#this art also just ended up being my favorite thing ive drawn somehow so thats nice

[almalex24]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY FAVORITEST GAME EVER!!!!!

this game and the characters mean the world to me and im so happy i can celebrate the anniversary like this... it means so much to me that people r making art for this silly niche indie game and like my art for it. im gonna keep drawing for said silly niche indie game!!! my passion can still go for so long!!! i have so many ideas i wanna draw. this game has inspired me both creatively and as silly as it sounds in my own personal life as well... im so happy for u existing crosscode. thank u so much to everyone in the community for just being so fun to be with and being so kind and welcoming!!! let the celebrations continue!!! thank u everyone for joining along my anniversary tag it means so much to me ;w;

[crguang]

fav hcs about kafka and black swan?

sfw? let me think… off the top of my head:

kafka not being able to cook is a favorite of mine idk why. the idea of her being terrible in the kitchen while having a picky palate is funny. at most, she can grill and boil things and make simple dishes but she can’t replicate the meals she prefers to eat and that’s just funny to me

she loves jazz. this one just makes sense to me i feel like she can listen to almost anything but if she were to control the aux some jazz would be in her playlist

she knows flower language and a bunch of pager codes

can tie a knot with her tongue

prefers calling over texting because she lowkey loves to talk. if you text her she might not answer but if you call the chances of her picking up are higher

has the habit of moving her index finger around or in circles when she’s lost in thought, like she’s conducting an orchestra

most of her favorite coats are custom made/designed

takes a whole day when she’s shopping because she’s super picky. still ends up with five bags worth of clothes and is always on the lookout for new ones no matter where she is. speaking off, everyone knows her pin cause they need to be on the lookout too (she has multiple credit cards. keeps track of each one)

her favorite lipstick color is peach with a little pink in it

gets quiet when she’s disappointed, sad or annoyed. tho she’ll also petulantly whines and tsks when she’s annoyed (my big baby)

not a words of affirmation girlie if you can’t handle her only telling you she loves you four times in a lifetime just end things😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 master at deflection, if you ask her if she loves you she’ll say shit like “isn’t it obvious?” “what do you think?” girl

SWEET TOOTH. IDC IDC she never says no to cake DIRECT FIREFLY QUOTE. she loves her lollipops

spine tattoo yup… a rose’s stem with thorns ive seen it personally

for swan let’s see…

somewhere on some planet she’s immortalized in art and doesn’t know it. for the amount of times she appears to people in reality or in dreams, i just know there’s an artist who had to draw/paint/sculpt this spirit they swear was tangible one second and disappeared the next

swan is very easy to remember because she stands out a lot by both her looks and her behaviour. people may not know that she’s a memokeeper, but she’s in a lot of people’s memories regardless

i don’t think her being a little stalker is a hc but i’m adding on to it so it kinda is… it’s one of my favorite things about her it’s just so funny to describe it that way 😭 all memokeepers are stalkers by default but swan is a very curious soul, she gets invested and ends up having to reveal herself because she just has to have an interaction with whoever she’s interested in

unlike most memokeepers, swan doesn’t discriminate in terms of what memory holds value. she sees value in everything. she’s more drawn by the feelings attached to memories than the memories themselves sometimes. a moment of quietude where nothing is said, all is still and everything is felt? so nice. she extracts it

she can call her s/o every pet name under the sun and somehow not be cringe about it. it’s a super power. maybe it’s because she’s so sexy and that voice is so sultry that if she called me some shit like “baby cakes” i’d giggle

some of her favorite moments are when her s/o is just about to fall asleep. i feel like she’d love to be the reason they get a good night’s rest and it’s story time (she loves telling stories)

a gift giverrr, since she sees value in all discarded and overlooked things it’s not rare for her to bring back objects that “have witnessed a lot” and that she thinks her s/o would like

fav cuddle position is being on the bottom with her s/o on top of her

she is soooo calm. so zen. so good at dealing with stressful people and stressful situations. not above giving her s/on a nice massage either but thats just an excuse to get her hands on them

doesn’t feel thirst or hunger but she does have a favorite drink. i dont know what it is but i know she has one ok. she was drinking a little too often with acheron

might indulge you if you ask her to show you her memokeeper tricks. mostly the stuff about her getting into tvs and billboards and paintings

loves to dance even if it’s just twirling her s/o around in the living room

smells like incense or specific candles

she lovesss touch and physical contact. always touching her s/o in some way. when they’re alone she takes off her gloves for it

i cant think of any more but i probably have a thousand that i write in unconsciously honestly

[kosmicdream]

Ode to Togashi

Stream of conscientious incoherent rant about manga/hxh below, read at your own discretion as i AM NOT EDITING IT: 

While I’m still in the mood to talk about art and what i love about manga, i feel like i wanted to share (some) of my thoughts on why HXH continues to be one of my favorite stories. Togashi’s writing method continues to be probably like, the closest one that i aspire to replicate in my own work, partly because i love to see how much it builds and learns from itself, reinvents itself, ect. But i DONT think Hxh is perfect, even if i wouldn’t change anything about it or togashi’s writing style. 

When I first got into HXH, it was actually through the old anime. I watched that all the way thru before reading the manga, and when i was watching the anime it was during a period of time when i hated all shonen. I still kinda hate “the shonen” model, despite loving many shonen series, but something abt HXH pulled me in to give it a try and i was quickly hooked. I of course, already had experience with YYH growing up as a teen but i somehow missed HXH completely until my early 20s. I had already started trying comics by then, but it was EGGSHELLS and i had not started FFAK at that point.

HXH almost lost me at greed island my first round, ngl. I appreciate it now, andi still think the set up for Greed island was amazing but the arc itself.. I was not into it, mostly cause i think the villain for it was kinda lackluster and i didn’t really think the world of greed island had a strong design sense. There was interesting aspects, i enjoyed Bisque as a new character and she helped carry a LOT of the weight of that arc for me, but it was kind of a drag. IDK if it was also partly the adaptation for that arc, but i didn’t enjoy it much more in manga form either. It just went a bit faster. However, the end of that arc and the final fight was surprisingly brutal and enjoyable, which made me optimistic and helped me to continue. And then the chimera ant arc was the first arc i read ONLY manga first and i truly fell in love with it, obsessed even. That arc, as many readers already know, is probably like the closest thing to FFAK’s “Parent” for inspiration. Obviously, FFAK draws from a lot of things (Trigun is probably the 2nd strongest influence on FFAK) but it isn’t quite the same as HXH. As MUCH as i adore hunter x hunter part of me does cringe and laugh that like, in the end, a battle shonen manga still excited me that much but like.. As MUCH as i clearly love battle manga.. I am so over them. You know? Who cares. IMO. No matter how great it looks, i probably am never going to be more impressed (visually) with an action scene than the ones Yukito Kishiro drew. He did it, He won the action manga game to me. I have no idea what’s actually happening in Gunnm most of the time but as far as the visual spectacle of it all, it literally doesn't even make sense how good his action scenes look. (I could talk a lot about Gunnm too, but i’ll save that for another time IG) Like how the fuck does someone draw that good and it just made everything else by comparison just like, not.. Matter too much to me anymore. Which is great, because I can then look at other aspects for a work rather than just being drawn in by the visuals. And stuff. 

Where i’m at now.. I dont want to read another, even if its drawn well and .. the powers are SO powering or whatever. And i love to draw action scenes, they’re really hard and i still have so much more to go to learn about them. At best, I think im okay at them. But even when i work, i just get tired now so i cut them down a lot. Thats partly because i jsut dont have the time to draw fighting scenes. So i kind of feel embarrassed by a lot of them that ive made, i know I was lazy. Lazy in a way I’m not proud of the result, but im proud of the compromises to get the shit done. Which is the most important think in the end, to juggle your own expectations and limitations with the timeframe you have to get somewhere you need to go. I will still read more action/battle manga in the future.. But im in no rush. And im certain, for the most part, they arent going to teach me anything I don’t already know. They might entertain me and i might be like “..huh!” at a few things, but my expectation for them to do more than that is pretty low. I’m delighted when im wrong, but i cannot deny the apathy towards them is super deep. Togashi to me, is one those authors, that makes me really wake up and realize there’s still a lot of unexpected territory out there. 

He writes like an enthusiastic newbie, not a seasoned old timer that he is, who basically helped popularize the “tournament arc” and “dark edgy shonen” stuff with YYH. All his characters in HXH are geniuses, which is kind of a valid critique and can be annoying as hell too… Id say most readers dont really get how the hell nen works, yet somehow the story still functions so well in its character motivations/conflicts that it kinda doesn’t matter too much that.. It doesnt really make sense? We have to relearn what nen is basically every arc. Its not gonna stick. And yet im just so excited every time it updates and i really want to know what he wants to do with his new arc, if he is going to be able to do it. Nen to me is like a fake fantasy science that is tangible and real yet also you’re in a dream and you try to read the letters on a page, and you can read it but if you stare hard at it. The words are just blurs, or it doesn’t really connect. I like that there’s this malleable illusion that it functions in a way, that is concrete, but it isn’t really. But its enough that i can believe that for the characters, who are also not real, it is real for them. 

The fact that i can talk about “”””NeN””” like this to me is essentially why it becomes the perfect shonen to me because it takes itself so seriously, so genuinely, yet it also is nonsense but not in the way where its like.. Irony poisoned, “gotcha” twists? Im sick of all these subverting shonens that arent subverting anything. Or even just the attitude that is what makes a good shonen these days is to subvert, diminish, laugh, ect at shonen while completely stepping inside the same footprints again and again. So much manga just wants to be dragon ball, but dragon ball was good cuz it was just a fun, well drawn action manga that wasn’t trying to BE dragonball. It was just dragon ball. (maybe now its trying to be dragon ball, which is why i dont care about whatever sequel attempt we’re at now, but that’s another story.) Its fun to me that i dont know if Gon is gonna come back in Hxh. like, maybe he will and his powers will be restored ect.. But at the time of writing this, and for YEARS we just.. Have the main pals of the manga separated. Their friendship has changed. There’s a great shift in it. Gon met his dad, who sucks, but that kind of was his main quest. Sure, we have kurapika’s arc, and many other routes to go - but in a weird way HXH is done and it isn’t done at the same time. I’m just like, what are we going to do now. TOGASHI said flat earth real and was like, the other half of it is UNEXPLORED AND SO DARN DANGEROUS and theres SOM BIGGGGG DINOSAURS THERE and it just feels so gleefully like.. You’re on the swingset and some kid just keeps having to up the stakes but in the most kid-like way possible. For serious. But Togashi’s 58. But he’s right too, the dark continent IS so cool.. I just imagine leorio going there and getting so sick and shitting mutant diahrea and dying the SECOND he sets foot there and its awesome. That’s NOT what’s going to happen but im delighted at the opportunity.

This is the point where I’m writing something when i take a pause and wonder how the hell i got here. I have skimmed the above written text. Whatever point i think i was going to make, wasn’t made, but i expressed.. good feelings here. This is how i write. I typed all of that in about 15 minutes with no idea where it was gonna go. Part of the process now would be to go back, organize, edit, ect. To *TRY* to make it a little more comprehensible, as with all writing. Believe it or not i have gotten better at editing my own work. But the true nature of it all is still the same. And its the same in the way that i dont want, no matter how much i improve at my craft, i dont want to lose that enthusiasm i feel when i reach 58. I think that would be such a triumph, id be so lucky to be able to muster that energy. When I think of togashi, i think he has that. He has that real artistic spark that no amount of time/experience has ever diminished and that’s why i think he’s truly my personal favorite mangaka.  (maybe tezuka too)

[devilbombers]

Claymore review

7.8/10

An extremely overlooked cult classic. It's probably the butch lesbian fantasy of all time.

For a good time for the most part I still think everyone should read it!

The Anime

this is probably the first time ive preffered watching the anime than the manga. Personally i found the beginning of the manga drawn too plain and thought the story telling was illustrated in a rather boring way and honestly i dont think the Norihiro Yagi was at the level he needed to be with choreographing fight scenes in a comprehensive way at the time and i just had to go ahead and watch the anime instead mostly because i could finally understand what was happening in scenes.

I really liked the anime however in the i am always inevitably a manga over the anime fan til the bitter end. It actually made me really angry to find out they had to drastically change a bunch of major plot elements and even make up a bunch of shit just so they could wrap up the anime in a nice way. Like i kind of understand why but it was actually such a corny and confusing ending it actually made me really angry lmao (ESPECIALLY HOW THEY REPLACED THE SCENE WITH JEAN SAVING CLARE WITH RAKI INSTEAD)

The Characters

For the most part I really liked everyone but of course I absolutely despised Raki. I do not blame anyone who couldnt bring themselves to continue or even start the series because of him because it took so much out of me to continue regardless of his almost pointless presence.

Like I kind of understand its because hes sort of supposed to expose and ground Claire's humanity but i really think it was still possible to do that without him even existing. hes kind of really a walking character device isnt he? Like im pretty sure Jean's existence was enough.

So anyways i think everyone else was really cool.

setting/genre/lore

I really dont know how to start with how much i admired everything. I really liked the legion of really cool/scary/pretty butch lesbian warriors, the concept of youma/awakened beings is so interesting and i love how horrifyingly beautiful they all are, I was super into how little i fucking knew about the organization.

In general everything is so unique and fresh I like everything about it. It pains me to no avail acknowledging that this is the only series asides from berserk thats a dark fantasy and even worse understanding both of them are technically over and its extremely maddening knowing nobody wants to draw dark fantasy manga anymore

creature design

i fucking love monsters so of course I have to discuss the unique appeal of the creature design in this series. One of the greatest things i absolutely adore from Yagis designs for the awakened beings is the stark contrast of a creature that is frightfully elegant.

I have to praise Yagi for also being the only other artist asides from Kentaro Miura whos considerate about exploring different shapes and forms for the overall silhouette of his creature designs.

Another specific aspect I greatly admire from his designs is that hes probably the first artist ive come across whos capable of mixing mostly scaled/armorlike textures on a monster while still retaining an air of tension and an organic looking design.

from my own personal art and observation from other creature designs from all sorts of artists I find it almost impossible to have these textures while retaining said elements of design because i think it gives it more of a "cool" vibe than a scary one.

Up until this point I was quite convinced its only feasible to have scales/armor-like textures on a monster if you balance it with a fleshy texture (approximately 70-80% fleshy and hard textured for the 20-30%) but Yagi truly is a genius or something because hes the only artist i know whos capable of making designs that are like 90% armor but its still somehow gives you chills.

So anyways heres a list breaking down my deepest feelings about my favorite awakened being designs:

1. The destroyer

I actually havent ever seen a monster design so grand it took my breath away. Theres too much to love about it. Out of all the awakened beings nothing radiates such a thick aura of radiance and absolute terror than this design alone.

The whole idea of two sisters lovingly trapped together to become a greater and unstoppable creature is so overwhelming it really makes me shiver with delight and terror. Ive never felt so strongly about a design before so I really think nothing else will outdo this unique sensation.

Its just so fucking cool!!!!!!! I'm obsessed with religious iconography so i really adored how it was shaped like an angel and devil at the same time. i thought it was super fascinating how it would relentlessly and indiscriminately shoot everything and everyone in its radius with pieces of itself warped into more awful abyssal creatures that could even manipulate and transform anyone it stabs itself into. its all just so coollllllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!

2: Isley

i thought isley was a really weird guy and i probably hated him but i cannot deny how I think his awakened form was soooo cool. Isley is the prime example of what i was talking about with balancing textures on a monster. Super cool design i like it a lot

3: the awakened girl that showed up during ophelias first appearance

god i really wish i could properly admire her with knowing her fucking name. Quite an ephemeral appearance but she had such a unique look to her despite everything I've seen throughout the series i could never forget her. She's probably the defines the general features and theme of what awakened beings should look like. A trend setter dare i say.

4: Cassandra

VERY interesting silhouette. its not often you get to see a humanoid like body be treated like somewhat of a quadruped. Its interesting how its something vaguely erotic and terrifying at the same time. The multiple heada that snaps its jaws on anything that gets near it is a fantastic touch.

5: Riful

overall a relatively simple design but its the simple things that are always the most fascinating isnt it? I really like tangled looking monsters. Not much to say except slay honestly lmao

6: Jean

She was only in this form for such a brief moment but it was such a striking design I couldn't forget it. If find the most unforgettable things are usually the most fascinating things in turn. Such a gorgeous yet terrifying thing. I hope i dont sound like a psychopath saying this but the visible helplessness being trapped in an awful and radiant body is very beautiful to me.

7: Miata

quite a short appearance but i really liked the silhouette of her awakened form. I wish there were more panels showing more closer details of it. not much to say about this other than i think its really neat!

8: europa

literally just a ball with several spines attached to it and i could say its a bit lazy in comparison to everyone else but theres sm attention to the finer details of the spines i cant get mad at it. I know you're supposed to focus on the arms with this design but i actually like this design the most for just the face. The upside down doubled face is really interesting to me and i admire it a lot for some reason.

9: the abyssal eaters

probably one of the most terrifying creatures in the whole series and maybe somewhere up there in my hierarchy of the most scariest monsters in a manga. i LOVE LOVE LOVE the whole idea of them so much bc theyre so fucking scary!!!!!! Very simple design but i never get to see stitches ENOUGH in media (which is a huge shame because its one of my favorite features to draw with body horror) so it makes me happy that all of their faces is just stitches.

THE STORY and the series as a whole

i really wish i could say i loved everything about it but everything I loved about it in the beginning basically disipated in the end. I think the main issue lies in the fact it all started in a very simple but effective manner but yagi ended up over complicating everything by adding too much. I don't scorn Yagi at all for the almost sudden and utter collapse in quality writing because its sort of an inevitability with titles that go on for a very long time. But I still think it's important and valid to explain my fascination with it in the first place.

I really liked the overall simplicity it had with everything. The plot at the start was very simple and straightforward: a woman who gives up her humanity to avenge the death of her only family. Not a unique plot of course but it obviously was the main character herself and companions (excluding raki ofc lmao) who really makes up the story.

I really liked how Claire was never the strongest. She really appeared to be but comparatively speaking to her fellow warriors she pales immensely. And I think its that remaining humanity I really liked the most about Claire. I REALLY liked how cohesive her group was and I was so impressed with the storytelling and character building in the beginning because at the time I thought this was the only other series I like I could think of other than Dorohedoro where theres a lot of characters that show up but you actually manage to sincerely remember them because they all have meaning. Too many times i run into series who introduce too many characters solely just to keep the story fresh; but none of them have any real purpose to them.

I also was obsessed with how well Yagi was with building tension throughout the story. To me I think its really hard to find series who are able to capture their readers with a good sense of tension.

The characters in this series are quite overpowered, but In the beginning I found it extremely admirable how Yagi was still able to make the reader feel anxious about whether or not the protagonist or their companions would persevere againt their adversaries. Yagi had a very good sense at balancing everyones strengths and flaws in a very balanced way.

But again with the sands of time it couldn't stay this good forever. To be completely honest it took a lot out of me to read the rest of it. It came to the point where i was so lost and frusturated about how confusing everything got i was just trying to read it just so i could be done with it?

I think my main problem with the series as it ended was how unfocussed it got with the plot. I feel like everything immediately got so muddled after the fight with Rigardo. Maybe it's just me but I honestly was ok with never understanding the organization I was mostly just interested in what was going to happen with the main cast with the abyssal ones and such. It actually made me really angry how the battle scenes got so stupid overtime with how it became one of those series where they overexplain the characters' tactics for a very long time. I initially really liked the battle scenes because they dont talk too much and they just simply fight, i really really hate it when anime/manga does the latter actually.

I don't really know how i feel about the ending honestly. I don't know if im satisfied with how claire somehow turned into teresa and she killed priscilla instead but i guess it was nice? I don't know how i thought it was all going to end but i would have never expected it to be like this and i dont say that in a good way but more of a confused way if anything. I wouldn't say it was a bad ending? but I guess thats okay???

anyways, despite all my criticisms i still think its worth the read and the credit it deserves in the end. It's really weird how it went on for so long but no one ever seemed to care? that makes me quite upset actually.

[exnvhilo]

━━  ❛ ☆  KATIE MCGRATH  /  CISFEMALE  /  SHE&HER. anytime i hear queen of peace by florence + the machine i think of alexandra decker. the thirty-two year old has been living in hollywood as a director. since then they’ve built the reputation for being ingenious & cavalier. if you were to ask them if they were hades from greek mythos they’d probably say no.

wow i’m late as fuck. sorry guys ! i was making this extremely pointless & unnecessary template and procrastinating. i’m truly sorry. btw ! i’m ron. i’m 23 years old and a huge Heaux for mythology. any kind of mythology, ya know??? but my mom is a history teacher and she always loved greek myths so i kinda inherited that from her. i live in the gmt -3 timezone, & my pronouns are she/her. i also read like 2 issues of wick + divine and it’s so fucking good so i had to join this. but hennyways. let’s get to the Flavor, shall we?? 

--------------- THE PAST

i. for some unknown reason, perhaps a trick played by the fates or a plan from the titans themselves, the king of the underworld, feared & respected ( not particularly loved ) incarnated on a child in the middle of the desert of nevada in 1986. alexandra decker’s parents were simple, reserved & owners of a funeral and embalming business ( i know, i’m so smart ). growing up with death around her never really phazed alexandra. other kids might have been squeamish within the line of empty, soulless eyes, but not her. it was almost like an enigma to alexandra. what makes a soul, anyway? and why is the human body just flesh once its gone?

ii. although never an emotional child, it could be said that alexandra loved her parents. in a way that you love a bird, understanding that life itself is limited and extremely fragile. but they were good people. on sundays, after mass, they would eat breakfast food at a diner and take her to the latest showing of whatever was on in the small town’s movie theater. alexandra loved it, especially the movies of old hollywood. the glamour and opulence. and how it inevitably these gods of the screen ended up just like the mortals on the other side. decadent in the twilight of their lives. ( not the movie twilight ya know?? although thats an idea )

iii. greek tragedy follows the master of death, and alexandra got a taste of what loss feels like when you’re in mortal skin. at eleven years old, the decker funeral home crumbled under an unexplained fire. alexandra was at school at the time, returning to only the ashes of her parents. it was notable, however, that she didn’t cry ------- not even once. to what the child psychologists attributed to shock. her destiny was now foster care. with black hair, fair, smooth skin & icy green eyes, every prospect of parent was instantly fond of the girl. she was quiet but intelligent, extremely mature for her age. an elderly couple, the montgomerys, loved the girl from the moment they saw her. they were older than alexandra’s biological parents, but educated & comprehensive. and they made sure alex didn’t have to change her last name if she didn’t want to.

iv. growing up with the montgomerys was wildly different than what alexandra was accostumed to. they were old money as old money comes. terribly inclined to art and music and everything alexandra believed transcended the mortal experience. they coaxed her out of her shell, turning the intelligent but shy girl into an well-rounded, outspoken woman. gone were the days of embalming and smelling formaldehyde in the basement, and in with art history & piano classes in a lavish mansion in beverly hills. always draped in expensive clothing, always balanced. it was a life that suited alexandra, although she still felt weirdly drawn to death. feeling as if, somehow, for a weird twist of destiny, it was her own fault that her parents died.

--------------- THE PRESENT

i. alexandra’s first feature film was a homage to her favorite movies. the old hollywood glamour, somehow an homage to the deckers in their small, burned down funeral home. it was a goodbye of sorts to alexandra, an omen of things to come. and they did come. the first movie was a success, and soon enough the young director was the talk of the cinematic industry. over ten years have passed and now, alexandra is a well-known director, with over twenty movies under her belt and a few flashy awards to show for it.

ii. fame suits her well. she’s outspoken, educated & the owner of an acerbic wit. the secret is never taking herself too seriously, or so she likes to say, since we’re all just dirt in the end. the reminder of death has been constant in alexandra’s life. the montgomerys are long gone, with alex being the sole heiress of their fortune. mr. montgomery died when she turned eighteen, with mrs. montgomery following suit when alexandra was twenty-four. over the next few years lovers & friends all met their unrevokable end, and though alexandra was never involved in any of it ------ it seemed like she only brought death to those she was close to loving.

iii. that particular trait has left her a bit hesitant to get too close to people, fearing that somehow her strange luck will bring on their demise. she has colleagues & even friends that she keeps at arm’s length. she’s had companions but mostly sexual, never truly settling down or getting too close. but she is extremely charismatic & alluring, an irony of destiny ------ being so inviting but never letting anyone in.

iv. extremely educated due to the montgomerys, speaks five languages, plays the piano and the violin and paints. really artistic although her heart really resides in filmmaking. she is also known to fool around with hollywood heartthrobs, having an especial preference for the women.

v. overall, not a terrible person though she can be a bit obnoxious sometimes due to her upbringing. years of accolades have sort of gone to her head and she believes she’s the best thing since méliès happened to cinema. loves dogs ( and i think its bc of cerberus ok ), has an extremely expensive taste & gives people inappropriately expensive gifts because no one has ever told her you’re not supposed to do that. occasionally a bit on the brooding side, but she likes to be where the people are, so you’ll probably find her in reserved booths of exclusive clubs around l.a.

wow, this got really long & i’m truly sorry. really i made her sound v serious but she’s kind of a lonely sweetheart bc we love hades in this household. so if you’d like to plot smth juicy pls pls like this or quietly say ‘can i sing for u’ & i’ll hear u & come for plots. thank u so much if you’ve read thus far u r great i love u. also if you’d like to plot thru d*scord, i’m lil d pression#2978 over there. thank u

[maniactypewriter]

the backlog week 5 [new years edition]

New year, new format. Instead of going in alphabetical order, i shall now be letting the whims of fate decide what I play. The magic dice bot on discord I used first pointed me to the T section, but then so many of the games there had some kind of issue that i decided to re roll. That led me to the W section. And thus, these five games. Keep in mind i do not have to play a lot of games, just enough to get a good enough impression of it to give my thoughts. 

Waking Mars play time: 85 min

Waking Mars is a game about astronaut, botanist, and 2 time NBA champ Liang delving deep inside a Martian cave. You are accompanied by your chipper scientist friend and a quirky AI, on your quest to research the heck out of martian life. Said alien life forms are a lot like weird plants. Each room of the cave has a whole bunch of fertile spots where you can Kobe some alien seeds into. The plants will grow, and each plant will have a different effect. From my play time, there was one that healed you, one that shot wet seeds everywhere, and one that was super aggressive and stabby. A big part of the game is research. You have to examine the flora and fauna and experiment on them. You do this mostly by chucking seeds at them and seeing what happens. There is a small problem with the research window if your playing with a controller like i was. You can not easily scroll through the menus with the controller. From the 3 minutes of research ive done, I can safely say that this game came out on IOS first, and was ported to PC later. That would explain why the game prefers mouse and keyboard to gamepad.  Otherwise, the game looks decent. Having a sort of hand drawn art style. The dialogue windows are a bit weird though. Liang’s big head is on the left side, while your companions show up in smaller windows to the upper right. I don't really know why they aren't the same size. Liang doesn't have many expressions aside from “determined” and “determinedly curious” 

Wandersong  play time: 45 minutes

Wandersong is a game about a bard on a quest to save the world. The first thing the game tells you is that you are not a hero. You are a bard. You wield song not sword. The second thing your rainbow haired spirit friend tells you is that you that the world is getting rebooted. Problem is, you live in the world and if the world reboots, you don't have anywhere to live! So off you go on a grand quest to save the world the best way you know how, with SONG! Game play is simple, left stick moves, right stick opens up a color wheel that represents different notes you can sing. A lot like one of last time’s games Aquaria. But instead of using song to move rocks and transform yourself into a war goddess, you use your song to get birds to help you and bust ghosts. The whole game revolves around the song mechanic, and it goes into more than just the notes. The game takes advantage of the fact that you are using a color wheel to select your notes. In one of my favorite puzzles from my little demo, you have to befriend a jump boost bird on the other side of a small ridge. Problem is, you can't jump over the minor bump because you'd use your bird. So you have to maneuver the song directed plant platform under you, and have it move you to the other side where you can use your jump bird to get to higher ground. Thats some nifty puzzle design right there. The game is also made to look like adorable paper cut outs and everything has the right blend of charm to make it a game worth checking out. Definitely going to keep playing this one later. 

Warhammer: Vermintide 2 play time: 2 hours

good ol Warhammer. The warhammer brand is so vast that you can make almost any kind of game out of some piece of warhammer fiction. Case in point, the vermintide series is Left 4 Dead, but replace zombies with rats, and put a bigger focus on melee weapons.  Sure guns exist, but are you really going to use a slow firing fantasy gun when you have a massive sword in your hands you could use instead? Anyway, in vermintide 2, you can play as the same 5 dudes as you could in the last game, each one with their own unique equipment sets and special abilities.each of the 5 characters also has two unlockable alternate forms that change up the play style a bit. Meanwhile, the Scavin race has recruited the chaos faction from Warhammer lore and are wreaking havoc with double efficiency. So now you and three other real live human beings (or in some cases, bots) have to go and wreck some rat faces all over again. Players are tasked with going out and doing missions. Missions result in loot and level ups, more loot means you can take on harder missions. There are also hidden tomes in the big open levels. I never found one but apparently they can make things harder somehow, but result in better loot at the end of the level. Now, the game does have loot boxes. However, as far as i can tell you can not purchase them with real money, only earned in game. As I was writing this, I went to check a fact in the game, and after I looked, I went and did a mission. That's how you can tell a game is enjoyable. 

Way of the passive fist play time 12 min

Not every game is complex enough to deserve a long play time. WotPF is a post apocalyptic style brawler. You play as the wanderer, a man who has mastered the titular way of the passive fist, a unique fighting style that involves dodging and parrying your enemies attacks and then poking them into submission once they tucker themselves out. You also have a robot arm that you can falcon punch with if you build a high enough combo so that's cool. I played this game up to the first boss where I was stumped on how to beat it so I quit. It's an interesting gimmick dressed in fancy pixel art. It's worth looking at if you're into brawlers and want a different experience. 

Western Press play time 12 min

This game is also not very complex, and I am also terrible at it. Another pixel art game, set in the old west. Western press is a dueling game where two players have to hit a series of buttons on their controllers to shoot their dueling partner. And that's about it. There is online, and a single player mode… it's really simple all things considered… the duel abides. Now draw you yellow bellied varmint!