#this test was actually really fun and rather accurate

[albert-kafka-camus]

it’s a 13 year old girl and her ‘am I gay?’ quiz against the world

Also it’s a 16 year old girl and her ‘how can I tell if I am neurodivergent’ quiz against the world

[taki118]

Yakuza Fiance ep 5 Manga Comparison

After the overstuffed ep 4 ep 5 is a breath of fresh air still some context missed but not as badly, as always the differences are below, and I'm using fantranslations cause I'm lazy.

So thankfully they did keep the conversation I said the dropped last time. Re-ordering things is still dumb to me (I think the Renji talk would have been a better cold open) but at least its here. Though again there are some differences

For one they took out Yoshino noticing all the missed calls/messages from Kirishima which is a funny thing. The anime does make up for by actually having Yoshinos head move around the room as Kirishima points out weak points which is a nice gag that takes advantage of the medium (wish they would continue that)

(Not relevant but I think the box of sauces they show at the end of the scene is reference to an extra the manga had about Tokyo not having a bunch of sauces that Osaka has)

For once the anime adds in a scene that isn't ominous starring, giving us Yoshino looking at test results to flow into her fears about the actual exams, which is nice.

So its not a change here but due to pervious change the dialogue in the anime makes less sense. So as I said in ep 4 when Yoshino is talking to Kirishima about her dad he lets her in on the fact he's looked into her family so when Yoshino asks him here how much he knows about Tsubaki it makes sense. Because the anime dropped this bit the anime view has to assume that like Yoshino assumes he did this.

So here is a bit they dropped during the conversation after meeting Tsubaki that I feel like is a waste

Yoshino more explains what she means when she says Tsuabki is such a Kyoto girl, noting they went all the way to Ise once and just had food from a Kyoto restaurant chain. Its funny and sad to see it go but overall ok to drop.

This isn't like a dialogue change but a shot change kinda I havent mentioned it much but a lot of the shot choices the anime makes are odd but this one is a bit of a loss. When Yoshino looks at the sandals in the anime she just does a height comparision with Kirishima and its cute but

But its not as cute as Yoshino tugging Kirishima by the arm to look with her. Also it cuts that Tsubaki is starring at Kirishima who's obviously enjoying the attention.

The conversation Tsubaki has with Kirishima about his behavior towards Yoshino (which FYI is really important and I could talk more on) is pretty accurate a few reorderings but this was dropped and i just think its a shame

Its good insight, and an added visual to help bring everything across.

Anyway the lead into Tsuabki and Kirishimas "date" is much the same the big drop is this bit with Yoshino

It again shows that she is a lot smarter than she gives herself credit for, knowing what they'll talk about.

So the ferris wheel scene is pretty accurate but they left out a rather important bit where Kirishima is explaining his theory about Yoshino having never lost a kidney.

They don't show HOW Kirishima knew the scar wasn't quite right for kidney removal, in the anime the assumption is that he looked it up in the manga they note that he had a specialist take a look this specialist being one of his friends with benefits. This is important because this lets you in one WHY Kirishima is primarily with these women (and they are all women) all of them have something he needs, connections, information or skills that he does not have access to normally. He's not just sleeping around for the fun of it even Ayano the girl we see in ep 3, she's a model with boyfriend who has connections. This is subtle set up to pay offs down the line as Kirishimas actions are better explained. Its a rather important loss and really eye opening on re reads as things begin to click.

and this leads into another thing where technically its the same but subtleties are missed. The anime just has Tsubaki note this is an odd convo on a ferris wheel and questioning why Kirishima is so fixated on Yoshino, before Kirishima talks about the train ticket.

The manga however first has Kirishima state he wished he could be on the ferris wheel with Yoshino, which adds context to why Tsubaki asks her question. Then Kirishima hesitates, he thinks for a moment before bringing it up because he knows this information will get to Yoshino and he's weighing his options. It adds weight to what he says letting the reader know that this is indeed important. Also it removes a line where Kirishima explains he wasn't given any extra funds so he had to scrape it together another hint for later.

So the rest of the ep is pretty accurate, nothing I can really take too much note of, not as much as other episodes but what was dropped is pretty disappointing in many ways.

[starrybl1ss]

Enchanting secrets ✧˖°.

★senior/quidditch captain/slytherin!ellie williams x senior/gryffindor!reader ★warnings: making out lol, swearing, (smut in part 2 that is complete link below) ★inspo: so basically yk the drarry ships?? this is kinda basically it but with ellie & reader and the hogwarts!ellie headcannons ★please read! harry potter fans please don't come at me because the timeline of this fic is probably not accurate from the books and movies. and yes, i did watch the movie but im not really in the fandom that much so i did as much as researching as i could.

Hogwarts has been a big journey for you and all the wacky magical things happening. as now you are in senior year, the last year in hogwarts, after that you'll have do the N.E.W.T.s test that is known to be increadibly difficult.

Your really nervous, luckly your friend, Dina is a fellow gryffindor as well. And she's a smart student.

You really want to do well in the test. magic isn't as easy as flickering a wand in the air and boom! your a frog. Its much more complex than that. theory or practice, its hard.

Your now in the library with Dina, studying your ass off. its quite stressful with all the subjects.

Tomorrow is the quidditch match. your house versus slytherin. you can't wait to watch it. its always so much fun watching quidditch. you never really liked playing quidditch since it all looks so exhausting and dangerous, not like hogwarts is not itself. but you rather focus on your studies.

"Dina, im going back. real tired. you coming?" you ask the black haired girl. "Yeah all go back after its actually time for students to get back and sleep" she replied. "Cya" you left the library grabbing your books.

You walk all along the school corridors and went on the anoyying stairs that always move to a different place. its still quite busy. but only with all the seniors. running up and down.

You suddenly bump into someone. an auburn haired girl making you drop your book. "shit, sorry let me get them for you" she bent down to your knees grabbing the books you dropped.

The girl hands out the books back to you. "thanks... ellie?" you thank her while a bit skeptical if thats her name. "no problem" she replied and continues walking down the stairs.

You were right, Ellie williams. captain of the slytherin quidditch team. You see her a lot. she's a big deal. the some what 'anoyying' quidditch captain that always makes their team win in quidditch the past years shes been in hogwarts.

You continue walking up the stairs towards the 'fat lady' painting. You stood infront of the painting. "fibbertigibbet" you said as the painting opened and you step in.

Your basically the first senior to enter since everybody was busy studying while you cant take it anymore. you were too sleepy. so you changed in to your pyjamas and went to bed

꒰୨🔮୧꒱

Your sleep was interrupted by Dina. "wake upppp, it's already time for brekfast!" she shook your unconcious body. you quicky open your eyes and saw that it is perfectly 7.30 in the morning.

Your sleep felt so quick. "wait up, im gonna get dress" you got up and dressed up as Dina waited in the common room.

"Let's go Deen" you went outside the gryffindor house and quickly went down the stairs to the great hall where brekfast is served until around 8.

You went ahead and sat down and grabbed the food you wanted. chicken, again. your kind of obsessed with eating chicken by now.

You glaired at the slytherin table where you saw, ellie williams again. for some reason, since you two bumped to eachother on the stairs, you couldnt seem to get her of your mind.

Dina waved her hand infront of your face trying to stop you from zoning out and daydreaming too much. "who's the lucky guy your gonna take to dance after the exam?" Dina looks at you hoping you already have a guy to take out to the last senior prom.

"Oh uh, dunno" you slightly shook your head. "who we're you looking at anyways?" she asks curiously. "no one, just uhh.. someone that helped me grab my books when we bumped into eachother last night"

"see? i dont think thats a 'no one' after all! who is it?" she shook your shoulder excitedly. "a girl... you know? slytherin's quidditch captain?" you said nervously.

"are you kidding? ellie? you mean ellie williams? she's bad news!-" Dina said out loudly as you stopped her to make her a little more quite since there was a lot of people looking at you two.

"My god, she's so anoyying! she's our rival y/n!" she looks at you. "i knowww, but-" you stopped talking trying to think what to say next.

"but what? okay, i could quickly find you a good looking, smart, green flag gryffindor guy in a minute! it'll be easy, almost every gryffindor wants you. not to meantion, a lot of other boys from other houses would want you"

"i'll just worry about it later, whats the point of having a 'guy' that wants you but you don't want them anyways?"

꒰୨🔮୧꒱

You couln't focus the whole time in potions. you kept having your eyes on ellie making it difficult. you exited the class and went towards the bathroom to wash your face.

You went inside hearing someone crying and ofcourse it is moaning myrtle. the ghost who haunts the girls bathroom.

You saw another girl infront of the sink. you got closer and it was ellie. god, you meet her everywhere. you went to the sink next to her as you turned on the faucet.

Ellie looks at you "hey, never really catched your name last night" slightly tilting her head. "I- im- uh, y/n" you introduced yourself.

"nice meeting you"

"y-you too!" you said nervously.

"whats your next class y/n?" god, she said your name making you blush a little. suprised that she brought up a conversation. "defence againts the dark arts" you replied.

She looks at you while not sayying a thing. just admiring your face making your heart skip a beat. you couldn't handle the tension anymore.

"i should get to clas-" you stepped a bit further from her but she grabbed your left arm. "the teacher wouldn't mind you being late right?" she said teasingly.

"y-yeah he wouldn't min-" suddenly ellie pulls you in a kiss. fuck, you didn't know this would happen so quickly. you kissed her back. her hands on your waist.

"c-can we a go somewhere a little more private? Just incase...-" ellie grabs you and puts you two in one of the stalls locking the door from behind.

She pins you to the door and started giving you hickeys on your neck with you letting out choked up moans as she lifts up your sweater.

You hear someone sniffing, moaning myrtle. "Looks like things are getting a little too spicy in here. you stupid kids forgot i haunt this place? Jeez, get out!"

Shit, you totally forgot about her being her- fuck! Your missing out on professor lupin's class!

"El- ellie im missing class i should go-" you push her back a little. "See you after the match?" You nod as you went outside the stall

You ran around the corridor. 14 minutes late into proffesor lupin's class. luckly it was him teaching so he didn't make a fuss about you being late and you just said you were in the bathroom constapated as hell and he led that slide without you telling him you hooked up with the slytherin quidditch captain.

"were you that constipated? your lucky proffesor lupin isn't absent or you'd be in hell!" Dina did made a fuss about it.

You rolled your eyes and continued writing in your notebook.

꒰୨🔮୧꒱

This evening the weather is perfect. Not too hot, a bit cloudy but no sign of rain. The quidditch match had begun 15 minutes ago.

Slytherin are currently in the lead. Brooms going back and forth in lightning speed.

You could care less about the match, you were drunk in love admiring ellie on her broomstick. She was your house biggest rival!

Your mouth accidently slipped "Go ell-!" Dina looks at you confused. "Shes our rival! Snap out of it!" You stayed silent gazing at ellie like your some dumb 12 year old thats so drunkly inlove.

꒰୨🔮୧꒱

The match has ended with slytherin, again. everybody went back inside the school corridor as the slytherin kids all cheered for ellie and her team.

you were completely starstruck by her. shes so... mesmorizing its driving you insane.

suddenly you felt someones arm touching yours in the crowd. you looked at your left to see... ew! its that icky popular gryffindor guy that cant seem to get your hands off you.

"hey, i was wondering if you'd want to come to the dance with m-" you cut off his words. "sorry, fully booked" you tilt your head with a smug face.

You were lying, theres been a lot of guys asking you but you just rejected all of them.

You walked away from him without looking back. as the corridor got a little less hectic, ellie approaches you. "hey, about that..." she stopped. "would you go to the yule ball with me after the exam? any chance? you already got someone... dont you?"

You giggled "i don't, ellie" you smile. she smiled back at you and pulled you in for a kiss infront of people including dina.

꒰୨🔮୧꒱

★read please!

HIIII soooo its donee, sorry if i misspelt stuff. ik the pole i did alotta people voted for smut but i wanted this one to be clean???? so if you want to read the next part (that has smut) you can read it here!

lmk if you wanna see the yule ball part after the n.e.w.t.s!

[vexedallay]

I have so many thoughts abt epsilon guys, so it's analysis post time-

Warning: long post below cut

So, they're not human, right? Their body is that of a robot, so presumably their mind is some sort of computer or AI (and here I mean an actual goddamn artificial intelligence, not a "generative ai" or some bs). So their entire fucking mind is made of code, and things like "variability" doesn't really exist. In order for someone like epsilon to function, they need to break down the complexity of human nature into sets of rules that govern how social interaction, society, and the world in general works. They can then follow these rules and be fine. (This is how my brain works, btw. Computers make more sense than people to me) Epsilon can understand that their rules might not be complete, and is flexible enough to add more when encountering new scenarios, but they do expect their rules to be accurate. They are very much a person of logic rather than emotion. As they have mostly only interacted with other robots and artificial beings, who function in much the same way, this works for them. However, when interacting with actual people, this doesn't work as well. People are notably often governed by emotion, not logic, and are incredibly prone to spontaneity. As such, Epsilon really has no idea how to interact with them sometimes, especially with little kids.

Epsilon also refers to living people as "organics" and robotic things as "artificials" because that is how they separate those two groups mentally. There's too many types of people, too many types of robots, so Epsilon refers to the makeup of their bodies instead. This isn't necessarily an insult, it simply is. But it is a fun detail about Epsilon habits.

Also since epsilon is a robot, they can do things like be rebuilt. This is a massive thing in the actual portal storyline - being able to rebuild these robots over and over again to continue testing. Even if Epsilon wasn't programmed initially to feel pain, they are a learning system (that's what makes them so good) so there isn't a reason they couldn't have *learned* to feel pain, or at least some facsimile of it. Additionally, them watching their body get destroyed and rebuilt it bound to be traumatizing anyways, which means I just gave this robot ptsd. Oops.

Anyhow, how does epsilon actually *survive* being destroyed, much less *watch*. First off, Epsilon only exists in their memory files. They can be *completely* disconnected from their body, lose access to *all* of their sensory systems, yet still be *alive*. (This is also bound to be incredibly traumatizing since they are basically completely at the mercy of whoever happens to find them, completely unable to defend themself.) And, if they needed to watch, glados is there and watching anyways. Since epsilon only exists in their memory files, they could be hooked up to other sensory systems, through network connections and whatnot. I'd imagine glados does this on purpose as a sort of threat to epsilon.

I do want to mention glados at least briefly. She definitely had some level of control over at least Epsilons body and sensory systems, which in general is rough (complete understatement). She also put Epsilon through all of these tests, making Epsilon a lab rat. Which means Epsilon likely has the *mentality* of a lab rat. So high levels of obedience, no real purpose to life (currently they want to find rho-13, but once they find him they won't have a purpose at all), etc. Which is just fun to play with.

Also, I like to think Epsilon uses they/them pronouns because they never got a gender module installed, and learned that they/them was the default. So they're a they/them guy with no actual preference.

Fibally, Epsilon definitely thinks of themself as EP-511ON56. They're a robot, and that is their serial number. The same way they think of RHO-13 as his serial number rather than a proper name. The reason they *use* this nickname is because organics don't like listing serial numbers constantly, so Epsilon.

Anyhow, long af ramble about epsilons character? Complete.

[anonzentimes]

last asker here wahoo weehee but yeah i dont mind the ramble !!! honestly i do feel a little similar sometimes ourgh . maybe not with being in specific fandoms but especially when it comes to like . the smaller things like self inserts . the like

but anyway !!!!!! now im curious and im not too sure if you've answered anything of the sort before but i do wonder what you thought of the difference in characterization with Nagito in the games and in the anime?

not that nagito in the games r even one for one the same- same goes for the anime-

but i do know there's a difference , and i've heard so many differing opinions on how Nagito's potrayed in both, especially discussion on how faithful Nagito in danganronpa 3's character is to danganronpa 2, so i'll admit now im very interested on hearing your thoughts on him when looking at game nagito and anime nagito side by side eyes emoji

YAYY!!!!! I love getting asked to talk about him it's so fun!!! No one has actually asked this before, and I've been planning to do something on this for a bit!

Personally I think anime Nagito is actually really good! Although I think side lining him for a little bit was a weird decision, even if I understand why. But enough of that! Let's talk more about his characterization! I'll talk about what I think about Nagito's characterization in the anime and some annoyances I have with the misinterpretations!

I will admit that some of the fandom's opinions on, "Anime Nagito vs Game Nagito," kind of bother be because a lot of it stems from people not understanding his character in it's entirety in the first place.

The thing about Nagito is that he works as an amazing antagonist because he isn't ill intentioned and is just mentally screwed up. In the killing game his coping mechanisms and absolute beliefs are on display and he is at his worst, he's practically having multiple mental breakdowns and losing it. And his beliefs and coping mechanisms happen to be morally gray because he believes Anything is okay if it's for hope. With his luck cycle, coping mechanisms, and absolute beliefs that stem from both of these things we get Nagito. And when you place Nagito who thinks being trapped on the island forever without the ultimates impacting the world in any way is worse than one person surviving and making an impact on the world, he feels like he has to do something.

Basically, how Nagito acts in the anime and before the first trial is who he is when he's not mentally crumbling and I get really irritated when people try to say that in the game he was a "malicious psychopath" but in the anime he turned into "baby boy" like, just, GRRRAGHHH!!!!! IT MAKES ME FEEL LIKE HE NEEDS TO BE GATEKEPT WHEN PEOPLE DO THAT!!! THEY'RE MISUNDERSTANDING HIM SO BAD IT HURTS ☹️☹️☹️

I believe the anime's characterization is pretty great and still keeps in tact his absolute beliefs that lead him to do morally gray things for the sake of hope! I think he's very well done characterization wise in the anime. I liked the episode where he ends up blowing up the gym because he wants to postpone the test for his classmates it made a lot sense with how he thinks and his luck cycle! I also really love his encounter with Junko and Izuru. He says several good lines in the anime that are accurate and completely in character for him, and I love it!

I think the addition that the class thought he was weird even before he was at his worst and didn't show much reciprocation is sad and adds to his tragic life. The fact that he isn't surprised when Chisa slaps him, but rather when he is shown affection gets me dude!!!

I think it is sweet though that, his time at hope's peak is probably one of the best experiences he had until everything went wrong. He isn't shown much reciprocation but he genuinely cares for his classmates beyond them being ultimates from hanging out and knowing them so long. He has some reciprocation from Chisa and the other classmates somewhat care about him to varying degrees. I believe his overall luck cycle went, get accepted into hope's peak, good luck, gets diagnosed, bad luck, gains people he cares about in his life and some who care about him too, good luck, all of them become despairs, bad luck!

The other thing I wanted to touch upon is Bryce Pappenbrook listening to criticism about how Nagito sounds more sarcastic than intended. For a lot of the english fanbase the misinterpretation that Nagito's not honest is beyond repair especially since he's hard to understand, but I really do appreciate the effort to change it slightly. Even if people who misunderstood think there's a huge difference or even retcon with his character, I think it's a nice change that he sounds more genuine like his Japanese voice in the anime.

I think the real difference with him in the Anime versus Ultra Despair Girls and Danganronpa 2 is his role in the story. I think he's very in character, we just don't see him having meltdowns and go through his self unaware freak outs. We still see him do morally gray things and impact the plot though! In the anime he's doing better compared to the spiraling we see in Danganronpa 2 and rock bottom even more extreme beliefs we see in Udg.

Also I think the anime solidifying the fact that Nagito usually doesn't go out of his way for the ultimate's attention because he thinks he's unworthy of their time actually makes Danganronpa 2 more impactful. Because, if he doesn't try to seek the ultimates attention, then that's further solidifying the fact Nagito was interested in Hajime, he felt a connection with him even when they first met. We see him do the opposite of what he usually would just because of Hajime, and I think that's really sweet.

Nagito barely mentioning hope in Danganronpa 2's prologue is for the plot twist mostly, however, there could be multiple actual reasons for it. My interpretation is that it's because he wanted to make a good impression so he focuses on that instead, that combined with it not really coming up leads to them not really knowing what he thinks. There are hints of it and he's not purposely "hiding it" at all. Nagito is an honest person who only lies when he feels it's necessary, to further prove that point when he gets the despair disease, personality inverting disease, he gets the Lying disease.

Nagito in the prologue and in the anime are the same because he's not losing it yet, the only difference is Nagito talks slightly less about hope and his beliefs because It's not very relevant, he's trying to make a good impression, and he's focusing on keeping Hajime's attention. My favorite little thing supporting this is that he doesn't complain about going swimming. In the Dangan Island events we see him worry about it, but when he's focusing on everything else he didn't really think about it. He asks what Hajime is planning to do instead.

In conclusion, I believe Nagito in the anime is pretty good. He serves his role well for it not being his usual one, info about what he was like adds a little more to Danganronpa 2 analyzing it, and it's nice that we get to see more of him when he's not at his worst. He's still absolutely the same person and I think his characterization is really good. I think they could have utilized him more or made him relevant to the plot sooner if they wanted, but I think the impact and scenes that he has still are great and work well since he, again, doesn't have his usual role in the anime.

One last thing while I'm here talking about the anime's Nagito, a lot of people like to make the joke that he's "hopesexual" because of the one fan service line of dialogue in Danganronpa 3 where he basically says, "Hope feels amazing," and I just. URAGGHHH!!!!!!!! I'm sorry but if someone unironically says "hopesexual" I hope that their pillow always remains warm on both sides because saying it Is ANNOYINGG!!! It's so easy to get I don't know why people do this, and I know I'm being a little over the top but it just bugs me sooo bad Like,

Hope = Absolute Good/Euphoric Feeling for him, Horny = Euphoric Feeling for him, CONCLUSION: GENERAL EUPHORIA DESCRIPTOR!! He doesn't have a hope kink and the people who make those jokes are weird especially since it's straight up wrong!! I know it's just a joke, but it still gets on my nerves regardless because some people take it seriously. Even one of his songs uses this comparison by allegorizing hope with sexual desires, conveying that both are euphoric emotions for him! >:(

Anyways!

Thank you for your ask and Hopefully I successfully got all of the points I wanted to across! <3

[esta-elavaris]

Nobody Knows

Okay, starting things off with something I wrote back in 2015 for my first creative writing class at uni. It's a short horror story, the assignment was literally just "write a short story with roughly 1.5k words" bc they were great with giving us serious freedom to write what we wanted to write, and this was what I came up with. I think it was the first 'serious' original short story I wrote, I was 18/19 at the time (so, disclaimer on that score if you're going to compare it to the stuff I'm posting now at almost-27 lolol), so the quality will probably reflect that, but it has sentimental value and a bit of other meaning to me, so I'm posting it as is. Definitely a "look at what I dredged up from the archives" kinda thing rather than a "wow isn't this great?" kinda thing.

I remember I went into that first semester, looked at the people in the class around me and just thought "oh god, I am so fucking out of my league here" -- but then, three months later, my course leader (who ended up being my personal tutor in the years that followed, and my favourite teacher across my whole degree) really enjoyed it and his very kind feedback resulted in the moment where I stopped and thought "man, maybe I actually have something going with my writing". It also ended up in my uni's Eng Lit magazine, which I still have a copy of for archival purposes ✨

Plus, if I reread it too closely to edit it to the quality I like to think I can produce now, I will end up convincing myself not to post it 💀 so here! Have some baby!writer stuff.

By the time I reached nineteen, I was scared of Nobody. That was what I called him - Nobody. My own private little joke.

“Who are you talking to?”

“Nobody.”

“Who are you staring at?”

“Nobody.”

Not a lie, but not a response that would get me thrown into the nearest mental hospital. I considered that a win/win. It also described him accurately – for he didn’t seem to have a body. All I ever saw of him was shadow. Sometimes it would be clearer, forming a silhouette, and other times he’d just be an ever-shifting mass of darkness. I’d been too young to be frightened by his appearance when I first found him in my grandmother’s attic. I’d thought my cousin’s tales of hauntings in the house had always just been made up to scare me, but regardless, Nobody didn’t scare me – not at first.

By the time he did, I’d known him for a decade, and had only resented him for two of those years. The resentment began at my seventeenth birthday party. Before then, having a negative thought about Nobody was utter blasphemy in my book. I would never allow a bad word to be said about my guardian, protector, teacher and presumed imaginary friend. Not one. My mother would suggest that I was too old for this behaviour, and that it was time for Nobody to go away, only for me to go ballistic. I learned to keep him to myself after that, but my good opinion only strengthened, if anything. What could be bad about somebody, living or not, who was so willing to protect me? Who toppled over the chairs my bullies sat in? Who snuck me the answers I needed in tests? It was absurd, but I kept my mouth shut, and as far as everybody else was concerned, my imaginary friend vanished. It meant little to me – it wasn’t like any of them could see him in the first place.

Then things changed. What was meant to be the best night of my life turned out to be the worst. No parents, no neighbours, no rules. Just lots of booze, music and fun. Or so I thought. The first hint that something was awry was when all of the alcohol became mysteriously unavailable to us. Packs of beer would end up in locked cabinets, with the keys nowhere to be found. Bottles of vodka would fling themselves towards the sink and smash there, any potential source of amusement quite literally down the drain.

Then came the issue of the music. My best friend spent the entire evening wrestling with the CD player, wondering why it would refuse to play certain songs (the ones I knew Nobody hated), or why the volume refused to go any higher than, a pretty pathetic, “six”. The final straw was when every guy at the party suddenly became dramatically ill. Every single one. Headaches, vomiting fits, fevers, or even just a sense of pure unease. They needed little motivation to leave such a pathetic party in the first place. Within an hour, the only guests left were my two best friends. My seventeenth birthday bash had been demoted to a sleepover worthy of a ten year old.

After that, Nobody became less of a trusted ally and more of a domineering parent. Where I used to look at my hungover friends with a smug smirk, happy that Nobody had prevented me from drinking enough to end up in that state, I now looked at them with envy. They were normal. They drank too much and endured the consequences. When they were too lazy to study for tests, they failed. Life was difficult and it was unfair and they complained about it relentlessly. But that was what made it fun. They had to think about their next move, take responsibility for themselves. If they forgot their keys, they’d be locked out – they didn’t have any ghost to open the door for them. Without the dark you find yourself unable to appreciate the light, and so life became unbearably boring. I knew that whatever was approaching me in life, it would be fine. Nobody would handle it, whether I wanted him to or not. I hated it, and I hated him for it. My life was no longer mine to control, but instead belonged to somebody who was dead. How twisted was that? Each day was monotonous, and I found myself learning little - if that - from the limited life experience I had. I made no attempt to have an eighteenth birthday party.

Spurred on by thoughts of my failed seventeenth birthday party, and non-existent eighteenth, I made my decision. On the night of my nineteenth I took a lighter to the living room curtains, setting the place on fire. In the grand scheme of things it seemed like a perfectly safe and reasonable thing to do in the name of distraction. By time the blaze was out and smoke stopped billowing out of the window, I was already down the street, peering out at my home from behind a wheelie bin to make sure that I wouldn’t be returning to the charred skeleton of the house at the end of the night.  What I did return to, however, was a foreboding mass of shadow that I was too scared to tear my eyes away from. His presence had gone from endearing to terrifying in seconds flat.

My bedroom was trashed. Books were scattered on the floor, my clothes were strewn around any and every surface available. Even the door had a long, jagged splinter running up through the middle. Nobody made no move, no attempt at communication. Instead he stood stock-still in the corner, shadows bristling.

I didn’t sleep at all that night, instead sitting up in bed, staring at the void that was once my dearest companion with a sense of dread filling my chest. Hours later, when my drunkenness gave way to a fierce headache, all of the painkillers in the house had mysteriously vanished. I’d hoped it would end there, the same way arguments with my parents went. I’d lie, they’d be angry, eventually we’d all forget about it and move on. Nobody wasn’t the type to move on.

That’s where the decision to get rid of him came from. I couldn’t handle it. The constant hounding of my steps, the uncomfortable atmosphere, the lack of sleep. Sure, without him my life would be mundane and ordinary, but what was I with him? An adult with no decisive powers and an enforced bedtime.

When the day came, I kept up the façade marvellously. Nothing was out of the ordinary, and as far as he knew I was simply visiting a new friend at her apartment. Nobody didn’t show any sign of realising something was up until it was too late.

“That’s it?” I asked the ‘mystic’ dubiously as she finished burning incense and tracing odd symbols on my arms with the ash.

“That’s it,” she waved a hand “You may leave. He cannot follow.”

Nobody’s head shot up in clear alarm. His silhouette jerked towards me, but didn’t move. Couldn’t move. His head snapped between the old woman and I, almost like he was watching a tennis match, before it settled on me again and he unsuccessfully tried to move. The shadows around him spiked outwards.

“Oh, hush! You have no power here!” the old woman snapped impatiently.

I paid her as promised, but kept my gaze on Nobody. It was a weird feeling. Like seeing a caged tiger at a zoo. So much power, but no ability to use it. He’d gone from running my life, to being unable to take even a single step in my direction, all thanks to a bit of ash and some fancy words. For half a second, I faltered. I wanted to apologise to him. Pleasant memories surfaced – my toys putting on shows for me as a child, dancing on invisible strings, or even not having to pay to use the tube, as the ticket gates opened on their own upon my approach. But then the shadows spiked angrily again, and the regret was replaced by the more familiar fear.

When I walked out of that apartment, for the first time in ten years I was truly alone. I was truly free. Free to make my own decisions and live outside of Nobody’s grasp. It was then that life decided to catch up on all the years’ worth of lessons it had been unable to teach me until then. My freedom lasted four minutes. If I’d had Nobody with me, he’d have noticed the car that I failed to until it was too late, so used to not even having to look before I crossed the road. The last thing I saw was his dark silhouette, standing motionless in the window overlooking the street.

[libertineangel]

I wanted to sleep fucking hours ago, a guy's coming this afternoon to PAT test the kitchen appliances, yet here I fucking am awake, and I'm still thinking about the potential of joining the Revolutionary Communist Party so maybe typing it all out and posting it here will get it out of my head for now, this will likely not be the most eloquent because I am tired as all fuck shit but whatever.

Right so I do want to actually do something to help change the shit we're currently living in, I can sit and read the books all I like but part of me is frustrated and feels like it's pointless if that's all I'm doing when the whole point of all this theory is to put it into practice, especially as an admirer of the Situationists whose revolutionary concepts so valued going out and living and experiencing rather than letting this all reside in the mind a pseudo-world apart, and it is encouraging that they seem proactive and dedicated and serious about the task of building a movement, but:

...selling a fucking paper, really? I've partially read their new recruits' handbook and there's a whole section dedicated to the importance of the paper and of selling the paper, quoting Lenin to that effect, but the simple fact is that the material conditions that made Pravda instrumental are inordinately different to those of 21st century Britain. The Bolsheviks used a paper to summarise goings-on in the workers' movement across the Russian Empire and easily disseminate their message because that was pretty much the only way to do it, nobody these days buys a fucking paper and getting news & organisation from one end of this tiny little country to the other can be done instantaneously a million different ways.

I asked at the meeting what the general activities of membership entailed, they talked about weekly branch meetings plus another weekly reading group (with occasional social afterward), as well as other activities like selling the bloody paper, and to be blunt - in the words of Johnny Rotten - I'm a lazy sod. More specifically, and more accurately, I have a deep instinctive aversion to any regular commitment that poses a disruption to the blank routine of normalcy, I have the strong feeling that two nights a week is a lot for me to give up even for something I might want to do; I do know, however, that I felt exactly the same when I was about to start escrima, and that concern was completely unfounded (some days I might be reticent to bother, sure, but on other days frankly having a reliable couple of hours to do something that's usually fun out of the flat just for me has helped keep my brain from snapping like an elastic band). I actually got to go to a trial class for escrima though, and there's no free entry to branch meetings, and the organisation emphasises getting everyone out and active as quickly as possible (I believe Trotsky was quoted as regards training revolutionaries on the job) so it'd likely be more, which honestly sounds exhausting considering I already feel like I have so little time, and like obviously building a revolution isn't easy but as mentioned I am a lazy sod and simply do not like work, especially since that work will likely be selling a fucking paper. Honestly I cannot currently remember any activities mentioned other than selling the paper right now, there was also talk of going to protests and suchlike and spreading communism there, but as ever a significant vehicle of that was expected to be...god do I have to type it again, the stereotype about Trots really is true isn't it, but anyway yeah can you really imagine the girl who can't directly look at people for more than a few seconds working a paper stand

I'm also not convinced by the international to which they belong, nor its leader. They came out of the Militant Tendency split when that left Labour to form the Socialist Party in '92, with Alan Woods and the late Ted Grant insisting entryism totally wasn't doomed and forming Socialist Appeal and the International Marxist Tendency; they've now rebranded as the RCP and the Revolutionary Communist International, the guy I met said it's because they grew enough as entryists and now is the time to really make a bold move with many people disillusioned with "socialism" after Corbyn & Sanders' failures but frankly I think it's because they've finally recognised Labour's irrelevant and there's no point being entryists in a neoliberal centrist party. Anyway yeah Alan Woods is still the leader of the IMT/RCI and from what I can see he hates every government & leader that's claimed to be communist since Lenin except for Hugo Chávez whom he was friends with, and I did not think much of his writing in the issue of the paper I got. The guy I met also explicitly mentioned that the Swiss & Canadian branches of the IMT are remarkably strong and rapidly-growing, but uhhh my prior research found that the Canadian IMT really dragged its heels investigating sexual assault allegations by the leadership, and my previous thought was that Canada is not Britain so it might be better here but considering we explicitly talked about how other parties here have such problems and he was like "yeah I'm not gonna deny it's a potential in any organisation but it also shows a lack of true commitment to Marxist principles at every level like ours", like...yeah you can see my scepticism. I've also seen some comments saying they're really great and active and others saying they're basically a very insistent reading group that just wants your money and paper-selling capability, both of which I'm prepared to believe.

Additionally, another early part of the handbook was about conduct - I'm probably not phrasing this quite right 'cause I read it like 4 hours ago, I'm tired as shit and can't be arsed to go get it, but basically it expects us all to behave like good proper revolutionaries, represent the Party well both in person and online, always be at the meetings and apologise & ask what happened ASAP for any we miss; now obviously that hits my natural punk Fuck Off instinct, but couple it with the above and I have a certain degree of actual concern: emphasis on good conduct and regular attendance, immediate expectation of high activity levels, heavy focus on recruitment tactics, immediate financial contributions to support the full-time higher-ups (which honestly surprised me at the time, isn't that the sort of bureaucracy Trots don't like?), led by a single unchanging leader who's been at it for decades, opinions seem divided between people in it who think it's great and people who briefly checked it out and left unimpressed...like this is ticking some boxes of a High-Control Group. I could well be wrong, in fact I hope I'm wrong, it's not like the vague and casual approaches of other far-left groups have accomplished shit fuck and building a revolution is a serious endeavour, and it could well just be me finding excuses to be an aforementioned lazy sod, and admittedly this interpretation is coloured by one obscure blog I found on page 7 of Google claiming as much (from a self-confessed former commie turned reactionary monarchist Tory Christian who first felt unwelcome in the IMT after calling drugs degenerate, so I am not putting much stock in their words), but like...I know some shit about cults, and the potential is there.

This all does sound very negative, but to be honest that's because the positive side basically boils down to "they seem to actively be trying, they're not transphobic and I want to do something". I have no idea what form an organisation would ideally take for me to be genuinely enthusiastic, I have no idea what specifically I would want to be doing in one considering I have no real revolution-building skills (not personable enough to recruit people, not well-read enough to be a theoretician, maybe I could just spew polemic (though that would need a vehicle to be read...perhaps some kind of regularly-published print outlet?)), the sensible thing to do in order to get anything done is to just go with the one that seems best and right now this is it, but...nevertheless I remain hesitant.

[thedrotter]

Giggles and kicks my legs. Soooo .. how about YOU make a headcanon post

OKAY!!!! i actually have. like a. insanely long list for my mother headcanons and have an uncomplete Google docs document on them because im insane but i will make it as short as i can by only taking about mother 2 LMAOOO so imma just add a silly read more thingy here because i am about to info dump so hard

Imma go character by character because ITS JUST CLEANER...

first off silly baseball child ness

Because I'm silly like that I woke up one day and decided he was trans masc. if ness or just any male protagonist in media (looking at you link) could make money out of the amount of people that made headcanons of him not being cis I imagine there'd be alot of cash coming in

I like to think of him as half-latino and knowing spanish because WHY NOT!!! and since every single latinoamerican breathes and cherishes goku HE NEEDS TO BE A DRAGON BALL FAN he would not be accurate latinoamerican representation IF HE WASNT A DRAGON BALL FAN!!!

Out of the whole group I imagine he tries to use PSI as little as possible in his daily life once the whole journey is over, for he is more comfortable living as a normal kid. WILL NOT HESITATE TO USE HEALING POWERS IF NECCESARY but otherwise avoids it (except telepathy on animals because i have this funny thought where he has unintentionally used telepathy his entire life and thats how he knows what animals are saying BUT THOUGHT THIS WAS NORMAL??? once he figures out its not a normal thing he avoids doing it as much with people but he cannot live without knowing what the dawg be saying...

the airhead in the group. he is mostly gut oriented instead of going by brains his brain mgiht as well be a burger

ALSO THE LOUD ONE a very empathetic and easy going boy that gets easily excited about everything and just likes having fun. which means every time he gets a semblance of a negative emotion he will proceed to numb it down and ignore it causing him to just accumulate it😰 LIKE HOW HE HAS TO BEAT DIFFERENT CREATURES AND ENEMIES in his magicant they appear and look down at him for hurting them WHICH MIGHT BE HIM FEELING GUILTY BY THE FACT HE HAS TO DO THAT AND I IMAGINE HE CAN ONLY PULL HIMSELF TO DO SO BY NUMBING THE GUILT DOWN... he's just like look lets lets just get this done😞 what goes on with Pokey ending up on Giygas's side also applies to this but i will not go on detail. because I am writing fanfiction about it and rather not spoiil it😊😊😊😊

the baseball fan ever that practices daily without missing a single day and basically drags Pokey alongside him

and since. i am NORMAL... he's an ENTJ 7w8. i have spent endless hours doing personality tests for these kids i am so normal about them

he has a crush on Paula (which she returns) but is too flustered to admit this so he pretends he is not catching on to her VERY VISIBLE HINTS (she enjoys getting him flustered shes silly like that) because he's nervous about it💀💀💀

anyway PAULA TIME!!!! i am insane so i have provided some backstory for her

I imagine that she awakened her PSI pretty early on and is very gifted around it, and since it is so rare she became very popular in the media at a young age and is essentially a celebrity child. She thought it was very fun initially but she feels pressured to keep a perfect image of herself for she is considered to be a role model which painted an image of someone that wasn't her. She feels very upset about this nowadays and has tightly held onto what is important to her and her true self as to not lose it in attempting to be someone else. She basically has some anger issues out of this because she has gotten used to people not really respecting her boundaries and not being very interested in who she actually is

SHE'S STILL REALLY CARING SHE GENUINELY ENJOYS HELPING OTHERS AND IS THE ONE KEEPING THE TEAM MORALE IN BETWEEN THE FOUR even when she tends to forget taking care of herself sometimes

so yeah she isnt really amused when she's kidnapped SHE JUST GENERALLY HAS LIGHT REACTIONS TO THINGS GOING SOUTH BECAUSE SHE BASICALLY KINDA EXPECTS THAT? despite how much optimism she spreads around she's quite the pessimist (though never voices those thoughts) so she feels very drawn in when Ness is actually genuinely optimistic about everything

loves cute things so much she needs every single big plushie she finds IMMEDIATELY. kirby merch hoarder

generally a sweetheart but very bold and feisty not as much as Kumatora is but she is

if she was in the modern era she'd be a gamer and live breathe minecraft she would be the type of person that gently explains things to her friends on one side but yells when a random stranger in her team is playing horribly

really excited over her frying pan she would have gotten a bat if she didn't think itd be cool if she could use her frying pan as both a weapon and something to warm food up in. like SHE WILL USE IT IN ANY CHANCE POSSIBLE TO FEEL COOL like "Yeah ... give me that cold slice of pizza imma put in the pan . ..." pk fire some random oil she keeps around for thiw specific purpose and there it is it makes her so happy

AS I PREVIOUSLY MENTIONRD SHES VERY STRAIGHTFOWARD ABOUT HER FEELINGS FOR NESS EVERYONE KNOWS IT SHE IS NOT TRYING TO HIDE IT AT ALL but does not directly confess because she likes teasing Ness. she finds it amusing when he gets flustered about it and pretends he isn't catching on

ESFP 2w3 hehehehehehehe

now Jeff he's my favorite out of the four so his is probably going to be stupidly way longer because he's silly like that

not the usual type of shy who hides from people and stutters a lot I IMAGINE HE JUST GETS REALLY AWKWARD AND SPEAKS AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE AND ENDS UP SOUNDING REALLY FORMAL BY ACCIDENT. He will respond to you just in very few words if some stranger suddenly starts talking to him he basically freezes up and fights internally to even say a word because he does not know how to do conversations

He's very knowledgeable in many different things and if you ask him about anything he'll answer VERY NONCHALANTLY AND SHORTLY AS IF HE DOES NOT FULLY UNDERSTAND THE SUBJECT WHEN HE IN FACT, DOES. HE SIMPLY IS NOT INTERESTED. but then you bring up inventions and guns and he will provide you a full rambling session with visual examples test runs different things to reference to for different concepts he's mentioning and every single minute detail. THERE HE ACTUALLY GETS EXCITED LIKE HE ISN'T SHY AT ALL THERE

cannot for his life comprehend social cues or idioms he takes things very literally and doesn't assume there's any hidden meaning HE'S BETTER AT THINGS THAT ARE LOGICALLY ANSWERED THAN ANYTHING SOCIAL. so yes Tony can accidentally drop a hint that he's crushing on him and DESPITE JEFF FEELING THE SAME WAY, he'll be like hm thanks tony cool I'm sure that is a very best friend thing to say i do not think there are any romantic implications here....

has an inferiority complex over the fact people credit his skills to be coming from his father (who he basically HARDLY KNOWS OR REMEMBERS SEEING PHYSICALLY BEFORE THE PROPHECY) and not to his own efforts!!! he's constantly compared to him and is expected to have the same amount of genius he does so Jeff tends to overwork himself at times to reach this standard.

has tested million types of coffee to see which one keeps him awake at night the best— but hates coffee! he prefers tea. friends assume he likes coffee because of how mcuh he drinks it he does not

oh yeah as i implied has a big fixation towards inventions and guns. he just thinks they're inteesting as hell he wasn't one to use them he just thought they were rad as hell and he WILL recognize specific ones if shown even a peak of one. he cannot live without being 100% up to date with every single type of gun in existence he needs to know all about them and understand how they work and does elaborate dissections into how they're built

even if shy once comfortable with the rest of the team he actually is one to occasionally tease them and joke around sometimes HE HAS THIS RELATIONSHIP WITH NESS WHERE THEY ARE CONSTANTLY TRYING TO ANNOY EACH OTHER without actually annoying in each other idk how you call it but they just playing around they silly like that

type of person who's face turns red at even the slightest embarassment it just happrns really easily

im not even gonna lie to you he's essentially me irl i needed a character to project myself into so i dont feel bad about not being good at social cues and at anything that is not my main interest

OH YEAH HE'S THE TALLEST HE'S VERY LANKY BUT HE'S THE TALLEST he's confused to be older than he actually is a lot of the time

i almost forgot— ISTP 5w4

NOW POO!!!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!

Initially took things very seriously and remained stone faced for a while but ironically became the one that made the most jokes out of everything and has a very contagious laugh— he still takes things more seriously than the rest and is the one that keeps everyone focused when it's important but is now able to relax a lot more

REALLY CHARISMATIC. LIKE HE'S AMAZING AT DEALING WITH PEOPLE EVEN IF HE PREFERS SOLITUDE.

loves animals and animals love him once found a dog and was very sad when he couldn't take him along in the journey... HE GENUINELY JUST SITS DOWN AND SPEAKS TO ANIMALS VERY CASUALLY LIKE hello sweet little dog. how are you doing on this fine saturday. awesome😊.. AND DOES MAGIC TRICKS FOR THEM😭😭😭 He's the disney princess of the group animals will just come to him and be nice to him birds sing along to this boy existing AND HE'LL BE LIKE OH, THIS IS NORMAL, while the rest of the group is just dumbfounded by rhat

i think he'd be quite tech illiterate as he spends most of his time concentrating on his training he really didn't pay much mind to technology (he preferred putting time into working on himself instead of wasting it trying to properly understand technology). BUT HE'S DOING HIS BEST HE IS INTRODUCED TO ARCADE GAMES AND THANKS TO FRIENDS BECOMES HOOKED he was a little lost but hes okay

becomes good friends with jeff because both felt like the odd one in the team at some point and come from very different backgrounds than ness and paula did THEYRE GOOD BUDDIES

He speaks multiple languages very well, but since english is not his first language he feels a bit lost sometimes when with friends. So doing his best effort he brings A WHOLE DICTIONARY WITH HIM AT ALL TIMES like these four will find a word not a single one of them knows and Poo will be there like. dont worry guys i got this AND PULLS OUT HIS DICTIONARY😭😭😭😭 DUDE'S READING THE ENTIRE THING TO PROPERLY UNDERSTAND HIS FRIENDS😭😭 picks magazines for english so he doesn't have to ask them every single time he's lost and to keep at the same pace they do

might be noticeable already but POO'S A TOTAL SWEETHEART HE DOES NOT MIND SAYING THE MOST SWEETEST AND CARING WORDS EVER KNOWN TO MAN and is very confused when one of the 4 cries in emotion because his words are very nice. THAT'S JUST NORMAL FOR HIM HE'S JUST LIKE THAT JUST NATURALLY VERY VERY NICE AND KIND no one can beat him on being very nice

Sometimes the only sane one in the group he is silly, but he balances the silly properly he knows when to save the silly for later

talking about him being good with people if you need to distract someone NO PROBLEM and he just does it really well DOES MAGIC TRICKS!!!! he likes doing his silly little tricks it's something he learned on the side from his training he loves seeing how people react to them

oh yeah the shortest and is confused to be younger than he is sometimes when he's the oldest in the group. basically Jeff backwards but Jeff isnt the youngest

...infj 8w9

NOW YOUD BE LIKE DAMN MICHAEL THATS A LOT OF TEXT ALREADY YOU SPENT AN HOUR WRITING THIS (yes its been an hour i think i i dont know ive been writing this since you asked when was it HELP) BUT I AM NOT DONE. I AM NOT DONE!!!

JUST JUST A FEW MORE FOR OTHER PEOPLE ASIDE FROM THE CHOSEN 4 BECAUSE i need an excuse to talk abojt tony he's my favorite favorite I could make an essay on his character

I like to think Tracy is super smart and is so smart that she's a few school grades (whatever you call um idk um school years?) ahead of what she would be for her age for it. EVEN THOUGH SHES LIKE 9 she's smarter than ness thats for sure and she mentions this but he's silly so he still needs to be the cool older brother regardless so he ignores that she's smarter GIRLIE GOT A JOB AND HE WAS LIKE TRACY WHAY ARE YOU DOING ON THE ESCARGO EXPRESS LIKE YOU ARE 9😭😭😭

i dont actually have any particular Pokey headcanon besides him being interested in tech because of mother 3 BECAUSE HE FEELS VERY FLESHED OUT ALREADY AT LEAST TO ME SO I DONT FEEL THE NEED TO DO AN ENTIRE BLOCK OF HEADCANONS FOR HIM I REALLY LIKE HIS CHARACTER THOUGH best i got possibly just enters theory territory instead

AND ABOUT TONY!!! like in the game he's a very earnest and good kid. I imagine he's seen as someone very sociable and easy to get along with to his peers LIKE HE WILL DO ANYTHING TO HELP EVERYONE FEEL INCLUDED and does an extra effort to get Jeff friends and for people to understand and like him like he be taking him to some of his other friends like. THIS IS MY BEST FRIEND!!!!!!! and theyre like Tony rhis is the sevenrh time you introduced him TONY IS THE MAIN REASON JEFF HAS ANY OTHER FRIENDS IN SNOW WOOD

tony sucks at science like really bad he's not good at anything scientific process like and would be bad at remembering them...IF HE DIDN'T TAKE THE EFFORT TO MANUALLY REMEMBER THEM BECAUSE JEFF IS THE ONE TELLING HIM. he be sitting there absorbing all that information and casually mentioning it here and there so Jeff gets really excited about it. ASIDE FROM THAT HE'S ACTUALLY GOOD AT MATH AND IT GAINED HIM A SCHOLARSHIP AT SNOW WOOD IN THE FIRST PLACE WHICH I IMAGINE IS VERY PRESTGIOUS

hes just a very hardworking kid in general THOUGH HE'S VERY CLUMSY AT TIMES. he's seen as the funny guy he cracks out jokes for everyone to laugh at people just generally like him a lot

sprta silly because lil dude is so honest and good natured he has to fight so hard to tell a lie. he's quite naive and easily forgives people WHICH OF COURSE HE'S LIKE 12 OF COURSE HE'S LIKE THAT BUT HE'S MORE THAN ANYONE ELSE

anyway im not makikg thisbany longer its already scary enough I AM SORRY. . .....I DID NOT WANT IT TO BE THIS LONG. . ..im very thankful you asked but ay the same time i feel obligated to ask for forgiveness at how long ive rambled for I just I just love this game I COULD DO MORE BUT NAW💔💔💔

[blaaaaask]

My Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth review:

Spoilers ahead, you've been warned!

So here are pros and cons of what I thought about Rebirth.

Overall I really liked it, can't wait for the next installment. I still have a few items to wrap-up with side quests, but I did beat the game with a large portion of items done in 94 hours.

Pros:

Character development is on par. Lots of 'getting to know' not only your teammates but characters they introduced from the Remake version as well. This kind of feels like an Easter Egg moment sometimes, and gives the game consistency and charm.

Gameplay during battle is smooth, consistent, and the added synergy attacks are interesting. Playing as a larger group of people with their own assets can be a little overwhelming, but fun to find your favorite playing style. Using different characters feels absolutely necessary for differing battle mechanics, and I think they did a great job in providing the opportunity to keep all characters relevant rather than 'backseating' someone. The side quests and even main storyline ensure this.

Storyline. The intense amount of speculation people have been doing has been a little blown out of proportion and I kind of like that. I mean we weren't wrong about differing timelines, the game does have that, but the way it is incorporated was done beautifully. They followed the original story very well, and moments that were changed only seemed to enhance the clarity that was occurring in those scenarios. Moments that I had thought of prior were now in different tones, giving different meanings. I enjoyed that.

Voice acting. Using new voices can be a bit of a dealbreaker for those of us who enjoyed the original VAs, but I think they did a great job in continuing with VAs that fit the tone of this 'newer' version of the FF7 world. I do still miss some of the originals, but with the storytelling in this format I think it's done very well.

Music. I really don't know what else to say other than the blends and tones and meshing of songs and the moments they're in is just. It's everything. It really makes every. Single. Scene. If you played the demo you know exactly what I mean.

Scenery. Everything is so gorgeous. Ugh. I just want to paint every little scene into a pretty landscape.

The comedic value is gold. Random characters will bring up points from Remake that will make you die of laughter. Side quests can be beyond hilarious (looking at you, Johnnys).

The intense amount of flirting and goofy moments of people hitting on Cloud is beyond amazing and very fitting. The dating scene I ended up with was with Tifa, and it played out beautifully. I am totes excited to try out the others, too.

Cons:

Too many minigames? It might just be me, but it felt like every mechanic had an unnecessary 'challenge' to it that robbed the enjoyment of the side quests. Each mini game has its own rules, mechanics, and is oftentimes poorly instructed to the point you will be redoing them in multitudes. Precision is key to every single one of them, but getting there seems too difficult at times. It's probably just me lol, but the piano keys with a PS5 controller can be incredibly difficult to get accurate notes. The march portion of the game was increasingly difficult, too, borrowing from the dance mechanics of Remake and yet somehow making it more motion-sickness-y. Granted, it was still funny, but the practice rounds they allow you do not compare to the actual hell hole that is the 3 march portion. It felt like when a teacher tells you '1+1=2' but on the math test they give you 'If Jimmy sells 83 portions of apple purple, who is the sun representing in the third movie of cryptocurrency?' Fort Condor makes a comeback from Yuffie's DLC, which is fun and kind of annoying. I am terrible at timed things so don't mind my venting here. And don't get me started on MOG HOUSE. The weird slide mechanics of trying to 'push' things around in this minigame while trying to avoid haphazard death feels a little too much like reality for me and I cannot deal, yo. The 'Run Wild' or whatever Red XIII game has a similar mechanic, which only makes it frustrating for the harder challenges they throw at you in making goals. Also, every minigame seems to incorporate an insane amount of R2/L2 button mechanics. Being left-handed feels like a bit of a disadvantage in some of these games, and it sometimes feels like the PS5 controller has too much of a 'soft push' on it that doing full trigger clicks is like a whole hand exercise. These games crippled me hahaha. I would love a Story Mode for us cripple-y old fucks that makes it so I don't have to do minigames. To add to that, Queen's Blood ended up being a relief for me after the hell that I faced in all the other minigames, but only later in the game once you get better card decks. However, I am currently stuck on Dale in Nibelheim. Yes. Dale. Don't laugh at me.

Not all characters fit the aesthetic of the original game. I'm mostly thinking of Kyrie and Regina. It's such a dumb nitpick on my part, but I kind of wish they had toned down their looks to match the game a little better that way it isn't such a 'sore thumb' kind of vibe. The moogles are also a bit terrifying to look at. Why did they give them such horrifying teeth?

And speaking of sore thumb, Chadley and MAI. I like the banter but oof what an annoying duo, hahaha. The 'fun' mechanics they're trying to implement with having these two talk to you through the PS5 controller was a bit of a fun and novel concept in the first 2 seconds, but MAI's voice is a bit too grating for me that I had to turn off that feature.

Speaking of voices, Red XIII's splits back and forth at times between his 'pretending to be sophisticated' and 'teen' voice. I prefer his sophisticated voice, and it's a pity they don't have an option to choose what you want to hear. I think I just hate the sound of children's voices, so anything that is too high pitched sounds a bit like nails on a chalkboard for me. I am guessing no one else cares about this, hahaha.

Chocobo mechanics. I like sweeping onto a chocobo smoothly without button pressing, but sometimes Cloud gets off the bird in a direction that accidentally makes it possible to get back on the bird. Also, the open world trekking is only fun in the Grasslands area, after that it is a bit of a nightmare that continuously gets worse the hillier things get. I spend a lot of time staring at the map trying to figure out where I'm supposed to go because you can't actually 'go' wherever. This is a bit unfortunate because it can make simple tasks of 'I need to go here' turn to 'I need to make 70 different turns to get there.' And the traversing for specific regions can also feel like hell, mostly in Gongaga and Cosmo Canyon.

Controller mechanics. Kind of already talked about this, but because the PS5 is supposed to be a 'new, novel console' with things like speakers in the controller, touch sensitivity, motion sensors, etc, they go at it hardcore here. Tilt mechanics, sliding things, and all that garbage is just annoying. I turn it off as soon as I can. It is especially annoying during Cait Sith's time in the Shinra Manor. Boxgate. That is all, lol. If you like silly things like this then more power to you.

I am sure I am forgetting things, but to wrap-up: the storyline is what I'm in it for, and the story was beautiful and therefore I enjoyed it even with my stupid gripes. Please remember this is just my ridiculous opinion. I am merely a purple dinosaur on the internet and should not be held as gospel.

[akfamilyhome]

YouTube 2022 Year in Review

Sorry for the wait on this one! This is what catching COVID after Christmas does to your schedule, I guess. This will be my first Year in Review post shared on Tumblr instead of Patreon! They're freely available to read either way, but this is a more suitable place to put it, probably. For those who don't know, in each of these posts I look back on the stuff I put out on YouTube throughout the past year, and perhaps share more interesting facts about them that I haven't before!

This year has been sort of a continuation of what happened in 2021. I graduated and got into a day job at the end of that year, so this year was mostly me adjusting to things, and as a result, output on the YouTube channel hasn't been as frequent as I'd hoped as I didn't have too much time to write/continue scripts.

However, I did explore other avenues for smaller-scale but still interesting topics, including the videos I put up on my rebranded second channel, Akfamilyhome Plus! I'll talk more about those videos later in the post. And of course, I started a Tumblr account, which you're currently reading from right now. In addition to that, I've been upgrading my computer setup as well, going from my 2017 MacBook Pro to a full-fledged PC for gaming and editing work! Migrating stuff over and adjusting my workflow for it wasn't super annoying, and thankfully the videos I made in the latter half of the year helped with that.

So anyway, stuff that I DID put out! Let's see what fun facts I can share along the way.

Every Unique Level Gimmick in New Super Mario Bros.

You could say this is the one "big" video I put out this year, and man I really wished I could've put out more of them! Regardless, what started as a small interesting discussion with a couple of mutuals about New Super Mario Bros. DS ended up as a pretty fun romp down memory lane and an excuse for me to babble about obscure Mario enemies! I was also very satisfied with the jokes in this one -- hopefully they weren't too bothersome for some of you lol

Of course, my list of what constitutes as unique level gimmicks isn't 100% accurate, some people have pointed out a few objects that actually did appear in later games like the tilting lava plaforms, but I think I still got most of them!

Some folks have asked if I'll do similar videos on later games of the NSMB series. Like other potential sequels to my videos, it's something I can consider, but considering they most likely have less unique gimmicks compared to the DS entry I'm not in the biggest rush to do so. There are still other overlooked aspects of the later games I could potentially talk about though, like the Coin Rush packs in NSMB2.

"10-in-1" Nintendo Switch Sports Accessories

Most of the videos released this year were kinda spontaneous ideas rather than the topics that were stuck in burnout limbo, including this video on plastic Switch Sports accessories that a Twitter poll convinced me to make! Yes, it is a simple review of plastic accessories at the end of the day, but some of them actually did surprise me a little and I thought the video struck a nice balance between constructive demonstration and dunk-fest.

For those asking about further testing...this accessory kit has since found a new home. Would rather have a family actually have a reason for using this than it taking up space at my place!

Since I found this accessory pack, there are other similar ones that have started popping up in stores here as well, including ones that contain golf clubs as well! ...I'm not sure if I want to make reviewing these a regular thing though.

Regarding my tangent during the Volleyball segment about using Joy-Con strapped to your arms and legs as VR trackers...there's already a tool that tries to pull that off called SlimeVR Wrangler! I have not tried it myself yet, but for those who have spare Joy-Con lying around this could be something to look into.

I bought the arcade version of Rhythm Tengoku

...that title kinda says it all! This all happened from me stumbling across an auction for the arcade game cartridge itself and biting the bullet, and documenting the whole process of getting it to work has been both frustrating AND fun (and perhaps even useful for other arcade noobs like me lol). I still have the cab where it is and it does still work when it wants to! Someday I might be able to hook up larger arcade-style controls to it or even build a standalone station or cab for it...but there is absolutely zero room at my place for a setup like this right now, so that will have to be in the very far future!

A month after this video was posted, a listing popped up on Yahoo Japan Auctions for the original control panel itself! ...at that point I didn't have more money to burn for both that and the necessary adapters and wiring to get it to work though, so hopefully it went to a good home.

Slightly unrelated, but it was a while since I posted an unscripted video on the main channel, and I thought I did a pretty good job in this one without stuttering or repeating too much! If you liked that and want to see more, I have more unscripted content over on Akfamilyhome Plus which I'll also touch on later!

The Famicom Disk System Cleaning Extravaganza

This is a case where I really just wanted to indulge in talking about the obscure of the obscure. I'm sure just generally talking about the Famicom Disk System and the stuff I've collected for it would make for a great video, but there actually hasn't been a YouTube video about these cleaning kits that aren't in Japanese! I also kinda liked the bootleg disk tangent, and hope that gave you an interesting glimpse at the early gaming scene in Hong Kong.

Like I said in the video, the cleaning spray counted as flammable material, so I wasn't able to ship it from Japan to Hong Kong. I'd like to thank PushDustIn for taking care of it in the meantime and also cameoing in the video! If anyone has further (legal) ideas on how to get that spray from Japan to Hong Kong, please let me know.

For those who were interested in the footage of early Hong Kong gaming stores shown in the video, I'd like to share its source! It's from a 1990 Japanese documentary featuring a local media personality investigating the booming Hong Kong video game market (and bootlegging scene). The clean rip I'm sharing below unfortunately doesn't have any subtitles (and the only reupload with subs I've seen was in Chinese), but it still shows some pretty fascinating accessories and scenes of a time period that even I was never around for!

Every Game I've Beaten in 2022

And here's my latest video, from...a few days ago as of this post! It's a quick review of every single game I've beaten during 2022, at nearly a game per minute! I would've loved to have it out earlier at the end of 2022, but then y'know, Christmas COVID happened.

As I said near the end of the video, I wanted it to be less of a simple "Top 10 Games of 2022" video and instead let me share a wild grab bag of games from different generations that might pique others' interest, and reading some of the comments, it seems that it accomplished exactly that! Thank you to those who watched it all the way.

I'm definitely down to do a similar video at the end of 2023 as well, but it hopefully will be shorter. I might write down each of these review sections as I finish each game as well, rather than doing it as one big batch near the end of the year. Actually, 2 games are already on the list so far. How many will it end up with? We'll see!

Akfamilyhome Plus videos

And that's not all, as I've shared quite a few unscripted videos on Akfamilyhome Plus this year! There have been new meme videos and core video commentaries posted this year, as well as a fun random idea I had of asking folks in my Discord server to GUESS! THAT! NINTENDO! IMPRINT! (you can watch the video above if you haven't yet)

Near the end of 2021, I started posting bonus unscripted videos for Patreon supporters. A handful of those videos have also been posted publicly since, so you can now enjoy videos of me:

Checking out four different variants of Tetris on the Game Boy

Trying the Hong Kong version of the Famicom

Write-protecting a Famicom disk

Flipping through a licensed Chinese Mario 64 strategy guide

Playing a 3DS game upside down

Messing with the GBA wireless adapter

Visiting a private retro museum in Hong Kong

Reminiscing about every 3DS Puzzle Swap panel

And throwing a Famicom disk into water!

And for patrons, there's still a bunch of exclusive videos available, from checking out the Nintendo DSi XL Demo Video carts, to reading the 2010 Nintendo anti-piracy manual! As more videos are posted on Patreon, some of the older ones will rotate out into public availability, and that's how I'd like to keep it going for a while. But if you can't wait around or want to show your support, all these videos are available on Patreon for as low as only 1 USD a month and will remain so for the forseeable future!

(It also gives you quick access to my semi-closed Discord server, but if you'd like a peek at this chill place of discussion, here's a 25-use invite link as thanks for reading all the way down here!)

That's almost everything I've put out on YouTube this year! That's not even counting the time I freaked out at Chris Pratt Mario!

This year, while I'll still be trying to get some of my limbo scripts off the ground, I'll probably embrace more spontaneous ideas like I did during 2022 as well, so I don't fall too heavily into a production rut. And after a year at my day job, I hope this year I can strike the balance between that and YouTube work more easily. I'd like to revamp my Patreon presentation later this year as well and continue to make cool stuff for it as thanks! The dream of being able to do YouTube work full time continues.

Thank you for your continued support, and hopefully this year will be a better one!

[thebreakfastgenie]

What is your problem? You waited weeks to answer an ask so that when you did publish it the asker would look like they were talking nonsense so you would have the opportunity to condescend to them. You then further condescended by saying they were wrong in every way but rather than explaining why you were right, you just said you know you're right because you have a better-than-average "gaydar"?

I waited a couple of days to answer the ask because I was in New York City at a concert which I have been posting about nonstop. I didn't get the ask until this week, even though the conversation it referenced was a couple weeks ago. My problem is that it took me a minute to figure what anon was talking about and I'm still only mostly sure I guessed right, because that post did happen weeks ago. I'm guessing anon just saw it and didn't realize it was from a while back because tumblr is notoriously bad at datestamping, so I'm not mad about it, but I was trying to humorously remind people that they need to provide more context if they want me to understand what their asks are about.

I didn't say they were wrong in every way, I literally said I agreed with their conclusion, just not their reasoning, and explained why.

I know you're just trying to get a rise out of me, but I'm going to respond to the rest of this anyway. I didn't mention my own gut reaction until the end because it's not actually evidence that I'm right, I just thought it was worth mentioning as a supplement, because it is one of only two times I reacted that way, and when someone who usually doesn't react picks up on something it can be a sign that there is something there.

I knew someone was going to react that way to my gaydar specificity but it was so funny to me that I made it anyway. I was not saying I have a better-than-average gaydar; if anything, I was saying the opposite.

Sensitivity and specificity are properties of a diagnostic test. Sensitivity refers to a test's ability to correctly diagnose a positive result, while specificity refers to a test's ability to correctly diagnose a negative result. A test with high sensitivity will turn up more positive results, which means it also turns up more false positive results. A test with higher sensitivity will turn up more false negative results, meaning it misses more positive cases. Here's an example of a hypothetical test:

This test was given to a population of 10. 3 have whatever condition is being tested for, while 7 do not. There were 4 positive tests, but only 2 of those really had the condition, while one who really had the condition tested negative.

This test has a specificity of about 71% and a sensitivity of about 67%, so this test is better at correctly identifying negative results than correctly identifying positive results.

Increasing either specificity or sensitivity decreases the other so it's very important when developing a diagnostic test and screening program to decide which one to prioritize. It usually depends on the relative consequences of false positives and false negatives.

These concepts come up a lot in introductory epidemiology courses, so I was having a little fun by applying stuff I learned in grad school to fandom stuff. My point was that I'm usually the one saying I don't think something is gay when the rest of the fandom does, or I can see it if I look for fun but the intended explanation is very obvious to me. I'm less likely to have a false positive gay interpretation--believing something is gay when it definitely was not in canon--but I'm also more likely to have a false negative and miss something that was intended as subtext. Most people I encounter in fandom have gaydars with high sensitivity and low specificity, so they're very likely to pick up on intended subtext, but also see it when it isn't there. That's not necessarily entirely accurate in either case, because literary analysis isn't a diagnostic test, let alone fandom meta, but it's a fun metaphor to use and I felt like being silly.

I hope you all enjoyed this mini-lesson on specificity and sensitivity. This will be on the midterm.

[cidthesquid]

Character Creator Chat: The Sims 4!

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Yeah, it's kinda weird that I've never covered "The sims" in this series, From what I've heard, it's pretty much the GO-TO game for creativity. I have not touched the series in years, long before my design journey.

The gameplay of the sims has never really been for me, so today we're just going to have some fun with the character creator, we're not going to worry about setting up a family, or anything extra. And I'll probably again stick to just re-creating my style savvy avatar again, like normal. (I'm not very creative, so coming up with something new each time would be very difficult)

Right from the start, we're kinda blasted with information, first a kinda 'battle pass' type of progression system, then some informational videos, purchase suggestions, patch notes, and more. It was all a bit much for me tbh, so I just clicked 'New Game'.

Here we can either start building our sim character, or we have the 'create a story' option to have a pre-made sim based on a personality test. That actually sounds pretty neat, I'm sure some people would get lost in all the sliders and options, I'm glad they have the option to jump right in,without being force to select a default character/preset Let's give it a try, just to see what we get! (Feel free to skip)

Ok, so they ask a series of Questions, like "what's your age", "how do you inspire people", and "how do I cheer myself up?" they have some more humorous questions like: "What role would I play in a criminal heist?" There are a lot of interesting questions here, and you have the option for 'new question' if you don't think any of the answers fit. So I tried to fill them out in the way I thought my character would respond, it's a very interesting creative exercise, as I don't generally think this way. For example, one question was like "What would you like to be remembered for", with answers "The art I created", "My contributions to science", or "for everything I've collected" For me, the whole concept of 'legacy' is nebulous at best, It's kinda embarrassing to admit, but it every single one of these questions (side from age) were kinda difficult for me to parse:

I always had to kinda ask myself, why do they actually mean by that? And I had a hard time answering them for myself, let alone for a fictional character, it almost felt like solving a puzzle, thinking about the relation between the question and the answers to figure out what they were actually asking. Not because I needed to find the "Right Answer", nothing like that, Just because they're not really written in a format that I feel like I can answer accurately. like, "What do you mean, what do I do for fun?" "When? How do i feel that day? Where am I? What did I do prior?" I'm sure that just sounds like 'Overthinking' to some people, but that's just how I operate naturally, most (personal) questions for me can have multiple answers based on the context, It's like asking someone "what's your favorite...?"and expecting a reply They'll wonder, "what drink? food? or color?" and it would be hard to give an accurate answer. So in short, how I worked with these questions, was mainly focusing on the subject and keywords, and tried to figure out what answer seemed to most accurately fit the 'theming' of my character. Like picking choices that focused more on design/art, because of their affinity for style, rather than focusing in on what it really meant for their personality. ----------------------------------------------------------------

And here's what I got:

Ok, so I really don't know if these questions really affected the characters' appearance, or just their personality/outfit, But I was given: "bodybuilder", "high metabolism", "active", "creative", and "evil" (maybe because I said 'mastermind' on the 'heist' question) Well, that did not work out how I expected, I tried to answer them in a way that pushed a bit towards active, creative, and assertive. But clearly the quiz was not the right choice for me. so we'll start over ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ok, So I've manually set up the personality to manually be creative, (best-selling author, since fashion was not an option) She's also, Active, loyal and ambitious, I think they kinda covers the vibe my avatar is supposed to give off. Ok, on to character editing, starting at the top:

For hairstyles alone, there are tons of choices, with a great array of styles and filters, over 100 choices and I'm just a f2p player! I'd imagine you'd get even more if you bought a few dlc packs! You get a great selection of style and lengths, and a few good color choices (but no full color picker/slider tho) Ok, so Skintone was actually supposed to be above hair:

We have a good selection on display, with a lot of natural tones, With a brightness slider, so you can further dial in the exact tone. As well as some fantasy options as well! (Blue, green. bright red, etc) Skin Details is also a dedicated section:

You can apply multiple different effects or skin colorings, such as freckles, moles, or other types of skin coloring that I've not seen represented in any other game! It's a really great option for representation, you can even dial in the coloring for many of these too! Next up is teeth:

While there are not a ton of options here, I still think this offers a pretty crazy amount of variety, there are various presets, including braces, and less uniform layouts. I'm a little surprised theirs no 'color' option, just to make some of them look a little less 'perfect', but it's still a great showing! Next up is 'eye detail'

This allows you to add bags under your character's eyes, You have four different options, but oddly no further customization. So you can't blend them(no transparency) or adjust the coloring. And somehow I skipped another option 'faces',

This is a selection of 19 presets, that would offer a good variety of starting points. I'm not sure why, but I did have a little bit of trouble navigating these menus, they look very clean, and fairly well laid out. (Maybe it was the lack of a 'next' button, I'm not sure) I also found it a little strange that I'd run out of menu's for editing the face, no nose, eyes, or lips settings, and later clicked the face by accident to find out it's pretty much a 'hidden menu' I'm sure if I'd played any sims games in the last 6 years or so this would be easy to figure out. I'm not saying this creator is bad, just the opposite! It's just not really easy (for me personally) to navigate at times! I'm used to everything having it's own dedicated menu entry.

Eyebrows are next, again a very wide selection, but lacking filters or advanced settings, or labels. I kinda feel like I need to go in with a reference when looking at these, Without being able to have the character emote, it's a little hard to be able to see how they'd move with various facial expressions. And without labels or a way to 'pin' the choices you like, it's a bit hard to compare, and some advanced options to tweak maybe the angle or transparency/fullness would be nice, rather than having to pick a separate (unlabeled) choice, but some of these may be limitations of the engine. (But still with over 50 choices, you have a ton of variety)

Eyes are next:

Over 70 options with a variety of styles, sizes, and looks and I'm going to again assume this is just how the game engine works, because I kinda prefer other game's creator option where you start with a preset, and can kinda tweak and refined the design till you get what you're looking for, Rather than scrolling through a selection of presets that is this large, Sure's there's an 'undo button' but it kinda makes comparisons hard, especially when the eye options don't really seem to be sorted by anything in particular. Also, go presets for eye color options, overall, but I still would have preferred a full color picker, especially when the game lets us have blue skins, having more unnatural eye colors (or color contacts) would have been nice! Also, maybe it's just my PC being weird (running the game on Linux) But it looks like some eye options really mess up the eye lighting:

Next Up, is nose:

24 presets, and honestly, I don't think these previews are very helpful. It's mostly the angle, but just how they're framed as well, makes it kinda hard to tell what you're selecting, you just gotta manually rotate your character, and try a few out until you find one you like, no advanced options here either. Next up is cheek:

Over 35 options here, and again, I kinda found them a little hard to judge by the previews, but they have a good amount of variety. It's here that I also figured out, you can make some adjustments to the positioning of facial features, but only by clicking and grabbing.

It's not really the most precise way to adjust your character's features But, it's easy to understand when you find it, and the undo button makes it serviceable

Next up is mouth:

27 options here, and a bit easier to judge based on the preview. I really like the section on offer, it's really cool to see how a simple change can change the personality a lot, the first choice I picked, looked nice, but a little too 'standard' for the character I was looking to make, but one simple change really add a bit more personality!

Next up is chin:

This is something else, I really think I need to be looking up references for, so I can understand the styling concepts of better. They have some cute dimple options too, But just like with nose, I decided to keep thing simple. I thought I was done, and was about to go to makeup when I found that 'head shape' is also a option exclusive to clicking the face:

Only 14 options here, but they seem to most effect brow height, and a little bit of the shading on the forehead. Almost missed this one too, as there's only a small area to click on.

'Jaw' has 9 presets, and it's great for squaring up or rounding off the face, I went with a mostly longer design, but with a small bit of roundness at the end. Ideally, this will help with the more 'mature' look. And with that, we're done with the body shaping options! So now on to hats!

There's a pretty.. Interesting selection here, Baseball caps, cowboy hats, beanies, sunhats, and much more!

Accessories are next:

(What are with these wild emotes? D:) A pretty broad selection here too, glasses, earrings, and even hearing aids. Many offering alternet colors (but only a small, fixed selection) But I would love to see a little more option to customize these, like the feather earrings are super cute, But I think they're a little too bright. Same with the glasses frame, I would have loved to get them in flat black rather than dark gray. Next up is the makeup selection, first 'eye shadow.'

20 options, And it looks like we finally get some color sliders! We pick a base color, then we can tweak the hue, transparency, saturation, and brightness, and we can save our new custom color for future use! Next up is eyeliner:

Only 13 options here, a good selection of patterns, and the same color selection as before. Eyelashes are next:

Only two options, and not much in the say of color, I guess it mostly represents an option for eyelash thickness. though, it would be nice to have more granular options. Next up is cheek makeup,

Cheeks only have 3 patterns, but a fairly good selection of color choices, I picked something a little brighter than my character's skin tone in an attempt to lighten up their face a little. ---------------------------------------------------------- ...And I've now used up all 30 of my image slots, so looks like I'll have to divide this into two parts!

You can read the rest here: (CCC: The Sims 4 - Part 2)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thanks for reading! I had a lot of fun making this, so I hope you had fun reading it as well!

As always, comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome! And

And If I describe something 'objectively wrong', or use the wrong terminology, feel free to correct me, I'm always looking to improve! (But If it's feedback on my designs that's more subjective/personal preference, please let me figure it out myself,so I find my own style😄

[charliedoesadvertising]

Concept Development: Planning and Drafts - Instagram

For my first advertisement, the social media post, I wanted to incorporate instagrams carousel feature; a multi-image post that a user simply swipes through to view more information.

Originally, I had planned to keep it simple, with geometric shapes and texts to convey the messages.

However I felt that it didn't really convey the fun, playfulness, that DoorDash usually presents itself as. Therefore, I wanted to incorporate more imagery of cars and/or family. This was when I had an idea to use a cars rear end as the entire, 3 image carousel.

This was where i wanted to test my skill as an artist, and rather than rely on templates or stock images, actually create my advertisement by hand.

I started with a simple drawing of the car, to help myself get the best understanding of what I was going to create. I also soon realised that this carousel could then maybe double as a physical billboard if needed to as well.

After many poor attempts of drawing a rear end for a vehicle, I unfortunately had to give up, and instead trace over an existing image, as seen below. I chose to keep the car as simple and generic as possible, something that could be seen as relatable to my target demographic, rather than picking anything that looked particularly flashy and expensive.

To incorporate the idea of family values, I was inspired by the stickers that families place on their rear glass, showing each member of the family in a cute, fun, style.

Although in a full image, having multiple family stickers looks weird, I wanted a sticker to be present on each slide of the carousel. To make the ad as relatable as possible, I decided to include diverse ideas of what a family was, i.e. 2 fathers and a son, a nuclear family, and a single individual with her favourite pet.

Once I had create the image, I soon realised that splitting it physically into 3 was a tad more complicated than I had expected. As such, I added a grid over the top to help me get an idea of where the image would be broken up when posted.

The white box refers to the area that will be visible in the carousel, and the black grid refers to where each image will start and end.

Once I had divided the image, I wanted to ad text to it that conveyed my key messages and USPs.

This did not look very good.

It came across as incredibly wordy, and personally I just thought it looked a bit low quality.

After removing some of the wording, replacing the background with solid white, and correcting the typeface, I was left with this.

Something that feels simpler, with accurate text and colours.

I added some captions to the posts too, with each slide having its own to match the image above it. Each caption matched a key objective for the campaign, and included the hashtag #SetYourOwnCourse.

After realising that free drawing art was not my strongest quality, I decided that my future advertisements for this project would be better off being mocked up with stock images and shapes.

[archivehotties]

django unchained: 4.5/5

GODDDD THIS MOVIE IS SO GOOD. SO GOOD.

tonight i watched django unchained! my pc is having issues and i can't edit properly so to pass the time i decided to finally get this movie out of the way as my friend has been recommending it to me for forever. from the get go i knew i was gonna be interested in this movie considering it's (i don't know to what extent, i'm not a history expert nor american so idk) historically accurate and i loooveeee a historically based movie ^__^

obviously it's a quentin tarantino movie, it's gonna Look Good. i have once again been pulled in by the magic pretty colors and how well they all contrast together, and i love a lot of the choices they made for the shots. a lot of quick zoom ins, panning out stuff, very good. those choices specifically made it feel more and more like an authentic western movie since it gave a feel of those older cowboy movies. this shot specifically of the blood splattering onto the cotton plants was SOOOOOO ugh. amazing. love.

i didn't expect this movie to be this gory for some reason? but it's to a point i can tolerate, it's a lot of fast shooting kind of gore rather than the kind of gore that's slow and painful so it was fun to watch. it wasn't an ewwwwwww kind of gore it was fun!

unfortunately leonardo dicaprio once again does well acting. god do i wish he was bad. as a person? absolutely, you don't date freshly turned 18 year olds and be a good person. but man can he pull off playing a rich asshole well. stuck up and racist, he probably fits off half of that anyways.

jamie foxx does very well in this movie too, sometimes though it did feel a little too much like he was trying to act cool but i think it's also what they were going for? they weren't exactly trying to play a lot of these characters off as the most accurate to real people, it did feel exaggerated but in a way that was enjoyable and not cheesy. i also do wish carrie washington had more lines, i think it would've been fun to see her talk and interact more and not just be a damsel in distress. definitely does not pass the bechdel test, that's for sure.

also i really enjoyed the music score and soundtrack!!!!! i really enjoyed whenever they embedded actual rap songs into the soundtrack and not have it be purely just cowboy southern style music. it reflects the struggle of black americans not only from the past but how it evolved over time, additionally it was a choice that clarified to the audience that it's a modern adaptation of a cowboy movie.

overall for this movie, i have the same kind of high i got off of watching babylon. beautifully shot, very well played out storyline, at times somewhat chaotic? yes. but i think in this movie specifically, they were able to know when things need to slow down and when it needs to be hyped up and exciting. i had lots of fun watching!!! <3

[ghostflowerhotpotch]

To be honest I am fine with him being bad at the theory because is really bullshit.

Hi, Spanish is my first language and I learned back home, being in a school back home until I move when I was an older teen.

But here is a funny story, when I moved to Canada I only did the last two years of high school, and in my last year I didn't have enough credits in almost all of the classes for my grade, so my own ESL teacher suggested me getting Spanish because that was a class I would be able to attend regardless of credits. I ended up doing it because of a lack of options.

I didn't get a 100%, or even that close, why? The theory part continued tripping me over. Ask me the difference between pretérito perfecto and pretérito imperfecto with a gun pointing at my head and I will be dead.

Want to know the difference? Is basically verbs in the present tense and past tense, and I never remembered because rather than just saying that, they put names that weren't indicative of what they do (At least not for anyone speaking colloquially at this time, maybe this made sense a few centuries ago.) You technically can just ask someone to do X verb in present/future/past, but there are formal names that we were taught both in Spanish classes here in Canada and the ones we had back home.

And no one ever remembers.

No seriously, once my family started making fun of me for not having a 100% at the end, I ask them how many of them remembered these details, like participios (aka the -ing at the end of a verb, because spanish works differently we have more than that,) and other stuff, and then everyone shut up. My own mother, who was a teacher for over 30 years; told me she also couldn't recall most of these details, and she taught classes from kindergarten to high school.

Again, I am only one latine person, and we have a big community, but if I am honest I think if I ask at random about any of these details to any of my friends who speak Spanish as a first language, they wouldn't remember.

The point with all of this is that you can functionally speak Spanish perfectly, even having good grammatical skills, use of the language, and so forth, and still be tripped by the theory because of technicalities.

So it would make perfect sense for Miles to go to a test, have the test ask to separate the participios regulares e irregulares, and have him flunking the test because the question was using such obtuse terminology his mom may not even know what the question is about, and I say this because neither of my parents could answer this question without some explaining and juggling their memory.

If I am honest, the difference in how they teach Spanish in English-speaking countries vs the Spanish I learned back home wasn't really that different? Yeah, there was some different way to conjugate things and some words, but no teacher in their right mind would disqualify Miles' way of speaking Spanish unless they were asking for VERY specific things.

You can even have him trip for things that actually defy the grammar because those words are exceptions and the only way to know is remembering them.

For example, in Spanish rather than having "The" we have "El" and "La", these are normally assigned by what the word ends up in.

La Casa.

El Coche.

(There is obviously more to this but this is the idea.)

Simple enough, right? What would you use for the word "Dentista"? If you said La, that's wrong! It's actually "EL Dentista."

How do you know that? Well you memorize it, there is literally no other way.

Hope this doesn't come as a rant or anything, I understand that Miles speaking Spanish (which while the pronunciation is accurately a bit wonky, is pretty good btw,) is really important not just for the fans, but to remember that he keeps his roots dear to his heart,

This was really just me wanting to talk about how honestly the language can be pretty dumb anyways and if people whose first language is Spanish are forgetting this crap I don't want to imagine someone who speaks it as a second language and also missed 6 classes.

So believe me, is entirely possible to speak this language perfectly and still do the classes poorly regardless.

I prefer the theory that Miles has a B in Spanish because the Spanish they teach in schools is different than the Spanish he speaks at home more than the theory that he’s just bad at Spanish

Also, I’m getting tired of how people keep portraying Miles as more and more terrible at Spanish, like even if he’s not better at home, a B is still good!!

I know it’s mostly just jokes, but I swear it’s gonna cause a ton of people to just believe that Miles is just horrible at Spanish and refuse to give up that characterization, we’re gonna be watching in real time as a fanon version of a character gets popular and unavoidable