#that had such beautiful high fidelity characters

[shadowglens]

some more thoughts in the tags since the gameplay trailer

[astraerystarr]

Optimus Prime x Megatron fic recs!!

HII AGAIN, I had to delete my old account @numbraerys so I'm reuploading this rec list, sorry about the mess but I'll make the rec a little prettier this time ^^

Homesick For A Memory by Eisengrave, Maelikki [M, 9k w., Bay Movies]

Even Primes can lose their faith. But sometimes, their failed Protectors make good on their word given long ago.(weird little fixit for AoE because we stan a protective Megatron and an Optimus who is finally tired of his human hamsters. Also, homecoming.)

~ugly crying, screaming on my pillow, rolling around on the floor

The Silver Lining by GeminiWishes [Teen and up, 38k w., Transformers Animated 2007]:

After Optimus was expelled from the Autobot Academy, he had no sense of what to do or where to go. Desperate for purpose, he ends up on a mining crew that travels the galaxy. But when their ship is attacked, Optimus' life will change forever.

Whether or not he'll be able to handle those changes is yet to be determined.

~I ran around my room on all fours reading this

Some Kind Of Forever by auri_mynonys (FAVE) [E, 8625 w., TFP]:

A chance meeting in a bar near the Pits brings Orion Pax and Megatronus together.

~I freaking love this fic, I'm so glad it was one of the first I ever read

Adeste Fideles by Legitconcrusher (FAVE) [Teen and up, TFP, 57,632+ w, ongoing]:

“Oh, indulge me, Optimus. How many times have you answered your desire’s calls to walk among these pitiful creatures…in the flesh?”

In which Optimus shares with his greatest foe, and former friend - Megatron, the one time a year he allows himself to feel amid the throes of their War within a Christmas market.

The angsty slow burn Christmas AU no one asked for.

~absolutely wonderful to read and incredible writing♡♡♡♡

Gaining Perspective by Dragonlingdar [Teen and up, BayVerse, 105,732 w., Ongoing]:

Megatron and Optimus are turned into humans by a prototype weapon Starscream uses against them. In order for Megatron to get his revenge and Optimus to free himself of Megatron, they must reclaim their original bodies. However, will they still be Optimus Prime and Megatron by the time they do?

~I hyperfixated on this fic for a whole month after finishing it

Contact by auri_mynonys (FAVE) [E, 98,747 w., TFP]:

Orion Pax knows there's a word for what Megatronus means to him. He just can't quite put his finger on what it is.

Which is probably how he missed the moment where he asked Megatronus to marry him.

~Slow Burn♡♡♡♡♡

Plus One by auri_mynonys [E, 64,631 w., TFP]:

Megatronus has a party to attend. A high-caste date will lend him status in the eyes of his fellow gladiators, and Orion Pax is all too happy to play the part…

~this slow burn was slowly burning, I loved every second of it

Songs Of Metal And Sparks by EbonyAura [Teen and up, 58,741 w., Rock n' Roll AU, TFP]:

Imagine the Transformers Prime universe where war is nonexistent, and instead of the Autobot and Decepticon factions, it's the Autobot and Decepticon rock bands.

Imagine that both bands are nearly world famous, yet have no idea the other exists.

Imagine that Cybertron's festival of music is approaching, and with it, the chance for a lucky upcoming band to go on a world tour.

Imagine that both bands, ecstatic for the chance to finally reach world fame, are going to the festival.

~this cured my teenage heart that didn't get to read nice cute stuff like this

Optimus Prime Is Destined To Die!! by Chuzilllaa (FAVE) [G, 169k+ w, ongoing]:

Orion Pax is your typical archivist from a functionalist free universe and lives a peaceful life, but after dying tragically in a transport incident he’s reincarnated as Optimus Prime of the hit action novel Songs of the Spark, the beautiful but aloof eldest prince of the Prime lineage…who is a pathetic side character doomed to die a tragic death at the hands of the tyrannical Duke Megatron.

Of course his darling little brother Rodimus Prime is the precious hero and puts an end to Megatron’s reign, but Orion has no intention of dying a pathetic death! No! Not again! He wants to live damnit! So begins the attempts of a pax-turned-prime turning over a new leaf in the hope of living another day. Little does he know there’s a bit more to Optimus than a pathetic side character…

~I love this fic so. damn. much.

Lunch Date by Chuzilllaa [Teen and up, 6,000+ w, Earthspark, crack]:

With a new cafe opening at G.H.O.S.T headquarters, Optimus invites Megatron to try something new.

~fluffy and funny♡♡♡

At First Sight by Lyricality (FAVE) [M, 27,000+ w.]:

Optimus is the last of the Primes; Megatron is the greatest of Kaon's gladiatorial warriors. Their shared destiny - Optimus is certain - just needs a push in the correct direction.

~help I got obsessed with this fic and I can't get out

To give (in) by 0 (only_elsewhere) (FAVE) [M, 10,000+ w, Earthspark]:

After the war, Optimus confesses.

~aaashhksdkkklkosljdhjh

Victory Condition by astolat [E, 37,000+ w, TF Gen1]

“Do you want me to tell you a story?” Megatron said mockingly. “You won’t like it, Prime. It’s not a very nice one.”

~cave in fic with poetry and the heart wrenching story of Megatron's origins - my beloved

Cooking Off by zuzeca [E, 2000 w., IDW G1]:

Megatron and Optimus find themselves in an awkward position and learn some extremely personal information about each other.

~ Good reading ;3

[crepesuzette2023]

Before Secret Santa '24 makes us all happy with new fiction and art: A far-from-complete list of Beatles (mostly mclennon) Christmas fics

...roughly in chronological order, from earliest days to modern AU's

• And to you a happy chrimbo (@fingersfallingupwards). John and Paul’s first Christmas together…short and sweet and very them.

• Silent Night (Hidden Track) (@savageandwise)…strangeness after their first kiss, solved by presents and a near drainpipe collision.

• Boxing Day 1958 (@beatlessideblog). I Need You Darlin’ extra (omegaverse). Paul and John’s first Christmas together after they bonded, and they try it “the other way around.”

• Christmas lights (keep shinin’ on) (distinguishd_like). John spends Christmas 1958 with the McCartney family—and they end up confessing their love in a way only they could.

• Hot Cocoa (@toovirgins). Mistletoe romance in the McCartneys' kitchen. Sorry about your favorite cup, Jim.

• Mike Storms the Bastille (@m1ssunderstanding). John and Paul escape to Paris and stay there; Mike and George visit them for Christmas in the winter of 1961. Yes, Lennon/McCartney, but:  Mike & George works *so* well.

• There snowbound together (@backbenttulips): 1961. Paul visits John and at Mendips, and they keep each other warm by the fireside. A soul-nourishing story, and they’re 150% in character.

• Mistletoe (thinkpink20): A classic for a reason. Paul watches John kiss Cynthia, and gets an idea. The two of them against a wall‚ what more does this world need, really?

 • The Spirit’s Up (@swinginglondon42): It starts in Hamburg: Ringo plays Father Christmas for Paul…a tradition is born. TW: drum stick defilement.

• The Present (@ohjohnnysblog). Hamburg. The first Christmas without Stu. Paul comforts John. The late-night banter in bed is so lovely, and the ending is hot…!

• I’ll Be Home for Christmas (@savageandwise). 1963 Christmas Show. Paul and John miss each other, and finally admit to it.

• So, I’m offering this simple phrase (frogchorus). John and Paul escape from fame and being Beatles on a walk through the snow.

• Let your heart be light (@backbenttulips). John spends Christmas 1967 at Paul’s place, and all is right with the world.

• Blue Christmas (@theoldmixer). Brian lives AU! 1968. It’s Christmas, and there is tension between John and Paul. Still. Again. Their manager intervenes.

Post-1980 (John lives AU)

• Leads Me to Your Door (@bluewater9). 1989. Paul had a difficult year, but John finds him at Christmas. Sad in places, but so beautiful and comforting in the end! All-time favorite. <3

• Just Like the Ones We Used to Know (@econhomework). Paul and John are married with children…but this is just them, early in the morning. In bed. With lovely memories of their young love tied-in.

• This Year’s for Me and You (@skylikeaflame). 1998. Paul and John both loved others, but now their life-long love finally has its turn—with their children’s blessing. Beautiful poetic masterpiece.  

Modern AU

• Talk santa to me (@backbenttulips). John volunteers as Santa at Macy’s. His ex, Paul, appears unexpectedly, and seats his pert bottom on his lap.

• Can You Still Love Me Tomorrow (ImagineBeatles). John is secretly in love with his best friend, Paul, and yet he agrees to be his pretend boyfriend for Christmas. Together they face Paul’s dad’s “piercing looks of disapproval.”

• I wish I had met you when your heart was safe to hold (goingmywaydoll). High Fidelity AU: record shop owner John asks his exes what went wrong between him and the one who got away—Paul.

[felassan]

EA Blog Post on hair tech in DA:TV, under a cut due to length.

"Innovating Strand by Strand for Lifelike Hair in Dragon Age: The Veilguard Strand Hair technology adds visual fidelity and realism to characters, and it redefines what’s possible in Dragon Age: The Veilguard --- In the fantasy world of Thedas, where heroes rise and legends are forged, every detail breathes life into an epic saga. Dragon Age: The Veilguard introduces players to a crafted and beautiful world where even the finest elements like strands of hair tell a tale of their own. Each strand of hair weaves seamlessly into the fabric of the game, enriching your character’s journey through treacherous labyrinths and beyond. Together, the Frostbite and BioWare teams embarked on a quest to elevate Strand Hair technology, focusing on the following elements: - 50,000 individual strands per character for over 100 hairstyles – EA’s Strand Hair technology brings natural motion to your hero’s hairdo in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. - Adaptable to various character movements and environments – Frostbite and BioWare pushed the limits of hair rendering, achieving realistic material response and shadows. This collaboration introduced detailed, physics-driven hairstyles tailored to the unique world of Dragon Age. - Industry-leading realism – Dragon Age: The Veilguard sets a new standard for lifelike character hair at 60 FPS on PlayStation®5, Xbox Series X, and PC with compatible hardware, showcasing EA’s leadership in innovation and BioWare’s craftsmanship in enhancing immersive storytelling. This is how Frostbite and BioWare brought Strand Hair technology to the next level, letting you be the hero you want to be as Rook in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Weaving Magic Into Reality Harnessing the power of the Frostbite engine, Strand Hair technology transforms your character's locks into a living tapestry of thousands of individual strands. Strand Hair technology combines physics with real-time rendering to simulate believable modeling of human hair."

"Incorporating realistic hair within games is quite challenging, which is why Frostbite has already spent years advancing hair rendering technology. Strand Hair was featured in previous EA SPORTS FC™, Madden NFL, and NHL titles, but the technology is always being upgraded for new releases. While Strand Hair is present in other EA games, the BioWare team had to push the limits even further for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. For example, implementing Strand Hair technology for characters who have waist-length hair with horns on their head presented some unique challenges. With hair attachments that move seamlessly, and the decoupling of simulation and render tessellation, this is the first EA game to offer such detailed physics-driven long hairstyles. The Frostbite team increased maximum hair length from 63 points to 255, and implemented a new system for complex hair structures like braids. Frostbite and BioWare also collaborated to achieve accurate hair material response and shadows across diverse lighting environments. Strand Hair technology in Dragon Age: The Veilguard features a new hair lighting model with improved light transmittance and visibility calculations. Dragon Age characters can have various builds and physical traits, each with unique hairstyles that adapt seamlessly to different garments and dynamic movements. Whether jumping at high speed in combat, slowing time, or going prone, the hair responds fluidly while maintaining realism across all scenarios. A Heroic Collaboration With Trials and Triumphs The evolution of Strand Hair technology has been a collaborative journey, beginning with Frostbite’s partnership with the EA SPORTS FC™ team that pushed the tech to a shippable state. Frostbite continues to refine and enhance this innovation, bringing its magic to titles like Battlefield 2042, UFC 5, College Football 25, and now, Dragon Age: The Veilguard.  The Frostbite and BioWare teams worked closely together to get Strand Hair tech within Dragon Age: The Veilguard. The engineering team played a huge role in making sure hair looked good in new scenarios, like being surrounded by magical particles, underwater, or interacting with waterfalls. Their tireless work made these complex interactions both performant and robust. “The collaboration between Frostbite and the BioWare engineering team was key to supporting complex hairstyles. Advancing the technology for intricate styles and optimizing performance ensured that specific moments, like when hair covers a large percentage of the screen in certain cinematics, run smoothly.” – Maciej Kurowski, Studio Technical Director, BioWare Together, they tackled challenging lighting conditions and pushed the limits of strand length and tessellation, achieving hair designs far more complex than any previous EA title."

"Complex Hair Rendering and Enchanting Visual Magic A major difference between Dragon Age: The Veilguard and existing Frostbite titles that have shipped with Strand Hair is the sheer variety and quantity of visual effects and transparent objects. From magical spells to smoke, fire, and fog, the technology needed to blend seamlessly into the environment and magic of Thedas. Strand Hair is not rendered like traditional objects are within Frostbite. The technology utilizes a bespoke compute software rasterizer and is composited into the frame and blended with other opaque and transparent objects when resolved. Due to the complexity and uniqueness of the software rasterizer, the hair supported limited options for blending with the game world and characters. It was specifically designed to favor blending with depth of field, which is an important broadcast camera technique used in sports games. This did not blend well with transparent objects, which while few in sports titles, are extremely common in Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Thus, the BioWare team needed to develop a new technique for blending hair with transparent visual effects and environment effects like volumetric fog and other participating media. This technique involves splitting the hair into two distinct passes, first opaque, and then transparent. To split the hair up, we added an alpha cutoff to the render pass that composites the hair with the world and first renders the hair that is above the cutoff (>=1, opaque), and subsequently the hair that is lower than the cutoff (transparent). Before these split passes are rendered, we render the depth of the transparent part of the hair. Mostly this is just the ends of the hair strands. This texture will be used as a spatial barrier between transparent pixels that are “under” and “on top” of the strand hair."

"Transparent depth texture, note the edge of the hair."

"Once we have that texture, we first render the opaque part of strand hair, and then we render transparent objects. The shaders for the transparent objects use the transparent hair depth texture to determine whether the shading pixel is “under” or “on top” of the strand hair. If it’s below, it renders the hair and marks a stencil bit (think of it as a masking texture). If the pixel is “on top” or equal to the hair, it simply discards that pixel and renders nothing. After we’ve drawn the transparent objects once, we then draw the transparent hair since we are sure that there are no transparent objects ‘under’ the hair that have not been rendered yet. Finally we draw the transparent objects again, this time checking that stencil mask to see where we did not draw the transparent objects before, thus layering the pixels of transparent objects that are on top of the hair properly. This results in perfect pixel blending with transparent objects. – James Power, Senior Rendering Engineer, BioWare"

"Left, without “Layered” transparency. Right, with “Layered” transparency."

"Another challenge the BioWare team faced was handling the wide range of cinematic lighting rigs used for cutscenes, which must be rendered in real time in order to support customizable characters and followers. Because pre-rendering cutscenes was not possible, performance in cinematics was still paramount to the technical vision for the product. The team also wanted to maintain the same consistent frame rate across gameplay and cinematics to avoid jarring transitions if the cinematics were to be locked to 30 FPS.  With that in mind when lighting scenes, there needed to be support for a wide range of lights that would be less computationally expensive to render, but would have extreme consequences on the quality of hair self-shadowing. This is a major contributor to the overall quality of the hair. Any given Strand Hair object, which has tens of thousands of individual thin hair strands, requires high quality shadow maps in order to have good coverage of the hair strands in the resulting shadowmap texture. Wide angle lights, distant lights, and non-shadowcasting lights do not provide adequate coverage (or no coverage at all, in the case of the non-shadowcasting lights). When the lighting routines are run, the hair would occupy a low amount of pixels in the shadowmap.  When attempting to calculate light transmission inside the volume of hair, the fidelity would be poor, resulting in flat shading lacking detail near the edges of the hair where a fine gradient of light transmission is expected. To solve this, hero shadows are rendered for every Strand Hair object and every light that lighting artists designated as important to the shot. These hero shadows are generated at run time, using a tightly fitting light frustum that is adjusted to each hair’s bounding box, ensuring there are high fidelity shadowmaps.  When applying shadows to the hair, we test to see if a shading point is in the hero shadow or the regular shadow (since the hair will not be in both) and composite the final results."

"Left, Bellara rendered without Hero Shadows. Right, with Hero Shadows. Note the differences in fidelity of transmission on the left side of the character head."

"Harnessing Efficiency With Performance and Memory Throughout development, Dragon Age: The Veilguard aimed for high performance and strict memory requirements across all platforms to ensure players have a smooth and scalable experience.  Strand Hair is a memory and GPU dependent rendering system. Optimizations needed to be made in order to conform to the limited amount of system resources available for the following considerations: - Strand Hair assets, especially those with high strand counts and tessellation settings (which are necessary for the complex hair BioWare authored for both followers and Rook alike), have a high memory footprint. - The system is designed to allow for a large number of Strand Hair assets, but this comes at the cost of additional memory allocations to support the number of characters on field in other titles like EA SPORTS FC™. - For Dragon Age: The Veilguard, the team had a lot of control over which characters are on screen, and how many hair assets are supported. BioWare developed a system to control how large these allocations are to tightly fit the number of hair assets for the best possible memory utilization. On average, there is a flat GPU cost of around 128MB of GPU memory for the full field of followers (eight hair assets). Outside of this fixed memory cost, the system can dynamically adjust the size of system memory, GPU memory, and group shared memory in compute shaders using custom permutations with set thresholds.  This provides the ability to scale additional memory costs from 300MB to 600MB depending on quality settings and resolution. Both Xbox Series X and PlayStation®5 sit at around 400MB depending on the number of characters and the assets loaded, as they each have their own memory costs.  These costs are dynamically adjusted due to hair needing less memory to occupy less pixels. Lower resolutions (or lower dynamic hair resolution on lower quality settings) can get away with smaller buffer allocations for many of these per-frame costs without sacrificing any image quality.  This work was especially important for PC due to the wide array of available graphics memory on GPUs available to consumers. This amount of memory being allocated per frame can push the GPU into demoting or paging memory, which can result in significant performance loss and hitches. For lower quality settings on PC, as well as Xbox Series S, swapping out Strand Hair assets for Card Hair assets is supported. These assets have significantly lower memory footprints and allowed the team to push for higher fidelity on systems that can handle the load without sacrificing performance on lower end systems. To achieve the performance requirements of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, BioWare implemented a number of scalable performance features that are applied across various quality settings on PC and performance modes on consoles. Strand Hair is normally rendered at render resolution and is unaffected by upsampling technology such as NVIDIA DLSS, AMD FSR, or Intel XeSS. Therefore it does not scale as well with other render features when those settings are applied.  To ensure great performance across all configurations, BioWare implemented technology that scales the hair render resolution for a set of minimum and maximum targets based on said render resolution.  Hair rasterization performance scales fairly aggressively with resolution and screen coverage. As hair covers more of the screen, a larger primitive count is required to render the strands at adequate detail. This requires both more memory and GPU resources."

To ensure we meet our frame time requirements, we set a maximum frametime budget for strand hair rendering for consoles at 6.5ms for 30 FPS (33.3ms frame time) and 3ms for 60 FPS (16.6ms frame time) with eight strand hair assets on screen.  Our hair resolution control will adjust the resolution within a minimum and maximum resolution based on our upsampler and DRS settings and keep the hair costs proportional to those targets. This is important since hair does not go through upsampling, as mentioned earlier, and will not have its load reduced by those technologies. Running hair simulation costs are also done on the GPU in compute, and change dramatically depending on the asset, but tend to hover around 2ms with some spikes to nearly 5ms depending on complexity of the hair and whether we are loading/teleporting new assets. This cost does not scale with resolution.  We have a variety of systems for cinematics and gameplay that will disable simulation for hair assets off screen or far away and do not contribute to shadows that are on screen. Controlling simulation costs is largely done by cinematic designers ensuring their scenes do not go over budget. – James Power, Senior Rendering Engineer, BioWare As mentioned earlier, BioWare’s Hero Shadows provide the hair with high fidelity shadow maps, but come at a heavy cost to GPU performance.  Support for scalable hair decimation was added to combat this, allowing for the reduction of strand count when rendering shadows, thus reducing the cost of hero shadows. This enables lighters to use more of them, and support them for both 30 FPS and 60 FPS targets."

"Head and Shoulders Above the Rest Examples above describe only some of the improvements the BioWare and Frostbite teams worked on to redefine state of the art, real-time hair simulation and rendering technology for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. This groundbreaking accomplishment underscores EA's innovative spirit and highlights BioWare's exceptional craftsmanship. Whether you're uniting the Veilguard or facing the gods, the lifelike detail of your character's hair allows you to make this heroic story truly your own. As you journey through Thedas uniting companions and forging your legacy, remember that every detail down to the last strand of hair has been crafted to enhance your adventure. Join the ranks of innovators shaping the future of gaming realms. At EA, we forge alliances and craft powerful tools like Strand Hair. Explore open roles and embark on your adventure!"

[source]

[whitestopper]

Bisexual media

Note: This should not be taken as a declaration of quality or my personal likings - I haven’t consumed all the media below. Not all of the shows focus on a bi protagonist but all do have at least one bi main character; a summary of main initial plot is provided. I will edit this post with updates intermittently.

TV Series

The Bisexual (2018) - Leila explores her attraction to men after identifying as a lesbian alongside her girlfriend and friends for the past decade, while her new roommate tries to get a grip on his relationship with a younger woman.

Black Mirror’s San Junipero - Yorkie meets Kelly in the strange setting of San Junipero. What’s the deal with this place, and what can make them stay?

Bob and Rose - Bob is gay. Rose has a boyfriend. Can I make it any more obvious? (I can - they find that they’re attracted to each other and deal with the implications and expectations of that.)

Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - Rebecca pursues her ex-boyfriend in the hopes of finding happiness. With a drastic move to West Covina, will she learn what happy feels like?

Cucumber - Henry’s life is upturned in one evening, then another, and then some more, while boyfriend Lance and new acquaintance Freddie come to terms with the present and the past.

Everything Now - Newly out of recovery from anorexia, Y11 student Mia is determined to complete her bucket list and be seen as normal.

Feel Good - Mae and Charlotte navigate a relationship challenged by Mae's drug addiction and Charlotte's new sexual discovery.

High Fidelity - Young record store owner Rob revisits her past relationships in order to sort out her singledom.

Kieta Hatsukoi - Aoki lies about having feelings for classmate Ida to protect the feelings of his crush Hashimoto. But misunderstandings and revelations cause a hullabaloo.

Torchwood - this Doctor Who spin-off features a collection of characters solving alien crimes.

Movies

Appropriate Behaviour - Brooklyn dweller Shirin deals with her ex-girlfriend, family expectations, job struggles and more.

The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant - in one of the few films with an all-female cast, the titular fashion designer navigates her relationships with her family, her live-in servant, and her cousin's attractive acquaintance.

City of Lost Souls - a German musical exploring the experiences of LGBT people, black people, Jewish people and immigrants in post-WW2 Berlin.

Disobedience - Ronit returns to her old Orthodox Jewish community after her father passes away, having been shunned for not adhering to cultural expectations.

Je, Tu, Il, Elle - A woman struggles in dealing with her break-up.

Shiva Baby - While at a Jewish funeral service with her family and community, college student Danielle navigates an awkward situation with her sugar daddy and her ex-girlfriend.

Books

@the-bi-library has an extensive collection of books, with specific collections based on genre, romantic endgame, intersecting identities (ie. protagonists of colour or disabled protagonists), etc.

The Literary Bisexual offers a smaller but thoroughly-reviewed collection of books from around the world.

I also recommend winners/noted entries for the Lambda Literary Award's Bisexual categories - there are other categories not specific to identity for which bisexual books can be nominated.

Fiction

You Could Be So Pretty (Holly Bourne) - In a world not too unlike our own, where girls and women can be Pretties or Objectionables, what will schoolgirls Belle and Joni make of their lives under the Doctrine after an incident brings them together?

Your Driver Is Waiting (Priya Guns) - Damani, a RideShare driver, falls hard for a white upper-class girl, but she's been grieving her father, caring for her mother and dealing with the ever-growing tension from protesters across the city. When Jolene acts with massive consequences, what will Damani be pushed to do for herself and her community?

Natural Beauty (Ling Ling Huang) - Our protagonist, a former piano prodigy, has had to abandon her potential in order to provide for her parents following a car crash. A job at a famous salon seems to fall into her lap as the solution, but there's always a price to pay for beauty.

Non-fiction

In The Dream House (Carmen Maria Machado) - Machado goes through her volatile relationship with The Woman From The Dreamhouse, intercut with musings on pop culture and history.

Strong Female Character (Fern Brady) - famous in British comedy circles, this autobiography follows Brady's life growing up in Scotland as an autistic woman.

You're Embarrassing Yourself (Desiree Akhavan) - from the Creator of The Bisexual and Appropriate Behaviour, this autobiography covers Akhavan's life as a bisexual Iranian in America.

Bisexuality research/history/essays

Bi Any Other Name: Bisexual People Speak Out

Bi: Notes for a Bisexual Revolution

Bi: The Hidden Culture, History and Science of Bisexuality

The Bi-ble Volumes 1 and 2

Claiming the B in LGBT - Illuminating the Bisexual Narrative

Go the Way Your Blood Beats - On Truth, Bisexuality and Desire

A History of Bisexuality

Purple Prose - Bisexuality in Britain

Music (This is for songs which are outright bisexual, not just songs inspired by bi experiences or by bi artists. Also, no Sweater Weather.)

Alicia Champion - Bi

Amber Fornoles - A Very Bisexual Song

Ana Carolina - Homens e Mulheres

Ani DiFranco- In or Out

Anne Marie - Perfect to Me

Bali Bandits - Girls & Boys

Book Of Love - Pretty Boys and Pretty Girls

Cariño - Bisexual

Chappell Roan - After Midnight

Christina Aguilera - Not Myself Tonight

Delli Boe - Bisexual Problems, Bisexual Problems 2

Demi Lovato - The Kind Of Lover I Am

dodie - In The Middle

Domo Wilson - Becoming Myself, Bi Pride, Bisexual Anthem

Halsey - Alanis' Interlude, Bad At Love

HOUSE OF SAY - Boys Girls

Janet Jackson - Tonight's The Night

Jão - Meninos e Meninas

Jesse - Girls & Boys

Jessie Paege, Lucy & La Mer - Not a Phase

King Kitty - Bisexual

Mad Tsai - Boy Bi

Megan Thee Stallion - Captain Hook

MIKA - Billy Brown, Blame It On The Girls

Miley Cyrus - Midnight Sky, She's Not Him

Missy Higgins - Scar

Mitski - Cop Car

Peaches - I U She

Peter Allen - Bi-Coastal

Poppy - Girls In Bikinis

Torrey Mercer - Boys / Girls

The Veronicas - Take Me On The Floor

will.i.am, Pia Mia - Boys & Girls

Ysa Ferrer - To bi or not to bi

[cinemaocd]

Jenny's ongoing list of films watched 2024

January

RRR (2023)*

Peter's Friends (1992)*

The Lady Eve (1941)

How to Get a Head in Advertising (1988)*

High Fidelity (2000)

Frieda (1947)*

Oh...Rosalinda! (1955)

The Quick and the Dead (1995)*

The Barefoot Contessa (1954)*

The Life and Death of Col. Blimp (1943) Commentary Track (2012)*

Rhubarb (1951)*

The Birds (1963)*

House of Yes (1997)*

Cassandra Cat (1963)*

Foreign Correspondent (1940)

The Long Goodbye (1973)

Night of the Comet (1984)

The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961)*

For Me and My Gal (1942)*

The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

The Small, Back Room (1949)

House of Games (1987)

Water (1985)*

The Ballad of John and Yoko (2023)*

The Meaning of Life (1983)

Track 29 (1988)*

*New to me

Thoughts on the New to Me films:

New Year's Eve we watched RRR, a lot of fun, energetic, bright and action-packed. I enjoyed the way that little attention was given to the British characters. They were straight up villains in ill fitting ahistorical costumes, kind of like the way Indian/Asian characters are treated in Western films most of the time...$$$

New Year's Day we watched Peter's Friends, a drama/comedy from the early 90s starring all of the famous Cambridge Footlights. Big Chill-ish film set in a country house over the Christmas holidays. $$$

How to Get a Head in Advertising was weird and also really good. Had a similar vibe to Withnail and I (possibly because of Richard E. Grant, but also possibly the mixture of the surreal with the realistic). Quite stage-y in some ways but clever and savage in it's satire of life in the 80s. $$$

Frieda: Oh I loved this! Weird World War II melodrama about a German girl marrying a British boy and all the trouble it causes with his complex family situation. Such a stellar cast including the late, great Glynnis Johns. $$$$

The Quick and the Dead: I set my expectations quite low for this and was pleasantly surprised. I liked Sam Raimi's comic book-y take on gunfighters and esp. loved Sharon Stone's character. We love to see a female action hero with no love interest. A nice twist on the Man with no Name trope. Excellent cast as well with Russell Crowe, Gene Hackman, Roy Scheider and Woody Stroud in his final film. $$$

The Barefoot Contessa: Joseph Mankewitcz is one of the geniuses of old Hollywood but this ain't it, chief. Just kind of all of the place melodrama that makes no sense and relies too much on Ava Gardner looking amazing in technicolor in the South of France. A bit of a commentary on Grace Kelly who a few years earlier married minor royalty on the Riviera. Even Rossano Brazzi can't save this mess for me. $

Rhubarb: Two genres I usually kind of hate (family-friendly animal centered film, sports film) combined into one and it's actually a lot of fun. Ray Milland and a bunch of classic character actors as the baseball team (also Leonard Nemoy has a tiny part as a mobster) in this slight/ predictable romp. $$

The Birds: Woah, shit this was good. I should have known. Amazing tension created and Hitchcock just sells the surreal horror with lots of rear projection...so. much. rear. projection. $$$

House of Yes: How about House of NOPE. Ugh what a mess this was. Some good performances and intriguing story, but it was very stagey and I don't know why the 90s couldn't make a story about adult children and their parents without reducing everyone to cliches and stereotypes but this and Six Degrees of Separation are definitely guilty of that, but the latter is just a better film. $

Cassandra Cat: Takes a long time to get to the cat which given that this was a family film from the 60s might be a problem for some viewers, expecting a more cat-centric movie. Interesting riff on fairy tales from the Czech New Wave. Beautiful Demy-esque technicolor and settings make this 60s nonsense fly by. $$

The Day the Earth Caught Fire: 60s nuclear panic disaster film that really just shows the earth as it is now in the throws of global warming. Yikes. Thoughtfully written and well acted by a bunch of folks I'd never heard of. $$

For Me and My Gal: Directed by Busby Berkley and starring Gene Kelly and Judy Garland and set in the 1920s on the Vaudeville circuit, I was expecting a lot more fun, dancing, color, costumes etc. This is actually more of a black and white war time melodrama with some music shoved into it and the dancing is very rudimentary. (I think this is probably because Garland esp. at this stage wasn't in the same league with Gene Kelly and I think it would have been too noticable...). Filmed at the entry of America into WW2 this was quite a deliberate propaganda piece. $$

TLADOCB Commentary: I've watched this movie 20 times at least but the commentary really made me think about a bunch of things differently. Can't say I recommend unless you are fanatic though as it's obviously pieced together from interviews Michael Powell and Martin Scorcese $$

Water (1985): If you smoke the exact right strain of sativa and ignore some of the more dated aspects of this 80s comedy, that reads as if Local Hero were a Cheech and Chong film--this is a total classic. Irreverent Michael Caine just straight up breaking character the minute he turns into a guerilla fighter in the jungle and being far too competent and cool, and then snapping back to sweetly shy, inept British Civil Servant, finding he actually loves his hated backwater post (the invent Casara part Caribbean, part Devon Jurassic Coast) while having to actually do his job. Political satire and fully both barrels to Maggie Thatcher and Reagan. Good on em. Filmed in St. Lucia, the movie has a zany heart and little taste, hoovering up vast quantities of competent TV players from my youth: Herman Munster and Reginald Perrin to name but two. Awkward love story and some uneven acting from Valerie Perrin and Brenda Vaccaro. I enjoyed myself, heartily, anyway. $$$

The Ballad of John and Yoko: Technically a video essay with amazing production values (the licensing alone was epic) dragging together disparate topics around the central theme of women being blamed for bad things happening to infantalized male geniuses. Is it the most coherent argument? No. Does it absolutely tap into many unexpressed or implied ideas that have been floating around since me too? Absolutely. $$

Track 29: This was some of the worst casting I've ever seen in a film. When I think of Texas nurse who is into trains and spanking, I don't automatically think of comedian Sandra Bernhardt. When I think of an actress of that era who was old enough to play Gary Oldman's mother, I don't think of Theresa Russell who is the same age as Oldman and looked every bit as young as he did in the film. Maybe that was the point? I'm not sure. The story was weird, like a Southern Gothic melodrama/black comedy ala Flannery O'Connor, but there was something off about the whole thing.

[valentinaonthemoon]

I've finally found the time to watch all the trailers from GMMTV 2024 part 2, so here you go, like last year:

A New Liveblog Reaction:

The Heart Killers: okay so we're starting very strong with a crime drama romance where First investigates Khaotung and Joong, who are brothers (?) and kill people. Then I got distracted because the song they used is the same they covered in MSP and I have still brainrot from that one. Also their names are Style, Fidel, Bison and Kant??? I cannot take anyone named Kant seriously, the guy almost made me fail philosophy in high school, I have personal beef with him. NEXT!

Revamp the Undead Story: ah yes, a classic horror drama. We have abandoned houses and pale vampires; people who cut their fingers on shattered glass; we have it all! I love how there is another vampire show to look forward to at this point. I was already waiting for Golden Blood with Gawin, but I guess I'll add this one to the list as well.

Perfect10 Liners: I genuinely have no idea about this. I feel like I've seen this story before. The only couple's story I find more interesting than the others is Mark Junior: they've had lovely storylines so far as a duo and I'm curious about their future projects too.

Ossan's Love Thailand: I am crying watching Earth making puppy noises!!! This definitely looks like a total change from his previous roles, where he was old, grumpy and mean, lmao. I guess everyone in the office seems to have a crush on him in this one, (which makes me think about Cherry Magic and how much of a green flag Achi and Karan were) (but the standards are too high on that one) and it's HILARIOUS hearing him complain to be too hot. I have never seen EarthMix in a comedy role so I am looking forward to this one: it seems ridiculous, can't wait.

The Ex-Morning: Aw, I'm glad KristSingto are back with something that isn't SOTUS, because I still haven't finished the second season of that one, but I liked them working together. This series looks like a riot and I will be seated. (Although they've shown one or two frames full of angst that I will most probably cry about so) (yikes) (they've decided Krist nails angst and put his characters in the most horrible situations, like) (give the guy a break)

Thame - Po: Heart That Skips A Beat: this story seems quite interesting, especially the life of idols and production companies. I might keep an eye out for that too.

The Dark Dice: this started as a school drama full of fights and blood, but suddenly turned into Jumanji/Saw and I am. Here. For. It.

Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist: I genuinely do not care about this, but every time I think about dentistry, James Acaster's voice comes up in my head and says: "Do the tooth teeth have teeth too?" and I think that's beautiful.

Break Up Service: this looks fun, not going to lie.

Hide & Sis: the title sounds so silly, but the show seems pretty fun to follow. Can't wait for it to be some Saltburn / Home School / Little Women (Korea) type of thing. I want the ladies to destroy stuff and kill people, I don't care.

Us: why does this look so angstyyyy??? where are my funny silly GLs???? where are my disaster wlws??? anyway, we'll watch, obviously

Friendshit Forever: another absolutely out of nowhere title, lmao. But this is Do Revenge with a sprinkle of A Simple Favor??? I will unfortunately eat this up when it'll come out. Also I love Mook and New, so this'll be fun.

Scarlet Heart Thailand: very fast, and I don't know the original story, so I have no idea what to expect. I love period dramas and the costumes look nice. I've read that the original doesn't end well, but yeah, the teaser is in itself very angsty, we'll see I guess!

Leap Day: this thriller looks quite interesting, but I don't know if I'll be able to watch it without being stressed for the entire run of it.

Yay! Let me know if there's more new trailers I haven't seen, I have been offline for a couple of days and I might have skipped something else.

[haggishlyhagging]

The morals of women are crushed. If there be any human power and business and privilege which is absolutely universal, it is the discovery and adoption of the principle and laws of duty. As every individual, whether man or woman, has a reason and a conscience, this is a work which each is thereby authorised to do for him or herself. But it is not only virtually prohibited to beings who, like the American women, have scarcely any objects in life proposed to them; but the whole apparatus of opinion is brought to bear offensively upon individuals among women who exercise freedom of mind in deciding upon what duty is, and the methods by which it is to be pursued. There is nothing extraordinary to the disinterested observer in women being so grieved at the case of slaves, slave wives and mothers, as well as spirit-broken men, as to wish to do what they could for their relief: there is nothing but what is natural in their being ashamed of the cowardice of such white slaves of the north as are deterred by intimidation from using their rights of speech and of the press, in behalf of the suffering race, and in their resolving not to do likewise: there is nothing but what is justifiable in their using their moral freedom, each for herself, in neglect of the threats of punishment: yet there were no bounds to the efforts made to crush the actions of women who thus used their human powers in the abolition question, and the convictions of those who looked on, and who might possibly be warmed into free action by the beauty of what they saw. It will be remembered that they were women who asserted the right of meeting and of discussion, on the day when Garrison was mobbed in Boston. Bills were posted about the city on this occasion, denouncing these women as casting off the refinement and delicacy of their sex: the newspapers, which laud the exertions of ladies in all other charities for the prosecution of which they are wont to meet and speak, teemed with the most disgusting reproaches and insinuations: and the pamphlets which related to the question all presumed to censure the act of duty which the women had performed in deciding upon their duty for themselves. One lady, of high talents and character, whose books were very popular before she did a deed greater than that of writing any book, in acting upon an unusual conviction of duty, and becoming an abolitionist, has been almost excommunicated since. A family of ladies, whose talents and conscientiousness had placed them high in the estimation of society as teachers, have lost all their pupils since they declared their anti-slavery opinions. The reproach in all the many similar cases that I know is, not that the ladies hold anti-slavery opinions, but that they act upon them. The incessant outcry about the retiring modesty of the sex proves the opinion of the censors to be, that fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered. No doubt, there were people in Rome who were scandalised at the unseemly boldness of christian women who stood in the amphitheatre to be torn in pieces for their religion. No doubt there were many gentlemen in the British army who thought it unsuitable to the retiring delicacy of the sex that the wives and daughters of the revolutionary heroes should be revolutionary heroines. But the event has marvelous efficacy in modifying the ultimate sentence. The bold christian women, the brave American wives and daughters of half a century ago are honoured, while the intrepid moralists of the present day, worthy of their grandmothers, are made the confessors and martyrs of their age.

-Harriet Martineau, ‘Society in America’, qtd. in Alice S. Rossi, The Feminist Papers: From Adams to de Beauvoir

[energetically-exhausted]

okay, so, i had to scrap a complete rant because it was just me screaming, and it gave me a headache, so, take two.

In Case I Make It is probably the most beautiful album i've ever heard in my life. i can't name one song in it that i haven't cracked a smile (at my vows, and whispered, 'wow. can you believe we really made it?') at. even the hated three: Big Fat Bitchie's is iconic and stimmy, You Liked This is a masterpiece (SUBWAY - eat fresh.), Vampire Reference in A Minor SLAPS, I DON'T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS. i have cried several times, and i have no clue how many times i have put its songs on loop for hours. it's definitely a Will Wood album, and i will cherish it for as long as i live. Euthanasia will be my comfort song for every grievance in my life. Tomcat Disposables will always make me sad. The Main Character will always have me screaming its lyrics. Um, It's Kind of A Lot will always get stuck in my head. the list goes on. very special album to me.

so William, grow up. be a man. 'cause until then, they're gonna treat you like you're just a little girl.

dandelions grow in dirt. magic mushrooms grow in piles of bull-shit.

if you need MEEEEEEE, I'LL be in my COFFIN.

i'm DOWN POUNDING MY HEAD against the KITCHEN FLOOR, apologizing for my life and ever entering yours.

imagine me just like my parents... YEAHHHHH RIIIIGHT.

i've never understood what humans do and want. it's quite confusing to me to try to connect. never learned how i should feel. instincts somehow stunted. just seem haunted by my stupid urge to protect.

check 1, 2. check, check 1, 2. it's high fidelity lost in its quality it's MP1, 2, 3, 4, 5 FLAC. it's polyphonic, the NEW PHILHARMONIC, with a Juilliard Doctorate. LIVE FROM THE METROPOLITAN. it's theoretically dense, it's impressive. it's microtonal and it challenges Western notions of art, it's POST-AVANT-GARDE. it's goin' places, 'cause it COMES FROM THE HEART, AND ITS PERSONALITY'S A LACK OF IDENTITY. IT MAKES NO STATEMENT, BUT DOES SO QUITE LOUDLY. it's an aesthetic. i mean AN ANESTHETIC. and it's an experience for your seventh sense, yes. does it cure cancer? YES, IT CURES CANCER. wow! IT BEGS THE QUESTION JUST TO TELL YOU THE ANSWER. DO YOU BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF SILENCE? WELL, IF YOU WALK THE WALK CAN YOU TALK MORE- shh, quiet! WHIIIIIIIIIIITE NOISE.

Whenever I see people call ICIMI boring or the worst album this image flashes in my mind

[pocketbelt]

{reposting to see if the fucking tag will work this time}

Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium [Launch Content, Launch Event] (PC)

Which is to say, being a gacha/service game, this is based off the state of the game at launch. Of particular note:

Story chapters 1 through 6

Major Event: Sojourners of the Glass Isle

Will have to see how it goes from here, of course; GFL1 started out good, became absolutely fantastic and then dropped off the world's biggest cliff with many terrible jagged outcroppings after Dual Randomness.

The tl;dr is they did it, GFL2 sticks the landing in most regards, it's a visual splendour and the writing's good again and the characters are delightful and the gameplay is good. Unfortunately, GFL1's comparatively, relatively saintly approach to characters and gacha implementation (functionally for costumes only) has been scrapped for a more standard Mihoyo-like system that is just as bastardly greedy and filled with useless fluff like those are, and this may damn the game in the long run after all the welcome and launch bonuses and freebies run out and all the free currency is mined out.

My beloved Sabrina (up top) is in and easily gettable from free shit and beloved WaWa is next, so they've got me bad for now.

Going to fold the detailed rundown under the Read More for length.

The first thing that strikes about GFL2 is the sheer level of production value and also general quality of all its components. GFL1 was always a bit ramshackle - prone to glitches its entire lifespan, taking three or four major UI overhauls to get to something workable and half as beginner-friendly as other games, and never quite getting free of weird engine quirks and bugs. Among its contemporaries and the pre-Genshin standards of production value, GFL1 was always on the lower end - which paired with its super-high free-to-play capability (and we'll get to that) to make it a bit of an underdog. Hell, you didn't pay money to get characters, just their costumes. GFL1 is downright saintly among its peers.

GFL2's level of bug-free isn't just a miracle coming from GFL1, it puts the Western AAA industry to shame by comparison. It's not completely glitch-free but they are both harmless and also rare - occasionally the camera glitches through background objects, or a character's skin renders weird and they just turn purple until the map is exited, but I saw the former thrice and the latter once. Launch week had a crash that seemed to be from a memory leak but it seems to have been swiftly fixed; put that together with an immediately good, easily navigable and clean, clear UI and GFL2 is a bit surreal to get into coming off its predecessor. Probably less so if you actually played Project Neural Cloud, the prequel roguelike auto-chess game, but I didn't gel with that one for perhaps obvious reasons.

Pair that with a fucking stunning level of visual fidelity and GFL2 seems almost unreal. The quality of the character models and their animations, both in-combat but especially in their interaction, dormitory, training and cinematic animations is fucking nuts, and it's all so expressive and beautiful. They fucking patented their technique for rendering stockings and while I can't speak to the legitimacy of how unique their method is, the end result speaks for itself, they're the best-looking ones I've seen in any game. The developers, they are my kind.

Gameplay-wise GFL1's curious combat gameplay is out in exchange for pure Firaxis-style modern XCOM, with similar cover system and all. To that basic idea GFL2 adds its own tweak to the cover system in Stability, a counter that can be damaged alongside HP and when it hits 0, prevents the unit from using half-cover entirely and usually applies other penalties - more damage taken, bosses have mechanics interrupted or reset, cloaked enemies are exposed, etc. Instead of XCOM's overwatch mechanic, GFL2 uses Support Actions - Dolls in range of an ally initiating an attack can tag in, either attacking first or following up the attack with their own basic attack, the number of times they can do this being decided by passives/defensive abiities/weapon skills/etc. That leads to shit like this where your whole team is getting multiple free attacks each every action and it's fucking fantastic.

There is nuance to that - another Doll attacking first may break the enemy's Stability, which can be a benefit by boosting the actual attacker's damage through the penalties, but some moves like Groza's first special attack give her benefits for being the one to break stability. Similarly, if a Doll reduces an enemy's HP to 0 through a pre-emptive Support Action, that kill is credited to them even though the actual attacker then has to go for the enemy to be shown being killed - melee unit Krolik has a mechanic where she gets a full extra turn every 3 kills credited to her, so kill-stealing is a real thing you have to watch out for. There's a lot of extra little systems and touches that give it a lot of nuance - elemental weaknesses, weaknesses to different bullet/attack types, different movement stats between Dolls, environmental factors like grates and chain-link fences being able to be shot through, destructible components, etc. It's really quite engaging...in theory.

In practice GFL2 is mostly very easy, perhaps too easy at the moment. This goes especially if you get Suomi, whose ult gives the whole team shields regardless of where they are and they're fairly durable shields at that - but she's a banner unit, which means yeah, GFL2 is already suffering from banner units sometimes being too good for its own good.

By that same token, the Dolls GFL2 gives you through plot and for free as a newcomer are all really good - the core plot squad of Groza, Krolik, Nemesis and Colphne cover the full gamut of different unit types, roles and mechanics and the story is obviously designed around their use so just seeing plot is pretty easy if you stay levelled and have a bit of common sense.

That does bring up the biggest problem with GFL2, though: GFL1 is basically a saint among its peers. It's a gacha game where the gacha is for costumes only, and everything else can be overcome through just sheer time and game progress. Everything is dependent on the core set of resource counters (Ammo/Rations/Manpower/Parts) and the further you get into the plot, the better the resource generators get, and this ethos applies to basically all of GFL1's systems. Hell, it tried adding an actual character gacha for the Sangvis units - former enemy boss units with their own squad mechanics - but the way it's set up, you can acquire the pity currency by recycling generics and it never expires or goes away between banners, which cycle reruns all the time as new boss units are rarely added, so the Critical Mass Resource Level eventually hits there too and you start always having the shit for free units. The costume gacha is the only true one it has, dependent on a unique currency doled out for free in tiny amounts and mostly expecting you to buy stupid amounts of them, and, well, it's costumes that usually aren't for Dolls you're even using, statistically, certain obvious favourites aside. It's easy to ignore.

GFL2 is a sinner through and through - it uses the bastard Mihoyo system where equipment is thrown in with the units because there aren't many units and they come out at pace of months between them. Most rolls are going to shit useless guns and occasionally useful guns that you run out of a use for spares of quickly, and even lower-rarity Dolls aren't quite common enough to benefit from duplicating (dupes are spent to unlock skill upgrades - and there are some damn good upgrades in there - but still) with any regularity. Specialised custom weapons for banner Dolls are on separate banners from the Doll, too, because eat shit and fuck you. This is weatherable here at launch because GFL2's launch celebration events paired with running a major event at the same time as having all of the story and side-missions to get currency from means you are well-supplied with the tokens needed to roll, assuming you're not a freak trying to get dupes to max out units and are content to ignore the super-special weapons (I could probably get one, now, but I'd rather save for the fucking characters).

In other words, when all this ends or all the welcome stuff has been mined out, I expect GFL2 will turn out to be a fucking cunt about getting new units in the way its inspiration is. I'd love to be wrong, really really would, but the way it's setup just gives the game away. They want the money they see others getting and I guess GFL1 wasn't the one paying for these models and animations, Project Neural Cloud with its more standard gacha setup was. At least costumes are buyable for money directly and only a few are time-limited, with an explicit permanent set that new ones are added to already there. That's the level we're operating on where that's a thing to be relieved about.

The last and most pressing part of GFL2 for me, then, is the story and writing. GFL1 had, to my view, the miracle run - when the plot comes alive starting around Chapter 8-9 and and kicks into high gear with major story event Singularity, running from there all the way through to major story event Polarised Light, it's one of the best runs of story in any mobile/gacha game I've seen. GFL1 then promptly falls off a cliff starting from two events after Polarised Light and keeps finding new cliffs to fall off from there to the present day.

GFL2, I am so unbelievably relieved to say, has the good shit. The character writing is fucking great and there's massive amounts of it between the six available story chapters, the story of Sojourners of the Glass Isle and the mountains of character-specific backstory and bonus scenes tucked away into the Archive menu or other places. The characters are not only fun and interesting again, they act in accord with their demonstrated traits and personalities and aren't just doing fucking stupid things to facilitate the plot happening. The current antagonists are a good mix of competent and incompetent members of a shadowy faction with a current motivation that, as long as it holds, makes sense and you can see why they want it - the lingering threat of Paradeus coming back to shit up the plot notwithstanding (I know they're in it, there's a boss unit in side content that has them named as its faction). The Commander is delightfully written, starting the plot waking up with a seering hangover in a pile of wine bottles on the floor of their ops room and demonstrating the level of character I expected from the best of GFL1. The time gap between entries and the fact that GFL1 hasn't actually ended yet (globally, its final event is on the original China server now) is handled remarkably well.

Also, all cutscenes now have fully voiced dialogue and the purpose-made VN sprites have animated expressions that are used really well. The presentational leap from GFL1 shows even here. I was particularly delighted to see things like, when your player character is speaking to a Doll, they actually use their facial animations to react mid-line to what was said then and there. That sounds like not much, but VN-style dialogue sequences like this in non-VN games usually just keep the sprites static or going through a specific animation on loop and such. The focus on expression and expressive visuals throughout really boosts the game a lot.

Sojourners of the Glass Isle is a pretty great event, plot-wise, following fun characters in an interesting scenario and having some absolutely delightful scenes, both dramatic and comedic. Ullrid, Suomi and co. are delights to see interacting and bouncing off each other, their Doll commune and histories add a lot of colour to GFL's world and it's sad that it's a little marred by the way the transition to Part 2, where Suomi is now in the Commander's squad again, is handled, which is to say it basically isn't. You get a little detail about how Suomi got detached from the commune and how the Commander found her in a pair of lines and the rest is confined to cutscenes in the Archive that the game just doesn't specify, single out or indicate in any fasion and I think only are there if you get Suomi, being her character backstory stuff.

The event story also trails off into a cliff-hanger as on the Chinese server (CN), it was followed through in a sequel event, but this is where shit gets weird. Sojourners of the Glass Isle is actually CN's sixth event, and this twitter thread and the tweet it quotes from GFL community members who played on CN provide a hell of an explanation - most of the events before Sojourners have all been scrapped, in particular events 2 through 4 were trimmed, edited or cut wholesale in different ways during CN's run to accommodate rewrites and a total change in the writing team and direction, as GFL's creator and original director/writer Yuzhong took the reins again. Event 1 also saw a lot of its material completely scrapped, redone and cut, being the origin of a lot of the ire.

GFL2 CN suffered some of that incel backlash that's been going around gacha games lately - the Doll starring in event 1 was shown to have a backstory and associations with a man who is not the player and that started the fires. It led to a procession of criticisms and complaints and dwindling player counts and revenues across the game's subsequent events, hence 2 through 4 also getting put through the grinder, and so to save the game the big guns got called in and I assume the prior writers were quickly realigned or just tossed off the team. Some of the complaints included stuff like Dolls not being affectionate enough, just so you know what they were dealing with.

But, I also must suggest, knowing the fucking disaster that GFL1 ended up in its "back half", that outside of that initial incel complaint, there must have been a lot of criticisms and complaints that were well-founded. GFL1 is prone to extremely bloated plots that spend tens of thousands of words on completely pointless and often repetitious shit, and as mentioned eventually began making characters act plainly idiotically to facilitate its plot even happening (yeah man just walk in the front door of the suspiciously quiet and empty-looking known enemy base, what could go wrong, sure man do it a second time a few days later after getting stuck in a trap from the first one) and abandoning all sense of any logic or adherence to being in an actual material and somewhat grounded world (Paradeus just teleporting whole legions of bright white cybertech troopers and fucking mechs into populous city residential districts they somehow got 100% totally evacuated and rendered completely unobservable without anyone questioning any of this).

So, you know, I could buy that GFL2 may have had writing that originally resembled a six car pileup and needed a ton of rewriting and a total reorientation of the plot. I just can say for sure that what's in the game now is fucking good, and it's all that I've wanted from GFL for a good long while now. I can only hope they stay this course and Yuzhong stays actually in charge, because it's clear the Mica writers mostly can't be trusted to be left alone. Notably, Sojourners of the Glass Isle is credited as being the event that finally "righted the ship" and stabilised the CN playerbase.

But that process' teething pains are still showing, and so after a strong first part containing basically all the actual story, Sojourners has a weird skip and then stumbles around for some legitimately really good, really fun scenes before going "uh, see you next time to actually pick this up". We already know the next banner isn't Dushevnaya, the character for CN Event 7's banner, it's my beloved WaWa, so Global/EN is already going off in odd directions. Her event, 5th on CN and as mentioned mostly not given the razor, isn't tied to Sojourners at all so we won't get that resolution for a while yet. As for the other events, well, the Dolls from them are actually playable in tutorial maps and one of them is in the standard non-specific gacha banner, so god knows how they're handling that if their events are scrapped/being remade.

Also Sojourners is apparently meant to be set before the main plot, like it's a Chapter 0 (Colphne isn't mentioned anywhere and Krolik is out on a job), but nothing about it gives that impression? It makes Part 2 rather more confusing.

This, incidentally, also explains a lot about GFL2 as it is now - Global is actually starting like 6 months into GFL2's post-release cycle, skipping to the Sojourners release and thus there's big fucking heaps of side modes and special combat maps and modes all over the place. There's a ton of meat on the bone but it does make me wonder how they pace themselves from here.

And that's GFL2. The long and short of it is the gacha change is truly horrible, a genuine blight that will likely harm the game extensively before long, but the actual game and story here are really quite good. It's way more than I could've hoped for given GFL1's state.

Don't fuck this up, lads.

[april-pad]

Superman Returns - Movies Worth Seeing Again

Superman Returns. After the death of Superman in the prequel Superman: Quest for Peace, Warner Brothers Studios desired to bring the hero back to life. Sadly, The Quest for Peace was both a financial and theatrical disaster for the studio, with a world disappointed by a Superman who only showed off his cape. Poor in action, a senseless story, and a careless plot, doomed the man of steel to the back burner. The studio had to decide on a major strategy to resurrect the most famous action hero.

The Resurrection Dance of Superman Returns

When Warner Brothers decided on a master plan, they hired Bryan Singer to choreograph Superman's resurrection dance. The plan included six other studios, including Fox, and brought in some of the best actors and screenplay geniuses. In 2004, the project rolled out and set the world ablaze with anticipation as their beloved hero planned to dub the cape once more. Warner Brothers could not have done a better job, actors such as Kevin Spacey and Brandon Routh, lined the story written by Singer. Dan Harris and Michael Dougherty. Roving a bit in the past, the man of steel spent five years in space trying to confirm a news lead from scientists who believed that they had found Krypton. At the end of his wild goose chase, Superman returns to a new and technologically advanced Earth. This is sidetracked by his former love, Lois Lane, who is now a Nobel prize winner, for the article  ‘The World Does Not Need Superman’. The plot is complicated by his nemesis who continues his lifelong quest to destroy Superman. Besides all that, he is now destroying the world with isotopes from Krypton. The conflict is beautiful and the stage is set for our hero's return. Success and Dismay The Warner Brother Studio wanted to make history at the box office, and history in design and visuals. The movie got both and Superman came to life.  The crowd loved it, except for wanting a little more action, but they were satisfied and flooded the box office. The studio was dismayed and even canceled a planned sequel in 2009. The box office ranked Superman Returns as the sixth best-paying movie that year, 2006. But critics and fans did not share Warner Brothers Studio’s disappointment, Collider had this to say of the film. "It is, by most accounts, a swell film, and while it's held in high esteem as one of the best superhero movies ever made, I'd argue there's another Superman film that exceeds Superman both in terms of quality and fidelity to the character: Bryan Singer's 2006" Jumping for Greatness Superman Returns ‘is the sixth and final installment in the original Superman film series and serves as an homage sequel to Superman (1978) and Superman II (1980), while ignoring the events of Superman III (1983), Supergirl (1984), and Superman IV: The Quest for Peace (1987)’. Wikipedia The cape belongs to Superman and even though the studio may not have gotten all the funds it was hoping for, the audience will always look for their hero. Just waiting for the Warner Brothers Studio to find that moment when the world’s hero modernizes.     Read the full article

[my-fidel-dreemurr]

What Happened To The Undertale Community

Hello, my name is Fidel Dreemur,

Normally, I don’t do this sort of thing when it comes to my Tumblr account as I normally just am content with simply watching and enjoying, and just overall letting myself be embraced and phantoms, enjoying their content of the creators and sales have made as well as taking part whenever I can so I asked this one simple question and it’s one. I’m wondering if anyone in this phantom can still answer me, truthfully, no judgment, no rude comments no smug comments. I just would like to know one simple thing just one simple question that’s all I have.

What happened to the Undertale Community?

Undertale Made by Toby Fox came out September 15, 2015. I was in high school at the time that this game came out Amir freshman and I couldn’t help but wonder just what this game was upon going home and looking at so many different people playing the game and just taking time to play through the different routes, as well as taking their time to understand the characters, the story, the content, even the Lord behind it that Toby had created for this game was honestly amazing to be blunt and be truthful. I was honestly surprised to see that so many people immediately flocked to this game just to play it be it for the neutral route the pacifist route or even just the genocide route from what I was able to gather just by watching so many different let’s plays and even getting a chance to play the game myself , I could tell, but this was a game that had a lot of thought into it with a lot of emotion feeling and above all else

Determination

When the community started to grow and blossom and began to even start creating their own alternate, universes, alternate characters, alternate timelines, creating things that just begin to really catch my attention I even created my own OC out of all of this because I wanted to take part in this community to enjoy and have fun with what was happening and just let myself be a part of something that was truly wonderful.

Then came the art work and the animators making their own animation and bringing the various AU’s to live via art work, animation, voice acting, and even musical scores. It was so wonderful so beautiful to see all that work being put out there for people to see to explore seeing so many fans create their own version of characters from sans to papyrus to undying as goal so many characters were getting so much appreciation love and fanart. It was honestly pretty fucking amazing pardon my language, but just seeing all the hard work people were putting into it so just like make the Undertale fandom something so much more than what people honestly thought it was.

we had plenty of great animators animations storytelling. We had so many wonderful alternate universes ultimate timelines, different versions of the characters that had their own story personality. Things to do things to show off. It was just wonderful. It was spectacular. It was breathtaking to see everybody coming together in order to make this community so much more than what it initially started off as , well honestly, I think that was something even Toby Fox himself never imagined for his community was to see just how much it would grow and blossom and bloom and just become something that every creator of some sort of content wants them to see they want to see their fans, enjoying their creations, having fun having a few laughs, even making friends among the community bringing people together

But as the years went on, things begin to change.

Fights started to break out over the simplest of things there were people arguing over the smallest arguments some of them escalating to just like being full on wars on the Internet over certain characters over certain artwork over certain AU that people had created. What had been happening was getting out of hand and even now it’s gotten worse.

I just can’t help but wonder where did things go wrong what caused everybody to suddenly shift their focused from what had originally been something that was creative and fun to just being downright awful and terrifying. We have people threatening people over their options, their opinions, and even their creations so much toxicity and hatred in the fandom that you normally see over something that a creator has done or something that comes directly outside of it .

I know this might seem like the rambling of a fanboy to some people who don’t really understand it, but to those who remember what the undertail fandom used to be like or what it was like before everything seem to go to complete another hell in a handbasket, I just have to ask what happened where did everything go? When did everything’s only turn around and go to absolute horrible shit why did everything seem to go wrong because people started to get too invested in the phantoms was it because we started to get too anxious or just stuck up our way to realize we are starting to worse than other phantoms actually were lack in terms of video games nowadays, rather than the Indy game that it was I just want to know what other people are on the matter. This is just me saying my thoughts if anybody else has something to share by all means share what you know I’m open to hearing anybody’s. I just want to know and want this one of mine answered

What happened to the Undertale Community?

[seriously-mike]

So You Want to... Try StableDiffusion?

Okay. So three big pieces of advice to start with:

Forget about LAION's default datasets. They're absolute fucking dogshit and only getting worse. Imagine an automated web-scraping system that copies images off the web, pairs them with their alt-texts and/or adjacent text, then chucks them into the mathemagical fairy dust grinder with no human inspection, much less interference. This means a lot of junk data the generator draws from, and junk images you'll get from that.

Don't even try copying prompts from the web. Actual monkeys would do them better than the throngs of idiots who get one good picture out of a hundred by sheer dumb luck. Half the words in positive prompts and 3/4 of the words in negative prompts don't mean shit to the generators. Why? See the previous point. Even if someone curates the input data for dataset building, they most probably won't spam it with bullshit like "trending on artstation", and the frequency of terms like "beautiful" and "masterpiece" will be absurdly low. That and, most datasets are built on images that weren't made by AI and don't contain the typical AI fuckups people try to pray out of in negative prompts. No matter how much you want to avoid fucked up hands and faces, if the dataset is shit, you'll get them whether you include that in the negative prompt or not.

RUN. YOUR. OWN. Local setups like Automatic1111, NMKD's Stable Diffusion GUI and ComfyUI are free and customizable - even if they can't handle extra bits like LORAs, embeddings and plugins, they can and will run any checkpoint dataset you can get off HuggingFace or CivitAI. Meanwhile, you have websites demanding $10 a month for a selection of fifteen datasets, if that, without any extra bits, or, even worse, $30 for something even more nonsensical and still achievable with a local setup (and maybe some extra third-party software). A local setup requires particular hardware, namely a Nvidia graphics card, but any Nvidia graphics card made in the last five years will do.

With that behind us, some basic technical pointers:

Samplers and schedulers matter. They turn the mathemagical fairy dust into images in different ways, and some of them work better than others.

In the picture above, you can see how some of them absolutely go off the fucking rails while a lot more do the job at as few as ten passes. The names at the top row, however, are scheduler-sampler pairs, as they're usually offered. Compare how the LMS sampler running on a Karras scheduler (center-right of the image) gives better results at as low as 10 passes while LMS sampler on a Normal scheduler (third from left) wipes out.

Don't overcook your image. Each dataset has an optimal number of passes - go too low and it'll go off the rails, go too high and it will ruin the details. And potentially go off the rails. If you used the default LAION datasets, and had to run more than fifty passes in one rendering to get something serviceable, it's one of the things you need to unlearn.

Image on the left has been rendered in 35 passes, then upscaled and smoothed out in 15 passes. The one on the right has been rendered in staggering 80 passes and upscaled in 20. Both images ran off the same seeds. Notice how the right one has much more blur in the background, overly smooth foreground and the glitchy line in the corner of the mouth. That's what "overcooked" means.

Another way of overcooking images comes from going too high with the Classifier Free Guidance, or CFG, or guidance for short, which is the degree to which the generator sticks to the description. While looking for the definition, I found an article that stated: "it has been previously observed that extremely high guidance weights damage fidelity by yielding saturated and unnatural images." Which kinda explains why the image on the right has noticeably more saturated colors and exaggerated details (notice the pink spot in the character's ear) - the base image was rendered at 10 guidance (on a scale from 1 to 30!), while the base image on the left was rendered at 5.5 guidance. Both were upscaled at 8 guidance, but that means that upscaling kinda straightened and tightened the left one and did the opposite on the right one, trying to mellow out the overly complex image. Since the default datasets by LAION only start resembling something kinda sorta real at 9 guidance or so and make sense around 12 to 15, while curated ones already look fine at 8, this is another thing you need to unlearn.

LAION?! Not even once!

Asking for a specific artist's style can only provide an approximation. "Painting by Greg Rutkowski" will not give you a painting by Greg Rutkowski, mostly because of the things you want being also pictured in the dataset by other artists and the generator running out of Rutkowski's works, then trying to meld whatever it got from them with the non-Rutkowski imagery. The two pictures below both have "painting by Greg Rutkowski and Jakub Rozalski" (they have similar painterly style, with Rozalski relying on broader strokes) and... well...

The city street in the picture on the left kinda, sorta, generally looks like stuff from Greg Rutkowski's ArtStation page. But that one's easy. The soldier in the picture on the right? Well, that's a solid nope. It's that generic, pseudo-realistic, overly refined slightly 3D kind of imagery that is so ridiculously far from Greg Rutkowski as you can throw it, hell, even fire it from a cannon. But, that's nothing compared to our next candidate...

You do know the distinctive inkbrush and watercolor style of Yoji Shinkawa and his Metal Gear Solid concept art, right? I asked Stable Diffusion for that exact style when rendering the concepts of my Pyrkon 2023 cosplay. That's way off the mark, and none of the datasets I tried, including the overloaded LAION dogshit, ever came close. Even worse, if you ask for pretty much any Japanese artist, a lot of datasets will give you anime, and very generic anime at that, no ifs or buts. If I say it's culturally insensitive, it fucking is culturally insensitive. This here anime guy? It's the exact same goddamn prompt used for the cosplay concept art. Hell, even asking for an imitation of Hajime Sorayama gave me anime, and sure as shit Sorayama's work is nowhere near anime. What it didn't give me was the most distinctive part of his work, and that is shiny chrome. I mean, seriously: I'm asking you to draw me something looking like the work of the guy who mostly draws chrome gynoid butts and you're showing me generic flat anime?

Get ready to clean up. I mean, those image generators are far from perfect and sometimes you'll get something almost serviceable but with an extra finger or some noise where you don't want it. In that case, you'll need to roll up your sleeves and do some old-school Photoshop work. See that overcooked image of a goth girl in the park up there? That's the raw version. I got around to erasing that black line in the corner of her mouth and even put a vertical labret piercing on her. Not to mention the entire process behind Tiny Dancer (okay, I was showing off there). Really, don't expect that everything will be done for you on the first attempt.

[maxsfmp1]

The Eternal Castle

Eternal Castle is an adventure, cinematic platform game and is a difficult side scroller and reminds me a little of The Prince of Persia. You take control of a pixelated yet fluidly animated character across barren wastelands, shooting your way through dangerous soldiers, traps, monsters, and more. The retro visuals are expertly paired with modern touches, like crisp, stereo sound effects along with a high-fidelity soundtrack.

STORY - Set in a far future, the game follows a colonist whose ship crashes on Earth during an attempt to flee the planet. The main character needs to find parts to repair their ship. In doing so, they will encounter ferocious beasts, find fascinating characters, and uncover the secrets of the world around them.

I really like the visuals and gameplay of this, and I feel like the similarity between this and my game is the vibrant background and the characters of my own game, but other than that, there is not much else to make similarities to this game and my own.

This games positives are the beautiful visuals, the fun battles you encounter, and the sometimes forgiving death resets. However the negatives are the clunky movements, and since the art style is retro esc, spotting enemies can be a little tough with the visuals, and the font can be a little hard to read sometimes.

In conclusion, I really had a fun time researching this game and looking at the gameplay and I am a little on the fence of buying and playing it for myself since I love the look of the visuals and I enjoy games like this that are retro.

[avengershumanresources]

I just finished reading “blood” and holysmokes I LOVED THE FIC SO MUCH🥺🥺 IT HAS BECOME MY COMFORT FIC WHICH I WILL KEEP REVISITING! Where shall I even start my compliments from? The world building was so organic, I never felt lost, there was never a dull moment in your story, dude you had me gripped to my seat the entire time, I have never given a zillion expressions under a minute in my entire life. I was feeling ecstasy, dedication, rage, fervor all at the same time. Only a few people possess the sheer potential to immerse a reader in their fantasy world and it’s safe to say, you’ve mastered that talent. The way you so skilfully described the royal details has me spinning. I always wanted to read a well articulated imperial clan story. This fic is everything i desired- the intensity, the passion and oof the aristocracy 💗I could feel both the tenderness and fortitude radiating off the princess. Dayum the way each character was so fiercely involved with the reader and in restoring the stark house’s stature itself was enough to make fall to my knees and swore my unyielding fidelity to the crown. Their devotion got me high af on my own adrenaline. All of the characters were so cooperative and loving towards the princess (especially our sweethearts- loki, nat & james) it felt like we were all a big family. I genuinely felt like those scenarios - the palpable tension of the unforeseen, doomed future are real, as if they're here, happening in front of my eyes. You’re an amazing author you know? The thing I liked the most about this fic is you tied all the loose ends in the epilogue. No side of the story was unheard, no hero was unsung, you made sure that the readers could discern the depth, the struggle, the weight and importance of all of the characters’s coordination and cooperation. It was a collective effort of each character which brought a fruitful victory. Your writing touched my heart. I wanna applaud you for such a marvellous masterpiece. It was a phenomenal read. Covering minuscule to gigantic accurate details about every kingdom/ classification of various magical ancestries? Wow. I can tell you were immensely emotionally and creatively buried in your craft, only you could put such extreme efforts in plot research. You've impressed me to great lengths. Ok ok I’ll stop singing your praises now cuz lord knows I can go on for decades but you’ll be tired out of your wits haha. Lastly, thank you for producing such a beautiful story. Thank you for letting me read something so intricate, it was my pleasure. I will carry on reading your other upcoming fics as well ! Can’t wait to see what more you have in store my dear! Have a lovely day/night ahead 🥰

What a message to wake up to! 😭😭 thank you so much, I’m literally at a loss for words rn. (I might be crying). This truly means the world to me, and I stg I’m gonna frame this and put it next to my computer to look at whenever I’m feeling sad about writing (which lately I’ve been working on an original sci-fi story that I’ve been struggling to get inspired by and actually *write*, so thank you for that renewed spark).

I’m so glad you liked the story!

Holy smokes. 🥰🥰♥️♥️♥️♥️🥰🥰 thank you!!!!

[abbabycchio]

Flowers based on how they feel about you/ think of you. P2

This time with La Squadra! Thank you for the attention I got on the Bucci gang! I love being able to talk about flowers and my favorite characters💕💕 sorry for the long wait!

Risotto Nero: Since you met him he’d fallen in love with you, you were amazing and perfect, and in his most vulnerable moments he’d tell you. Unfortunately being the Capo and the strongest of the traitorous team La Squadra ment it was too high a risk to pursue a relationship with you. So for your safety he had to reject you. 

Magenta Zinnia: Lasting Affection

Striped Carnation: No, Refusal, Sorry I Can't Be With You, Wish I Could Be With You

He’ll send you these flowers along with a note apologizing for any pain it brings you. He sees it as his final interaction with you, but still lets you know how much you mean to him. 

My carissimo. I couldn’t stop the tears that fell onto my legs as I sat and rekindled my feelings for you. The comfort of your voice, you telling me “you’re gonna be alright” always mends my broken heart. There’s something about your voice that gives me the comfort I need. I’ve learned so many things from you. I’ve never been with someone who makes me laugh as much as you. You taught me what a real relationship was by having pillow talks with me before we went to bed. I wish life had a more simpler game plan. I love you so much. Til the day I die I’ll remember you forever.

-Risotto Nero. 

Prosciutto: He sees you as so much more than you could ever see yourself as. That being said he knows how cruel the world can be and makes it his mission in life to protect and love you for the rest of his life. He’s also the only one in the group that goes all out when it comes to buying gifts. 

Red Amaryllis: find incredibly beautiful, value beyond their beauty

Yellow Snapdragon: Gracious. Fascinating. Protection from evil

Dahlia: the lasting bond and commitment between two people

Very silently shoves these flowers towards you and walks away. It’s only until you gain control over your beating heart that you notice an elegant ribbon wrapped around the bouquet with a note attached.

The time is now to believe my promises and trust me to shelter you from the storms that will come in this life. I am truly the knight in shining armor your heart longs for and I am the one who has already given his life for you. I know your hidden fears, but you must learn to look to me when life is hard. I am the rock on which you can stand when all around you seems to be sinking. So stand on my word and hide it in your heart and you will never sink in hopelessness again.

-Prosciutto.

Pesci: he’s like a big puppy, he easily fell in love with you and in the most innocent way. Just seeing you smile brightens up his day and makes him excited to spend any days to come with you. 

Yellow Tulip: cheerfulness and sunshine

Coral Honeysuckle: I love you 

He replaces these flowers anytime he sees that the ones he already gave you are dying so the bright colors are always illuminating your days. 

I’m writing this to tell you that I love you. You’re my first thought when I wake up, and my last when I got to sleep. I need your love more and more each day, like an addiction of some sort.

-Pesci.

Ghiaccio: He sees you as the calm to his storm, he is so thankful for you, and although he doesn’t say it much you know that. Everyday he does his best to learn more about you and create a bond deeper than flesh. 

Purple hydrangeas: EMOTION, UNDERSTANDING, a desire to deeply understand someone

Black Bryony: Be my support

He doesn’t actually give these to you an a bouquet, he likes to place them in your hair, of behind your ears. Sometimes he even makes little flower crowns with the Black Bryony vines and places the Hydrangea flowers around it.

My love, just a moment ago I thought about you and my heart was filled with gratitude. So before another moment goes by I want to say thank you. Thank you for the late night laughs and the early morning kisses. Thank you for holding my hand throughout this life. Thank you for your love and friendship, and most of all thank you for the pleasure of calling you mine.

-Ghiaccio.

Melone: He thirsts for you so hard! After he met you everyone else was nothing compared to your beauty. He physically can't keep his hands off you. After he saw you he immediately pined for your affection.

Black Orchid: ADMIRATION, INNOCENCE, strength, virility, sexual desires, and success

Lavender Rose: enchantment and love at first sight, blossoming romance.

He sends a very professionally designed bouquet of these flowers, bringing more than one bundle a day to the point where you don’t know what to do with all those flowers.

I want you more and more. I often have erotic memories of you and I hurry to get home. I love to feel myself inside you; I love to feel my virile member slashing your skin, like burning iron teasing your desire. I have visions of you on top of me, riding my hips, making me moan with pleasure with your vigorous and precise movements. I love to feel the dense and warm liquid of your pleasure run down my body. I love to feel that you are mine. vigorous but at the same time, defenseless, relying on my arms and the warmth of my body. I love when you fall asleep in my arms, resting your head on my shoulder for countless minutes, after I irrigated your flesh with my abundant semen. I like the taste of your saliva when you kiss my mouth and I like the warmth of your heat when I kiss you between your thighs... I love your kisses more and more, your cuddles and your strength. And I’m writing to you to tell you I miss you too much.

-Melone.

Formaggio: He is smitten with you. Probably the most obviously loyal out of all of the boys, not that all of them aren’t, but you are 100% sure that you are his entire world. In your relationship he tries his best to be as romantic as possible any time that he can. 

Pink Peony: ROMANCE, PROSPERITY, love at first sight

Lemon Blossom: I promise to be true, Fidelity in love

He’s the kind to see these flowers in shop or on a bush, and just takes it and gives it to you. 

To my forever, I think we make the perfect couple. We understand each other so well. We listen to each other. I cannot wait to spend eternity with you, because there’s no place I’d rather be than with you. You’re stuck with me cara, You better remember that! I love us! 

-Formaggio. 

Illusio: Although he is usually a little raunchy by nature, but he loves you delicately. Which surprised the entire gang. His personality switch between seeing you and working is drastic. It’s more of an innocent, refined love. Fancy dinners, passionate nights. He puts his entire ego into making the best dates for you two. 

Cornflower: Refinement, Delicacy

Daisy: innocence, loyal love, and purity.

You would be standing or sitting somewhere in base and suddenly a hand would come out of the mirror near you and drop a bouquet of flowers in your hand.

My love has made me selfish. I cannot exist without you. I am forgetful of every thing but seeing you again, my Life seems to stop there. I see no further. You have absorb'd me. I have a sensation at the present moment as though I was dissolving. I should be exquisitely miserable without the hope of soon seeing you.

-Illuso.

Sorbet & Gelato: Sorbet and Gelato were so grateful when you came into their lives, they were already in love with each other but finding you made their already love filled lives more special. When you got the news from Risotto you were heart broken, one day you were happily in love with the two most special men in your life, and the next you were mourning the loss of both of them. 

FORGET-ME-NOT: True Love, Memories

Delphinium: a first love, strong bonds of love.

You had gotten a bundle of flowers at your door step with two notes attached, one was from Risotto telling you that Sorbet and Gelato had sent you a note, along with a few wishes in their Will. The other was the note Sorbet and Gelato had written, only to be read by you after their death.

This is not a goodbye my darling, this is a thank you. Thank you for coming into our lives and giving us joy, thank you for loving us and receiving our love in return. Thank you for the memories we made together. But most of all, thank you for showing us that there will come a time when we will be together again.

-Sorbet&Gelato.