#some need certain nerfing though

[devildomwriter]

Toys In Every Store | Luke x Reader

1K+ words | GN! Reader | Familial/platonic relationship | CW: Absolutely none, I’m not a monster

Christmas tunes played over the speakers on the crowded snowy streets but the sounds of people bustling and cars honking nearly drowned it out.

You held Luke’s hand as you crossed the street, he was happily skipping and humming to himself.

He’d been overjoyed to be able to visit the human world with you and his excitement grew when he learned you’d be exploring the city during the Christmas season. Simeon thought this was a good idea. That way Luke could adjust to how humans celebrated Christmas—extremely commercialized.

Luke paused to point out every nativity scene he saw in the store windows or the lawn of the church in the middle of the city.

He skipped right along with your pace, not really caring to look around too much until he passed by a certain window and his eyes lit up. You felt resistance in your hand and stopped to see Luke glued to the store display.

It reminded you of the scene from Christmas Story. Propped against the back were Nerf guns, teddy bears, and toy soldiers. A train rode through everything with fake steam coming from the top of it.

Luke was far from the only child looking at it but he was certainly the most behaved as the other children flailed to stay longer or whined that they had to have that toy.

Luke gave you a hopeful look and you chuckled, “Wanna check out the store?” You suggested

Luke nodded eagerly, “Can we!?”

You nodded too and he jumped for joy as you waited for people to finish exiting the store so you could both slip in.

Luke let out an audible gasp as he took in his surroundings. You put your ear mits back on to block out the more annoying sounds in the store like screaming kids who didn’t get what they wanted.

Luke looked distressed at the children’s upset and gave them a bright smile which seemed to instantly calm them down. The parent with the upset toddler was so surprised at the sudden change from aggrieved to giggling that she turned right around to see Luke smiling and profusely thanked him.

Luke was embarrassed and hid behind you.

“You’re a good parent,” she told you with a grin. “He’s so well-mannered.”

You and Luke turned red and you mumbled words of thanks as Luke dragged you by the hand to the toy aisle.

You couldn’t wait to tell Simeon that Luke had been mistaken as your child. You couldn’t tell if the blush that stayed on Luke’s cheeks was from embarrassment or happiness. After all, Luke was actually your self-appointed guardian angel. Though he may be young he was often much wiser than you. You had Simeon’s guidance to thank for that.

You watched Luke examine the Brio Trains, Nerf Guns, teddy bears larger than the both of you, pottery sets, and mystery hatchimals.

“What are these?” He asked you holding a hatchimal proudly above his head.

“A stuffed animal,” you explained and he frowned.

“It doesn’t hatch into a real animal?” He asked and you nodded.

“This isn’t the Devildom, magic animals don’t live in the human world.”

“Unicorns do!”

“Wait what?”

Luke did not answer you as he was distracted by the remote-controlled Mario cars that looked similar to the ones in the game he always played with Levi.

“Want it?” You asked him after he held it for a while, the excited glimmer in his eyes not fading.

He gasped and looked at you. “You mean it!? Can I? It’s so expensive though!” He admitted and you realized it was nearly 100 USD and swallowed your words of regret.

You smiled instead and nodded and he cheered, “Thank you! Thank you! Thank you! You’re the best ___! An angel!” He exclaimed and you blushed as some parents looked at you, curious.

“Yeah, yeah,” you said quickly hoping he’d calm down.

You reached for a second car and grinned, “you’ll need someone to race against, won’t you?”

Luke cheered even more loudly. “I can’t wait! This is the best day ever! You’re the best ___!”

You shushed him embarrassed as he gave you a big hug. You carried the two cars to the checkout line. The poor cashier was overwhelmed as the lines reminded you of Disney and there were just two of them able to check people out.

When it was finally your turn Luke tried to pay with some of his allowance but you snatched it right back and handed over your card.

Luke pouted at not being allowed to help you when you were already being so generous but he quickly got over it when you handed him his car.

Luke grinned brightly the rest of the day and his allowance instead quickly disappeared into a donation bin guarded by a very grateful Santa.

When you finally returned home to Purgatory Hall Luke immediately showed Solomon, Taphale, and Simeon what you had both gotten and Simeon smiled and thanked you.

“Who are you going to race first?” Raphael asked looking at the cars.

“___! They got them for me after all! I want them to do the honors.”

Solomon chuckled at his cute response. “These are good quality. Let me know if they die quickly or not, I can just enchant them to keep running.”

Raphael gave him a side eye, worried about what such an enchantment would really do as these things easily gained sentience and went off the rails.

Simeon handed everyone food and said the blessing. As you sat there eating an idea popped into your head and you smiled widely enough that the others noticed.

“So, Simeon. Can I take your other kid out shopping too?”

Simeon raised an eyebrow, “pardon? My other kid?”

Solomon snorted so hard a noodle shot out his nose as he immediately realized who you meant.

“Yeah, Raphael.”

Raphael glared at you as Simeon nodded. “Yes. I’ll spare some change for you, I’m sure he’d love a Nerf gun or race car.”

“Ugh, spare me,” Raphael grumbled as Luke laughed.

It was a good end to a great day.

[serpentface]

i know u havent posted about them for a while but did archen gunsmithing get nerfed too? seems like those lil guys have taken nothing but Ls in this current iteration

Yeah it got semi-nerfed but not COMPLETELY nerfed.

Where it's at now is more like they have independently developed gunpowder much earlier and have some explosive devices, but not firearms.

The single biggest threat to archin is vulnerability to much larger predators- a single archin's death doesn't ultimately harm a unit or colony consciousness, but a singular archin IS substantially more important to a colony's survival than a singular non-sapient ant, so devising anti-predatory techniques that limit casualties (rather than the ant-typical strategy of SWARM BITE STING) would be likely. In addition to very advanced and fortified nest building strategies, this is accomplished in domestication of much larger animals for above-ground protection (probably deriving from earlier symbiotic relationships), then possibly experimentation with poisons (especially in that certain natural substances can give off toxic fumes when burnt). A formula for gunpowder could have been discovered in that context (fumes from burnt saltpeter might have already been used as a repellent).

They are very involved in managing land at large scales (and lighting/spreading fires for controlled burns is very hard when you are a collective of inch long bugs), so it would have first been used to start and spread fires. Then used for killing very large animals for food (probably first in the form of strategic fires, then as bombs). Then more refined/more explosive forms could be used in Ant Warfare to produce incendiary devices (mainly to bust open fortified nests or kill en-masse with fire). So like their gunpowder weaponry is closer to dynamite than anything else.

Them having Gun's was kind of a vestigial remnant of them formerly being 2ft tall anthropomorphic bees and like, it would just be an absolutely colossal stretch with their current morphology (as pheromone-based 'hive consciousness' inch-long but otherwise normal ants) for them to develop or see any need for anything resembling a firearm. The way I translated it to their new design was more like "how can I keep the ant guns" rather than "what would sapient ants use as weaponry against larger animals and what natural (or at least Believable) stages of development would bring this about", and I try to use the latter approach as much as possible.

I honestly don't see this as a downgrade though like 'ants with guns' has a wackiness factor I guess but taking the sapient ant collective premise more seriously is a lot more interesting to me.

[pawpunkao3]

Yknow what since we're doing discourse on Irredeemable Teens I wanna share with yall some thoughts on Penelope Everpetal

Penelope is a wild magic sorcerer. It seems so random. With a name like Everpetal, wouldn't you expect her to have something more elegant, like divine soul sorcery? Storm sorcery, like her best friend Sam? Hell, even draconic sorcery has a certain villainous finesse to it, especially considering that she's working with a dragon. But instead, she gets wild magic. The subclass that new players get told to avoid because half of its features nerf your character. The subclass that has a 0.1% chance of killing you and everyone in a 20ft radius every time you cast a spell.

People like to joke that sorcerers don't work for their magic---I mean, they call the sorcery teacher "just a guy who hangs out with students and talks about how cool their powers are". But that's ignoring the other side of magic---not power, but control. While wizards and bards fought to learn to cast even basic spells, Penelope struggled to reel in her magic. It was a battle that nobody saw, and when she lost it, it would end up humiliating at best, and devastating at worst. Combine that with the fact that she seems spoiled and entitled---maybe the type of person to believe being born with magic made her better than other casters---and it's easy to see the conflict. Her sorcery should have made her glamorous, desirable. Instead, it only burdened her.

Maybe that's why Kalvaxus picked her as his future prom queen.

I imagine he found her in her freshman year. She'd had a surge in class and grown a big beard of blue feathers---not cute. Not pretty. Humiliating. So there she was, behind the school, sobbing and tearing them out in big bloody fistfuls and muttering about how she was going to kill everyone who ever laughed at her because she was the best most powerful sorceress ever, and, well. Kalvaxus normally wouldn't care about some idiot student being sad, but something about her fury intrigued him. It seemed...exploitable.

So he blew a puff of smoke her way and made her sneeze the rest of the feathers out. Told her she was right---she WAS better for being a sorceress, and it wasn't fair that people made fun of her for something she couldn't control. Penelope wouldn't have noticed the contradiction. She was only fourteen, and more than a little dehydrated. All she wanted was for someone to hear her problems and not laugh, and he did just that.

And so Vice Principal Goldenhoard became her special friend (don't tell mom and dad---they wouldn't understand that he really was just her friend, you know SOME teachers would be using her confidence for nefarious purposes. Not him, though. Never him). If she had a bad surge and Sam was busy, he would even let her eat lunch in his office. He made a confession: he wasn't a dragonborn. He was a true dragon, kept in this form by a wicked curse. She agreed that Aguefort was evil for trapping him. He should be principal, really. Maybe (when he suggested it) he should even rule the world.

As Penelope grew older, she and Kalvaxus made an agreement---she would help him rise to power, and he would make sure nobody mocked her and her friends ever again. He introduced her to some new friends---one of the paladin students, a party girl from Hudol, a warlock with a cool car. She started campaigning for prom queen. But there was one little thing: for the plan to work, he needed sacrifices. Nobody important---that stuck-up nerd from the library, the cringy horse girl who made everyone so embarrassed (she forgot how bad it felt to be in her place whenever she surged), a bossy jock. Kalvaxus had her pick out the next one---an annoying activist type, someone nobody really liked, someone who she might even be able to convince to give up her life for the "greater good". Kalvaxus was so proud. They took that brash cleric without a hitch, but it was harder to get her to budge on her best friend. Suddenly her good friend Kalvaxus turned scary---she couldn't back out now. She'd already helped kidnap five girls. Did she want him to turn her in? Besides, when she was queen, everyone would want to be her friend. Who is she to question him when he tells her to sacrifice this one?

Penelope didn't protest when Kalvaxus picked a random freshman as the last sacrifice. She'd already done the worst thing anyone could do.

By the time the Bad Kids charged into that gym, she was too far gone. She'd steeped too long in Kalvaxus's lies for the stain to come out. She genuinely believed that being herself gave her the right to be queen. She'd sacrificed so much for it, after all. Maybe eventually she realized she wasn't going to win. But hey, she came this far. Might as well go down swinging.

[daydreamwhumpinc]

Magical Healing in Whump?

So, I am done with my finals for now and that means that I can write a whole essay on magical healing and what it means for whump scenarios. Plus a few additional prompts to make your whump scenarios more delicious and throw another whump poll in to the abyss ;)

Okay, now get ready for a bit of rambling. I usually enjoy whump in fantasy settings A LOT, but often the author decides to use magic as a fix it for any and all injuries which deprives us all of juicy, juicy whump scenes. On one hand, magical healing can open the door to more severe injuries that, normally, the Whumpee can't survive otherwise. On the other hand, the magic healing can be just used to heal anyone and everyone without the Caretaker (magic healer) and the Whumpee facing any consequences. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle, but it is not that easy to hit as I found out while working on my own project.

For example, in the Webtoon I'm currently working on, one of my main characters has only defensive/healing/purifyng powers so I'm trying to set certain boundaries so that his powers are not too OP or too nerfed in the grand scheme of the story. Here are some prompts that I thought of that might help you to write your magical healer as someone capable and believable, but still not interfere with your Whump scenes.... ;)

The healer has to use their own life energy to heal the Whumpee, so the healer has to take breaks in between the healing- That way the healer can't heal a big injury all at once and will give the Whumpee some time to suffer and hurt. It will also open the door for the healer themself to be whumped if they use too much of their own life force energy when healing.

The healer has to be versed in medicine to be able to magically heal the Whumpee- Hear me out, this one is a bit weird. Imagine that even though you have healing magic, you still have to know anatomy and medicine, so you can use your magic to properly mend someones wounds. This might pose a problem in actually finding the magical healer with the necessary knowledge level of medicine and healing magic to help the Whumpee.

The healing magic is too potent to have too much in the body at once- I think it can be somewhat interesting to see the healing magic as something that can hurt in big amounts. After all, even water is harmful to the body when there is too much of it. This leads to almost the same outcome as in the first prompt, where the healer has to heal the Whumpee over time, allowing their body to filter out the healing magic.

The healer has to use some outside medium/conduit to heal the Whumpee- This one is a bit different, but I guess alchemy and potions are still considered as magical healing. Therefore, if the healer doesn't have the necessary tools for their healing ritual, then there is nothing they can do at that moment.

The Whumpee has to want to be healed/have enough energy/life force to bond with the healing magic- Another convoluted one, perhaps, but I'll try my best to explain. The healing magic will not work on the Whunoee unless they still have the drive to live and survive. It is something like having the will power to choose to get better and fight through the pain, otherwise the healing magic will just leak out and do nothing in terms of healing. Additionally, it can be linked with how much "life force" there is left in the Whumpee, so the more sever the injury is, the harder it is for the healer to connect with and heal the Whumpee.

The healing process is painful- The drawback of the healing process is the excrutiating pain as the bones and skin are knitted back together. So the Whumpee is pretty out of it by the end, or, once again, has to be treated in short bursts over a period of time.

Healing magic can only heal small or certain medium sized wounds- just have a power limit on the types of injuries the healer can heal with magic.

Happy Whumping and Feel Free to Add On :)

[pianokantzart]

Reading your most recent post on Movie!Bowser… it does make me quite curious as to how they’ll handle Bowser and Mario’s fighting dynamic in the hypothetical second Mario movie. In terms of physical strength, I mean. Game!Mario is quite capable of taking down Bowser in his original form(as in, can physically take Bowser down without power-ups) but Mario more or less needed the aid of the star power-up to do so. The movie versions of M&L are definitely closer to normal humans in terms of fighting prowess, so it makes me wonder if they’ll try having Mario, and Luigi by proxy, fight in hand-to-hand combat with no power-ups with Bowser at some point?

Maybe that could be a plot point in the second movie? Bowser worms his way out and starts whichever villainous plot his evil little heart desires, and Mario and Luigi start off a journey of sorts to find another star power-up, believing it crucial in obtaining victory? But, unable to find it, they’re more or less thrown into the fray with their wits and only limited power-ups in tow? And thus sustain a significant amount more of injuries without their invincibility from the star? (And perhaps the fabled green mushroom makes its debut that way…) The movies could have an interesting juxtaposition with the first movie bros being inexperienced + power-upped vs. second movie bros being more experienced + ….not-so-power-upped lol. They sort’ve have to earn their hero titles more(though moreso in the eyes of themselves only. Mostly everyone around them is already like ‘Duh. Your heroes with or without them.’ But, alas, character arcs! Potentially!) Sorry, I’m kinda word vomiting, but day by day I grow ever more curious how the second movie could play out….

One thing I like about The Super Mario Bros. Movie is that it's pretty much just an origin story. There is so much room to expand between where the movie left off and the full Mario lore as we know it today, and I for one am interested in the process of Mario and Luigi going from "Haha! We're heroes!" to "Oh f*ck, we're heroes," to "Okay... we're heroes... we can do this."

Like, how would they react to the idea of facing off against Bowser again without a power star to help them? How will their dynamic shake out when they're bouncing from one life-or-death situation to another? How will they balance their protectiveness toward each other with their moral obligations? Where will the new stakes take them? What new powerup/ally/enemy will they encounter? But back to what you're saying. If Mario and Luigi don't use powerups– even small ones– in the fight against Bowser, I predict a combination of the following tactics will be employed:

Reliance on dexterity. Bowser has them beat in terms of speed, strength, and resilience, but being a giant turtle monster he isn't nearly as agile as Mario and Luigi.

Using Bowser's emotions against him. It's his most glaring weakness, so while prodding at his ego is risky it could also make his movements more predictable.

Using their surroundings to their advantage instead of relying strictly on their own physical ability, which is a pretty common thing to do in Mario games (and video games in general.)

Leaning heavily on teamwork, not just with each other but with Peach, Toad, and probably Yoshi given the post-credits teaser.

And maybe a certain green and white mushroom will need to come into play at some point? We'll see. My biggest fear is that the writers will nerf Bowser a little so that he's easier to take on without the aid of the super star, but I really hope that doesn't happen. Speedy, strong, ruthless, unwavering, tactical, durable Bowser with a fire breath powerful enough to destroy civilizations is my favorite Bowser.

[twobellsilence]

Anyway, speaking of Daima, I also want to touch on something I ended up cutting from my previous post because it was a bit of a tangent, but I still feel strongly enough about it to make it its own thing. And that's how much better Daima is at keeping you excited for what comes next and keeping a certain sense of urgency compared to Super despite its way lower scale.

See, one of my main problems with Super is how low stakes and predictable it was. I've bashed Super enough and thoroughly explained my point throughout this blog's lifespan so I won't delve much into it here, but I find that Daima completely fixes all of these issues and then some. It actively uses lore to better the narrative and create genuine intrigue instead of making things easier for the writers. It promotes speculation, because there are genuinely so many ways in which things could develop from here on, and even though we know Goku & Co will win at the end we have no idea just how much they're gonna have to fight for it - not only that, but they actually set up ways in which the villains could potentially kick the Z gang's ass fair and square without any deus ex machinas or dumbfuck retcons (I am looking directly at you, Potara nerf). AND they do it without making each new enemy stronger than Goku just because the narrative needs it, which means 1) power actually makes sense and 2) It provides a sense of scale as to just how strong the Real Baddies actually are. Isn't that exciting? There are ACTUAL stakes here, and they are wholly believable!

There are no Aliens with a butt for a head that could go toe to toe with a god or Some Random Ass Grey Guy in a jumpsuit that is potentially as powerful as Beerus because Trauma or whatever the hell, only regular Majins doing their best like Panzy being oppressed by beings with mysterious magical powers like Gomah. Mysterious powers that keep beings like Neva and Marba under Gomah's control but without blowing the entire known universe up. Still a tangible threat for sure, but one that is grounded and makes sense within the established rules, just like Kuu and Duu and the fact that them being part Buu opens up a lot of possibilities as to how things can play out between Arinsu, the Z gang, and Gomah, and not exclusively when it comes to fights. Does that make sense? There's strategy involved, and it really feels like the original DB in that sense.

[tragicallycrispygirl]

After having a few days to play around with Slayer, I want to share my opinion on him and his strength as a character.

In short, while I think he's absolutely a premium character near the top of the roster, I don't think I would really call him an all-around strongest due to how matchup dependent he feels.

In long: his damage is fucking ridiculous. Genuinely fucking ridiculous. You can get 300+ damage meterlessly at ROUND START with a Pilebunker loop. It does require a bit of luck (you need a counterhit H normal) but the fact that he can even do that AND ALSO GET POSITIVE BONUS is insane. His absolute biggest problem though is his movement, to an annoying degree, and it's where a lot of the matchup stuff comes in. I played against an Axl who beat the absolute shit out of me, and the whole time he seemed to have a very easy time just moving backwards and poking me out. Axl is definitely very good at that, but JESUS.

Slayer's movement is just so, so fucking bad. All of his options to get in are incredibly committal, and are all flawed in some way:

-Mashing Dash: Slow. You can't block during the dash. You can't special cancel the dash (as far as I know).

-Walking: go make a coffee while you wander over to your enemy lmao

-IAD/Jumping and Airdashing: Prepare to taste a delicious 6P

-Mappa Hunch: Pretty long startup and whiff recovery, and if your opponent blocks it you're probably giving up your turn. Vulnerable to being stuffed by disjoints, or even just trading disadvantageously.

-Dandy Step: Same problems as Mappa but with the added bonus of not going as far!

-RC Super Mappa Hunch: Costs 100 tension.

-RC 6K > j.s: Might actually be pretty useful? I haven't tried it before but you go flying full screen so...

These movement issues are the crux of what I feel makes him not an overall strong character, just because he gets zoned so so hard. Don't get me wrong, he is very good, but he has a lot of glaring weaknesses that are very prevalent in certain matchups. Hand of Doom is also garbaaaaage even just backdashing on wakeup in this game feels bad but the followup is iekrnfkdowbekfnf.

All of this, though, means they did a pretty excellent job of translating him from XRD, where I'd say a lot of the same things about him! His strengths are very matchup dependent! I also want to be clear that him having these weaknesses is important. If he could just run you down and melt 3/4 of your healthbar away, he would absolutely be the most overtuned character in the game. Insert Sol Badguy joke here.

There are some things I'd nerf, though:

-Lower the height of It's Late. Fucking look at this shit man his fist isn't even ever up there

-Make the Dandy follow-ups and Mappas an extra frame minus. (Dandies -3, Mappas -2 and -3 respectively.) They're supposed to make Slayer give up his turn on block, but often you can sneak in a 2K or 2P to keep the pressure going. I don't think that should be gone, but I think it should be higher risk. This might be very harsh but idfk man

-Master's Hammer not +26 on block. That's fucking ridiculous for a point blank move come on

-Make his damage modifier x1. This is probably too harsh, but I don't really feel that he should take less damage as a brawler type character. Yes I get he has poor defensive options but still

All of these might be nerfing him too hard, but at the very least I want It's Late shortened pls it's fucking dumb.

As for buffs, I don't think he needs very many, but:

-Increase the distance of his normal dash, or make it faster. This might make him too fast but fuck me his dash feels awful at longer than roundstart ranges.

-Keep the opponent closer on a K Mappa knockdown. This would have the added benefit of making the 5K link not feel so weird and strange.

As for SILLY FUN STUPID buffs I think he should have:

-Super Mappa Hunch is now 15+0 instead of 14+1, so at close range you can't block after the super freeze. I don't know if it hits full screen in 1 frame, but I want my XRD Dead On Time shenanigans back dammit.

-Last horizon now deals 300 damage. This is a cleaner number than 290.

-Last Horizon will now go full screen. It doesn't go any faster he just goes all the way full screen.

-Hand of Doom is actually invincible and gives you c.s links on counter-hit (make it like -8 instead of -7 to compensate)

-Pilebunker disregards the normal chip damage rules and can kill at any amount of health

-Counterhit Pilebunker gives the silly tumble for a full combo that it used to

All in all, I think Slayer is comfortably lower/middle-top tier. Am I downplaying because I love him and also am not good? Maybe. I've always hung out around floor 10 pretty comfortably before he came out, but I reached the Celestial Challenge for the first time EVER using him, so make of that what you will. I'd be interested to hear how you all feel about him.

The most important thing, though? He's really fun. I do just really like Strive and how it feels, but I find him very fun to play and play against. (The play against might change, I wanna learn Testament so we'll see how I feel later lmao)

Edit: After trying to learn Testament and going to open park and playing about 25 matches against a Slayer, some of my opinions have shifted:

-Obliterate Master's Hammer. Destroy it. Explode. +26 is stupid. At the VERY LEAST make it lower to the ground to you can actually c.s it or something

-Mappa is a ridiculously good way to get in lmaoooooooooo im just fucking dumbbbbbbb make that shit -2 and -3 NOW

-He doesn't need any buffs

I need someone better than me to weigh in on the matchup thing, cause it felt kinda even? I just don't know how to play Testament.

[gale-gentlepenguin]

ML AU: Lady of Second Chances: Origins

(Idea here)

-Marinette pieces together that she is back in the past pretty quick, and it’s 24 hours before her first day of school.

-after realizing it’s all real she needed to ensure she remembered everything.

-Fortunately for her, she remembered the abilities and powers of all the miraculous by heart, and even some of the potion recipes. (the Aqua, ice and Space power ups) but she wasn’t too worried. Those were the only ones she remembered coming into play. She wrote everything down in a journal. A super secret journal, one that was more hidden than her actual one. Mainly because she remembers when she ran for class rep, Sabrina goes to steal it.

-She remembers that Fu will still be around. Which means maybe she could prevent her biggest failures from happening!

-But first thing first, she needed to ensure her friendship with Alya was the same! It was a staple.

-But what about Adrien? Sure things were starting to get easier with him and they even start dating, but can she at least avoid doing some of the embarrassing things?

-Well first thing first, she needed to play one thing for certain right. The events with stone heart needed to happen.

-Marinette did her best to live step by step the events of her first few days of school. Her friendship with Alya began, and it took her all her self control to NOT tell her she’s ladybug. Right now wasn’t the time.

-It also took all her self control to pretend to not care about Adrien, and pretend like he was a jerk like Chloe.

-though a brief slip did cause Marinette to call chat noir by his name Before the introduction.

-But she was able to play it off by saying he looked like one.

-Chat noir found it amusing and called her Miss Spots. But she insisted on ladybug.

-Ladybug had to remember she was an amateur, so she had to nerf herself a bit. Even suppressing her urge purify stone heart the first time.

-But one difference was she made Stoneheart a charm. Something she didn’t do originally.

-This was a surprise to Fu, who never knew The Ladybug miraculous could do such a thing.

-Chat noir fell for ladybug, just like in canon.

-The umbrella scene happened as in canon, interestingly, Marinette didn’t need to pretend to be extra blushy. That boy just had that effect on her.

-Though the few changes Marinette made were noticed. Marinette never had her hero crisis, as she already had it.

-Alya noticed Marinette was more confident than she let on. (Marinette had to pretend Chloé’s words impacted her, but they long since lost value)

-Marinette informed Tikki of her History. Letting the kwami know something’s. Marinette told Tikki she shouldn’t tell anyone. Which Tikki promised. But Tikki was curious on a LOT.

-Chat noir was a bit more Floored by the confident Ladybug. And this one was also a bit flirty with him!?

[elvenchevalier]

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom

Wow, what a game. I probably could not have chosen better for my first game of 2025.

At first, I wasn't certain how I would feel about a Zelda game with indirect combat, but Echoes delivered on its premise with aplomb. I felt like it was the perfect evolution of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's systems where every tool had multiple uses. The wonderful thing about Echoes is that you have so many tools with so much utility that you can basically do whatever you want with creative enough Echo use.

Of course, for me, that meant spamming Deku Baba for combat for basically the entire first quarter of the game. It got to the point where, even though I'd long since stopped using it, Deku Baba still took SECOND PLACE on my most used Echoes list. Crazy. (Trampoline and the all-powerful Water Block were the other two.) I regret nothing, though. Spamming Deku Baba like I was twerking at the enemy was far more satisfying than it had ANY right to be.

On the subject of the Water Block, can I say that thing needs a NERF? It feels like once you have access to Water Block, you can get literally anywhere you need that's either a certain number of blocks away or, even better, along any ceiling or up any wall, as the only limitation Water Block has is that one of the connecting blocks is touching an existing piece of terrain. And since you have access to the third dimension, you can snake your chain of water blocks any which way you need. It's completely busted, and the only reason Flying Tile even keeps being useful is that it can cross huge gaps that are too long even for the Water Block. Long live Water Block.

The only real flaw I can come up with for the Echo system is that the list of echoes displayed upon holding right is a single line almost as long as Hidetaka Miyazaki's swamp boner. It should honestly have been a grid, like it is in the pause menu, or even better, organized by category.

Complementing the Echo system is a mechanic wherein Zelda uses Tri to control the movement of another entity—item, enemy, obstacle. Sometimes I would forget this exists, but that’s my own fault. It has two functions: moving the target to match Zelda’s movement, which saw plenty of use, or moving Zelda to match the target’s, if the target is mobile...which saw next to none. It was tremendously underutilized. The only time I actually had to use it was when it was first introduced. Still, it was an interesting skill; I just wish it had been expanded on a little more.

The boss design in this game is ACE. Echoes of Wisdom sees some of the most creative and fun boss designs I've seen in Zelda in a long time, and that's including Tears of the Kingdom's high-tier bosses. (I’m not sure any of them beat out that Ganondorf fight, though. That was *sick.*) That being said, creative use of Echoes does kind of make the bosses a little too easy, but that's not necessarily a problem for most players.

I truly believe Echoes of Wisdom stands up with the greatest 2D Zeldas. A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening should be proud to stand with it. I would PREFER a less bobbleheaded art style, but I wouldn't mind if Zelda games continued on a path like this--less focused on Link necessarily cleaving a bloody path through to Ganon as if Hyrule depended on it and more on unique and interesting mechanics like Echoes.

Also......

Is it really the Downfall timeline if there's smoothies?

Even an unfortunate smoothie is still a smoothie.

Lore discussion under the cut. I understand many Zelda fans do not care for overall lore or even like the idea of a timeline, but I am not one of those fans. At the core of me is a lore nut and I will be loring. And nutting.

LORE DISCUSSION ---- Spoilers ahead!

The Eldin Temple's boss threw me for a loop!

I know it's just an Echo, but the fact that it appears is still significant. It means Volvagia was still alive to BECOME an Echo by the time Null started breaking out of its cage. Where was Volvagia during, let’s see… A Link to the Past, Link’s Awakening, the Oracle games, A Link Between Worlds, and Tri-Force Heroes? Does Volvagia’s presence mean OoT Link didn't even make it as far as the Fire Temple in the Downfall timeline? That doesn’t exactly jive with my personal theory for the existence of the Downfall timeline, but the fact is Volvagia’s echo exists in Echoes. (It COULD simply be that they want to start making Volvagia a recurring boss like Gohma, but with how creative the bosses in this game are, and that Volvagia is a single individual while Gohma is a species, I somehow doubt that.)

Echoes of Wisdom seems to have been placed after Tri-Force Heroes and before the Decline of Hyrule leading to the first two games. Given that it explicitly takes place in the Downfall timeline, it makes me wonder what Null’s deal is in the Child and Adult timelines. It clearly must still exist as it was there at the very beginning, long before even Skyward Sword, so it would have survived into each timeline as well.

That it takes place after A Link to the Past, however, is blatant just in its geography, as a couple of AlttP’s dungeons can be seen as ruins in Echoes of Wisdom. Notably, the ruins of the entrance to the Desert Palace is the site of a minor rift that Zelda must explore as part of the Gerudo story in Echoes. Very cool. I love that shit. I LOVE that shit.

Also, in Eastern Hyrule, the Eastern Palace makes its third appearance as the Eastern Temple. Good Stuff! I love Zelda.

That about sums up my thoughts about Echoes of Wisdom. At least for now. I might update this later. Who knows?

Next up is Link’s Awakening. I’ll likely finish Lies of P first, though.

またね！

[sonicasura]

Dart made good use of the alien device’s hacking ability to judge what the Autobots needed impromptu lessons in. Prowl reminded them of a mix of Arcee and Starscream, but only in abilities alone. He veritably nimble and the only Earthbound Autobot (so far) who had anything resembling flight.

The loner type mentality was something they could relate too though it was more of “having my peace and quiet” than sheer avoidance.

—————————————

He found great appreciation in the simplicity of some organics—learning Earth culture was a gradual process even with young Sari’s help. (She reminded him of the protoforms he…) Prowl was a simple cybertronian at spark, in his opinion. The cyber-ninja unburdened himself of the peculiar worries most cybertronians held toward organic life. It was simply another form of life albeit far more fragile than theirs.

Curiously, there was something of a gurgling sound figuratively knocking him out of his musings. He did an initial scan for any sort of humans having stumbled upon his perching spot. Prowl had chosen this area because it was out of the way or most organics… Nothing came up yet he was one to take certain cautions. A hologram of himself mimicked adjusting his position while the real him stayed in place waiting.

Sadly, his attempts were rendered inert when something tugged him out of the tree all of its own. Prowl bit back the barest exvent as he had to catch himself from falling. Rising up from the soil was something akin to the nanite-based creation the Autobots fought when they woke out of statis. An offshoot they missed?

He waited for the creature to attack, but it simply flowed in place in a vaguely bipedal shape. It seemed made of the soil itself and far less stable looking than the first one. Moments passed as he was willing to wait for it to act first… Only for his pede to get dragged down into the soil, as the creature revealed it had been leaking downward in order to catch him off guard. A cutting disk severed part of the connection—until the creature converted more soil into itself.

————————————

Prowl was arguably the best offensive combatant amongst his groups. And yet? The Omnitrix found themself with how well their Lenopan form pretty much nerfed him.

He kept resorting to those shuriken(?) like disks to cut them apart or punching through them. Didn’t even attempt to use the thruster from his jet pack to fry them out… By the time he even resorted to his jet pack, Dart already shut it down by stuffing the thruster full of mud. It would still work yet was severely limited…

The transformed teen kept splitting part of themself off to act as a decoy, attempting to teach Prowl to use his holograms better. He showed some improvement in layering it a moment before he moved to juke them. But otherwise? The ���cyber-ninja” hadn’t learned much from his first fight on Earth.

Dart shook their head at him before slinking down into the soil. Leaving the Autobot confused and wary over if they would attack again.

(Otherwise, they accidentally re-traumatize Prowl from the nanite incident. Sari’s key let out another burst of amusement upon seeing the mud-caked cybertronian slink into base.)

—ROB’d Anon.

Lol Impromptu training lessons it is. Prowl was definitely confused because he felt like the creature had been testing him. If it really meant harm then it would've immediately attacked the bot, possibly without even giving away their position.

Poor Prowl definitely has questions bouncing around in his head while the Key is laughing.

[lemonhemlock]

i am way too late for any of this, but i felt like ranting a little (a lot) over tma, so here it goes.

i actually really, really liked the dreamlike quality of the S5 statements. i think they're some of jonny's best work. so evocative and just beautifully written, the feeling of horror so prevalent, so delicate, so entrapping. i would listen to them absolutely enthralled. what a submersive experience. so on that front, 100% would recommend.

the problems i have are mainly with the meta-plot. certainly, personal preferences and biases come into play here, bc i despise jonmartin with the fire of a thousand suns and would have loved a jonelias corruption narrative, but, i feel that, in his quest to appease the j-mart shippers, jonny sacrificed a lot of his story's integrity. also, i have no way of verifying this, but it also felt like he inserted his own biases in a way that wasn't necessarily productive.

ultimately, i feel like he disrespected his main antagonists and that essentially translated into a sort of irreverence towards his own story. elias was easily his most dramatic and interesting villain (regardless of what he originally intended for him, it's how he developed throughout the story & i think there is a certain honesty in a writer acknowledging and respecting that), stole every scene he was in, yet after his great villain reveal in S4, he is absolutely absent throughout his entire apocalypse. it creates a lack of catharsis that i find bothersome. his death is way too easy. yet when he finally appears in MAG 193, it is glorious. he is terrifyingly in the throws of religious ecstasy as the eye's pupil. such an interesting idea! so little it was developed though bc jonny for some reason doesn't like elias.

there's this entire commentary about how elias is really just there to be eye's pupil until jon takes over from him, bc it's jon the eye truly desires. as if after faithfully serving the beholding for two centuries and bringing about his ritual, the eye would just disregard elias and actually be interested in the one person who is unwilling to play ball. please be serious. not saying that jon can't be the eye's "special little boy" or whatever, but the nerfing of elias/jonah borderlines on petulant. ofc, jonny is the author and you cannot begrudge a man for writing whatever he wants, but, as a listener, i have to say it feels very unsatisfying whenever authorial biases directly affect the storyline. very deus-ex-machina. very unearned.

i also have a problem with how the eye was ultimately handled and, once again, nerfed. the introduction of this element in relation to the beholding, that it sees but does not understand, felt very trite to me. it was added as a way to de-power the eye and elevate the web. but how could it even be true in the context of the entity conceptualization? the reason scopophobia is a thing is because people fear someone is behind the watching. what they fear is judgment or someone keeping tabs on them and using that information to harm them in some way. that requires intelligence, a capacity to distinguish between the harmless and the incriminatory, a propensity for casting moral judgment, of holding people accountable, of assigning blame, of discovering people's deepest, darkest secrets, of weaponizing shame. no one is afraid of a crow or a cat staring back at them, because, while those are also living beings, they lack the higher intelligence that creates the context necessary for scopophobia. so how can the eye not possess intelligence? apparently it doesn't, because jonny decided he didn't like the eye and the spider was oh-so-cooler instead.

but that only lead to the spider being way too overpowered than it should have been. as the so-called brain of the operation, the web really manifests a lot of faults that could have been exploited, yet the character never do, because the web needs to be true It Girl for some reason. this all feels very childish. the web's motivations do not work in-universe. we are often told it doesn't have a ritual because it is content with playing its games of manipulation within the world as it currently is. and that honestly seemed a rather fair assessment to make, but later proved to be a red herring, because it was the web that was actually behind the eye's own ritual.

i have several gripes with this. 1. if the spider is so smart, why doesn't it/can't it have its own ritual and re-shape the world according to its own preferences? why does it have to piggyback on the eye's grind? 2. the spider's big plan seems to be bringing about the eyepocalypse just to convince the characters to let the fears out into the metaverse so it can start again. because, as it turns out, the eyepocalypse isn't really it's preferred state of being? it was the status-quo after all? the web DID prefer the world as it was, because it allowed it to thrive off manipulation and puppeteering, things it can't really engage in as much as it would like, since now everyone is trapped inside various fear domains. so, why-oh-why, not just leave the world as is? why even bring about an apocalypse in the first place if your intention is to always inhabit a apocalypse-less place?

i felt like this was such a plot-hole of an explanation the way it was presented. the web's greatest flaw was that it loved intricate plots so much there was a real danger of over-complicating its own plans and failing to see the forest from the trees, so to speak. the eye could have been used not to boggle down on meaningless details and ramifications, but to get a better sense of the bigger picture, something the web could very well lose sight of (pun intended). so the web's "plan" could have been ultimately rendered meaningless, because instead of choosing the simplistic, straightforward, occam's razor solution (no apocalypse, just thrive off the world as it is), it chose the overly complicated path that placed it in a situation it didn't thrive in (eyepocalypse) and made it even more complicated to get out of in the first place. it basically surrendered its destiny into the hands of people who had zero reasons to act sympathetic and could have very well chosen to destroy the entire world, fears included. and yet i am supposed to be in awe of the web's great intelligence and buy into the whole dumb eye propaganda?

many things have already been said about the moral dilemma at the end of S5 and my take on that is that jon was right. it was the merciful and just solution to prevent other people from other universes from suffering at the hands of fear entities. but i will be indulgent and account that it is a difficult choice to make for anyone, since human beings are so survivalist in nature and the choice to just make the fears someone else's problem in the hopes of their plans maybe getting foiled more effectively by others is tantalizing. who knows what any of us would have chosen had we been in their situation? perpetuating the horrors on someone else just so you could get reprieve is so cravenly but it's human and i get it. however, by no means is this a happy ending the way it was framed by the narrative. what melanie, georgie, basira and martin did was horrible and evil, but it is never acknowledged in that way. the least jonny could have done is have jon resist martin's selfish decision and have martin genuinely kill him. but, no, martin gets his romantic send-off together with jon, with the open possibility that they get transported to another world where they could start over. melanie, georgie and basira get to start a new life in the entity-less world, after contributing almost nothing. the worst characters get to live & they're validated in their awful behaviour.

however. i do feel like there were other ways to resolve the eyepocalypse without resorting to a horrible sophie's choice in the first place, but that would require a more extensive endgame re-write.

[divineerdrick]

Warhammer 40,000 Balance Changes for December 11, 2024: Genestealer Cults

Yeah . . . I was afraid of this. This is one of my factions, and even I thought they got too much last time. While they can be swingy, they're still really good. And when you consider how skilled and dedicated their player base is, the results speak for themselves. Even their detachments are all doing well, with Host of Ascension probably the best one and Biosantic Broodsurge taking home the most trophies. The only detachment no one is taking is Brood Brothers.

Most of their Datasheets are seeing play too, though that's not really saying much considering the size of their Codex. Genestealers, Ridgerunners, and flamer Acolytes seem to be the most seen units.

And, um, yeah . . . There's a lot here. But before we get to it, let's check our detachments. Tunnel Crawlers is probably going to need a rewrite. We'll see if they do anything here. But now let's get to the big one.

Cult Ambush now grants you points you can use to bring back your units. You start with 6 at Incursion, and get 4 more for each further 1000 pts. So that's 10 in a 2000 point game.

Any unit you want to bring back costs a certain amount of these points. Going off the old MFM for now, this averages out to around 30 pts per token. We can check back on this when we get to the MFM and get more specific, but I am live blogging my thoughts and reactions here. So right now, that's 300 points of models you get to bring back.

This is an absolute gutting of Cult Ambush. The GSC armies I looked at run about 1500 points of these units. Even ignoring the +1 to Cult Ambush in the first two turns, and the fact you can bring back a unit multiple times, that's 500 points coming back on average. Now if you're running MSU, that's still quite a few units you get to bring back. It's up to 5 if you only use this on MSU Hybrids. Endless Swarm would kill for this. Though Endless Swarm will kill for any biomass, so that's not saying much. The good news is that it should be much easier to balance GSC around this. And these numbers can also be changed if players are constantly spamming a unit or something is never being used. For now, let's keep going.

They spell out how you add the unit to your army now, including that One Shot weapons haven't been fired. And they now also specify that Cult Ambush is a type of Strategic Reserves. So rules that apply specifically to Strat Reserves, and not just Reserves, affect Cult Ambush. Further, although you can't target Cult Ambush with Rapid Ingress, you can now use normal Strat Reserve rules to setup the unit, which would include using Deep Strike. It also specifies how big a Cult Ambush marker should be.

Tunnel Crawlers no longer cares about Battleline units. It's just a flat 6” Deep Strike. We then get some Detachment specific changes.

Ah! We're getting more changes to rules that provide bonuses to OC. GW is strengthening Battle-shock. I'm surprised they didn't just make a flat statement at the beginning of the Dataslate. Outlander Claw now only gets +1 OC instead of double. We also see that new wording again for sticky objectives.

Xenocreed's Deeds That Speak to the Masses enhancement has been updated for the new rules, and now just grants a flat 2 additional Resurgence points. Demo charges have had their range buffed to 8”. Finally the Kelermorph has had the range of its reactive move brought in line to 9”.

Despite all these changes, GSC hasn't received any Codex errata or FAQ updates. I'm guessing these are massive enough they'll have to wait and see what happens. And the MFM just hits two of the most taken units. The Abominant goes up 20 pts, which definitely hurts, while Ridgerunners go up 10 pts each. Both of these are relevant units. So this is a triple nerf, but possibly not as bad as Sisters got.

It's still going to hurt a lot! You'll have to be very careful with your trades and positioning now. Remember, GSC units are balanced around Cult Ambush. They don't really take damage or deal damage. So while you now know when you'll get your units back, you'll still need to be careful. Still, GSC players are extremely skilled and resourceful. It's possible they could make it work.

[yoonalgc]

( ❀ Hello, everyone! ...What a surprise, right? It's me again... attempting to bring a girl into this world. WIll I succeed? Let's see. It's Sera here to introduce to you my character! She is brand new so I'm expecting her to grow as I write her. I've listed some plots at the bottom but I prefer to do brainstorming. I'm open to plotting in either Tumblr IMs or over Discord, whichever you prefer. Without further ado, please read my rambling. ( I'll have a pinned I'll post later. ) Like this post ♡ and we can plot! )

◡ profile / plots / pinterest / playlist

BACKGROUND !!

Born october 4th, 2001. ( 1004, she asserts reflects her — it is an angel number after all )

Grew up in Gumi which is a smaller city just outside of Daegu.

Parents were high school sweethearts who waited to start a family until he finished his military service and she finished school. Mother was a flight attendant. Father is a former professional choreographer.

Family used to be fairly well off before the drastic change and her mother's medical bills became increasingly more expensive.

They eventually moved to Seoul in 2016 when her father got an opportunity to choreograph for an entertainment company.

Father gave up his career after his wife’s passing in 2019 to attend to a portable convenience stand by the Han River once owned by his own father. Their formerly close relationship grew estranged and tense rather quickly.

Used to be a competitive archer. Failed to make it on the national team multiple times, nevermind the Olympics. Became easily discouraged and decided to quit after an argument with her father. She even threatened to drop out of school unless she could join a company to focus on her dancing.

Before lgc, she joined an entertainment company while in high school only to get scammed into a trainee program and drained of almost all her money via their training debt scheme.

Waited until she graduated to audition for Legacy Entertainment. Somehow, she got in... and from there, she begins to change a bit as a person.

PERSONALITY & MORE !!

Works at an arcade/PC Bang for now. She likes to sneak in a nap in the dinosaur safari VR machine.

She uses the nerf gun and water gun from the prize table to ward off unwanted guests or customers who overstay their welcome. Careful, she has great aim.

Oddly good at fixing things ( to a certain extent ), a trait she picked up from her brother who has a penchant for inventing. Being practical helps quite a bit, though.

She is no stranger to putting on an act to get something for free. a convincing & skilled liar. she even stole someone’s phone once to sell but will never admit this. jokes about needing a glucose guardian but never say never.

Tendency to be flirtatious. offers compliments — sincere & underhanded.

Only actually been in one serious relationship that she considers was worthwhile & lacks the motivation to pursue anything else. Often finds herself leading people on but falls for people easily as she's rather susceptible to romantic gestures, then forces herself to lose interest when things get a little too spicy.

Good listener. Purveyor of gossip. Collects many rumors, rarely spills to anyone. Tell things to her at your own risk. She will hardly speak a word about her own background ( and will even lie sometimes ) but is content to know everything about everyone else.

Has a good sense of humor and able to laugh at herself.

Actually kinda lazy about everything unless it's dancing. She just likes to say she's just laid back.

Speaking of dancing, she is especially into the art of waacking/tutting/vogueing, as she finds the elegant precision to be appealing and especially fun to do.

Very opinionated & can come across judgmental for her willingness to speak her mind, Notorious for reacting with her face ( ie. side eyeing ).

An introvert. Also claims to really hate people but is naturally social despite this.

Often plays a vain character, usually an exaggerated version of herself ( channeling Goddess Gyuri & Mijoo ) — perhaps to compensate for or conceal… something. Part of it being that she enjoys entertaining people with her antics. It is not rare to catch a glimpse at her "real self" but it's hard to even say what that even is.

Calm but when she's memeing and being crazy, she becomes unhinged. Like so.

A bit fickle & indecisive, sometimes allowing her impulses to take control of a decision ... or out of pure spite.

Had a time where she was so desperate for money, that she was willing to lie to get freebies or sympathy discounts. But we don't talk about that time anymore. It was just a phase.

Not malicious by any means but it is easy to interpret her actions as such. She desires attention and love in this aftermath of her life plummeting, and just goes about it in a rather unconventional way.

Hates people who smoke. Her mother's lung cancer being the main cause. If you smoke any substance, prepare for to be side-eyed and judged.

Lastly, she is @lgcxnoeul's weirdo cousin.

CONNECTIONS ??

anyone who comes to the arcade/pc bang. she's almost always there. bonus points if you're a bit of a menace or you want to challenge her to a game. the possibilities with this one are pretty endless!

flirtationships a plenty. applicable to any gender; she certainly does not discriminate. she is the type to unabashedly flirt, compliment people, or make flirtatious jokes. ( however when the heat comes, she usually resorts to aloof behavior and runs away. )

obviously people will be put off by her antics so frenemies and antis alike are welcome! antagonistic or toxic relationships are welcome in general.

gossip friend. what is said between us stays between us ... of other people's rumors, of course. but it's best to be careful who to trust with secrets.

fake friends. speaks for itself. mutually beneficial, forced laughter, eye rolls when the other looks away. she's been entrenched in this fake friend group just for the laughs

an ex. she's only dated one person in a serious way before and it didn't turn out too well... or it ended amicably. who knows? was a rather innocent relationship but it broke her heart. happened shortly after she joined lgc in 2020 or overlapped. discussion is required!!!

that being said, she most likely had a couple flings here and there that lasted a short time. she's prone to running away or getting "bored".

jokingly, she always says she wants a "glucose guardian" and you are the perfect candidate. she constantly convinces you to buy things for her ( mostly bubble tea ) or you might even do so willingly. either way, it makes her happy.

she has a "dark past" ( not so distant... maybe 5 days ago is considered the past ) in which she tried to fleece people out of money just to get by. don't look at her if she might have pretended to fall in front of you for sympathy, too.

this is vague but... people she can assist with dancing in any way or their overall confidence.

people who know her real personality and are tired of her putting on this strange over confident persona.

went to high school together ( Hanlim gang )

for the lgcu event, she is in younggong. i'm still figuring out what she will be doing but i will need one person from there to do a thread with.

[peppenispizza]

bedtime

no warnings! fluff stuff. peppino is insecure abt himself; binder stuff. gn!reader

Peppino let out a long breath and flumped his head on his arms after closing time. Yeah, sometimes he had sudden waves of people ordering which was g.reat, but stressful. During the day, he often tried to at it... weird and sweaty... Ugh. Just ew. Sweat made it all.. sticky whenever he stretched out and tugged it a bit for HOURS. Ugh.

You were waiting on his.. Alright, your shared crappy pull-out couch bed, watching the tv you brouht over to replace his shitty little old thing. You were messing around on your phone, bouncing a bit in place before he came up the stairs.

:”Hey!!” you scootched to the edge of the bed and damn near fell of like you normally did. He made a o dramatic show of him leaning back and groaning before standing up again. Yeah, yeah. He started taking his shirt and tank top off, and threw both of them at you like he did. Literally. Every. Night.

“Really? Still? Every night. Really.” you attempted to scold him, but you knew it had no effect. He even snickered at you, heading into the bathroom to brush his teeth.

“Orrn nerf, rnn thee shtrt.” He grinned and looked over his shirt. (Oh no, a t-shirt)

He let out sound when he finally sat back down, hard, making you bounce on the bed. And yelp. He snickered a bit, He always did that just to mess with you....But he kinda just sat there for a minute. Tired. Anxious. You scooted up to his back, draping your hands on his shoulders. Whether he liked it or not, you could tell what was up with him.

“..You need to take your binder off. You can't wear it to bed.

He just sort of made a pbbbbththhh noise while dragging his hands down his face.

“You gotta take it off. I know you feel weird but at least take it off for bed.”

Silence. ...He gets pretty insecure. And feels very weird without a shirt on, double if his binder is off.. Even though you both were together for a while, he still... felt weird about it.

“Peppi.”

He squirmed bit before sitting up making Some Kind Of Noise and peeling his binder off (a cloth binder, for upper body. You ordered five of them for him, just in case of one of them getting worn out and gets loose, and just in general if another one is dirty.), making a weird sound since they were so sweaty it felt...double weird. He still kind of felt.. really kinda naked and vulnerable in a certain way around you when he took it off.

You, of course, sat up and smiled at him, making ridiculous grabby hands until he sat next to you. You promptly pressed your face against his cheek in a smooch before going over and digging through the clean clothes pile (ew putting away laundry what the hell who does that???)

He sat on the edge of his still pullout couch bed, something you are very much trying to replace for multiple reasons, arms across his chest before you threw a huge black t-shirt onto his face and making him “GUH.” Haha you got him back for bouncing you on the bed.

Peppino let out a long breath before rolling over and lying down on his back; Patting the side next tohi moh okYou immediately crawling up and cuddling up against him before he could even get a word out. The TV was on, as usual.

He rolled his eyes a little, predicting what you wanted.”So...what are we-a watching now. Amore mio?”

“Puppies.”

“Again...?”

“Okay okay. ...What about a cooking show.”

He lit up but attempted to hide it (badly) “Alright.”

He leaned over as usual and peppered your cheek, and lips with small little kisses. Nudged your cheek with his nose right before be passed out.

“Ti amo.” was all he got out before he started snoring. He's warm. He muttered a bit, half-asleep, tugging you closer to him with his arm draped around you.

“I love you, too.”

[shinxeysartgallery]

So explain how the solver posession stuff works as of your au

It's really long, so I'm gonna put it beneath a "read more" tag.

Okay, so basically the Solver entity loves eating planets, but it can't eat them as-is, nor can it interact with this plane of existence without a host. There's some sort of a vulnerability within the code of Worker Drones specifically, where the entity can take control over them if certain criteria are met. In most cases, it seems total non-core death or near-death are what trigger a weakness and allow the entity to gain a foothold over the drone. (If the core is destroyed or too damaged, the entity is SOL.) It uses the drones to destabilize the planets' cores so it can then eat them.

When the entity gains a foothold, it grants its host a nerfed version of its abilities. How much control the entity has over its host is dependent on how often they use their new powers, their willpower, and whether or not they've been patched or otherwise modified. Unpatched/unmodified drones are completely at the entity's mercy, and the more they use their powers or the weaker their will, the more likely it is for them to fall under complete possession by it. (That's a big part of why it tends to target drones when they're at their weakest moments. You're more likely to make a deal with it and/or be more susceptible to possession when you're on the verge of death or at a point of sheer despair.) When a drone is patched, they still retain the code the entity implanted in them, but it completely blocks out its ability to take full possession over them. (This is why drones like Yeva are still able to use their abilities without fear of losing control.) Certain modifications to drones can also block out Solver possession. In my AU, nuclear energy and gemstone energy are the only known elements that can do this. Some bullshit about the frequencies and energy they emit completely blocks out the Solver entirely, so it's even unable to so much as implant its code into their systems. In the case of drones who were already under the Solver's control and later had their cores swapped out, they still retain the coding in their systems, but it's useless to them now and can't activate.

And speaking of the coding, all unmodified/un-patched Worker Drones are susceptible to the Solver's influence, but not all of them have the coding in their systems - it's only when the entity gains a foothold that they're given a copy of that code. Even when the drone is not actively using their Solver abilities, the code is still retained in their systems and running in the background. We know things like regeneration are completely involuntary on the drones' part, and the Solver coding being a background process is exactly why that works. This is also explanation for why Solver-based drones are hurt by sunlight. As it turns out, the Solver program uses up quite a lot of RAM, even as a background process, and I'm sure we all know what happens to computers when too much of its GPU is being used at the same time. If the Solver drone is not using their abilities (or not using them often), they tend to do better overall. If they're using them frequently, this can cause them to quickly overheat, as directly using the program takes up much more RAM than it does just running in the background. The sunlight adds to this, making them overheat much faster. It's been confirmed by Liam himself that the Disassembly Drones run hot enough to melt flesh (though that may have been one of the things that got retconned), and I figure this is why they seemingly need a constant supply of oil. The oil they're drinking is basically being used as a coolant and taking the heat away. (This is also why the possessed Workers require drinking oil to cool off.) With an even more nerfed version of the Solver code than the possessed Workers get, they still always have that process running in the background as well, which is likely the explanation for why they run so hot. Just like with the possessed Workers, Disassembly Drones cannot be exposed to direct sunlight, as it will cause them to overheat. (And I theorize this weakness could be eliminated if they had a better means of being able to cool off, as well as completely eliminate the need for the oil drinking. Or, finding a way to get into their systems and outright delete the Solver code, which would get rid of the program and not let it run as so much as a background process anymore. Though, that would also mean they couldn't use any of its abilities anymore - including the regeneration - unless otherwise modified.)

Once a drone is full-on possessed by the entity, it's officially taken as a host and it's near-impossible to break its control at that point. The only way to stop it at that point is to find some way for the drone themselves to break through. (In rare cases, administering a shock to their systems - sometimes literally - can also accomplish this.) Once a drone has been taken over by the Solver in any capacity (whether full-on possessed or not), the only way to truly stop them is to destroy their core, thus severing the connection to the entity. Their cores act as their brains and contain all their coding (including personalities, memories, etc.), which also means that this is where the Solver program is being stored. (Explains why the Solver cores [like Nori] are still sentient and some are still able to use Solver abilities.)

All Solver-based drones (so yes, that includes Disassembly Drones) are officially assimilated into the hivemind as the entity stores backups of them. Their feelings, their thoughts, their memories, their personalities... It knows and stores all of it. Drones that have been full-on possessed at least once are more attuned to its abilities and may also be able to tap into that hivemind at times. (Which is explanation for how Nori knew about the Disassembly Drones, Cyn's plan, & Doll and Uzi becoming infected, despite her having no way of knowing any of that.) The backups are how the Disassembly Drones are able to come back good as new, even after total core death (Like we saw with J in Episode 2.), and how the clones can exist. Since the entity is keeping their data stored, it's also able to directly mess with it. The clones all retain the same memories - provided they're memories the Solver entity WANTS them to keep.

Much like how it knows their thoughts, feelings, memories, and all that, it can rip them away from a drone at any time and leave them as nothing more than a hollow husk being puppeted around. (Implied to have been what happened to Proto when Cyn turned them into THAT.) Much like how it can take away memories, it can also implant false ones (which is why N didn't remember anything at first and fully believed the lie that the Disassembly Drones were sent by JCJenson to take out the rogue Worker Drones) or alter existing memories to twist their truths. Though, because they're still connected to the hivemind, sometimes certain things can trigger them to recall memories that the entity erased or altered. Traumatic memories that were erased or altered may also sometimes manifest in the form of nightmares. Due to the deletion/alteration, they can't manually recall these things, but a backup of them still exists within the hivemind itself. The entity knows it all and stores it inside its own database. The connection to the hivemind and the ability to tap into it is likely how this occurs. (Not all Solver-based Workers have been full-on possessed, but all of the Disassembly Drones have been at one point [the Earth massacre]. As mentioned before, the drones that have been full-on possessed are indeed capable of tapping directly into the hivemind, though it's rarely done intentionally. In most cases, they can only access their own data, but ones who have directly been hosts at one point may also sometimes get memories that are not their own.)

Since it can just rip away all of a drone's personality and memories, leaving them as nothing more than a killing machine with pure bloodlust, why doesn't it just do that for all the drones it takes, you might be wondering. Well, that goes into the entity's more childish personality. The end goal is for it to eat the planet, but the journey to that point is treated like a game to it. Allowing them to make deals to keep their memories, allowing them to retain their personalities and individualities... it's nothing more than entertainment to it; the drones are basically its toys. It has absolutely no regard for any kind of sentient life other than its own. It would be much more efficient if it had decided to turn ALL of the Solver-based drones into something like Proto, but then it wouldn't be fun!

It's like using cheat guides for a video game: you get to the end of the game faster, but you never actually have any fun getting to experience anything outside of what's outlined by the guide.

And one other little thing: you probably noticed that I haven't mentioned the flesh thing at all. Why exactly does the entity turn its hosts' insides fleshy? Well, the exact reason is unknown, but it's theorized that it's for a few reasons: 1.) Done as way to include non-drones in the assimilation process. Might be due to Cyn's promise to Tessa to not discard her. Unlike drones, humans do not have a set of coding that can just be backed up onto a system. Tessa may not have been the only human to attempt making a deal with the entity and it may have been the result of an attempt to assimilate the humans into its hivemind. 2.) It also may have been done as a way to alter the drones into something new that was just for it, as if it's to say "Look! These are MINE!" Something that set them apart from the other drones. Also might be done as some sort of a control method/reminder that they're owned by the entity. "See? You're really NOT like those other drones anymore; you're a MONSTER! They'd never accept you if they knew, so I'm all you have!" 3.) It's done as a way to protect the cores and, in a way, the hosts. Regular drone cores are pretty useless when separated from their bodies, whether they're damaged or not. But Solver cores can actually move around and do things. They may have been changed in that manner to allow them the maneuverability that regular drones don't have as a defense mechanism of sorts. The core would be able to manually return to its host body [N's and Uzi's cores in Episode 8 after Cyn tore them out] or escape and collect materials to rebuild a new body [J's core in Episode 2]. (Theoretically, a core could steal the body of another drone whose core was missing, too.) 4.) It's an unintentional side-effect of the Solver possession. No one really knows how exactly the entity's powers work or their source, so it may just be something that happens as a result of its control. 5.) Or, it's most likely some sort of a combination of all of the above! It could've originally been an unintentional effect that was later weaponized by the entity.

Anyway, there's probably more I'm forgetting rn, but that's the gist of it. Sorry for the long post. lol

[spinningbuster98]

Castlevania Bloodlines Part 1: This is a vampire hunter on blast processing kids!

Yeah yeah I know, Rondo came out first but look: we only have 2 Classicvanias left before we switch over to Symphony of the Night, and since that game is Rondo’s direct sequel I think it’s more appropriate to do it last

Did you know that Bloodlines is one of the series’ worst selling games? Yeah it barely broke 50k units on release and while I think part of the reason was due to being a Genesis exclusive, with Castlevania never having built a fanbase on that system, I do think it’s also because, back then, people were losing interest

I mean what does Bloodlines really offer that hadn’t already been done in other games? We’re back to a 6 level structure like the original CV, we have only 2 playable characters and we can’t even switch between them mid-level, the controls are a step back when compared to 4 and the item crash moves are visibly nerfed when compared to Rondo

People often give flack to the Igavanias for being “Sotn clones” that shamelessly rehashed the formula, but, barring how that’s not really true, the same argument could be made for the Classics around this time

I mean after 4 all the following games went back to the previous control schemes and essentially tried to add some extra stuff on top of the standard formula. Rondo has alternate paths that lead to extra levels, but C3 had already done this, Rondo mostly just adds some extra steps. It has one extra character while C3 had 3 extras. Bloodlines, as I’ve stated, does very little new and Dracula X was essentially a watered down version of Rondo to many.

Indeed if you go see the sales for every game you’ll notice that they gradually dropped over the years, with Castlevania 1 selling over 2 million copies, Castlevania 3 only around 800k and so on. Of course it’s important to remember that sales do not equal quality, as there are many factors that play into a game’s sales, such as marketing. However I do think this denotes a certain decrease in interest by people in the games over the years, which is part of what motivated the devs to completely switch genres with SOTN, because they though people were no longer that interested in simple, short super tough platformers and preferred something new

Bloodlines may not be revolutionary but I firmly believe that a game does not need to be in order to be good. The game offers some of the most original and inventive level design of the classic games, especially due to its insistance for squeezing as much juice out of the Genesis’ systems to create truly surprising and memorable graphical imagery: just look at the water reflections in Atlantis, or the rotating sprites of the Tower of Pisa!

Of the two characters John is the Belmont stand in and my favorite: he doesn’t have a lot of reach but the whip still packs a punch and you can whip straight down and upwards diagonally. Important tip: hold down the attack button when attacking with either character, it will let the weapon stay on-screen for a few extra frames, allowing it to attack twice some enemies, trust me this can be important

I’m...not the biggest fan of John’s swinging mechanic, due to the stiff jump it can get really unruly but it’s only required like twice

As you may have noticed I’m actually playing the japanese version, titled Vampire Killer (real original guys). Why is that? Well not many people know this but Castlevania 3 was not the only game that was made artificially harder for american audiences!

Every version of Bloodlines allows you to choose between 3 difficulties, but the American version switches them around: US Normal Mode is actually JPN Hard Mode, while Easy is actually the Japanese Normal. The US version also locks the full ending behind its own version of Hard mode made specifically for this version, while the japanese version gives you the complete ending no matter what difficulty you’re playing on

Then there’s the matter of continues: this game, unlike the others, gives you only 2 continues after which it’s game over for good. All versions have a password system but in the US version a password is given to you after you beat each level and it saves the amount of lives and continues you have. This means that if you’re at the final levels and have no continues left and few lives you’re shit out of luck

In the japanese version however passwords are given to you only when you get a gameover and after inputting them your number of continues is reset. This means that in the japanese version you actually do have unlimited continues, just in a more roundabaout way. Also continues in this game respawn you at the last checkpoint, so thanks!

All of these difficulty differences are also true for the european version I think, which follows the japanese one but is heavily bogged down by graphical censorship because Bloodlines likes to get a little gory and I guess people back then must’ve been afraid that one too many moms in Europe would’ve been upset at the idea of little Timmy busting some zombie guts while playing his kiddie game