#the good satisfying stuff isn’t actually that related to the stuff that goes ding

[beneathsilverstars]

i think if you’re doing mirabelle’s rpg. you have to put isat right in the middle. i think it should go like… she goes through vaugarde collecting the orbs and noticing all these mysteries about her companions and mourning all the frozen towns, and she wants to get to know her friends better, and figure out what’s bothering them and help with it, and go do fun touristy things with them, etc etc, but they have a country to save. there’s no time, and everything is frozen. if that wasn’t the case, they wouldn’t even be traveling together at all! and the whole time mirabelle’s struggling with anxiety and imposter syndrome and the weight of being The Savior. she has to fix things but she can’t, she wants to help her friends but she can’t, she has to change but she doesn’t want to. she’s getting a bad grade in rpg protagonist!!!

but then we hit isat. and you expect it to be the culmination of mirabelle’s arc, but she’s not ready for that yet, just like she’s felt unprepared and unworthy all game, stuck in this role, under the weight of everyone’s expectations — of course doing the thing everyone wants her to do can’t be mirabelle’s defining moment, no matter how much she also believes in the importance of the quest. when she vanquishes the king, it doesn’t actually fix any of her personal problems. it wasn’t even really about her.

instead, the focus of this event is on siffrin, since it turns out the unchanging king was his foil all along, not mirabelle’s. mysteries are answered about both siffrin and the king, but more importantly — this is the turning point for everyone. the result of the most seemingly-stand-offish character’s arc is the key to making progress in everyone else’s: the party admits they care about each other and decides to keep traveling together.

the second half of the game, then, is going backwards through vaugarde, visiting all the same places again. and now that they’re not on their blessed quest in the name of change, they DO have time and they ARE all officially friends. everyone gets a little arc, echoing the five orbs, starting with isat as siffrin’s. they’re still clearing out sadnesses — and there’s some really strong ones as everyone takes stock of how much time has passed and how much damage has been done — but they don’t respawn anymore. people are starting to recover! and instead of dungeon puzzles, there’s fetch quests and mini games as the party helps vaugarde rebuild. a lot of the quests relate to things they saw while frozen, a bunch of mysteries and tragedies that they can finally DO something about. and in the same way, the family can finally get closer and talk about important things and meet each other’s friends/family and share their interests etc etc, all these old mysteries and maybe-some-days getting resolved!

and then, finally. mirabelle has been doing work that she CHOSE, helping vaugarde rebuild. and sometimes people use the opportunity to rebuild differently, but sometimes people just want the same familiar things back, and that’s not actually bad, it’s nothing like being frozen. you can keep living in the same house but making new memories, fixing things as needed, both different and the same. and mirabelle realizes that she doesn’t need to change. she realizes she has changed, and she will keep changing, but she can stay the same the whole time too. she doesn’t need to be what people expect, not the perfect housemaiden or the rpg protagonist savior. she can just strive to be the best version of herself!!

and that’s the end of the game, bc mirabelle isn’t trying to figure out how to do everything right to win the game anymore. she’s just living ^^

[wexhavexaxhulk]

Spider Frights

A/N: was Halloween a month ago? Yes. Did I just get this idea and thought it was really funny and wanted to write it anyways? Yes.

Halloween. Peters favorite time of the year. Lots of candy, amazing costumes, children that dress up as Spider-Man, scaring the hell out of people, shall he continue?

Tony on the other hand hates it. Small children in cheap costumes constantly ringing his doorbell, having to deal with Peter after he ate way too much sugar, always getting scared, shall he continue?

Ding dong

“Ugh, how many children are there?” Tony said after the thousandth doorbell ring. He and Peter were trying watching The Nightmare Before Christmas but they kept having to pause every 5 seconds.

“Approximately 26% of the world’s population.”

“How did you know that?”

“I know everything Mr. Stark.”

“Sure you do kid.” He stood up front the coach. “What’s the smell of rain called?”

“Petrichor.” He said without a pause.

“My middle name?”

“Edward.”

“The hottest degree ever recorded on earth?”

“2 billion degrees kelvin.”

“Jeez kid. How do you know all of that.”

“When I can’t sleep I just stare at my ceiling for hours thinking about anything and everything.”

“Oh.” Tony opened the door expecting to see another kid dressed in a terrible avengers costume. Instead he saw no one. “Weird.”

“Whats weird?” Peter said not being able to see the door.

“No ones there. Probably some ding dong ditcher.” He walked back to the couch and as soon as he sat down the doorbell rang again. He muttered “Dammit.” and stood back up quickly and opened the door.

No one was there.

Tony slammed the door already tired of getting up to feed kids candy even though it was still pretty early in the night. Only 5 or 6 o’clock. The second he took a step the doorbell rang again.

Tony opened the door as fast as could. When he did he got a face full of potato. “Harley?!”

“Hey!”

“What are you doing here?”

“You don’t want to see me? I see how it is.”

“Not at the moment.” He said while brushing potato out of his hair.

Peter has never met Harley but from what he could tell from the stories Tony told him is that he was fun. Tony had said that if Peter and Harley got together they would probably blow stuff up and cause Tony more stress and most likely give him a heart attack.

“Come on in. This is Peter.” He said pointing to Peter.

“I didn’t know you had an actual son.”

“Oh we’re not related.” Peter said.

Harley looked confused.

“Peter is an intern as SI”

“Who happens to be spending Halloween with you where you live watching movies? I don’t buy it.”

It was silent for a second then Peter said “I’m Spider-Man.”

Harley looked at him with a disbelieving look. Peter looked too small and fragile to be Spider-Man.

“How has the whole world not found out yet, your so bad at keeping secrets.”

“Wait he really is Spider-Man?”

“Yup.”

“Oh that’s awesome!”

Harley asked about the mechanics in his webshooters and they immediately became friends.

“This isn’t going to end well.” Tony said to himself.

Later that night Harley though it would be funny if they snuck out and went trick or treating. Peter had and even better idea of going trick or treating in the Spider-Man and Ironman suit.

They got many compliments on there ‘very realistic costumes’ and got extra candy when Peter did some flips.

When they got back they had tons of candy, approximately 2-3 pillowcases each.

“You wanna see who can eat the most candy the fastest?”

“Your on! I have a super fast metabolism!”

“I’m southern!”

Peter obviously won but it was still pretty close.

When Tony walked in the room he saw thousands of candy wrappers and Peter and Harley were practically buzzing. They both looked over at Tony and he slowly backed away.

“You can crawl on walls right?”

“Yeah”

“I have a great bad idea”

“I’m down”

———

Peter and Harley quieted down so Tony thought they were finally asleep. They must sugar crashed after all that candy they ate.

He walked into the kitchen and opened the fridge, looking for some left over takeout. He found some and closed the fridge.

Then all of a sudden the lights go out.

Tony goes to turn them back on but nothing happens. He’s too exhausted to deal with it so he just continues making his midnight snack in the dark. As he is putting the box into the microwave he hears a loud sound coming from down the hall. He sighs follows where the noise came from thinking that Peter and Harley woke up.

He finds no one and by now he getting a little worried. “FRI, is there anyone on this floor?”

“Just Peter, Harley, and Mrs. Potts”

Satisfied with the answer, he turns around and starts walking back towards the kitchen.

When his foot steps into the kitchen is when he sees it.

A gigantic Spider on the ceiling, creating a web.

Forgetting about his spider child, he grabs the broom that just so happens to be right next to him and starts whacking the spider while screaming.

Tony doesn’t love spiders. He’s trying to not be afraid because of Peter but deep down inside, spiders scare the shit out of him.

The spider falls onto the floor and he continues whacking.

“Ow! Ow! Mr. Stark it’s me Peter!”

He keeps hitting for a few more seconds before registering that the spider just talked. Then his brain finally catches up and sees he was hitting Peter in a spider costume the whole time.

“Peter! Are you ok!?”

“Yeah yeah I’m fine.”

“Good.” He breathed in deeply. “What the hell! You scared the shit out of me! You know I hate spider!”

Peter stood up. “Hey! It was all Harleys idea!”

Harley popped out from behind the couch. “Snitch! It wasn’t all my idea!”

“Both of you go to your rooms.” Then he whispered to him self, “I need to take my heart medication.”

They walked away but when they were out of ear reach they high fived each other. “That was awesome! You looked terrifying!”

“Thanks! How did you turn the lights off?”

“I hacked into FRIDAY and shut off the kitchen lights using a tablet I borrowed from his lab.”

“Nice! I’m exhausted from being whacked by a broom repeatedly so I’m actually going to bed.”

“Good idea, but we’re definitely gonna prank him tomorrow.”

“Duh! We should switch out his coffee with decaf.”

“Or glue his mugs to the cabinet.”

“Or glue fake spiders to the bottom of his mug so when he finishes his coffee he gets scared.”

“Or put real spiders in his coffee mugs!”

“...”

“Too far?”

“Maybe just a tad.”

Bonus:

Harley woke up to find a gigantic Spider on his ceiling staring him in the eyes. He screamed like a girl and Peter sent a video of it to everyone.

[noddytheornithopod]

So, Star Wars Resistance... I saw the premiere and the subsequent two episodes that Disney put online. I’ll discuss my thoughts under the cut (expect lots of Autistic feelings on Neeku :V).

I don’t know if I’m just getting older and would’ve felt the same about Ahsoka and Ezra’s first appearances, but I’m kinda finding Kaz annoying for now. I’m sure he’s going to develop and get better at... everything, but for now I’m finding him kinda grating. Like, he’s got the immaturity those characters had, but he’s more obnoxious about it especially since he’s such a try hard and his awkwardness with everything got annoying for me quickly. But of course, the massive idiot always ends up being right or fixes the problem of the episode. Makes me wonder how he even is a good pilot and flying T-85 X-wings in the New Republic navy. :P The most interesting thing about him so far is how sheltered he seems with his parents doing everything for him until now.

Oh yeah, Kaz saying the New Republic is all he’s ever known and he wants to fight for it... can’t wait to see how he’s going six months later. :P

We got a little bit of information about the Republic and Resistance relationship actually stated in visual media, namely how they weren’t allowed to engage Vonreg and Kaz had to get rid of them, and how the New Republic isn’t a fan of the Resistance even if they’re kind of necessary to keep an eye on the First Order. I can’t help but wonder if Kaz’s dad is secretly a First Order sympathiser, given the novel Bloodline indicates a lot of the “centrist” (as in, they want to centralise power) senators were secretly FO sympathisers. We don’t know much about Kaz’s dad besides him being a wealthy senator, heck we didn’t even see him when he talked with Kaz.

Besides Kaz being too much of a doofus for my liking, my other big issue was... Neeku. I’ve discussed before that his Autistic coding is pretty blatant, and these episodes pretty much confirmed he’s quite stereotypical there. I want to like him, but I feel really uncomfortable watching him. I’m not sure if it’s just me being overly weary and internalised ableism talking, but the whole literal minded thing got old fast. Like, if the character had more nuance at this point I might find it funny and relatable (think PnF or MML in this regard), but Neeku is so stereotypical (right down to the fucking Sheldon style voice - wait what do you mean his voice actor was also on The Big Bang Theory) that it just leaves me feeling second hand embarrassment. I thought they were going to be more introspective when he gets upset and talks about how he finds it hard to get others... but nah. Speaking of which, I kinda feel really weirded out at how they basically used his literal mind and naivete to basically get Kaz into conflict with everyone by taking his boast literally? Like great job guys, I sure feel so much better about myself right there. :/ I also feel weird because they make him seem really childlike and really emphasise it, and people talk about how cute and adorable he is. It’s just uncomfortable. Also, Kaz taking advantage of his literal mind to deceive him and sneak off from work? I literally said “you dick!” out loud to Kaz there. So yeah, Neeku isn’t really working for now. I hope they develop him more because my gosh I don’t want to watch Star Wars Sheldon every episode.

Yeager is probably the best character so far. I like how he’s a wise old mentor type but he also already showing his more flawed side in how he’s trying to avoid any of the First Order conflict. I also want to know more about his time in the Rebellion, how he knows Poe and what happened to his family (don’t you DARE tell me his kid was kidnapped by the First Order). Also, him being more grounded I think really helps in the face of doofus pilot and space Sheldon.

Tam is good. They haven’t really done much with her yet, but I’m sure that will change eventually since she has expressed her own ambitions. Also I definitely feel bad for her since she’s genuinely hardworking and committed to her jobs only for that doofus Kaz to show up and fuck up everything. I kinda get vibes of the whole “loser male protagonist overshadows actually competent female supporting character” thing here, to be honest. Like obviously Kaz has to grow as the protagonist but wow, I feel bad for Tam (though I guess we’re supposed to).

BB-8 is cool I guess, always there to pull off nifty stuff to help. I guess Poe is using Kaz’s astromech for now while BB-8 has Kaz on the mission? Bucket is okay I guess, nothing too special yet, his intro felt very Chopper though.

Haven’t seen much of the aces yet besides Torra, she seems nice and I’m definitely curious to see how her relationship with Kaz develops as they become friends. Also wow Kaz, you definitely underestimated her, just because she’s the youngest and newest doesn’t mean she’s easy, she’s an ace for a reason you ding dong. :P

The other denizens of the colossus are fine, at least the location is well thought out and the world building is there. Nobody I’ve really gravitated towards yet.

Torra’s father seems creepy. I can’t help but wonder if he’s a First Order sympathiser, or will at least be a total pushover in the face of them. I think I heard something about taking control of the Colossus but I’m not sure if it was about him or I misheard, I doubt it would be so vague though.

Dammit, I wanted a sympathetic Neimoidian, but the dude has to be in league with pirates and by extension the First Order. Also why does he have to be so fat, why do the villains have to be fat (yeah you know why but meh)?

Elijah Wood’s character was something for sure. I don’t think we’ve seen the last of him, I won’t be surprised if he ends up being a thorn in Kaz’s side in racing and mechanics or even works with the First Order.

The racing parts were pretty good, actually.

I want more of Vonreg. Of course we have to start small with those pirates being hired to do shit for the First Order, but he seems interesting. Also he’s got a cool voice, but it’s Lex Lang, of course I’m happy to see Dr Neo Cortex as the First Order’s top pilot.

Phasma is here, woo! Hope she is able to satisfy her fans here where she couldn’t in the movies. :P Also Commander Pyre is the gold stormtrooper, I wonder where he sits among the First Order if Phasma is always around for the important stuff?

Poe was cool, and Leia’s appearance was nice.

Why do the First Order want control of the Colossus? It seems pretty insignificant, but I guess we’re going to find out why it’s so strategically important with time. Definitely curious to the strategy at play.

OH YEAH also the racial diversity among the humans is pretty good too from what I can tell.

Overall, I’d say it was an okay start. It hasn’t got me fully into it like The Clone Wars movie or Rebel’s Spark of Rebellion did when they first came out, but IDK if it’s because I’m older or Resistance is aiming slightly younger. It has a lot of promise and I’m curious to see where it goes especially in regards to Yeager and the First Order’s plotting, but my gosh do Kaz and Neeku need development. I’m sure it will come since these Star Wars animated shows do show that patience pays off, but yeah. For now, not too into Kaz’s goofy antics. :P