#stuff has been pretty wacky lately

[phewgitoid]

ive been putting this off for a bit ,, eerhehrhere im gonna crumble

[son-of-rap-bear-art]

So, do y'all remember the Adventure Time Mash-Up Pack for Minecraft back in like, 2017? Me and some friends have been messing around with that map lately and revamping some of the areas we consider a bit lacking with creative mode, and for me that was the Treehouse! I got ~100 reference pics from various episodes and tried to put it all together into the most autistically accurate Treehouse I could, and I wanna share it here cause I'm really proud of it!

Feel free to skip the text and just look at the pretty pictures. Cause when I say "autistically accurate" I MEAN IT. It's MY blog and I get to choose the special interest. :p

The exterior is mostly unchanged from the official map, but I added the orange tree from My Two Favorite People, and the pond. Also the log where Finn sits and thinks in Gotcha!

Yes, I will be mentioning specific episodes like this often.

I didn't make the Grotto, because I'm not THAT crazy, but I did make the pond really deep and filled it with the sort of things you see when Finn swims down there in Beyond the Grotto.

The first thing you see when you actually go inside is the treasure room, of course! The official map's treasure room is so small and sad, but I made it more accurate to how it looks in the show, with a ton of ladders and platforms going upwards until you get to the kitchen.

Speaking of, at this point I should show the layout I based the rooms' positions on...

I put this together myself and I THINK it's the most consistently accurate layout... of course, it's a cartoon, sometimes you'll get stuff like the bathroom in the left branch for the sake of a gag in Dentist, and characters will frequently run offscreen and then teleport to another room, BUT this is what I observed to be the most common layout seen when the camera will actually follow the characters through doors and ladders and etc.

Interestingly, the ladder in the trunk actually seems to connect to the kitchen, which is HIGHER than the living room, and then you have to go down a separate ladder to get to the living room. Confusing! But it checks out.

So yeah, climbing up past the treasure room takes you right to the kitchen! Some specific details to call out here are: - The picture of PB with the two spatulas is from Abstract, and I painted it myself in-game via a mod! Unfortunately I didn't get around to other paintings yet, they're a bit annoying to make. - The urn supposedly containing Margaret's ashes, from Conquest of Cuteness, is on one of the shelves. - There isn't a single torch in this whole build! It's carefully lit up with candles, just like the Treehouse should be! - There's actually this easily missable tiny room connected to the kitchen, seen in the last pic, that has another trapdoor and also the door to the bathroom. I believe that first shows up in Incendium and then stays around forever. - The cooler is entirely full of eggs, like how Finn exclusively buys pre-boiled eggs when grocery shopping without Jake, in Temple of Mars.

The bathroom! Funnily enough, the bathroom might be the least consistent room in the whole Treehouse. It's just made up of a toilet, bathtub, and sink, but these three things shuffle around the room entirely at random from episode to episode. In this sort of situation, I consider the most accurate way to handle it to be the same as the show: just put them wherever! So I did that.

That door in the kitchen leads to this room, connected by a bridge. I just called it the "bucket room" because it has a bucket that Finn and Jake ride in in Rainy Day Daydream, although that episode has a pretty wacky Treehouse in general.

I hooked up a hand crank with the Create mod, so you can use it like an elevator kinda.

Down the other ladder in the kitchen gets you to, the living room! This room's just a small round circle in some episodes, but others have it a bit bigger.

That bookshelf is there in Jake Suit, and has Dream Journal of a Boring Man, Vol 12 on it. Since one of the decor mods I'm using lets me place down books, I copied the 3 excerpts we get to see from it down into a written book, so it's even actually there!

A really inconsistent aspect of the living room is this weird platform with a door. I can only remember it appearing in In Your Footsteps and Three Buckets, but maybe I've just always missed it? I made it lead back into the trunk, so you can use it as a shortcut up to the kitchen.

Also over here is this workbench, which to my knowledge suddenly shows up in season 8 and becomes a REALLY REALLY consistent part of the living room?? Seriously, it's in Two Swords, Horse and Ball, Abstract... It's suddenly all over the place!! But I genuinely can't recall it existing before that. Am I crazy or is this an actual thing?

Anyway, connected by bridge to the living room is the den! Surprisingly, even though it barely even shows up in any episodes, the den is SUPER messy and lived in. I tried to reflect this by jamming as many decorative blocks as I could in there.

Also for some reason this fireplace doubles as a pizza oven in Abstract? Yeah, Abstract's got a really silly Treehouse. But it was easy enough to slot in there, so I did!

Way back to the kitchen and upwards: the bedroom! I always thought the bedroom was so tiny and cramped, but a good few episodes actually show it as pretty spacious! I tried to hit a good balance.

The pictures hung up around Finn's bed are a blurry, badly taken picture of Huntress Wizard, and a clearly old picture of Flame Princess. They're both cute choices for Finn's future, and are my girlfriends' respective favorite characters, so I included both :D

I also included the attic, which as far I know ONLY appears in Dad's Dungeon. I think it's neat, though, so I put it here. It'll be nice for survival mode storage.

If you exit through the attic, you can get to the cloud that Finn and Jake have tied down for its rainwater. The dripstone on the underside looks a bit ugly, but it makes it functional! If you scoop water out of any of the cauldrons with a bucket, it'll slowly refill with water from the cloud!

We're nearing the end! Here's a back shot of things. I added the power lines, Neptr's cave, and the farm. For some reason, Holly Jolly Secrets has a second, distinct set of powerlines, but those would be ugly so I didn't include them.

Lastly, the chicken coop, as seen in BMO Noire and mentioned in Three Buckets, featuring Lorraine. Who looks like Boobafina in this texture pack, which is silly.

I'm... honestly not very satisfied with the coop's placement, as BMO Noire shows it being out on a rarely-seen branch, but this is the best I could do without a major facelift on the tree itself.

So, yeah! That's the image limit. There's a good few extra details scattered around here and there, but I'll leave it at that. I hope this is as fun to read as it was for me to write :D

[literallygwenstacy]

Your Gwen and Hobie dynamic hcs???Canon compliant,self-indulgent,etc!!I see them as either a t4t couple or siblings :] Also polyship them with Miles and Margo ofc

Hmmmm BET

-Hobie wakes up SUPER early to make Gwen pancakes almost every day (they’re her favorite), and he puts a buncha bananas and chocolate chips in them 😋

-MOVIE NIGHTS!!! Every weekend! I can picture Gwen and Hobie staying up till like 1am watching something on Hobie’s TV, Hobie makes popcorn and Gwen usually gets to choose the movie, but when Hobie picks a movie it’s either the goofiest shit you’ve ever seen or some crazy horror shit he picks just to scare Gwen (she secretly loves it though)

-Hobie’s a morning person, but Gwen DEFINITELY isn’t. Hobie would hover over Gwen at like 6am while she’s sleeping and blast an airhorn in her ear while yelling “RISE N SHINE!”

-I feel like Hobie would randomly ruffle Gwen’s hair, not because it’s soft or anything, but because he just wants to mess it up cause he thinks it’s funny 😹

-Ohhh Hobie would TOTALLY let Gwen paint his nails. Probably for a dare or something but I think he’d actually like how it turns out. He’d choose all the craziest color combos and Gwen would be all like “HOLD STILL” as she mischievously giggles and Hobie regrets all of life choices. This whole entire thing could also work the other way around actually (New headcanon: Hobie knows how to paint nails)

-They definitely play Roblox together at like 2am, mostly horror games. I can see both of them screaming at the top of their lungs when they get jumpscared but Hobie would scream at everything even if it’s not a jumpscare and Gwen would just laugh hysterically (Just like my last headcanon, this could also work the other way around)

-Hobie offered to teach Gwen how to play guitar one time and she said yes, so now she takes guitar lessons with him almost every day, and in return Gwen teaches Hobie how to play the drums 😸

-Hobie occasionally plays in the Mary Janes and almost all of them are DOWN BAD for him. Like when Gwen first introduced them to Hobie they all fell in love the second they saw him. Oh and when Hobie can’t play, he comes to their shows and has the proudest smile on his face when he watches Gwen play the drums. <3

-When they’re on missions together, each of them has one AirPod in so they can listen to some music. They have pretty similar music tastes but Hobie mostly listens to punk rock and metal, and Gwen also listens to punk and classic rock. They show each other their favorite bands while they’re swingin’ around.

-Since Hobie’s dimension is set in like the 70’s, he takes Gwen to all sorts of places that don’t exist in Earth-65 anymore. He also takes her to a ton of concerts, cool restaurants, aaand clubs, pubs, and bars. How did they get in you may ask? Hobie has a couple of fake ID’s 😼 (they’ve definitely been kicked out of at least 5 places)

-Gwen steals all of Hobie’s stuff, mostly clothes but it can be anything. Oh, he has a cool pair of shoes? She’s taking them (canon). He has a nice jacket? Snatched. A poster of a band she really likes? BOOM! It’s hers now. She’ll usually leave sticky notes next to the thing she stole so Hobie knows who took it, but he’ll figure out who stole it anyways.

-Gwen stays up late and gushes on about Miles for HOURS to Hobie without even realizing how long she’s yapping for, and Hobie just listens with a smirk on his face.

-They got matching piercings!!! Hobie’s amazing at piercing stuff and has a shit ton of jewelry, so sometimes he lets Gwen borrow some or if it’s REALLY special he’ll give some to her as a gift. And Hobie lets Gwen do wacky shit to his hair, like giving him braids or dying the ends pink so he can match hers. Speaking of which, Hobie helped Gwen dye her hair pink when she first decided she wanted to :3

-They both have a soft spot for animals, specifically cats. If there’s a cat on the street, both of them are stopping whatever the hell they’re doing to go pet that cat. Hobie takes Gwen to cat cafes all the time, or just cat infested areas. Gwen ALWAYS asks if they can keep them, so sometimes Hobie takes a couple stray cats and dogs back to his place so they can get food and shelter. (He’s so sweet guys)

-(WARNING!! very angsty) Sometimes Hobie walks in on Gwen while she’s crying, he immediately gets concerned and always rushes to her to ask what’s going on while he speaks in the gentlest way possible to try and calm her down. Hobie is one of the only people Gwen feels comfortable opening up to, so she tells him things she normally keeps bottled up. Gwen starts rambling on and on about how she really feels while more tears form in her eyes and her voice becomes shaky as she starts to breakdown completely. Hobie then pulls Gwen into a hug, and she clings onto him tightly as she cries into his shoulder, Hobie rubs her back in a soothing way to try and comfort her in any way he can.

-PILLOW FIGHTS!!!!! 90% of the time, Hobie’s the one who starts them. While Gwen is just chilling on the couch or about to go to bed, he’ll just *WHACK* and Gwen fights back and it ends up lasting for like 30 minutes. Oh and I can also imagine them having water gun fights at Hobie’s place.

-Amusement parks. They LOVE amusement parks and arcades, especially Gwen. She’s obsessed with rollercoasters and always asks to go twice, and Hobie is a god at all the arcade games, and he always wins stuff for Gwen. Bonus: One time Hobie won Gwen a baby deer plushie and she named it Miles.

Okayyy I hope you enjoyed these silly headcanons and I’m sorry there’s so many I got a little carried away aauahsjskks but tysm for the ask this was really fun to make!! ^_^

[catboygirljoker]

What were your thoughts about KHearts before you got into it vs Now having been into it? Also late welcome to the community hope you've had fun!

thankyou :D!! i have had fun, sitting in my little crevice and exporting my xigbar images and xigbar posts. im happy that people have connected with it in some way :]

thoughts about KH before i got into it:

for some reason i was under the impression that the games were about a boy who has dreams about disney worlds. and he has regular size feet in the real world and only has big feet in the dream world. i also think he traveled with mickey and not donald or goofy

also for some reason i was under the impression that ventus was sora's dad. it was not until i actually watched the cutscenes in birth by sleep and saw lea and isa that i realized OH. this is NOT as far back on the timeline as i thought it was

images of a spiky red boy and a spiky blond boy and a black haired depressed girl eating ice cream together with lots&lots of people sobbing in the replies. (REALLY emphasized the slow creeping emotional dread of that game for me. like golly i sure hope i dont get emotionally destroyed like all those other people! and then i , was)

when i was in middle/high school i had friends who were super into it, but i was never able to play it because my parents had a policy of No Consoles. we were allowed to have handhelds, though, because my family took frequent road trips, so when i found out that there was a KH game for DS i said to a friend "oh, cool! dyou think id be able to play it without playing the other games?" and she looked at me, and looked at her copy of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and said "........no"

only ~15 years later do i realize how funny of a question that was

thoughts about KH as i was getting into it:

too numerous to count. i shall attempt to keep it moderately brief

last year my husband listened to a podcast called "lore dump" where people explain the lore of different media to each other, and they did an episode/series on kingdom hearts, and i heard some pretty WaCkY sTuFf (i specifically remember them explaining what the recusant's sigil is, in the context of xigbar explaining that they'd been tracking sora and riku through the story of DDD)

found a vod of one of my favorite streamers streaming 1 and 2 to benefit abortion rights in texas, and i was like, well, here's my chance, heh, im gonna understand all of the WaCkY LoRe

i start up the stream. within the first 15 minutes i Get it. like it feels very dated in a lot of ways but i instantly understood what made people connect so strongly with this series. even as someone who didn't grow up with any attachment to it, and was a little put off of it even by how into it my friends were, to me kh1 is just pure high octane nostalgia. the tone is so specific and warm and bittersweet. i cried multiple times during the ending. it just really got to me! i was hooked!

when i fixate on a media property i like to have a hot person to chew on. i really. really thought it was gonna be axel. he is exactly the kind of character i would've fixated on when i was younger, when i had friends who were into KH. older mentor figure character who takes younger characters under his wing. associated with fire. projects brash confidence. k,ills people. he's a really good character! i love him a lot! every time he appears on screen i get on all fours and start barking! and there's all this fanart and merch and...then i got distracted......

hey blake in early 2023. it's me, blake in late 2024. have you heard of kingdom hearts. yeah. yeah youre gonna get really into it. yeah youre gonna have the longest running blorbo since you mega-fixated on the tenth doctor when you were 14. yeah. yeah um. you know the clip where the guy says "me? i'm already half xehanort!" and sora says "that's..nuts!"? yeah that guy? yeah. yeah. that guy. the half xehanort guy. yeah youre gonna make a fool of yourself online for that guy.

[paperclipninja]

Time and memory

This is more a pondering out loud than any theory or idea I necessarily subscribe to at this point, but there's something about time and memory and the wackiness of both through season 2 that has me thinking and full disclosure: This is not a complete thought.

I have had this post sitting in my drafts for about a month because there's some connection my brain is almost making, but can't quite. And during that time a whole lot of ppl have delved further into the time and set/prop inconsistencies, so this post is a little bit sharing a whole lot of the metas I've had the pleasure of reading, and also an attempt to share my own thoughts on it all.

There are amazing posts delving into the time inconsistencies already (like The ineffable discontinuity of time in ALL of Good Omens season 2? and the other work @embracing-the-ineffable has linked in their pinned post that explores this and @indigovigilance's look at Continuity errors is another one).

Then @cobragardens points out these extremely sus time-related situations in 5 Good Omens Timefucks that Haunt me

Then others have pointed out inconsistencies in prop placement, costuming etc, such as They are out of order by @maufungi and @purplewillowchicken's observations about Crowley's chair in the bookshop

But then, THEN, Neil answered an ask about Crowley's knowledge that hand washing would become all the rage during the Edinburgh flashback and his response here (incl. the excerpt "Either [Crowley] has an understanding of science and the world, or he has visions of the future. Or he read up on the ineffable planning a long time ago. Your call") could indeed be very Gaiman-esque teasing or it perhaps a little bit of a hint.

When you take in how many time discrepancies or inconsistencies (whether this is prop or costume inconsistency/changes or timeline ones) there are throughout season 2 and consider that this is a show that is deliberate and fastidious in it's inclusion/exclusion of any details, it has to make you wonder.

Also, in the book of Good Omens, Crowley's watch shows the time for Another place as, "it's always too late" and it's stuck on one time. But in the series, we've never had reference to his watch in this way and the line, "It's always too late" said by Crowley in season 2, is, to me at least, quite ominous, almost defeated, like it's something he contends with often.

There is something about the way he says that line that struck me on first viewing and continues to on every subsequent watch. It's not just that the meaning is a little ambiguous; too late because Aziraphale is already in danger? Too late because they've always been in danger and they're simply staying one step ahead? Too late because no matter what Crowley and Aziraphale do, they're part of a bigger plan that they have no control over or ability to slow down? All of the above?

The way Crowley says, "it's always too late" comes across as quite personal to me. Like he feels responsible. Or, if we're going to go with some timey-wimey bendy-wendy stuff, it's like he keeps falling short of preventing or achieving something he's being trying to achieve for a long time. He sounds deflated.

And yes, it could be the constant looking over his shoulder and never finding peace, absolutely. As I said right off the bat, I don't necessarily believe what I'm writing is true, but more of a fun little "what if?"

There have been theories about time loops and the idea that Crowley (or everyone) is stuck in a loop, and I could see how memory could come into that. I don't necessarily think Crowley's memory has been tampered with by Heaven or Hell, but the idea that being in a loop impacts memory, and that each time he goes around it shifts or alters memories depending on what has been changed etc, totally tracks.

Part of me thinks that playing around with time loops etc is a bit out of GO universe, but then I remember that Crowley stops time and that is pretty darn significant, so anything's possible?

So what I'm throwing into the mix is this - what if time and memory, specifically Crowley's, are somehow connected? More specifically, his involvement in the creation of nebulae aka space, sort of attached him to different timelines? Or allowed him to travel through time in different ways?

Yes, this is whackadoo, but he can stop time, possibly manipulate it, what if he can jump around in it too? What if, just like Adam resetting the Earth, essentially setting it on a new trajectory and timeline, Crowley finds himself in different timelines at different times, trying to get to the one where Earth is safe, he and Aziraphale are safe, where it's not too late?

And what if he's either not aware of it or doesn't know which timeline he's ever in until it is too late? And that's why he doesn't recognise Saraqael and Furfur. Or, what if he has indeed seen the future and is desperately trying to alter the past to avert whatever he's seen? But in doing so, any changes mean that present Crowley doesn't remember these angels and demons he doesn't recognise, because they are a result of trying to alter the outcomes of the future?

I think this is all far too sci-fi and quite unlikely but, if I was going to humour myself a little more, the comment Crowley makes to Maggie and Nina, that he and Aziraphale have been talking for "millions of years" - I always took it at him just exaggerating the time they've known one another to make a point (which, honestly, I still think is the case). But if I wanted to support my own out there idea, arguably, if Crowley was travelling back and forth through time, trying to do whatever he's trying to do, then perhaps he really does have millions of years of conversations with Aziraphale under his belt?

And that's why sometimes props are different or in different places - something's been altered in the timeline and it flows into the present. Then of course there's the idea that the Metatron or God or some entity is manipulating time and messing with everything, again, maybe *insert shrug emoji here*?

Though I do keep coming back to Neil's comment about Crowley having visions of the future. Perhaps it's not so much travelling through time, as being able to see through time? I mean, there's the whole scene that never happened with the dream of the bookshop standing alone amidst destruction and while it's never been said whose dream it was, if I was a betting person, my money would be on Crowley. Ya know, the one who has visions of the future. Because Earth destroyed while the bookshop still stands would certainly explain the "it's always too late" comment too.

So that's the end of my half formed not-really thought. It seems ridiculous to write such a long post about something I'm not particularly convinced about, but I certainly agree there's something funky going on with time and the memory thing bugs me because it's not consistent enough to be a memory wipe situation (I don't think), but it's been made obvious enough we're meant to notice. Either that, or Crowley is just being a smartass which, honestly, is far more likely.

[deltaengineering]

Spring Anime 2024: A Wizard is never late

Shuumatsu Train Doko e Iku (Train to the End of the World)

If you want a reason for why this post is woefully late, it’s this show: since we’re going in ascending order of quality here, it must come first, yet I have a hard time saying anything about it. I suppose I can start with the most obvious problem: I will probably watch your original anime, but I do that to get away from light novel levels of insufferable dialogue. Yet this one definitely goes with the NisioisiN school of writing, which is to say, talk a lot first, then figure out a point at your convenience. This definitely doesn’t endear the show to me and makes it mildly annoying right from the start, but it could still be salvageable - but then Shuumatsu Train just turns out to be not particularly good at any of its selling points. For a weird show it’s not weird enough. For a comedy it’s not funny enough. For a character drama the characters are too superficial. For a profound allegory, it's much too vague. And even though the parts are hardly stellar, the result somehow still ends up as less than the sum of them. It‘s not a total write-off since at least there is some ambition here, but I really can’t say that being more meaningful than not at all is enough of a payoff for something that is mostly just basic attempts at wacky humor presented in an annoying fashion. 4/10

Yuru Camp S3

So, speaking of ambition. My last contact with Yuru Camp was me getting very mad at S2‘s incessant products and services shilling. Admittedly S3 turns this down to an acceptable level, but that only makes the deeper issue more apparent: Yuru Camp is and has always been astonishingly vapid, and three seasons and a movie in all the vibes in the world can no longer make up for it. I won’t even complain that the show is no longer about camping in any meaningful capacity (since I never cared and at least the local-tourism-and-food lane we‘re in now doesn’t require purchase of specialized gear), but godammit if personality-free blobs looking at small footbridges for three episodes didn’t kill my enthusiasm for any of this mush. It‘s still broadly inoffensive, but at this point I feel like I’ve thoroughly exhausted anything this show is ever willing to offer. And Yama no Susume shows that you can have all the theoretical positives of a Yuru Camp with compelling enough characters, so there’s really no excuse. 5/10

Yoru no Kurage wa Oyogenai (Jellyfish Can't Swim in the Night)

I don’t know where this recent trend of cute but reasonably serious girl band anime came from (I would like to think MyGO, but more likely it‘s Bocchi the Rock + the most blatantly obvious and viable way to improve on Bocchi). But here is Jellyfish and uh… it certainly makes an attempt. The first impression is very positive, since Doga Kobo provides pleasant visuals (per usual), but it quickly becomes apparent that it’s the writing that is really holding this one back. It’s not even bad ideas or a lack of ideas, since the concepts this show wants to tackle are generally quite good. But pretty much every execution on those plot ideas is botched in some way, be it by resolving them in a stupidly simple way (impostor syndrome? just do your best!) or by just having a character read out their character arc really dramatically. A bunch of plot points don't even make sense when you look at them in context of the ostensibly real world this show takes place in, and the ending is a massive nothingburger. It's all stuff that's barely passable when something like Love Live does it, but in something that aims higher it seems like a first draft at best and more likely just extremely amateurish. One can only wonder if you gave such a concept to a seasoned veteran like Jukki Hanada... 6/10

Tonari no Youkai-san

Tonari no Youkai-san started out as a rather simple show that I really liked: a mostly but not exclusively lighthearted depiction of a world where Youkai are real and the weird situations that can create, with likeable characters carrying it along. But then it became apparent that what it really wants to do is back-to-back KEY-style sadpiano scenarios. While those aren't bad in moderate amounts, the fact that every scenario now had to be about some heartbreaking backstory no matter what quickly became rather tiring. And then, if it wasn't apparent enough that this show was writing itself into the weeds, it capped the season off with a completely bizarre sci-fi multiverse action arc where everyone dies (very sad!) but then comes back alive because power of friendship beats entropy or something. Well, at least I prefer laughing at this nonsense to being annoyed at contrived tearjerkers, I suppose. I wouldn't call it quality though. 6/10

Dungeon Meshi (Delicious in Dungeon)

When the Dungeon Meshi started, I just didn't get it. The hyperbole around this show (mostly coming from manga fans, I think) was clearly not befitting a very mediocre gimmick anime where even the gimmick had been done better elsewhere multiple times. I do have to admit that as it went on, I could start to see where people were coming from: Once the cooking dies down a bit, the characters start to develop a bit and it finds its pace, Dungeon Meshi's "default mode" is an entertaining adventure anime with some nice characters, decent humor and engaging action. So far so good. However, I'll still call the show merely above average because it's in its default mode less often than you'd think. Every time I started to like something, Dungeon Meshi immediately had to head off in some random other direction that I don't care for: The cooking I did not care for in the beginning becomes vestigial but never stops taking up airtime nonetheless. The nerdy exposition about dungeon mechanics should not merit more than a footnote in a splatbook, but never stops taking up a lot of airtime nonetheless (it's also a painful reminder of the "worldbuilding over narrative" nonsense that I hate, but Dungeon Meshi isn't the worst offender here so I'll let it slide). The show expects me to care about other, far less interesting parties after I just barely mustered up enough enthusiasm to see Chilchuck as more than a spare Marcille when Marcille can't play the tsukkomi herself. Falin turns into a tragic zombie chicken. They adopt an annoying cat. It goes on and on and I'm not thrilled. I will admit though that I will likely still watch the sequel, mostly because Trigger really does a fantastic job with this adaptation on all levels, which at the very least manages to keep it watchable even in the doldrums. I just wish the source material was more consistent. 6/10

Kaiju No. 8

Every season there's some random anime that isn't particularly great, but still competent enough to merit a watch. It's usually some light comedy like Torture Princess, but every once in a while it's something else. This season it's Isekai QC, but in spring it was something even less likely: Kaiju #8, a Jump-brand premium shounen. Yeah, that's a surprise. It just doesn't do anything particularly wrong, apart from the genre staples that it must do wrong: The pacing is bad, but just regular bad. The tone is all over the place, but just regular all over the place. The protagonist isn't as good as he first seems, but not as bad as he could be either. It starts out as "less miserable Attack on Titan where people shoot at huge monsters with guns at shounen powerlevel efficiency", which is extremely awkward, but eventually it settles into a more standard "hit bad guy with sick special attacks" groove, which isn't exactly exciting but at least clearly something the show wants to be. In short, nothing special but the bullshit does not exceed the maximum level I will tolerate as the price of entry to epic dudes epically fighting in an epic fashion. There always is a point with these where you have to ruthlessly cut your losses, but it did not reach it in its first season when the average genremate reaches it within the first episode. That's... something. 6/10

Nijiyon S2

I wasn't even going to write about this because what is there to say about Nijiyon, except that Nijiyon is that rare mini spinoff that actually gets better and starts to outshine the main show at points. Half the time. The other half is still very basic and very arbitrary 4koma hijinks, but an improvement is an improvement. 6/10

Bartender: Glass of God

Why did they make a second Bartender anime in 2024? I can't answer this conclusively but I will say that if Suntory didn't pay for at least half of this production, they got something for free. With that out of the way, the most interesting thing I can say about Bartender is how it compares to Gin & Sonic '06. The old one was certainly ambitious, but in a rather obvious way: Treating the Bartender mystique as somthing close to supernatural and presenting it in a very abstract and stagey way. This is great when it works, but just as often merely comes off as extremely pretentious. The new one... just doesn't do any of that. It's a very straightforward, simple story with actual characters and stuff. It's workable enough with some stronger and some weaker episodes, and even though it does not even attempt to reach the highs of the old one, it doesn't sniff its own farts and does its best to avoid the old man machismo stank that faintly polluted the first adaptation. So I will actually call it better in some ways, maybe even on average, but it still can't compete with a show that had a better reason to exist than to get you excited for Yamazaki whiskey. 6/10

Euphonium S3

I've had my ups and downs with Yoof, and I will say that while some nags remain, I am satisfied with how it managed to (hopefully) wrap up. In fact, S3 might be the best the show has ever been. We were never going to get the cartoonish and quite frankly more entertaining presentation of S1 back, but for what it's worth, S3 takes the overcooked presentation and histrionic character writing of S2 and brings them down to a palatable level, and that makes it at least worth thinking about. Another big point in its favor is that it's now finally truly the Kumiko show, and not just the Kumiko stumbles into other people's drama show. Cast additions like Kanade and Mayu are prety great as well so yeah, I had a good time. Really my biggest complaint is that S3 might actually be a little too good at character drama, because at one point it seemed it was on the verge of starting to question a few of its core assumptions. I never expected it to have doubts over whether letting your school club control your entire existence is in fact a good thing, but ideas like Reina actually being as insane as she comes across and that Taki actually being as terrible as a teacher as he comes across seemed extremely promising. But nah, of course Kumiko just had to be honest with herself, that solved all the problems and then the show just coasted to the most predictable ending imaginable. Euphonium always seemed like it could be way better with a bit more risk-taking, but this was a particularly disappointing moment for the show to be itself. Anyway, if you just expect Euphoinum you're getting the good Euphonium here. 7/10

Girls Band Cry

So, about that "Hanada writing Jellyfish" quip I made earlier? What if that actually happened, in the same season no less? Yeah, these two shows are shockingly similar but unlike Jellyfsh, Girls Band Cry does things right... for the most part. You need to get used to the somewhat janky CG animation, but you're getting some great expressiveness in the deal so that's no problem. You'll also have to put up with Hanada's trademark yuribaiting, a pretty weak ending (as if these two shows didn't already copy each other's homework enough) and music that is much too obvously coming from the Vocaloid camp for my liking. Apart from that, GBC is very good. Not quite as good as MyGO (which has even better character dynamics and I still can't get past how shockingly high its quality is for a franchise anime), but it's really close. So close in fact that I don't even feel like pointing out in detail why GBC is good, because it really is MyGO again: Very flawed yet likeable girls try to get their mental in order while swinging between goofy and depressed and occasionally making music. It's not complicated, but when the character writing delivers (i.e., by seasoned pros like Yuniko Ayana or Jukki Hanada), it just works. If this is a trend now, I'll gladly take it. 8/10

[tiresomeimagination]

I’m learning Spanish right now so I’ve been thinking a lot about the wacky ways Saeyoung would probably try to help you improve your language skills. In this context, italicized dialogue means it’s being spoken in the target/foreign language! Also the small marked off section is supposed to imply it’s over the messenger. Anyways, this was just a short silly idea I had lolol.

~~~~~

"What'cha working on there?"

came the voice of your boyfriend as he peered over your shoulder to catch a peek at what you seemed so involved in studying at the table.

You chuckled as his fiery curls entered the edge of your vision and you felt him leaning against you. "I've just got to get through this next chapter," you explained, lifting your textbook and turning it so he could read the title. You were taking a foreign language class and it was already so much to remember.

His face lit up at the sight of the title, recognizing the language immediately. "Oh! I know that one! it's pretty easy once you practice it enough."

"Yeah... it's just tough to keep up with the practice I guess..." You groaned, rubbing your face tiredly.

He hummed in thought, absentmindedly resting his hand on your shoulder. "hmm... how about I give you a hand?"

"Uh... well, I guess it would help to drill some stuff with somebody. I'll have a test coming up soon and I'm not sure if I'm ready…" you admitted, assuming he was offering to go through flashcards with you or something.

He gave you a confident grin. "Oh don't worry! You'll be acing your tests in no time after we're done!"

If you had known what he really meant by this, you probably wouldn't have accepted his interference so readily. But it was too late. The gears were already turning and he knew exactly what he was going to do to help you.

You didn't notice the change right away. You got up the next morning and went through your usual routine. It wasn't until you opened the fridge and pulled out a drink that you spotted something so strange you had to do a double take. 

The label was in a different language.

"...What…??" You breathed out, your brain struggling to catch up to what was happening. You pulled out a different bottle from the fridge, eyes widening as you found its label had also changed languages.

After a few minutes of rummaging through the cabinets, you realized just about everything had been relabeled in your target language. Once you reassured yourself that you had not gone crazy in your sleep, you came to the conclusion that only one person could be responsible for pulling off something of this scale.

"Saeyoung!!" You called out.

It wasn't long before the culprit in question came strolling in at your call. "Yesss, my honey?" he greeted you casually, and it took you a moment to register that he was speaking your target language.

"Saeyoung, what in the world is going on??" You huffed.

"Immersion really is one of the best learning tools, Y/N. Trust me, I had to pick up a lot of languages on pretty short notice with the agency," he explained, shrugging.

You frowned, brows furrowing. "I understood next to none of that." You grumbled unhappily, hoping he would get the idea and go back to talking normally.

Instead he just laughed, ruffling your hair teasingly. "You'll get the hang of it!"

Oh you were going to kill him.

— — — —

[Jaehee] "I can't help but notice that Y/N has been speaking strangely in the messenger today."

[Yoosung] "I noticed that too! I wonder if their phone keyboard is broken."

[Y/N] "Help!! Saeyoung change me messenger. Language stuck!! No use good T-T"

[Jaehee] "...I'm sorry, Y/N. I can't understand what you're trying to say. There's something wrong with your copy of the messenger?"

[707] "Don't worry, they're fine lolol. They're just using a special version today."

[Y/N] "fix language set!! >:( no more help;;"

[707] "You're doing great, honey! ^^"

— — — —

You tossed your phone aside with an aggravated groan. Your entire version of the RFA messenger had been switched to your target language, but only on your end. Part of you couldn't help but admire the effort Saeyoung must have put into all of this…but that didn't change the fact that it wasn't exactly the kind of studying you had in mind.

"Aww, is my grumpy little kitty getting tired?" You heard Saeyoung coo from his place beside you on the couch as he wrapped an arm around you.

You just pouted at him, your brain too tired to try decoding all his words.

He chuckled at your expression, leaning in closer. "You did really good today. But of course I already knew my 606 was smart, hehe..." he breathed out softly, finally speaking normally again, much to your relief.

You couldn't stop the bashful smile that spread across your face at his gentle teasing and tender praise.

Your flustered look only spurred him on. He slid closer and leaned towards your ear, slipping effortlessly back into your target language and whispering, "There aren't enough languages in the world to tell you how you make me feel, you know. I love you, agent 606~"

You shivered slightly at the feeling of his breath, recognizing at least one particular phrase in that. Before you could form a coherent response, he brought his lips to yours in a gesture that needed no translation. Maybe his way wasn’t so bad after all if you got rewards like this.

[asherlockstudy]

I don't know why they would think people wouldn't watch their content on the R&L channel on purpose just to punish them... it doesn't make sense because, it's not like they changed anything in GMM in order to make the new videos, and we are still getting the same quality, so why would people want to punish them... It's a pretty odd thing to say about your fanbase, because a fan being indifferent about something is one thing, but punishment implies an intentional grievance. There are so many other reasons why the new things don't resonate as widely, and like you said, a huge part of their audience watches for the food content. Or because GMM has a reactive, spontaneous and immediate effect in its format that the scripted videos don't have. GMM videos are more like having someone's company because of their daily recurrence and familiar format, and this could be a source of comfort-viewing for people. Scripted videos don't have that immediate comfort-inducing effect. And the fact that they're on a separate channel might also be a reason. Even if it's just a button push, there might be people who don't want to engage with something away from the tried and true format of GMM. It's a pity for R&L because they often said they feel almost as guests in GMM nowadays, and their true creativity comes out in these sides projects, and it must be a bitter pill to swallow that what they deem as the lesser of their content, talent-wise, is more popular. I guess maybe more people like them as public personalities who do wacky stuff, than story tellers or movie makers? And maybe that was what they wanted to gauge about the audience with Wonderhole, and maybe the question they needed answered was to see if people would warm up to the idea of what they really want to create (and perhaps a future that involves slowly moving away from GMM and doing more stuff on the R&L channel). And if that was their intent with Wonderhole it's also a blow to those of us who though they were looking for an altogether different answer... ^^;

The punishment thing, this is the word I used by the way, Rhett just spoke about “contrarian” fans but also he implied that promoting a lot might get to people’s nerves and ultimately I think it’s the same thing.

I love GMM with all my heart but I wouldn’t mind it being a few times per week if that made it possible to also get content in the Rhett and Link channel. Actually my favourite content has been the vlogs they did around the time of the pandemic but they HATED those and I really wonder why. I don’t see them doing much scripted content in the future either. It’s been way too long this type of content underperforms and eventually I fear they might give up.

In any case, I don’t see me getting what I want lol

As for the “question”, I was thinking about it lately. But then I remembered some other things and I was re-convinced it can’t ONLY be about the content. It’s definitely a lot that is at stake, no matter what is implied plot-wise in Wonderhole, the risks and initiatives regarding strictly their career definitely still apply regardless. They have a lot of questions apparently 😅

It’s not always about what may be going on between them, for example the Cloud and the upcoming Ben ones are 99% not linked to the One Story.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that Wonderhole is probably not going to be THE medium where any big announcement (as heralded in the first episode) will take place but maybe it will once more strongly imply it in the last two episodes.

By the way I am curious what the announcement next week is going to be. I know it won’t be THAT, but still curious.

[sphnyspinspin]

Hiiiii guys…

Uhh…so…my brain has been sort of….wacky—you could even say silly—at the moment.

I’ve been like SUPER distracted as of lately, but not for the reason that you might think. Since I haven’t communicated with ANY of my mutes as of late, and with the lack of #sphny speaks (𖦹<𖦹)•*°⊹ posts giving small updates about how I’m doing, I’ve admittedly, accidentally, forgotten that I had a tumblr for a sec. BUT IM BACK, AND EVERYTHING’S AWESOME AGAIN DONT WORRY!

…

So I’ve been thinking about, maybe, switching things up around here. And what I mean by that is… I may or may not be considering turning this blog into a multi-fandom sort of thing. I’ve been feeling a bit bold, a little silly, even a little goofy, but best rest assured I’m still very much the same Sphny you all know and love ;3.

Now that that’s out there, I kinda wanna show you guys art of my persona—SO HERE YOU GO!

The reason I’m saying this is because right now I’m thinking about getting back into the Minecraft fandom—NOT THE MCYT FANDOM—the Minecraft lore-ish fandom. Well, I mean I do watch snid-bits of Hermitcraft, Life Series, and old Minecraft lore recaps—and I know that doesn’t help my case like, at all.

What I’m trying to say is that I’ve been wanting to get into other fandoms, but have been a little bit scared to considering Transformers in general has pretty much changed, and saved, my life. I’m not so much as making this out to be an update post, but more like an official personal marker about how I treat my new hyperfixations from now on without being concerned about continuity and consistency. Which honestly felt like a lingering limit I unknowingly set for myself without bothering to look into why I set it in the first place.

So 👏 see ya when I get other stuff done—BYYYYEEE!

[alchemical-frog]

Now that Clone High Season 2 is over, I can pretty concretely say that I’m happy they brought it back. It had a really, really shaky start with those first few episodes, but it’s really clear that the writers and VAs became a lot more comfortable both working with the new characters and getting back into the old ones. Especially when they had pretty firmly established the new status quo and were able to do more wacky episodes is when the new season really shined, like with the musical and Butlertron backstory episodes. There’s definitely still a Ghandi shaped hole in the new season’s style, but the new characters are really starting to come into their own to fill it. Especially with how trigger happy HBO has been with animation as of late, I’m really happy that CH got that two season order. Now that the new stuff has been established, I think a good season 3 has the potential to out-do even the highs of Season 1. What other show can deliver these sheer levels of Brontë Sisters humor?

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

The House Sound of Europe - Vol. V - 'Casa Latina' 1989 House / Italo-House / Italo-Disco / Deep House

God, this thing truly was a whole-ass vibe, folks 😎. Basically, if you want an album that can successfully transport you back to the 80s, this dance comp will more than do the trick—jaunty piano-riffed tunes galore, stuff that sounds fit for videogame soundtracks from the time period, and above all else, a constant throughline of uniquely lovable Italian goofiness. Forza!

So here we have a continuation of FFRR's The House Sound of… series, a collection of comps that started in the mid-80s on Chicago's D. J. International Records as a showcase of that city's own original house sound, and then was picked up and expanded upon in the UK by FFRR with the release of its third volume.

And this weirdly named fifth installment from the series, 'Casa Latina', does not have any Latin house music on it, but presents a near-full slate of 1980s Italian dance tunes instead. A more appropriate title for this would've been 'Casa Italiana', but even better would've been 'Danza Italiana', since a significant portion of these selections aren't even actually house tunes themselves—there's some Italo-disco that predates the advent of house music altogether, a touch of acid jazz, and a downtempo all-timer too.

And that downtempo all-timer, "Autumn Love (Future 3)" by Electra, probably doesn't even belong on this comp, because it's neither house nor Italian-made; but it's still hands-down the single-best song that this release has to offer. Electra was an electronic project that counted the legendary Paul Oakenfold and Steve Osborne among its ranks, and here the UK group goes full-on late 80s Ibiza silky-chill while implementing two very recognizable vocal samples: Donna Summer's "Love to Love You Baby" and Tears for Fears' "Shout."

(Truthfully, a song like this can still technically be considered house music, though, because the specific name of the genre it's in is called 'Balearic house'. But Balearic house is not always house music as we know it; its BPMs can get very low compared to typical house tunes, and it doesn't always employ a four-on-the-floor drumbeat, either. People in Ibiza still ecstatically danced to it, though—albeit very slowly.)

But anyway, outside of that lovely track, the brunt of this thing still appears to serve as a fun representation of Italy's own unique 1980s take on dance music writ large. Songs like Traks' pioneering 1982 Italo-disco cover of The Doobie Brothers' "Long Train Runnin" make for a prime example of the wacky style and spirit that imbues the vast majority of this release.

A whole bunch of these tunes seem to be drawn from one specific Italian label too: X-Energy Records, a powerhouse that's still going to this very day, and has released a lot of big dance records over the years, including stuff by Benny Benassi and Bob Sinclar.

And I'd also be remiss if I didn't mention the odd cover of 808 State's signature Ibiza anthem, "Pacific State," that's on here too. 808 State's version is the one that helped launch them into the stratosphere, enabling them to further enjoy a career that would see them collaborating with the likes of Björk, Bowie, and Bernard Sumner of New Order and Joy Division. But this silly and anonymous, keyboard-heavy cover of it by an act called Go-nogo is pretty great too, and 'Casa Latina' appears to have been the only compilation that's ever included it 👍.

And not everything on here slaps, either. Some of this stuff bit down way too hard on that Art of Noise-inspired idea of linearly stringing together a whole bunch of samples and sound effects, and then lamely laying those annoying concoctions over deep keyboard basslines. I'm never going to speak ill of the Art of Noise directly, whose own Trevor Horn is the guy that's credited with 'inventing the 80s,' but a whole lot of shitty copycats ended up manifesting in their wake, and there are certain points in which this release just can't help itself in choosing them 😒.

But still, this album is pretty quality for the most part. It may not be as consistently good as FFRR's Chicago-focused third volume that marked the label's own takeover of this series, but if you want a solid window into how another country took this house music and then managed to shape it in its very own uniquely fun and lighthearted image, this double-LP is fit to serve you well. Plus, there's some pre-house Italo-disco classics on it too 🕺.

Highlights:

Izit - "Stories (The Stories Mix)" Evo E - "Esta Amour" Electra - "Autumn Love (Future 3)" Albert One - "Vision" Blue Funk - "Blackwater Gold" Tracks - "Long Train Runnin" Blue Tattoo - "Love Can Do" All the Mix - "On the Mix" Sima - "You Got Me Running" In-side - "Shout in the Night" Go-nogo - "Pacific State" Jago - "I'm Going to Go" Paradise Orchestra - "Satisfy Your Dream"

[aether-friskets]

wip questionnaire tag game yay

thanks @ap0stle for tagging me in this!! :D

The WIP im gonna talk about is uh. well it doesnt really have a name i just call it "that game i want to finish eventually" or "the survival horror game idea" lol, I'm bad with names so itll prob remain that way for a while

What's the First Part of Your WIP that You Created?

I can't recall exactly when this was, but I remember I was specifically listening to this video which, judging by its age, would've been around 2 years ago now. Something about the black and red blair witch game art used as the cover (which, i... totally legally... played that game out of curiosity later on, wasnt big on it as a blair witch fan or a horror fan in general, but you will see one little element from it as one of a few inspiration points for whats kind of becoming a major mechanic in my game at this point lol) mixed with the music itself gave me this mental image of someone driving on a road through the woods with that very black and red lighting, and i had this feeling that they were looking for someone. That's technically the very vague basis that sprouted into my game idea, which has changed a lot since then, and now I don't think a scene like that will even happen. Aside from that, my first concept that's actually stuck around, is the protag looking for their sibling (usually my brain leans sister so i may go that route, but i tend to imagine characters w/out gender in mind til later lol) and sorta ending up in the wrong place at the wrong time as a result. I have some more stuff in mind of course, but a lot of stuff is still pretty vague lol

If Your Story Was a TV Show, What Would the Theme Song/Intro Be?

Oh man this is such a fun thing to think about conceptually, I feel like the WIP is almost too much of a WIP to be sure... But it'd probably have to feel very 2000s, maybe have some kind of industrial edge? Something to capture the idea of an ordinary person descending into something they couldn't possibly be prepared for i guess loll Those things aren't necessary, but the setting is mainly going to be in this as yet unnamed city during the mid-late 2000s? I haven't settled on the exact year yet so that may not be fully accurate lol. The game probably will get some kind of intro style thing, because I absolutely LOVE that in the silent hill games (and also twilight princess had something like that!! which is very nostaglic for me lol) so I think it would be awesome to do in mine lol I feel like the closest I've heard to the vibe I imagine are like. 1. Into to The Mine from Lost in Vivo 2. Broken ALSO from Lost in Vivo (i swear something abt the music in this game just has the vibes) 3. Theme Of... by Drackfreeee I guess it makes sense because it's a silent hill inspired song that you can even hear bits from the game's intros in there but. man. it's got a dreamlike quality that fits the more surreal elements i have in mind well, plus i can totally imagine it playing in an intro thing showing a bunch of scenes from the game and setting that scene of descent When i get to that point in making the game, ill probably look back at songs like these for ideas on what'll work

What Are Your Favourite Characters You Made, and Why?

Since this thing is still so much a WIP, I don't have a tonnn figured out about the characters, so it's kinda hard to pick. But I can talk a little about what I DO have figured out! As I said previously, the protag is gonna be looking for their sibling. The basic idea being that they're visiting their sibling in this new city they've never been to before, and things go all wacky sideways real fast. I feel like I'm either gonna love 'em or hate 'em because due to the unintentionally personal nature of this story that I've been embracing more as time went on, they're probably gonna be the most like me out of the cast. I'm hoping to make them an enjoyable protagonist to play as tho, not annoying but not TOO bland or anything. The sibling is probably gonna end up reflecting a lot of my sister, cause, as i said, accidentally personal story that I'm kinda just embracing at this point lol. I wanna not make any of the characters 100% like a single person I know, so I'll probably mix in traits from other people I like lmaooo. but we'll see what they're like by the end. One thing i already DO know is I really wanna circumvent the idea of the person you're trying to find/save being this "damsel in distress" type, so I think it'd be great if when you finally reunite, they're dealing with the whole situation way better than you LMAO. or at least on par. The hardest part about that tho... Is I'll probably have to make a half-decently competent partner NPC for that part of the game... I've also had this idea for a guy based on a dream I had. I think they will be playing a part but I'm not sure yet, as stuff is still very vague at this point. The idea is of someone who is "helping" you for part of the game, only to fuck you over later on because, what can I say, I love the heartbreak of getting totally screwed over by a character you trusted sometimes :3 The idea being you'd make remote contact early on and they'd promise to help lead you to your sibling but in reality either A) they've just been trying to lead you to your death subtly lmaooo or B) more likely option, theyre tricking you into helping them instead, and then will leave you for dead once you actually help them. I feel like it'd be fun to write a guy who is a total opportunist and probably a smug asshole, idk lol There will probably be other characters? but these are the only ones I have in mind so far, and as you can tell, they arent very fleshed out at all yet

What Other Pieces of Media do You Think Your Fanbase Would Share?

Jeez, the idea of garnering any kind of fanbase in and of itself is kind of cool but scary lol I figure they'd probably like a lot of the stuff that's inspiring me in the first place, like Silent Hill (duh), Cry of Fear, Jacob's Ladder, a bit o' Twin Peaks... Basically if you like some guy going through some weird fuckin' psychological shit lmaoo More specifically, i want the vibes of stuff like. standing in a subway station at a weird hour, feeling like the only person left on the planet. Opening a door into a room that shouldn't logically connect. Cryptic phone calls and texts that don't seem like a person would make them. Desperately trying to reach someone, to find the answers, but it seems like the place itself is fighting against you. Stuff like that, I guess

What Has Been Your Biggest Struggle With Your WIP?

Man, what hasn't? I don't have much experience making games so I'm learning a lot mechanically as I go, but I also have never properly finished an entire original story before. I think the main thing, is like... I'm scared whatever I create will feel too derivative of the works that inspired me, that the thing I create will ultimately fade into the shadow of other things that did it better. So every time I have a new idea, I worry about if it'll come off too much like [x thing] and that's been making the process even slower loll Aside from that, I know the character's primary goal, and I have certain locations I think would be cool to include, but I don't know SHIT about any of the details of getting from the start to the end and what will fall in-between, which does make it tricky lol. I need to really consider what kind of path I want them to follow, and what will happen after they reach their goal, stuff like that. It's all just very vague right now and trying to work out the details is almost intimidating even tho thats the main part of making a story.

Are There any Animals in Your Story? Talk About Them!

At the moment? Not that I'm aware of. There may likely be enemies with animal-like appearances, though. I could see that being a thing I do. But I haven't really gotten into monster design just yet.

How do Your Characters Travel/Get Around?

At the moment I'm suspecting primarily on foot, however my concept for the intro of the game involves the protag taking the subway. So there may be some subway shenanigans too, idk.

What Part of Your WIP Are You Working on Right Now?

I'd say the main reason the story is still so vague, is I've been trying to get the main technical/mechanical elements set up before I get too much into the details. Or maybe I'm just stalling. So, I'd say I'm mainly working on stuff surrounding the non-story parts of the game. But in terms of the story, I want to flesh out the protag and the sibling more into proper characters first and foremost, I'd say.

What Aspects (Tropes, Maybe?) do You Think Will Draw Your Audience in?

I'll be real I got no idea but... I guess if I think about it from the perspective of what I think would draw me in from an outside view...

Use of classic survival horror stuff like fixed camera angles (plus I'm going to have both tank and analog controls so more people can enjoy it :])

Putting a guy in A Situation

The general atmosphere and setting (as I sorta said, mid-late 2000s urban enviro with weird illogical stuff happening and potentially kind of dream-like elements, i hesitate to say liminal but maybe a bit liminal? I also want to go for a ps2-ish graphics quality cause i feel like its criminally underrated lol and some people may feel like me on that part and like that)

Vaguely queer protag? like i said i dont have much fleshed out but if they're gonna be based on me at all u KNOW that bitch aint gonna feel cis or straight i'm sorry it's simply fact (also admittedly I've been wanting to make them like some kinda genderqueer or somethin because its my video game and i can do what i want, and seeing human protags that are nonbinary in some way gives me life)

Weird-ass shit??? like if you vibe with weird silent hill dialogue or the weird stuff that just. happens in twin peaks, im hoping to bring a similar energy in my own way

Possibly more stuff as I flesh things out more lol

What Are Your Hopes For Your WIP?

Honestly I just hope I make something that I feel proud of. I wanna make something that makes someone feel the same way that stuff like Silent Hill, Cry of Fear, Lost in Vivo, Twilight Princess, hell, UNDERTALE did, where that shit changes you. Where you can feel the love for the genre or medium it's based upon. But at the very least, I just hope at least one person likes it, I guess That'd be enough for me

Uhhh erm I have no idea who to tag I am so bad at this part.... If you want to do this consider yourself tagged :]

[countessofravenclaw]

Has anyone missed me complaining about Oxford... well, I am back.

You all know how I feel about Nina committing identity fraud on the only child of some millionares, but we're not talking about that today.

I lore wanna talk about the reasoning behind it and why it was so misguided.

What the show gives as the explanation on why she did it was because "It was Gastón's dream and she didn't want him to throw away his future".

The problem comes in when you look at who actually said those things. It was Matteo, Delfi and Nina, never Gastón himself. He never said it was his dream.

I also just personally do not understand the concept of *Dream Schools*. I mean, how can you dream of a school you've never been in and don't really know how it is going to be like? What's really the difference between the schools outside of location. This is coming from somebody who has had pretty negative University experience in a school that probably would have been my "dream school" is I believed in the concept.

The way I perceive it and portray it in my writing is that Oxford was Gastón's parenst idea. I have talked about this before, they want him to get the best education and changes possible, because they didn't have that growing up. Plus, the thing probably that was thay Matteo's dad always talked about Oxford a lot and Matteo was always going to be sent there, so would it have been nice if the boys went together.

Gastón's pre SL probably didn't nessecarily have anything against it, in theory. Operating on "why not" basis, but he didn't pay that much mind to it, since who think college until itbis too late am I right. It was never something that was his locked down as what he wanted to do for certain.

I mean, look at S1, especially S1a. Can you imagine him going to Oxford? Probably not, but then he had some character develobment and fell in love with the right girl. And thats the "why not".

The reason why Nina thought so was because of miscommunication. First, she overheard things, then she saw the form and basically formed the narrative in her head that it was sole huge dream of his because that fed into her insecurities. When she talked about it with Gastón ans he said that he wasn't sure, she though that he was drastically changing his mind for her.

Oxford was never his definitive choice, it was one of the options.

Gastón never offers any insight on why he personally wanted to go to Oxford, outside of that Matteo was going.

Even after he and Nina were tenporaliri broken up, he wasn't sure of going. Then he suddenly was, but still kept complaining about it and did not sound excited.

The bottom line is that the whole Oxford thing makes no sense and Nina "my mom is laywer" Simonettinneeds to stop engaging in stuff she can get sued over and reconkze what is crminal offence. Ans Gastón should have told her from the begining

Reason why I am taking about this, is because if I continue my wacky S2 AU, I am gonna fix this. Nina's gonna find out the Oxford thing much more straightforward way and there will be less room for misinterpretation.

[watatsumiis]

you and your f/o(s) finally have time to relax and decides to take some extra days off this festive season! where are you going and what will you be doing? 🌴

no pressure in answering, and please take your time! <3

Ooooooh (twirling my hair (gay coded)) this is such a fun question, ill answer it under the cut since ive got a feeling im gonna ramble!! thanks so much for asking this, it was so fun to answer :D

my self ship blog is @rowavolo in case anyone is interested in more of these sorts of drabbles, they're so fun and silly <3

Well, since the festive season is always warm for me and I don't cope well with the heat, a lot of the activities would probably be shaped by that skdjjkdfs

Neuvillette and I go on a trip! Not super far out, but we stay in a place close to the beach (with air conditioning, of course,) and spend the days napping away (or doing some low effort crafts or cooking together!) and then go on walks in the morning and evening, even going to go sit on the beach late at night and hold hands under the light of the stars while we listen to the waves!! I imagine the time would be mostly unstructured and calm, with a few scheduled Events for us to work around, but a lot of it really depends on how we're both feeling that day, and we may choose to be randomly spontaneous and do something a bit wacky every now and then (including cooking soup over a bonfire on the beach. simply because we can.)

Ayato doesn't often get time off, so I feel like he'd pack it full with all the things he's been wanting to do since he last had a break like this. He'd have an annotated itinerary and will do his very best to get Ayaka and Thoma to be able to join us! He likes to be able to wander the markets at his leisure, but also going on long walks or checking out monuments and events and stuff like that! If it's possible, he's almost definitely swinging to get out of Inazuma. I think one of the things he'd love to have a chance to see is the Lantern Rite, so Liyue is the number one destination! Fancy dining, interesting stalls, storytellers, you name it, it's on Ayato's itinerary in itty bitty writing that only Thoma can even begin to decipher. Of course, there's definitely a few cheesy little dates for just us strewn throughout there too.

Zhongli has probably been planning for something like this for a while - Hu Tao is pretty lenient with giving him time off, especially around this time of year. Of course, he'd definitely have the Lantern Rite on his list as well, but it's definitely not at the tippy top of his list. Ideally, he'd organise what is essentially a several day long hike/camping trip to show me places of interest around Liyue, including interesting ruins and statues and even places with fauna or flora he thinks i'll like looking at. In the end, it's just us infodumping back and forth at each other for hours on end about whatever subjects come to mind as we walk, occasionally stopping for picnic breaks or to look at some cool animal that's passing by :3

Diavolo organises a trip up to the human realm. He certainly doesn't want to miss out on the warm summer weather and all the human world traditions i've mentioned to him! Anything summer-y that you can think of, we're probably doing it. Sailing, surfing, fishing, playing on the beach, water parks, drive in theaters, everything! He probably plans way too much to do in the short amount of time he has off, and thus has to extend the holiday (much to Barbatos' chagrin). He totally wears a big floppy hat, short shorts (that his thighs are basically bursting out of jksdfhkfd), sunglasses and those painfully bright button up shirts (stolen from me) as well as the most horrific bright red crocs (covered in charms, obviously).

[ramvur]

4, 8, 11, 26!

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

I fucking love drawing wacky perspectives, but holy fucking shit they are DIFFICULT man. Also applies to intersting lightning, i fucking hate/love painting that.

Currently w the COD obsession it's been a lot abt tacgear and weapons, they have a LOT of details and while i love tacgear i tend to simplify it a lot for the sake of my mental health and time lmao

8. What's an old project idea that you've lost interest in

I used to have this comic w my oc's called "Dark Centuries" and in highschool I used to be super invested in it and it would be my magnum opus and everything. Eventually I just let go of it tbh I just wasn't interested in it anymore.

It was definitely fun to practice worldbuilding and character design and everything, and definitely had like the whole story mapped out in my head, then it stopped making sense.

11. Do you listen to anything while drawing? If so, what

Depends on my mood.

My default lately has been the MW 2019-22 campaigns (i've watched both several times). Most times I rly enjoy documentaries, video essays, stuff like that. Sometimes I play music if I'm feeling like listening to something in specific.

But half the time I'm drawing in complete silence cuz I managed to focus on work without putting something first and I just forget to put something cuz im focused lol

26. What's a piece that got a wildly different interpretation from what you intended

None that I recall? ppl don't often tell me their interpretations from my drawings, they're usually pretty straightforward or there's nothing to interpret from it

I saw some interesting interpretations from that angsty pricegaz I posted not too long ago, but none of them were so far off from the original point, since that one was more up to interpretation of what happened n shit.

also annoying teachers in art college dont count.

[scarlettlillies]

Sorry I'm kinda late to this but 💞 and 🌿 for the writer asks? Also 💌 but only if you're comfortable with that of course ;v;

No worries! You're actually the first person to send me an ask about this! :D

From this ask meme

💞what's the most important part of a story for you? the plot, the characters, the worldbuilding, the technical stuff (grammar etc), the figurative language

That's a tough one! All of them are pretty important to me but I think I'd have to pick the plot. I often go into my stories with just a vague idea of what I want to happen so it's very common for me to write my sections out of order. I then try to find a way to tie the pieces together, either through worldbuilding, extra prose, or new plot points. Sometimes it works, other times not so much!

🌿how does creating make you feel?

I feel many different things. There's a lot of positive feelings like joy and excitement. I daydream so much about the things I want to make! But my anxiety takes over very quickly and the desire for perfectionism keeps me from finishing anything. I nitpick at every sentence and I've tossed out stories at the moment when something goes wrong. There have definitely been times when I didn't feel good enough to create the things I wanted. It's very difficult to get out of that mindset. :c

💌share something with us about an up-and-coming work (WIP) that has you excited!

I recently just started writing again! I'm starting slow so I revived a 10+ year-old story and turned it into a ficlet! I'm hoping I can post it within the next few days. It's just a simple fic about Est and Ned bonding over gardening. Whether their relationship is platonic or romantic is really up to the reader. It still needs some cleaning up so please ignore anything wonky. ;w;

No matter how many times Netherlands stopped by Estonia’s home, it was always a shock to see him covered in dirt.

Their friendship was very new. His impression of Estonia was slick, neat, and modern. When their paths would cross, he was always well-dressed in expensive suits and noticeably owned the latest devices available on the market. Estonia seemed to be stunned when Netherlands shared his observations about him over coffee. It was their first time sharing a table together during a brief morning recess at an EU meeting in Paris. Estonia admitted he had a bad habit of changing his devices regularly and was struggling to break it. Being known as an IT nation was important to him. He had convinced himself that being seen with a device that was more than a few years old would tarnish his reputation. His clothing, however, he insisted was fairly cheap. He was no different than anyone else; he shopped at one of the local malls nearby his home and bought what was within his price point. Netherlands found his words hard to believe but when he wanted to press him for more questions, they were called back to continue with the day’s agenda.

That was some time ago. Five? Maybe ten years ago? He doesn’t quite remember. Time was always a strange concept for their kind anyhow.

Over their short time together though, Netherlands has learned more things about him. He had an interesting palette for alcohol, was a natural when it came to music and technology, liked the outdoors, but most importantly he was business-orientated. He knew how to sell you on anything—whether it was a wacky dish at his favourite restaurant that you just had to try out or you needed help selling your hand-made crafts at the local marketplace—making a quick buck seemed to come naturally for him. Netherlands liked that in a man.

But when he found out that Estonia liked to garden, he was skeptical. They had been sharing drinks in a Brussels jazz bar after a long meeting and thought Estonia was just trying to make conversation. He didn’t look the type (then again neither did he), especially to those outside of his main friend group. Even when Estonia shared his knowledge on botany, he chalked it up to just being the intelligent guy that Estonia was known for.

“You should come to my place in the spring! I think you’ll like the setup that I’ve got.”

He took him up on that offer. To his surprise, Estonia was correct. He definitely liked what he saw.