#this isn't a rant I just went into the main tags

[blakbonnet]

while you're misusing bury your gays, Ed is getting woken up by Stede kissing him lovingly and looking into his eyes and telling him he's the most lovable person in the world on the planet in the entire universe, and Ed is making him blush first thing in the morning, and they're badly running an inn together and pda'ing all over the falling columns of their shaky shack, and overcharging customers for salmonella stricken fish, and they're deliriously happy, by the fucking way

[senzasord]

This doesn’t solve the problem, and I 100000% agree with OP and hope staff get over themselves and fix this nonsense soon.

But workaround that I’ve been using:

The new lightbox is only on the first level of dashboard and fyp (and I hope it stays quarantined there), so if you go through to the reblogger’s post/previous reblog/whichever is easier (i.e. no longer on your dashboard), you get the normal lightbox back. 

It’s ridiculous that there needs to be a workaround for a deliberate feature, please staff fix it soon (although I don’t want to @ them on this because I don’t want them to close the loophole).

I really need to talk for a minute about this new mobile update and how much I as a legally blind person hate whatever the hell is going on with the photos and how it's making this app nearly impossible for me to use

I'm not sure the same thing is happening on the desktop version but for those who may not know in the app whenever you tap on a photo it used to just pop up and you could double tap to enlarge it and zoom in and scroll around and all was great.

A double tap now likes the photo and it must be pinched and pulled to zoom in and out. A mild annoyance, and nothing compared to the rest of the update. If you scroll up, which I do frequently when trying to navigate an enlarged photo, it will send you to ANOTHER photo based on the tags of the post.

That's right, a completely different photo!!! A feature no one asked for and no one wants!! This isn't facebook, or instagram, and maybe tiktok but I never had that so this is a guess. When I click on the photo I only want to see that photo (or in the case of multiple photos in a post I want to be able to easily scroll side to side for those). I do not want to be taken to another post!!! Also if you scroll too far to the left you are then sent to the profile of the person who reblogged the post. I do not know why. Who wants this feature? Is it a feature at all?

As someone who only taps on a photo because I cannot see it and I need to enlarge it, this is beyond a simple annoyance. I cannot navigate the photo like I need, there's a hair trigger on whether it sends you to a new post completely or if you are sent to the profile of the reblogger. Neither, again, are things I want. this leaves me having to back track a lot, re-zoom the photo as it reverts back to normal, and hope dearly that this time I can just read the damned text before it freaks out again.

I haven't seen anyone else talk about this outside of the tags, but really this is making the app unusable for me, and I'm sure for many others.

@staff I know you guys haven't cared about your disabled community much in the past (other photo updates that stopped allowing me to zoom into gifs is proof of that) but please don't make this app unusable for me. I would rather not have to leave.

[v-anrouge]

Verryyy long ranting under this about vil and how this fandom treats him for absolutely no reason pls excuse any mistakes and feel free to correct me with any accidental misinfo i passed <3

Mentions of racism, fatphobia, eating disorders, elitism & ableism and also SPOILERS for Vil's character story (eng only)

Ever since this game started getting super famous in tiktok and twitter it seems that people just love to butcher literally every character in Twst and sometimes it's genuinely baffling how wrong some of the takes are, it really does make me wonder if some people just don't read the story and just skip every character who isn't their fave, and if they really do that, what makes them think they know enough about the rest of the cast to post in the character's main tag the most rancid read on a character, often accompanied by some accusations of literal crimes of bigotry that really should be taken more seriously instead of being terms thrown around.

I'm gonna be talking about Vil specifically but characters like Leona, Jamil, Sebek and a few others have it exceptionally bad as well (especially Leo and Jamil who's haters can even be quite racist)

I've been playing for a very long time (in eng) i remember being there to watch the Heartslabyul final release and the release of Savanaclaw's chapter and through these years ive seen the most horrific takes on Vil's characters, ranging from the accusations of racism (which have been debunked again and again especially by JP players) to accusations of supporting eds, fatphobia, elitism and ableism. The funny thing is that even with a very quick read of any of Vil's story you'll find out there is no support for any of such claims. They like to use the incident with Epel's accent when for years JP players have pointed out how this was strictly an error of localization since they couldn't find a situation similar to the one that is portrayed in the original game to put in eng twst, they went with the one we have where Vil asks Epel to "hide his accent" (he really doesn't he was talking about the way Epel is rude and disrespectful which would definitely end with him being beat up and then expelled bringing a bad fame to Pomefiore and also making Vil look bad for not properly guiding his dorm students) which is a terrible choice but alas it seems people prefer to ignore facts to stick with their claim that Vil is some sort of monster when this man is literally a teen. He's 18 years old and has to constantly look out for his image in and out of school since he grew up in front of the cameras.

Vil's character is all about beauty and self care and self acceptance yet for some people this seems to translate to "starve yourself if you don't want to be a disgusting fat pig" which is very weird to say the least considering all mentions Vil makes about diets he is talking about keeping a balanced diet to nurture your body and even has a voice line pointing out the importance of eating. Vil himself may be coded to have an ED in his overblot and Lab vignette but he has never and would never encourage one, he literally goes out of his way to annoy students to take care of themselves what makes anyone think he'd encourage them anyways? It's such a weird thing to assume of a character.

A lot of people seem to think that Vil is also the "beauty standart" king which doesn't even make sense considering vil is a gnc man, he already doesn't follow beauty standards and would definitely be against it, Vil's vision of beauty for himself may be twisted due to his traumas and troubles yet his vision of beauty for others is always exclusively on the person being their best version, this includes dressing how they want to and feel comfortable in, using whatever makeup they want (or just not using it at all) etc.

The way Vil speaks is often misunderstood as he tends to be strict and can be read as mean (I've already shared my theory on what may have caused this behavior here before so i won't be getting into too many details) but Vil is a famous and respected housewarden because if you actually stop and think about his advice the end result is always an effort to make the person's desires come true. (a good example is how Vil made Epel clean the windows and although Epel was displeased with the hard labor in the end he notices how the task may help with muscle growth and gets happy)

Vil's way of caring for others is often misunderstood and obviously that's understandable, not everybody may get his "rougher" way of handling advice, but also it's a bit weird how people react to it when in game all of the characters seem to be okay with it, Pomefiore has a lot of students and if they considered Vil to be a bad leader he would've been voted out a long time ago, no? And if i remember correctly wasn't it said in game they had very few transfers? (as in characters moving out of Pomefiore and into other dorms) That wouldn't make sense if Vil was really the cruel leader some people make him out to be. The truth is Vil is a nice caring person and his students recognize that which is why he is respected all across the school and not simply on his dorm (because ive seen people say Vil has brainwashed the Pomefiore students into thinking he is a good housewarden 💀)

Vil surely has issues he needs to work through, after all this game is literally about that, dealing with troubled teenagers and their internal struggles and the importance of asking for help (omg friendship is magic...) but Vil is also a teenager, and he is one of the characters that show the most desire to get better, immediately showing regret and apologizing to Yuu and his classmates for the danger he put them in, that is because Vil genuinely does care for them.

Another accusation people make is ableism, i remember seeing many posts saying Vil wouldn't respect disabled people and/or mentally ill people which is 1- extremely fucking rude to say? 2- absolutely wrong. Again just a quick read on Vil's character will tell you everything you need to know about how he'd feel about disabled people, he'd treat them like everyone else, and would adjust his handling accordingly to their needs, i really don't get where this claim comes from but it's quite ironic because a lot of Vil haters tend to be ableist themselves by claiming that Vil is a bad person mentioning traits that are often caused by mental illness and the effect of traumas, failing to analyze how their treatment of a character that displays common mental illness symptoms may affect people in real life who displays the same symptoms, and often being ableist themselves by judging these actions irredeemable and inherently evil/heartless, once again dehumanizing people with mental illness in real life who deal with the same symptoms.

Another common thing is the constant invalidation of Vil's trauma. A lot of people seem to read book 5 with their eyes closed and take away from the story that the reason Vil "got pissy and almost killed a guy" (wording of a terrible post i saw a few days ago<333) is because he's a "spoiled brat who couldn't handle getting the paper he wanted in a movie boo hoo" which is kind of funny with how terribly wrong it is, i really don't know what your thought process has to be to get his backstory this wrong but sure, let's start; The start of Vil's problems with being cast as a villain starts from when he was very very young, he was just a child when after being cast as a villain for a movie he was almost beat up by a group of boys for being an "evil guy" and by his reaction it wouldn't be impossible that this wasn't his first time dealing with that kind of thing. Vil also tells jack (who scared away the group) that he had trained so he would be able to deal with them on his own which again, could be a hint that this wasn't that uncommon in his life. In Vil's overblot dialogue is all we really need to know to debunk this claim.

What Vil wanted wasn't just to be a hero in a movie, he wanted to be seen, to be heard and cherished, he wanted to be more than a pretty prop they could put on the front to get attention only to be taken out of stage when he was no longer necessary in the next scene, do you get it? He wanted to be able to see his hard work pay off, to see his efforts of years being rewarded, to for once not be exchangeable for someone more favorable. Vil wanted to feel like all his pain was worth it in the end because finally he could shine in the stage, being himself instead of just another persona to attract people. In his overblot it's shown clearer than ever that Vil does not have a stable view of his own image unlike what he has trained himself to show, even calling himself ugly and begging them to not look at him. I don't think Vil is used to be being vulnerable, which would explain why he was so freaked out when the overblot happened, and why he cried when his beauty (the one thing about himself that was always recognized by others and therefore the thing he'd always been the most desperate to nurture) was taken away by aging in book 6 (note; the fact Vil sacrificed it for his classmates also just debunks the people saying he only cares for himself, if he did he wouldn't be who he is.)

I said i wouldn't give my thoughts again but i will, just briefly, i believe an easy explanation to Vil's behavior (the tough love he gives and his strictness) might be because of the industries he grew up in, we can't know for sure how similar twst's version of the movie and modeling industry is when compared to the real life one but considering the way Vil is, my guess it's that it's pretty similar, especially in the regard of their treatment towards children, in Vil's overblot he hears two staff members talking about how he'd never be able to pull off a relatable role because he is too perfect, and sure those may not look like insults, but to Vil who's only dream his entire life was to be seen in good light, those words stuck to him so deeply they'd come back to him during his overblot. (note; i have not seen a jp translation of the overblot scenes so i don't know if they also suffered from localization issues, if anyone has a link to one i could see id really like to see what the staff said to Vil)

The general point of Vil's overblot was how his efforts and hard work were always overlooked and ignored in favor of someone else, this happens with quite a lot of characters and happens as well with another overblot (Leona, who happens to be quite similar to Vil in many ways) and although i don't expect anyone to read it and think of analysing it more deeply even with a shallow vision of his overblot it's still incredibly insensitive to call it a "non-problem" especially considering the fact this is Vil's ENTIRE life, he's been working hard and failing for years again and again and that does get to you. I remember when i posted my first rant on Vil quite a lot of people who reported to be skilled at something (say for example music or dancing) as a child that any failures absolutely destroyed you inside, and that people who haven't passed through the same tend to call them dramatic and say they're overreacting to situations that can be classified as trauma depending on how much it mentally impacted said child. (and in Vil's case it's clear it had a massive one, after all he wouldn't have overblotted if he didn't have issues that had been bottled up until they finally exploded)

Mentioning Leona again, he and Vil share the same sentiment of anguish for being discarded and having their hard work be thrown away, the difference in them is the way they reacted to it, while Leona ended up not seeing any value in attempting to do anything because he assumes the outcome is always going to be the same, Vil overworks himself and forces himself to do things he might hate clinging to the hope that this time it'll work out.

Since we're talking about trauma ill already answer some things that may or may not come with this post (because in my first one i got this response a lot) "Vil's a fictional character it doesn't matter" and sure if you think like that cool, personally, when im talking about a fictional character that tackles real life traumas and issues, i talk about it as if referring to a real person because the character has been written with one (or multiple) in mind.

Twst may have issues but the character writing is undeniably about real life traumas and experiences, and the characters are quite accurate and good representation of the issues they tackle, so when you invalidate them, you are by result invalidating real life issues. Of course this won't stop anyone and i know that a few people will probably scoff at this and brush it off as being too sensitive but personally if you wouldn't dare invalidate say for example Riddle's traumas because you know it's a representation of mommy issues, which is a very real problem, to not go against your own morals you should also respect the issues of all the other characters, even if you personally think some are more "serious" than the other.

[joleenjackalope]

So I have some Lenore thoughts, I like the idea of her a lot. But I don't think she's worth her price. So here are just some of my thoughts, as well as my doodling out some of those thoughts. I don't think she necessarily needs all these things, it's more that I let my internal rants about how she could be better guide me out of my art block these past couple days.

Part of why people pay more for collector dolls is because they have some type of attachment to them. Either being a Monster High character they already love, from an IP they love, or even the Off White had some brand recognition. (just not from me) And I felt like Lenore COULD have been the lady in white/weeping woman ghost story that just about every town has.

That being said- What is with the glitter tears?? If she had a unique sculpt that actually had a downturn on the brows and a sad face, and actually LOOKED like a weeping garden ghost, that alone would have made her more appealing!

Then why unpainted accessories? Why one big unpainted accessory her main focus? I like the vines (I didn't go very detailed here) but either paint them or make them smaller. (What I did) But if you want me to believe that the doll is WORTH $75 then you need to show that some actual care and effort went into her manufacturing and paint her damn accessories.

I just wanted an excuse to draw the spider. I don't like the human face but I only like a few of any of the MH pets anyway. so...

Put her damn hair up. Just like with the accessories, show me she is WORTH her price.

All of the above combined, the collector dolls stray further away from the High school aspect of MH and although Victorian/period fashion isn't necessarily my thing, I know a ton of collectors would have loved her looking like a ghost who's been haunting for a long time. And since she's not a character that's being portrayed in the high school - a collector doll would have been great! There's lots of adult/non-student characters.

Mini notes- I didn't draw patterns for her clothing, but the pattern on her dress as is would have still looked lovely on a bigger, fancier gown. I didn't do full body and I have no notes on shoes. They're not my specialty. And I would have appreciated her not having a full white sclera.

Also, line art for this piece is available here, tag me if you color it! I'd love to see. ♥♥♥

[usopps-devotee]

Birdie

tags: fluff, shanks and Benn being instigators, Benn is not to be trusted, jealousy

wc. 900

You would never call him the nickname to his face, only ever mumbled to yourself when thoughts of him crossed your mind.

Shanks is somewhere in the castle probably driving Dracule up a wall as you talk to Benn, he seems to be one of the very few pirates that still have their heads on correctly. Leading him down to the wine cellar to put away the 2 crates of Mihawk's favorite wine brought over by the crew. Lucky for you the grey-haired man enjoyed seeing you happy and hearing you lovingly rant about the stoic man you adore.

"It was mentioned that he's given you quite the cute nickname, I didn't know it went both ways". At that statement, you freeze with a small squeak. It's almost a startling realization that this entire conversation, not once had you actually called him by his name instead of the nickname you always used when you were alone. "Please don't tell him, I don't know if he would like it."

Beckman's laugh echoes through the halls at your admission as he stores the bottles on the racks reserved for wine, "Your secret is safe with me." At that moment, Shanks and the 'birdie' in question enter the cellar: Shanks looks amused to see you getting along with his first mate, Mihawk on the other hand is anything but pleased. "May I inquire what you might be doing, little rabbit?" quickly swiping one of the bottles off the shelf, you hold it up to him with a bright smile on your face. "Look it's your favorite! It would be too heavy for me to carry it, so he offered."

It explains the current situation; although you both know that isn't what he asked it will suffice seeing as you are not hurt and seem to be happy. He wants to tell the group of misfits to get the hell off his island based on that interaction alone, but he knows his jealousy is childish and leaves the situation as is. "Would you be so kind as to grab another and put one on ice. We can open the other in the dining room." Benn hands you the last of the bottles he had to put up, following behind and spilling the secret to Shanks. Which clearly was not, in fact, safe with him. Your heart drops with every snicker that comes from behind.

It was dinner when it came to bite you in the ass. Shanks, ever the alcoholic, wanting to open another bottle. The name you so lovingly called Mihawk slipped off the slimy man's lips. What no one expects is for you to interject and cut him off. "Come on, Shanks, you guys just got here. We would hate to drink it all in one night." The twinge of hostility surprises Mihawk the most. Not only do you always give in to his drinking habit, but there has never been a moment when you two don't get along.

It's been a while since he's seen your attitude. Part of him did miss it dearly, but he would rather not be on the receiving end. "What's the deal, little lady. Now you know I wouldn't do something like that." you're starting to understand why Mihawk calls this man such a pain in the ass; there is no way he could possibly, be serious. "Maybe, maybe not. Either way, I think you have had enough." The pointed malice made Dracule huff out a small laugh, and he sipped some of what was still left in the glass; you seemed to have the situation covered.

Eventually, all is settled, and Shanks does not get the bottle that he begged for, the crew, captain included, slept on the docked boat for the night. Mihawk finds you in the library grumbling to yourself, looking at books but not looking for anything in particular. "Dearest bunny, I know the insults he may throw at me are ill-mannered and childish. I assure you; I take no harm by his falsified venom, " hearing him say childish hurts your heart, is that what he would say if he knew it came from you?

"It's not that," you always speak so softly when upset, one of the main reasons your interjection was startling. You almost don't hear the quiet footsteps as he takes a seat. "It was my nickname for you, I said it around Benn. He said he wouldn't say anything, yet he still told Shanks." he paused for a moment not knowing how to reach that information. Hearing it from the redhead it sounds insolent, knowing that it came from you makes his heart swell. "I was just scared you wouldn't like it."

you don't hear him get up, making a squeak when his chest touches your back. His hands trail down your arms, interlacing your fingers as he gently kisses the back of one of your hands. "I'll be sure to have a stern talk with Shanks in the morning. My sweet rabbit, I hope you know; I am more than appreciative of every ounce of affection you deem me worthy of." Mihawk feels you tighten your grip on his hands and lean back into his touch. He's surely going to tear Shanks a new one later but for now, Dracule is just glad that you're happy in his arms.

[midwestemoismid]

Do you ever love a character so much you sorta steal your entire personality from them,,

<autism rant>

Cuz like I'm obsessed with Nicole from class of '09, if sorta stolen my whole humor from her, Which isn't really a good thing because shes kinda a piece of shit, the game revolves around her being a horrible person or trying to kill herself or something like that, I'm not like as mentally ill as her, but my humor has evolved to be similar to Nicole and ive sorta had this not care attitude. I've also been really jokingly mean to one of my best friends (he knows its a joke, thats our humor) but I accidentally did that to my little brother and felt SO bad lmao,, (he said something very obviously and I loudly go "yeah no fucking shit bitch" then started apologizing profusely) This other time I was playing blooket w/ that same friend and I did something that made him eat a fake burger and I went really loud "have this fucking burger you fat ass bitch" and hje just stared at me like wtf,, and the other person on the call (who I just met) was SHOCKED.

i'm not a bad person,, hes okay with me making those jokes btw

well im sorta a bad person but i'm working on that

i sorta hate having obsessions over character because i want to BE THEM. and it sucks even more when theyre a horrible person--and when theyre a girl,, cuz like i want to de-transition and become a terrible person and chane my name to Nicole WHAT THE FUCK WHY I DONT KNOW and like i had an alt acc on tiktok where i used she/her and named myself nicole and it was like a class of 09 fanpage sorta. and like i dont wanna be a bad person nor do i wanna hurt people feelings or be addicted to drugs AT ALL but like NICOLE🙏🙏🙏

this always happens when i have some sort of obsession. i dont typically have favorites but when i do its like an obsession

and like one other problem with being obsessed with nicole is i accidentally obsess over mental illness and (stuff i shouldnt obsess over), wich is really bad and unhealthy.

I gain little obsessions over certain things, like right now im REALLY obsessed with a game called "bad parenting" and it's a really really sad game. I wont spoil it but its genuinelly depressing and made me cry. after i saw it i wanted to hug my dad and tell him i loved him for being a good dad. ive been listening to the backround song on repeat for a bit, i might even draw fanart of it idk,, but i feel like i shouldnt be hyper obsessed with it

as a kid i also was really obsessed with "salad fingers" wich had a sadish theme to it, i kinda forget the plot but i thought it was interesting and how the main charecter was kinda messed up.

I also really like "little miss fortune" wich was also really sad. again i dont remember the plot my childhood is sorta a blur and i dont remember it well

"Sally face" is another sad game i liked. not gonna spoilt it but i loved the supernatural bit and there was a lot of death.

I also really love horror movies, ESPECIALLY horror movies that go into psychology. Like for example, saw is pretty interesting because its cool to see if people would rather cut of an arm or die. I know it's fake but it's still really cool.

Theres a lot i find interesting but i dont wanna sound like im actually insane lol

This ran went in so many placed i forgot what the original post was about😭 took me abt 2 and 1/2 class period to wright

If you read this all, thanks! If you relate reblog or comment (or make a new post and tag me) and tell me what charecter you relate to/obsess over

[kaylinalexanderbooks]

Personality through quote

Thanks to @elsie-writes here and here and @leahnardo-da-veggie here!

Rules: have your OCs respond to a given prompt then give the people you tagged a prompt

Got long, below the cut :)

[A quote about feelings]

Lexi: "I have a lot of feelings...they all are pretty intense. Every emotion is like that for me. When I'm happy, I'm ecstatic, exhilarated. When I'm sad, it's like I'm depressed. I get just a little stressed and my anxiety flares up, and I start crying. It's a lot, honestly."

Maddie: "Feelings are fine and cool, I guess. I like my feelings toward Lexi and Kelsey. Don't really like my feelings toward someone like Brycen. Not sure how I feel for others, though. They like me, which is cool. I dunno. Feelings are super weird."

Ash: "I think I'm starting to understand feelings of others better now that I've discovered my telepathy. It's interesting, seeing how I experience other's emotions. It gets a little metaphorical. Fascinating stuff."

Gwen: "I mean, Lexi was once upset and I was sent to comfort her because I was apparently the most empathetic there. I'd say I'm in touch with my emotions. I get a little too emotional at times. I hold back a lot more than people think, though."

Robbie: "Dude, feelings are kinda dope. Like our brain just feels sad and our chest physically hurts. Doctors can't explain it. [Pause] Okay, both of my parents are doctors and they kinda can, but it's cool regardless."

Akash: "Huh. Well, it's important to feel feelings, and it took me a while to face them. I'm good now, though. I think it's important to face them."

Jedi: [silent for too long] "Well, *rubs back of neck* "I like to...think of myself as someone in touch with his own emotions...."...*nods*

Carmen: "No."

[A quote about their thoughts on NFTs and/or cryptocurrency]

None of these guys would like it but this is a fun prompt!

Lexi: "Isn't crypto a scam? I don't like the idea of that. Just stick to regular money."

Maddie: "NFTs don't make any sense. Just right-click the image. Downloaded."

Ash: "Honestly, I feel like owning an image sounds fun in a silly way, but I'm not that reckless with my money. Would rather spend it on tangible things."

Gwen: "I'm uncomfortable with the idea of people charging you to own an image, fake money or not. I mean, why not make actual art?"

Robbie: "Oh my God did you see the NFT ape movie? Dude, it's so bad. I can't believe there are people this stupid."

Akash: "Not only is it unethical, it literally makes no sense. The money isn't real? Why would you do that? Like, have you looked at the value of crypto?"

Jedi: [intently listening to someone explain crypto and NFTs] "Well, now that is just ridiculous. How in the world do they expect to regulate that?" [A few more minutes of baffled rambling]

Carmen: [also had to have someone explain it to her, but she interrupted more] "Are you kidding me?! Is stupidity a common genetic trait among Ceters?!" [More ranting]

[A quote about remembering the ones they lost]

Well uh I'm not gonna go into any major spoilers so I'm gonna expand the meaning to more than just death.

Um, gradually gets sadder because my first few have not experienced their main trauma yet >:)

Lexi: "Oh, I had so many friends in elementary school! I mean, I still have a lot of friends, but I miss those who went off to different intermediate schools. It's okay, though! I found them on social media, and a couple had phones by fifth grade. I should totally hook up with them again! Thanks for asking!!"

Maddie: "I guess Brycen. He was my friend before he became a jerk. I would like to be friends with him again. Like, then him before he was a jerk."

Ash: "I miss the friendship I had with Shelby. I don't know why, it was literally only for a week or two. But there was...something about her friendship that sucked me in. I still have Lexi, so I think I'll be okay. Then there's my ex-stepdad, Frank. He was sometimes fun. Toward the end he became rude. Before that, though. I miss when I felt like he was a dad, I guess."

Gwen: "My grandfather died when I was very young. He was amazing, though, and I am just glad I remember him. He read stories to me and played with me. And then there's my cat, who we lost a few months ago. She was really sick. I still miss her."

Robbie: "God, I miss Lalika, Akash's mom. She was basically a second mom to me. I talked so fast around her as a kid. She was just starting to learn English when we met, so I don't know if she got everything, but she would always smile and laugh when I did, paying attention to my emotions so she could respond appropriately. But I also loved to read aloud my favorite books to her, so I helped in that regard I guess. She went to all my plays. She made sure to get something for my birthday, and Sam's, separate from Akash's gift. She was amazing."

Akash: "My mom. Every day, I miss her. It's...hard to move past it, I guess. She would listen to you. I still remember her songs that she'd sing, and I still listen to them. She loved taking pictures and filming everything, which I am so grateful for now. She fought for me, when the school district dug their heels in about something. Made sure I had everything I needed to succeed. She was the best."

Jedi: "My mother fought for me my entire life. She pushed to get me an accelerated academic program, fought to drag me and my sister to a better place where I could thrive. Fought my father when he...let us say, went too far. She was fiercely protective. I owe her my life. I just wish I could have repaid her."

Carmen: *scoffs* "I knew Atsila my whole life. Why wouldn't I miss her?" [Yeah sorry that's all you're getting out of her]

Tagging @dyrewrites @ceph-the-ghost-writer @elsie-writes @mk-writes-stuff @aalinaaaaaa @sam-glade @thebejeweledwatercat @winterandwords @mysticstarlightduck @somethingclevermahogony + anyone else ;)

Prompt: A quote about a weird habit they/someone else has.

TSP intro

TSP tag list (ask to be +/-): @thepeculiarbird @illarian-rambling @televisionjester @finchwrites

[kaija-rayne-author]

Dragon Age Veilguard Review 4th in series

22 game hours 20 actual playtime

Spoilers for Dragon Age Veilguard

Critical review and a rant

Obligatory disclaimer. If you've already read it you can skip to the cut.

Something came to my attention. I need to make it crystal clear that I utterly love the diversity in DAV. It's fantastic. I'm also a heavily left leaning, non-binary, queer as fuck reviewer, editor, and author.

I'm on media blackout while I play this, so I'm only getting second-hand info on how awful it is right now in the DA Fandom. Please be safe and take care of yourselves. Arguing with incels and white supremacists is completely pointless. They sea lion worse than an actual sea lion. Your mental health is important.

Y'know? Every single time the anti-queer brigade comes out for a new DA game, I sit there thinking 'have you Bozos ever played any DA game, like, ever?' My guess is nope.

3.5 in series is here.

If I've ever played a glitchier piece of shit game in my life I honestly can't remember it.

So I went to go watch a movie with the partner and kids. I saved my game and turned it off.

Came back and it played okay for a few hours. I met both Mae and Dorian squeeeee!

Met Davrin and Assan. Everything's going fine. I got creamed (again), I swear the devs have no idea. I'm a consistent gamer who plays on hard/tactician mode in most games I play. (Many the same style of fighting as DAV.) And I'm having trouble with the strength of these monsters. WTF do they think someone just getting into gaming is experiencing?

Anyway. I got creamed, clicked reload last save, and it loaded with the now far too familiar no CC reverted back to the basic elf body error. I went back to the main menu, and now absolutely none of the saves are showing up with video. They load with sound, map in the corner, and tags above heads but no fucking video. They're either corrupted or the game is just a piece of shit.

Yes. I'm rather annoyed. I was looking forward to finishing recruiting Davrin tonight and it doesn't make my brain happy to have to stop in the middle of what I wanted to get done. In game or out.

I'm currently verifying my files from steam. We'll see if that fixes it. I just... and this is what the devs thought was releasable? REALLY?

I know I keep using BG3 as a comparison (which honestly isn't a very good one because one is turn based and one 'live' fighting). But the Venn diagram of people who play DA and who play BG is probably a circle so that's why it comes to mind.

It's also the most recent game I've actually purchased and played a lot.

I played that day of release and on into the week and had nowhere NEAR this many problems. I actually think I've had more trouble with DAV in three ish days than I've had in BG3 for over 700 hours FFS!

Anyway. Vent over (for now. I imagine this game will give me plenty of more opportunities).

Dorian looked really weird. He has what I'm now dubbing the 'Solas effect'. He doesn't look like himself. I wouldn't have recognized him at all if it weren't for him introducing himself.

Oh, and way to retcon the condition of the veil guys. For three games it's been getting more and more tears and holes in it. Now it's solid and the only thing holding off a world of blight that hadn’t ever really existed in the fade like that before? It was just the black city. Do these guys ever get sick of retconning shit? I sure get sick of playing retconned shit.

My partner saw the game and he really can't get over how jarring the art is. He's a pretty consistent gamer too but I doubt he'll play this one.

Y'know how I said I didn't know WTF the devs were thinking in my review of the game play trailer?

I'm even more flabbergasted now. I just... seriously?

The game doesn't work well. it has numerous glitches.

The art style sucks.

The bad dudes are WAY overpowered for even a pretty decent gamer. Not so experienced gamers are likely rage-quitting in droves. Every one of the glitches I look up is pretty common. Even for people with better machines than mine.

The story took bloody forever to get started. It finally seems to have but it shouldn't take me 20 hours of game time to get somewhat invested in the story!

The characters are honestly pretty meh so far. My much beloathed Lucanis is the only mildly interesting one so far.

I honestly just can't get over how they felt this was A. Good. and B. Ready for release.

I'll keep trying. But if it's corrupted my whole 20 hours I'm not sure if I've got the stomach to replay all that boring assed nonsense to get to where I only just got to today.

I HATE writing critical reviews as a matter of course. I especially don't want to write them about a piece of intellectual property like Dragon Age that I love so very much. But What. The. Actual. Fuck.

Part 5.1

[meraki-yao]

I kind of feel guilty even saying this out loud to other people so I'm not gonna tag this except for "personal"

So... I feel weird about Mary & George.

Not the show itself, if anything if we're just talking about the show as a show I'm really damn excited to watch it, it made me search up George Villiers and I went on a whole rant about the guy to my sister and my friend

It's just... this dreaded feeling that it will overtake RWRB? Somehow? Which isn't fair, they're not in the same category at all with the sole exception of Nick being a main character being the common factor, but at the end of the day, M&G will be consistent new content

I don't know, it kind of feel like when a family has a second child for the beginning most of the attention will be given to the younger kid and the older kid is kind of just... there (I say as an actual older kid)

Like... I mentioned in my first vent post, RWRB is my lifeline, and it still is. Shit has not improved, tbh it got worse, and I'm trying to deal with it and fix it, but it's really hard to stay motivated, and I'm mostly clinging to RWRB and my sister to stay afloat, and by RWRB, at this point it's mainly fan content here on Tumblr

I'm just kind of scared that... with M&G as new content, RWRB will be... overshadowed?

And I'm sure I'm gonna enjoy the hell outta M&G, it's just not gonna have the same weight and value as RWRB has, it won't be personal

(also there's a little bit about Nick's likeness fucking with 14 people when I'm so devoted to firstprince, but I'm fully aware that that's kind of a parasocial relationship issue that I need to figure out)

I think part of me can't stop mourning the sheer amount of interviews and promos and stuff RWRB lost, while M&G is probably getting all of that. I'm kind of jealous. Which isn't fair because by all means I'm happy for Nick getting better projects and getting recognized, but still.

... Yeah. I kind of had this feeling since the teaser came out in November, and I thought I could figure out to deal with it but not there yet

[idontwikeit]

oh i 100% agree that they don't actually like loustat/louis. they are mainly just lestat fans. they do not give a shit about louis and it's obvious in the way they treat him outside loustat. he only matters to them if he is able to be talked about in relation to lestat. it's why you see these horribly racist takes about loumand, them comparing sexual prowess between lestat and armand, armand being the only actual evil vampire around, not their poor white man. i went on reddit, because i hate myself, and people are scared about the trial because armand will manipulate everyone into seeing lestat as the bad guy.... because physical violence and abuse towards two black characters still means nothing or it's just black people lying to these people. i'm sorry for ranting in your inbox, it's just such a shame that a well written show with phenomenal actors like iwtv is cursed with these people (and a willfully ignorant and/or incompetent promo department who emboldens them as well)

their antiblackness is truly so transparent with them going oh i love gothic romance i love imperfect characters, but immediately turn to defend lestat or criticize the story-writing when it comes to portraying lestat as abuser and toxic and a privileged white man, and attacking louis and claudia. And not to mention being extremely quick to demonize loumand, and judge Armand based on his backstory as dismissal but quick to use lestat's trauma to defend him...like the bias towards non-white characters are so palpable it's disgusting. Even sometimes fans of dev/il's minion irked me out as they are much more fanatic towards it than loumand and seems to treat it as a buttjoke, and I feel like it has to do with a white man in a relationship idk? I still remember when I first watched s1ep7 with the Armand's reveal and I was so excited I checked out iwtv spoilers tag (which I never did back then) and the first posts I saw were oh Armand must be mind-controlling Louis and wow Louis looks so fake, it just took me out. And there are so many big iwtv blogs that are openly racist and getting tons of reblogs coz ppl don't know it's just so infuriating. They just made the fandom so insufferable I won't even venture into reddit and twitter like yikes

don't even mention the marketing department they are so damn incompetent i have no idea what their strategies are like c'mon they cancelled the good s1 podcast with a great host for some unknown youtuber that isn't even good at nuanced questions, barely any good cast interviews and it's like tv insider got everything and NO jacob & assad interviews at all when they are the mains in s2...and all to make memes on social media and pandering to book fans i'm just mad

[lunamiuna-the-curious-fella]

[I'm gonna take what I wrote in a reblog that doesn't relate to the original source, cause when I search for it by the tags I added it doesn't show up for some reason. It's me ranting about my OC and Fresh, including fanfic like parts, and I would love to hear anyone's thoughts about it. Took a lot of inspiration from the fic 'Sweet Sweet Swagger' by MissPawTastic, go check them out! Also you can imagine this as taking place well after Loveball 2016 and Timeparty2k16 roleplays, to explain why he isn't entirely emotionless. Or not. Whatever fits, idk]

So, Arial, my OC. They're very self inserty and share a lot of traits with me, like being Aroace, Agender, any pronouns, AuDHD, Infp personality type, and in general my personality, interests, and quirks. Here they are in gacha life 2:

But the gist is that they're actually a human monster hybrid, not just monster like they seem and go by to keep up appearances, and a powerful one at that. They're kind of an anomaly, cause y'see, not only they are stronger than most, their soul which looks like this:

has the theoretical potential to be stronger than all 7 human soul kinds combined. But since her body obviously can't handle all that, it just gives how much is currently needed and adapts. Which means even if Fresh were to possess them, while it would feel just as bad as for anyone else at first, with time they would adapt to the possession, eventually even being able to take back control entirely. They would much prefer to share the body though, if they're on friendly terms with Fresh. Also their short term in the moment soul energy is highly dependable on their emotional state, with strong emotions causing it to produce more energy, enough to smoothly take over control even, if the emotion is intense enough.

Whether they know of Fresh's secret identity or not and whether she's aware of the full capacity of her power in relation to him varies a lot, there's a lot of different timelines and what if's to this. Either way, if Fresh is somewhat nice, and doesn't like, do evil shit to innocent people for no reason, then they're friendly and understanding of his situation, cause like, he has to hurt people, just to exist... How tragic is that!

Arial's home AU is set in a classic adjacent universe, the lore being that basically there's this secret line of skeletons (and other monsters too) that managed to hide amongst humans with some rare magic or artifacts that gave them disguises, like they weren't trapped under Mount Ebott. Arial has this muddy green goat named Falcon as their main mentor/father figure in his life, since her biological parents abandoned them before they could ever form any memories of them. They don't talk much nowadays, having little in common and living away from each other, but they care about each other very much and are protective of each other. There were ancient magic scientists in the childhood hidden village they lived in, and they are the reason why she knows about the capabilities of their soul.

Now, to more present times. Basically after the barrier broke, and the monsters began to be more accepted, the secret clan came out of hiding, big reunion, he became friends with the main Undertale group, got introduced to the multiverse through Sans, and went like: Oh my gosh, I must EXPLORE! :O (She got this device from someone from the multiverse to help her navigate between the universes and stuff) It basically became their new hyperfixation, learning everything there is about the multiverse, AU’s, the people in it, outcodes, secrets, all that stuff.

And, here it comes, that includes Fresh and his secret. She learned it from one of his survivors. And she absolutely believed it, I mean, it's the multiverse! Anything is possible! Though she kinda did it by nagging and begging him about it, so he made her swear to never tell anybody, ESPECIALLY Fresh, for fear he will get him. So she took it to heart. Though that's kinda what she would do anyway, why would she out herself like that…

Overall, he appears meek and naive. But they know more than she lets on. Is very kindhearted too. Just wants to have fun.

Anyway, one day, there's Fresh. He's looking for a new host. And look, there's a naive lonely skeleton with a powerful soul which he can sense! How can he not pick them as his new host? So he decides to gain her thrust and befriend him, in order to later possess him. Arial, of course, suspects this, but goes along with it anyway because that's what she would do normally, if she didn't know. But also, they know that if push comes to shove, they can handle it. She knows what her soul is capable of, after all. She knows that ultimately, it will adapt with time, and overcome it. And they're lonely, so, can you blame them?

And what happens for a good while is that basically he doesn't know that they know, and they know he doesn't know! On one hand, you have Arial, that's just vibing, trying to enjoy the friendship in spite of Fresh’s true intentions, on the other, you have Fresh that's convinced he’s fooling them. Pretty funny, huh? They especially like throwing ambiguous parasite hints. It always throws him off guard.

But eventually, they had enough of not knowing if it all was actually genuine or not, minus the parasite stuff. They told him they wanna talk, in this serious solemn voice, at which Fresh wondered: "What’s da matter broski? :("

She asked him:

"Hypothetically, if you had a specific harmful ulterior motive for this friendship and I secretly knew but didn't mind it, as long as the friendship part is genuine, would the friendship part still be genuine?"

Fresh's shades would darken, perhaps because he's starting to catch on, as he wondered how he should answer to this. If this truly was what it seemed, that would mean they knew from the beginning, and they still befriended him. It was hard to believe. He answered, going back to his cheerful attitude:

"In that purely hypothetical situation, if you truly didn't mind, I would totes go for continuing our super rad friendship my friendo! :D It could definitely still be genuine in that sense. Why you asking?"

She would immediately hug him. "Dang that's such a relief! I appreciate that so much." He would be surprised at the suddenness, but after a moment would awkwardly hug back. "Dun' mention it dawg."

Arial would lean back, and start rambling, explaining how they knew what he was from the start and why they still wanted to be friends with him, how for reasons she'll get into later, possession isn't as bad of a thing for her than for others, how he empathized with the reality of Fresh's existence as a parasite and how inherently tragic it is, and how they don't mind being possessed in the future as long as it's when they're ready and on their terms.

And well, that's quite a lot for our poor Fresh. Not only did he get the confirmation of what he suspected but had a hard time believing, but found out someone actually understands and empathizes with his situation, and is okay with him possessing them in the future. It was, bizarre... He didn't know how to deal with it. His initial reaction was to consider them foolish for it. After all, how could someone be friends with a literal parasite? He had trouble admitting it but, it did feel kinda nice. Neat. And he can't refuse a willing host! (it was actually more than neat but he wasn't ready to confront that)

"Huh. Dat's great, buddy. I- You're really fine with me possessing ya?"

"Yeah, in the future."

"Why?"

"Wellll, y'see, I'm not exactly your average monster skeleton. I'm a human monster hybrid, actually, a powerful one. I'm kind of an anomaly, really, cause my soul basically has the theoretical potential for power stronger than all 7 human soul kinds combined, but since my body obviously can't handle all that, it just gives how much is currently needed and adapts. That's why, even if you were to possess me, while at first it would feel just as horrible as for any other typical skeleton, with time it would gradually adapt to the possession, eventually even allowing me to fully gain back control by producing more energy than you can control. I would rather share the body though, so don't worry about me not letting you in control."

That, of course, surprised Fresh quite a bit. He could sense that their soul was quite powerful, but he could never guess to that extent. Arial was a dang long lasting powerhouse for him. He was looking forward to possessing them.

"You're gonna wait until I'm ready though, right? You're not gonna push me into it when I'm not fully comfortable with it yet, or worse, possess me without my permission?"

"Heh, alrighty, Imma patient guy, I'll totes wait." -He was tempted though.

"Just some additional motivation, remember that eventually after I adapt to your possession I'll be able to easily take back control whether you like it or not, so it wouldn't be wise for you to not treat me right and then regret it after I'm able to gain back control and treat you accordingly." -He was no longer tempted.

...

"Anyway, how is your host btw?"

"My host?"

"Yeah, I mean like are they relatively okay? How are they doing? Cause like, I don't wanna just ignore their existence while being buddy buddy with THE parasite that's possessing them!"

"..Well, dey aren't up an' doing da worst, dats for sure! Dey still got a few months in dem."

"A few months until you leave them so they can recover, or a few months until they die?" They look at him sternly

"Da first one."

"Okay good. How are they mentally?"

"They've gotten used to it by now. Dey're actually surprised at someone acknowledging their existence and well being for once!"

"Of course I acknowledged them, they are a person too after all, just like me or you! Just because they're a host doesn't mean their experience isn't valid. In fact, both of you are valid, you for needing to eat, your host for still absolutely hating it."

Fresh chuckles

"Dey sure are excited about you, broski. U have an eye opening way of looking at things,, I like that about you"

"Thanks.. :>"

And so, they became friends, for real this time, and did many fun things. Like that one time when they went to a playground, and just had honest fun! The best part was the merry-go-round, she dared him to try to make her dizzy by spinning her very fast, and of course, he just couldn't pass up the challenge! He was doomed from the start though and they knew it, because they're pretty much immune to spinning (Like me!! I love spinning very fast, it doesn't make me dizzy at all c:) They even threw their head back to make the effect stronger, and laughed through it! (I do that ehehe :>) The only problem was the centrifugal force nailing their back to the backrest railing, but she could bear it. Then they switched roles, and she tried spinning him very fast, and the whole time he was sitting seemingly nonchalantly, his expression not showing any signs of distress, at least at first glance. They couldn't really see it cause they were spinning him very fast, but he sat there considerably more stiff than normal. He was feeling the effects, he was just hiding it well. Later he’d deny any accusations of him being dizzy.

Another time, they asked him if he could be all creepy and stuff, and he was like eh, sure! And went all creepy at them, lowering his sunglasses and looking at them with this creepy hungry look, and Arial was like: "Ohoho, jeezz, wow! I love it." It reminded them of why Fresh was friends with them to begin with.

Fresh raised his brow. "You do?"

"..Yeah."

Fresh smirked "Well ain't dat an interesting revelation! Never thought somebroski would like dat side of dear ol' me."

Arial stuttered "Well uh, I kinda do, because I know I can trust you. Like, I like that kind of fear, when I know I'm not actually in danger."

"Ya like fear?" It was quite a bizarre concept for Fresh, to like the primal instinct that lets you avoid danger.

"When I know I'm in a safe environment."

"How?"

"It's thrilling. It gives me an adrenaline kick, while the knowledge that I'm not actually in danger acts like a safety net."

"Huh." ...A smile crept on Fresh's face, at which something in Arial's nonexistent stomach stirred. He was certainly intrigued. He never expected for this friendship to allow him to act creepy and intimidating. He was fully prepared for it to be all fluffy wholesomeness. But this... This was certainly an interesting, entertaining development.

And thus, playful scaring was added to their list of fun time activities. Fresh can be both fun and friendly, as well as scary, and she loves that. She likes that contrast, how it amplifies both sides and mixes with each other. (Heh, it's one of the reasons why Fresh is my absolute favorite character)

Or! Or! The time when they had a sleepover. They played games, sung songs, had a pillow fight, all that stuff. They even made themselves painted nails by using glue on fake ones! Arial's first painted a row of colors that created a rainbow gradient, then crackle black, then white hearts shaped using a thin wire, and of course top coat, and it looked something like this:

Fresh's were these colors more or less:

But with a bunch of fun stickers on that I'm too lazy to draw.

It ended with them cuddling on the couch with a bunch of blankets and pillows, and it was very comfy.

So comfy in fact, Arial decided to bring up an idea they had some time ago.

"Btw, if I were to summon and temporarily offer my soul to you, under the condition that you wouldn't take too much and completely devour it, of course, would you be able to feed off of it without possessing me?"

"You would offer your soul like that to me?"

"As long as you're gentle with it."

"I promise."

And so, Arial summons their soul, and gives it to him, which he held gently. At first sight, it looked similar to other monster souls. It shone significantly brighter though, and had hints of rainbow on the edges. It was beautiful. Fresh was mesmerized by it.

After a while of him just admiring it, he started gently brushing against it's surface with his phalanges, channelling comforting intent. For Arial, it felt incredibly relaxing and nice. He continued to do that, gently rubbing it, caressing it, focused on the task, at which Arial practically melted into the blankets and pillows.

Unexpectedly, he slowly raised their soul up to his mouth and licked it, using his parasite tentacle as tongue, at which Arial let out a surprised yelp and a garble of confused sounds, as Fresh looked right at them with a knowing smile. It felt... Weird, for them. Confusing. Vulnerable. Intimate. And yet, exciting and dare I say, weirdly enjoyable??? Like, there was a subtle sting to it, but it didn't feel bad somehow??? Combined with his gentle touches, it just acted like a bit of spice added to the experience. They didn't wanna admit it to themselves, but it felt stimulating. They were a blushing mess of jumbled thoughts and emotions. (They have a pastel rainbow blush btw)

Fresh chuckled at their reaction, and asked:

"How did that feel?"

Arial just whined, having trouble expressing their complex thoughts and emotions.

"Good?"

"Yes and I don't know how to deal with that!!"

Fresh chuckles. "Dun worry bae. Just relax and enjoy yourself." He runs his boney thumb over their soul again.

They take a few deep breaths. "Okay. Okay. Fuu- Jeez, okay. You can continue."

And he did, and it felt amazing. Arial was laying face down in the blankets, letting out soft quiet noises which he very much enjoyed. Their reactions were captivating. He liked tasting their soul too, it was sweet, with a high concentration of their emotions.

After a while, he returned their soul to them. They were a bit stunted, their soul still beating fast.

"...Wow...."

"How are ya feeling?"

"Good, I think. That was... Certainly something. Wow..."

Fresh hugs them from the side. "I realz liked the taste of yo soul broski. Could up an' taste your feels."

"Haha, cool..."

After a moment, Arial adds: "It was really fun though. I didn't expect for it to be this... Y'know."

"Your reactions were hella captivating dude."

Arial rubs the side of their vertebrae. "Yeah, I get that."

Fresh chuckles. "You're one odd cookie."

There's a moment of content silence, which Arial breaks: "We should probably do that regularly, yeah? To let my soul get used to the drainage."

"Sounds like a plan yo. I'm looking forward to tasting more of your magic dawg."

"You really liked it that much?"

"Yeah, homie!! It was rad sweet and powerful. I could even taste your emotions, and that's unusual. Your short term energy levels must depend a lot on your emotions."

"So you could taste what emotions I was feeling in that moment?" Arial looks to the side, slightly blushing.

Fresh pokes their cheek. "Yep! Tho I didn't need dat to tell that you were enjoying yourself."

Arial groans, flustered, at which Fresh chuckles.

"How about you describe yo thoughts throughout dat experience for me?"

"You already know my feelings, you wanna know my thoughts too??"

Fresh just grins in confirmation

"Ughh, you're such a tease! Finee.....

At first it was very relaxing and nice, I was practically melting under your touch. And then you decided to suddenly lick it, without any warnings, and it funking- aaghhg, it felt- I don't even know how to describe it, and it frustrates me so much!! I hate not being able to describe what I'm feeling."

Fresh listened with amusement. "Take yo time."

"I guess, it was very surprising. I was like: Aaahh, what is happening, what is this, why is this, what am I feeling right now, it technically stings a little and yet it's weirdly enjoyable, like what?!?? Really, it felt less like a sting, more like an electrifying sensation that added some spice to the experience. Made it more intense, but not in the negative direction, even if I was disoriented by it."

Fresh nods. He could vaguely tell what their feelings were at that moment, but it was more of a general vibe than an exact description, so he happily drank the new information Arial was giving him. Like, they felt all that. Cause of him. He made them feel that way. Something stirs in Fresh at that.

"Well broski, that's quite the feelings you described. I'm happy to be the one that caused them in you though.."

"Haha, cool..." It seems to be their go to response when flustered.

They lean into Fresh, yawning. It seems the exhaustion in Arial finally begins to set in after that drainage. Very enjoyable drainage, but still, drainage. Nothing a good sleep can't fix though.

Fresh smiles, much more softly this time, and runs his hand over their skull as they're falling asleep. Is he getting attached? -he thought. That's thought unsettled him a bit. No, surely not. It's all part of the deal. -he justified it to himself, and stopped thinking about it for now.

Anyway, they started doing that soul licking thing regularly. After quite a few of them, Fresh even surprised them by mixing it up and adding multiple tongue-tentacles to the mix, rather than keeping it one, and boi that was a fun one. Just picture that image in your head.

If I were to describe their relationship, I would say, queerplatonic, since their friendship exceeded what is typically considered a friendship by now I think.

Anyway when it comes to the possession that's a few months into the future, it was... Rough. But not as bad as it could have been. They were sitting on the couch at Arial's place. Fresh, having already taken off his sunglasses was like:

"Ya sure you're ready for this?" Feeling kinda bad for the pain he's going to inflict on them after they became so close. Arial at this point, was sure of this, because she wanted to help him, and because he didn't want to keep his host waiting any longer. "Yes." -He said

"Alright. Don't fight it." He gently cupped their face with his hands and leaned into them. They spent a moment just staring into each other's eyes, before Fresh linked their foreheads together and entered through their eyesocket, leaving his previous host barely conscious and dazed, just laying there, rapidly falling into unconsciousness, leaning against the side of the couch. Poor guy needs the sleep. As his true form was hanging out on the inside of Arial's bone structure, it didn't feel bad for them, actually. Not yet. It felt hella weird and bizarre, but not the bad kind. Kinda nice even. ..But then he grabbed onto their soul and began taking over, and then it hit. It was agonizing. Arial held onto themselves tightly, wincing and crying in pain, desiring comfort very strongly. Fresh picked up on that, and hugged them in the mindscape, rubbing circles onto their back in a comforting manner.

"There there broski. You're doing so good. Just focus on da hug and try to relax for me, m'kay?"

Arial buries their face into his chest and hugs him tightly, shuddering. Gosh they needed this. It helped a TON, and eventually relaxed enough for him to take over. He could do it by force, of course, but it would cause unnecessary pain for them, and he could totally spare some time to comfort them first.

When Arial became aware of their surroundings once again, they could see their room, and Fresh's previous host laying unconscious next to them on the couch. It still kinda hurt, but not as bad as the first moments of the possession. And It felt weird, to not be in control over their movements anymore. They immediately imagined a self image of themselves in their mind, which they could control, unlike their real body, for some semblance of autonomy and expression. They trusted him though, so they believed it'll be alright. Fresh chuckled at their immediate usage of their imagination. They sure were imaginative!

He stood up and lifted his previous host bridal style, planning to drop them off where he found them.

"Are they gonna be alright?" -Arial asked in their mind

"Totes. Dey just need a lotta rest!" He Fresh-poofed to the universe his host originated from and left them somewhere safe.

"Are we just gonna leave them here, and not even wait until they wake up?"

"They got close ones to take care of them, and I don't want dem seeing me"

"Oh, alright, fair."

Fresh poofed back to Arial's place

"Alrighty my homie! Time to pick out a radical new fit yo!" Arial was excited, and definitely helped a lot with their eye for art, style, and aesthetics, even picking out their own accessories that fitted the fit, a lot of which they made themselves. (Which are actually my accessories, I didn't just made them up) After a lot of experimenting, the fit looked let's say, somewhat like this:

But with more details like goofy necklaces and lots of colorful bracelets, including handmade Aroace and Agender bracelets, because coincidentally it fits both of them.

Fresh took them for his usual shenanigans and adventures, and it was fun. (Just imagine that Arial is the host when you see that kind of fiction or art with Fresh, like I did)

Eventually though, they take a chill at a random hotel, laying on the bed. With Fresh giving back control to them, it didn't hurt as much. Having his true form woven around their bones felt.. comforting, actually. It was nice. They were glad he trusted them enough to give up control over them for a bit. They wished to pet him.

"Pet me?" -Fresh asked. This of course required a lot of trust, to let them touch his fragile vulnerable form.

"Yeah." They responded in a soft voice. Not an ounce of bad intent.

"Okay." He partially crawled out of their ribs, and she started gently running their phalanges over his tentacles. It was a nice moment of peace, and comfort. Felt nice for Fresh too.

A good few weeks into the possession, there was a moment when Fresh was listening to some music, and played 'Sailor Stars Song (full)' specifically, cause he likes Sailor Moon, and it was like a massive wave of nostalgia and memories washed over Arial, their soul responding in kind. Y'see, Sailor Moon was their favorite childhood show (mine too), and Sailor Stars was their favorite opening song (mine too), and they haven't heard it in such a long time. That's why they reacted with such big emotions. And with emotions, their soul produced more energy, enough to smoothly slip out of Fresh's control and start moving along to the music, without even thinking about it. Fresh was startled, and a bit unsettled, because hosts taking over usually means bad things for him, and they aren't supposed to do it so easily! He calms down after he realizes they just wanna vibe to the music and mean absolutely no harm to him though, and recalls the time when they already told him that's how their soul works. When Arial noticed they were in control, they started passionately singing along to it and dancing, tears running down their face out of nostalgia and happiness. Once the song ended, they started gushing over how much they loved Sailor Moon, that it was their favorite childhood show, and Fresh was like: "You love Sailor Moon too?? Sick! B-D"

"Wanna binge watch the entirety of Sailor Moon 90's anime?"

"Of course I do broski!"

They proceeded to binge watch the entirety of Sailor Moon 90's anime, and specials.

[To be continued. Someday...]

[missioncoded]

Okay I don't normally make main posts on here, especially not in the Fandom tags bc this is an old blog I don't actually use for much anymore. However, after tonight's episode, I feel as if I need to rant my thoughts.

What if the place that fearne went to (because I have arguments for it not being another plane and arguments for it being another plane) isn't exandria and it isn't the feywild nor any of the other planes we've considered, but is in fact... the celestial plane? Hear me out:

Telepathic bond does not work. Currently the only other time the bond hasn't worked is when fcg and fearne were on another plane.

As for why the celestial plane specifically?

It was very difficult to access Ruidis. Remember, they cannot teleport to ruidis from exandria or vice versa, only to the bloody bridge.

The bloody bridge, which was created only with the aid of Vax'ilorb's divinity. Again. The bridge could not be created without the divine powering it

Ruidis was formed by the gods and primordials to lock away predathos, before the divine gate went up. A similar gate surrounds ruidis to again prevent teleportation.

If such a gate exists to prevent teleportation, why would it be so easy to just find a little back door back to exandria.

If ruidis is another plane, then whose to say it's closest planes are the same as exandria's? If ruidis was created during the founding, prior to the divine gate, to lock away the god eater and the only way to access it prior to tonight was to cross the bloody bridge powered by a shard of divinity... whose to say the celestial plane isn't the closest plane to it?

We are ramping up to what seems like the final show down against predathos. The gods have featured heavily in this campaign, been way more vocal about needing help and sending signals as often as they could. Last time there was a threat close to this level, it was vecna's ascenscion and the Gods could only do so much. Now the God eater threatens them, implying one of two things: he's strong enough that, once awakened (despite being sealed by the gods and primordials working together) he can burst through the divine gate to access them.... or that ruidis, and therefore bells hells, are on the wrong side of it.

Therefore it would make sense for Matt to provide them a hail Mary via help from the gods. Especially since they're so afraid and have such a vested interest in this.

This would especially make sense in the context of the primordial shards within fearne and Ashton. Whether by boon or direct interference, it could once again act as the gods and the primordials sealing away (or destroying) predathos... for good this time.

Now. Do I believe this theory is likely? Probably not, it's probably somewhere on exandria and that's huge too. Still, wouldn't it be fucking cool?

[halfelven]

love random not even logged in readers just dropping their 'constructive criticism' on your 100k+ story that you're putting online entirely for free. this is just a rant btw

"You obviously have a great talent and I think you should work on honing it some. As much as I’ve enjoyed the story, there are a few things that stand out that you might consider looking at. I feel like the story isn’t sure what it wants to be at times; is it character driven or plot driven? It doesn’t flow smoothly because sometimes we have these wonderful character vignettes, like Illumi and Kalluto on a road trip or Kite/Leorio/Gon/Killua in an apartment where plot doesn’t really feel important, followed by what feels like heavily plot driven beats, like Kalluto and the spiders. In addition, it contributes to confusion because sometimes we see established characterization turned on its head. Especially the weird way everyone all of a sudden just sort of was OK with Kalluto being a spider and then working with Illumi when they just went to all that trouble to escape him? It all kind of feels forced and not natural. You know?

Anyway, I’ll definitely keep reading and look forward to seeing what happens."

first: love you trying to sound legitimate with your "in addition" like this is some kind of writer's workshop. second: in what way would I, the writer, think that an incomplete part of my story in which the reader does not yet know most of the main motivations (they are only hinted at so far) feels forced and not natural when I know what's happening, where it is going (and where I haven't had other readers comment with confusion about that part)

and moving on. don't do this. also like i said this is a wip in and no, no one is cool with Kalluto being a spider and no they're not cool working with Illumi, really. it was already established that some of them /have/ been working with Illumi before this~ he's someone that they know. like have you never been in a seriously dangerous situation that you just have to get through before you get back to what you want?*** also at this point Chrollo's real motive hasn't been entirely revealed.

Killua keeps changing his mind about what he's doing because he's a scared kid whose self-hatred is destroying him from the inside out. the POV is so tight that I have to keep dropping reminders that what is stated in the narrative is often not true! Illumi's POV, for example, keeps showing Killua as really loving him and being happy he's around but struggling with a desire for freedom, while with Killua's POV he's terrified of Illumi most of the time. like how is that not obviously a distorted POV where you can't trust the narrator?

"where plot doesn’t really feel important, followed by what feels like heavily plot driven beats"

this part is especially irritating because it's like yeah that's how I want to write it? this isn't a published novel. I don't have to commit to making sure every scene is important to the plot. I can spend time writing a full scene about someone drinking a glass of water and then 13 chapters in a row that are for moving the plot forward. I didn't even tag it as a novel... I did tag it for unreliable narration and I keep getting annoyed that people keep ignoring that.

"I feel like the story isn’t sure what it wants to be at times; is it character driven or plot driven?"

it's both??? it's neither??? it's a fanfic??? why do I keep getting comments lately where people are expecting me to adhere to like fucking publishing standards. this keeps up and I will write a chapter which is entirely about a minor character drinking a glass of water. watch me. I'll write one about phinks drinking a glass of water and you'll like it*

"Overall, the story is good and presented a compelling alternative to CA. Look, each fan has their own opinion on CA and I know I didn’t like it. I think it was a product of what Togashi was going through as he began to experience health issues and then finding himself right back where he said he wasn’t going to be mentally after he ended his earlier manga. We can never know for sure, but it certainly had a “watch it all burn vibe” to it near the end. I honestly believe he wanted it to end with the finality of Gon’s suicide as a capstone statement, but was probably convinced to go a different route, which kinda of left a jarring feel in the narrative and culminated in a rather unsatisfying end to Gon and Killua’s journey. Despite that, I am very reluctant to read fics where the events of CA are erased or grossly modified and honestly yours is really the first long AU/alternate timeline I’ve enjoyed"

okay first of all, I love the CA arc. but I had to split a point off where Kite was going to survive. why do you have to leave this whole paragraph about how you think Togashi was or wasn't going to go with the CA on my fanfic? I didn't even write this as 'oh look at my alternative to CA bc I hated CA' I don't really look forward to hearing comments about how random people didn't like so and so aspect of the story that I'm basing my story off of. I've never written fanfic for a story that I didn't like (except for some things that I don't have published I wrote at a request for friends for a fandom they were into that I wasn't really) and yeah I've wanted to 'fix' aspects (like tolkien's treatment of women for example) but I am not looking for your 'this is what I hated about the source material' comments on my stories

tired of getting comments with little 'oh I didn't like your style at first but now I do' or 'here's how to fix your story!' unsolicited advice from people who aren't better writers than me (I don't even want it from people who would be better writers than me on stuff I'm just doing for fun and for free)

when did stuff like this become normal? at least don't be a coward and be not logged in so you can't even get a response notification. like girl they aren't cool with it! why do you think everyone is on guard standing around like they're in a fucking hostage situation? how do you see such wildly different interpretations from different character's POVs and think it's not intentional? what part about Kite watching Killua like a fucking hawk makes you think he's going to let Illumi take him after this?

like if you've never had to smile and pretend to be cool with your abuser (pretend to love them) or someone who was threatening you to keep someone else safe then good for you! it fucking sucks! also don't know how to explain to you what a child who is growing up in an extremely isolated abusive situation goes through (though I keep writing about it in this story you should catch on...) but it's a million back and forths with emotion and feelings--especially if their abuser does (to in some way or to some degree) love them. and it is often blaming themselves. I'm not letting my years of studying human psychology and child development go to waste here**

is this story perfect? no but I'm not gonna hire an editor for a fanfic. and everyone's interpretations of characters will be different. especially with child characters who are going through huge changes in the world around them and their personal lives. part of the appeal of fanfiction is 'who would they become if this happened instead?' *sorry I keep writing about starving and not having clean drinking water but I will never stop because that's what I grew up with and it's hell. also phinks drinking water would be compelling since I assume he'd have harder access to clean drinking water

**hunter x hunter is also one of the only stories I have encountered with characters who have backgrounds as fucked up as mine and Togashi's interest in human psychology really stands out.

***like good for you but that was most of my life and you sometimes just have to shut up and get through it. and no I will not put my notes in the right order bc I'm not being paid enough****

****I'm being paid nothing

[immayonaise]

PLEASE CONTINUE TOXIC!!

Also I have questions! Did Eric develop ED when starting a relationship with Thomas? How did they meet? Does Thomas have a similar personality to Eric and that's how they get along? How did Eric come to terms that he's gay/ in a genuine relationship with a man? How is Kyle doing 👀??

I WILL!! (I forgot about it until last night lmao. I also draw it on paper to get an idea of what I want for the comics too, so it makes it extra long time to make)

Cartman did sorta developed a eating disorder while with Thomas, he was already insecure about his weight before and Thomas pushed him into it. Still trying to figure out what eating disorder Cartman has, since I wanna do a short lil comic about just his certain disorders and/or abuse Thomas puts him and Miss Lady through.

When Cartman first started high school Thomas was sorta drawn to him (Not in a good way). So he buttered him up and manipulated him into trusting him, saying his friends were assholes and Cartman deserved better, etc... Of course Cartman agreed with Thomas because he trusted Thomas' judgement and all Cartman probably thought was: "People who are older than you are wiser and know better." Plus Thomas got his friends to agree with him and they all sorta ganged up on Cartman, telling him whatever about his friends. Cartman stills hangs out with them, but very little since Thomas but Stan and Kenny basically hate his guts ever since Thomas. (Still kinda working on how they met, so not completely official)

I wouldn't say they have similar personalities, Cartman still has some love in that cold heart of his. Thomas on the other hand, basically has no soul left and is just pure pain on people. So in short, Thomas is a manipulative piece of shit and Cartman still hangs onto whatever little to none humanity he has left.

In my AU Cartman and Kyle were first friends in Kindergarten, Stan and Kenny basically being other kids to them at the time. Cartman had a huge crush on Kyle and Kyle had no fucking idea. So basically Stan and Kyle became friends, Kenny sorta replaced Kyle for a bit. Then Kenny introduced Cartman to Stan and the main 4 officially started after that. So like he always knew he was gay in some way, but kinda just went "Ehh it's fine."

Kyle is fine? Since he's the only one who knows what Thomas is doing, Thomas and him hate each other. Like if you put both of them in a room, only one of them is coming out with at least 20 years in jail for what they did. Kyle and Cartman call whenever Thomas isn't home and Cartman often rants about Thomas, he clearly wants to leave from Kyle's point of view but is just too much of a pussy to do so.

(I might make a side blog so I can have all the Toxic AU on that and people don't have to dig through all of my posts or search by the tag lol)

Toxic AU first!

[jovenshires]

Hey the new Ianthony edit? Made me emo as fuck it really had me in my feels very cool.

I didn't see it on the 'smosh' tag? Idk if that's intentional thought you should know if it's not <3 -dot hell anon

TYSM i had so much fun making that one so im glad <3333

ah yeah... that was intentional. old habits die hard i guess? this got a little away from me so i put my extremely long rant under the cut, but tlwr: i try not to tag a lot of shipping stuff as /smosh.

see, i'm not new to the smosh fandom, but i am relatively new to THIS version of the fandom. i came back a couple of months ago but my real heyday was in like. 2018-2020. and we had pretty set rules for how we went about things, and one of the BIG ones was to never put anything ship-related in the main tags (those tags being cast names and the main smosh tag itself).

this was for a couple different reasons; first of all, some of the actual smosh staff was on tumblr (the official smosh blog for one, and i think one of the cast used tumblr at the time?? not sure on that one though as i Cannot remember), and we didn't want them to have to view rpf of themselves in spaces just generally meant for posting about them/their company. like say courtney, for example, goes into the 'courtney miller' tag - there's a difference between seeing a post about her bit in the new tntl and a post about them. fucking ian nasty style. not that there's anything wrong with the latter, just that i am very conscientious about not showing the real person fiction to the real person(s) in question, as was a lot of the smosh fandom.

second of all, not every smosh fan is into rpf. our venn diagram is not a circle. there was a time when i was not a part of the venn diagram. it's why i try to tag every post with 'shipping' and/or 'rpf' when it even vaguely hints at the stuff, so that not everybody has to see it. this isn't exclusive to this topic - i would do that for anything divisive. so, yeah, casual smosh fans scrolling the main tag probably don't want to see my silly ship edits, and i get that!!

since i've returned we obviously have a much different fandom culture - the old smosh blog shut down years ago and i'm fairly certain none of the cast checks tumblr anymore (and if they do and they're reading this: i'd like to apologize and beg for them to block me for both of our sanities). i've also made a few exceptions to my own rule, such as with the incorrect tweets bc i think those can mostly be written off as jokes and the lil au edits though i regret that at times. (i've been considering un-tagging those for a while tbh.) i've also realized recently that the tag 'smosh fic' just gets sorted directly into the 'smosh' tag which is. a pain in the ass. that's not what i said tumblr and you know it. so some of my content has been filtered in there. but you'll notice with the lil clips and text posts i post and stuff i almost never tag it as 'smosh' because. i just don't need people to see it ya know. i've got my people here and that's enough for me <3

that is all to say by the way that the new fandom culture is not BAD. as we all know, i'm very pro-rpf, so seeing rpf out there is great (as long as you know it's not tinhatting etc etc). we also have a very diverse community now with a lot of interesting ships and great fics that i would never have found without casually scrolling through the smosh tag!! it's also easier nowadays to block tags than ever; casual fans can just block the 'shipping' tag and have (relatively) easy access to the smosh tag. so please all of you keep doing you - i'm not your mother and i don't expect you to listen to lil ole me where i live perched up on my soap box. BUT idk if i personally can get over my hang-ups about tags.

[appleciderp]

Hold onto your hats, because I want to rant about how Blizzard fucking sucks with women or any minority rep. And why it'll suck for your fav in whatever MW is coming up.

Fully inspired by this post, I'll be referencing to a few points that @spookykittenwrites made

As I said in those tags, I've been playing WoW since Burning Crusade, so I've known about the company since about 2007. I've not touched overwatch, but according to emp, their rep there is surface-level as well.

It's half me yelling about MW and half me yelling about how WoW fails in representation.

I have 0 faith in them with any sort of proper representation. I'll mostly be sticking to queers and women. I do have a small section about Gaz, but I'm white and keep that in mind.

Onto the bullshit

They're not gonna make any main character queer. This means Soap, Gaz, Price, and Ghost. Farah and Alex by extension. Most likely not Alejandro and Rudy. They won't risk the repercussions.

Hell, Alejandro is implied to have a family, but we skimmed over that part as a fandom.

What they will do, like Laswell, mention that a side/secondary/tertiary character has a partner, but won't put ANY thought into it. Laswell's wife could SHOULD have been talked about by name.

They don't CARE enough about their characters to even solidify her over a facade of rep that will make the queer people happy. It did in a sense, I am happy that she has a wife. But if you're bothering to have a line about her, just add a second. Like Price could ask "Oh, how's Madeline doing anyways?" or "Yea, you've told Jenny you'd stop smoking how many times already?"

WoW-wise, their queer characters are mostly surface-level. Which isn't bad in a world full of queer stories that are queer-centric. The problem is they don't have the balls to upset any fan by making a popular character explicitly queer in their portrayal. Hell it wasn't even THEM who made Matthias and Flynn queer, it was originally put into the novels (I believe Chrissy Golden?)

Here's a quote from an executive producer: "We don't try to put a big focus on it and make it a big deal, we just try to make the game feel comfortable, friendly and approachable for everybody"

I don't know about you, but using "comfortable, friendly, and approachable for everybody" as an excuse for why you don't have more outwardly queer rep (versus "hint around it") leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Because my sexuality or gender identity is uncomfortable for people? My existance is uncomfortable for people, so you don't want to explicitly say it???

but he implied that the devs don't think Pelagos is the first trans character. Fuck you. It's giving JKR saying that Dumbledore is gay, but it wasn't important to Harry's story. What isn't explicitly said in the source material is not canon.

They had, HAVE, the chance to make major players into canonically queer characters, but they're afraid of backlash. Vol'jin would have been so easily bi in canon, especially with his whole thing with Tyranthan in the fucking novel. And that Tyranthan went to his funeral??? even though they're on opposite sides????

Onto the next point, they don't and won't give a shit about the female characters. All I'm thinking about is the disappointing outcome of Tyrande's revenge after the burning of Teldrassil, hell even the whole Azshara thing. I'm not gonna go into detail about how it, just know it led to nothing. She didn't get revenge. She didn't have a satisfying end. Why? Probably because Sylvanas and Azshara are both more popular than Tyrande. Sylvanas probably being the WoW character with the most merch (not to mention the whole thing about a dev loving her).

Farah is gonna be brought up minimally, much like she was in MW II. Valeria/El Sin Nombre and most likely the Vaqueros will be completely forgotten. Maybe brought back (again like Farah was in MW II)

They're not consistent with their characters in the first place, why give a shit about a promise they made. It'll most likely be implied between games that some shit will be solved, or a line or two in the next game. Just so people get closure.

The surface level rep keeps going throughout. We have a bunch of diversity in the operators, but significantly less in the campaign, where the characters need to be fleshed out more than a written backstory and voiced lines.

How often have they shown Alex properly since he lost his leg?

The dudebro's are pissed that they changed Gaz, a mostly 1-dimensional character that died within the first Modern Warfare. Gaz is a good character, there's no reason that they're pissed about him vs them being pissed about any other member of the task force. But I've seen more hate on Gaz than any other 141. Which sadly leads me to conclude that they probably only dislike him due to his race.

But the aspect that isn't giving me much hope is the phasing out of Gaz in additional content. You're telling me the only POC in the 141 is not included in the red team? Out of all the dudes you could have removed?? Like I'm all for including Farah into the red team; but removing the only person of color on the team, one who was canonically in the Ghost Team mission, isn't the win they think it is.

Not to mention the numerous merch of the 141 that have Ghost, Price, and Soap; but not Gaz. With only 1 design containing Gaz.

And don't come at me that "those are the old designs though!" It's in their current website for sale. The 8-bit design is fairly recent within the last few weeks or so. Gaz is a main character in MW 2019 AND 2022. He deserves more than 1 solo shirt that is just the repurpose of the 141 shirt.

Onto the points brought up by @spookykittenwrites

Ghoap

Either won't be mentioned at all or will be excessively "haha we're just pals" kinda vibes.

They WILL play up the dynamic in trailers and such, as it did bring a new group of people to the games, and it seemed to make the dudebro's happy with their bromance.

Death

None of the main characters will be killed off. There's too much opportunity to make money off of their survival. So far the new games have been very light with the major character deaths. In the original games Soap and Price are the only 2 that survive past 1 game.

Roach

They're not gonna make him mute or selectively mute.

I do think they might bring back Roach to kill him off within the same Game though.

Hell, they might not even bring him back.

Farah and Alex

I honestly hope that we see them together, it might not happen. I think they're gonna keep the Farah/Alex line as the raid focus.

As for the no chemistry thing. Depends. If they're seen for 3.5 seconds they definitely won't. Hell, they aren't technically ever stated to be dating in canon AND the dudebro's get pissed that people are shipping them. Again with the not saying anything that'll upset the target audience.

For the Muslim aspect; not sure they even think about their own characters enough to have her religion mentioned in game. (They can't even get the bios straight when they update the game, I'm not gonna complain about this here)

Laswell's Wife

Important thing to remember, the line about her wife isn't even in every playthrough. It's a hidden one.

No doubt about her never being mentioned in my head. It only got past the dudebros because it's a lesbian couple. If it was a dude talking about his husband I doubt it would have gotten into the game.

US can do no Wrong

Definitely, the entirety of the blame will be on Russians. They did in fact blame a real US warcrime on Russians in the past.

Interestingly enough, the most recent info I can find is that the Military took out their funding post-sexual harassment allegations from Activision-Blizzard in December 2022.

Military Propaganda is still Military Propaganda even if the Military isn't funding it.

Moral of the story? The comfort of the dudebros, the target demographic for the game, will always be priority. They won't risk hurting their profits by claiming a character is queer or putting too much importance on a woman. Whatever their comfort level is, is what that we'll be getting.

I'm gonna stop my rant here... Don't go into the next game hoping to get some good rep.

On a slightly positive note: they are getting better. Farah was genuinely a good character in MW 2019. The fact that there's a mention of a same-sex partner, even in passing, is pretty good.

Also, enjoy the Christmas merch shirts that I found of Price and Ghost.