#truly the game that created the best character in all of fiction

[writesvani]

coming down — gojo satoru

collegestudent! gojo x collegestudent! reader

best friends-to-friends with benefits-to-enemies-to-enemies with benefits-to?

comment here for Coming Down taglist;

SUMMARY: You and Gojo Satoru were once everything to each other, but now, the space between you is filled with nothing but silence and resentment. College is just a reminder of how far you’ve drifted apart, and every encounter only adds fuel to the fire.

You avoid him like the plague, but it doesn’t matter. You can still feel him in the shadows, always there, always watching, as if the past was never really gone. So what do you do? You (try to) keep your distance, pretending it’s easy to forget the history that’s weighed you down for so long.

But deep down, neither of you can let go. And as the tension between you grows, you’re forced to confront the truth: some things are never truly buried, no matter how hard you try.

TWs: underage use of marijuana and cigars, underage drinking, use of illegal substances, anorexia and obsessive dieting, calorie deficit, mentions of self-destructive behavior, smut in later chapters, angst, emotional manipulation and trauma, toxic friendship dynamics, self-esteem issues and body image, unresolved romantic tension, past betrayal and unrequited love, sexual harassment (implied in some interactions), foul language and explicit content, toxic romantic relationships and behavior, references to manipulation and control in relationships, most characters are morally gray, flawed, and engage in problematic behavior, complex, imperfect characters who make questionable decisions, characters often act in ways that challenge traditional moral boundaries and ethics.

THESE CHARACTERS ARE NOT MEANT TO BE PERFECT AND IDOLIZED.

word count: 45,3k & more coming soon!

chapter index:

– teaser; wicked games

– chapter one; the morning

– chapter two; kissland

– chapter three; twenty eight

– chapter four: in the night

– chapter five: house of balloons

– chapter six: the knowing

– chapter seven: love in the sky

& more coming soon!

drabbles + extras:

read my character introduction HERE

meeting yumi (pending...)

why isn’t this stupid lighter working (pending...)

sangria and grindr (pending...)

& more coming soon

all drabbles can be read independently — they won’t change the story of Coming Down and don’t contain any spoilers. they’re simply here to help me push through writer's block. however, i recommend reading the chapters of season one in chronological order to avoid confusion and to fully immerse yourself in the flow of the story.

DISCLAIMER:

I do not own Gojo Satoru, Geto Suguru, or any other characters from Jujutsu Kaisen. They belong to Gege Akutami and the creators of Jujutsu Kaisen. In this fanfic, I simply use these characters as actors or faces for my own original characters. The personalities, actions, and events involving these characters in this story are not intended to be a realistic representation of their canon counterparts. This is a work of fiction, and any resemblance to the actual Jujutsu Kaisen series is purely coincidental.

all works published here are created by me (@writesvani on tumblr). i own all rights to my original works, including any written content, original characters, and plotlines. copying, redistributing, translating, or posting my works on any other social media without my explicit permission is strictly prohibited. all rights reserved.

[myfictionaldreams]

~ Mafia!Stucky Mastlist⍟✪ 📚~

Hello lovely, I hope you’re having a great day. I thought it was about time I made a list dedicated to my favourite boys, so welcome to my Mafia!Stucky masterlit!I love to write in my spare time, and the fiction I create is for 18+ readers ONLY. Also, everything is character x fem!reader, and please, read the tags carefully before continuing.

Masterlists ♥ A03 ♥ Tags  ♥ Question? ♥ latest works ♥

you're mine (smut, angst, dark)

Steve loves showing off what’s his, you. What does eh do when he sees someone staring at what is his?

i need more (fluff, smut)

You’d been off all day and it hadn’t gone unnoticed by Steve. He’d do anything to make you feel better so when you started begging him to help you have some release, he didn’t hold back.

ruined orgasm - kinktober (smut)

He had given you one rule: do not interrupt the meeting. So, of course you had to walk straight into the meeting that had all of America’s most noterious gangsters

steve's birthday wish (P.1) (fluff, smut, angst)

It was approaching Steve’s birthday and you had no idea what to get him. Bucky suggests just asking the Mafia boss what he would like, but would you regret your decision when you hear what Steve truly wants.

When Two Become Three (P.2) (fluff, smut)

It has been a few weeks since Steve sat back and watched your be pleasured by his best friend Bucky, and you couldn’t stop thinking about it. Especially, the part where Steve confessed his fantasy to have a threesome, but would you ever agree to it?

one more meeting (fluff, smut, angst, dark)

For all of the years that you had known Steve and Bucky, you had never seen them lose control of their anger. All of the murder and violence always being calculated, calm, and dangerous. But today, that all changed and for the first time in years, you were truly scared of the boys you loved.

repeat after me(fluff, smut, angst)

It wasn’t often that you had to attend a party with your boyfriends but today, you found yourself at one, filling you with anxiety and dread. How will the boys react when they find you close to a panic attack and starting to doubt their love for you?

how many?(fluff, smut)

Steve had finally found time to take you and Bucky on holiday. What he doesn’t tell you however is that today, he wanted to see just how many times he and Bucky could get you to orgasm.

i can’t lose you (fluff, smut, angst, dark)

Being the girlfriend of the Mafia leader and his second in command had its dangers but for years, you'd never had to experience this. Until now. How will the boys react when you're put in danger?

no touching (fluff, smut, angst)

You blatantly ignored their instructions and now you had to suffer the repercussions for your actions.

i don’t care (fluff, smut)  

'The reader having a menstrual cycle, this one just a little worse than others, and Steve and Bucky worrying and helping her through it.'

the one weakness (fluff, smut, angst) 

It wasn't often you were by yourself so when you quickly go to the coffee shop, what happens when the enemy is watching and waiting nearby.

overwhelming (fluff)

It had been your birthday a few days ago and both Steve and Bucky had made it their mission to give you the most lavish party followed by intense, long nighttime activities. However as you lay in bed on Monday morning, something just didn't feel quite right.

the fun game  (fluff, smut)

Steve and Bucky had forgotten about your date, leaving you waiting for two hours in the restaurant. How will they react when you decide to play your own little game as payback and, how far can you go before they finally snap?

harder, please  (fluff, smut, angst)

Your mind was clouded with lust and pleasure, as you begged repeatedly for more from Bucky but, what happens when you get hurt in the process?

protect and forget  (fluff, smut, angst) 

Life as the girlfriend of the Mafia boss and his second-in-command was not always smooth sailing, everything did not always go to plan. Two weeks before your birthday, a threat was made to your life. What happens when Steve and Bucky begin to push you away as they search for the threat?

All Eyes On You  (smut)  

“Do you know what we would have done if we had turned up to that restaurant and seen you all dolled up like that? We would have bent you over the table in front of everyone and shown them exactly who you belonged to". - Steve Rogers

you belong to me  (fluff, smut, angst)

These girls knew you were dating Steve and Bucky, so why is it that they thought it was ok to have their hands all over them?

dont fall asleep  (fluff, smut, angst)

It was supposed to be a normal day, but not in fate's eyes as you and Sam are hit by a drunk driver. How will Steve and Bucky react when they hear their girls been hurt?

rule number one.  (fluff, smut, angst)

It was Bucky's birthday but even a surprise party won't stop Steve and Bucky from punishing you for not looking after yourself.

Last Hope (CH. 1) (CH. 2)  (fluff, smut, angst, dark)

Before dating Steve and Bucky, your life felt like a steel cage that you couldn't escape from because of your family business. There was no happiness or hope but, what happens when the infamously heartless mafia leader, Steve Rogers, finds you alone?

our little bean  (fluff, angst)    

You stared unblinking at the Doctor who had just told you the news you couldn't quite comprehend. You were on birth control, so why is the test in his hands saying that you're pregnant?  Accidents happened but is this a happy one? (Yes it is).

the limit  (fluff, smut, angst)

Everyone has a limit, this includes Steve and Bucky. What happens in different situations where each of you felt compelled to use your safewords?

sick day (fluff)

Bucky had warned you that dancing in that rain without a coat would lead you to be ill, maybe you should have listened more to his warning.

accident’s happen (fluff, smut, angst) 

You were visiting a friend when you were accidentally hit in the face, leaving behind a cut across your cheekbone. How will Steve and Bucky react when they see their girl injured?

everyone is breakable  (fluff, smut, angst)

Steve and Bucky were invincible in your eyes. They'd never been injured or in a situation where you thought they weren't the ones in control. That is until one day Bucky doesn't return from meeting with a client.

winter soup  (fluff, smut, angst)

There was no better feeling than a bowl of hot soup when you're feeling unwell and, what's even better is when it's delivered to your door every day by your new guard. It tasted amazing and you could always trust everyone in the Mafia... right?

something new   (smut)

The mafia leader was known to be possessive and enjoy showing off his girl but what happens when he wants to do this by being intimate in front of his gang?

pegging - kinktober  (smut)

Steve had once instructed bucky how to pleasure you but what happens when you’re the one being given the instructions?

cockwarming - kinktober (smut)

You’re feeling needy and restless so Steve offers you something to suck on, much to Bucky’s amusement.

double penetration in one hole - kinktober  (smut)

You were adament to prove Steve wrong and do something you’ve never done before.

fear play - kinktober (smut, dark)

You woke up to darkness, your phone was missing and, all you could was silence echoing around the house but, you knew you weren’t alone.

role reversal - kinktober  (smut)

For once, you were the one shouting at the enemy, demanding that they leave your office. Steve and Bucky were in awe so you tried to keep up this confidence and burn off some energy with them.

Duke, Duchess and Knights  (fluff, angst)

You get so lost in the fantasy dream that when it turns into a nightmare, you're not sure what reality is when you wake up screaming.

Merry Christmas (fluff, smut)

It was a simple question: Have you been naughty or nice this year?

Safety Measures (Angst, Smut, Fluff)

It was the anniversary of Steve and Bucky saving you from your sadistic brother. Usually, it was a time of celebration for you, but this year, you couldn't help but feel paranoid and unsafe.

edge of glory (Angst, Smut, Fluff)

Defiance is something you are not accustomed to, but when the love of your life is in danger, there is no stopping you. Now, the repercussions of your actions have you contemplating the decisions that you've made.

seven (Angst!, Smut, Fluff)

One week is all it takes for your world to come crashing down. Even though you could have everything you'd ever wanted, for some reason, something isn't right. Will your emotions and the smothering of overprotective Stucky come to an end?

Drabbles

The first to give their jacket when reader is cold

Mad & Sad moments

Saying the wrong thing

TikTok trend: no kissing

Who is more protective?

safe space in your new home

Halloween Costumes

[epicness1000]

Why Sephiroth was Never a Good Person or a Hero

I think it's one thing to recognise the fact that he is a tragic character and, before Nibelheim, was as 'nice' as he could've turned out considering his circumstances (especially when compared to someone with a similar background like Homelander). But it's a whole other topic when I see people referring to him as an actively good person, let alone a hero.

Remember- he was a WEAPON. Yes, he looked out for his comrades, yes, he absolutely has a lot of vulnerable layers to him and was a victim of Shinra groomed into becoming what he did. But he's also someone who was killing innocent people long before Nibelheim, even a key player in genocide (Rhadore) and colonialism (Wutai). He killed children without mercy, because that was what he had been trained to do. I think part of the tragedy is that Sephiroth never had the chance to be a good person- the potential was there, that's without a doubt, but he never actually was one.

He's effectively a biological weapon raised by and leashed to Shinra. He never really had a choice in what he was going to be. Regardless, no truly good person kills innocent people, or takes part in fucking GENOCIDE- I think that is a very basic thing we can all agree on. Especially since he wasn't killing for some greater good, or even because he was convinced Shinra was right- it was simply because that was how he was raised.

I consider this one of my pet peeves because it almost feels like a woobification of the character. The tragedy of Sephiroth is NOT that he was a real hero who fell from grace, it's that he was never given a chance to be anything more than a killing machine or a tool for Shinra. It's just that, instead of killing the innocents that Shinra orders him to attack, Sephiroth has grown more obedient to his rage than the company that created him. The 'personality shift' in Nibelheim was not a shift at all. He was simply doing what he'd been raised to do, because how else was a living weapon like him going to express his rage if not acting like a living weapon?

Note 1: And no, 'he was just following orders' is not an excuse, just an explanation. Nor does it suddenly turn him into a good person. Vash the Stampede is one of the best examples of a fictional character that tries to encompass what it means to be good imo, someone who refrains from taking life wherever possible. Sephiroth was raised to take it and never managed to overcome or defy that.

Note 2: The devs trying to argue that the 'white feathers represent Sephiroth's purity' in the First Soldier is also incredibly tone-deaf, considering that he's about to be unleashed upon people defending their homeland and that his innocence was taken long before Rhadore. I'd argue it would've been whenever Shinra decided to train him into a living weapon, not when they're already releasing him to effectively commit a genocide and have already mentally prepared him to do so without hesitation. The devs have consistently made so many tone-deaf statements and decisions throughout the compilation (like Barret, THE FUCKING ENVIRONMENTALIST OF THE GROUP, starts encouraging oil use? IN THE GAME THAT'S A FUCKING ALLEGORY FOR ENVIRONMENTAL DESTRUCTION AND NON-RENEWABLE RESOURCES????) that it's convinced me that OG FF7 was only as good as it was by complete accident.

[katyspersonal]

Bloodborne anniversary today!!!

Well... what is this game for me? Too many things, actually. By far, it was my best videogame experience and my worst fandom experience, yet nonetheless I would not have had it any other way.

Bloodborne taught me to analyse and interpret fiction sooooo much better than I used to and Bloodborne was my first genuinely hard videogame that got me to give effort and adapt. My art changed a lot too just for the sake of drawing more accurate Bloodborne fanarts, and I find twisted enjoyment in this perfectionism and obsession with the details. Loredigging for Bloodborne was straight up brain-altering experience for me and I remember feeling my brain stretch and twist into a pretzel in the first big mystery for me (Fauxefka's situation)- yet, I am SO happy that this game taught me to properly utilise my autism. After four years I've figured just the right harmony between interpretation and scavenging for any fundament in canon. Not to mention how many emotions and creative motivation it gave to me, or how it gave me the first character I could truly spiritually relate to - something no other game or show could do!

Adeline and Rom were the most special for me, after all, they resonated with me like no other characters! Now, my focus is spread thin not only through all Bloodborne characters, but through all Soulsborne characters! But I still consider stuff like this the best thing I've created here. I've always had merely a hint of spiritual connection to the water and nightmares, but in Bloodborne I was able to make sense of it all. This game returned me my meaningful dreams (as in, the thing you see when you sleep lol). Dreams and nightmares both. For the first time, at least something made sense, and all I needed was to look through the prism of the right setting and characters.

At the same time, if Bloodborne itself altered my mind, fandom altered my heart. I've made a lot of sense of my dreams and feelings, but also a lot of sense of nature of humanity in general. When I first set foot into this fandom, it was fine, save for some extremely toxic Gehrman and Gehrmaria haters who felt personally attacked by facts, yet fandom rotted fundamentally before my very eyes. Not only way too many people for my liking here developed a weird kind of vitriol for loredigging and understanding of the source material, not accepting creative liberties but insisting on them. But also the fandom in general devolved into a bad place where there will be an "elite" determining who gets shunned through passive aggression and strings pulled from their dumb Discord servers and who gets praised and promoted. No matter how many of them leave, the attitude itself for sure left "successors", and I've seen way too many people 'fall out' of fandom due to failing to get on the good side of that "elite". "Cool guys" do not have your best interests in mind and will attempt to suffocate even new blogs with passive aggression, but the more people I saw waddling away from the fandom confused and heartbroken, the more my determination to just keep doing what I like grew.

No one should ever have this amount of creative and interaction control, I loathe people who do this and their fully complicit sheep who can't and won't think for themselves. Never will I hold back my cynicism even for the sake of the "few good ones", never will I cope by making up excuses for people who tolerate if not perpetuate it, and never will my hatred wane. At the same time, deep down I hold gratitude, because the knowledge I've obtained is way too precious. Besides, corrupt fandom shown me that I truly love Bloodborne, because true measure of love is adversity. Absolutely everyone is able to enjoy something when they have nothing but good experiences in their community, but if you enjoy something through reasons to loathe the community piling up... you KNOW you enjoy it. Remember to not clout-chase and to not get caught into social games, guys; none of this is worth as much as finding your true calling with characters, headcanons and fanart.

Years ago I still was not broke, and it feels like such a distant memory now... Yet, I bought PS4 just for Bloodborne, and I have no regrets. I've heard, however, that a progress was made in regards to placing it on PC via emulator or something alike? I sure hope more people will get to actually experience this game, its world is incredibly fun and worthy to immerse into.

[jennysparksandtheauthority]

The fallacy of realism in Life is Strange Double Exposure. Another more or less analytic rant :)

Okay. I lied. This is the real LAST commentary about Deck Nine's fiasco. Or maybe not.

ANYWAY. I'm reading a lot of discourse of how it's realistic that Max and Chloe would break up.

Even the devs have been on Twitter saying the most basic stuff you've heard a thousand times before:

As someone who’s been in a loving, committed relationship for more than a decade (and we met in our early 20s), that shit MAKES NO SENSE FOR PRICEFIELD. Move forward? Yes. Absolutely. But you can move forward with another person. Moving forward doesn't have to mean leaving your partner behind, and certainly not for these two.

Max and Chloe didn’t create a “trauma bond”. People seem to forget they were childhood best friends. They went through trauma together. There’s a difference.

Each time my wife and I went through devastating shit (cause life is a bitch sometimes), I leaned on her, we carried each other. We went through rough days, of course, we fought sometimes, but we grew together. I fell more in love with her seeing her taking decisions, reacting to me, dealing with her own shit, taking care of me when I didn’t have the energy to take care of myself as I would take care of her when the roles were reversed.

Sure, some relationships don’t survive when they go through bad times.

But Max and Chloe? These two literary broke space and time for each other.

Characters have to be profoundly CHANGED at the end of stories for them to be meaningful, for stories to move us. This has been established since we began to tell stories around campfires thousands of years ago. It's been engraved in conventional storytelling even way before Aristotle gave it a name in his Poetics.

At the end of the BAE romantic path, Chloe was ready to die for Max, and for a whole town of people who mostly despised her. She had changed profoundly. She had understood the meaning of love and loyalty and devotion, because Max showed her.

Max was ready to face the consequences of choosing Chloe. She had changed too. She had understood that loving Chloe made her better, braver, determined, that the past was in the past and that she couldn’t keep rewinding. That she had to accept herself, fight back, take ownership of her destiny.

When they left Arcadia Bay they were both devastated, but ready to fight for each other and move on. The Chloe that gave Max that reassuring touch and that loving look at the end of the game would NEVER, under no circumstances, break up with Max by letter saying all kinds of mean shit. This destroys both their characters' arcs from LIS1. It's an unsuccessful, poorly camouflaged reboot.

Maybe if the break up was presented differently it wouldn’t have enraged so many people. Maybe. We’ll never know. I’d still argue that having a path where Chloe is dead, the decision to break them up was absolutely unnecessary. But to have made that decision, and to justify the OOC behavior and the outcome of their relationship by saying “it’s realistic” (some people have taken the devs' discourse to heart) is just ridiculous and dissapointing, and just straight out unprofessional. This kind of revisionism and lack of understanding of the themes and motivations of the first game is truly baffling, so much so it’s hard for me to believe how NO ONE at Deck Nine or Square Enix with some level of responsibility and proper education in media stopped the madness.

Writers choose what to include in a story, meaning they bear responsibility for the narrative choices they make, regardless of whether those choices are realistic. Fiction is an inherently constructed art form. Authors decide what to include, exclude, emphasize, or downplay. Using “realism” as a justification can be seen as a way to avoid responsibility for narrative decisions, especially when those decisions are unpopular or ethically troubling.

This is writing 101, and I can’t believe a supposedly professional game dev studio is acting like children writing their first fics on Wattpad and falling into the realistic fallacy.

In “The Decay of Lying,” Oscar Wilde famously argued that “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life,” suggesting that art should not be constrained by realism. Another example is the philosopher and literary critic Roland Barthes, who in “The Death of the Author,” argued that the meaning of a text is not determined solely by the author’s intentions, thus challenging the notion that invoking realism absolves a writer of their choices.

They CHOSE to break them up.

They chose to villainize Chloe, the canonically queer, fan-favorite character that was at the heart of the story along with Max. Together.

Crying realism doesn’t make it any less senseless, knowing damn well they knew how it would affect people.

So, Deck Nine, Square Enix: please take some fucking responsibility.

BONUS (Michel Koch ❤️):

[tagamantra]

thinking about world-first design

My last three games were more or less centered on the character, and consequently the player. I think this is a completely valid way of playing, but having done three kinds of games that had this, I wanted to branch out into a world-first style of design.

World-first design are the ones I associate with the stylings of mostly OSR: where the gameworld and the modules and the adventures and the equipment, the counting of ammo, of resources, are all more important than creating a character in such a way to fulfill a particular fantasy or character concept.

I call this world-first rather than character-first because it puts into primacy the very world and fiction that the players must interact with rather than the player characters being only focus of such games. In the same way that character-first design (WotC D&D, Exalted, Lancer) doesn't inherently preclude an overwhelming focus on a world's lore and vibe, world-first design doesn't inherently preclude a focus on character building or a certain primacy of the player characters over NPCs. In World-First design, to be someone of note is to have played the game and interacted with the world long enough. However, a caveat of this world-first design is that it's very easy to die, to be extinguished (it is important, in a way, in World-First design to showcase the strength of the world and how it doesn't bend to the whims of a player).

The difference of course, is how the mechanics are mostly written and presented. In World-First design, there's not much use for metacurrencies that imply that the PCs are inherently different or privileged over other player characters. World-First PCs gain privilege from things within the gameworld. While diegesis is of value, it is not the be all end all, as long as the game focuses on mechanics of the world rather than of the player. Frex: ROMANCE OF THE LOTUS THRONE has a (very rare, D&D 4e Action Point-esque) reroll system known as DETERMINATION. However Determination is a very real thing in the game, and can be gained from succeeding in particular tasks, or interacting with community and finding some form of purpose. Its sublimated form of willpower. Its also a bit of an Undertale reference. The difference then is that Determination is not meta-currency: it's in-world currency. There's no Determination stat in the character sheet: it instead fills up an inventory slot. It's a mechanic of the world and not of the player. It's simulationism without the tax forms (rules-lite, fiction-first simulationism is a topic for another post).

When I play or run RPGs, my personal preference has always been that of immersionism. The deeper you sink into a world's physics, a world's customs, the more the Other becomes the Self is a point of great joy for me: whether that be the chilling borderlands of SYMBAROUM, the intricate Underworld of VAMPIRE, the ineffable Space Opera of FADING SUNS, or the crimson-gold otherworld of ARTESIA. World-First can be a genre emulation philosophy (frex, if your world is meant to emulate a genre, a la Exalted's Creation) but I believe that Genre Emulation is not the be-all end-all of Role-Playing Games, as some would think it to be. Mechanics aren't automatically good just because it hearkens to a particular genre, a la PbtA. I think mechanics are good when they accomplish the Design Goal of the game. And sometimes Design Goals are to simulate or fabricate an otherworld and transport you there. I think that goal is one of the more difficult ones to truly achieve, so any that attempt it to this day I hold in respect, even if they end up being rules-heavy simulation-esque attempts. I believe that World-First games are like, the immersive sims of TTRPGs (in the sense that they take some getting used to but create for some of the best emergent gameplay moments, as well as potent immersion of a world).

In ROMANCE OF THE LOTUS THRONE, I’ve managed to do a bit of a mixing. Inspired by the likes of Dark Souls and Elden Ring, where the world is important, but its the character builds that make or break a game, I’ve made the characters dependent on the world. This means you more or less start a game with a blank slate of a character, or someone with the bare minimum of detail. Then, as you play, you learn and gain abilities from milieu of the world, gaining items and powers and magicks from playing the game, rather than from a Class Table. In a way, this is also an inherent forcing of diegesis in the game, and diegesis is one of my favorite concepts in all game design, across all mediums.

This does (somewhat) assume that the characters you’re playing are either amnesiac, young, or people that have not really accrued anything over the years. This is just as well: I believe that you can gain world-changing skills and capabilities even at 60 or 70 or beyond. However, if you want to build a character already seasoned, that’s easy enough to do: simply give them a number of starting equipment and Arts.

All of this lends itself to the ROMANCE's Buddhist bent, especially concerning the ideal of Anatta or Non-Self. Metaphysically, there is no self, all individuation arises from a nigh infinite set of other factors that eventually form the character. This enlightenment is inevitable for PCs that live long enough in Romance: a character eventually becomes a master of anything, removing the individuation of specialization as they inch their Cultivation closer to Awakening. To gnosis. To bodhi.

At the end of it, world-first design kind of asks the players to interact with the game not from their own biases but on the game's own terms. For the longest time this has been a no problem: the biggest world-first games are OSR after all, and they carry the baggage of D&D. However, for games that need and deserve worlds to be taken on their foundation and not the player's, both a World First design approach as well as a World First player mentality could provide a different, maybe even enriching experience that most character-first games would not deliver in the same way (character first games deliver a different, honestly more marketable niche in the realms of OC gaming and Power Fantasy).

[tangibletechnomancy]

The AI Boom and the Mechanical Turk

A hidden, overworked man operating a painting, chess-playing robot, generated with the model Dreamlike Diffusion on Simple Stable, ~4 hours Created under the Code of Ethics of Are We Art Yet?

In 1770, an inventor named Wolfgang von Kempelen created a machine that astounded the world, a device that prompted all new understanding of what human engineering could produce: the Automaton Chess Player, also known as the Mechanical Turk. Not only could it play a strong game of chess against a human opponent, playing against and defeating many challengers including statesmen such as Benjamin Franklin and Napoleon Bonaparte, it could also complete a knight's tour, a puzzle where one must use a knight to visit each square on the board exactly once. It was a marvel of mechanical engineering, able to not only choose its moves, but move the pieces itself with its mechanical hands.

It was also a giant hoax.

What it was: genuinely a marvel of mechanical engineering, an impressively designed puppet that was able to manipulate pieces on a chessboard.

What it wasn't: an automaton of any kind, let alone one that could understand chess well enough to play at a human grandmaster's level. Instead, the puppet was manipulated by a human chess grandmaster hidden inside the stage setup.

So, here and now, in 2023, we have writers and actors on a drawn-out and much needed strike, in part because production companies are trying to "replace their labor with AI".

How is this relevant to the Mechanical Turk, you ask?

Because just like back then, what's being proposed is, at best, a massive exaggeration of how the proposed labor shift could feasibly work. Just as we had the technology then to create an elaborate puppet to move chess pieces, but not to make it choose its moves for itself or move autonomously, we have the technology now to help people flesh out their ideas faster than ever before, using different skill sets - but we DON'T have the ability to make the basic idea generation, the coherent outlining, nor the editing nearly as autonomous as the companies promising this future claim.

What AI models can do: Various things from expanding upon ideas given to them using various mathematical parameters and descriptions, keywords, and/or guide images of various kinds, to operating semi-autonomously as fictional characters, when properly directed and maintained (e.g., Neuro-sama).

What they can't do: Conceive an entire coherent movie or TV show and write a passable script - let alone scripts for an entire show - from start to finish without human involvement, generate images with a true complete lack of human involvement, act fully autonomously as characters, or...do MOST of the things such companies are trying to attribute to "AI (+unimportant nameless human we GUESS)", for that matter.

The distinction may sound small, but it is a critical one: the point behind this modern Mechanical Turk scam, after all, is that it allegedly eliminates human involvement, and thus the need to pay human employees, right...?

But it doesn't. It only enables companies to shift the labor to a hidden, even more underpaid sector, and even argue that they DESERVE to be paid so little once found out because "okay okay so it's not TOTALLY autonomous but the robot IS the one REALLY doing all the important work we swear!!"

It's all smoke and mirrors. A lie. A Mechanical Turk. Wrangling these algorithms into creating something truly professionally presentable - not just as a cash-grab gimmick that will be forgotten as soon as the novelty wears off - DOES require creativity and skill. It IS a time-consuming labor. It, like so many other uses of digital tools in creative spaces (e.g., VFX), needs to be recognized as such, for the protection of all parties involved, whether their role in the creative process is manual or tool-assisted.

So please, DO pay attention to the men behind the curtain.

[lord-arbiter]

If anyone is interested in seeing someone else's message to HYV customer service in order to use or inspire your own, here is mine:

I used parts of Anilyan's template and personalized it to me!

Upon further advice, it would be best to make messages more succinct and to the point!

Dear Genshin Impact Team,

Regarding the skin color discussion started by the reveal of Natlan characters:

We fans understand that the world of Teyvat is fictional, and that the Nations and characters are informed by different real cultures that end up being mixed to create a fictional setting. But it’s also undeniable that some Nations in the world of Genshin are primarily inspired by some cultures more than others, and that character traits tend to reflect the main countries the Nation they inhabit is based on. Nothing in this world is truly without reference and disconnected from some culture, even if it is conglomerated into a fictional setting. 

We see and appreciate all the hard work that has gone into creating and bringing to life such a robust and beautiful game. Thus, it’s a shame that all that effort is being drowned by the obvious racism and colorism reflected in the Sumeru and Natlan designs. It would make sense to have characters with significantly darker skin tones in Natlan and Sumeru, and many fans hoped for that with the new upcoming region.

It is blatant disrespect to ignore the African, SWANA, Rroma, and Indigenous cultures by stealing many aspects of these cultures, such as landscapes, names, music, clothing and fashion styles, without properly representing the skin color and ethnicities of these peoples. 

Please, significantly darken their skin tones. And please properly correct and respect the words and names of these cultures’ deities.

I have played Genshin Impact every single day since I started in version 1.1, and spent roughly thousands of dollars on characters I love and cherish, all in support of your game which brings many people happiness. Unfortunately, me and countless others are no longer willing to monetarily support and play Genshin Impact and other Hoyoverse games because of the clear lack of respect for proper representation of skin color diversity. 

Hoyoverse has proven capable of changing and adjusting their values over time - we still believe you can recognize your mistake and fix it. You are a company that heavily supports fan and fan works, and who constantly invests in things that have a positive impact in society, which is why many people like to support you, and why this is so disappointing to see.

I know myself and many others are eager to see positive changes, because the Natlan characters designs have so much potential. 

Do not let this taint your legacy. Tech otakus were supposed to change the world, remember? And perpetuating colorism is not how you should do it.

I would be immensely grateful if my feedback were forwarded to the appropriate departments- I appreciate all of the customer service workers' hard and dedicated work. 

Thank you for your time and consideration,

[kylieswift31]

The director

The same but different.

The Truman show

The underlying tension in the Truman show is caused by the director influencing Truman’s behaviour in subtle ways. The movie is split into two segments to highlight the contrast between Truman’s dreams and the director’s plans for him to create an heir for the show.

Everything from his family, coworkers, neighbours, TV shows, radio and even the weather was being controlled by the director. The only genuine interactions Truman had was with his best friend through code words and subtle hints.

According to the director he had good intentions, but he wasn’t just making decisions on Truman’s behalf. He had his own goals and millions of viewers to keep entertained.

“They see right through me. Do you see right through me?”

"You've never had a camera in my head!"

The hunger games

In contrast, the hunger games emulates this concept by depicting the severity of this imbalance of power being replicated and what happens when it’s allowed to continue. When Katniss became a tribute she had already spent years having many aspects of her life restricted.

Each of the twelve districts are heavily monitored and controlled year round, to the point where they are living in poverty. These limitations equate to them being more compliant and too defeated to fight back.

And then this creates a stark contrast to the lavish lives of the people living within the Capitol. They see the hunger games as an annual festivity to celebrate, while living in luxury. If the system changed they would lose the perks of living this kind of lifestyle.

When Katniss becomes a tribute for the second time, president Snow uses his power to influence her behaviour too. Every move she makes is being monitored. At times she’s being told what to do directly and other times she is reacting with a threat looming in the back of her mind.

All of this pressure is placed on Katniss to discourage her from being rebellious, to prevent her from fighting back. President Snow understands that if Katniss starts attacking the Capitol, the rest of the districts will follow her lead.

The turning point for Katniss comes when she realises that the hunger games doesn’t end. When she wins and goes home again she will still be a part of the system that benefits from the districts struggling. Fighting back against that was the only way she would truly be free.

Katniss may be living a completely different life with different circumstances to Truman, but the underlying tension is being created by a similar person in power. Their stories unfold as we become more aware of the consequences this imbalance of power is creating in their lives.

“When you aim at the devil make sure you don’t miss”

“Remember who the real enemy is”

Taylor Swift

When we add Taylor to the equation she falls somewhere between Katniss and Truman’s story. She is following in Truman’s footsteps with slowly unveiling her inner truth with the public, but her end goal is more like Katniss’ with changing the way things are done to benefit others.

This role of director is more akin to the influence of a parent, not a movie director. It's important to acknowledge that Taylor has autonomy and free will considering that she's not a fictional character. And for the most part she is her own director.

The director in Taylor’s life isn’t one person in particular, but made up of the collective voices of her management, family, old/new record label and the media. Their power, bias and intentions have indirectly influenced Taylor’s decisions, beliefs and plans over the years.

We've seen this with the way the industry has treated Taylor over the years. For a long time they only saw her as a child and doubted her capabilities until she proved them wrong. Luckily Liz Rose saw her talent for what it was when they worked together on the debut album.

Taylor was lauded for being the good girl, congratulated for fitting their expectations of the well behaved role model for their children. This outside pressure encouraged Taylor to conform to their standards or risk being exiled and become a disgrace in their eyes.

By the time red was released they finally saw her as a woman but their expectations changed and they were ready for Taylor to settle down and get married. This pressure to do the right thing contributed to Taylor pretending to fit into the 1950's lifestyle they demanded of her.

Meanwhile Taylor was trying to stand up for herself while being criticised for being unwilling to discuss the details of her relationships during interviews. Each time she tried to be the good girl they raised the bar and demanded more.

This created a cycle where each new version of Taylor was celebrated at first, the sparkle would begin to dim, they began to tolerate her, and finally began demanding more yet again. And just like opening a set of nesting dolls, eventually the layers run out.

Another way of looking at this concept is like peeling off layers of an onion or playing a game of pass the parcel. Each old layer becomes discarded and a new one takes it's place. From the director's point of view, they've succeeded in moulding Taylor into a palatable version, but in Taylor's experience it's like losing a piece of herself. And the closer the director gets to the innermost layer, the more that is at stake.

"Did all the extra credit, then got graded on a curve"

The same but different

I could provide endless examples to corroborate this pattern of cycles that has lead to creating and discarding the many eras of Taylor, but the point is to understand the role the director has played in perpetuating this cycle.

Truman experienced a similar pattern where he would talk about leaving town and then faced challenges designed to make him too scared to leave. But in the process he discovered how predictable this pattern is, allowing him to plan around it and eventually escape.

The challenges Katniss faced in her second round of the hunger games followed a similar pattern of predictability and as a team they eventually escaped the system that benefitted from their suffering.

Right up until the end Katniss was encouraged to remember who her real enemy was. Her final act of rebellion wasn't directed at president Snow, but towards the one who wanted to continue the system of oppression by punishing the children of the Capitol.

Truman, Katniss and Taylor have all experienced pressure to become who others wanted them to be. Truman's story ends with leaving behind the only life he had known to regain his freedom. In contrast, Katniss escaped and then had to work through dismantling the system in search of freedom.

In the end Taylor has ended up somewhere in the middle with fighting for herself and others, while at the same time forging her own path forward.

"Taking my time 'cause you took everything from me"

"I have a lot of rules placed on my life, and I just choose not to apply rules to love." -The Johnathan Ross interview

A tortured poet,

Kylie x

[pangaeaseas]

1, 8, 18 for the ask game :)

OH MY GOD THANKS FOR ACTUALLY SENDING AN ASK

First fandom I've been a part of: PJO, back in the sixth grade. there's still some PJO fics I wrote up on ffn.net but shhhh you can't find them. if I hadn't read the lightning thief for sixth grade english, fallen in love with the series, googled Percy Jackson wiki way back in the day, and gone from the Percy Jackson wiki to the Percy Jackson fanfiction wiki (a brave soldier) who knows if or when I would have found fandom??

8. Most obscure fandom: probably the Scholomance Series by Naomi Novik.

18. All time favorite fanfic....ooooh this is a rough one. difficult. probably impossible actually. in fact yeah it's impossible because there are so many possibilities of what fanfiction can be. but let me share SOME though not all (far from all) of my favorite fics of all time. (there's definitely a recency bias to these as this is mostly what i've read since getting back into HP fandom recently). And so a very very non-exhaustive list of some of my fave fanfics (this is a lot of reading material lol). I've tried to cover a lot of ground in terms of the many possibilities of what fanfic can be.

A Handful of Dust by fluorescentgrey (@yeats-infection on here). this one really pushes the boundaries of what fanfiction can be by taking characters that are referenced like once and creating a richly detailed world around them.

brilliant difficulty by @slashmarks some of the best worldbuilding i've ever seen, including in original fiction lol. historically informed AU but also excellent characterizations. essentially a reimagining of the Harry Potter series starting in GoF that has worldbuilding which actually makes sense.

The Last Enemy: The Howling Nights by @chdarling-tle a really good jily fic that does an excellent job as a prequel to the main series (again a great use of the fanfiction form).

The Changeling by @annerbhp need to reread but this is one of the all time greats. an excellent and richly characterized alternate look at the canon series. made me love Ginny forever. the sequel series called the armistice series is also truly excellent.

March Hare by @copper-dust this is much shorter than the others so a good place to start. It's a really really excellent example of one of the great uses of fanfic: missing moments that add depth to main characters. really amazing Hermione characterization.

Bellatrix Black: An Elegy by @thistlecatfics also short like the previous rec, but an example of a different kind of missing moment in that in a pretty short span it gives an immense richness and depth to characters who are pretty flat or barely present in the main canon. a masterclass in how to build 3D characters around canon details.

Heal Thyself by @astolat because it wouldn't be a 'greatest fanfiction of all time' list without them, and this is one of the great drarry fics with some amazing worldbuilding which I now can't unsee.

literally just going through my bookmarks I found a bunch of other fics that could have been included but i'm cutting myself off here because otherwise we will be here all day.

[mokkkki]

been following your works since your AJA series and love your choice of allusions, references, metaphors, similes, and motifs - your intertextuality is so layered and insane and established so right off the bat (no pun intended). how do you do it?

hey gorgeous! okay, wow, this is a very big question and i will try to do my very best to answer, though i might miss some things just because of the ginormous nature of this ask.

read. the most important thing a writer can do is read. i love fic as much as the next person, but it's important to delve into works that have been professionally published. when people say this they dont understand that reading is only the first level (and ofc, the most important level) of this step. read fiction, non-fiction, comics, or whatever you want to write one day, and after you're done with that, read things that you would never, ever write. don't stick to a genre. don't even stick to a format! go to podcasts, video games, movies. all of these are based on scripts. it is so so important to be able to recognize those universal elements of good media. there are so many components to this: reading will give you more general knowledge that might work its way into your writing one day, it allows you to meet a vast variety of povs, it develops your critical thinking skills, and ofc, it can even provide a roadmap for your later projects. writing has no rules, but if it had one, id have to say this: a good writer knows good writing, and the fastest way to that is reading a lot.

research. this ties into the fact that reading a lot will give you more general knowledge, and i think that general knowledge is an important factor in being able to write well! you asked specifically about my intertextuality, and most of my intertextuality is historical or religious in nature. i chose to intertwine my characters with historical and religious figures because i like them and the information i have built in! "research" doesn't have to be some crazy note-taking adventure (though it certainly can be if you want it to), it can quite literally be reading a wikipedia article on the toilet. some fascinating aspects of history i personally enjoy reading about is the ancient world, which ties directly into mythology, and eventually flows into abrahamic religions. religious intertextuality is so built-in and inherent, just because of its universally applicable themes (death and rebirth) that apply to every story told. i think its a great place to start if you are trying to add intertextuality to something you've written! i also recommend looking at non-western history, because it tends to be overshadowed, and there is truly so many fascinating things contained within it.

write. like. duh! and im afraid this might sound a little discouraging, but i think that if its your first time writing (and your goal is to be a good writer, rather than a cute hobby on the side), you also have to know that on some level, your first draft/project will suck compared to published novels, just a little bit. but you can't let that discourage you! you just have to keep going. its still something you've created, and even if that thing is ten pages of a bathing grandpa's stream of consciousness, it is valuable and important. i literally mean that with all my heart. i think that writing is a really tough discipline sometimes, just because it's a solitary activity where you type out what is, for all intents and purposes, an extended daydream you are having, and its for that reason that people tend to just run out of steam halfway through a project. you have to be able to motivate and push yourself. write like the wind! write poems and short stories and scripts and fanfic and novellas and epics, experiment with different styles, and above all, know that the content you are creating has value, simply because it came from you.

okay, i think that's everything! thank you so much for trusting me to answer such an important question, and if there is anything that seems unclear to you, please don't hesitate to leave another ask or even send a draft over <3 lots of love!

[randomthefox]

I haven’t watched the Sonic Movies, I’ve taken your word on them being terrible. But I still wanted to look at another review for the third instalment to see the other side of the camp and it shocked me. I watched the game apologist talk about it and his video can be summed up with “the plot was terrible, but it was worth it to get to the fan service.” It feels like I’m living in a simulation. In what universe can you call the plot of a movie bad but then still herald it as peak fiction? A good movie requires every aspect of itself to work together to make something truly great. But then people will talk about how the non Sonic characters are terrible, but brush that criticism aside as if it’s like a coast of doing business. No! You can’t say that the plot is terrible and half the characters are terrible and then turn around and say it’s the best movie ever! It is not something you have to just accept. It means the movie is bad.

The people who love these movies are insistent that nostalgia is good for its own sake and that you’re wrong for saying otherwise to ruin people’s enjoyment. No! Fuck you! If you’re so brain dead that all it takes is to see some familiar images to get you to love something, you need to be belittled and insulted until you wake the fuck up out of whatever simulation you’ve been trapped in so you can consume media that’s actually good. I don’t love Sonic because of nostalgia. I’m a relatively recent Sonic fan. I love this series because it has good gameplay and tells actually entertaining stories.

Why is it that the games get shit on but the movies get next to no scrutiny from what I’ve seen? What is the psychological reason behind this behaviour from the masses that proves that the universe isn’t just pulling a prank on me? Is the reason just that people are just following the band wagon? The only reason people say the video games are bad is because it’s such a widely accepted opinion? But the movies are new, and because there’s no hate band wagon created by a bunch of idiots, people are calling it peak fiction for capturing a mere whiff of what made the original story great?

The Sonic Double Standard. That which is bad when other franchises do it, is celebrated when Sonic does it. And that which is praised when other franchises do it, is criticized when Sonic does it.

You can tell a lot about a piece of media based on how the people who like it talk about it. Case in point, I'm watching a seven hour video about how Sonic CD is the best game ever. And while I don't agree with every word of it, particular the words which are just "look at all these OTHER Sonic games which are BAD!" the way it's talking about Sonic CD is so thoughtful analytical and enthusiastic that it's giving me a better appreciation for the game than ever before. I decided to replay Sonic CD because of this video and I feel like I was able to enjoy it more this time than I have previous times playing it because of this video.

On the other hand, watching Lowarts videos about the Archie Sonic comics made me HATE those comics more deeply and feverishly than I had ever hated them before. Listening to the way this person WHO LIKES THE COMICS AND THINKS THEY'RE GOOD talk about them, the utterly anemic praise that he offered, the completely brainless and devoid of thought analysis of the text that bordered on sheer illiteracy. The dude was literally saying "Archie Sonic is best Sonic" while having NOTHING POSITIVE or SUBSTANTIVE to say about the comic whatsoever.

You gotta see past what they're saying and look at the code of the matrix basically. And the movies are the same way. Look at the way people who like it talk about it. They spend half their time making excuses for it, and the other half going "yeah well the video games suck anyway, so we should just be happy with what we get" when you really break it down. Their argument for why we should enjoy the movies is basically that we need to have absolutely no critical standards whatsoever. What a stunning endorsement.

Not to toot my own horn, but compare and contrast against the way I talked about Elise in Sonic 2006, or Sonic Lost World, or Sonic Forces, or the Sonic Adventure games. Or Dragon Quest. Or Yu-Gi-Oh. Or any of the other shit that I really like. I like to think I'm closer on the spectrum to Sparky's World than Game Apologist, if I do speak for myself anyway.

If a fruit is ripe and delicious, then hearing someone talk about how wonderful it is to eat it will make you salivate all the more. If a fruit is rotten and moldy, then hearing someone try to convince you that you should close your eyes plug your nose and just fucking swallow it will make you resent that inedible garbage even more than ever before.

[ilkkawhat]

I can't believe it's almost been a year since AW2 was released. It really changed my life. For better or for worse? Who can say, but I've been having fun.

lol it's so surreal to me that it's been less than a year that I bought and played Alan Wake 2 (one month past release, in November) purely on a whim because I saw people on the silent hill subreddit talking about it and someone even made a meme about "friendship ended with silent hill now alan wake is my new best friend" and I kid you not within just a few days my life just...changed entirely.

I have a lot of depression and anxiety and somewhere in 2023 things just...went wrong and I stopped creating. stopped giffing, never thought I'd write again and drawing lmao forget it, that shit's been hard for me to do ever since a very discouraging experience back when I was maybe like, 11 or 12. stopped going on tumblr, had given up on discord a long time before then and became a miserable ghost doing nothing but burying myself in work in what i will admit is a toxic, overwhelming and stressful environment. I still played games, still watched shows but nothing was like. Sticking with me, I guess? Not like to obsession levels and minus some good vacations I was just...empty.

And playing Alan Wake 2 for the first time was a legit terrifying experience for me--not on the levels of the first time I played Silent Hill 2 maybe (legit locked myself in my room and put on my lamp in the middle of the day cause of the sound of footsteps behind me in that game lol and my dishwasher at the time sounded like that one chugging sound in the apartments) but the dread I was feeling as I got legitimately lost in the woods of Cauldron Lake and turned around in Coffee World (having basically explored it all before triggering the parts where the enemies spawn in) and the basement of Valhalla Nursing Home was thrilling and I was excited to be playing something that was so disturbing and mind bending and emotional, too. Not even knowing the story of Alan and Alice, my heart broke during Alice's final tape. Not knowing Alan's character outside of what I saw in the second game, his "fuck it" moment where he went back into the Dark Place felt so heroic. I felt an odd sense of nostalgia watching the Koskela brothers commercials, like I had known them my whole life. Alex Casey (both the FBI agent and fictional detective) is my favorite kind of wise-cracking guy who has a heart of gold, the old guy who I wish could be my dad. Tom Zane was that mysterious wild card that you know under the surface has something sinister, unsettling esp with his manipulation of Alan but is just so fascinating to watch. Of course I saw so much of my obsessive self in Rose with her shrine for Alan. Saga's time in the dark place felt so real to me, I cried and still cry every time I read that note from her mom at that part of the game (I know you can read it sooner but it packs a bigger punch with Saga's fight to get out of her own mind.) All of the characters quickly stole my heart and ran with it and maybe it was over a few days, maybe it was all at once the floodgates just...opened within me.

I started writing again. First with a character that I never thought I'd write for again because at the time, even just thinking about him legit hurt me. Then I started scheming up fics for Alan. Then I started giffing even from self-captured gameplay footage that I don't think I've ever done before. Then I started drawing in my Alan Wake journal--a journal which, I had not done since the peak of my CSI obsession during my teenage years and even then it wasn't to the extent of what that journal is now (which admittedly, has not been filled out in quite a number of weeks and maybe that's partially cause I tend to journalize myself on here too) And then one day I couldn't contain it anymore. I started sharing again. I don't talk to anybody really like, ever outside of these asks and occasional replies but I truly never thought I'd be part of a fandom again. I worried I'd fuck it all up again (still worry about that) for myself, or others. Or both. But all the kind messages, the kind tags, the awesome people I've started following because of Alan Wake, I wouldn't give any of that up.

And of course things branched off, crushing so hard on him I got obsessed with Ilkka. I played some of Remedy's other games (still working my way through Max Payne 2 and Quantum Break very very slowly) and went back to the first Alan Wake, of course which if I had known about earlier or had an Xbox I'm sure I would have loved it back then as much as I do now. Hell I even platinumed that and Alan Wake 2 and as someone who is notorious for not finishing games other than like. The Legend of Zelda series and playing some other endless games...think it says something that I've managed to beat and complete (I always do the rhymes, stashes, lunch boxes, every playthrough) Alan Wake 2 almost 10 times now.

I was happy. I'm still, for the most part when I'm not at work, happy. Call it what you want, a delusion brought on by a distraction of obsession, a dangerous escape threatening the part of me that is still rooted in reality in the way that like, what if I become too crazy about it where it blinds me to certain things or experiences or chases people away from me because I'm too weird about it (a very real thing that has happened before)

But damn with all of that...I'm having fun with it too.

[mweothe11e]

Hello love!!🥰 How are you? Hope this last month of the year 2024 going well for you¡ I'm here to participate in your Cocoon game🦋

My initial are R.J🧚‍♀️ (she/her) Libra moon!

Favorite song that inspires you to make scenarios in your head

A whole new world from Aladdin. I love this song so much<3 the melody and lyrics are just so beautiful, when this song start play I just create scenario where I'm flying in the sky high. free from the world and seeing all start above the sky and deep ocean blue below! Makes my heart flutter lol.

Favorite Movie because you can never get over the plot.

I don't think so I have any favourite movie cause my choices for films always changed by time. But still I like titanic for her romance and unconditional love and Disney's moana for her creative and self realization story. For me moana is the one of those princesses of destiny who doesn't need anyone's help to find her way regardless of her ancestors and her own intuition. It may not what you expecting for a fav movie but it is what it is:)

Favorite fictional character with (in your opinion) the best character development arc.

Again my fav fictional character is moana! I just see myself in her each time I watched the movie. How she find her way, she listened to her true heart calling when it's feels like a delusion, she doesn't even know that there is Te-fiti who needs her help to find her true self ( As we know te-fiti is the Teka)! She doesn't even realise who she is but also help Maui and te-fiti too. I have alot of reasons to say that she is the best fictional character for me🌀 I'm going to explain much otherwise it's too much for you to read😅

Thankyou Elle✨ if you choose to answer me!

Have a good week ahead!🕊

(reminder: this is for entertainment purposes only) Hi R. J.,

Thank you so much for participating in

my "COCOON" ask game.

I love how your song is "A Whole New World" and your gif is Moana~

Definitely, there's just something about Titanic and Moana that just makes these movies iconic in their own right~

Yes, Moana's character development is as astounding as it is uniquely and thought-provoking~ I remember watching it for the first time and it had me literally stunned in my seat when it reached the plot twist in the movie.

The cards I pulled for you are:

King of Cups, Tower, 3 of Wands

Based on the first card, it would seem as though you are called to minimize this over-extension of your loving and wise nature. It's like you have the tendency to over-give to those who take advantage of your kindness and generosity.

There's nothing wrong with wanting to help others out, it's the tendency of being so available and eager to help/save that you need to avoid, so as to prevent burn outs and crash outs.

It's like you're so loving and caring for others that you have the tendency to forget that you have limits too.

So with the first card, you are advised to ensure your needs are met before you start thinking of being there for others. You are free to help out whenever you can, but you are called to put yourself first above all else.

Never forget, you can't pour out of an empty cup.

The second card suggests that you are encouraged to let go of traumas that bound you to keep mentally reliving the past. I am aware that this specific card is asking quite a lot from you, as it is way easier said than done. So with this, take your time and pace yourself as this specific encouragement may take more than a year to truly resolve and sustainably establish in your daily life.

Practical suggestions are therapy, EMDR, Somatic Healing and exercises, etc. Basically, with this portion, do your research and implement this self-care in your daily habits, in your own pace.

I would like to remind you that you don't owe anyone any kind of explanation about the things you need to do, in order to healthily show up for your own well-being. You may inform others, but by no means, is it an obligation or requirement to do so.

So, be selective of who you confide to in this manner. And never forget that you deserve all that is good that you desire and work hard in life for. You don't have to feel guilty for wanting more out of life. You owe to yourself to live life the way you truly want to experience it. And that you are a human BEING, not a human DOING. So never forget that, you are not just someone's kid, sibling, friend, or coworker. You are your own person and you deserve happiness because you exist.

The last card suggests that you are called to let go of obsessing over the future, as you are encouraged to be present and live in the now.

It would seem that either you're too burdened by your past mistakes or you're plagued by the what-ifs of the future. You hyper-fixate on two time periods when one has already long passed where as the other is yet to unfold.

Living in this approach will likely result in you not being fully aware of the present. Living this way might likely make you feel like your time is running out. Your tendency to obsess over things beyond your control will leave you feeling disconnected from those around you. Like either time has slipped through your fingertips or time is too short. Either way, this way of life will make you overthink and unintentionally dismiss the value of the time you currently exist in.

This concept might elude you so let me give you a question, though this might start sounding lowkey morbid.

Ask yourself:

If you were on your deathbed right now, what would be your biggest regrets in life?

List them all down. Don't rush through this exercise. Answering this rather morbid question can serve as an eye-opener to hopefully aid you to live a more fulfilling life.

Basically, this overall reading suggests that you do your best to mindful and be present in the moment. Incorporating habits and practices related to these will help you welcome the new chapters in your life by 2025.

Channeled song for you is:

12th random shuffle from my dice throw

Last Intuitive Message to end this reading:

I find it really unusual that this song came to your reading because this song is so fun and free and goes with the flow. Then I gave it another listen and it made me realize, the singers convey an emotion about enjoying someone's presence by being in the moment.

Which now makes more sense why this song showed up in your reading. Because this is a potential future for you. One when you actually learn how to go with the flow and enjoy being in the present moment of your life. Being able to create meaningful and fun connections as they celebrate being in each other's lives.

Granted the song itself doesn't strictly translate to this but it's more of the energy of your potential future. A timeline when you actually and truly enjoy being alive.

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[wonviiii]

Anime Convention (SWAMPCON!) - Blog #18

Just recently, Swampcon took place in UF, which my roommates and I decided to explore. This isn’t my first anime convention, but it was a breeze of fresh air because the entry pass was completely free! My experiences in fan gatherings have always been generally positive and rather inspiring. Whenever I attend conventions and see all the cool cosplayers, it also makes me want to get into cosplay more seriously. I also got to talk with a few cosplayers, and they were all very enthusiastic since we were in similar fandoms. An experience I specifically recall was seeing a 2B cosplay and gasping as I said, “It’s 2B!” and she turned around and laughed as she struck a pose. It was also really fun looking through the merchandise, hoping to scrape a few items from my favorite shows. What I found interesting is that I came across a Link Click poster and my heart started shaking because I’ve never seen any other convention with Link Click merch, so I like how these artists have the freedom to indulge and express their excitement from shows through art pieces that others can also claim and share in the excitement. In addition, Swampcon was just so incredibly full of events that I almost didn’t know which events to go to since some of them coincided. However, I did go to the cosplay contest they had, and it was a nice experience. Some of the cosplays had built-in fans and even engines to power their weapons, which made me realize the sheer ingenuity of trying to imitate a character from a show/game/etc...In other words, to bring something fictional to life is truly so incredible. As an artist myself, I was especially fond of the artist's alley and seeing what other people created and how they perceived different characters. I spent a long time just staring at their artwork and contemplating whether I should just hand them my whole wallet…I had my roommates holding me back so I didn’t (thankfully). But, it’s cool seeing the thought and detail put into it, and you can tell that these artists find joy in sharing their art and fandom culture. It’s quite funny, but one of my roommates is looking into studying business, and I’m currently studying Graphic Design, so after the convention, we all huddled up and made a whole business plan to start selling our merchandise (half-jokingly) so who knows maybe we can be at the next Swampcon in the artist alley, which is a perfect example of how inspired we felt at seeing other people enjoy what they were doing :D! Here are some pictures (the one at the top as well) from the convention that I took. I loved the fact that there was a crochet shop too because it shows how the convention wasn’t only limited to fandom but to other forms of art as well, which is good for upcoming artists who want to get revenue for their hard work. The signed Killua figurine is actually from a different convention I went to, but I included it because I also thought it was cool how conventions bring in the voice actors/actresses, and you can talk with the people behind your favorite characters and even get their signatures. I was so tempted to buy the Killua figurine, but the $210 got me sweating.

Overall, the experience was very heartwarming. Conventions aren’t just places to indulge in fandom culture, but they open the doors to the best connections. I’ve met a lot of incredible people and learned so much from the panels and fellow attendees/artists. It’s a place where when you are inside, you think, “Oh, I can like whatever and be whoever and people will still be okay with that.” I’m not exactly sure how to describe and put the feelings into words, but it felt like walking into a comfortable bubble where others also shared similar ideas and feelings with you. Lastly, the art banner for this year was created by my lovely friend, and I wanted to include it because it’s so pretty and encapsulates the theme and vibe of the convention so well !

[perfectlovevn]

Hello! I just finished playing your game, and I adore it beyond words. I’ve never seen any sort of yandere content like this before and the idea of a yandere being created intentionally by someone with an agenda rather than by happenstance is beyond interesting.

I loved playing Eris - both in enabling their machiavellianism and in watching how their brain worked as they transformed Milo into what they wanted. Just seeing his transformation itself was wonderful as well! I feel bad for Milo, he didn’t deserve what happened to him, but seeing what he became depending on Eris’ decisions was so fun to watch - it really highlights what I love most about any sort of choose your own adventure story format: the ability to not only change the plot and relationships between characters, but the characters themselves. And your game was all about that - thank you so much for making it.

Another thing I find intriguing is the kind of person who would administer such a change. While it’s more than fun being in their shoes, I can’t help but want to view Eris as a character in their own right and see how they could evolve (and based on the cult following they’ve amassed I’m not the only one). I can’t imagine much would cause them to truly change unless they had something to be afraid of, meaning they probably wouldn’t change unless something had proved to be greater than them in a way that mattered. Maybe someone who managed to consistently get the better of them using manipulation, someone who was somehow immune to their control, or some god who decided to meddle in their business. If that person tried to change them, what would happen? What would it take to ruin them? And once they’re destroyed, what would be left over? I know this depends on what the player decides for their backstory and motives, but I really can’t help being curious- ultimately, though, my interest in reshaping and tearing apart Eris is all just rhetorical ramblings. I love your game and characters, Eris absolutely included, and the brainworm they’ve given me is top notch. I can’t wait to see more of what you put out, and I hope you have a lovely day! :)

(Adding this disclaimer for my own piece of mind, feel free to ignore: I do not actually want to hurt anyone, and my curiosity about harming Eris only represents my interest in them as a fictional character; it does not reflect my feelings or moral stances towards real life people or issues. I love people, and I believe we should all treat each other kindly to the best of our abilities. Disclaimer over, tysm, thank you for coming to my Ted talk!)

It's always fun to read the longer reviews because people always put so much thought into it! I very rarely see any content where someone molds the yandere, since most of the time, the lover is general a normal or good person. I think that its really fun to have an evil main character every now and then. I also think it's very fun when each decision feels really impactful. That was part of what I wanted to do for this game other than I didn't want to overwhelm myself with too many choices and writing.

With Eris, it's hard to say. I think that the best way to force Eris to evolve is if they feel as if there is something they can use. Something involving a perfect love? Perhaps a way to manipulate the other person back. I think if Eris was forced by a god of any kind, I'm sure they would be resentful with it. Or well, I'm sure you can imagine what Eris would do in these situations.