priority/what will be done next/soon.)

[wdiao]

I had to draw Papyrus to match my sans drawing.

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Shadowstruck: Chapter One

The room had too many shadows. They filled the corners of Mama’s sick room, where heavy velvet curtains blocked the noise of passing carriages. They stretched from her bedposts, from the doctor’s medicines and instruments sitting next to the kerosene lamp on her bedside table. Sometimes one looked alarmingly human-shaped, and Clara feared the worst, until she saw the faint flickering heartlight around Mama’s form.

Mama’s heartlight, usually a bright, cheerful yellow, had faded to the color of old paper, barely visible in that dim room. Clara’s heartlight, as always, matched it to a shade, which made her feel like she was dying, too.

In Clara’s twelve years of life, she could barely remember spending more than an hour away from her mother. Mama had been her playmate, her caretaker, her teacher, her greatest friend.

Clara held Mama’s hand between both of hers, trying to rub some warmth into the cold fingers. Suddenly, Mama’s heartlight flared like a camera bulb. Her eyes flew open and she clutched at Clara’s arms. “Jeff!” she cried, as if watching him drown. “Jeff!”

Dr. Chambers' nurse rushed from her shadowed corner to Mama’s bedside; her comforting lavender heartlight glowed faintly around Mama’s head as she tried to calm her. “Your husband is well, Mrs. Lynwood. You should rest.”

Mama pushed away the nurse’s hands. “Where’s Jeff? I must speak to him!”

Neither Clara nor the nurse could quiet her, so at last the nurse called for the shade.

The boy--who seemed to be a year or two younger than Clara--looked pale and harmless, but he gave Clara the shivers. Papa didn't keep any shades--had never let any in the house until the nurse insisted she needed the extra hands--so this one, casting a shadow instead of a heartlight, looked like an unnatural intruder in this civilized room.

The nurse ordered the shade to fetch Papa from the Senate. The moment he left the room, Mama fell back against the pillows, exhausted.

Clara shuddered as the boy's long, black shadow slithered down the hallway before him. “Papa won’t come with a shade,” she said.

“He’ll come for your mother,” the nurse replied.

And the nurse was right. Papa burst into the room minutes later, the black sash of his senatorial robe still waving behind him, his orange heartlight as strong and vibrant as he was.

Jefferson Lynwood looked nothing like a famed, formidable senator as he rushed to kneel beside his wife's bed.

“I’m here, Minna!” he said, taking her hand.

Mama’s heartlight was dimmer than Clara had ever seen it, but her eyes were wide open and her whisper was strong. “Promise me, Jeff. No matter what happens, promise me you will care for Clara.”

Papa cast a quizzical glance at Clara. Clara didn’t understand it any more than he did. She was much younger than her brothers, and Papa stayed busy with senatorial work, but he was still as fond a father as she could ask for.

“Of course I will, darling,” Papa soothed. “You’ve nothing to worry about.”

Mama gripped his shoulders and looked into his face. “No matter what happens,” she insisted. “Promise me you will care for her as your daughter.”

“I would never do anything less.”

“Swear it!”

“I swear it, Minna, on my own right hand.”

Mama fell back against her pillows, satisfied. She was asleep within moments.

Papa shared a look with Clara. “Do you understand it, Clara?” His mustache twitched. “Has she given you reason to think you’re not--”

“No. Never.”

Papa shook his head. “Probably raving. Chambers warned me that might happen, near the end.” Papa scowled back at the doorway. “Probably comes of being around shades. I told Chambers I didn’t want those creatures near her!”

Clara had heard all his lectures about the dangers of shades—how they were soulless, shadow-casting creatures who fed off the heartlights of humans. Shades looked human-shaped to Clara, and Mama urged her to treat them with respect, but she never argued with Papa. Right now, Clara wasn’t sure she wanted to. The doctor kept a few shades as house slaves like most people did; Clara hadn’t thought anything of it when he left one to assist the nurse, but what if they were what kept Mama from getting well? The doctor had said that he couldn’t understand why she was fading—she should easily have been able to easily overcome this cold.

For the rest of the afternoon and into the evening, neither Clara nor Papa left Mama’s side. Mama never opened her eyes. Her breathing became harsher, but none of the nurse’s medicines helped. Sometimes she stopped breathing for almost a minute, but the continued glow of her heartlight assured Clara she yet lived.

Clara cried—she couldn’t help it. Sometimes Papa did, too. They both loved Mama. Without her, what would their little family become?

At last, Mama gasped, gave one last deep breath—then stopped. Her face went still and icy white. Her heartlight went out like a snuffed candle.

At the exact same moment, so did Clara’s. Her yellow heartlight—the comforting ever-present glow that was her—disappeared.

On the wall, black and menacing in the light of the kerosene lamp, stretched her shadow.

It looked exactly like a shade’s.

[emily-mooon]

While I hop through all of my art wips, have this ship chart I made for nordegrim!

[anthropwashere]

Finally got around to watching Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

and

100% honesty here?

I smiled-to-grinned-helplessly at every second of it! It is SO charming and SO expertly animated! The comparisons to the Spiderverse movies I've seen so far are 100% warranted and I genuinely hope loads of CGI animated movies follow these patterns/designs in the future because they're just SO refreshing to watch in a... maybe "engaging" is the word to use? You feel like you're IN the animation, reacting eagerly TO it, rather than sitting tiredly as you watch a rough draft with a few key splash pages go by.

I dunno. YouTube keeps recommending me people bleh-dunking on Disney's Wish and from what clips of that movie I've seen it looks SO dull in comparison to Puss. Like, I have 0 clue what Wish is about! I've seen maybe 4 5-10 second clips of it at most. There's a goat? The protag's bestie (besties??) are based on the 7 Dwarves? There's like 50 references to older Disney movies because it's supposed to be a celebration of Disney's 100th?

But strictly speaking from a visual perspective/demonstration/execution/exultation of animation prowess? Puss is INCREDIBLE. On a strictly visual/style comparison there is NO comparison. I'm speaking honestly here; I couldn't HELP but grin watching every second of Puss. It's a delight just to watch. I'd say that even if the story bored me and that is NOT the case. The story is SO GOOD. The story makes it an EASY 10 times better than what the brilliant visuals promised. It is SO worth the dollars I dropped on a rental watch of it, and it's definitely a movie I (a person who is NOT interested in movies until years later at BEST) would be keen to watch again.

[pokimoko]

Haustoria - Moon Knight Fic

Written by pokimoko for @buttsnorkeler69420 (as part of @tiptapricot's #Moon Knight Mystery Swap)

Chapters: 1/1

Word Count: 14.6K

Fandom: Moon Knight (2022), Marvel Cinematic Universe

Rating: Teen and Up Audiences

Warning: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationships: Layla El-Faouly & Steven Grant, Layla El-Faouly & Marc Spector, Layla El-Faouly & Jake Lockley, Minor or Background Relationship(s)

Characters: Layla El-Faouly, Steven Grant (Marvel), original villain, Marc Spector, Jake Lockley

Tags: Dissociative Identity Disorder, Post-Season/Series 01, Layla El-Faouly-centric, Horror, Body Horror, Bugs & Insects, Undead, Colonialism, Extended Metaphors, (which are also fairly heavy-handed metaphors let's be honest), Canon-Typical Violence, Gore, Parasites, Protective Layla El-Faouly, Angst and Humor, Egypt, POV Layla El-Faouly, Moon Knight Mystery Swap 2023

Summary: Layla and Steven journey into the depths of an ancient and forgotten tomb in search of the lost dead, but within its halls, where flowers grow across the walls and bugs cover the ground, the dead might just find them.

[n0heart]

.

[therealandian]

ITS YOU! YOU HAVE RANDOMLY APPEARED IN ME FEED, HII!

I am fully caught up on Redeath and Search Through The Stars, and im sad because not only is this fic almost over, but another unrelated long-shot fic I’ve been reading for a while is ALSO almost over. Send help I don’t know what im going to do with my life. Find more fics I guess.

aww this is such a sweet message to wake up to. and hey don't cry cos it's over smile cos it happened or whatever the quote is lmao <3

if it's any consolation, after 4 years spent in this au, i'm also at a bit of a loss on what to do now XD (probably i should catch up on rrr, which i'm guessing is the other fic you're talking about lol)

i'm gonna try to do some more original stuff, though, so feel free to stick around for more silly gay people fucking around and finding out XD

[sysig]

Cool guys, measured in C° (Patreon)

[emdotcom]

Tbh, can't believe I'm cutting ties with Fnaf before Batim.

[jovialturtleface]

Need ideas for a cool new years drawing so I'm just drawing whatever and seeing what sticks.

[thevulpinehero1]

GWatch -- Mobile Suit Gundam 0079 Ep 1

Since Armoured Core came out and everyone's in a mecha mood, I figured I would talk about an entirely different mecha series instead. The plan is to watch one episode a day, talk about it, and include one (or more) screenshots to facilitate enhanced rambling. I want to start with the original series since I've watched it before, see if I can get through it all, and then maybe move onto some other Gundams if I have the spirit.

Beware! Spoilers for a 40 year old anime inbound, as well as possible misreporting since I probably am not going to fact check too well. Gundam nerds may feel free to correct me and dispense wisdom where appropriate. Also, I'm just going to go with whatever name spelling is on the subtitles I have at the time. Sorry, not sorry.

The first thing I have to talk about is the theme song, which honestly gives me emotions. Nowadays, we all have this image of Gundam as basically the show that invented the real robot subgenre, but you would absolutely never get that impression from the theme song or OP. Honestly, go find it and listen to it -- it's actually amazing how widely it misses the tone of the series, with lyrics like "Bring to bear the rage of justice!" and "If you are still burning with furious rage, you must fight the towering foe!" It sounds much, much more like a Super Robot theme song for like Daitarn 3 or Raideen or something, than something you would see associated with a classic "war is hell" series like Gundam.

And this was probably completely intentional. I remember hearing that even as far back as its initial run, the series had to fight the sponsors/toymakers in order to carve out its own identity, and part of that was projecting a surface level impression of a more palatable Super Robot style show. (Some things never change, I guess...)

To me, it adds a lot to the charm, because the singer is obviously going in and doing their best, singing an ode to a giant metal hero of justice who doesn't really exist outside of the fertile imagination of an advertising/toy exec who has been thoroughly mislead. I love that. I just want to go and tell them, hey, I appreciate you, you are singing your heart out on this theme song for an entirely different and imaginary series than the one they've actually made, and you're killing it. You are fighting the good fight, and you may be one of the reasons the series even got off the ground in the first place because you were part of this obfuscation.

This is Amuro Ray. His shadow looms large over every Gundam protagonist that will follow him; many of them either use him as a blueprint for their personality, or are meant as a study in contrast to it. He kills a lot of people. He eats a lot of sandwiches. There are long and intricate scenes of Amuro eating sandwiches, and they are among my favourite scenes in the whole series, and, in fact, any Gundam show I've ever watched. I'm not kidding.

I picked this screenshot not just because it shows a stone-cold, unrepentant sandwich-murderer in his natural habitat, but because it also showcases another thing I love about the show: the goofy animation. This was not a show with a huge budget. There is something weird or goofy happening in every episode, almost every scene, and the first episode -- traditionally one of the best funded in most series -- is no exception. Amuro eats like a turtle. Hayato's hand is an amorphous, misshapen blob. I think it honestly adds to the charm; the series is scuffed, and probably knows it's scuffed, but it's doing its best to tell a story in spite of that.

For now, Amuro is not the pilot of legend. He sits around the house doing science in his underwear, his neighbours don't like him enough to tell him about an actual military evacuation that he's supposed to be undertaking, and without the aid of his childhood friend Fraw Bow (who he mostly summarily ignores), he wouldn't bother to evacuate at all and would likely die at home. He's a scrunkly kind of dude. Maybe even a scrunklemeister. Your boy probably smells like a scratch and sniff card if you rubbed off all the panels and tried snorting them all at once.

The show is surprisingly quick at characterising him, too. Within a minute or two, we know all the above, plus that he seems to have a certain amount of tension with his father, who his neighbours blame for bringing the military to their peaceful colony. His father, Tem Ray, loves him at least enough to put a picture of him on his desk, and makes vaguely prophetic statements about how kids as young as Amuro are already joining the war as guerrilla fighters. Foreshadowing hit different in the eighties.

One scene I didn't actually remember, but really should have in retrospect, is the part where Amuro confronts his father ("Do you care more about Mobile Suits than humans?" is the absolute first thing Amuro says to him), and the death of Fraw Bow's mother and grandfather, both of which expose a more sensitive core to the scrunklebeast within. It's very convenient/poetic (delete as appropriate) that Fraw Bow was herself very nearly caught in the explosion that killed the crowd her family was in, and only survived because she separated from them in order to check on Amuro.

I was also kinda surprised to relearn that Amuro doesn't really 'fall in' to the cockpit; he very deliberately gets in, having happened to read the manual earlier, in an effort to either protect the remaining civilians or take revenge for the ones who've just fallen (the context doesn't really make it clear which one, but he rushes to the cockpit soon after Fraw Bow sees her family die and is making her escape).

One thing that's really interesting in the metacontext of the series is that although Amuro ends up being one of the best pilots (he's a legend in mecha anime for a reason), he kinda starts out as one of the worst. Many Gundam protags are either experienced, have some level of training, or have other reasons why they're hot shit right out of the box; Amuro really does not know what he's doing, and is carried entirely by the fact that the Gundam itself is dizzyingly durable for the time period. It also comes with a learning computer (which I bet sounded very advanced in the time the anime was made, but kinda brings certain chatbots to mind in the present day) to ease the piloting burden while he learns how to use the dang thing. Not only that, but he goes up against a lot of mobbers who aren't that much better than he is and can't do much against his much better machine.

(A really interesting experiment is to contrast Kira from SeeD, which follows a lot of the original Gundam's major story beats quite closely for the first part of the series and is almost a spiritual remake in some parts. Kira almost has the opposite end of the equation going on -- a very good pilot from day one, he has the misfortune of having five other named dudes who are close to his level and have machines that are arguably better than his in a vacuum, and he fights them pretty regularly.)

Anyway, through more luck than skill, Amuro manages to get through his first Mobile Suit battle in Side 7, but Bright is already looking to utilise him as labour, and Char is advancing on the colony. That's the first episode, more tomorrow. (I don't intend these to be exhaustive or talk about every little, but I wanted to go a bit more in depth for the first ep, and I don't want to restrict myself from veering off on tangents because those are fun.)

[outeremissary]

So it turns out that I have so many tabs open on my computer that one of them is from right after this was originally posted and preserves the post that I deleted and didn’t look at since in shame. Now that I’ve been forced to see it again it’s Literally Not That Bad. Maybe it’s just that I’m sleep deprived and looking at it again on the monitor with the most fucked up color ever but it’s not deleting bad. And thus. It shall be restored.

Apologies for the delay... @dmagedgoods​ and @silversiren1101, y’all tagged me in this. Thanks for the tag.

Blank here or under the cut.

[lunatih]

“What if”

[junkissed]

oh thaaaat ask... yeah i recall now hehehe i'm weirdly honored that i have a brand.. also i think i sent u an ask or two that i didn't sign off cause i was worried you'd get tired of me shshfbf so i honestly have no idea what i've sent u... anyways i can't stop thinking of brutal mean brat tamer hao suddenly switching it up one day when you brat at him and he goes "oh, i'm not tying you up because i trust you to be well behaved ^_^ you're so good, baby, i love you so much ^_^" and it surprises u so much that you actually do behave ... and maybe also slip into subspace 💤

SCREAMS OH MY GOD... switch!hao but instead of switching roles or positions it's him switching from hard dom to soft dom. like the contrast is so stark from how he is normally that even though it could be the most vanilla missionary in the world, it feels just as intense as the nights where he's got you tied to the bed with a vibrator and nipple clamps on you. they're both extremes but they're so different from each other that they're both equally pleasurable. extremes in a good way yk 🫠 and both times you just get to sit there and let him take care of you, whether it's punishment for being a brat or praise for being oh so well behaved for him

[deathbounded]

thinking about my infinity blade oc whose entire plotline is “i’ll defeat god (my brother) with the power of FRIENDSHIP!! and a glock :D” very fondly tonight