#thats such a strong lineup!

[awesamforehead]

Sapnap exerts so much "child in a dysfunctional family that stays together for him" energy its so crazy

[yoomtahsgf]

genuinely do u guys not mind me posting/doodling so much Returning Hyperfixation content i do want to post more abt ee/yoomtah and whatevwr other stuff i like but i am simply Filled with a decades worth of ideas JDHFJDJFKFHDHFDJ

[the-hottest-band-tournament]

Round 7 of The Hottest 80s Bands Tournament

Queen

Defeated opponents: Green Day, Earth, Wind & Fire, The Psychedelic Furs, R.E.M., Duran Duran, INXS

Formed in: 1970

Genres: rock, glam-rock, hard rock, pop-rock, pop, disco

Lineup: Freddie Mercury- vocals 

Brian May- guitar 

John Deacon- bass 

Roger Taylor- drums 

Albums from the 80s: 

The Game (1980)

Hot Space (1982)

Flash Gordon (1982)

The Works (1984)

A Kind Of Magic (1986)

The Miracle (1989)

Propaganda: “HAVE YOU SEEEEN THEMMMM???? these men never lost their looks as they aged. smoking hot 20 somethings to smoking hot 40 somethings. in their own words, "we was glam" and "we were all stunning". all four had impeccable style choices 99% of the time, from leather jackets and wraps to monochrome to undone blazers and ties to brightly coloured /everything/. Deacon changed his hair style every few years and even in just tshirts and booty shorts, never missed. Roger had a sleazy mullet and sunglasses for what felt like forever, hot Persian dad, did not miss. Brian forgot how to fully button shirts. bell bottoms. same hair for 50 years. no misses. even after Freddie got sick and started wearing makeup and had to grow a beard to cover up, MAN NEVER FUCKIN MISSED. he was beautiful to the day he died. and thats not even touching on the leather daddy look from the early 80s.king shit. we love wrinkles and laugh lines in this gd house. if they don't sweep I’m blowing this whole website up we was glam”

“a few years back i was obsessed with these guys and i would find it hard to not have a crush on all of them. in the 80s especially Brian was GORGEOUS.. BEAUTIFUL”

Depeche Mode 

Defeated opponents: Anthrax, Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, The Kinks, Wham!, Joy Division, Warrant

Formed in: 1980

Genres: Synth-pop, electronic rock, new wave, dark wave, alternative rock

Lineup: Dave Gahan - vocals

Martin Gore - guitar and keyboard

Alan Wilder - drums and keyboard

Andy Fletcher - bass

Albums from the 80s: 

Speak & Spell (1981)

 A Broken Frame (1982)

Construction Time Again (1983)

Some Great Reward (1984)

Black Celebration (1986)

Music for the Masses (1987)

Propaganda: The music. The LOOKS. The voice. (The sexual tension?) And they’re still going strong. My colleague saw them in the UK when they were only starting out and said they were so nervous. I find the juxtaposition of the confidence of their sound (not to mention the black leather) and that anecdote really endearing.

idk how much this counts as propaganda but I feel like it's very important to acknowledge that Depeche Mode specifically makes kinky synth for bisexual sluts. Like that's it, that's the band. They even managed to make their cover of "(Get Your Kicks On) Route 66" sound like it's about selling ass on the interstate. Slutty legends.

Visual propaganda for Queen:

Visual propaganda for Depeche Mode:

[nikrei]

For day two, Bart just won the Young Justice chess* tournament!! Traya came in second and Slobo came in third. Full tournament lineup and chess* headcanons under the cut

Welcome to my yj chess headcanons:

1) what YJ calls chess is actually 5 dimensional chess with multiverse time travel. They just call it chess. They have sort of forgot the regular version exists. (I am, however, a fake 5d chess fan: it languishes in my steam library, intimidating, unplayed)

2) tim discovered it and got them all into it. They like it varying amounts:

Bart: undisputed reigning champion of 5 dimensional chess with multiverse time travel. Loves this game.

Cassie: has the basics down and does fine vs other folks or the game ai. Hates the game. Must be tricked into being competitive about it to make her join in.

Tim: was excited about the game and got v into it v intensely as he does. Burnt himself out on it a bit. He's pretty good but doesn't know if he loves or hates the game. Will get hypercompetitive about it tho.

Kon: good at it pretty naturally because he's used to thinking in multiple dimensions (been flying since day 1) but he can psych himself out second guessing his moves. Likes playing the game, can get competitive.

Greta: good at the game because she has so. much. free time. Can get tunnel focused on it and doesn't mind losing as much as the others, so can play against bart for hours and hours. Always up for a game, enjoys it.

Cissie: good at it pretty naturally, but doesn't have strong feelings about it. Plays mostly with Traya because Cassie really doesn't want to.

Traya: v good at it, and really likes it. Plays with Cissie at school and also Red Tornado a lot. Prolly can beat Bart maybe 1 in 5 times?

Anita: wasn't sure about it but got hypercompetitive about it and is now pretty good. Likes it now that she's good at it.

Slobo: also v good at it! Its similar to some space games prolly, and like kon he's v used to thinking in multiple dimensions. Doesn't get as competitive as some of the others which really gets them steamy when he beats them.

Ray: Newbie player who got thrown in the deep end. One day YJ was like, let's have a chess tournament! And Ray was like, oh okay thats a wierd thing to do out of the blue but I can roll with that I know chess. He did not know chess. Still learning but getting the hang of it. Now has a fear response to it tho.

3) they play online w each other all the time but every now and then have tournaments when they are all hanging out. They used to just do a winner plays next round sort of thing but it always just ended up w everyone losing to bart all the time. Tournament winners get favors and tournament losers have to do dares.

4) bart plays with his civilian friends too!! They are varying levels of into it but I think Carol likes it a lot.

5) one time Ra's al Ghul challenged tim to a game of chess and when he got sat down at a regular chess board he was just like.......whet is this.... and completely blanked on the rules to regular chess

[actualbird]

so ive talked about this with some of my tot friends but im starting to get....Fluffy Date Fatigue with post-anniv1 card stories, especially with luke, because his and mc's pre-relationship era was ENTRENCHED in conflict, in their opposing ideals and beliefs constantly butting heads, in luke's flaws and mc's worries causing friction in their relationship and it was from within that friction from whence a deeper bond was able to be forged, and it was incredible. but ever since they got into a relationship i feel.....bereft. the friction is gone. sure, it comes up sometimes but only rarely (off the top of my head, the ones that come to mind are SSR Dream of Benji and his 2nd anniv card SSR Orange Scent) (and this is not counting the AU cards because theyre AUs) but those are outliers. overall, their relationship has stabilized into a frictionless happy and smooth relationship. which is great! good for them! this is what i wish upon all irl relationships filled with love!

but it makes for a repetitive lineup of stories in fiction.

im not saying i want lukerosa to break up or whatever (thatd harm my heart) but...but i want that CONFLICT again. and i understand that their stabilized relationship is because of the character growth that luke underwent in his pre-anniv1 personal story arc, but even given all that, conflict can still happen in a happy relationship between two loving individuals. i feel as if ever since anniv1, we've lost the emotional stakes of their relationship. which is a damn shame, because the emotional stakes is what made me adore lukerosa in the first place. their relationship brings out everything compelling about both luke and mc's characters.

but nowadays it almost feels like tot is afraid of showing anything other than a happy perfect relationship with no relationship bumps or problems whatsoever, in card stories. which just is kinda a bummer because it does lukerosa a great disservice, imo. what made their relationship so strong is how much they had to go through to get there. and i wish that was followed through on, because maintaining a happy relationship still comes with their ups and downs, and those ups and downs would make for such wonderful stories. let them argue. let them go against each other. let their stubbornness butt heads, let their fears and worries run amok. let conflict happen again, because thats what makes the resolution so much sweeter

this is all just my own view of course tho. KJBLSKDLJFBD

[basil-does-arttt]

things i want to see in DMC 6 if DMC 6 ever happens (or even just another installment into the franchise in general):

1: Vergil adopts a black cat and he names it Shadow after the familiar he had as V, and even though its really obvious thats why he got the cat he swears up and down that isn't the reason why he got it

At the same time Dante gets a dog specifically a lab and names it woozy after the force edge in dmc 1

2: while the shit twins are on their escapade in hell, they encounter some true horror shit more akin to RE than DMC but of course enemies are still dealt with in typical stylish fasion. Body horror, psychological horror, a real exploration of the twin's traumas through environmental, visual and audio storytelling

3: Kyrie is back and she actually gets a role that isnt damsel in distress or background character. Let. Her. Fight!!

Adding to 3: Kyrie gets her own custom weapons courtesy of Nico, maybe a sword based off of ones in the Order and a gun to match Nero's Blue Rose. Possibly in an angelic theme, wings and such having a strong motif while also being just as badass as we all know post-dmc 4 Kyrie really is

4: nero gets his own lineup of bosses and he actually kills them all himself, without any outside assistance from other characters. (The only boss he's killed himself is Malphas.)

5: with the shit-twins in Hell theres a fully implemented co-op mode, either split screen or over two machines, where one can play as Vergil and the other as Dante as they travel throughout hell. However if the player so chooses to go it alone, they can choose to play as either of the twins and can switch between them at places like a divinity statue.

6: more exploration into Trish and Lady as characters. Trish by the shit-twins are in hell and can find some stuff regarding her creation perhaps, and Lady by Nero as she helps him out on the surface while the shit-twins are in hell.

7: Vergil gets his own Devil Sword Vergil after Yamato is used to seal the portal between the worlds, but it has to remain as a katana like Dante's remained as a double edged sword.

8: Dante struggling with control over his SDT while they're in hell and Vergil helping him through it

9: cerberus puppies.

10: nero gets his own devil arms that he can use alongside his buster arm mechanic and red queen stays as his default weapon

11: lore exploration on Sparda while the shit twins are in hell

cant think of much else for now might add as i think of shit

[thecozygrove]

Agent of Chaos AU lineup Pt 1: Cult of Chaos

This is the MAIN main cast of the AoC AU (Yes Leshy is in the main cast but he isn't visibly present most of the time). Agares, Valefar, Amdusias, and Barbatos are the last remaining followers of Leshy before his imprisonment, I like to call them the Og four. After Fawn took on the crown and role of chaos god, these four became their babysitters and have been helping Fawn rebuild the cult of chaos.

Agares is the oldest out of the four and was Leshy's first truly devoted follower. The imprisonment of his god hit Agares hard, he has become a lot more closed off towards the others and ESPECIALLY dismissive towards Fawn, seeing them as a false idol and trying to replace his precious Leshy.

Valefar is the mom of the group (and my personal favorite), she is the glue that keeps the group together as well as keeps their cult together. Originally she was a follower of Heket but left the old faith to join Leshy. Valefar is a strong, confident woman and I reaaally enjoy drawing her!

Amdusias has no braincells. Their head is completely empty and their character in this Au is entirely based on my own experience with them while playing cotl. Am always has a smile on their face and is always ready to go along with whatever shenanigans Fawn comes up with.

Barbatos is silent, being almost completely mute and speaks either through sign language or through the chattering of their head teeth. No one really knows where Barb came from but they are rocking with us so we are rocking with them. Barb and Am are besties and it's usually Barbs job to make sure Am and Fawn don't do anything tooo stupid and reckless.

And lastly, Fawn. Harbinger of chaos and vessel of the green crown. They are the definition of a wild child and the perfect successor to Leshy! I am a big fan of the "cute but dangerous" characters and being a young deer, Fawn is often underestimated and isn't perceived to be a threat by others. Thats all I'm going to say about them right now...

Some notes I didnt know how else to incorporate:

Witness Agares, He/him, 8'ft tall, Old man, Demonic bug

Valefar, She/her, 7'2ft tall, Adult, Bag worm

Amdusias, They/them, 5'7ft tall, Young adult, Chaser worm

Barbatos, They/them, 5'3ft tall, Young adult, Bobbit worm

Fawn, They/them, 4'ft tall, A child/pre-teen, Fallow deer

(When I find the proper credit for Fawn's pose I will put it here. I love Pinterest but HATE how pretty much no one is ever credited!)

Character lineups:

Cult of Chaos Pt 1 (here)

Court of The Red Crown Pt 1

Court of The Red Crown Pt 2

[simply-slytherin]

Hogwarts Legacy Hunger Games

Ok so here is the lineup of our tributes. Did my best to make them kind of district accurate but it wasn’t always possible. We are putting our faves through hell today let’s see who wins. (I also needed to pad out with some super background characters so thats why you might not recognize them all instantly!)

The games play out underneath the read more!

But beware it is a very long post, I tried my best to edit it down.

The Bloodbath

Bro who gave Garreth explosives?????

Day 1

Poor Arthur man, he tried. Also MC sleeping throughout the day is a little to realistic lmao. 

Night 1

Not us and Poppy having a moment in the middle of the Hunger Games!!!!

Sorry King stay strong.

Day 2

Love the Poppy and Ominis team up, go besties. Also I feel like Zenobia and Leander are bonding on be bullied.

Night 2

Ominis! you better be thinking about winning!!!! Also seeing Sebastian and Garreth working together? A crazy thought. Also some more sadly lore accurate moments lol. We love you Amit

Day 3

OMINIS what did Lucan do to you?!! Also love the MC “anonymous” sponsor we know its you Fig.

ALSO WAIT GRACE AND SEBASTIAN TOTALLY BETRAYED GARRETH FROM THE DAY BEFORE LMAO. Slytherins over bros I guess.

 RIP Natty, Garreth, Imelda and Lucan.  

Night 3

Omg Poppy and MC goin through it and Ominis is just a killing machine.  OMG WAIT SEBASTIAN!! This is too close to home.

Day 4

Look at Amit being a hero, what a guy RIP. Also not us stalking Seb lmao

Night 4

Poor Seb :(. Also Amit kILLING US? Like dude!! I’m sorry we brought you on a quest ONE time!

RIP us and few others.

The Feast

No Sebastian!!!! Rip :(

Day 5

With so many gone the days info are much smaller.

Poppy!!! RIP. Why are Cressida and Ominis like proper rivals here. They worked together, both contemplated winning and are doing the same things.

Night 5

Bro they really do be teaming up. I wonder if they are going to be the last two standing.

Day 6

Op there goes Amit. RIP 

Arena Event

OMG! Ominis for what his third kill?

Well that makes Ominis our winner!

so proud of our boy

[goqmir]

i kind of like maybe just a little adore the new clue set cards like. the clue set itself is a weird and overpriced product and the physical cards themselves are definitely gonna be stupid overpriced because nobody wants to buy a board game to crack packs but like. the cards themselves? kind of fire?

i kind of adore that theyre not just all rares and we are getting clue set commons and stuff :3 its cute! and we're getting a new lonis too-- its not a super interesting card but i adore lonis and im very excited to play with more of her. and we get an interesting new land cycle in the cluelands too! the art for them kinda blows at the moment but at some point in the future i assume they'll be reprinted in a set that gives them fun and interesting art? maybe? please? im not exactly itching to play them but ill never turn down another cycle of duals teehee

id love to talk about some individual cards from the lineup so far that i adore! these are just my top picks but id recommend going and looking at the full list spoiled so far on scryfall :3

for starters, my favorite card from the whole spoiler season right now i think has to be scuttling sentinel. i dont think i want to play her in any commander deck, but in my opinion this is like one of the top cards for cubes in 2024 period-- like cankerbloom tier of cube card. she's awesome! a crab elf which is such an awesome creature type, playable with green or blue, puts 1/1 counters on things and its main draw is just being a decent body that offers protection :) she's great!!!! ive already slotted her into the cube ive been piecing together recently. i like her a lot.

resonance technician is such a cool spell copier <3 every part of it is kind of expensive so im not really sure where youd play it but it does a lot of cool things all at once on a single card which is fun! the flavor is cool-- we all love weirds here-- and the functionality is useful and cute. cool card. big fan

we also have portal manipulator who is like one of the weirdest and strongest combat tricks ive ever seen? this is like if aetherize also fucked your shit in. so i can absolutely see this seeing a lot of play honestly. but lets be real here this card just has amazing art. thheres portals around her skull !!! god shes so cool.

corporeal projection gets a shoutout because what a fun effect <3 it being izzet is awesome and on-flavor and the card itself is both an interesting choice to give your creature myriad for extra damage and a fun wincon :) im glad theres a simple and convenient way to give one creature myriad now that isn't a brick to run in my commander decks because it has a high-cost endgame mode. yay!

finally it wouldnt be a goqmir set review if i didnt shout out the new cards that work well in Naya Cast From Exile :3 Boros Strike-Captain seems kind of mid but it's important to remember that the card never goes away, and you can cast it any time after when you attack with at least 3 creatures even if BSC is off the battlefield. big fan of this one! im not sure if i can find the space to jam him in my Rocco Street Chef decklist but he's a very playable option.

Personally, i think Headliner Scarlett is the winner this set. She's a very good hit pretty much any time-- you're always gonna get a minimum of 4 free damage when she sticks, and if you play her early you get some pretty strong card advantage, which turns into very very strong card advantage in both Rocco and Prosper. if you pull her late, she can win you the game straight up by allowing you to swing out uninhibited-- though i can't speak for Prosper players, this will pretty much always be at minimum a knock out if you pull it lategame in Rocco. definitely making room for her in my decklist.

anyway thats just some cards i liked from the weird product thats coming out :3 i was and still am iffy on purchasing the product and expect the cards to be a little too expensive but as far as designs go they're pretty cool and im very happy that they exist! um sqrrk <3

[w1f1n1ghtm4r3]

followup fun facts about together, to that promised aquarium

this is gonna be just kinda a disorganized post of random things so uh. dont mind that.

the event title is actually a double reference ^^ its both a callback to 1dt with 1c promising to find time to do things as friends despite getting busier (even if theres no ichika this time), and also a reference to harusakis first kizuna!

colopale you still havent given us that aquarium they said theyd go to. theres a reason i had to do it myself. the fact that theres not an aquarium event in general is a crime tbh i know theres some romantic connotations with a pair going to an aquarium but theres very easy solutions to avoiding that? sending a group of 3+ characters together, having them run into other characters while there, inviting someone else along (even if they cant go, it helps make it feel more like a friend thing i think). i did a bit of the latter two, as you mightve noticed! in general though its just SUCH an obviously fun event theme i cant beleive we havent had one yet

while i am a known harusaki shipper, i kept the story pretty light on the stuff that could be read as explicitly shippy, since when im trying to make fake events, i like to think about how itd work in canon, which means keeping it low on explicit ship content. plenty of stuff that could be taken as ship food (as id like it to be!) but nothing that would alienate non shippers from enjoying the story too.

i actually didnt write shizukasas presence as intended for ship content at all though, but im definitely okay with people taking it that way lol they can be on a date too if you want them to be. my plan with them was simply theyre childhood friends too but dont get to spend time together that often anymore -> their schedules line up with a free day and tsukasa heard about the aquarium from saki, decides to invite shizuku to go there with him as a part of hanging out together -> surprise encounter with harusaki!

also both of them were scoring quite high on the form when i decided to lock in the lineup (tsukasa was absolutely sweeping the 2* category, and while shizuku wasnt winning anything, she was a pretty popular choice) and theyre very easy to work into a story together and also into a story that is focused on harusaki (╯▽╰ ) the benefits of siblings and unitmates

(tsukasa 2* poll sweep at the time of me solidifying my lineup)

the event and gacha names actually both came to me one night while i was about to fall asleep. struck by inspiration so strong i had to grab my phone and write them down in my notes app. and they actually worked very well! also heres the transparents of the logos if you want them i guess

the card/skill/costume names also mostly came to me in similar ways, in the last couple nights before i finished everything. i think only saki, luka, and shizukus skills didnt come to me that way.

while the rui fish in tsukasa card might be obvious, theres actually more animals referencing other characters too! theres a group of three fish in sakis card that are the colors of the rest of leoni, the sneakiest of the bunch, and also not quite as sneaky but maybe not as obvious as the rui fish is the airi and minori sea slugs :)

i did think about giving tsukasa fish to be emu and nene too, but that many differently colored fish in a 2* seemed like too much, so i didnt do it... at least of the units involved, 2/3 of them are fully represented in some way!

and now most importantly probably, is that this is in fact my second pass at an aquarium event! the original one i started back in 2022 and......... i think you guys can figure out why i couldnt just reuse it when i decided to go for making an aquarium event again this time.

yep, youre seeing that right. 4/5 of the characters i chose are the same as what ended up being 1dt, all i got wrong was the vs. thats pretty crazy, honestly. im still not fully convinced colopale isnt just stealing my ideas after val3 happened too /j

it was also saki focus actually! i had written out a rough idea for the story back then too, and while theres some similarities to the current one, it obviously went through a lot of changes when revising the lineup and also with everything that has happened in the story over the past two years. it was definitely a bit more explicitly shippy than my new attempt, although i still tried to keep the shipping stuff toned back somewhat

i only ever made one card for that set though, just lukas 2*... but thats the original reason i made the old 2* backgrounds! its always those fake events throwing me into the graphic design trenches (fist shake) i had been trying to do a more canon-accurate style to......... mixed success. its not terrible, but i definitely could not have done the full set like this. theres a reason i did promised aquarium in my own style!

the original theme for the set was kind of like..... performers at an aquarium? along with living water sculptures of animals. it was a fun idea, but i think i was much better suited to doing the underwater scenes of promised aquarium and also we have plenty of performance themed trained sets already ^^

considering i also technically kept her from the original set (plus she was also winning the vs poll), i gave her a higher rarity card this time around for fun. and also because i knew none of shizuku tsukasa or luka would have super significant roles in the story, and i thought it would be fun to design a lim hairstyle for her!

one final random fun fact: the thing that kicked me into gear making promised aquarium was the fact that haruka wasnt on beautiful sound. i was just a little mad that they had an underwater set WITH A PENGUIN COSTUME and there was no haruka. sometimes petty beef brings out my craziest motivations and then i proceeded to spend the better part of a month planning and making it happen.

[red-dyed-sarumane]

marshall maximizer is a series song right. i think thats the only one ive listened to (yet), un:c did a good cover of it ...... what are ur thoughts on it whats it about . kicking my legs in the air

YES YES MARSHALL MAXIMIZER IS A SERIES SONG. theres so much going on in it u have no idea yes the song fucks verily but holy shit is it so important to the story.

okay so i think i need to give like. a quick reminder of the story here right. so u have "a certain world" & basically these people onset the destruction of said world such that it basically crumbles to pieces & then disappears. tragic. okay. but theres a catch. they get more than one chance to try. when one iteration of the world ends instead of really dying they kind of just. wake up in a new version. the world's still going to end in the day, but they get another chance to try and save it. the only real thing about it is any given person still has to have sight of their own goals or they aren't allowed to wake up next time & they disappear as well. this is, in the original song and afterwords referred as as being a "person" and having "one's self" or not having your self & being a "thing".

marshall maximizer is the explanation of this phenomenon (the later song laboratory being the demonstration of this concept btw to build off what this song says) among other things.

ill get to the lyrics in a second but the thing that always gets me about this song is the text in the middle of the video that's a conversation between two people. idk how to even go about this i just want to quote the whole thing at u. the beginning of its the narrator (perhaps not the same one as the lyrics but i cant prove or disprove this) trying to figure out the whole thing and the person working with them- referred to as "doctor"- basically says choosing who u are is an impossibility and if u cant prove ur alive of ur own volition then u arent even truly "alive" & won't have a place in heaven or hell. the narrator then asks the doctor to prove if he's alive for himself to which he doesnt answer and the narrator goes "Doctor, you have the appearance of a human. But, what of the possibility you're a 'thing' someone created?" to which the doctor answers "and if im not a 'person'?" and the narrator continues "Just as an example. Doctor, you said 'I chose this job in order to go to heaven.' And the reason you stay here is because 'if i can go to heaven, then it's fine to die,' right?" after this the doctor still cant give a solid answer and when the narrator looks for him again, he's disappeared entirely. which is nearly one to one with what the girls in the songs are going through. the doctor wasnt really doing it for himself he was doing it simply to achieve an end, with no real strong desire or goal along the way, which essentially turns him into a mere tool or 'thing' to achieve that end. much like the girls in the songs; they have to have something in it for themselves or they're a mere "thing" to be used, and at that point they'll disappear entirely.

theres also flashing text of 2 kanji words at the end that are a lot less profound but do give some insight on the series. the terms are broken up a series of three question marks & im willing to bet its describing the timelines in the story. the first 5 words regarding observing the failures of the past, the next 11 dealing more with what sounds like the more modern songs & all the confusion & rash decisions bringing them to their end, and then the last 15 words possibly being from the sort of future or at the very least whatever point in time the first song takes place in as it seems to lineup the most with shoushitsu itself. but its not like its as important to this song's understanding as the mini novel in the middle is.

so whats up with the lyrics then. as u can guess its not as fun as the song sounds. theres a lot of mentions of experiments in this song & ive seen people say its like the demon core thing irl, but i need u to understand the while series been talking about science experiments the whole time. like. all of aru sekai shoushitsu is talking about it, kyuuyaku is talking about it, shuuen touhikou is to some extent talking about it, oumen is, apoptosis is, etc etc this is just par for the course okay, but it does show maximizer in particular does have direct influence on experiments being performed or at least attempted. she is pretty casual about how she talks about it btw the character in this song gives me a very easy going type of vibe with how she talks which is probably why the song itself is the way it is and not like something that fills u with dread the entire time. though i would argue parts of the instrumental do sound like theres a bit of weight in them and its not ALL party time vibes.

one thing i do want to point out in regards to both the lyrics and the people vs thing topic, are the lines "ki ga kuruu HITO no furi wo shiteiru KIMI wo miteiru" (observing You pretending to be a Person gone mad) and "ki ga kuruu HITO no mane wo shiteiru KIMI e" (to You who's imitating a person gone mad) where both the words for person and you are in katakana drawing emphasis to it as well as mirroring how the "people' vs "thing" is written in both the background texts & previous songs. which is to say the narrator here is very aware of this other person not actually being a person. the implications here that since its "pretending to be a person" the "you" is a…. perhaps less direct way of calling out that its a "thing" or in completely transparent terms, is a person not acting on their own will and doomed to disappear. similar to this is the most recognizable lyrics in this song the "tabete sugu nete ushi ni naru/ okite mata nete hito de nashi?"(eating, falling right asleep, becoming a cow/ waking up, sleeping again, is that so inhuman?) is also calling on that "person" aspect, although not as strongly as hito uses the kanji this time rather than katakana. in any case she's still making the claim that despite all the horrors going on she's still acting as she pleases so she should still count as a person……right?(spoilers she does)(this isnt really spoilers because its told to u by the fact the nami no ne no motif is in the song) but it DOES show she's a little worried about it. not enough to full out panic but she sees other people no longer counting as people it makes sense she's going to worry about herself.

likewise the lines in the chorus "nante koto da! shindeshimau!"(what the hell is this! we'll die!" is much more likely referring to the fact if they arent "people" they disappear and are REALLY dead & is kind of worrying over that. like the line later what the hell is this! we'll live! is not really rejoicing at a percieved break in the case so much as realizing she DOES have her own goals in it and she's not about to disappear just yet.

and then of course i cannot overlook that this is also Sunk Cost Fallacy:The Song. the whole "sunk coster, sunk costess! 'i want to return to the isotope we had at the end!' 'we're falling to the worst of hell! falling!' but a dazzling unbalance diverged farway!" like on top of all of this she's still going to run the experiments that are risking her literal self to whatever extent that she invests herself in them. she cant give up yet. they've put so much into trying to correct this disaster, lost so many people, endured so much trauma, even when continuing is a sin, there's no other option but to continue at this point. even when they know it's pointless, even when they can see (to take imagery from kanon) the scales have been upset & the outcome will never be good, theres no other option.

theres a bit more to it but that requires getting sources from other songs & its not overly huge details its probably fine to leave them out for now this is long enough as is. one thing i do want to mention is its one of the side songs(songs that are not directly linked to aru sekai shoushitsu itself/not one of the kanji songs that links to certain lyrics in it) that has alliteration in the title (ma ma) as a way of keeping with the "repeating fractals" theme in the series. which to me implies this situation is not particularly unique to this character as some other songs are (oumen especially, touhikou, ashura, etc)(apoptosis i have an argument to make about but thats another topic entirely) and while maybe not 1:1 it can also be applied to other chara's experiences, or maybe implies its happened at other parts of the timeline as well. which makes sense since its common knowledge among the charas that some people are not "people" anymore so yeah i can imagine them keeping watch on coworkers they think are losing or have lost their selves. that doesnt make maximizer a general song though this is still VERY MUCH a subjective song from a particular chara's perspective & leaves things out & emphasizes others accordingly.

anyway my opinion on this song is that its VERY good and VERY important to get a good look at the story. the instrumental behind the tabete sugu nete ushi ni naru parts scratches my brain & the inclusion of the series "this chara lives" motif drives me insane.10000/10 everyone should like this song.

[nicky35]

UCONN TWITTER HAVING ARGUMENTS ABOUT STARTING LINEUPS??

Oh we are soooooo back 😁📸

You’re in the Paige, Kaitlyn, Ash, Ice, and Jana starting 5 team right? And then Sarah Strong for Ice and Azzi for Ash midway through the season?

sarah over ice but yeah thats what i'm thinking. maybe allie will get to come in for ash a bit before azzi gets cleared. i think kk and morgan coming in for kaitlyn and paige. ice for jana and yanna for sarah.

[narwhalandchill]

(tw MoC 12 metachurl vent 💀 im Struggling)

discovering thru multiple showcases on YT that yanqing hypercarry w RM tingyun aventurine might in fact be just. Straight up better in terms of clear speed and/or consistency than jingliu for this MoC 12 second half and especially the turbulence this time around has me like. Side-eyeing my very recent lvl 20 E1 dude (got him from standard pity like a week ago and then aven 50-50 loss now) like . Perhaps ive judged you too harshly ...... jkjk

Unless? 🤔

i knowwww i could prolly just reset for enough tries to clear w either jingliu or some other setup (i do in fact have 2 clears that just Barely slipped into the 19th cycle by the end) but also its kinda just painful 😭 this MoC feels so bad without acheron or someone like argenti or even SW its unreal

like the amount of setups that just. Havent worked out for me At All is wild to me. first i had to largely give up on the idea of fx on 2nd half period bc the wombo combo of the ascended lady slapping ur entire team like a marastruck car saleswoman bc this bad boy can fit so many wind shears in it so ur taking all that chip dmg before u even make it to aventurine who will gleefully beat ur ass before i manage to clear is just. Not good. especially when jinglius already draining the teams hp 💀

luckily aventurine seems a better bet for 2nd half (50% eff res might not be foolproof against CC but it actually blocks the wind shears p nicely) but theres a Big issue w trying to bring him in a jingliu team called "area woman takes 3 consecutive turns in a slow bronya setop on first cycle and expires own shield, is fully exposed to dmg for the enemys first actions" like. if she gets heavy targeted during that window its just so bad . the hp drain would already be a challenge but combined w that its just Not Good. Aventurines very strong for 2nd half outside of that tho (and v good at proccing the turbulence on either half obvi). Especially in teams of keel using supports bc u can lose a gambit and still have all ur 80-90 eff res shielded supports resist boss aventurines CC

in general the bosses are just way too fucking tanky meaning u Need to take advantage of the turbulence (attack 6 times before each cycle ends) for the dmg it deals but thats a Problem w my usual lineups and built units (lots of hypercarry teams and supports like RM sparkle TY that use ally targeting abilities so cant proc the turbulence stack consistently)

i think in terms of the 1st half i prolly have some more options left to explore to try to push a faster clear so theres more cycles left for 2nd but i shit you not the team thats worked the best so far has been. QQ. All these 5* carries and i had to fucking bring out QQ after so long to see results 💀💀💀 to be fair its a sparkle team so like. unsurprising that QQ shreds but its still finicky. in general the fastest clears have been between xueyi n QQ in more or less the same setups

2nd half is. An issue tho. im not gonna be cringe and say jingliu is like bad or unplayable there and cant clear bc she definitely can like shes e0s1 ffs and even my best attempts cut it very close and if i had a faster 1st half it wouldve cleared within 20 cycles. But what i will say is that she Does Not Feel Good there . obviously part of it is just my own fault bc i never rly committed to minmaxing her build the way ive done for most carries since shes so strong at baseline anyway. and thats showing in her clear time even with good supports. and then by not clearing aventurine fast enough even in hyper jingliu teams u get stuck w his gamba phase and then the supports not having a way to deal w the gambit becomes an issue and its just all cringe from there

also i just find the aventurine boss mechanics (and to an extent the meme dino too) very infuriatingly anti synergistic with the turbulence bc. if you proc the turbulence during his gambit on the dice its literally just fuck you all dmg gone like it doesnt even get you an extra roll . the dino at least isnt invulnerable at any point and its gimmick is more straightforward but it also takes v little dmg from the turbulence proc if not broken

another thing w jingliu is also abt the dice phases. like she also has such anti synergy w the gambit bc losing that uptime in her enhanced state just to roll the gambit (even if she usually wins) Isnt Nice bc thats dmg she could (and should) be doing to the boss instead 😭 like my jinglius somewhat unpolished build aside the base mechanics of the aventurine boss just arent a good match w her kit and teams imo. (cue the cursed yanqing consideration)

obviously jingliu isnt the only option for 2nd half like i did fiddle around w my decent ish e0s2 (s2... ThoseWhoKnow💀) clara build a bit and a team w her IS very very good at proccing the turbulence and synergistic with aventurine but at least in those attempts she was just lacking too much dmg when she wasnt getting counters and that delayed clearing the first 2 bosses in particular . I also did a shockingly close cut 19 cycles clear w a xueyi off element team of all things on 2nd half and QQ hyper on the other

but mannn. obviously i could just leave it be like its fine . u dont need to always 36* and this MoC is very clearly favoring units like acheron whomst i dont have and debuffer heavy teams like invested ratio SW whatevers. but a part of me just Rly wants to figure it out and work out a solution to it all

and the idea of that solution possibly involving building my yanqing since despite his shortcomings hes just unironically better in the kind of true ST content like the aventurine boss compared to jingliu now that a non gepard actually usable shielder exists. i mean. its just kinda funny .

Is it a good idea in terms of long term resource investment on an account? Dubious. Is it absolutely hilarious to possibly bench a jingliu for yanqing of all people just bc fuck this MoC in particular? Kinda yeah. For sure

...guess ill keep u guys updated 🤔

anyway TLDR this MoC is kinda agony im considering unwise building decisions just to get a funny clear out of it as opposed to being boring and just resetting until i manage a good clear since ive already gotten so close w my existing teams

[astronomical-bagel]

Whats your monkie kid au about?

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE IM SO GLAD YOU ASKED!!!!! IVE BEEN WORKING ON A POKEMON AU!!!!!!!

(idk when the cutoff will be, but warning for a very long infodump XD)

okay listen i cannot emphasize how much thought has been put into this, i have backstories for each of the pokemon, i know how all of them met their trainers, ive designated the serious trainers with a specific type of pokemon they train, like. listen to me. i have put SO much thought into this and how pokemon would fit into the lmk universe and canon. im going insane.

anyways, heres some of the pokemon/trainer lineups. ive done..... a large majority of the important cast? i havent gone into azure's whole group, but i think thats all im missing. i've done a lot.

ANYWAYS take the traffic light trio, they were the first ones i did!

And heres how they met each pokemon! (I havent named any of them yet LMAO, but i will!)

MK

No specialty

Whimsicott

it flew into his face on a breeze when he was a kid (like ten), he begged to keep it. It evolves before canon starts while theyre playing together :)

Monferno

found during “A hero is born”, when climbing down the mountain (it kind of just followed him for a while until he noticed it and went :D!!). it evolved in s4 “the emperor’s wrath” against azure (when he fully accepted his monkey form)

Kubfu 

“Impossible delivery”, He runs into it (literally) on the way home down the mountain, and he keeps it bc why not

Mei

Dragon/Electric

Rayquaza 

Passed down through the family, kinda fucks off until mei calls upon it (mei can still turn into a dragon, needs to learn to work together with him and do JOINT ATTACKS)

Vibrava

Chosen at a store with her parents before canon, evolved when she used the dragon blade

Boltund

“The great wall race”, evolved during the training in s2 “this is the end”

Pawmi

Found in s3 special “this imperfect world” during training with redson, helped her conceptualize the storing and release of energy of the Samadhi fire and stuff

Red Son

Fire

Ponyta

Chosen w parents as a child

Tauros

Inherited from his father after he was trapped (the other pokemon didnt make it)

Salandit

Caught before his father was released, found in volcano 

Sizzlepede

Found in volcano cave (different one, still before dbk was released) and it tried to eat him and he was Delighted

Fletchling 

Found sometime around “revenge of the spider queen”. It was injured (fell out of nest? Hurt leg? hmm) but still tried to attack him and defend its territory, so he deemed it strong enough to become his teammate 

okay okay some notes:

Pigsy didn't want MK having too many pokemon, partially because of mess/healthcode violations, and also because of money reasons. he had just the one pokemon the for the majority of his life, and after 'A Hero Is Born' pigsy was 1. so glad that MK was alive that he didn't care and 2. mk promised to keep it away from the kitchen and pay for all of its needs itself and ect ect. it was very much a 'PLEAAAASEEE can I keep it 🥺' kind of thing. The Kubfu mainly stays at the training ground (its very dedicated), so that wasn't an issue.

For Mei, she chose the trapinch (the preevolution of the vibrava) at the pokemon equivalent of a pet store bc its a tradition in the family to get a dragon-type pokemon when they turn twelve. her parents showed her a bunch of options and she thought the final evolution looked epic. The Boltund is known for chasing fast things, including vehicles. it chased her until the finish line and she was delighted to have attracted such a fast pokemon. the pawmi was just a little guy that she was secretly messing with instead of paying attention to red son XD

okay there's not too much extrapolation i have to go into for red son, BUT. the fact that none of his pokemon have evolved was/is a major sore point for him, and his parents often were critical on whether they (and by proxy, red son) were strong enough. Now he and his parents are more normal about it, and ironically its the lack of stress and pressure that's going to make it easy for them to evolve now. smth smth friendship is an important part of a pokemon's health, its like a whole character arc for him.

AND THATS NOT ALL. I wanted to go over like... specifically why i chose some of these pokemon!! like, for MK, his pokemon represent different parts of him, like, narratively!

the whimscott is playful, loves pranks, and its kind of a metaphor for the more childish side of him? Which is why i made it his first pokemon! (I also chose it because it reminded me of the monkey kings cloud, which i feel like his younger self would have wanted sooo bad LMAO)

the monferno is obviously related to his connection to the monkey king, but most importantly it hangs in packs, and THEREFORE represents his love for his friends bc obviously that's a huge part of him, yk? (I also really like this pokemon for him bc it matches his color scheme XD)

And for the Kubfu, the episode it was found on is very important! the kubfu is known for how dedicated it is to its training both its body and its mind, as well as its "fighting spirit". Sooo obviously it represents MK's sense of duty and his want to train to be better! He and his kubfu train a LOT in season 2, when he's trying to prepare for the LBD. (Fun Fact: this was almost Wukong's pokemon, but i couldnt stop drawing connections to MK when looking at it because its got the little bandana and everything, and i thought it was too similar to him to be wukongs pokemon. i mean, if he already mentored that pokemon, that would make the fact that he's mentoring MK way less meaningful, yk?)

OKAY OKAY IM FINALLY DONE, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE ASK AND LETTING ME RAMBLE. PLEASE SEND ME MORE ASKS, I HAVE PUT JUST AS MUCH THOUGHT INTO EVERY OTHER CHARACTER'S POKEMON, AND I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY ON EVERYTHING. I AM NOT EXAGERATING IN THE SLIGHTEST MY GOOGLE DOCS FOR THIS IS ALREADY SO LARGE. IF YOU WANT YOU CAN ASK FOR SPECIFIC CHARACTERS OR GROUPS AND I CAN GIVE YOU ALL THE POKEMON THEY HAVE AND STUFF.

[dateamonster]

🛸volatile traits masterpost🛸

(last updated 10/8/23)

what is volatile traits?

vt is my own lil oc verse ive been making art and other assorted content for on and off since i was maybe 16? it is primarily the story of a teenager named Wendy, the daughter of a doomsday cult leader seeking escape, and her relationship with Auree, a shapeshifting alien monster who has been separated from her people following a failed invasion.

in their nihilism and teenage angst the pair plan to reject their respective factions in the human/alien conflict and take earth for themselves, but their aspirations are frequently interrupted by day to day distractions, new friends, old grudges, police chases, babysitting, gender/sexuality crises, celebrity cameos, and a blooming romance.

its essentially a scifi slice of life with intermittent wacky romcom shenanigans.

main cast

wendy phillips: after a lifetime of being promised ultimate cosmic punishment, when she realized doomsday might not be coming it was hard for wendy to say if she felt more relieved or disappointed. wendy is curious and scientifically minded. her upbringing has made her sharp, bitter, and prone to apathy, but she's not giving up yet.

auree: far from home, captured, contained, and isolated from anyone who could relate to her, auree's rage transformed her into a monster. only after meeting wendy was she able to find a way out of her destructive survival-mode state. auree is the inverse to wendy's passivity; she feels everything, big and loud and bright and all the time. the two balance one another, but can also feed into each other's worse impulses.

haddie muhammdi: an absolute dictionary definition of introverted nerd. haddie is wendy's former babysitter and occupies a complicated place in her life. her anxious, conflict-avoidant personality caused her to neglect a younger wendy at a time when she really needed her support and ever since they've reconnected she's been trying to make amends and prove herself reliable.

scarlett laroux: an alien of auree’s kind who likewise came to earth as part of a mission claim it for their homeworld, a mission she justifies to herself with the belief that humans are not fully thinking, compassionate beings. finding that humans will basically let you get away with anything if you're rich or famous enough, she's taken the identity of a popular movie star. despite her strong anti-earthling convictions, she starts to feel conflicted when it comes to the exiled auree and her little gang of humans.

henry peck: a middle aged janitor who discovered an abandoned lil goo baby at the hospital he works at and was thus unceremoniously thrust into the role of fatherhood, something he never thought himself capable of. he is awkward, unsociable both by nature and experience, and he is trying his damn best. his stilted, gruff way of communicating belies a meek, somewhat self-depreciating man who wants for a better world but doesn't necessarily believe in it.

bud: little alien blob of a baby. just vibing.

art/comics/etc

symbols of heroism

auree body horror moment

shapeshifting lessons with bud

this tornado loves you

fisher king

umbrella

gender blues

funney auree sketches

birthday

cast lineup

some gay nonsense

little miss teenage doomsday

volatile traits zine!!

auree/wendy inktober sketch

auree inktober sketch

(any pre-college art im too lazy to dig up and thats probably for the best anyway)

also..

okiedok thats all for now thanks for reading byee :p

[0alanasworld0]

morocco v south africa rant

amallah, ounahi and amrabat were sorely missed today.

its time to bring bilal and abde^2 back up because lord knows we need the depth.

raihani would do a good job fulfilling ounahi's role and keep that moroccan tiki taka thing going on with ziyech.

abde is a fantastic winger that is very reminiscent of what boufal usually does, albeit a bit raw. he would have been valuable today and against cabo verde imo. i think he would link up well with en-neysri because they both thrive in chaos and are wonderful at putting pressure on the opposing defences. perhaps abde is better suited to a super-sub than a starter for now tho. i hope his time at barca transforms him into a starter because a full 90 minutes of his playing style (with the barca refinement) would really bring some energy to the attack and take a little bit of pressure off boufal. the same for sabiri but i would argue he would work as a starting player already.

bilal is very young and a very raw talent but he's proven his quality on the national team plenty of times so i see no problem in having him start games. he's clearly miles ahead of today's midfield.

as for the amrabat situation, i genuinely don't know if its even possible for anyone else to fill his role. to the point where i wonder whether its worth even looking. the easiest course of action would be to simply figure out a different system for when he can't play. which is probably best anyway for longevity.

zakaria and anass r good players. they've shown their level in their respective clubs throughout the season but they lack the confidence to deliver those performances for the national team. i think they should remain as subs and if they are to start, it should be for games like today that don't put any kind of tournament at risk. they'll grow into monsters for the team eventually.

defensively, i would say that they're near flawless. aguerd and saiss top notch as always. attiyat allah and the other one do well in terms of pushing forward. mazraoui is usually fantastic so i will put today down to post-season fatigue and also wager a guess that he would have improved if he'd stayed on a bit longer. el yamiq and dari and fantastic as subs or even starters for when aguerd and saiss arent available. chadi riad will eventually be ready too.

munir didn't have a great game today but thats kinda the nature of goalkeeping. he has a plethora of outstanding performances to comfortably call today a fluke. bounou has had those days too. not worth worrying about the goalkeeping because it genuinely doesn't get better than those 2.

this team is far from perfect or invincible but most teams are in that position atm. i would actually argue that morocco is in a much better position than most national teams because they have an incredibly strong, clear starting lineup. that starting lineup from the brazil match is undoubtably the ideal going forward. today proved that and also showed everyone which players should be kept on the squad should anything happen to that starting XI. we know which players are currently best fitted for the starting XI and the subs. a lot of today's starters have some work to do before they come back. hopefully they can improve at their clubs or international friendlies and come back a lot stronger.

in conclusion, it'll all be fine. deadass, theres nothing to worry about. we would rather come to these conclusions now than during the knockouts. its good that different players got a chance because its clear what works and what doesn't moving forward.