#though that was before the marketed release so idk what’s going to happen now if it keeps falling but surely the amazon servers have the

[r0semultiverse]

The Edge of Sleep was and still is on the top 10. The problem is that not everyone can run it in the background constantly or wants to rewatch it as we approach the 18th. What exactly does “it just needs to reach the top 10” mean? It did that already. I think we are due for an update with more transparency if the NDA allows or if Amazon communicated that at all.

[trashexplorer]

BLCD Review: Sei no Gekiyaku

Title: Sei no Gekiyaku (性の劇薬)

Author/Artist: Mizuta Yuki

Shop: CD + Manga

Release Date: 2021/10/27

Cast: Morikawa Toshiyuki x Nojima Hirofumi

Synopsis:

“I’ll find all of your most sensitive spots.”

Makoto Katsuragi, a man working for an advertising agency, has so far led a perfect private and work life. However, that all comes crashing down in an instant when he loses everything he holds dear. In the midst of his despair, he drunkenly climbs onto the ledge of a tall building and is about to jump, when… “If you’re going to throw away your life…let me have it.” He is saved by these words offered by the sudden appearance of Ryuji Yoden, and decides to do exactly as Ryuji says. From the moment Makoto awakens in Ryuji’s room, his daily life of retraining begins, giving away not only his body but his heart…

Review Proper

Uhh.

Hmm.

???????

If y'all know me and or have read my older posts, you'll know I hate this type of plot. However, I had to listen to this 'cause the last I heard of Morikawa Toshiyuki was in 2021, and Nojima Hirofumi in... 2019?! *goes into existential panic*. It doesn't help that these two were Shigure-san and Haru in Nights Before Night. I wanted my happy ending with them to happen even though it was nearly impossible since these two are already inactive in the BL industry. Having the two of them come back and co-star in a BLCD again is just too good to be true... and I was right. I didn't expect them to come in for one of the sketchiest things in the market. I really don't know what Frontier is smoking, having all the budget for veterans like these only to put them in weird projects.

Biases and triggers aside, I think that Sei no Gekiyaku failed to deliver what it was set to convey. It tried so hard to be deep and psychological in the beginning, but it's like sensei just threw that out the window in chapter 3. It reminds me a lot of Lala no Kekkon and Derail. What was all that build-up for, then? I'm gonna say it. If you wanna use Stockholm Syndrome, then commit. This is also true with the discarded BDSM. I don't like these themes, but damn, do I feel bad for them 'cause they all felt pointless in the end.

Anyway, onto the topic of the BLCD itself...

You'll miss a lot of things if you haven't read the manga beforehand. There was a lot of added and dropped content that was understandable since no other characters apart from the two leads were in the BLCD. But that also led to Ryuji's older brother's presence being missing in the BLCD. Although Ryuji mentions him in the BLCD often enough, the manga just shows Ryuji's trauma better since we get to see him constantly haunting Ryuji. I'm not sure if they've changed censorship laws on BLCDs because the same thing happened in Kuroe to Mesu, but the BLCD was less graphic than the manga. Take that part where Ryuji rapes Makoto in the bathtub. You can hear Makoto take a toy in, but you'll never know it was a dildo mount whatchamacallit if you didn't read the manga.

There's also that part when Ryuji loses it when Makoto smiles when they were fucking. Nojinii does chuckle then, but you wouldn't pick that up if you didn't know what happened in the manga. It might've been better if Ryuji loudly thought: "Oh crap, he smiled."

The original plot was already badly paced, but the BLCD was even worse lmao. The tracks don't even start the same way the manga chapters do. I really don't recommend listening to this if you haven't heard the story and are a beginner to Japanese. Speaking of reading, idk what happened to futekiya, but the translation progressively got worse towards the end of the manga. I also read the scanned version of this when it was still unlicensed, but it was also a bit off.

Now for the light in the tunnel: the voice work.

I tried to fight it. I really did.

But I'm always going to be Moririn trash.

Don't get me wrong, Morimori did spectacular here (duh). But I really hated Ryuji that I initially had no thoughts other than respect towards his voice acting here... until he whispered in Track 4, that is. At some point, I just wanted to throw Nojinii out of the picture 'cause THAT SHOULD BE ME???!!! I'LL SLURP THIS SPAGHETTI OFF THE FLOOR ON ALL FOURS FOR YOU, MORIKAWA TOSHIYUKI!

My god. Frontier sure has taste in VAs but not in stories.

He was just-ugh. I wonder how he does that. Like in Tadaima, he makes you feel like he's talking to you rather than his co-star wtf. I was gasping for air goddammit. This man is a danger to society.

As for Nojinii, I actually thought that his voice was too high for Makoto in the beginning. It was almost in the same range as his Haru, and I imagined Makoto's voice to be lower. It did grow on me, though. I missed my bottom Nojinii. Of course, he did excellent as well. His fear was really believable in the first tracks that I just feel so bad for him 'cause he needed to throw that all away. 🙄

Man, I can't help but think that Morimori and Nojinii were wasted on this work. Again, it's already a miracle to have them back, so this might be the last time they ever pair up again. And for fucking Sei no Gekiyaku? Part of the reason why I stopped listening to BLCDs was 'cause I wouldn't know how to cope if I saw more of my favorite older VAs leaving the industry. That's also why I stopped doing releases lists. Hype around BLCDs has steadily been on the decline and if you haven't noticed, there's been considerably fewer releases too. The manga scene isn't doing well either. I'm just so afraid it'll all run out someday. *crisis*

Going back on topic, I do not recommend this BLCD. If you're into psychological and BDSM, I would look into Harada or Kabukichou Bad Trip instead. If you're a fan of Morimori and Nojinii, I still wouldn't recommend it if the theme isn't your thing. Let's just re-listen to Nights Before Night and suffer instead. 👍

[felassan]

Do you think were going to see a Dreadwolf reveal trailer at Dragon Age Day or at the Game Awards?

hello!

I'm not sure, and I'm also hopeful/excited (so.. a regular felassan state of affairs hh..). if it's in a place where they feel ready to show it to the world more then that'd be neat, it'd be cool to see what's being worked on. and ofc anything said here is only speculation.

it's been at TGA before (2018 trailer, 2020 trailer), the last time being 3 years ago in 2020. if the 2024 internal currently-aimed release window mentioned in error on a dev profile recently is indeed still current (I'd guess that the change to "TBD" won't have been because the aim changed since the dev put that there btw, it'll have been because there isn't supposed to be any public info about the currently aimed release window yet but the games press noticed it on the profile, prompting BW/EA to ask the dev to change it. separate note: this being the case doesn't mean that there's no possibility that the window will slip more though), appearing at TGA 2023 wouldn't be a shock. maybe it depends on whether the possible 2024 release window is in early (but still after April 1st 2024 because of the fiscal quarter & FY24 slate stuff) 2024 or late 2024? as if it's later in 2024 (like say November) I could see a world where it isn't at TGA23 but is somewhere in the summer video game event/news expo period instead, because of the recent trend that's been observable in the industry generally and commented on by a former bioware dev re: an industry move towards shorter marketing periods (like more in the realm of a few months-6 months than a year). it's been said that the policy for this for a lot of AAA games has become a lot shorter, tending towards a lot shorter and louder marketing campaigns.

jeff grubb recently said on DA:D, "The Game Awards 2023 sounds right to me, they’ve done stuff at The Game Awards before. I’m expecting them to be there. If they’re not, it better be soon after, because Dragon Age: Dreadwolf, was, you know, there was a chance Dragon Age: Dreadwolf could’ve came out this year. Obviously it did keep moving internally, as I’ve reported before. It’s now, they’re looking at, you know, by the mid of next year, something like that.” and "The reality is, we very well could get Dragon Age: Dreadwolf content at The Game Awards. They’ve had teasers there before, it would make all the sense in the world for something to show up there." [link] this is interesting bc i'm pretty sure I remember a tweet from him last year about TGA22 where he straight up said "no it won't be there" or something basically when he was asked about it.

what I would say is that if it's gonna happen in a substantial way (as in not a codex entry and a blog post) in early December 2023, it'd likely be at TGA, not on DADay. this is based on how it was done previously and also on what's been said about DADay (an unofficial fan holiday event that just happens to occur very close to when TGA is held, thereby being overshadowed by it in terms of scale) vs TGA (a massive industry-wide high publicity event). DADay has seemed to have been more of a community-focused thing, a place to announce something smaller in scale like a tv show or a new book or to have something smaller highlighted like short stories or a codex. it's more of a 'today we are announcing we will be at TGA' with a new trailer-type [hypothetically] context rather than a 'here is a new trailer that isnt an ingame cinematic' type context, if that makes sense. saying that if it isnt going to be a 'big' trailer at TGA23, maybe there's something at DAday like last year where they showed an ingame sequence, which is smaller than a 'big substantial trailer' but still a video.

(idk if this post/ramble made sense but there you go). guess we'll find out in < 3 weeks. (❁´◡`❁)

[kyouka-supremacy]

Any predictions on what is going to happen in and after this arc?

I don't think I'm very good at predictions (╥﹏╥) I really can't guess what's Dostoyevsky's deal, but if else, that makes following the current manga events all the more exciting! Again, by the looks of it we're going to find out the backstory of a character that was first introduced in 2013, so reading the last chapter was a real “whoa” moment for me. As for the guesses I can take, it really doesn't go much further than:

Whatever is going on in the last chapter between Dostoyevsky and Bram is probably going to lead to Bram's demise as it was shown in chapter 102.

I think there's likely some connection between the scars (?) on Bram's face and the way medieval Dostoyevsky displayed an analogous one in the last chapter, because they're too similar to be put there randomly.

Something I haven't seen being brought up is the possibility of Dostoyevsky being able to time travel rather than be eternal, which even though doesn't feel like the most convincing explanation, I feel like it's too soon to fully exclude either?

Jokes aside, I don't think Akutagawa has any real chance to play a role in this, because it's evidently something that's happened in the past. And though the author looves time traveling shenanigans, that feels a bit of a stretch. Although the last attire we saw Akutagawa in did resemble a medieval aesthetic, so who knows if he doesn't have some other kind of connection to the events…

But I DO feel like the change in appearance must be telling of some new alliance. Likely something from Europe. We know the author is probably going to move the focus to European authors next, they already seemed to suggest so in an interview, and if God allows it it's finally going to be time for Agatha and the Order of the Clock Tower.

I. Idk. Have been growing an underlying suspicion that the 2-hours-later sskk scene is going to be a spinoff movie to come some time in the future. It's going to feature time traveling shenanigans (see the very limited timeframe skip) and Fukuchi coming back in a new weird form and sskk getting their rematch with him I have been saying they narratively deserve. Overall it's something that won't be covered by the manga à la Dead Apple, standalone and that can be skipped past. It does make sense marketing wise because it'll be years before the manga will have released enough content for another anime season, and given that the bsd franchise is comparatively very popular right now, I highly doubt they'll let the hype slowly die– that's also why I'm waiting for the announcement of a new Wan anime season any day now. I've said before it doesn't look like we're getting the cool sskk scene in the manga soon, and that it most likely solved the purpose of a teaser for the next arc for various reasons; the last chapter seemingly skipping past it seems now to confirm that. The very high quality of the animation of that scene in the anime might be a further hint in the movie direction, to be honest. (I'm only now realizing that if that's true, it means that we are not getting that scene in Harukawa's art style, and am suddenly hating everything and not want it to become true). That said, a Stormbringer movie seems likely too, so who knows.

Back to chapter 113. The jokes about Dazai not being included in the ada family picture are hilarious, and I do personally believe Dazai is more distant to the rest of the ada than other members; that said, I doubt it has anything to do with the panel itself, and as of now I don't think it's that deep ahah. In general, I find it very hard to believe that Dazai is the one that's going to be transferred to the pm: that feels to me a quite lazy direction to take storytelling wise. We already saw what it's like to have Dazai in the pm, no need to relapse to that. That's why, regretfully, I doubt Atsushi is going to be taken in either, because we already know what pm Atsushi is like (VERY very regretfully for me. Because I'd love more Atsushi screentime and because my brain quite automatically makes a jump from “Atsushi joins the pm” to “sskk canonly live together”. Also all the “sskk are Double Black 2.0” that has been tormenting sskk shippers since the start of time, might as well make them the New Double Black for real this time.). Tanizaki sounds like a good bet to be honest: because, on top of being the only ada member with a completely unexplored backstory, we already saw him interact with the pm a lot over the course of the whole manga, which can be taken as a slow build-up for the moment he ends up joining their ranks; from the pm perspective, since he showed to be a challenge for them in more than one occasion (he even intruded the boss' chambers once), it would make sense to try and get him on their side. And Tanizaki having already volunteered to join them in chapter 65. Honestly, everything seems to point in that direction right now.

I hope the following chapters also explain why taking the sword off Bram didn't kill him as previously established because as of now the seemingly plot hole is bothering me a lot.

That's all that comes to my mind right now, excited to see what the manga will be up to next!

[partycleric]

negative dragon age the veilguard rant post

UGHHH what a waste of time and money. i don't want to keep playing.

i think the new dragon age game is written so, so poorly :( idk what's going on. this 'rpg renaissance' is awful. it's like a cosmic joke being played on me.

release version bg3 and dav are awful in the exact same way which is that both of them seem to lack any sort of gravitas or seriousness. sad or bad events do happen, but it is impossible for me to feel affected by them due to the tone. does anyone else feel me? anyone? anyone? isn't the whole fun of an rpg getting lost in a deep immersive world? these games are Not It.

i think that this style of writing is extremely in vogue at the moment, whether it's for tv releases or video games. (there are lots of movies which are hitherto unaffected.) it is as though there is a cartel of suits going around to everything i like and editing it before it releases.

the direction on these games have a fundamentally insulting view of their audiences' intelligence. they are clearly written with the belief that 21st century audiences do not have the cognitive capacity for focus on abstract concepts for extended lengths of time. like, am i crazy? it seems so obvious. these games are written for a mean and stereotyped image of the current generation, which is basically like, "our audience has fried attention spans. our audience has a youtube shorts addiction."

everything that happens in the currently popular writing style is highly self-contained within youtube short length chunks of time. i notice that when i try and watch a new netflix show, i noticed that in bg3 and datv has it too. things have no build up and no impact beyond a very short window. things cannot feel real or visceral because that's not how real life works.

if it's necessary for plot reasons, like the sole continuous plot point in datv of "THE CORRUPT AND POWERFUL GODS ARE CORRUPTING THE POWERFUL AND CORRUPT!", we get helpfully reminded about it. after all, our poor little social media addled attention spans can't be expected to hold on to that information - we need to be reintroduced to these concepts if it's been longer than 10 minutes. it is so obvious and deliberate.

i do agree that this writing tone is nothing new for bioware, but i mean that in ... a bad way. the very early bioware games were like this too. jade empire, kotor 1 are other games that gave me this same feeling of relentless basic condescension. these are games with a thoroughly undeserved good reputation rooted in nostalgia that i also experienced as being Badly Written. (kotor 2 (best written game of all time) vs kotor 1 (egh)? that's What I Like vs What Am Totally Cold On.)

where i'm up to in datv, there's some phoned in dialogue where all of your companions' have dialogue about food that gets triggered at the same time, and you go through overhearing - overhearing! not participating in - these really repetitive, short, ultra safe conversations about tastes in food... it has really broken me.

i strongly felt the presence of a besuited figure leaning over the writing table and saying MARKET RESEARCH OF AO3 HAS SHOWN THAT FANS LOVE TO IMAGINE CHARACTERS IN DOMESTIC SITUATIONS! GIVE THE FANS WHAT THEY WANT! MAKE SURE TO ADD A CAFE SEQUENCE! and the writers were like (sweating) yes boss please don't fire me boss.

like omg shut up about the cooking roster you are all in mortal peril RIGHT NOW and your core assumptions about the reality of your world were overturned yesterday. solas just told you he created the black city! remember the chant has a different creation myth! doesn't that mean the maker doesn't exist?! surely that warrants more than a 'Wow! Could this day get any weirder!' have one solitary theological or sociological conflict! your god is dead, and magic has returned, and there's a new blight - let these things matter! i am begging you!

i've seen it argued that the game doesn't linger on the ramifications of these reveals because theorycrafters had already suspected that was the case. therefore, the in-game world and narrative doesn't react to it since a small subset of the audience won't be shocked by it.

surely that cannot be the reason. if it was, that would be INSANELY ILL-CONCEIVED!! that cannot be how dramatic writing works.

imagine if after dao the devs had decided - "well, it's obvious to most of our fans that the mages should be free. so we don't really need to have our characters get psychologically affected by this aspect of their world anymore. and we can just make the mages free now." come on!! that would be absurd. that would have killed thedas.

...but maybe that is the reason, because that's literally what they've done with the world building in datv! like, "oh, well, it's obvious to our audience that it would be nicer if elves were free, and it would be nicer if they didn't have to have complicated emotional struggles and social divisions over their religion and history, and it would be nice if they didn't have to isolate themselves from humans - so that's the case now. that's just what it's like in thedas now."

i would crawl across the sahara desert on my stomach for another game that features immersive worldbuilding. it's been 5 years since disco elysium game out and has there been another immersive world out since?

i do want to finish playing. i love dragon age! i am, in every way, a dragon age fanatic. i have hundreds of hours of play time in each of the previous titles. i've read all the novels. i know every facet of the lore like the back of my hand, and i have granular knowledge about each game's dev cycle.

dragon age origins is when i realised i COULD love game writing. any rpg i have ever played i played because dragon age origins was such a magical experience for little 16 year old me. and i loved dai too: for a long period of time i was so in love with solas and felt so connected to him and obsessively memorised all his content and rped him etc etc.

so i am the like, the ideal target audience, on some level. i just also don't want to keep playing because it is just is so boring. complete dishwater. i mentally tapped out of release version bg3 by the end of act 1 and it's happened again with datv i fear.

solas is the only character who seems so far largely not lobotomised, which is interesting. it's like weekes could broadly accept sacrificing the entire rest of the game's world to meet the corporate demands of 'Market Data Analysis', but the good writer in them couldn't bear to let the enshittification happen to their magnum opus baby project.

oh - i have no bad feelings about the writing/creative dev teams of this media in general. i know from their past work that the dragon age writing team is marvellously talented. i respect that they are employees and they have to bark to the tune of the producer's whistle.

i think i have some extra bad feelings because i made the oopsie of deciding to play on nightmare mode. i've done that with every dragon age to date, and i've never regretted it before - higher stakes and higher play time is a win for me in the other dragon age games! but for datv, this has drastically inflated the upcoming playtime of a game i am ready to be over.

overall i'd say it's a good thing that popular media is bad right now because it has been impossible for me to develop hyperfocus on any of it.

[usermaha]

THE MONTH OF TXT

There's lotttsss coming up from txt and im super excited but also. a tad bit worried.

SWEET- 5th July

When I heard this was gonna be a full album i was sooo hyped. Since we have JPN versions of all the Titles now, we could expect at least a handful of original tracks right? No we just got one :/ I have yet to listen to the whole album, and who knows, it might be an enjoyable listen front-to-back, but im still disappointed.

As for the song herself: I wanna talk about it in another post but Hydrangea Love is an easy classic txt homerun. Slower romantic track. Killer vocals. Huening Kai. What more do you need?

Im genuinely confused about how the album dropped. SRR JPN dropped in late June, then Hydrangea Love also dropped before the album was set to release? Why?

Do It Like This- 7th July

here the marketing is confusing me. They announced it as a "comeback", and are clearly treating it as such. Did Jun have to go caramel for a collab track? I dont remember making this much noise for Valley of Lies.

I suppose Jonas Brothers is a much bigger name, but they haven't done anything relevant since their comeback in 2019 either.

Idk the hype around this is very high and it can very easily fall through. It can very easily end up sounding like a pop song from 2015, no txt-ness in sight. Ryan Tedder is the producer i think which puts me even more at edge.

Another thing is the timing. Placing both the JPN album and this Collab so close to each other doesnt seem like a good idea to me. How do we get the time to properly promote both? I thought they were shooting for a proper comeback later in the year (it still might happen, which furthers my point.) The US leg just ended, there is Lolapalooza...

I just think there is too much going on surrounding txt. Its been one thing after another for years at this point. I would rather have them properly rest for a reasonable stretch of time, and have more complete projects, rather than rushing one-song-releases.

Our Lost Summer- 28th July

Again marketing i was like "what is this???🤔" in the comments till a kind moa explained its a tour documentary. From Disney Plus :/

But why Our Lost Summer as the title though? Doesnt that automatically make you think of 2020? We didnt lose that summer we made the best out of it. Shouldn't it have the sentiment of Our Glorious Summer?

To be fair i did want there to be a One Dream Season 2, a full-circle moment. bc One Dream was about their first time taking on the U.S as txt, and after three years its their first world tour. But without Mnet's involvement.

I hope this can be introspective and delve into the persepectives and experiences of each member and kind of like round up their career until now (i basically want a doc about txt as a whole not just that summer). Instead of just "here's some tour footage". Honestly id take that too bc ive been hungry for high-quality tour footage. The whole thing on streaming would be the ideal but. I'll take anything 🤲🤲

Man looking back at it all will be great that moment in time. felt so unreal. Best time of my life? Arguably.

[m1ckeyb3rry]

The mdni was so funny LMAOOO I love the Ubers dynamic I can’t say it enough Barou acting annoyed by aiku but secretly doesn’t mind his company shdhakzjs

OOO ok I can totally see that happening less than a month away everyone….

YESSS he definitely actually takes care of himself we stan >>> also wait you’re so right the official arts definitely play into fanon tropes for marketing purposes…

LMFAOOO hollyhock Karasu just being a sap has me crying YUKIMIYA AHAHAH “when is it my turn to be the protagonist” the Coachella ref has me rolling too

Ok when you said tabieitaryu my first thought was Aryu???? I mean ig so that wouldn’t have been my first choice though…LMAOO then I read shidou and thought wait what it took me like a good minute to realize you meant tabieita/ryu LOL but FRRRR I can definitely see him being besties w reo and I bet Barou would be like “finally someone normal” WAITTT you’re onto something Kunigami yuki duo next!! I fr wish they would’ve spotlighted top6 like you can’t just drop that information and not show us more of their skills….theres also no way they wouldn’t have continued evolving more in the nel so (ignoring Rin and nagi) I would’ve expected to see more tabieitaken….shidou still gets a good amount of spotlight I feel just because of how they’ve set him up as a character but why did tabieitaken fall off the face of the planet

OKFG THE BAROU ANGST???? Bawling my eyes out wdym he died and got fucking possessed????? Ok but that’s actually fire I love familial Barou too!!! But was he MURDERED or did he like idk slip on a banana peel and crack his head open why’s he dead! Reading this I completely forgot that there was supposed to be a love interest im ngl you could just write this as a familial relation platonic journey thing and it would still eat like im locked in for the Barou siblings angst now Barou’s houndoom killing itself has me crying too omg I lowk had no idea what direction this was gonna go in after you said angst in the pkmn world but NOW I GET IT

TULLIA COMEBACK!!! Also omg pkmn miraverse Karasu is giving bfb Karasu stop why’s he’s getting rejected pokemon I can’t LMAOO ok wait let me go in order of character team for reactions so it’s easier to read

First of all DONPHAN >>>>>> I remember first playing donphan was like my right hand pokemon only second to my starter we love the donphan mention we’ve had this convo on teams before but these all fit so well otoya having a greninja and then all these sweet pokemon is so real (heavy on the blissey I can imagine him raising it from a happiny) Karasu archon agenda >>>>>>>>> ok coordinator yuki I totally forgot coordinators were a thing but COORDINATOR YUKI!!!! Breloom is such a yuki pokemon idk what it is abt the vibes!

Nagi having an arcanine when his house burned down is crazy LMAO also a big fan of goodra/goomy nagi, reo would totally have a cincinno is so real I can imagine him brushing it and petting it but also heavy on the gallade….another vibes pokemon why does it feel so reo

LOL EX RAPIDASH RACER CHIGIRI real…so real…also I never considered dragonite but why does it fit so well LOL actually it’d be funny imagine he has a shiny dratini and up until dragonair the colors perfectly match him and then bam GREEN LMAOOOO

also now that you mention hiori i can totally see him having interest in fossil pokemon…for some reason i can totally see him with an armaldo and a bastiodon too (unrelated but autocorrect is my number one opp while typing out pokemon names smh)

Isagi sus /hj LMAO but raichu reminds me sm of Isagi too…maybe it’s the face…idk LOL

I’m crying when I first read catch and release for aiku I thought “lol is that a reference to him catching and releasing women in bllkverse” SHSHSH jk LMAO

But fr I would just read this as a platonic family/found family journey story LOL the dynamic exploration between characters and again the BAROU SIBLING ANGST

TRIED AND TRUE SENDS ME the way that you’ve had to do this so many times fr manifesting better experiences for you!! Seems ghosting truly is the move LMAO it’s ok the opps just got their ego bruised and obv weren’t worth it anyways sooooo

HAHAHA real for that I’m usually a bit picky with art style but for some series I’ve also managed to brainwash myself enough to filter out the crunchiness….exposure therapy yk

- Karasu anon

tbh barou and aiku give such sibling energy but specifically in the way that like your mom and her brother would if that makes sense SLFJSJSJA

nah because sometimes the official arts have me raising my eyebrows and shit like why is chigiri always looking like uhhhh that?? LMAOAOA it’s so funny 😭 and isagi’s hair is always horrendous too for some reason omg

HELP BECAUSE HOLLYHOCK KARASU SEES BLLK OTOYA AND IS JUST LIKE 😢 meanwhile bllk karasu is like “bro i cry when i see him too but for the opposite reason (because i have to look at his dumbass face)” LMAO bllk yukimiya would be so offended especially given his sensibilities meanwhile hollyhock yukimiya was just trying to keep up with the times 😩

LMAOOO NO NOT ARYU 😭 pls i was trying to follow the format of their first names shortened and ryu fit pretty well but yeah i can see how that would be confusing (technically aryu is also 18 so ig he could be a yuki bestie option too?? i feel like barou+aiku or reo+nagi fit better though) agreed barou is just grateful to have someone normal who can also hold his own on the team 😰 LITERALLY BRO A YUKI X KUNI TEAMMUP WOULD BE PERFECT i need it so bad…honestly i think it’s crazy karasu has only scored like once or twice in the entire main series (in third selection) and pretty much consistently since then he’s been defending like does bro even want to be a striker ⁉️ i feel like of the three though karasu’s the only one who still feels like he’s kept up with the other players albeit in a diff position…like at least he’s consistently been doing stuff in pxg vs bm whereas we haven’t seen much from yuki besides manshine and almost nothing from otoya at all even in the u20 game 😓 i get other characters have to have their moments and whatnot but like…as much as i love kurona for example he was so randomly dropped in there?? i was deadass lost when he appeared because there was almost 0 mentions of him before 😨 so i feel like instead of developing this new character kaneshiro could’ve had yukimiya fill that role for isagi but instead of being as loyal as kurona is he’s more like a hiori type where he’s just choosing what’s best for the team ☝🏻 he could even have used the religion and blindness aspect to lean into a more altruistic characterization for yuki where he tries to be unselfish so he’ll help out anyone even kaiser as long as that’s what’s best for the team/the greater good because that would also make the kaisagi rivalry more interesting (especially if yukimiya stays the 1v1 emperor) as then they’re competing over who gets yukimiya on their side at any given point — he could’ve continued to improve and been the kind of player that helps break through defense before getting the ball to hiori who can then pass from there or go straight to one of the strikers depending on the situation 🤔 there also could’ve been a little ness vs yukimiya rivalry going on in the background that would’ve been rlly fun and could’ve developed ness a bit more ☝🏻

as for how i would’ve approached kunigami (not a top 6 but facing similar treatment atm) were i the one writing this arc there’s two options i think — get rid of kaiser completely and have kunigami be isagi’s main rival in the nel especially given his new ego of being the hyena and whatnot 😟 i think that could also really hammer in how effective the wildcard program was if kunigami essentially becomes ng11 level and adds an ethical dilemma of “ok so wildcard was successful but is this something we can morally/legally do to people and is it even worth it” bonus points for developing a really weird and horrific dynamic between him and noel noa with him simultaneously being noa’s protege (since he’s supposed to be a copy of him) and being completely ignored and shunned by noa because he’s disgusted by what kunigami is and what wildcard has done to him 😩 OR if it’s like. essential. to keep kaiser in there for whatever reason (fanservice) i would again take out a player from bm but this time it’s ness because okay hear me out what has ness actually contributed to the plot like at all 😭 besides being a kaiser stan and having a weird toxic relationship/breakup with him idfk JFJDKDSJ anyways so maybe kaiser’s in a kind of loki-esque situation where all he needs to advance is someone who has crazy strength to push through players like lorenzo who we saw him struggling with…enter kunigami who’s obviously HUGE and kaiser’s like ok buddy let’s work together so kunigami’s like sure (maybe he resents the blue lockers for not going through what he went through) and he teams up with KAISER and is actively working against his old friends (definitely put in angst and reminders of the team z days)…again would add a weird dynamic between him and noel noa as well as juxtaposing kunigami’s and kaiser’s backstories for maximum effect — kunigami being “had a good life, soccer ruined him” and kaiser being “had a shitty life, soccer saved him” 🤩 there’s plenty of theories floating around that ness is going to end up assisting isagi at some point (maybe to score the final goal against pxg) BUT my counterpoint is don’t have kunigami assist isagi with the two-gun volley (give that to yukimiya or even hiori) and have kunigami pay isagi back for the half of a steak (therefore acknowledging their past and friendship for the first time since his return) by giving him the ball instead of kaiser like everyone expected and was covering for, allowing isagi to still score the final goal (or maybe pxg will win in case leave the two gun volley as is but make a bigger deal of the pass from kunigami to isagi and don’t have kunigami focused only on marking shidou…maybe even make kaiser/isagi/noel noa yell at kuni for being so obsessed w shidou??)

as you can tell i have many thoughts on areas bllk could be improved even if i don’t really mind how the story is going atm LMAOAOA it’s also easier to think of these things when you have the base laid out in front of you so def no hate to the current story or kaneshiro or anything those are just some things i’d adjust personally HAHA

YESSSS BAROU ANGST so i have a few ideas for his death floating around in my mind…either he’s really sick/terminally ill and only tells isagi because they’re rivals and he doesn’t want his family to know because they’ll stop him from reaching his goals but when he goes to victory road he just succumbs to it and dies without anyone knowing (hence why isagi is elusive — he doesn’t know barou’s dead so he’s trying his best to be loyal since barou expressly said not to tell any of his family members) which would make the possession more a lucky coincidence for the evil team OR he gets murked so that the evil team can have his body and his pokémon 🤔 still not really sure yet LMAOAOAOA omg trust i can make angst happen in ANY au 🤩 honestly i would just leave it platonic but i’m worried that if reader and/or tullia start gravitating towards certain characters through the course of the story without me tagging or planning for it people will be mad like “no i don’t like nagi why would i be flirting with him when chigiri’s right there” “bro tullia better stay the fuck away from isagi that’s my man” ykwim 😰 maybe i’ll try writing it just to get a feel of what reader and tullia’s personalities will be and figure out who they’ll likely end up with based on that!! even if there is romance though it’ll be super super slight because again barou family relationship is the most important thing PLUS (mis)adventures and whatnot are much more fun to write about!! i’m thinking if i go with a ml nagi he (plus reo and chigiri because yk i’m not splitting up the manshine city trio) will probably behave kind of like the rivals do in the games?? like he randomly shows up, does something lore developing with the reader, and then leaves again for a while 🤔 whereas karasu and otoya are always there because they’re all traveling together but because of that the four of them specifically (karasu tullia otoya reader) kinda just have found family vibes and aren’t romantic

TUPAC BACK (except it’s tullia) FR DJDJSJSK it’s like those nobara edits but tullia instead…i was considering having it be may but idk tullia just felt more right in the situation 😭

HAHAHA PKMN KARASU IS LIKE BFB KARASU ON STEROIDS whenever yayoi thinks a pokémon doesn’t have the potential to be a gym pokémon/she doesn’t feel like training it she just dumps it on tabito because she doesn’t want to release it (she feels bad) so when he first meets mc and co he just has a bunch of baby bird pokémon that like to sit on his shoulder and are shitty at battling 🥹 with mc otoya and tullia’s help he makes them really strong though and i have a vision of him going back and challenging yayoi and beating her only with the pokémon she discarded (he either hasn’t caught lucario and garchomp atp or they’re just chilling on the sidelines) which finally makes her acknowledge him

YESSS DONPHAN i tried to make reader have a very balanced team in terms of typing and whatnot (hence her having a galvantula i feel like that’s such a random pokémon) i also tried to make it so it’s not just all basic pokémon on everyone’s teams (except isagi he’s the king of basic soooo) although ofc they’re not totally unavoidable which is why reader does still have a gyarados and tullia does have an infernape etc etc

HAHAHA at first otoya’s mad but then he realizes that cute pokémon = hella bitches so then he’s always letting his ninetales out to walk with him and flex how beautiful it is because it’s basically a chick magnet KDJSKSKA no fr breloom + yuki was one of my hardest cooks ever tbh and i think him as a coordinator is such a fun concept!! and adds some variety instead of everyone just trying to be champion or wtvr

HELP okay so the reason he has an arcanine is because when he has to go to the government to become a trainer they’re like ok well you missed the cutoff for a normal starter and he’s like bro ⁉️ should i just starve and die then tf 😰 and they’re like okay well modern problems require modern solutions…this growlithe was rejected from the police academy for being too cuddly and friendly even with criminals so we were planning on releasing it or sending it out to be adopted as a pet but like you can have it if you want and obviously he has to say yes and that’s how he ends up with a growlithe/arcanine 😭 at first the growlithe is super scared of battling and nagi doesn’t care enough to make it battle (he finds reo very fast and gets spoiled) but then reader + houndour beat some sense into them both and they get serious after that!!

LMAOO EX RAPIDASH RACER CHIGIRI WAS JUST TOO GOOD it also felt like a fun way to expand the verse a bit?? showing other careers people have and whatnot…also i think it would be so cute to imagine that the ponyta chigiri learned to ride on doesn’t belong to him but it ends up loving him so much that after its racing career (once it’s evolved into a rapidash) is over the owner gives it to chigiri as just like a personal pokémon since that’s where it’ll be the happiest 🥹 which coincides with chigiri’s accident so when he can’t walk he just rides around on his rapidash and it helps him recover before they both learn how to battle together in order to make money FNDKSJSJS

hiori just gives strong dinosaur kid energy although tbh i just picked his pokémon so that they were all light blue like his hair 😭 but given the many avenues for arcs that exist in a pokémon au there could def be one where reader and co meet up with hiori and he’s like lowkey a fossil dude and they save the fossils from the evil team however hiori says they should release the fossil pokémon because conservation and whatnot but the amaura loves him sm it evolves into an aurorus so he’ll keep it by his side as a battling pokémon and part of his team 🤔

ISAGI IS ALWAYS UP TO SMTH he’s def supposed to give the vibes that he knows more than he lets on (because he usually does) and PLEASEEE NOT THE CATCH AND RELEASE OF WOMEN i think aiku is going to be a brock equivalent tbh like maybe he first meets reader and co by trying to rizz up reader and tullia in the middle of a forest which makes karasu and otoya CRACK UP and aiku’s like yo wtf let me cook here 😒‼️ however that prompts tabieita to explain in detail exactly why aiku doesn’t want to date either girl and it ends up in a very sibling-ish squabble between the four meanwhile aiku is just like damn sorry i asked

stop because now that i’m thinking about it this could actually cook as a long fic there’s just so many different stories within the story that could be written 😨 if that makes sense LMAOAO okay wait also hear me out: leonardo luna, pablo wtvr tf his last name is, adam blake, loki, dada silva, yayoi, anri, and ego as gym leaders + chris prince, noel noa, lavinho, and snuffy as the elite four (ofc reo’s dad is champion but maybe he’s grown complacent because the elite four is so strong so it’s kinda accepted the noel noa is the ACTUAL strongest??)

KFDNSJJS unfortunately i’m fr experienced with it but it’s okay at least ik i’m a baddie!! 😭 generally i try to drop a lot of hints that i’m uninterested when i sense a guy is into me so it never even gets to the point that i have to reject them ☝🏻 LMAOAO yes the opps are just mad i wouldn’t get w them but what can you do 🤷🏻‍♀️

i’ve read so many manhwas that like as long as the proportions aren’t insanely off i’ll just accept whatever honestly 😭 anyways this is such a massive response i’ll leave it at that 😩 SOMEBODY (me) got chatty today i fear…

[petrichorade]

Hii :D I just wanted to say I LOVE ADORE CRY SCREAM over your Ratiomei art. I love them both sm I wanna swallow them sjsjsksk

But I'm kinda new to the Ratiomei corner of the fandom, and I'm afraid I don't know much about the ship. So I would really appreciate it if you tell me why you ship them and what made you ship them. Or what lore made you ship them. ANYTHING! Lmao just give me more Ratiomei food 😞😞❤❤❤

Awwwww thank you so much for the compliment! And glad that you asked actually! I will answer your question as an excuse to spread the brainrot 😈😈😈

Kind of going chronological starting from here:

They were first introduced when Honkai Star Rail is still in 1.4 version if I remember correctly! 1.6 version Drip Marketing happened on October 31th 2023 11:00 A.M (GMT+7) at that time, and the 5 star Character that were revealed being Ruan Mei (Ice-Harmony) for the first half and Dr.Ratio (Imaginary-The Hunt) for the second half. It's pretty cute that Hoyo dropped them only 5 minutes apart (Xueyi, the 4-star as well though, after Ratio) since they usually postpone 2nd half 5-star for a day or two. This is their early drip marketing banner that some of you are familiar with!

But I really haven't start seeing things here, I love them both as their individual selves and crying a little because I want them both so bad but they literally gonna be released right after Argenti, who's been on my warp list for long long time ever since I saw his leaks ^____T (I'm an F2P Player, and still until now, so yeah)

// long story short, I receive a happy ending by attaining the 3 of them with extreme grinding + Ratio ended up being free :D //

Also I saw some of their gameplay leaks, some beta players weirdly likes to put them together in a team? Makes me goes '...hm?' But I haven't manage to see stuffs yet. ((edit: I just realized this is a beta testing thing where these players basically put two characters that were about to be released in the same team to test out synergy and everything))

Then it all starts with THIS TRAILER. It was revealed here that there will be a new region being unlocked on Herta Space Station and it's turns out to be Ruan Mei's workspace, the Seclusion Zone. It's all cool until I realized Dr. Ratio were being placed in the SAME AREA.

I compare this trailer to previous character trailers, and literally can sense something.

Taking Imbibitor Lunae and Fu Xuan's trailer for example; them both being in the same planet (Xianzhou Luofu) but their character's animation were taken in different place, Dan Heng IL on Scalegorge Waterscape, while Fu Xuan on the Divinition Commission. Yet both Ruan Mei and Ratio's animation, not only took place in Herta Space Station, specifically the SECLUSION ZONE itself, not other places. I'm starting to lost my shit there, because I'm assuming SOMETHING goes on BETWEEN THEM if they were at the very same place.

And to be very honest, at this point many thing happened pretty fast as I also saw their fanart together out of no where. Either after I saw one particular art of them drawn together with kafblade (will share the link later) or I'm being silly try typing 'ruantio' on search and found them, but learned that they're being referred as ratiomei more often!

The brainrot being so pure, I'm starting to sketch them out of the blue...and create something decent. But I'm not ready to reveal it yet, letting the art fermented for a while. Until hoyo, again, dropping that they will be the next Battle Pass matching profile pictures :]

Idk if some of people aware of this, but BP profile pictures most of the time always just...pair folks not coincidentally + matching themes as if they were couple. This the list of characters that were paired for BP chibi profile pictures before (also note it's so far always been male-female);

1.0 - Himeko & Welt

1.1 - March 7th & Dan Heng

1.2 - Kafka & Blade

1.3 - Jing Yuan & Fu Xuan

1.4 - Bronya & Gepard

1.5 - Jingliu & Yanqing (this one's questionable a little lol

Therefore, right after this info getting dropped, I'm finally posting the art itself, being my first RatioMei fanart 😂

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Now jumping into when the 1.6 updated + the lore was revealed!

I'm going to be honest as I play along the way (and for those who's interested with this ship but not playing HSR): they basically have zero direct interactions.

But! I may have create a breakdown of they might potentially knows each other a bit, you can read it on my twitter thread here! (and sorry not sorry if everything came out very delusional)

Dr. Ratio also left so much notes on that specific area of the Seclusion Zone that looks like a greenhouse lab and were packed with her critters + the imitation of Tayzzyronth (Aeon of Propagation)'s emanator. Compiling them all ↓↓↓

Besides that, they're also mirroring each other so much;

1. Ruan Mei actually didn't want to be part of Genius Society in the beginning yet gaining Nous' gaze. She even tossed the Genius Society invitation letter to trash can when she receive it. Meanwhile Dr. Ratio completed doctoral degrees in 8 fields and actually wish he could be part of the Genius Society one day, but the moment he receive letter from Interastral Peace Corporation (IPC) instead, he thought he might never be able to gain Nous' attention at all.

2. Related to previous part, there is a literal reason why 1.6 patch were named "Crown of Mundane and Divine". These two were more of a 'two pages in the same book' as what my mutual refers it. If you completed the trailblazer mission for patch 1.6, the reward name being "Mundane Recto, Divine Verso". The reward literally obtained if you done BOTH of their trailblaze continuance where BOTH of them also will eventually became express' visitors. //I keep highlighted the 'both' term because it's seems that, despite the almost non-existent interactions, they're still tied together one way or another//

I want to dig deeper about this Recto-Verso concept since it's a printing terminology and it resonance so much with their overall traits, maybe I'll create separated post for this later!

The 'mundane' and 'divine' crown itself is visible on their head, being their hairpins (this is my personal approach);

Ratio -> laurels/leaves ; grows on everywhere on the branch, unnoticed -> the way Ratio saw himself being a mundane between all the mediocre people, not special. Representing Mundanity

Ruan Mei -> flower ; grows near the tip, most of the time one top of tree branches, eye-catching, facing the sky -> Ruan Mei having a goals to be an Aeon, reaching for the sky and getting Nous (Aeon of Erudition)'s attention. Representing Divinity

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Fun Fact Section

Ratio literally have a voice line if he were being put in the same team with Ruan Mei + opinion about her 😂 if you want to listen to his voice, check this out. He talks about fellow Simulated Universe participated Genius Society member as well, though. But it makes me freaking ill with the fact that he CHUCKLES a little in the middle of talking when added to the same team with her like I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE LOVER BOY

And to note, Dr. Ratio belongs to another faction under Nous beside Genius Society, the Intelligentsia Guild. And nope, he's not (directly) part of the IPC despite he works for them according to the storyline. I have a professor irl who also works as a consultant for a corporate company beside his academic career, and that's how I kinda view Ratio 'works for the IPC' wording goes :)

Now this is the interesting part comes! Besides him, there's an eye-catching figure who belongs to Intelligentsia Guild, and it's being...Ruan Mei's grandmother! This fact was written on Data Bank, not the playable character section (where you can level them up etc.)

Another fun stuffs I found on Dr. Ratio's lore is the one I highlighted in red;

My theory is that Ruan Mei's grandma might be also part of the rumored council, supported by the fact that Ruan Mei's intelligence were mostly inherited from her maternal line. I can only assume Ratio and her grandma knows each other, and it's potential that Ratio might have heard/know about Ruan Mei not based on other people's view, but from her grandma herself (judging how eager he learns the truth from credible sources). Also here's more thing that makes me hopeful for them;

Ruan Mei's grandma have been watching her for years, and from this, I kinda feel hopeful we're soon getting Intelligentsia Guild lore + further depth about these two characters as I felt like we've only knew them at the tip of an iceberg.

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This is all I can pretty much provide you of why I like this ship. And again, it's all about matters of preference, I love these two characters both as individuals and as a ship, they're very precious to me and I want to continue drawing them even more TwT so thank you so much for asking this question and make me starts my day with joy! Love you muachhhh

[jentlemahae]

i definitely get where anon is coming from but let me defend lisa a little here. yes she has been in paris a lot but, recently at least, she has been in thailand just as often. it seems she has moved out of sk bcs she was seen at the airport going to thailand with pet passports which implies that she has moved the cats to bangkok. if it’s fair to assume she’s splitting her time between paris and bangkok. also yes she has been on vacation a lot (i once saw someone call her the dua lipa of kpop fhdjdjjddj) but imo the pinks (and all idols tbh) have the right to have time off and do nothing if they want

sure we have seen that jennie, jisoo and rosie have been working lately, however lisa has expressed multiple times how her main priority rn is spending time with her family. she said she regrets not being able to see them often and yg didn’t allow her to see anyone for years even though covid restrictions were lifted and she had plenty of time off. ever since her grandfather passed away she said she worries about her parents getting old. her dad is now 70 so she wants to spend time with them. let’s not lie, her bf is a big factor for her being in paris but she also has her family there too (her cousin and niece). on top of that some of her time in paris has been due to performance rehearsals for both crazy horse and the upcoming gala AND she’s rumored to be in twd spin-off which is filmed there

in terms of what she’s doing next, i think she’s allowed to take time to figure out what she wants to do career-wise as well as how she approaches it. imo crazy horse wasn’t a mistake per se but i will agree with anon in that maybe it wasn’t the greatest choice to do it before her solo career has properly been established bcs it has affected one of her main markets (china). maybe she should have waited a year or at least until after she released her first album/ep

i won’t ignore the fact that the arnaults have been very close to her solo career over the last year but i don’t think it’s necessarily fair to narrow down every recent career move she has made to him and his family. idk none of us know what she’s up to and we’re just gonna have to be patient and wait and see. like you said, it’s too early to judge yet

yeah her decisions these days seem all be family-oriented and not too much about her career per, and (like u said) she’s perfectly allowed to do that! she is young, talented and already mega popular — i don’t think her career is gonna be in trouble even if she chooses on spending time with her loved ones for a few months

and i agree for crazy horse! i forgot to answer that part (my bad!) but i think if she had waited to do it once she had already started her solo journey it would have been better. however, it is a great opportunity so i can see why she said yes — i mean, if she had had the choice to do it this/next year it would have been good but we don’t know if she even had the option so 🤷🏻‍♀️

we’ll see what happens! i don’t think it’s fair to judge just yet

[gikairan]

The other thing is... their stock price was probably massively overinflated, and its just now correcting itself? Disclaimer - not a person who looks at, or interprets, stock related stuff. Its Fake Money, but the fake money means a Lot to businesses

Take a look at the stonk graph

AND the wikipedia page together

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubisoft

This section here is roughly when the Ezio trilogy came out, to AC3:

Around November 2012, Ubi stock price was between €4-5. This is the month Assassin's Creed 3 came out. According to the wiki page for that game, "On February 7, 2013, Ubisoft announced that the game had sold 12 million copies worldwide", plus other accolades as "our most pre-ordered game", "4th best selling game in the USA in 2012" And yet the stonks dont really go up. Youd think "we've had amazing sales for this title!" would make stonks go up, right?

In fact, stonks dont really start going up until 2014. With 2016 seeing some big jumps. Do you know what happened in 2015?

When the Vivendi takeover attempt was thwarted, it was replaced by... Tencent. "On 20 March 2018, Ubisoft and Vivendi struck a deal ending any potential takeover, with Vivendi agreeing to sell all of its shares, over 30 million, to other parties and agreeing to not buy any Ubisoft shares for 5 years. Some of those shares were sold to Tencent, which after the transaction held about 5.6 million shares of Ubisoft (approximately 5% of all shares).[59] The same day, Ubisoft announced a partnership with Tencent to help bring their games into the Chinese market.[60] Vivendi completely divested its shares in Ubisoft by March 2019." Then stonks look like this:

So around the time of these biggest spikes, the games theyre producing are probably less impactful than someone is buying up shares to force a hostile takeover, followed by "We're partnering with Tencent to bring our games to China". The Chinese gaming market is massive, and largely been inaccessible to non-Chinese companies. A partnership with Tencent to open your games up to China probably caused a huge stonk boost as investors hoped Line Go Up.

That big dip, btw?

Ubisoft released their first real flop - Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the 4th October. A metacritic high of 62. Wikipedia doesnt have sale numbers, just Yves quoted as saying it was disappointing. This is the point i credit towards some reviewers changing their minds on Ubisoft games. Past THIS point, you start to see reviewers criticise Ubisoft for "every game is the same".

Thing is, the stonks recover from that quite quickly. Next IS 2020, where just about every gaming company was The Hot Thing. But Ubisofts stonks go back to around €60 long before March. The next spikes are actually 2021. The sexual assault allegations seem to have done nothing to stonk price.

The fall kinda starts around 5th March 2021. That year, they didnt really release any games from January to October. Hence the continued decline all year. Far Cry 6 didnt really light a fire (though i cant find sales numbers), and so stonks dont go up. 2022 saw basically no major games release.

Stonks are crashing at this point

Next spike is the 2023 holiday release schedule, where theres a new Assassins Creed. Theres another bump up for spring/ summer and now we're falling down a cliff again as Outlaws sold below expectations

But i dont see this as a Ubisoft specific decline? Over-investment happened in the games industry in 2020 - record sales were led by lapsed gamers who wanted something to do in lockdown. And once work came back, people stopped playing games. And investors saw declining sales and left.

But Ubisoft is definitely seeing its stock return to the levels it was at... before the massive rise in stock price caused buy an attempted take over by Vivendi? The stonk price was so much lower when gamers loved Ubisoft as a company. I dont think sales numbers alone were the reason Ubisoft stonk was so high, yaknow?

And, like, does this really matter? IDK. I'm not a stonks person. I can just remember dates in the gaming industry and can interpret a graph. My worry is what these fake stonk numbers all mean to the very real peoples jobs and livelihoods, in an industry thats already shed thousands of jobs over the last 2 years that may never return.

With the news that Ubisofts stock is down so much theyre considering making the company public

Have they considered..... just making a different game?

Like, Ubisoft have just used the same formula for their major franchises for the last FIFTEEN YEARS or so. The gameplay loop for all of their major games follows the same structure.

Reviewers started noticing it a few years ago, and that began the decline of Ubisoft review scores. Not to mention the culture of sexual assault souring their image among fans. I also think gamers are now starting to get tired of the gameplay loop, especially when other companies are making similar games?

Not to mention all the money they poured into Skull & Bones over the last decade that was never going to pay off (i've said before how they contractually had to finish this game - it was part of an agreement with the Singaporean government. Ubisoft Signapore had to lead on a game project)

But if they just.... made something different, it might actually perform okay? Like, youd get the people who like Ubisoft storytelling and worlds, but have been turned away by repetitive gameplay back?

Like, Star Wars Outlaws not selling well is a surprise. By all accounts, its a perfectly fine game. Its in a popular IP. Theres precedent in story based games IN that IP selling well (Star Wars Jedi). .... But it plays very similarly to just about any other Ubisoft game, and that might have stopped a lot of people buying it.

[nikethestatue]

I really hope and I’m praying that SJM just confirms who the main couple for ACOTAR 5 is even if the book doesn’t come out till 2024. I mean, and correct me if I’m wrong I didn’t get into the fandom till ACOSF came out, but even though there was a 3 year gap between ACOFAS and ACOSF, people knew nessian were getting the first spin off novel because of the teaser in ACOFAS and I assume she had confirmed it well in advance. Idk why BB and SJM are keeping us in the dark, as an Elriel I’m just so exhausted of these shipwars, it would just be better to confirm so that the fall out happens now ( bc boy will booktok, twt, ig be a hot mess) and have 2 years where it can have a natural buildup from people genuinely excited for the book, versus announcing who the main couple is six months before the book comes out when they market the book and have a bunch of ppl ruin the excitement because they didn’t get what they want or because there upset it’s not there fave, and people review bombing it on Goodreads etc when ppl are all hot and bothered, like at this point they just need to rip the bandaid off, like Sarah pls free us of this purgatory 😭😭

Unfortunately, Anon, it ain't happening.

With Nessian, there was never a question--they were set up and never a secret.

With Azriel and Elain and Lucien there are a lot of possibilities. So SJM is NOT going to be confirming a couple. Especially not that far in advance.

I'd celebrate and pop the champagne if the MC is announced!!! That would be sufficient. But I, personally, have zero expectations about any kind of 'ship' confirmation.

This is going to be dragged out for as long as possible. And I think it will be actually kept a secret, until the release. I don't think we'll find anything out about the couple. :(

Sorry.

[wickedpact]

so netflix just announced the schedule for that fan event on saturdays and now its official: there wont be a tog panel. charlize will make an appearance though, alongside other 5 actress in a panel about action movies. there's a moderator so its most likely gonna be a general discussion about the genre with an emphasis on female protagonists - she's certainly going to talk about andy and nile's characters as well as her experience as a producer - and maybe there will be a comment or two about the sequel, but i feel like nothing too specific or revealing and more like a brief statement. i hope i'm wrong tho! i mean they did kinda hint that there would be new content at the panel? (or maybe it was never gonna to happen and we're just clowns being baited yet again).

anyway, i keep wondering if its a case of netflix not giving a shit about promoting the movie, or if it there's another perfectly reasonable explanation for it and i'm being super extra about it.

because really, netflix has a lot of fucking money and they dont usually spare it on their marketing campaigns. and still we get nothing. not before the film came out (if i didnt have access to the gays from tumblr/twitter i would have never even discover the film - it had me at the joenicky gifs, obvs - and still, i had to introduce it to so many people from inside the community who had never heard of it.) and not even after people started engaging with it, basically begging for some crumbles. not a single photo or video of cast together, not any deletes scenes; we're all starving here!!! in fact, netflix just released the raw footage of an audition/chemestry test featuring the actresses from fear street vs the actual scenes from the film - including some dialogue that was cut from it which reveal some background info about the characters - so clearly they understand the appeal. SO WHY CANT WE HAVE THAT

[nonetheless i'm a fool who still hopes that someday we're gonna get more content of them together (i want behind the scenes footage! i wanna know more about their experiences training and shooting the film! i wanna hear funny stories from the set! i wanna see them teasing each other in several languages! also would sell a lung to watch luca and marwan taking part in back to back chef!). ]

anyhow, i honestly find that even when we take into account the global pandemic and its effects, the publicity was kinda wack; we can basically count on one hand how many interviews were made while they were promoting the film.

and i truly dont get it!!!!!!! im not even speaking as fan here. the old guard has the potential to be a hit among several demographics; now that disney took away what used to be netflix's flagship content the competition has never been more fierce in the superhero/ish genre!!! and its not like we're talking about some low-budget film cmon its a significal production with both experienced and emerging actors. its chiwetel ejofior ITS CHARLIZE FUCKING THERON. anyway my point is that in a time when movie theathers were closed and streaming reached its peak tog could - SHOULD - have been much more popular.

SO LIKE. WHY?????? does it have anything to do with skydance and copyrights? re: interviews, can it be that the cast just didnt sign up for this (is that even a thing? i dont know anything about the film industry, clearly)? unlikely for a movie that big i would guess but who knows??? i mean contrary to some hollywood folks most of the cast is extremely private and discrete people (GOOD FOR THEM) so perhaps they have some reservations about it? or we're really just the poor bastards that end up being obssessed with a media no one gives a fuck about it and thats it? WHYYY

p.s.: sorry for the word vomit! this was not supposed to be an essay i just had to get this off my chest and you're the most welcoming blog around these woods. thank you for the tea (or is it coffee? heh) and the biscuits and for always indulging our passionate rants. HAVE A NICE DAY I LOVE YOU

re: TUDUM, geeked week mentioned there will be a little interview thing for greg & leandro so i have a feeling if anything of tog importance will be discussed itll happen then

but yeah i get what youre saying; sometimes i wonder if the reason that theres like no bts content is bc it just.. .doesnt exist? just people didnt film things like chemistry readings or the like while creating tog and thats why theres been basically no crumbs? (but then again, it was gina who took it upon herself to post the hair & makeup test footage AND theres at least one deleted scene that we know of thats never been posted so maybe not)

and yeah it does seem so bizarre since tog got such a big response from audiences (it was one of netflix's most watched original movies!) and critics did actually like it, unlike some of netflix's most watched originals. PLUS it has that ✨ Franchise Potential ✨that everyone has been searching for as of late and it also gives netflix their sought after Woke Points. idk it just seems like they should be leaning into tog as hard as they can but it feels like theyve been largely ignoring it. i mean i get the holdups in regard to finding a new director but other than that the response from netflix has been so underwhelming

[zaptap]

ive made a few of these bingo sheets and theyre fun so i decided to make one not just for e3 but also JUST for splatoon 3 (not just for e3 but for like the whole lifetime of the game). also heres my updated list of characters id like to see in smash, ordered generally by which id like more and/or think are the most realistic

since min min got in i took out helix, and since i couldnt decide whether to add in waluigi or madeline i added another row (realistically i dont think any indies are getting in but i threw some in anyway). also i was like “oh yeah maybe theyd put in a gen viii pokemon” so i threw in hatterene since thats one of my favorites.

also as for waluigi (and shovel knight for that matter) i think it would be nice to see an assist trophy get in just to break that rule. also i remember being super surprised he wasnt in brawl (back then i thought he and wario were equally important) and even though that was based on a wrong impression ive still felt like he should be in there ever since

notes about the bingos under the cut

really is about time for those n64 games, especially now that mario is dead so theyre free to release sm64 on it. game boy games would be nice sometime too

would also make sense to include banjo-kazooie in that, nintendos had a good relationship with microsoft lately and the total absence of anything banjo-kazooie on the switch is odd since it’s a dlc character (every other one has a game on switch they can use for cross-marketing, even if joker’s took a while) and i think the best explanation for that would be that theyre holding off for the nso n64 app (this is easiest from a technical standpoint because all they have to do is make a deal to use the roms)

when are they putting octolings in mk8d

xenoblade chronicles x is one of the only wii u games left that they could port (aside from ones that wouldnt make much sense like splatoon and ssb4) so i guess that might as well happen sometime. also monolith soft might be doing something else besides helping with splatoon 3

im not ready for metroid prime 4 (im over halfway through mp2 and therefore the trilogy as a whole) but it’s been a while, they might show it and it could even come out this year

hal apparently recently hinted at a new kirby game or something

the upgraded switch is obviously going to be called the Nintendo Switch ͥ  since they already did the ds lite so theyre clearly naming everything in the family after the ds family, theres absolutely no flaw in this logic. idk if theyre showing it, but unlike 2019 they didnt say they werent showing new hardware (just that they were showing software, which could be taken as denying rumors, but they sometimes specify when certain things arent being shown)

metroid prime trilogy also might come this year. would make sense to release it before mp4 since not everyone is going to buy a wii u to get it (and at this point that doesnt get nintendo any money since they stopped making them)

where is detective pikachu 2. i hope it has the blue pikachu from that first tease they gave us in like 2014 (2013? that was a loooong time ago idk)

they said this was MOSTLY 2021 so i am absolutely getting my hopes up for splatoon 2

the two sinnoh games could likely be there

would be super cool if oddity came to switch. and almost as ironic as megalovania getting into smash

we havent seen the botw sequel for a couple years so we’re kind of due for an update on that

it’s ace attorney’s 20th anniversary this year so maybe theyre doing something. theyre already porting those games though so idk. maybe he’s getting in smash

whats with that watermelon mario render

i held off on watching a playthrough for ndrv3 on the off chance it came to switch and i could play a dangan ronpa game for real for once but it’s now been 4 years and we just passed the 10th anniversary of the series (albeit during a pandemic when i wouldnt expect them to have done anything) so it would be cool to see the series come to switch. i think if it still doesnt after this though i’ll just watch the playthrough, 4 years is long enough. amazed ive avoided spoilers this long, i still know next to nothing about the game

im about done with acnh but im still waiting on those splatoon items. and i ran out of storage in february so i need more of that too

nintendo did stuff for zelda’s 30th anniversary so i doubt theyre forgetting the 35th. maybe wwhd/tphd ports, idk

been a couple years since fire emblem, intelligent systems is probably up to something besides planning yet another paper mario spinoff

miyamoto forgot pikmin 4 in the oven 6 years ago and it got burnt to a crisp and thats why it hasnt come out yet because he had to start over

and splatoon

the inklings scared daft punk into quitting so now that theres no competition in the robot musician scene they should have a daft punk style group

i waited and waited and neither of my top two splatoon stages (flounder and d’alfonsino) came back in splatoon 2 so i hope just because splatoon 3 isnt in inkopolis doesnt mean they still wont return

would be sick as hell if there was a real hide and seek mode instead of just sticking to your own rules in private battles. havent played that since 2015 but it was super fun

show us the effects of the chaos world

i wanted mc craig to have a song in octo expansion and they didnt deliver. heres another chance

splatnet 3 baby

cant wait for nogami to do a funny 3 pose

abxy came back for splatoon 2.... am i gonna be that lucky again...?

salmon run doesnt make sense if youre friends with a smallfry but they could either change the story context (you just fight “evil” salmonids?) or replace it with an equally fun co-op mode

amiibo!!! i think i said this before but they should label them by weapons if these cephalopods dont have genders, would make more sense (the gendered ones had different weapons anyway)

returning characters!!!! would like to see everyone have a role of some kind

maybe #GearForAll wasnt successful in getting the emperor/spy/mecha gear, but perhaps theyll at least consider not making that stuff exclusive this time around

squid girl gear should be back. and they should call it a dress instead of a tunic because its a dress. and theres no gender now anyway

as ive said before... TRIPLIES!! you hold one in each hand and another in your mouth. and you can spin around like the tasmanian devil

remove splatfest tee annoyances: you should have a prompt at the end of a splatfest to pay to scrub your tee (to make sure you get the chunks) also it should be on a neutral brand so you dont end up with an overabundance of ink resistance up (or whatever else)

better online and cloud saves would certainly justify having a second splatoon game on the same console, as much as im loving that it exists

hopefully theres a global testfire again

sooner or later the workers will rise up and kill mr grizz

remember in splatoon 1 where if you had squid beatz (via the amiibo) you could “play” it in the lobby and change the music? then you were stuck listening to only bubble bath in splatoon 2? why did they take that option away they should bring it back

looking at those apartment buildings in the trailer i think it would be cool if you had your own room and could decorate it

an octavio redemption arc would be fun to see. in the manga he stole the zapfish because the octarians had an energy crisis, and in the end they worked out a deal to share the electricity

[bumblebee-moreno]

Sacrilege (part one; Selkie!Tovar x GN Reader)

Selkie!Tovar is finally here! 

Word count: 1566

Warnings: None? probably some historical inaccuracies but idk tbh, personal Selkie Lore, the title will make sense later, I promise.

A/N: Meant to take place shortly after the events of The Great Wall. Part two is scheduled to come out Feb 3, but if y’all like this part, I may release the next one early. Talk to me if you liked it (I would love any excuse to talk about Selkie!Tovar tbh)!

Pero grips his coat closer to his chest. The bustling of the crowd around him is almost overwhelming. Markets like this, he supposes, are the closest thing humans get to the crowded beaches his mother used to bring him to. It seems rather silly to him: why gather together if not to enjoy the peace and comfort of being safely surrounded by your own kind?

Very few things humans do make sense to Pero. This market, for instance. Why buy fish when you live right by the ocean? He can’t find much of a difference between the fishermen and the rest of the population. Is there something he’s not seeing that makes most people unable to hunt? Pero pities the poor land-creatures who had never felt the thrill of chasing down a meal for themselves.

Pero rubs at his eyes with his free hand in a half-hearted attempt to quell the ever-present exhaustion that had made its home in his head over the course of his journey. He can’t wait for nightfall when he can return home.

His family had been right. Humans are greedy, self-centred warmongers. It’s a wonder they haven’t brought their own extinction upon themselves yet.

It was a silly decision to join the world of the land for so long. Pero knew the evils of man. It was childish of him to think the ones who made their homes on dry ground would be any different from those who journeyed to the open sea.

No, humans make no sense to Pero. But then again, he’s not sure he wants to understand them anymore. Why would so many surrender their lives to steal an armload of a mysterious black powder?

Was it sheer curiosity, much like the wonder that had brought Pero on the very same journey? Pero scoffs at himself. No. Humans may take without much concern for the consequences, but they do not take for such frivolous emotions as curiosity. No, the reason has to be far more sinister.

After all, he’s seen what the black powder can do. He’d been told it could change the world. He’d been told he’d be a hero if he brought back even a tiny bit of it. He doesn’t understand. It seems as though the powder only takes lives. How could he be a hero if he spread the use of such a destructive substance?

Pero’s thoughts are drowned out by voices shouting around him. Angry words echo over the crowd and people begin to push and shove with the intention of moving others, instead of to create a path for themselves.

The few mothers Pero can spot begin gathering their children and seeking escape from the changing energy of the crowd.

Pero lifts his gaze in hopes of spotting the origin of the sudden outburst of the people around him. All he can see in every direction is fighting. People push and shove and hit and pull at each other without much care as to who they may be hurting. Or, perhaps their motivation is to hurt as many as they can. After what he’d seen these past months, Pero figured the latter was more likely.

The crowd grows more and more intense, much like the surface of the ocean on those angry nights where the sky and the sea disagree. If Pero knows anything of conflict like this, it’s that unless you wish to fight the waves, it’s best to avoid it altogether.

He begins to weave his way between people, pushing through when he cannot find an opening to slip himself into. It’s slow, he gets shoved into several people who didn’t seem to care he was moving past. But it’s better than remaining stranded.

Pero can see people walking away. He’s close to freeing himself from the horde of angered people.

Then suddenly, he feels a pulling. He tightens his grip on the soft material in his arms, but it’s too late. The fur slips from his fingers and disappears. Pero whirls around in place, searching for the source of the pulling. For his coat. But all he can find in every direction are the faces of the species he is pretending to belong to.

Pero’s heart quickens. Where is it? Shouted words blur together into an unrelenting howl and echo through Pero’s head. Pero searches through the crowd. It couldn’t have gone far, could it?

He’d thought the most terrifying point in his life would be the battle he’d escaped a few weeks ago. But that terror pales in comparison to this.

Pero’s knees weaken. His hands begin to shake. What if he never finds it? What if someone saw the coat being pulled from his grasp and decided to keep it for themselves?

Tears sting at Pero’s eyes. His vision blurs. His body threatens to collapse on itself. He just wants to go home. And yet, somehow that was too much to ask of humanity to allow.

How could he be so stupid as to ignore the stories he’d been told? He should have known this would happen. It always happens. That’s why no one ever dared journey past the beach. And yet he had.

Over the ringing in his ears, he hears a single voice.

“Excuse me,” It says before a small tap on his shoulder sends Pero spinning on his heel. “You dropped your coat,” The voice, now matched to a face, finishes, lifting the familiar fur as an offering.

Pero tears the coat from your grip and pulls it close to his chest, almost as if he were guarding an infant. His voice refuses to work, so he gives you a teary smile of gratitude. He hopes humans understand smiles.

You smile back.

***

“Not again,” you groan when the usual market commotion elevates into enraged shouts.

Why couldn’t they wait just five more minutes before starting a fight? Five minutes and you would’ve been at your stand, out of the way of this nonsense.

You shift your basket to your hip and use your free hand to push through. You’re already late this morning; you don’t need to get stuck in the middle of this.

Your hope begins to diminish, though, when you lift yourself onto your toes and discover that you can’t see the end of the chaos.

You curse under your breath before continuing to push in the direction you know you will eventually find your stand. Why did this have to happen today of all days? Sure, you’d been telling yourself for months to arrive before sunrise so you’d beat the morning rush, but was it too much to ask for the stars to align and give you one, just one, nonsense-free day?

A fist narrowly misses your ear. If it had been years ago, you’d have flinched. But you’ve swam through this sort of crowd enough times by now that a stray punch is the least of your worries.

A body slams into yours. You stumble backwards, shifting your basket just enough that its contents don’t spill out. You’re about to move on when you feel a tug at your arm.

You pull back to free yourself and are met with hardly any resistance. You look down. A strange coat falls at your feet.

Your visions snaps back up in time to see the last of the soft material slipping from the arms of its owner. He’s a strange man. In another town, perhaps he’d fit in. But in this small gathering of fishermen and farmers, he stands out like a sore thumb. The scar over his eye, combined with the clumsiness as he navigates the crowd tells you this man spends very little time in a bustling market like this.

The crowd shifts, pulling the man out of your sight.

You’re tempted to continue on. The coat isn’t your problem. If it were important, he’d have kept a better grip on it. But, as you take a step, something stops you.

With very little grace, you stoop to pick up the coat, nearly dropping your basket in the process. You drape the coat over your arm and run your fingers over the soft fur.

You search through the slowly calming crowd. With every passing moment, you begin to lose hope of finding him again. Every minute of your day is precious and you’ve already lost time to the crowd.

You’re about to give up when you spot a tense figure. He’s searching around him, and upon closer inspection, you find panic in his eyes. He turns to search in the other direction, unsure as to where to look.

You push through the crowd until you’re close enough for him to hear you.

“Excuse me,” you speak up over the hum of the busy town square. He doesn’t respond for a moment, so you tap him on the shoulder.

As if he’d been burned, the man whirls around. He looks as though he can’t decide whether to lash out or collapse in panic.

“You dropped your coat,” You shift to offer him the peculiar fur.

Without a moment’s hesitation, he tears the coat from your grip and holds it close.

His eyes threaten to overflow with relief. The coat must have been incredibly important to him. A family heirloom, you suppose.

He offers a hesitant smile. You return the gesture before adjusting the basket at your hip and shuffling away.

Tags: @justanotherblonde23​ @itsaisopodkillmepls​ @andriecastana​

[fae-fucker]

Zenith: Chapter 76-79

Chapter 76

Andi has a nice little poetic nightmare. It’s irrelevant. The next morning has the girls preparing for the ball, complete with dresses and makeup.

Some things to note include Lira saying that in Adhiran religion (which is global, I guess), one has to mourn for three days before “letting” the souls of the dead pass on into ... everything.

Andi tries to say that it’ll take time to heal from it all, but Lira is having none of it.

“It will take time to move past what happened on Adhira,” Andi started, but Lira held up a hand.

“My three days of mourning have passed. Lon’s and my aunt’s, too. Now we, and the others who lost loved ones during the attack, must give the lost spirits to the stars, to the trees, to the wind.”

Which basically means that she’s done feeling bad about the unexpected and brutal attack on her home planet, so that’s convenient. Well, if one of our main characters doesn’t care about her people getting senselessly murdered, then why should we?

She also lets us know that her aunt has fixed up the Marauder and brought it here, because of course. Lira wants to arrange for Lon to be transferred to the Marauder, and though she has a logical reason for it (taking him home personally), it’s only a setup so we know why he’s on there at the end of the book when Andi’s bleeding out and needs a universal donor.

Spoilers, I guess.

Andi’s mother, Glorya, intercepts Andi as she tries to leave her crew to their makeover montages, just so we can move into a scene where her mom is brushing her hair and babbling on about gossip and vapid high society stuff.

But Andi, of course, gets lost in a flashback that’s so amateurishly written it’s honestly embarrassing and only highlights Shinsay’s helpless reliance on flashbacks as a storytelling device.

Observe:

Her words faded away as memories took their place. Andi lost herself to them.

The whole flashback is written in italics for some inexplicable reason, even though it would’ve been fine as just regular text since we’re clearly told what’s happening now and what’s a memory.

Also, there’s one bit where the memory “fast-forwards” to a different one. Shinsay, this isn’t a fucking movie. This isn’t a screenplay. What the fuck are you DOING.

The flashback and the mother’s inane babbling are all there to illustrate how vapid and brainless Glorya is and how she only ever cared about her status and not about her kid. Glorya pretends that everything is back to the way it was but Andi curses her out for abandoning her when she needed them most and how “the way it was” was actually always shit.

I mean it’s fine. It’s all right. I see what they’re going for, it’s melodramatic as all fuck but it works for what they’re trying to do? I can see this as being a realistic way for an emotionally neglectful family to look like. I wish it was more nuanced and wasn’t just shoe-horned in here (Glorya doesn’t show up before or after this bit, this is the only time she’s ever present or even mentioned in this book in any meaningful capacity) for the sake of making Andi’s friends look better and for her to not have anything that anchors her to Arcardius, but like, I won’t say this isn’t realistic.

And then Shinsay can’t stop themselves and it’s back to silly time:

“Really, Androma...” 

[...]

“That is not my name,” Andi whispered. She allowed the darkness to come up into her voice, the mask of shadow and steel to sweep across her face. “My name is the Bloody Baroness. And if you or Commander Racella ever so much as utter a single word toward me or my crew again, I will personally strip the skin from your body and wave it like a flag from my starship.”

Glorya let out a soft squeak. Andi snarled with all of her teeth.

Guys I can’t breathe this is too fucking funny. And not in a good “woo vindication!” sort of way, but in a “they really put this right after an emotional confrontation about parental emotional neglect/abuse huh?” way. They really thought this was ... badass? Revenge? Andi, sweetie, you’re, like, traumatized? Presumably? I can’t really tell. But maybe get some therapy?

Do Shinsay think this is somehow a win and that Andi’s threat means she’s fully released from the hurt and pain her parents have caused her through their neglect? It’s honestly written as if Andi just confronted her mother and her own hopes of coming back to her family in this one short scene, and then upon realizing her parents never loved her, she scares her mom a little and then is all smug and satisfied at the end.

That ain’t how it works, darlings.

Then the annoying Marketable Space Pet runs in and starts biting Glorya’s toes and she runs away shrieking like a defeated Disney villain.

Way to undercut your own drama, Shinsay.

The chapter ends with Andi thinking about how her crew is her True Family for the bajillionth time. Because we’re all idiots and Shinsay wants us to remember that.

Chapter 77

It’s the evening of the ball and Andi thinks about how she missed Bavista, which is apparently your generic coming-of-age ball held at Arcardius for every 16-year-old. I’m guessing it’s a yearly thing? The book never clarifies. Not sure why the fuck it’s here tbh.

Actually, it’s a pretty good demonstration of how the worldbuilding in this book is presented so here, have at thee:

She could still remember seeing the otherworldly dresses and suits float by her on the feeds as she watched the girls and boys glide into the A’Vianna House in the Glass Sector. They seemed light as air, full of pride, bursting at the seams with excitement. Once inside, they would be greeted by members of the Priest Guild, who would award each young person three items.

The first was a vial of water from the Northern Ocean, symbolizing strength. For growth, they accepted a single leaf from the oldest tree on Arcardius, known as The Mother, which was said to have been planted when the Ancients first arrived. Lastly, they were given a single floating pebble, no larger than a child’s fingernail, chiseled from the very gravarock where the Cortas estate was. It represented the wisdom of rising above.

Is this relevant to anything? Does this help you understand this world or its inhabitants? Does it tell you anything of the culture of Arcardius or its youth and what’s expected of them? No? It’s just a really generic list of things thrown together using Mystical Proper Nouns as glue? Weeell heeell.

Also what does “it represented the wisdom of rising above” mean? This is utterly generic and means fuck-all, that’s what.

Anyway, Andi’s admiring herself in the mirror. Her dress is very sexy, trust me, I can’t be bothered to include it so just imagine your favorite My Immortal outfit description. It does include sword holsters at the back, which are Andi’s favorite part, because she’s a strong independent woman who don’t need no man. She never actually uses them or brings the swords to the ball so ... Idk what the point of this was.

We also get some shit about how Andi actually LOVES dresses and being pretty but she never admitted it to anyone. But don’t you worry, this badass space criminal LOVES all things girly, because that’s feminism! Can someone check in on Shinsay? I’m not sure they’re getting enough air with their heads so far up Sarah J Maas’ asshole.

Admitting to herself that she looked pretty was something Andi kept private. She didn’t want to give her crew the satisfaction of knowing her true thoughts about fashion. How even though she was a fierce, hardened criminal, she could still appreciate the joy of a beautiful, impractical ball gown.

Huh. And here I thought they were your family. That’s weird that you’d keep this information from them, especially considering all of them seemed pretty excited to be prettied up in the last chapter. I guess they’d really just haaate the idea of sharing this joy with their captain, huh? Why aren’t you admitting this to them, Andi?

You’re saying shit about how “even though” you’re a hardened criminal, you can “still” appreciate beautiful gowns, like those two are somehow contradictory. Are you, mayhaps, ashamed of having this traditionally girly interest? Hmm! Interesting. Why could that be, I wonder? Why would having traditionally feminine interests or even caring about one’s appearance be seen as something inherently shameful or embarrassing, as inherently contradictory to being fierce and “hardened?”

This is all just so *clenches fist* feminist.

Forreal though, somehow Shinsay managed to take their entire made up GALAXY and make it subtly and not-so-subtly sexist. Good job, morons. Really girlbossed that one, huh?

The only bit I like about this whole mess is this:

The dressmaker had also accented her gown with a sparkling necklace full of jewels that Andi didn’t plan on giving back.

This is the one and only space pirate-y thing Andi does -- sorry, considers doing -- in the whole book and honestly could’ve been used to build her character more, but it’s just a one-off joke here. Wasted.

Valen comes to fetch her and we get some subtle foreshadowing.

“Valen the Resurrected.”

He stopped to look at her, brows raised. “What?”

She shrugged. “It’s what the press is calling you in all the feeds.” Valen let out a deep chuckle.

[...]

“Something tells me things are about to change for the better,” he said. “I’m ready to see it all happen.”

Andi wondered what he would do now that he was home with a whole planet at his disposal.

He deserved to have some fun.

Is it bad that I’m rooting for Valen to destroy everything? And this isn’t my villain-fucker coming out, I just want this poor bastard to absolutely annihilate Andi and her gang of acolytes.

Chapter 78

Andi and Valen arrive at the ball. It’s all very pretty and space-y and aesthetic. There’s a bunch of aliens everywhere. Andi sees a woman with funky eyes and assumes it’s a body mod, because I guess she knows the genetic characteristics of every species by heart and can tell when something is real or not.

An old classmate of theirs comes up to talk to Valen and congratulate him on being alive, then Andi reminds him of who she is just to be a smug asshole and the guy fucks off in a panic. She’s just so cool and badass, you guys.

Then it’s time for Valen and Andi to dance, and of course General Cortas looks like he’s about to lose his marbles because these darn kids! >:(

The chapter ends on Andi noticing Dex pouting in the distance.

“Relax,” Andi whispered. “Let’s give them something to talk about.”

She flashed him a wicked grin as the music began.

And as Valen spun her into the first move of the dance, Andi saw Dex standing on the fringes of the crowd, an expression of longing clear on his face.

Chapter 79

This chapter is exactly 298 words of Dex moping around about how he’s actually not over Andi at all when he thought he’d done such a good job of repressing his feelings, and how he should be the one dancing with Andi instead of Valen. If you’re surprised, you’re clinically dead.

[krreader]

true damage.

pairing: jeon jeongguk x idol!reader  fandom: bts warnings: language genre: angst  word count: 1.3k+

summary: the entire world thought you and jeongguk were rivals, but you weren’t. at least you thought you weren’t. but if that’s what he wanted, then sure.. you could give him a true rival.

a/n: okay but hear me out. this is SUCH a good multi-chapter story idea that I’m truly thinking about making more out of this. I always write stories in which your group and bts are friends but like, imagine them hating each other bc of rivalry and other things. idk, let me know what you think!!!! (Y/G/N) is your group’s name. also, the rap verse at the end is from the song giants

You really didn't know what brought this on, you truly thought that you and him had hit it off at that party two months ago and that all those messages that were exchanged afterwards and all those late night calls had meant something to him like they meant something to you.

Before you got to know him, you didn’t really know what to think of Jeongguk other than that he was really talented. People often compared the two of you with each other, but even then, you didn’t think of him as a rival, not even after everything went down between one of your members and Jimin. You still didn’t hold a grudge then.

You were both the maknae's of the group, both the ones that people thought were good at everything.

Singing, dancing, rapping and everything in between.

But you never thought of it that way, otherwise you never would have approached him in the first place. And besides, this industry already was toxic enough in itself, you didn't have to put each other down behind the scenes too, that was unnecessary drama.

And Jeongguk had seemed to be on the same page. When you first talked at that party months ago, he completely agreed and said that he didn’t like this rivalry that people thought you and him had. You had laughed a lot that night and had exchanged numbers with the promise of getting to know each other better.

And you had.. everything was going great.

Yes, you had a crush on him, but you kept that to yourself. For now, he was just a friend and that was something that you cherished a lot in itself too.

Nevertheless, what you read on your phone right now made you think that maybe only one of you had thought so.

“Jeon Jungkook, South Korean singer-songwriter, band member of the famous boy band BTS spills the tea on his relationship between him and (Y/N), member of global phenomenon (Y/G/N).”

Your eyebrows furrowed as you read the title over and over again, not understanding what in the hell there was to spill.

You talked in person once, you texted each other and yes, sometimes these messages held a flirtatious undertone, but that was it.

Jeongguk was currently in the US, so this was an American article. You hoped that maybe, like they often did, just twisted his words a little. Maybe he didn't spill anything, but just mentioned your name or something..

..so you clicked on the video.

“Now, you guys might have heard that only two months ago, (Y/G/N) was sitting on that same couch.”

Bangtan all nodded and let out quiet 'Ah's', not really knowing where that interviewer wanted to go with that statement.

“Back then, (Y/N) told us about a track that she was working on, a solo track, that is dedicated to someone.. she didn't outright say it, but she made it seem like this was a song about two young people who could be more than what they are now if society just let them. And then we came across this picture,” the interviewer showed them a picture of you and Jeongguk at an award show, just.. laughing. Jeongguk immediately started chuckling, the rest of his members already making fun of him, “So could this be about you, JK?”

Namjoon quickly interpreted, a grin still on his face.

“Ah, no, no, no,” Jeongguk shook both head and hands, “We.. uh.. rivals?”

You gulped down hard when he said that.

“Yeah, I heard that! I don't think she see's it that way, though. Personally, I think she actually really likes you.”

“Ah, really?” Jeongguk chuckled once again, then scratched the back of his head, “Just rivals.”

“Not even friends?” he tried to get even just the tiniest drop of tea, but Jeongguk wouldn’t budge.

“Just rivals,” he repeated for the final time, this time, with more seriousness in his voice.

Namjoon decided to add something more to complete this topic, “KPOP has become a competitive market, you know? Even when we’re in the same industry, it’s not easy to find friends.. you never know, after all.”

He made it seem you like you were.. using Jeongguk. 

“Oh, I completely understand. You can never be too careful.”

And so they moved on.. just like that.

You slowly put down your phone on the table, upside down and just stared ahead of yourself with a slightly open mouth.

Rivals.

Not easy to find friends.

You never know.

He thought you were nothing but a rival.

So what he said then.. everything he said.. was that a lie? All the compliments he's given you? All the sweet talk? Did he even care about you in the first place, or was this just an act so you'd give him information about any upcoming music? Maybe it was the other way around, maybe he wanted to use you.

“Hey,” one of your band members entered the kitchen, “You still down to work on your solo today?”

You didn't reply right away, your nails clicking on the surface of the counter a few times, before you looked up at her, “I want to change it.”

“What?” she took a sip from her orange juice, a confused look on her face, “What’s that supposed to mean?

“Can you give me a day?”

“You.. you want to change everything?” she nearly spit everything out again, “Really?”

“Yes,” you pushed your phone towards her, “For a good reason.”

And once she watched it, she realized why you suddenly didn't want to release a song called 'Into You' anymore.

She offered to help you, like she had helped you on the previous song, but this was something you wanted to do on your own.

Like you had something to prove.

And fuck.. you really did that.

“Why are you looking at her like that?” Hoseok whispered to Jeongguk as they sat down in the arena filled with screams.

“I want to talk to her.. she's not answering any calls or messages.. I just need to know what's going on.”

“It’s probably about that interview,” Taehyung said with a sigh, “You shouldn’t have said it so harshly.”

“What was I supposed to say, hyung? That I like her too?”

“Of course not, but.. you know what I mean.”

He knew you had your solo performance today before your group would come on and you’d perform your newest song together, so he hoped he could catch you behind the stage, at least for a moment.

But who he ran into instead, was your band members.

“No,” one of them instantly said, “Everything she has to say to you, you can hear in her song.”

“What?” Jeongguk furrowed his eyebrows, “What is that supposed to mean?” Taehyung and Jimin stood behind Jeongguk and all of a sudden it felt like the two most popular groups in high school were up for a dance battle. It wasn't a nice atmosphere.

“We're 'just' rivals, Jeongguk. All of us,” she cocked her head to the side and smiled sweetly at him, “And besides, if I were you, I’d stay away from us. Who knows, maybe we just want to use all of you for clout.”

“That's what this is about?” his eyes widened, “What was I supposed to say? I was put on the spot, I couldn’t exactly tell him that I liked her, right?”

“Seriously,” Jimin interrupted, looking at your band member, “Don't be like that..”

“Oh, you don't talk to her, Park Jimin,” another band member took a step closer to him, “Not you. Not after everything you did.”

Your groups had too much history together and at this point, too much bad blood.

Maybe you all had hoped that with you and Jeongguk you could finally reconcile. All of you.

But the opposite happened.

And so Jeongguk had to watch your solo performance with a fake smile on his face in case the cameras would land on him.

And with each word that left your mouth, he knew that it was meant for him.

“What song is it?” he had chuckled over the phone, “It's about me, isn't it?”

“The title is ‘Into You’,” you had smiled, cuddling into your pillow, “I hope you'll like it.”

“It's from you. I'll love it, no matter what,” Jeongguk sighed, “I really can’t wait to hear it, (Y/N).”

“Maybe.. once I’m done with it.. we can.. I don’t know..-”

“Go out?” Jeongguk had interrupted.

“Yeah.. I’d.. love to.”

“Me too.”

Oh, how things have changed in a matter of weeks. 

“Moving too fast like I'm moving in slow-mo I'm a God better ask if you don't know Honey better put your pride aside I'm a Benz and you're more like a Volvo Your best stuff looks like my worst, synapses fire and burst Got the whole crew with me' Bout to deal damage, you know we ain't average I ain't gonna say this again But this my time better look in my eyes I'm a genius in disguise, wear my heart on my sleeve And you forced to oblige to a queen in her prime Everybody get in line, sit back, watch the stars align I finesse like my life on the line was a diamond in the rough And now I shine”