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devnmon · 2 months ago

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tender concern

halstarion x reader

summary: Halsin and Astarion take care of you and get you ready for bed after a long day of battle.

word count: 1.5k

a/n: just a fluffy comfort fic based off this youtube video with their voice lines and added asmr sounds. all credits go to this person for inspiring me and for creating such a sweet audio that i listen to pretty often. please go check their video out! i just wrote a little plot around the voice lines :)

also, highly recommend listening while you read ;)

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Red was always a good color on you, but not when you were drenched in it from head to toe. Crimson stained every inch of your skin, drying on the tiring walk back. Despite your empty stomach, you bypassed bathing for the night and laid down to rest your eyes.

Eventually, both your large-bodied druid and alluring vampire joined the tent once camp had quieted down for the night. Neither of them said a word at your blood-covered state, eyeing the wounds on your arms. Only found their spot on either side of you when they were ready to turn in for the night.

Though your eyelids heavied the minute you lay down, you hadn’t fallen into your natural cycle of sleep. Rem was hard pressed to quiet your mind, especially when the wounds you bore hadn’t barely started healing.

You tossed and turned between your companions, hoping you weren’t keeping them awake… that is until you hear Astarion whisper in the dark.

“Ugh, stop bleeding. It's distracting.”

“Hm?” You utter, lying completely still for fear of more discomfort than you could handle.

Halsin was roused as well, only blaming Astarion with his words and not your tossing.

“Most consider it unwise to poke a bear.”

“Really? Hardly the place.” Astarion, offended, jabbed back.

Halsin sighed, rolling over to face you while the other elf did the same.

You almost spoke, breaking the silence, but the vampire wouldn’t allow it.

“Shh. hello you.”

It was then Halsin opened his eyes for the first time since laying down.

“You are wounded, my heart.”

You whimpered, an ache running throughout your body. Astarion’s brows furrowed at the sight of you like this, open gashes and smaller cuts filling the air with an iron scent. His vampiric senses picked it up at almost the same time Halsin’s animal ones did.

“Shhh sh sh sh sh. It's alright. We need you alive.”

Both men sat up, carefully undressing you from the red stained clothes you wore that day. This type of intimacy had strengthened the bond you had with each of the men, finding comfort and solace in non-sexual moments such as these. Undoing your armor was step one to getting you closer to full comfort, and on days where you couldn’t bring yourself to do it, they gladly took initiative and aided you instead.

Both Halsin and Astarion reached over to fumble through their packs, picking out a few select items to set aside.

“I shall tend to you. worry not. Hold on, my love.”

Halsin aided you in sitting up against a pillow, every pained groan and gasp you made shoved a knife further into his heart. As a druid, his focus was healing others. When you refused to tend to yourself, it brought a different type of uneasiness to his chest.

“Quietly now.” Astarion whispered.

Halsin’s warm palms hovered over your wrists, muttering his strongest words of healing to clear up the deep slashes with a flash of cool light. The druid’s spell weaned off the most intense part of your pain, the rest lingering here and there.

“I need you strong, my love.”

Astarion, left without healing capabilities, exhales in the dark tent. Though true to his nature, he can easily find his canteen of water and a sponge in the lightless enclosure.

“Let's see here.” He pours half of the liquid into a pan, and grabs a sponge he’s kept for moments like this. Soaking the cool liquid up with it, he reaches out to your other arm and begins wiping the dried crimson trails off your skin. “Hold still.”

Satisfied with how your tissue healed right up, Halsin grabs for the soft bandages at the side of his pack. He lifts your wrist up, and in his grasp begins wrapping up one of your wrists with care. You can feel the tingle of magic in the dressing he uses, either enchanted by him or soaked in a potion that was vital for extra healing if one needed.

Astarion, on the other hand, notices how much of the blood covers you, having splashed right up on the skin of your ear. The iron scent assaulted his senses, too exhausted to hold back from indulging a little bit.

“Let's not waste any more blood, hm?”

Leaning in close to your face, his tongue darts out to flick over the dried stains of blood that paint your ear. He would’ve cleaned your whole body up with his tongue, but that would have to wait for another day.

Halsin, just finishing with his bandage, glances over to see his vampire counterpart indulging most cheekily.

“Calm yourself.”

Astarion’s tongue leaves you as the druid’s words fill the air.

“Must I?”

Halsin growls in disapproval, earning a scoff from the silver haired elf.

”Really, darling? A waste of flesh.”

Reluctantly he pulls away, not before leaving a kiss on your cheek and continues cleaning you off with the sponge.

“No shame, my love.” Halsin leaves a kiss on the top of your hand, placing it back down at your side. Always a gentle giant, in everything he did. No wonder you both fell for him so fast. Such in his nature to heal, whilst providing you and Astarion with the most love and adoration you could ever want in a partner.

“Alright, let’s fix you up.” Astarion whispered.

“Mmh… Thank you… Astarion… Halsin…” Your eyes remained closed but your heart opened as you so warmly made sure they knew how much their askless actions meant to you.

“No need to thank me.” Astarion smirked, while Halsin smiled sweetly.

Of course you did. There wasn’t a moment that passed between the three of you that went unappreciated. How they knew you would need this kind of taking care of when all you wanted to do was sleep in filth, you didn’t know.

Halsin warmed a calming salve in his palms, running them across your upper arm and down to where your bandage was.

“You need this.”

Astarion finally tossed the sponge and water filled pan off to the side, lifting a soft hand towel to your skin.

“Gently does it.” Halsin states, making sure the rogue’s movements didn’t irritate your skin further.

A slight clanking noise sounded out, not loud enough to disturb camp. One quickened heat spell later, and Halsin was pouring boiling water into a cup filled with tea leaves.

“Here, my heart. Drink this.” Halsin’s honeyed voice whispered in the dark. One of your eyes opened, spotting the tea cup being handed towards you by the bigger elf. All you had the energy for was a small smile in his direction, as you took the warm mug from his hands. Halsin knew his herbs better than you ever could, trusting that whatever tea he’d brewed was going to settle your mind and body for some decent rest.

“Just for you. Fret not. You shall soon be back to health.”

Eventually you were dried off from Astarion’s cleaning, and discarded the handkerchief to reach for your camp clothes. With the help of the buff druid, you were dressed by your partners in no time. There you were, being pampered by the two without having asked, now in clean clothes. It was nothing short of perfect.

Astarion then reached towards his pack again, picking up a wooden comb he had purchased for you. His lithe fingers gripped it, parting your hair down the center and began to run the teeth over your scalp. He did so, not to detangle your hair, but with the knowledge that you enjoyed the sensation for comfort. Like his nails on your back, it sent chills down your spine and began lulling you deeper into sleep.

Halsin assumed the same position of letting his fingers run through your strands of hair to contribute to the fatigue now washing over you in small waves.

Astarion placed the comb near his pack after a few more minutes, Halsin doing the same. The two helped you lie between them once again, softly as to make sure you weren’t in any further pain.

“Let's get you moving.”

After a moment, you were caged in by four elven arms, Astarion’s wrapped around your waist from behind, and Halsin’s draped over your two smaller figures at your front.

“I cannot. there is no room.”

Astarion sighs, whispering, “Why am I not surprised?”

“I can hardly leave you like this, can I?” Halsin asks, pressing a kiss to your forehead.

“Quietly. it's not your time.” The vampire banters back.

But Halsin continues, “In a spot of bother, my love?”

You smile silently. He’s good at poking fun at Astarion when he wants to, never in a harmful way, just here and there when he wants to make a joke.

“Be very very quiet..” Astarion speaks again.

It had been a long enough day. Halsin digressed, sighing.

“Fine. You need not ask twice.”

Smushed between both companions, your body fell into sleep faster than you could even have another thought.

#halstarion x reader #halsin x reader #astarion x reader #bg3 fanfic #bg3 comfort fluff

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ywpd-translations · 7 months ago

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Ride 792: Witness

Pag 1

1: I told you before, too

2: I believed I'd get to see Mountain King's race!!

You're kidding!

It's a cheering message written with chalk on the road!!

You wrote this in a hurry?

3: Anytime now, they'll come here soon!

We can see Manami-kun running from the first day!

Amazing, a serious battle between those two...

4: “History” needs “someone who sees it”

Pag 2

1: “A witness of the history”!!

Pag 3

1: They passed the 2km left point and it seems that now the mountain stage is narrowed down to them two

It narrowed down!

They're coming!

I'm so excited!

2: It's quite a long wait

3: I was looking forward to it during last year's second day's mountain stage

4: And before that, during winter, I purposely organized a race between you two, but in the end it didn't count because of the snow

Pag 4

1: Right now Hakone Academy's Manami is ahead

Sohoku's Onoda is following

Manami

2: Four-eyes

3: You bet your whole soul for this climbing race

4: You finally did it

Congratulations

5: You really chose this mountain on the first day ad your fight's place, huh?

Pag 5

1: And I, Toudou Jinpachi, Mountain's God, will make sure to see it with my own eyes!!

Pag 6

1: After this curve, the wind's direction will change!!

Pag 7

1: The trees are becoming lower!!

5: Ah-

Pag 8

3: The wind's direction will chamge!?

After this!?

4: You noticed

But it's already

Pag 9

1: too late!!

Pag 10

1: Manami-kun did a full acceleration in curve!?

2: Sooooo

3: reeeee!!

4: Spread....

Pag 11

1: your wings to the maximum!!

Pag 12

1: Hakogaku's Manami did a super acceleration!!

The distance between him and Mountain King-

What a strange acceleration!!

What was that just now?

Did he ride the wind?

2: -is spreading!!

3: I saw a pair of huge wings on his back!

Pag 13

2: Me too

3: 1700m left!!

Mountain King noticed the timing of Manami's acceleration, but was too late and is being left behind

Mountain King, do your best!!

Pag 14

1: Amazing, Manami-kun

He read the right place to attack...!!

2: His back is becoming smaller

3: He got stronger since last year

4: And even since that time he came on the Minegayama!!

5: For an instant, when Manami-kun accelerated, I saw “wings”....

6: and they looked three times bigger!!

Pag 15

4: You're amazing

5: Manami-kun!!

Pag 16

2: Huh

Mountain King was.... smiling... !?

Pag 17

1: Hum hum hum ♪

I've prepared too

Hum hum hum ♪

2: The anime I highly recommend, “Love Hime”... this year started its third season!!

Hum hum huum ♪

3: Yes ♪

“Love Him third season” opening song

4: Mitarashi in the afternoon ♪ It's a common story ♪ The princess has kinako* and brown sugar syrup ♪

“Morning princess scramble”

*(NdT.: roasted soybean flour)

5: What's going on with Mountain King...

He's saying something... he's speaking to himself!?

He's humming a song!?

6: Somehow his pressure suddenly grew!!

7: We met a long time ago ♪ you extended your knees and looked up ♪

I listened carefully to it and watched the PV

Pag 18

1: Definitely rise!! Love Hime ♪

'Cause you're the princess ♪

And I memorized both the lyrics and the melody!!

Pag 19

1: Look at Mountain King... what's with that cadence...

2: While singing...

3: he accelerated and went!!

4: I'm breathing hard... my legs hurt... but

5: Manami-kun...!!

6: During the training camp on our first year

I couldn't catch up to you

Pag 20

1: I always feel like I'm chasing you like this

2: Your cool white bike

Your figure from behind, running so happy and confidently

3: I've always been fascinated by your attitude

4: So.... wa... it

I still want to catch up to you

Pag 21

1: Wait, Manami-kun!!

#yowamushi pedal #yowapeda #yowamushi pedal translations #yowapeda manga #yowamushi pedal manga #yowamushi pedal spoilers #ride 792 #i love how the ih is synchronized with the new love hime season every year #so that onoda has always a new song to sing #btw i have no idea if the translation of the lyrics is correct lmao sorry about that #but howere i tried to translate it it made no sense so #have it like that #anyway i missed toudou!!! :')#and now he's finally gonna see manami win!! (bc he will win okay)

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fenicearts420 · 8 months ago

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Guess who's been reading, "You're new TV headed roomate!"? :D

(Warning! Contains some spoilers!)

So, as a normal person who's favorite SMG4 character is Mr. Puzzles, I've been reading a few Mr. Puzzles x reader fics, and this one is just amazing! The writing for every chapter feels like actual episodes from the show and everyone having different nicknames for Insert is really nice. And, after reading the recent chapter, it's actually given me some inspiration to draw my self-insert interpretation of them. When working on this, I saw @bovinewriter's canon design for Insert and a few other posts of theirs saying it's more of a base design for open interpretation, so I kept the main aspects of the canon design (horns, hairstyle, and jacket) then added my self-insert spin onto it. Also, my original interpretation for the two halves was each one was a different color that mixed together to form the main color Insert wears, but then I thought, "What if the two halves and pre-split Insert each wore one of the secondary colors?", so I went with that instead.

Left

Left is the more serious, albeit, more depressed half.

They are patient and cool-headed, with some exceptions.

During the split, they kept the dark and cool-colored aspects of their original outfit since they're the rational, logical, and more pessimistic half of Insert. They also have pants instead of shorts because it's more professional (in their opinion).

Right

Right is the more impulsive and animated half, so to speak.

They are optimistic and loyal, in their own way, and tend to go with the flow in certain situations.

They kept the lighter/warmer aspects of their original outfit since, despite their choice after the split, their intentions really are wholesome and they want nothing more than to bring out their insane, TV-headed man's good nature. How sweet.

I don't have an exact idea of what my interpretation of Insert before the split would look like, but this is a rough idea I drew up, which (at the time of writing this) looks kind of similar to Opossol's character, Eliza. That was not my intention and I apologize. Go check out their stuff, it's great! Also, go check out their Creative Control animatic on YouTube. It's awesome! The 2D and 3D elements blend beautifully with each other.

Anyways, I just wanted to share this for funsies and also promote bovinewriter's fic. If you're looking for a good Mr. Puzzles x reader fic, I highly recommend this one, especially if you want one that makes you feel like you're in an actual SMG4 episode. Btw, I'm cooking up another Mr. Puzzles related thing rn that I'll, hopefully, be able to finish and release before the end of the year because I really wanna finish it and make it good before my hyperfixation runs dry and it becomes other unfinished project, slowly gathering dust. Y'all have a great day!

#mr puzzles x reader #mr puzzles #insert tag #self insert #smg4 #plz go read “You're new TV headed roomate!”#And plz go watch Opossol's Creative Control animatic! It's SO GOOD!!!!#fanart

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blueberry-lemon · 2 years ago

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An introductory guide to getting into Sonic the Hedgehog...

…if you're a grown-ass adult who is busy and doesn't want to play a bunch of video games but thinks the characters look sorta cool.

If you've ever been curious about Sonic as a series but haven't known where to start, I have some recommendations! I think Sonic is a cool and still somewhat unique thing because it takes cartoony characters (like a Mickey Mouse or Felix the Cat) and lets them jump around in cool action sequences through the lens of a shonen anime. It's colorful and usually pretty light-hearted, and I think the character designs are pretty iconic.

There's two handy places you can start without prior context, to see if it's something you'd be into...

Getting Started: If You Wanna Read Something

The IDW Sonic Comics

There were years of different Sonic comics back in the '90s and early 2000's, but the franchise got a complete reboot and fresh start with IDW Publishing in 2018. If you're looking for the most straight-forward way to get into this world of characters, I think this is a great start. You don't need any prior knowledge whatsoever to crack open issue 1 and get started. All you need to know is "Sonic and his friends protect the world by fighting against an evil scientist named Dr. Eggman, who they just recently defeated after he briefly took over the world."

I love these comics and I feel that the writers and artists who work on it have a really good sense for this series. Reading issues 1 through 12 will get you the first major story arc. If you like it so far, I highly suggest reading up through issue 32, when another major story arc concludes. After that, the world's your oyster! Unlike the tangled web of Marvel or DC comics, IDW Sonic has a very simple and linear reading order. You pretty much just read the issues in order, and occasionally there are spinoff stories that are optional to read.

Getting Started: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic Mania Adventures

Maybe comics aren't your thing and you want something even quicker. These are a series of animated shorts that are lovely. Conveniently, they've been compiled together by Sega into one little video right here.

It's a great intro to some of the main characters, and combines cartoon slapstick with some amazing action sequences.

There's also a nice little epilogue short.

Sonic CD's intro cutscene

If I had to pick a single 1-and-a-half minute clip to embody what I like about this series, it would be this very simple intro movie that plays before Sonic CD. Check it out!

Sonic Origins/Sonic Origins Plus Cutscenes

In 2022, Sega released a compilation of the classic Genesis games on modern consoles. In it, they added a few animated cutscenes. You can watch those cutscenes, plus the Sonic CD intro and the Sonic Mania Adventures episodes, all compiled into one handy Youtube video.

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Read Something

The Archie Sonic Comics

You might have heard that Sonic had a comic series published by Archie Comics from 1992 to 2016. This was a vast, overarching series that wrote an original story by weaving together ideas from the different Sonic cartoons and games. It went through several different writers, many different artists, and obviously spanned over multiple eras of pop culture.

It's pretty cool! The fact that it was so long-running, and the fact that Sega wasn't very strict with what the writers could do, led to a lot of buckwild lore, new characters, and plot developments. That said, it's also pretty bizarre, complicated, corny, and cringey at times. There is a stretch in the middle that is pretty infamous among fans.

You have a few options for jumping in.

Option A: You can start at the very beginning and read all of it. If you do this, it is going to be like a One Piece / Homestuck / etc. kind of undertaking, and you're going to be pushing through the good and the bad of huge genre and tone shifts. That's your call!

Option B: You can brush up on the main characters on a wiki and then start at Issue 160, when Ian Flynn (who now does a lot of work on IDW Sonic) became the lead writer. More specifically, you can jump in at the start of a new story arc by starting at Issue 175.

Option C: You can start at Issue 252, when there is a universe-altering event that essentially retcons all of the characters and plot threads from the previous writers and starts completely fresh. Easier to keep track of and you won't have to worry about all the previous plot and lore.

If you want something you can read in a single sitting, you should instead read Sonic: Mega Drive, a short-lived miniseries published by Archie that follows "Classic Sonic" characters (aka, the same vibe and art style of Sonic Origins, Sonic Mania Adventures, etc.) It's really great!

Taking The Next Step: If You Wanna Watch Something

Sonic the Hedgehog (OVA) aka "Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie" (1996)

This is, essentially, a 1-hour Sonic anime movie. You can watch it in Japanese or in English. I adore it. It makes up its own lore and continuity so you don't need to know anything before going in, besides generally knowing a one-sentence synopsis of who Sonic, Tails, and Dr. Robotnik are. It's action-packed, well-animated, and has great music. Enjoy! Sonic X If you're enjoying what you've seen so far, and you want something much, much longer...there's an official 78-episode anime adaptation of Sonic called Sonic X. It's an original story that loosely pulls together some ideas from a few of the games. It's mostly intended for a younger audience, but I hear if you watch it in the original uncut Japanese, it feels a little less "for kids."

Other Ways To Get Into Sonic

There's some great video essays on Youtube about the series!

Professional animator Dan Floyd did an in-depth video looking at the highs and lows of Sonic character animation in the games starting from Sonic 1 up through Sonic Forces.

Super Bunnyhop plays through the first level of a bunch of Sonic games to compare how the mechanics, physics, and level design feel throughout the games' history.

Liam Triforce has a great deep dive on the franchise's music.

You can play The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a murder-mystery-party themed visual novel put out by Sega. It's nice and short, so you can finish it in an afternoon.

If you haven't seen them already, you can check out the live-action/animated hybrid films Sonic 1 and Sonic 2 featuring Ben Schwartz and Jim Carrey, they're pretty good. That Sonic Prime cartoon that's currently on Netflix is pretty good too.

This may sound strange, but honestly you might enjoy poring over the sprite sheets from the old games. In particular, I really like the sprite animations from the GBA games, like Sonic Advance and Sonic Battle.

Sega is pretty lax about allowing noncommercial fan games, so there's at least a hundred different Sonic fan games out there by hobbyist developers. Check out the Sonic Amateur Games Expo and the Sonic Fan Games HQ.

You can watch LPs or cutscene compilations of the games on Youtube! If you watch Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, and Sonic Heroes, you'll get a crash course on most of the characters.

And finally, of course...you can play the games if you want to! There's a number of them that are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox, and Playstation if you don't have access to older consoles.

There's a lot of different angles to come at Sonic as a franchise, and lots of different entry points. Have fun!

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sth #idw sonic #idw sonic the hedgehog #sonic mania adventures #blogofkylelab

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yuespropagandablog · 2 months ago

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Hello esteemed mutual. If you are reading this, then that means my propaganda is working. But you might still have questions, so I am here to answer them.

What is Dredge?

Dredge is a game by Black Salt Games about fishing! Yes, you've heard it: fishing in games CAN be fun! Fun fact, I mistakenly believed this game originated on Tumblr. Long story.

You play as a fisherman who starts working as a local angler. It seems like a total normal job at first, but the townspeople warn him about the dangers at sea. Weird fishes are reeled in and a strange fog has settled over the sea. The fisherman slowly starts to lose his mind, especially at night. Rocks appear out of nowhere, ghost ships are sailing around, and weirdly enough, sea monsters start attacking him.

Are they really there, or is it just his paranoia? Whatever it is, the consequences are real. So did you get attacked, or did you lose your mind and damage your boat yourself?

Amidst all of this, the fisherman meets a Collector, who asks him to dredge up relics all around the archipelago. The fisherman agrees to this and explores more lavish places, meets new people, and finds bottled letters that tell a story.

Have a trailer:

youtube

And a cool animated one:

youtube

So, what do you do?

You fish.

And dredge shit up.

Okay, of course there's more to this. There's a nice and satisfying gameplay loop. You fish and sell your catch for money. You also dredge up treasures and materials. With all of this, you can upgrade your boat, because your boat is your main 'hub' so to speak, and space is essential. All fish have a different lay-out that you need to puzzle on a grid. But of course, you also need some cargo spots for your equipments. Better rods, better engines and better lights help your travels a lot. Your engines make your boat go faster, and light helps combating paranoia. And not all rods can fish up every type of fish, so you are constantly trying to improve your vessel in order to make the most out of it.

There is the main story where you help the Collector, but there are also a lot of sidequests called pursuits, that can be found by talking to NPCs who are scattered around the archipelago.

And there's of course the horror of it all. The more paranoid your fisherman becomes, the weirder the game. I have managed to deal with most of it, but that also meant I possibly missed out on some fucked up stuff. Now that I have actually finished the game, I might continue just to see how paranoid this man can be. (Is this torture?)

Paranoia gravely impacts your playthrough and it leads to a broken ship and lost cargo, which is why it's best to avoid it and sail during the day, but now that I don't need to hold on to my fish and material to sell/use, the loss of it isn't as severe so I am ready to get mauled, I guess.

I must say that a lot of stuff is easy to miss, especially if you only do the main quest and go to the spots marked on your map. I highly recommend taking your time and exploring.

Also, the art style is popping.

Where can I play this?

Thank you Wikipedia for listing it: Windows, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Android, iOS and macOS. I played it on Switch, and it runs smoothly. Although I did have some audio glitches late game, but I actually don't know if those are glitches, or if it was an effect of the paranoia.

Are there content warnings?

Well. It's a horror game. It's "light" horror, so to speak. It's not gruesome or gore-y and there are no extreme jumpscares, but the paranoia hits. That's the point. It is not a relaxing game and I question my decision to play this in bed in the dark, because you really do not see shit during nighttime.

You can actually turn this off by enabling "passive mode". This gets rid of the monsters (and I think paranoia), so you will just have a relaxing fishing and exploration game, and you know, that sounds cool too. Might try that as well, now that I have beat the game, but as I said, I gotta up the paranoia first.

Is there DLC?

Yes, there are three DLCs: the Blackstone Key, the Pale Reach and the Iron Rig.

The Blackstone Key doesn't add anything to gameplay, so I recommend skipping it. Sometimes it's even included in the base game, or so I heard. I dunno, man, I don't have it and I don't see the appeal. Spend those 5 bucks on a fancy tea, or something.

The Pale Reach and the Iron Rig are two story DLCs. It adds new pursuits, new locations and new fishes. I played them after I finished the base game, because I didn't buy them when I bought the base game, since I have been bummed by DLCs in the past, where I would buy a game + DLC and then regret the DLC. I may have shot myself in the foot here, since I think these DLCs would've been way better if I had played them while playing the base game, since playing them afterwards makes these DLCs very easy and very open-ended (since their conclusion lies in the base game's ending). Still, I enjoyed them and I think the Iron Rig is the better one of the two.

So I think I recommend them if you play them during your first playthrough, but I also think the base game in itself is a satisfying game that doesn't necessarily need more.

Have some trailers:

youtube

Can we play together?

Nope. It's a soloplayer game!

Are there German characters in Dredge?

Not that I know of. It's never really said where this archipelago lies. Is there German localisation? Maybe then you can pretend it's in Germany!

#so you're interested in #dredge #mod

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the-pink-baphomet1861 · 4 months ago

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The Biology of Dredge

Or: What the f**k happened to that fish!

Previous/Menu/Next

Part 2: The cod

Hello again! Welcome back to our biological analysis of a video game about spooky fish! This is the second part, and in order to get the full explanation of this series, I highly recommend you check it out, but we can do a quick recap for people who don’t feel like going back and reading several pages of my ramblings.

This is a series analyzing the 2023 video game Dredge, a delightfully creepy fishing simulator with a lovecraftian twist to its setting and story. I also happen to be a marine biology student, and in order to show my love for this game I’ll be dissecting (hah!) the mutated fish and connecting them back to real world biology. So let’s get started!

Before we begin in earnest, I think It would be good to go through the three major ground rules I have for these posts again to establish some boundaries and manage expectations.

While I am a marine biology student, I am in no way a complete expert on the subject, so please don’t take my words as gospel. I’m just doing this for fun and not as a rigorous scientific guide with perfect scientific accuracy, though I will try to source my information well. Please don’t take anything I say too seriously and remember that this is just for fun.

Dredge is a video game, one about eldritch magic and spooky fish, so anything in it probably won’t perfectly reflect reality. The people at Black Salt Games are incredibly talented and have made a rich world full of life, but even if it takes inspiration for our own, I don’t think every single detail is going to have perfect biological accuracy, I’m just trying to see if there’s anything we can learn from them.

I will NOT be covering the large aggressive monsters you can encounter around the area. They’re really cool, but they also fall outside the scope of this series, especially with the hints that they’re from another dimension entirely. I might do a big lore dive once I’m done with all of this, but for now, only the stuff you can catch!

And without further ado! Let’s get into it.

Specimen #2: Cod

That’s it, just a cod. No more and no less. They’re the first fish with a somewhat awkward shape, which makes inventory management a bit more stressful, but other than that they’re really nothing special, in game anyway. In real life every species of fish has something unique about them, so let’s unpack their appearance and see what we can learn!

Who’s that ichthyoid!

First, we need to identify our fish, which will be a bit harder this time considering that we don’t have a proper name like we did last time, so any real-world parallels will have to be made based on observable characteristics alone.

First let’s bring out our handy-dandy fish chart for some comparison:

One of our greatest tools, the fish charts. (Keep in mind that all of these are extremely variable and can change rather drastically between species)

The first thing we should note is the general morphology of the animal, which shouldn’t be too much trouble. The fish has a fusiform body plan, tapered at both ends, with a rounded head and medium-sized mouth. As for fins, it has a mostly truncated tail shape, three dorsal fins that are a decent size and an anal fin that resembles the third dorsal fin pretty closely. The pectoral and pelvic fins are mostly triangle-shaped with the one pectoral fin showing being slightly rounded at the end which, if the fish abides the general bilateral symmetry of most fish, should be fairly similar on the other side of the body. The largest specimen I ever caught was a hefty 1,15 meters in length, with the max being 1,2 meters, according to several guides I’ve seen, so we’re dealing with a pretty hefty critter here, although remember that max size and average size are two different things.

The fish has a muddy green color that starts out pretty light near the ventral side of the body and steadily grows darker as it progresses up the fish’s body, and the fins have a pretty uniform brown-orange coloration.

With all that in mind we can finally move on to identifying our creature.

Using fishbase, a scientific platform for identifying fish specimens, I searched for fish with similar descriptions, mostly for that third dorsal fin, and the family I found was known as the Gadidae family, the group containing the fish that were commonly known as cods and haddocks, (big surprise there) so I began searching for a species that could be our creature, but I ran into a bit of a problem, cods usually have a very characteristic chin barbel that is used to identify them as such, (although there are still animals not closely related to cod and are still called as such which definitely made this easier, but I digress) and our fish very noticeably does not have a chin barbel, so that made this a much harder task. So after some comparisons and struggling, I eventually managed to find a species that fit most of our criteria.

Img source: https://www.fishbase.se/photos/PicturesSummary.php?resultPage=3&ID=308&what=species

Meet Gadus macrocephalus, otherwise known as the pacific cod. It match the colors pretty well , light belly with a darker, mottled pattern closer to the dorsal end of the fish, with the main difference being that the body is more brown than green, and the fins also match up pretty well with our game cod, such as the three moderately sized dorsal fins and the slightly-forked-but-mostly-truncated tail fin, with the biggest differences being that it has a second anal fin under its body and that it has a chin barbel whereas the game cod has none, although that could just be me misinterpreting the games artwork. Even the sizes line up, with the maximum size recorded being 1,19 meters, pretty damn close to our 1,2 meters of fish.

These fish are large and extremely predatory, with a diet consisting of other fish, cephalopods, and various kinds of crustaceans as adults, with the young feeding on zooplankton like copepods. They mostly live in the northern pacific (who would’ve guessed), which is again now that we see another fish in that area, as the blue mackerel, which we analyzed last time, has its home in the pacific ocean as well…interesting. This might give us some info on which habitats the devs were inspired by, and help us narrow down our search as well. Both of these fish are also important animals for commercial fisheries, which could also lead to them inspiring the devs for which fish to include in the game. We’ll have to see if this develops into a pattern

Now that we have our fishy friend identified, we can move on to my favourite part of these so far:

WHAT THE F**K HAPPENED TO THAT FISH?

Ah, that wonderful time when we stop scraping the barrel for species and start looking into diseases, parasites, and other such fun topics in order to find any link to a fish mutated by spooky dark magic from another dimension!

Before we get to that however, we need to get the skeleton again. This time it isn’t too important because there aren’t too many major skeletal mutations happening, (at least not compared to last time’s grotesque mackerel) but there are still several that are important to go through, and I like having it for completion’s sake. Again, there will be descriptions (not pictures, silly me!) of real-life fish gore and gross parasites and stuff, so if that makes you uncomfortable, then you should probably sit this one out.

This time it was a lot harder to find a decent skeletal model, not because of a lack of them unlike last time, but more because at one point in scientific history, the pacific cod was considered the same species as a close relative, the atlantic cod. So a lot of the diagrams I found were frustratingly unclear about which animal it actually was, so I settled for this diagram of what I…think is an atlantic cod, which are a lot bigger, but otherwise are very similar in morphology.

Img source: https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Skeleton-of-cod-showing-anatomical-categories-used-in-this-study-Drawing-David_fig1_304489159

Now we can finally get into some of the good stuff, weird fish!

Mutation #1: All-Seeing Cod

We’ve already discussed a very similar mutation in the past, the many-eyed mackerel, which has a lot of the same hallmarks. Abnormal coloration, skeletal changes mostly in the skull, and some really weird eyes! I don’t think there’s any real meaning to this (unless you want there to be) but because of these similarities I wanted to analyze them in a similar way, just to make things a bit easier, for me. With that out of the way let’s start with the pigmentation.

For starters, the fish has gone from a dark green to a bright yellow-orange, which isn’t normal if you couldn’t tell. We’ve already discussed how pigments and colours work in living things a bit, but I think this a good time to go a bit more in-depth with it in order to explain how these colour changes happened.

First, we need to understand how animals create colours in their skin in the first place. Most exothermic animals (eg. reptiles, fish and most invertebrates) have specialized cells in their skins called chromatophores, which contain the various pigments that give animals their colours. You probably know the term chromatophore from the masters of disguise, the cephalopods, but it’s also found in a ton of other animals as well. There are a lot of different kinds of chromatophores, each with their own unique pigment/colour (there are blue chromatophores that don’t contain pigment, but rather structures that reflect light into blue light through rayleigh scattering like we talked about last time), but the ones I want to discuss today are called xanthophores and erythrophores.

These chromatophores are the ones that contain yellow pigments (xanthophylls) and red/brown pigments (carotenoids), and have some pretty interesting properties. Xanthophores are able to synthesize their own yellow pigments, albeit under specific conditions, but erythrophores aren’t, and have to rely on carotenoids ingested from other sources, which is why atlantic cod found in carotenoid lacking areas have a more grey colour and why eating too many carrots can turn your skin orange. (yes, that’s real. Look it up)

Now, let’s turn back to our buddy here. We can see that the entire fish has gone bright yellow, which can mean a couple of things. One is that it has lost a lot of its red erythrophores, or that they’ve turned into xanthophores, not all of them, as we can see in the orange fins, but most of them. Which isn’t easy to do, as the genetic markers of the pigment cells are established during embryonic development, but I’m sure that eldritch magic is as good of a reason as any. My other hypothesis is that it’s the pigments themselves that have changed as opposed to the cells, which could be just as good of a reason, as we can’t exactly test to see if the pigment changes if they don’t eat enough red stuff, but in either case we can see how these changes have affected the fish, and it probably isn’t good, as being bright orange in the ocean with no other means of defense is a good way to get eaten. At least they still have most of their fins intact, so let’s take a closer look at those, and the rest of their skeleton as well.

So yeah, based on what we can see, the fins and the main body skeleton seem mostly unchanged. I can maybe see a case for the pectoral fins and shoulder girdle shifting as the eye sockets expand, but that’s a flimsy argument at best, and it ultimately doesn’t affect the animal too much. The skull is another story entirely. The jaws protrude outwards and are full of pointed needle-like teeth like some kind of grotesque viperfish, (although the protruding-ness might just be because of how big the eyes are in comparison) the eye sockets have no question expanded a lot, and are now forward-facing, which isn’t a common trait in fish, probably because being able to see all of your surrounding in a three dimensional medium like water, but I think those eyes probably help with that. Speaking of which, let’s finally talk about those, shall we?

When we talked about eyes last time, they were mostly unchanged. Anomalous in quantity, yes, but basically normal in every other way. In this case, however, they seem to have undergone some serious modifications both in appearance and function. They’re huge, and are a bright cyan colour, with a fogged-over pupil to match. Fogged eyes in fish are actually a common problem relating to poor water quality, and can also be a symptom of something else as well, like parasites or infections. The complete blue/cyan colour, on the other hand, is a bit more mysterious.

Blue eyes aren’t an uncommon phenomenon in the animal kingdom, as you probably know, but this fish doesn’t naturally have blue eyes, especially such a shade of cyan, and in all honesty, I’m not sure what’s causing this. The animal doesn’t naturally have completely blue eyes, and I can’t tell whether there’s an actual illness that could give an explanation, or if it’s related to gene damage. Illness might not be the answer, because I couldn’t find any that created such a vivid blue and the color is generally evenly distributed, which is uncommon in infections, so for now I’m going to call it a product of gene mutation and move on, but if anyone else has something more concrete that could explain it, please share it!

So we should be done now, right? Well not quite. You see, the description says that the eyes are “borrowed from a larger being, but not the mind to process what it sees”, which made me curious as to what that could mean scientifically. So I did a little research and found some (extremely dubious) reports of people who had tetrachromacy, or the ability to see ultraviolet light.

To explain more clearly, tetrachromacy is when an animal has the ability to perceive extra wavelengths of light due to having an extra cone cell in their eyes, which isn’t all that abnormal if we’re looking at arthropods, some birds and certain species of fish, (though not ours, I’m pretty sure the pacific cod isn’t tetrachromatic) but in our (as in, the species homo sapiens) case, there are only three cone cells in our eyes, which are sensitive to red, green, and blue light. Hypothetically though, if a person were to have an extra type of cone cell capable of seeing ultraviolet light in their eyes, we wouldn’t be able to tell, because as I understand it, our brains wouldn’t have the image-processing machinery to interpret the signals from these cells, and there probably wouldn’t be much difference in how that person sees color. So no extra ultraviolet vision superpowers unfortunately.

If we apply this logic to our fish, it could mean that there are one or more new cone cells in these eyes, which might also explain the size, as the more cone cells there are in the eyes, the larger the retina would have to be to house them all, but because the animal’s brain physically can’t process these signals, there wouldn’t be any strange interpretations on the cod’s end. Kinda disappointing honestly, but that’s how it is with biology. Sometimes comprehending the incomprehensible isn’t really how it works. Sad! but it’s still cool to learn about.

Mutation #2: Fanged Cod

This fish honestly seems a lot more straightforward than some of the other mutations we’ve discussed. No extra eyes, no complicated deformations, no bizarre parasites, but nature can be tricky like that. You think you’ve got something understood pretty well, and then your entire concept of life gets redefined by a sea sponge. So let’s get into that sweet, sweet biology!

This time I’d like to start with the skeleton, and then move onto the other details like the color and general shape of the cod later. We can definitely say that the teeth have gotten a LOT sharper, but otherwise I’m not so sure about the rest of the fish’s body. It’s mostly just the teeth and maaaaybee the skull, but to me it seems more like the teeth are preventing the mouth from closing properly instead of any skeletal alterations.

We’ve talked about some dentition-related mutations in the past and their effects on the health before with the grotesque mackerel, so I wanted to take a minute to talk about them here too, because it seems like there are some differences here. Part of it might be the fact that the teeth are more prominent in the cod compared to the mackerel, as you can see in the skeleton. It could also be that the fish’s skeleton is less distorted than the mackerel’s (um…relatively speaking), but the fish also seems like it’s not doing well in terms of food either.

It generally has a withered appearance, with frayed fins at the edges and what seem to me like ribs protruding through the skin in the design, something that none of the other cod mutants share. This says from the limited information that we can get from only the illustration that the fish is starving, either from an inability to catch prey, an increased metabolism or some other issue causing the fish to be unable to get the nutrition it requires, which is leading to the hyper-aggressive behaviour we see described in the journal entry, the “hunger gleaming in its eyes”, probably due to desperation for food, which leads to it attacking everything it can in order to stave of its hunger. Poor thing.

Onto the colors, the eyes are also pretty similar to the grotesque mackerel, beady and blood-red, although not as sunken as the mackerel’s. I think it’s pretty safe to say that it’s a pretty similar cause, blood pooling in the eyes due to illness. Which both blots out the pupil and causes the eye to become that color, and it probably isn’t helping the fish’s mood either.

Now for the fish’s color, a withered dark purple. This one honestly stumped me, and even after looking for scientific papers I’m still not sure what exactly to make of it. At first I thought it could be some kind of diseased or rotting flesh, but I couldn’t find any kind of rot or disease that made the fish so uniformly purple, (I couldn’t find many purple diseases in fish period) and we can still see the markings on the scales, which got rid of that idea. So I’ve settled on what is honestly the most boring option, another case of color changing.

In this case, the purple can be caused by one of two things, one of which is a returning phenomenon from the all-seeing cod, carotenoids! Which can actually come in purple along with the more familiar orange and red, and the other method is a layering of erythrophores and iridophores (chromatophores that contain structures that cause rayleigh scattering and create blue light) which causes both blue and red light to be reflected together and cause us to see purple when we look at them. Whatever the case, this fish purple now.

So that didn’t take too long! Let’s see what’s next!

Mutation #3: Three-Headed Cod

So this one seems complicated, what with the three heads and stuff, but honestly probably isn’t as bad as it seems. The worst part here is definitely going to be finding out how the colors got weird. (as usual. Joy) So let’s rip off that band-aid and talk about that first.

We can see that the animal’s colour is definitely more saturated than normal, with the fins being a bright orange rather than the normal brown, the eyes have turned a deep maroon and the body going from a dark green to a neon cyan colour. We’ve already talked about the basic mechanisms of how color appears in fish and where it is stored, so there isn’t much of a need to go over that again, but this extreme saturation is something that I’m not so sure about. So now is probably a good time to talk about duplicate genes and color gradients.

The coloration of most animals (you always say “most” in biology because nature is always throwing curveballs) is regulated by a number of duplicate genes, or genes that control the same trait in an animal. For example, human eye color is controlled by several different genes that control the amount of melanin in one’s eye, if all of them are dominant, then your eyes are likely to be a dark brown, if all of them are recessive, then they’re probably going to be a lot closer to blue, or albino, and every combination of dominant and recessive each yield some different eye color. If you add another gene to this mix though, it increases that range of colors massively because it adds another option for all the other genes to mix with. When applied to our fish, this could mean that many more of these color genes have been added, giving the fish the range of color we see in-game.

There is another option though. In addition to these color genes, we also have genes that regulate the actual production of the pigment (and structure) that make the colors. So if these genes were to be upregulated (i.e produce color at a higher rate than normal) then the color of the fish would become stronger, which means that every color in the animal would be more colorful, depending on the specific pigment regulation gene altered, which is how we get mutations like albinism and leucism. Back to the fish, if every regulatory gene was bumped up, then the animal would probably get a lot more intense in color, but every regulatory gene means that the animal would also have the genes for darker pigments as well, which wouldn’t be what we see here, (probably closer to melanism honestly) so if it is the regulatory genes, then it’s probably only some of them rather than all of them, but as always, it’s not like we can check, so both possibilities are just as likely.

Now onto the most distinct aspect of this fish, the three heads. Which isn’t actually as complicated to explain as one might think. Partial twinning, otherwise known as incomplete twinning is a phenomenon that extends to any animal with an embryonic stage, which is a lot of them. Mammals, reptiles, birds, there are even reports about STARFISh that have developed conjoined to one another, and of course this includes fish as well. It’s pretty much exactly what it sounds like, an egg cell that would’ve become a pair of identical twins (or triplets) doesn’t quite finish splitting, which leads to the developed infants being fused together. These sorts of mutations are extremely rare, and it’s even rarer for them to survive to adulthood. There are quite a few different kinds of partial twinning, depending on where exactly the embryos were attached while they were developing.

In the case of our mutated friend here, the origin point seems to be three embryonic fish triplets (an already incredibly rare phenomenon) that managed to merge together evenly at the base of the developing skulls without stretching into the ribcage and torso, as we can see the first dorsal fin hasn’t split between the three heads yet, but before the point where the heads start to merge together. This kind of fusion is usually called parapagus dicephalus, as in, twins that are fused in parallel with two heads, though in our case I think the term tricephalus would be more appropriate, given that our fusion has three heads as opposed to two.

So this fish already has some astronomical odds to beat, most conjoined triplets (and twins, for that matter) aren’t anywhere near as clean as this, but on top of that these fish managed to outlast all their predators and the health complications that come with this kind of mutation (though there is probably some kind of eldritch magic involved) in order to reach adulthood, and I managed to catch TWO!!! It’s really fun to think about these animals like this, it really puts into perspective how many variations there are in nature, and how lucky we are to be able to see them, even if it’s just in a video game.

Final thoughts

Woof! That certainly took a lot more time than I was expecting! I honestly hoped that this one would take less time than before, but some real life things cropped up and I had to put this aside for a while. Still, I think that these might start coming out more frequently, given that we’re past all the three-aberration fish (until we get to the Pale reach that is) and most of the other fish have one or two.

These fish certainly are interesting, aren’t they? I especially really liked being able to develop some of the ideas from last time like coloration (even if it did get a bit exhausting at times) and getting to explore new concepts like incomplete twinning! So that’s all for this time. I really hope you enjoyed reading this, and that the next one comes out sooner. Byeee!

#dredge #dredge game #Biology #Marine biology #Speculative biology #Mutation #Biology of dredge #fish

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threecheersforinking · 10 months ago

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My Favorite Character from each of my Favorite Anime

Hi! I’ve done a few separate posts about my top 10 anime and my favorite anime characters, but I decided I’d combine those ideas into one post and try and pick out my favorite character from each of my favorite anime. This is going to be hard because I know I have multiple favorites for most of these, but I will do my best. Let’s go!

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood- Hohenheim

I usually cycle between Ed, Hohenheim, and Mustang being my favorite character, but recently it’s been Hohenheim. I think he’s both under appreciated and misunderstood by the FMAB fandom. Long story short, I love characters riddled with guilt (not sure what this says about me lol). If you’re interested, I’ve already written a whole post about how much I love him!

Revolutionary Girl Utena- Utena

I always shift between Utena and Anthy being my favorite, but I really have loved Utena from the start. I find it very compelling how she hides her internal anguish behind her cheerful, positive persona.

Toradora- Taiga

I’ve already written so much about Taiga (in this post, spoilers) so there’s not much else to say besides that I’m the number 1 Taiga defender. I love her, she reminds me of myself in some ways, she’s great. I think she’s the perfect example of a ‘flawed’ protagonist.

Chihayafuru- Chihaya

Chihaya is such a ray of sunshine, comic relief, and a total fuck up, and yet she is an incredible karuta prodigy and the protagonist of the show. She is also one of the most realistic neurodivergent-coded characters I’ve ever seen. I think it’s fun how she defies expectations as well; she has the appearance of a beautiful cool model, but as soon as other characters talk to her they realize how much of a nerd she is.

March Comes in like a Lion- Hina

There are a lot of sub-plots and semi-important characters in this show, but the side character that I was always the most interested in was Hina. I think the way she is so open about her emotions is inspiring, and as she goes through hardships it’s nice to see how she matures while also maintaining her cheerful attitude.

Your Lie in April- Tsubaki

I haven’t watched this anime in a long time, but I do know that when I first watched it my favorite character was Tsubaki for sure. Her unrequited love plot line was heart wrenching and compelling.

Love is War- Ishigami

I also cycle between a few favorite characters in Love is War (I adore both Shirogane and Kaguya of course) but at this point in the story in the anime, Ishigami is my favorite. I think he is such a realistic portrayal of an insecure, awkward teen, and I love how noble and selfless he is behind the scenes.

Haikyuu- Kageyama

What else is there to say, truly? I loved Kageyama the second he was introduced. His dynamic with Hinata is what makes the show, and his stubborn, cold personality is something I tend to be drawn to when it comes to my favorite kinds of characters.

Madoka Magica- Homura

Sayaka is a really really close second, but after finishing the series for the first time I couldn’t get Homura’s story out of my head. Her determination and willpower are honestly unmatched, and each new watch of the show makes me appreciate her more.

Monster- Dieter

I feel like Dieter may seem like an odd choice for a favorite; as you may expect, Tenma (many people’s favorite I’d assume) is probably a close second for me. But I think I liked Dieter so much because he was proof that love and support are capable of saving even the most traumatized individual. He was so cute and I loved how much he loved Tenma.

If you made it through this whole thing, thanks for reading! Also, I highly recommend watching all of these, I’ve linked my spoiler free reviews in the titles if you haven’t watched them and are interested in finding out more.

Thanks for reading!

-threecheersforinking

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cagedthewicked · 4 months ago

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cagedthewicked blog...I

intro post to my blog

side blog(s) : @w3tno0dles-cc-sims

my tags : #cagedwicked rambles || #bite the hand || #cagedwicked edits

about me!

i have made one of these in the past before, but i deleted it. i am remaking it incase tiktok does end up going down for me, since i am an american, and this is where i will be promoting my writing.

a little about me, my name is toby and i am a very big bucky barnes enthusiast (case in point this very blog). i have enjoyed marvel my whole life and grew up watching the movies, but only really got super into it the last year. i am a writer, and have been a fan fiction writer since middle school. my old fics have been scrubbed off the internet since then so there is no way to find them (thank god), but i have been writing since then!

outside of writing and marvel i enjoy cosplay, drawing, overly organizing spotify playlists, x-men (specifically gambit and rouge), collecting jellycats, littlest pet shops, legos, watching the weirdest possible shows you could think of for an insanely long time without moving, pokemon, borderlands (the second one is my favorite, i also hate the movie), animal jam, spongebob, iwtv, life is strange, and many many other things !!

i spend the most time writing ‘bite the hand’ or bth adjacent things due to the fact that i am criminally insane and think about them the most, but i also have other fics as well !! i just talk about bth the most on here but who knows, maybe bear will make an appearance someday !!

some of my friends who write stories i enjoy !!

@dieasthedevilwp : max is extremely extremely cool, and genuinely one of the fastest writers i know to man. she has fics for the walking dead & marvel !! i highly highly recommend ‘future ghosts’ if you want to cry and ‘boy//animal’ if you are a fan of dad!bucky barnes !!

@ingydarwp : clem’s character and storylines are genuinely insanely. she is one of the most talented people i know and her characters are always written in such a realistic way that i’m convinced that she lives in their brains or something. she has fics for marvel, the walking dead, and supernatural !!

i recommend all of clemmie’s fics, but if you want to start at the beginning like i did, and also enjoy dad!bucky barnes and feral little hydra children who can heal themselves, i recommend ‘digital silence’.

if dad!steve rogers is more your style, and want to read a version of natasha that is very comic accurate (in my opinion), i recommend ‘graceland too’!

wp || ao3 || masterlist

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liquidstar · 2 years ago

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do u have any recs for folks newer to the yuri genre? I've never really read any manga other than shounen and some magical girl stuff

Omg i can totally give yuri recs. (And which ones to stay away from. Sakura Kiss has cousin shit in it, Citrus has stepsister dubcon, Dragon Maid has lolicon, Happy Sugar Life is also lolicon but it’s edgy about it and tries to act like this makes it deep, we can do better)

Anyway here’s my actual recs! I'm going to give details but if you don't wanna read them I bolded all the titles.

YuriKuma Arashi (By Ikuhara of Revolutionary Girl Utena fame), is about lesbian bears. But it’s actually a metaphor for the simultaneous objectification and demonization of lesbians, the expectation both for purity and predation. There are some nitpicks I have with it like the sexualization being a bit too much to bring the point home, but overall I do like its themes and its message. And I think the ending pulls everything together really nicely. There is both a manga and an anime, and I believe the anime came first. I’ve only seen the anime so I’m not sure if/how the manga deviates!!!!

Bloom Into You is an absolute must. Like, for real, I think it’s one of the best romances out there, yuri or otherwise. It gets really deep into both characters' respective psyches and the ways that they’re both Very Screwed Up when it comes to love and romance, or really just life in general. Giving details would be doing them a disservice honestly. Both characters are very messy but also do try their best to genuinely communicate, and what comes of that is a lot of teenage lesbian drama, but the growth they both experience though it TOGETHER is just great, and you can tell they care about each other so much.

Okay this one I’m not really recommending for the good writing, it’s more-so just really cool. Liberta (EXPLICIT) is a series about a vampire who can turn her body into guns and a human woman who is sick of being seen as lesser in her ordinary life. And then they fall in love and are vampires together. The artstyle and character designs are awesome and it has some really cool fight scenes. However it also has full blown barely censored sex scenes. A few of them. One of the women uses her tail at some point. If that’s not what your cup of tea is, give it a pass.

Anyway for something more wholesome you should check out The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy at All, which I’m actually not fully caught up on bc life, but has still been a super fun read so far. It’s about a girl who works at a music store, and her classmate who gets a crush on her while she’s at work. The classmate doesn’t realize that they’re the same person, due to her looking different at work, and thinks her worksona is a guy. Hijinks ensue.

Otherside Picnic is also highly recommended. Its manga adaptation is lagging behind the light novel, which I can’t find a translation of online (But if anyone can help me out w that 🙏). The story itself is about two college students who go on adventures to a parallel plane of reality, which contains cosmic horrors who can only communicate with humans through fear so intense it will make you go insane. They’re also looking for someone who went missing, and gain cool powers like Ghost Hand and Sans Eye. Yes this is still a yuri series and it’s also really really extremely fucking cool.

She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat, is a slice of life story about… Well exactly what it says. A woman with a passion for cooking, making lots of food and sharing it with her neighbor, and they end up bonding through this. It’s also like, cool to see a big butch woman for a change! The story itself is very straightforward but I love watching the relationship progress as well as the mc question her sexuality. This story will absolutely make you super hungry though.

Show Me Your Bust (EXPLICIT) is also exactly what it says on the tin, though it’s technically a webtoon. Again this is a series with explicit sex scenes, but it actually does have a story and actual depth to its characters. Honestly there’s a lot to unpack with all of them and a lot of the relationships aren’t totally healthy but it’s a drama so that’s the point.

A Monster Wants To Eat Me is actually hard to describe without spoilers. It’s about a girl who lives by the sea, meeting a mysterious girl with eyes that remind her of the ocean itself. The girl says that she’s actually been looking for the mc for a long time, and it’s revealed that….

And lastly I wanna mention Hanamonogatari, a story about an old widow who begins to regain confidence in herself as she experiments with make-up with the help of another old lady who works at a local cosmetic store. Honestly it’s very very very sweet, it’s rare to get romances like this of old women when so much of the focus of romances (yuri or otherwise) is often on the characters being attractive. I also really appreciate how the make-up is being used specifically to accentuate their wrinkles. Not hide them. Because aging is beautiful too. Sadly IVE ONLY READ TWO CHAPTERS BECAUSE I DONT THINK THE REST ARE TRANSLATED IF ANYONE OUT THERE CAN HELP ME PLEASE DO 🙏

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idk-im-just-here-now · 10 months ago

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I just had a really wild experience, actually, so this'll be a longer post than usual!

So, the other day, I was discussing with someone the concept of a turtle having life on or inside its shell, and they mentioned inspiration being taken from the movie Strange World. Now, if you haven't seen Strange World, I HIGHLY recommend you go watch it, especially all of you who like speculative biology and complex worldbuilding. It may be a movie directed toward younger audiences, but there was a lot of time and care put into the world, and I can promise you won't regret it (Plus, some really nicely done LGBTQ+ and other minority rep!)! I'm gonna be spoiling the ending to the movie here, so ye, spoilers, beware!

So we were talking about that, and when they brought it up, I got really excited, because the end of that movie revealed that the people were living on and in a giant turtle swimming across a giant ocean. Now, yes, that sounds very cool, but I was especially excited because it was a reference to mythology I both like and am personally connected to: a North American native myth, that tells the tale of how the world was built on Turtle's shell, which became Turtle Island - which is nowadays known as North America.

I mentioned this to them, and they got excited and asked to know more about it so they could see if there were any ideas they could glean from the myth. I got really excited, because it meant I got to share a piece of my culture with somebody, for the first time ever.

So, I told them the version of the myth that I'd first heard, the story of a Sky Woman descending to the ocean that was Earth while animals tried to help retrieve mud from the bottom of the ocean to create the world. In the end, Muskrat managed to retrieve it, but the creature died in the process. Sky Woman made the world on the Turtle's shell and planted the medicine she'd brought with her from her world. The island was named Turtle Island to honor the creature who carried it.

I know there are a lot of different versions of the myth, but this was the one I heard. It belongs to the Haudenosaunee tribe from the Great Plains. None of my elders, or the ones I have, would have been able to tell me my tribe's myth because residential schools did so much damage to my family.

But while I was telling the story, something truly incredible was happening.

I slipped into the same words, the same story, that I'd first heard only a few months ago. I told it almost word-for-word, the same way the person who'd read it to me had spoken it. It was easy to say, and even though I did need to look at some resources at first to confirm the telling I was going to my friend, at some point I stopped checking and just kept speaking.

Now, I'm not saying it was like a trance or magic or anything mystic or voodoo like that. That's not how it works, and frankly, I can see how my wording would mistake it to be something like that.

But no. It just felt completely natural, like I was passing on my knowledge from one person to the next, from one generation to another; the way the oral storytelling in my native tribes worked. There was no drum circle or sage burning or dance - just me on Discord, passing on knowledge to someone who was genuinely interested to learn.

And I don't think I've ever felt more connected to my past and my culture and my people than I did in that moment. And I'm really happy it happened, because it was something that didn't require me to go learn or feel like I didn't know how to get into - its something I'm already good at, and I'm re-learning how to tell stories from my culture and I feel like I CAN reconnect - I just have to go looking for it.

TL;DR: Got to tell a story from my native culture, and that was singlehandedly the most empowering experience I've had regarding my culture in years. I now feel a lot more confident in going out and learning about it and learning to be part of it.

#idk rambles #strange world #native american #native american mythology #native american culture

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rainintheevening · 3 months ago

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1, 5, 6, 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, and 25 for the Movie Lover Asks, please?

Wow, okay, let's see what I can do!

1. A movie you consider to be a gift to humanity?

The Visual Bible's Gospel According to Matthew, directed by Regardt van den Bergh, and starring Bruce Marchiano as Jesus. The only really good Jesus movie in existence. The care and love that was poured into the making of this movie is so obvious, as is the Holy Spirit's work in the actors. The love of God bleeds all over the screen, and there are so many delightful details, and powerful stories from behind the scenes. The bit at the beginning of chapter 8 when Jesus heals the leper always gets me. 🥹

5. One of your favourite lead acting performances?

Okay, Imma say Bruce Marchiano in The Visual Bible's Gospel According to Matthew. He portrays Jesus with such reverence and humility, but also such humanity and joy. And the emotional range is astounding. He aches for Judas, flings tables in righteous fury, rolls on the ground embracing a healed leper in an abandon of joy, weeps over Jerusalem, flies at the Pharisees with a mix of anger and love that pinnacles in grief, and touches faces with immense tenderness. He makes it clear in his book In the Footsteps of Jesus (highly recommended read) that so many of his most emotionally powerful scenes were instances of the Holy Spirit just taking over and giving him everything he needed. But Bruce Marchiano plays an unforgettable part in this cinematic masterpiece.

6. One of your favourite lead voice acting performances?

Oooo, hum. I had to actually think about this, since I think a lot less about the voice acting in movies as opposed to audio dramas, but I am going to go with Ryan Potter as Hiro Hamada in Big Hero 6. (At least I think he qualifies as a lead?) He was still a teenager himself when he made the movie, and he brings so much heart to the role. All of Hiro's emotions come though clearly, not to mention the combination of awkward, goofy, and genius that makes Hiro so lovable. He just did a really good job, and Big Hero 6 is one of my fave Disney animated movies ever.

11. A favourite soundtrack and how it elevates the movie?

Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Hands down one of Hans Zimmer's finest. From the killer opening that is 'Hoist the Colours' to the delightful dissonance of 'Multiple Jacks' to the sweeping power and pathos of the Wedding Scene, the music is unforgettable. The use of themes, from the sweeping main pirate theme, to those high tinkling organ notes of the Davy Jones/Calypso them, to the drums of the martial numbers for the English, to the keening strings that build the romance of Will and Elizabeth's, he weaves all of them together in all the right places, telling the story in the music alone. 🙂‍↕️

12. A movie with superior costumes/make up?

How about Black Panther? Oh, the glorious richness of colours and styles! How all the different tribes are represented with varying colour schemes and face/body paints, especially for the formal occasions. The way the sleek futuristic abilities of vibranium is meshed with the earthy comfort of a people connected to their land. I love the details that were woven into all the different fabrics, and all the different aspects of African culture that were honoured as inspiration. Nakia's outfits especially delight me, because green and blue are my favourite colours. ^_^

15. A movie with superior animation?

Ooo, I ADORE the animation in Raya and the Last Dragon. It's probably the best water animation I've ever scene. Not to mention the colours and the glorious variety of the different provinces of Kumandra. The dragons are so cool and beautiful, combining delight and dignity. and the water animations!!! The way every indvidual drop of water looks like a miracle. Mmmmhm. So beautiful.

16. One of your favourite musicals?

Meet Me in St. Louis! That movie is an utter delight. The way it's really the story of a whole family, and the romance of the parents as just as important as the girls' little affairs. The fantastic performance of the children, especially little Margaret O'Brien as Tootie. The songs are all fun and memorable, and delivered beautifully. Oh, I love that movie. Cannot recommend it enough.

18. A story you want to see as an animated movie?

How about a movie about Man o'War? We can never have too many good horse movies, and I don't think his story has been told enough. It would be especially cool if it was adapted from Walter Farley's historical fiction novel about him. Greatest racehorse of all time.

25. A movie you are really looking forward to seeing?

The new Superman movie! I watched the first trailer for it on a whim, and was immediately taken by the apparent simplicity of it. It feels like it's going to be very stand-alone movie, and will have a very good heart. I LOVED James Gunn's work on the third Guardians of the Galaxy movie, so I trust him to some extent. Also, I've never seen a Superman movie, so it should be fun at any rate!

#this was so much fun thank you!#ack i want to watch all these movies now!#asked and answered #movies

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juniperhillpatient · 10 months ago

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talk to me about bojack horseman! Specifically your most unpopular opinions. I was on the Diane Defender Team for a long time and I remember a lot of men hated me for that lol. Luckily tumblr was cool.

Oh god how I love Bojack Horseman! It’s one of those very few shows that I would just….highly highly recommend to anyone & everyone to watch from start to finish & that I have very very few criticisms of like. It just had a perfect arc & every character was explored so thoughtfully & the ending hit every note I could’ve ever wanted. One of my top favorite shows of all time.

It’s SO hard to know what opinions I have that are unpopular given the lack of “fandom” the show has - which makes sense, it’s not really the type of show I’d read fanfic or “ship” characters in so like. I GET it but I also don’t know what opinions I have that are unpopular because I’m not familiar with the fandom opinions lol!

Like. People hate my best friend Diane??? I’ve heard it said that she’s hated before & I’ve watched a LOT of “in defense of Diane Nguyen” type video essays but I’ve also (thankfully) not seen people hating on her. I’m sorry I hate to be that person because subjective taste is a thing but I’m sorry if you hate Diane you’ve entirely missed the point? She’s so integral! Diane’s arc is so important!

Diane is the kind of character that a lesser show would make the “good kind feminist counterpart to BJ” but that Bojack Horseman (the show not necessarily always the character) recognized as a real messy flawed three dimensional human who YES calls Bojack on his shit but is often accidentally awful to both Bojack & everyone else in her mission to be a “good” person.

Diane is the picture of what idealism in a cynical world can lead to in a negative way. She wants to be this bold feminist with strong beliefs that will fight for what’s right but she often forgets the people around her in the frenzy of her fight to do what she perceives as “good.” And her arc!!!! I get so emotional thinking about Diane’s arc - about her relationship with Princess Carolyne & how Carolyn advised her to just write the schlocky detective books that made her happy because it’s the kind of stuff she’d want her daughter to get to read & about how she realizes that she doesn’t have to make her trauma beautiful she doesn’t have to make it her whole personality she can just write & have fun! And like. We see her give up on some of her ambitions & gain weight & accept that she needs to let go of her incredibly toxic friendship with Bojack & that’s okay & doesn’t have to mean she hates him or that either of them are evil - her arc is so incredibly real & relatable & unlike anything we typically see on TV & I love it.

Okay that wasn’t an unpopular opinion(or maybe it was? I hope not) it was just me rambling about how much I love Diane Nguyen but like. I really really do.

Bojack Horseman depicts so many things - generational trauma & toxic friendships & romantic & familial relationships & the way we traumatize other people because of our own trauma & the ability of ANYONE to grow & change even the most toxic horrible person you can imagine even if it takes decades to get there - that you just don’t see on regular tv. And it does it through funny talking cartoon animals so it’s not boring & it never feels pretentious just like it’s telling a story. And while it CAN be depressing it knows how to perfectly balance the vibe of comedy & absurdity so it’s not just painful to watch like it would be in live action or with human characters without the absurdist comedy aspect & it just perfectly balances entertainment with hard hitting themes.

Anyway. I don’t know what the popular & unpopular opinions are this just turned into me rambling about my love for the show. Thank you for coming to my ted talk & thank you for sending an ask 🫶🫶🫶

#bojack horseman #tv tag #fave shows #mutuals #asks #answered #ty for the ask <3

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w1ld-wr1t3r · 1 month ago

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⭐

honestly, would like you to talk about any au you want! im really curious about aaaaall of them and i can't choose 🤭

OMG YAY I CAN TALK ABOUT MY NEWEST AU :D

Now, before I dive into this, I wanna preface that this AU is going to be very different from any other F1 RPF I've written or attempted to write, namely because I'm choosing to focus on a different cast of characters than I normally write about. Lando and Co. might still appear as background characters, but they will not be the main focus of the story. The main characters are actually, believe it or not, Brocedes. This is a ship I've read but never attempted or considered writing before now, so this is somewhat uncharted territory for me. And the AU?

Welcome, everyone, to the world of Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan.

(Potential minor spoilers ahead, though I did try very hard to keep things as spoiler-free as possible outside of explaining the basic premise. This is a series that's most fun if you go into it with a fresh eye!)

The Leviathan trilogy is one of my favorite book series ever (and it's soon to be an anime series on Netflix, the trailer looks amazing, I am SO FREAKING PUMPED). It has such a unique premise and the lore is so creative. I've never read another series quite like it. It's meant for a YA audience but I would highly recommend this series to anyone who loves historical fiction or just a fun adventure!

First and foremost, it's important to note that this series is set during WWI, with a lot of creative liberties taken, and I mean a lot. For starters, the technology is very, very different. This is a steampunk AU, with two primary "sides," the Clankers and the Darwinists. The Clankers (which include Germany, Austria-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire) use massive steam-powered engines as their main technology, with giant eight-legged walking machines that would put an AT-AT to shame and giant mechanical golems, among other things. On the flip side, the Darwinists (most of the rest of Europe, plus Russia) use bioengineered technology. Their airships are flying whales, they have krakens they can control using lights, they've got lizards that can carry messages and speak in the sender's voice, the Russians have house-sized fighting bears, and these are just some of their wild creations (while this would probably be ethically problematic in our world, you have to admit it's a really cool concept in fiction. If I lived in the Leviathan universe, I would 100% be a Darwinist. I wanna fly in a whale!).

You may have also noticed that the Clankers include the Central Powers, while the Darwinists represent the Allied Powers. You can probably guess where this is going.

So, that's the basic setting for the AU: Europe on the brink of WWI, with the Darwinists and Clankers, nature versus metal, pitted against each other. Now let's take a look at our two main characters:

Without spoiling too much, our main characters are Alek and Deryn. Alek, full name Prince Aleksander of Hohenburg, is the son of Franz Ferdinand, and if you know any history surrounding WWI, then you can guess that Alek ends up with a pretty big target on his back in this story. He has to flee his country before his enemies hunt him down, and try to find a way to assert his claim to the throne of Austria-Hungary. On the flip side, we have Deryn Sharp, a Scottish girl who takes a page out of Mulan's book and pretends to be a boy so that she can serve in the Royal Air Service, and ends up on the titular in-universe ship, the HMS Leviathan. So you've got a Clanker prince on the run and a spunky Darwinist girl hiding as a boy. Circumstances bring these two unlikely allies together and kick off an adventure that leaves the fate of Europe in their hands. This summary is heavily simplified and leaves out the finer (and spoiler-y) details, but you get the idea.

So, that's the setup that the first book of the series starts with. Now let's see how this lore fits into my AU:

Instead of Deryn and Alek, we've got Lewis and Nico, respectively. Reflecting his history-making in F1, in this AU, Lewis is the first Black airman to join the Royal Air Service. He's determined to serve his country no matter what, especially since it looks like war is looming for Europe. He works hard to prove himself, and to try and get along with his fellow officers, a feat sometimes easier said than done. On the flip side, Nico is the prince who has to run for his life after the assassination of his parents. He flees his childhood home with nothing but a couple of loyal allies, some gold, and a two-legged walker, and ends up hiding in the remote Alps. Long story short, these two meet after disaster strikes one and they end up in the same place . . . and the story progresses from there.

Now, I'm not gonna detail the rest of the story, partially because I really don't want to spoil the books (seriously, go read them!), but also because, like I said, this is my newest AU and there's still a lot that needs to be filled in. Right now my main hang-up is that I'm mainly familiar with the current and recently departed drivers, not so much with the lineup of a decade ago, so I'm gonna have to do some research to figure out the cast and their roles. I'll probably try to work in at least some of the current drivers, and you'd best believe that if I have a chance to work in Norrix I will be taking it, but before that, I've gotta assign the rest of the cast first. After that, it's mostly a matter of figuring out which parts of the plot I'll be keeping and which I'll be changing. Obviously, since the girl-pretending-to-be-a-boy storyline is being dropped, so there are already going to be big chunks that will have to be modified. I'm planning to reread the books to refamiliarize myself with the plot (it's been at least five or six years since I last read them, I'm due for a reread anyway).

There's also a lot of IRL history worked into the series as well, and although it is portrayed through a fictional lens, much of it is rooted solidly in real events. Even though the world of Leviathan is very different from ours, there are parallels between the events of their world and ours. So I'll have to brush up on my IRL WWI-era history too. Looks like I've got a lot of research ahead of me!

The book series is a trilogy, so should this AU blossom like I hope it does, there will be three main installments, one to go with each book arc. Since the main pairing in the book is ultimately written as romantic, I'm currently planning to write Brocedes as romantic as well. Obviously, since they start out on opposite sides, it's gonna take a little while to get there!

That's about all for now. Not much in terms of the story yet, but I'm really happy to flesh out the lore and set up the world of Brocedes in Leviathan. Let me know what you think!

#ask #leviathan au #brocedes #i can't overstate how much i recommend this book series #it's up there with project hail mary and the chaos walking trilogy (also some of my favorite books ever)#and if you have netflix please join me in watching the series when it comes out i am so very excited for it

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