#still there's some kind of connection

[scherzokinn]

Not gonna lie, as an autistic individual who has felt extreme obsessions about certain people, and has shared them, I feel very weird about blogs or accounts dedicated to just one (real) person who update so often. I'm not saying it's everyone and obviously there are many exceptions, but so many times these kinds of fans end up being weirdos, and the really uncomfortable kind. I don't want to shame anyone especially that I can relate to how they feel, but when I see this kind of behaviour it can be genuinely anxiety inducing for me. I often get the feeling they're the type of fanatics to share either very sensitive information or straight up making stories and facts for attention (?), and that makes me uncomfortable. I end up feeling very ashamed of myself.

[inkskinned]

at some point it's just like. do they even fucking like the thing they're asking AI to make? "oh we'll just use AI for all the scripts" "we'll just use AI for art" "no worries AI can write this book" "oh, AI could easily design this"

like... it's so clear they've never stood in the middle of an art museum and felt like crying, looking at a piece that somehow cuts into your marrow even though the artist and you are separated by space and time. they've never looked at a poem - once, twice, three times - just because the words feel like a fired gun, something too-close, clanging behind your eyes. they've never gotten to the end of the movie and had to arrive, blinking, back into their body, laughing a little because they were holding their breath without realizing.

"oh AI can mimic style" "AI can mimic emotion" "AI can mimic you and your job is almost gone, kid."

... how do i explain to you - you can make AI that does a perfect job of imitating me. you could disseminate it through the entire world and make so much money, using my works and my ideas and my everything.

and i'd still keep writing.

i don't know there's a word for it. in high school, we become aware that the way we feel about our artform is a cliche - it's like breathing. over and over, artists all feel the same thing. "i write because i need to" and "my music is how i speak" and "i make art because it's either that or i stop existing." it is such a common experience, the violence and immediacy we mean behind it is like breathing to me - comes out like a useless understatement. it's a cliche because we all feel it, not because the experience isn't actually persistent. so many of us have this ... fluttering urgency behind our ribs.

i'm not doing it for the money. for a star on the ground in some city i've never visited. i am doing it because when i was seven i started taking notebooks with me on walks. i am doing it because in second grade i wrote a poem and stood up in front of my whole class to read it out while i shook with nerves. i am doing it because i spent high school scribbling all my feelings down. i am doing it for the 16 year old me and the 18 year old me and the today-me, how we can never put the pen down. you can take me down to a subatomic layer, eviscerate me - and never find the source of it; it is of me. when i was 19 i named this blog inkskinned because i was dramatic and lonely and it felt like the only thing that was actually permanently-true about me was that this is what is inside of me, that the words come up over everything, coat everything, bloom their little twilight arias into every nook and corner and alley

"we're gonna replace you". that is okay. you think that i am writing to fill a space. that someone said JOB OPENING: Writer Needed, and i wrote to answer. you think one raindrop replaces another, and i think they're both just falling. you think art has a place, that is simply arrives on walls when it is needed, that is only ever on demand, perfect, easily requested. you see "audience spending" and "marketability" and "multi-line merch opportunity"

and i see a kid drowning. i am writing to make her a boat. i am writing because what used to be a river raft has long become a fully-rigged ship. i am writing because you can fucking rip this out of my cold dead clammy hands and i will still come back as a ghost and i will still be penning poems about it.

it isn't even love. the word we use the most i think is "passion". devotion, obsession, necessity. my favorite little fact about the magic of artists - "abracadabra" means i create as i speak. we make because it sluices out of us. because we look down and our hands are somehow already busy. because it was the first thing we knew and it is our backbone and heartbreak and everything. because we have given up well-paying jobs and a "real life" and the approval of our parents. we create because - the cliche again. it's like breathing. we create because we must.

you create because you're greedy.

[pocchi-poket]

You know, I feel like we're not talking enough about the fact that Alastor has in his room a full reproduction (?) of a swamp-forest that's highly likely very similar to the one where he was killed. Talk about being morbid.

Edit: someone pointed out in the comments that the swamp-forest is called bayou. It's a kind of ecosystem in Louisiana.

[s0fter-sin]

soap's whole deal being sniper and demolitions gets me going bc on the surface they sound so different but when you get into it, you realise it's bc soap's smart

sniping is all math; calculating distances and wind interference and bullet drop. something i think people overlook is he was listed as a sniper first so it can be implied that he's better at it than demolitions. he does more sniping in both campaigns than demolitions work; in capture or kill, ghost specifically calls on him to take down the aq snipers

and demolitions is math with a hit of chemistry; knowing what mixes with what, knowing how much to use, recognising environmental factors and adjusting accordingly. it's not just about the boom; so much work goes into contained/ planned explosions. especially when having enough power for a breacher charge and not bringing down the whole building is the difference between mission success and failure

the chemical bombs he makes in alone can't just be any old cleaners, they have to have the correct reaction to each other; he just knew off the top of his head what would mix with what to create what reaction. he would also potentially have to recognise them by sight/smell bc they would’ve been written in spanish

soap would also have to know architecture; recognising structural integrity and weak points so he knows exactly where to plant a charge to bring it down and how it'll come down

he has an incredible soldier's mind people just forget that bc he's sociable which itself is a skill

we know he tends to buck against orders he doesn't agree with like when he pushes back against ghost in capture or kill and shepherd when he tells them to release hassan

he gets closer to people and sees if he can trust them and that's when he follows them without question. really think about how he talks to alejandro and rudy; he asks about their home and alejandro's family and rudy's relationship with him. those aren't questions you ask a stranger after a few hours of knowing them. that's not even touching on his relationship with ghost

he also deliberately brings people of higher ranks down to his level; talking informally with ghost and giving him a shoulder punch, addressing alejandro (a colonel!!) by his first name and rudy by his nickname despite literally just meeting them. he personalises all of them and it’s in direct opposition to the reason most characters do that; it’s not due to insubordination or lack of respect, the more he respects and trusts someone, the more casual he is with them

he digs into people; he wants to know what makes them tick and that determines if he can one, trust them and two, follow their orders. once he decides that, he's the ultimate soldier; he bleeds loyalty which makes him vicious when that loyalty is taken for granted

he isn't naive or bubbly or insecure; he's an incredibly smart and aware soldier. he's aggressive and bloodthirsty and loyal and intuitive and i love him so much

[tainebot01]

You know, the AAI2 fandom’s insistence on referring to the characters by their fan localized names we’ve had for like a decade instead of the ones we received this week is really funny. It almost reminds me of something…

God damn it.

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

The older I get the more I realise there is just nothing to Jean and Logan as a couple, he's just the cool bad boy alternative to her straight laced boyfriend, and no writer has ever bothered to develop them beyond that. Logan really has more of a dynamic with Scott than he ever had with Jean. When written well, Scott and Jean feel like genuine partners with neither character overshadowing the other, but when she's paired with Logan, Jean seems to just become the love interest or worse a prize for Logan to win for being a good person, the relationship always reduces her.

[blog-of-gourd]

what if mr sands was scary

(ID in ALT.)

[teecupangel]

what do you think it would be like if (and assume that in this Ezio is affected in his actual life by everything Desmond does) When Desmond started in on Ezio’s memories, he accidentally turned on Eagle vision and couldn’t turn it off and so came to the conclusion that Ezio was just color blind- while Ezio is having a major crisis over why he sees everything and nothing all the time! And after Ezio finally accepts this is just how things are now- Desmond finds the off switch and the fallout of color commences at the worst possible time

Considering the first time Desmond connect with Ezio was during his birth, this means that Ezio would believe he is color blind growing up. It would probably be something the Auditores would hide to everyone and Ezio would grow up believing seeing the gray world is some kind of ‘curse’. The truth is his parents are hiding it because they know Ezio isn’t color blind, he sees the blues and the reds. Ezio believes those colors are just part of the gray world he sees but Giovanni knows that this is a sign that Ezio is special, to the eyes of the Brotherhood… and the Templar Order. They’re trying to protect Ezio and his siblings help. Claudia picks his clothes to be sure he doesn’t pick disastrous color combination (by Renaissance standards). Federico would find ways to talk about the colors of this and that so Ezio would have an idea of what color they are in case he needs it later on. Petruccio plays with Ezio of ‘guess the color’ and it helps Ezio differentiate the gray hues or, at the very least, memorize what color they were supposed to be.

And then…

Desmond connects with Ezio again.

I have a feeling you were going for maybe something like Desmond deactivates the Eagle Vision during the Auditore execution but what if…

Desmond didn’t deactivate it but the Animus loaded the next memory on ‘default settings’ which includes…

The Eagle Vision being deactivated.

The next time Desmond connects with Ezio, it took the Animus a bit of time to load everything properly so the settings are changed just after Vieri hit Ezio with the stone.

Ezio’s frozen because his entire world burst into colors.

He can’t even see the sickening red of Vieri anymore.

Just… so many different colors he had never seen before.

And Ezio would assume it was Vieri’s stone that ‘cured’ him of his curse.

And in his delight, he rushed Vieri.

… and kissed him in the lips in gratitude.

Vieri and everyone else are simply confused, wondering if Ezio Auditore da Firenze has gone insane.

He was laughing, even going as far as dancing with the stupefied Vieri.

It was only when Federico got there that Ezio let go of Vieri and told him as he hugged his brother, “I can see!”

Federico realized what he means and he gets Ezio out of there, apologizing to Vieri and telling him they’d kick his ass later.

And the next memory Desmond sees is Ezio’s family being happy and hugging him because he can now see.

Desmond is just confused.

Sooooo… Ezio was blind before???

That’s what Desmond assumed until he activated the Eagle Vision again to check his surrounding after Ezio receives his father’s orders to bring some documents to Lorenzo de’ Medici then he heard Ezio’s sharp intake of breath and how he started to panic. Ezio ran back home and tells his father that he can no longer see anymore and their conversation tipped Desmond off that they’re talking about the Eagle Vision.

He deactivates it and got his confirmation when Ezio told his father that he can see again.

And Desmond starts to freak out because this means he can… what? Change what the Animus is showing? Change the past?

“That’s ridiculous, Desmond. The Animus can only show the past. This is probably some kind of bug.” Lucy would try to tell him but he can’t shake off the feeling that it might be something more.

Because of how frightened Ezio had been to lose his ability so see colors, his father tells him to rest in the house for now and orders Federico to deliver the documents instead.

Federico returns soon enough to Claudia and Petruccio with Ezio, trying to get him to relax a bit. Claudia didn’t even read the letter she had received today because she had been worried about Ezio.

So when the guards came to take them away…

Ezio was there.

… with Desmond who can control Ezio.

… with the skills from his waking bleed of Altaïr.

[knockknockitsnickels]

Thinking about how the Tower & the Adversary routes are connected through the Fury, and how you kind of get there by turning one into the other, and how horrified they are by what they become. Tower is about subjugation - she outright says she does not believe the two of you are on equal footing. You get the Fury from her when you assert your independence and fight back, forcing her to take you seriously as a threat and defend herself. Adversary is all about an equal fight - she prides herself on her strength, but also admires yours. You access the Fury through her by refusing to fight, watching her beat you to a pulp and become disgusted by what she does to you. IDK it is interesting how the Tower & Adversary parallel one another, and how you end up with the Fury in each route by doing what their sister route would have wanted you to do.

[hhhhleb]

based on this concept they got soul bond and sans can feel when smth wrong with papyrus

good thing that sans didn't see the actual injury.. grillby knew that would greatly upset sans, so that's why he pushed him away. it also could have trigger some really bad memories for Sans..so grillby did good job x2 (more thoughts in tags)

[mosstrades]

im having an absolute unadulterated blast with the Ethersea prologue for many many reasons, it's beautiful and exceeds all my expectations.. but also. there's many moments here that genuinely make me go "oh god damn, these people are Americans." the Quiet Year system is a profoundly fascinating and revealing game - nothing tells you quite as much about how somebody sees the world than asking them to imagine a new one.

[rhaenin-time]

Is it verging on tinfoil hat territory to laugh about how the egg Aegon II failed to hatch after murdering Rhaenyra was purple?

Or could it be an... easter egg?

[wewerebornsextuplets]

@girlymatsu ive been unable to stop thinking about these three being friends since you mentioned it, so i hope you dont mind that i drew out a few ideas ^^;!!

[elllteo]

I haven't gone through most of the gamefreak leaks but I find it odd that people are going bonkers over the typhlosion thing in such a gross way bc like

1) its clearly mythos/lore? Based on concepts they decided not to lean into.

It is Not Canon / Cut Content for a reason - the reason being that was not the direction they wanted to take the series since it is very very very specifically geared towards a teen audience.

Could a teen audience have handled the themes? I would argue yes - but they disagree, and so it was cut.

2) Even if we ignore everything else implied by that story - it is literally not that different from like. Normal furries...??? Like.

The typhlosion was communicating in human speech. It was taking on a humanoid form. It clearly understood humanoid needs and ties and emotions.

The ending directly said that the lesson they learned was that Typhlosion are more humanoid than initially suspected. This is leaning more into the "monster" / yokai aspect of pokemon that has Always been there.

3) These themes are really common in real world mythology in pretty much all places in the world, and they are typically used as teaching moments to warn (in this case...) Young Girls from wandering into the woods alone, lest a predator Of Some Kind take advantage of their isolation.

Another thing I find fascinating is that they didn't really do Away with some of these concepts - they just moved it onto Zoroark (and other pokemon) instead. Many canon pokemon still behave this way, just sith the more adult or worrying themes omitted.

From what I've seen and experienced with Pokemon growing up, there's always been the backbones of something darker and more "grimms tales" underneath. I just don't understand the Disgust and Surprise when realistically, the world has always had a pretty strong undercurrent and ties to Yokai, Demonology, Religion and Monsters - the notion that SOME lean more humanoid than others is the very reason we have a humanoid egg group to begin with, and why ditto, mew two, etc exist.

Also. Like. I get wishing we had more of those dark themes in the games. But us adults who grew up on Pokemon haaavvvree to remember that despite growing up and still loving the game series, us adults...are not their target demographic. At least we DEFINITELY weren't at the time mush of the Typhlosion stuff was being written. Whether we think thats stupid or not doesn't change that.

The changes they made are a direct result of going "okay guys maybe this is a little too much for 10 to 14 year olds..." And that's their narrative choices to make.

[daily-hanamura]

[toobusybeingdelulu]

something something about billy teaching little kids how to swim, and being good at it (otherwise their parents would have not let him); something something about his tendency to keep throwing good advice at people even while being a dick about it (max and steve, for example) something something about him apparently having a natural predisposition for helping people out and-