#we are still kind of all in survival mode lol

[whentherewerebicycles]

I can already feel myself sometimes falling into the american parenting trap of worrying about whether I’m providing enough sensory stimuli to promote newborn brain development or whatever nonsense is all over instagram all the time. like oh I only read him one picture book and I forgot to show him his high-contrast flash cards today and I didn’t spend twenty minutes moving his limbs around & saying “that’s your HAND! that’s your NOSE! that’s your KNEE!” which my mom is always telling me I should do. like nothing wrong at all with valuing those types of interactions and making time for that if it’s important to you! but my baby gets tons of face time with different adults who spend a lot of time talking to him and interacting with him, and he gets to go lots of places with me and see stuff as I do my daily errands, and we go on walks outside so he can stare at Trees and Sky (his favorite things). I just really don’t want to get on the hamster wheel of feeling like I have to make my entire day center on specialized activities to promote my newborn’s development because that seems like the first step to getting on the hamster wheel of making your entire life center on specialized activities to enhance your child’s college applications or whatever. I want to really trust that giving him lots of loving interactions and integrating him into my daily life is good enough for his development at this stage and is ultimately going to be what’s best for both of us as a parent-child team now and in the long term.

[hellishvxbes]

Unpopular take but this is just based off my own experience and things I see from my friends and family but like if you just got out of a toxic relationship don’t jump into a new one so fast. Just because they are better than the previous, your mind is still wired in survival mode, your mind sees things differently and sometimes the bare fucking minimum will have ppl thinking they found the right one.

[fortheloveofkonig]

Hello, hope you're having a good day/night

I was wondering if I could request the 141 x Male reader, they know alot of medical like they use their knowledge of the human body against anyone whom threatens them (or people the care about). They aren't a medic are doctor parday but have extensive knowledge of the field that helps the team. Seem cold uncaring and ruthless but if anyone of them is injured its like a total switch of 'mom bear mode' checking them over the gentle hands and worry.

(Kinda of trope of don't mess with the doctor lol)

Summary: TF 141 reacts to Reader who knows a frightening amount of medical knowledge.

Note: I'm going to do this as more of a headcanons type of post ^^ hope this is good enough! ^^ I did 95% of this all in the last 2 hours

Content: Medical speak, Injuries, Slight Torture, Slightly Bad Medical Research, But I Did Research. Roach Talks.

Word Count: 1085

TF 141 x Knowledgeable in Medic Field M! Reader

Ghost

Probably first heard about your knowledge from Soap talking to him about how terrifying it is to see it come into play

Doesn't believe him.

You've always been good at what you do but have never shown any previous knowledge or interest in the medical field so, who can blame him?

There was also no way you could've went to medical school unless you were years above your usual education range

He finally sees it come into play when you two were 'interrogating' someone.

"If you're gonna stab, don't do it right there. Price said he needs to stay alive."

Ghost looks at you, annoyed. "I've stabbed many people and seen many people survive stab wounds of surrounding areas."

"In lower places of the abdomen and with quicker medical care, if you do it there" You point to where he had the knife, pointed at the tied up man's skin. "It could puncture an intestine and we will be fucked. If you want to stab, move the knife below the belly button...about right... right there. Do not remove the knife once it pierces through."

He did as you said, with questions, but still followed your lead.

From then on he watched everything you did, even noticing that you took care of some of the rookies that ended up with minor cuts and damage that wasn't enough to bother the medics with.

Needless to say, he also ended up coming to you for some patch ups, mostly when he wanted to keep his new damage a secret from Price.

He ended up finding it kind of hot during the interrogation thing so he often asked to do things like that with you again.

Soap

Honestly, probably figured out about your medical knowledge after he was being a dumbass with explosives and almost got hurt.

"Go change into some shorts and a tank top." Your voice was in a serious tone as you went to grab a nearby first aid kit.

"Already wanting to see me strip?"

You just glared at him until he actually left and did what was told.

Despite having only a few scratches, you still cleaned them up as best as you could.

You also went on a rant about it too, about how dumb he was

"Do you realize how dumb you are? What if you actually made a big explosion and a piece of shrapnel flew and hit one of the carotid arteries in your neck?

"My What?"

"Do you realize how fast you would've died? Why weren't you wearing any protective gear?"

"I'm pretty bad at forgetting protection."

If looks could kill, he'd be dead.

That was not the last time you had to clean his wounds, he seems to be a magnet for them.

Asks you more about medical stuff, just to get an idea on how much you know.

You know a lot.

Unsure at this point if he hurts himself in new ways just to hear you yell at him for what dumb way he could've gotten himself killed this time.

Gaz

He falls out of helicopters a lot, that's the truth. What's one more time?

This time (and somehow not the last?) he ended up hurting his foot, you were there the whole time when it happened.

When the both of you were both safe in the safety of a van, you got him to put his leg up so you could check it.

"This is stupid" He mutters, "It's nothing more than it has been in the past."

"Shush, let me concentrate" You mutter feeling around his bootless ankle, nodding your head when you hear him hiss at a pointed touch.

"Any pain when you walk on it?"

"Possibly....yes."

"I'm gonna say it's a sprain for now but I think we should take you to the infirmary after we get back to base. Doesn't seem dislocated. Possible fracture though."

It was just a sprain

Was surprised when you spoke fluent...doctor to the doctor.

Honestly felt like a little kid in the doctor's office, watching his parent's converse with the Doctor telling them what was wrong.

Wouldn't have it any other way.

Price

Always knew, almost nothing gets by him unnoticed

Was probably one of the reasons he wanted you on the task force.

He knows how soap and gaz the boys are

Has you teaching rookies how to probably put a tourniquet on.

"What the fuck are you doing? That's not how I taught you."

The rookie you were speaking to just looked down at the dummy that they were working on and the tourniquet, "It looks-"

"Terrible! He's still bleeding out! Retry it."

Definitely has to sit in on these sessions, some rookies have complained to him that you take it too far.

You always just use the excuse that if those were real people and not training dummies, they'd be at fault for letting them die.

He agrees with you.

The rookie looks over at Price.

"Get to it. He told you to retry it. The man is bleeding out."

Mostly just sits in because it's less complaints now that he is showing he agrees with you in front of everyone.

Roach

This fucker needs a friend that has medical knowledge

Much like Soap, it seems like he is a wound magnet

Was probably the first of the 141 that you had to go full protective, medical knowledge out and work on him.

Man's like a tank too, no matter what the day brings to him it seems he's just able to walk it off

You don't let him

"You're limping, sit down."

He just waves it off, "'m good."

"Like hell you are." You walk up to him and grab his wrist, dragging him to a nearby chair and pushing him onto it. "Stay or I'll have Ghost lay on you."

Does not stay.

You cannot get Ghost to lay on him.

You just end up pelting pillows at him until he joins into a pillow fight, and you both end up getting exhausted.

"I'll rest right here."

"Good."

Stubborn but still okay with medical help

Often comes to you with oddly specific questions.

"Hypothetically, if a car blew up in the near vicinity of where I was at, what is the possible health issues that could arise?"

"Well, burn marks obviously, depending on the distance it could be any degree. If it was enough to knock you over, then a possible concussion. Depending if you hit the ground and hard enough, possible broken or fractured bones. Not to even mention the possible pieces of metal and glass flying, and just blast trauma in general. Could cause damage to internal organs with enough force."

"Okay, so...hypothetically, if that happened, I should go to the infirmary?"

"Roach, were you next to a car when it blew up?"

"..."

"Gary???"

You immediately dragged him to the infirmary.

[pansy-picnics]

A vat7k related question.

What do you think is Hugo's gender identity? Cus I want to hear what you think Hugo's gender is and the story behind it.

EHEHEHE personally i think she’s genderfluid and uses he/she/they pronouns…….I think he was kind of an uncracked egg up until the trials though. like, he’s been in survival mode for so long that he’s never had the time or luxury to really think about himself or his identity….i think he’s had a lot of different disguises over his career though, and those personas are either male or female depending on what the situation calls for so he’s not a stranger to dressing femininely either.

but yeah…i think for a long time hugo just identified as male by default cuz like…what else would he be LOL. if he had any doubts at all they weren’t significantly hindering him or anything so he just buried them with all the other of the emotions he doesn’t want to feel. but like the closet is made of GLASS and this becomes especially obvious when she teams up with 3 other teenagers who are also transgender so sometimes she’ll just Say Shit and they all turn around and look at her like “…….🤨”

i have this very vivid scene in my head where varian comes out to the gang as trans and hes clearly really uneasy abt it. and hugo doesn’t know what to say so he just tries to relate by saying the first thing that comes to mind and goes “oh yeah i get it i mean. sometimes i wish i was a girl but like not all the time yk” and nuru and varian both just stop and stare at him

hugo, getting nervous: …Sorry that’s probably not the same thing forget i said anything

nuru: No i think we should talk about this?

anyways yeah….other than her traveling party giving her some weird looks nothing actually really came of these conversations bc hugo would refuse to think about herself even if you put a gun to her head

fast forward to post-trials though, and hugo’s been living in the castle with varian for about six months…it was REALLY messy for both of them while she was adjusting, but at this point shes finally started to let her guard down a little, and all of a sudden she has SO much free time and she has no idea what to do with any of it. she’s stealing collecting things, tinkering with all kinds of useless little gadgets, rapunzel is teaching her tons of little arts and crafts projects. overall shes pretty content despite everything. So anyways then the gender crisis hits them like a fucking freight train

honestly i’m like half joking when i say i think it started bc they just kept forgetting to cut their hair. like one day they looked in the mirror and they’re like “wow my hairs getting so long i kinda look like a girl lol. Wait”

AND AS FUNNY AS IT IS ITS SO. WILDLY UNFAMILIAR TO THEM. like all of a sudden theyre SO insecure for as far as they can tell, NO reason and it drives them CRAZY. i dont even think that hugo dislikes their masculine features after coming out, i think they embrace them if anything but its just like…going from 0 to 100 so fast and suddenly being so hyper aware of themselves in a way that they NEVER were before…having to realize that they’re definitely Not cis. it’s fucking TERRIFYING!!!

not to mention it hits him all at once during a time when he’s still frankly really paranoid about him and varian’s relationship, and he’s kinda walking on eggshells bc deep down he’s convinced that var’s just gonna get tired of him eventually and kick him out. its like he’s just waiting for the final nail in the coffin despite the fact that there is literally no coffin.

All that being said i think it takes him a while to work up the courage to talk to varian about it. and he knows he won’t like. hate him for being trans or anything (I sure hope he wouldn’t, at least, seeing as he is literally also trans) but varian’s already done SO much for him and helped him through literally everything already….he doesn’t want to burden him any more than he already has. he also cant comprehend that someone can just Like him, like, as a person, so he’s convinced himself that varian must see something specific in him right now and he’s afraid that if he changes himself drastically in any way then whatever varian saw in him just. won’t be there anymore. If that makes sense

as for who he actually goes to first- honestly i think it’d have to be lance. at least in my head lance was the first person hugo really started to bond with aside from varian….he didn’t start letting his guard down with rapunzel until quite a while after that. also i think he’s worried that if he tells rapunzel she’d end up accidentally spilling something to varian (which is like. Valid bc she’s a horrible liar) he’d definitely write a letter to nuru, too, but nuru is also in another kingdom, and that message takes a while to get to her, so it’s more something they talk about after the fact

when he finally does get a letter back after dumping this revelation on her it’s just like

“dearest hugo. upon reading your letter i desperately wanted to tell you that i told you so, but i realize that would be in poor taste, seeing as you are clearly struggling right now. Moreover,-“ /j

regardless of who she tells first, they obviously all support her and encourage her to talk to varian as well…And ofc varian hypes her up to no end when she finally does. i wanna say it’s a sweet emotional scene but i feel like varian was also under the assumption that she figured out the gender thing like a year ago /j

hugo: ,,,,so like. i don’t think i’m a guy

varian: . yeah?

hugo:

hugo: TFYM “YEAH”?????!!!!???

varian: D. DID WE NOT ALREADY KNOW THIS?

hugo: ,???? NO???!!???!

jokes aside though as soon as hugo does decide he wants to explore his presentation more varian immediately consults rapunzel who gets WAY too excited about it and it kind of scares hugo a little bit. /j like Do you want to cut your hair? Dye it? Do you want new piercings? TATTOOS????

they eventually just settle on getting her a few new pieces to add to her wardrobe and that works out fine. varian sees his girlfriend in a dress and loses his mind etc etc. All is right in the world

[sandraharissa]

After thinking about it a little here’s some of my predictions/thoughts about Jinx in s2:

1) Her and Sevika are deeply involved with the fighting/revolution efforts and maintain stuff like how Silco left them, but after reaching whatever outcome (likely they’ll successfully earn independence) both of them peace out, they have no interest in this kind of politics and after managing the chembarons for some time and getting rid of the ones that caused trouble they’ll reach some sort of equilibrium where the chembarons when left alone will largely just mind their business and continue getting rich and controlling their territories (with there not being any ‘bigger fish’ to take over so nobody ever succeeds Silco’s role). In that way we’d reach the status quo we see in Zaun in LoL.

2)

The whole time she might look and be like this. Possibly going on feral like this for months on end. That’d really convey the state she’s in. For her to be in this paranoid/feral/survival mode cos she destroyed everything dear to her and Vi is hunting her. I imagine her looking like this even in more casual interactions with Sevika. Consumed by rage and revenge and hatred and throwing herself all into the revolutionary efforts to cope with grief for Silco and the whole situation with Vi. Especially now that it’s obvious that she’s working with enforcers, including Cait, to catch her and nothing else, the thing Jinx was worried was happening in s1.

That’d also potentially be interesting to see the contrast between how she’s perceived (the mural) and how she actually is in real life. The symbol of hope vs feral rabbit.

3)

She does this thing again that she tried in the finale. Idk if at this point she’s at all hoping for reconciliation, likely not. But she still wants so badly for Vi to understand her so she adorned the walls with the most impactful moments of her life and how they pertain to Vi. One last attempt to make Vi understand. That maybe after Vi sees a highlight reel of Jinx’s life she’ll put it all together and see it how Jinx sees it.

[w31ghtl0ss]

— Girlyy i heard that st4r^¡ng yourself can slow your metabolism (and when you eat the food turns to fat very quickly) sooo how exactly does it work. I’ve had @n@ for 2 years btw and i still question how tf does the body works sometimes…

— Btw how do yall fast? Cuz I js drink 8 of glasses water, I literally raw dog this d¡$0rd3r. I can’t standdd no sugar sodas they taste awful and are even worse than sugar sodas, no gums cuz the sugar in the gums can raise my glucose levels that leads to f@t, no fruit snacks cuz once i start to eat i can’t stop and start binging cuz my logic is, “as long as it’s healthy nothings wrong” but that clearly isn’t true cuz i tend to overdo it, no w33d, no cr@<k, no v@pe. Nothing.

— Anyways I managed to put on a tiny bit weight and i have 3 weeks to drop it ALL off, so we (me) gonna st4rv3 or water fast for the first 2 and do the ‘IU diet’ for the last week🩷

aaahh!! omg yes st@rv!ng can totally slow ur metabolism, but dont worry!! a great way to help with that is to very slowly decrease your c@lor!e limit + sometimes people like to set aside one day a week, sometimes every other week or twice a week (wtv u pref!), and do a metab0lism day, which is where you eat a significantly higher or lower amount of c@lories to “confuse” your body and potentially boost your metab0lism. Id also recommend fasting intermittently rather than for super long periods of time to keep your body from going into “survival mode” and slowing your metab0lism down a ton! basically keep those c@lor!es fluctuating and it should help!

alsoo working out and moving around a lot to burn c@ls and build up some muscle can help too! (but if that isnt your bag, go on walks! i hatee working out so i walk all the time)

also dude we r such twins omg ive had 4n4 for 2 years too! (i gave up for a while which is why it looks like i havent made much progress ;p )

and ohmygosh u will not believee how long it took me to figure out fasting- i swear for the longest time i couldnt go half a day without b!ng!ng like crazy!! and i totallyy feel u with the zero c@l sodas, they really arent the best . :( they taste almost bitter to me sometimes??

anyway, i usually start a fast before bed or in the middle of the night, just so in the morning it looks like ive already made progress and have less desire to quit so easily! and i know everyone says this and its super annoying to hear all the time but seriously, STAY HYDRATED!! if youre like me, water does not get rid of your desire to eat like everyone says :(( but when you arent eating, you dont get the extra h2o in your food which can dehydrate you without you even realizing!

for some reason gum just makes me more hungry?? so i avoid gum too, plus i dont have even super low c@l stuff during a fast because that makes me crave more!! i always have to remind myself that i am allowed to say no to food! when i am offered food i always tell myself to say no initially, just to make a habit out of it, even if i end up eating something later. starting with smaller fasting times and working your way up is something i did in the beginning, and it kind of worked! then i rewarded myself with something after, but i stopped craving things by then because i felt so accomplished!

i started with 10-13, then 15-16, and then 18-20, until 24+ and just kept trying! i wouldnt get angry if i broke the fast early, i would just wait a few hours and try again until it was practically a habit! i know sometimes it feels unachievable but it really does happen! i know i felt like i was missing something because i kept failing, but once i was able to get past 30 hours without feeling anything, it was like breathing!

if you want some more tips on fasting ill list them below, but i feel bad making you read so much! so, if you think you’ve already read enough of my yapping you can just end here, lol!!

-june ;]

more fasting tips below the cut 👇(its a lot 😥���)

(sorry if i didnt make a ton of sense lolz xp)

-Break a fast by eating raw fruits and veggies the first five-seven days after your fast. Go back to solids slowly.

-Do not b!nge or overeat after the fast (or during!). Try to discover the amount of food your body really needs.

-Meditate, go for a walk, take lots of naps, journal, listen to music, take long, warm bathes and relax. This is your time for healing, losing weight and gaining self-control!

-Try to get plenty of sleep. And if you can't stand your stomach growling the first few days, and are tired of downing the h2o, take a nap... listen to some soothing music and drift off.

-Get a massage. If you can afford it, or have your partner or a close friend give you a good rub down or deep tissue massage. This really soothes muscles and makes you calm and sleepy. It helps when you're having trouble sleeping due to hunger during your fast. Plus, it awakens your body, pushes the blood around, etc.

-You may feel weak during your fast so if this is the case, be careful of black outs and don't exercise until you've finished the fast... Stick to stretching, light walking and deep breathing.

-If you suffer from diabetes, hypoglycemia or other similar conditions, please be very, very careful fasting. I'd say don't fast at all but if you feel you can do it safely, you may need a slice of avocado or a banana... You could also add protein powder to your juices.

-Sometimes during a fast, the person will experience back pain. If so, a cold pack will help.

-If you are just too tired on your water fast, go to a juice fast and if you are already juicing, drink more carrot and melon juices for energy.

-Water fasts are always the hardest but fastest for weight loss and detox.

-Juice fast is next best and somewhat easier, especially for first time fasters.

-You'll lose pounds faster if you have a fast metabolism and slower if you have a slower metabolism. On average, fasts allow you to lose 1-2 lbs per day. Some experience more around 3-5 lbs per day. You'll lose the most and the quickest during the beginning of your fast.

AND MOST IMPORTANTLY!!!

Pleasee be safe and research more on your own if you plan on doing suuper long fasts, i am not a health specialist or anything like that, so if you have any kind of advice or anything i missed, please correct me so i dont give anyone false information! everyone is different and its important to know your body, i want everyone to be able to achieve their goals in the safest way possible, even if your goal isnt a healthy weight, i want u to be okay :))

lots of love!!!

[phantom-hogs]

i don't usually do these ramble type of things, but I thought it would be fun especially since I just thought of something lol.

y'know how we have extensively explored Shadows and Sonic's trauma in multiple fan comics and what not? Going into the real nitty and gritty and what not. Y'know who- even the people that really like him -have never really talked about?

Silver.

Like, don't get me wrong, I love our little dork. But can you imagine how absolutely traumatizing living in the literal end of the world must be? And even more traumatizing to grow up in that world would be? Living in dead world, where you and your best friend and maybe one of two other people are alive. Having no hope for any kind of future. Fruitlessly searching for a way to fix, knowing that you'll probably either die alone or in some horrible way and there's really no point to try, but you still do because that hope is quite literally the only thing you got left.

And even adding on top of that, imagine once the future - I know in canon they all lose their memories and what not, but fanon and the IDW comics (and even canon at this point, let's be honest) always ignore that, so stay with me - everything is normal, a Peace future. I have high doubts Silver knows how to be a, essentially, normal person. He's been in survival mode his whole life. (Presumably at least) Silver doesn't know how to go out of survival. Hell, I don't think this man even knows what a 9 to 5 is. He thought saving his future would bring immediate happiness, every single one of his problems solved. But now? He probably would even more isolated because him and blaze are the only ones to remember.

And if we bring IDW into this, this man came back twice because his future was in danger two more times (as of the time writing this) can you imagine how anxiety inducing that must be?

Like idk, maybe it's just me. But I feel like this man has more baggage than shadow at this point.

[sophiethewitch1]

hey sophie! ive been listening to the www playlist a lot lately and was wondering if you could bust out ur playlist thesis? however much ur cool with sharing!! would love to hear your thoughts hehe. also, are there any bonus tracks we can listen to from the big og playlist?

i want you to know that for this entire post I was doing this

absolutely constantly. raving maniac mode. under the cut so i don't make everyone hate me for all the bullshit im about to spout and like some cough cough future hints. No actual spoilers but like... vibes and things that are obvious. Me telling you there will be yandere things in the yandere story, shock horror. These songs are the trailers/animatics in my head so uh. It's kind of hard to explain them without that (which is why I literally CAN NOT) for a couple of them lol. Oh!!!! And I've also got some other songs that really should've made the playlist but I just didn't add for some reason. Laziness or whatever. One's literally called birthday party. I uh. Don't think I need to explain that one.

But also I just like, whatever who cares if some of the songs on there aren't ones I 100% associate w what we want so here's the full playlist live your dreams. Most of them I associate at least a moderate bit. BUt under here is the fucking essay I've somehow written lmao I lost my mind somewhere along the way.

WHAT YOU GONNA DO??? By Bastille and Graham Coxon is first on the playlist for a reason. It's sort of like, similar to the rocking feeling of what being cramped on the subway was like to me? And it's a song that's pretty obvious with the lyric comparisons. The 'you' in the title IS you! What are you gonna do? You have us (Gotham, the world, the batfam) listening, so what are you gonna do with it? And it matches readers future response quite well I think. And it feels like something that a superhero would have in the background, which certainly helps.

Keep You Mine by NOTD and Shy Martin was actually just one of those songs you were listening to on loop at the time you were doing a thing, and then became intrinsically linked to that thing, but it still represent WWW quite well! It matches more so the later acts of the story, where you and the boys will have some issues staying together with eachother. But it's still poppy and romantic in tone!! Because you guys and your relationship, despite everything that'll happen, you want to keep each other y'know? And reader's like possessive and jealous in a cutesy way to offset how absolutely psycho bonkers the guys will end up being... But I also feel this too matches the superhero vibes? Somehow? The fight on of it... You must keep fighting, for each other!

Tinfoil Hat by Dolo Tonight is like,,, about the frustration of being a Gotham resident I suppose (or anyone living in late stage capitalism with a mental illness) but especially you! Since you totally fucking got ripped from one universe to another and um, i don't know if you've noticed this yet but... there seems to be some issues with readers idols??? Seeing as you love the waynes but hate the bats. Please duck under the comically large chekov's gun and come this way. Also because reader for a little bit does geniunely think she's crazy and need to go to the psychiatrist but obviously thinks that is the worst idea ever because the gotham mental health system is really just prison. and it's a prison with her nemesis. not the place to be.

Live, Learn, Die by Lavin is pretty obvious too, but in a much sadder tone. Reader as a character has at this point come to a conclusion that I'm sure many of us do in their lifetime (I know I have at least) which is that... things suck, and then you die. She doesn't want to die, but she doesn't really particularly actually want to live, she's just so damn focused on survival she's never actually even had the time to realise that. This other version of her who didn't have 24/7 adrenaline running in her body was obviously significantly worse off and seemed... off. If everyone you love is dead, is surviving for them even worth it anymore? She's still learning, so maybe she'll learn something different this time...?

Next song is a spoiler so skipping it <3! Lmfao interpret this however you'd like

Thelma + Louise By Bastille is a song about a scene that I am so damn eager to get to which unfortunately is in act fucking 3 which is my favourite but like. Suffering I am suffering :) Anyways I can't tell you too much about it because of but I will say that it's a road trip between you, Dick and Jason! It's very fun and absolutely no complex feelings are involved whatsoever. You meet Lucy the giant elephant (actual roadside attraction in new jersey lmfao). This song is Dick Grayson coded in like... mostly sunny vibes. Like the warmth the song gives, that's how you make him feel.

Temper Temper by LimeCordiale is a song that is about... you and Jason... and his poor poor habit of enabling you. 'Me and my girlfriend that I let do whatever she wants to me because shes hot' core. Bruce sees the two of you in the landing and gets immediate d10 psychic damage it's impressive. Anyways if anyone ever angers you (which I'm sure they never ever ever will :)) he's probably going to be there to back you up, because 'you know that that's what I like'. That video of you punching George is private time material frankly.

Next song is ALSO a spoiler which um. cough. 😳 let's not look too deep at this one actually folks

Werewolf By Quinn XCII. Ah yes, the yan in the yandere story. This one is ALSO about Jason but this is the most Jason coded song. I will say that this also features in the story at some point (you, Molly, Dick, Jason and some very poor suffering grunts). It's the lyrics. I've always said Jason is a loyal dog and I stand by it till the day I die. He also feels like a feral animal that constantly kind of wants to swallow you whole which is romantic I think <3 <4 But geniunely put that thing on a leash for the betterment of mankind. I mean you make them all feel like starving monsters Jason's the only one who has any self awareness unfortunately, which is why this is HIS song. Also because he'd be a werewolf, case close your honour. Dick'd be a vampire it's LITERALLY canon. WHat was I talking about

Ghosts by The 1975 got on here because I heard the first line and went 'hA!' because it really do just be 'You... You always seem to get what you want.' and also the "You seem to get better" is fuckin. IT'S SO GOOD MAN! That's EXACTLY what the guys are thinking when the next few chapters start coming around which. Really were supposed to be out by now whoopsie but yknow like. Anyways you ARE gonna start working on things!!! You're gonna talk to Molly!! You're gonna get more flowers!!!!! God damn it, you're gonna get what you want!!!!!!!!!!!!! (at least this first bit oop)

Next two are spoilers again, but this time you absolutely won't be able to guess because they're both animatic inside my own brain so take that! And I mean you REALLY won't be able to guess they're great scenes can't wait for you to see em. I can't wait either tbh why am I writing these stupid filler scenes lmao. why can't i skip to the end of my 200k enemies to lovers slowburn just to write the final chapter (did this to herself)

Together We're Screwed By Robotaki and Nevve is a song I've loved for ageeessssss bro because there is (to me at least) nothing more romantic than being a terrible horrible unredeemable person with the one you love. Hand in unlovable hand baby! That's like... the fic I guess, together the five of you are screwed. And it just matches that same earlier mentioned vibe of like... poppy kinda techno-y kinda superhero-y kinda loser-y. Listen to me, listen to me... This fic is about many things and I'll say it again and again and everytime it's true in a different way and this time it's true in this way. This fic is about being about being a loser and bad at everything and still managing to get what you want. Actually that might be what this fic is actually actually centrally about. 'We're both a mess, we just can't get it right. Together we're screwed. I'm looking at you, I'm looking at you~' like, be a mess!

And now we're at the exciting new

Birthday Party by AJR is like the equivalent of what would be a canon event for this au. Your birthday HAS to happen and it HAS to suck ass and all your family HAS to die on this day for some reason or another.. Some people told me when they had their birthday they thought of my fic and I was like damn bro who hurt you? /jk but really reader's birthday is kind of a reflection of... you know, everyone has at least one of those sucky as birthdays. And you've gotta paste on a brave face and pretend you don't want to cry and that it's all not too much and that for some reason you're disappointed and that the trudging march of time scares the shit out of you and that you haven't achieved anything this year and- You know? 'And that's just how it is.'

Okay I've run out of videos I can add but there are only two songs left so!! Ima finish this anyways.

Inertia by AJR is a song where again the lyrics speak for itself. Before you woke up in a slightly different world where everything was just slightly different, your life was stagnant. You were stuck, absolutely. Despite trying to break out of poverty, out of your circumstances, fortune simply wouldn't smile on you. And again, that other you seemed to reflect that stagnancy. She wasn't going anywhere either. In my head I see the two of you dancing like marionettes alone on your stages alone, unable to fight against the strings pulling at you. It's only till you start dancing with eachother, till the strings start tangling that you start getting any freedom. That you're able to start getting anywhere. Maybe being set off course was the best thing that could happen to both of you?

Something Just Like This by The Chainsmokers and Coldplay is a song that both me and my mum love, and also one very fitting to the superhero theme! And it's how ALL the guys feel about you!! You're really just a civilian, you're not that important in the grand scheme of things... But why do you like them? It's for such stupid reasons. It's because of the way Damian reads romance novels and Jason never properly tapes his nuckles and Dick has a stupid bleeding heart so he keeps taking too many hours at the Bludhaven pet rescue and Tim always fucking sends you the new york wordle, connections, crossword and spelling bee first thing in the morning and then asks if you want any help when he knows you want to do it on your own and- Every single moment of you is done with such love and sincerity and heart and they can't help but fall in love again and again and again. 'I want something just like this' is a phrase they'll say to you and you'll say to them too.

[kittenintheden]

I want to share something. I absolutely adore how you write Astarion. You capture his mirth, the absolute ridiculous stray ginger cat energy he embodies, the tragedy of his situation, and how utterly hilarious he is all at the same time. But what I love especially is how *young* you manage to write him, like this is an elf who was killed before he even reached young adulthood in Elvish culture and you capture that brilliantly in both his mannerisms, sarcastic and sometimes juvenile quips and even his body language. It's just mind-blowing and I love reading your fics due to how well you capture him.

this is such an incredibly sweet comment and thank you so much for making it T_T my heart, it is warmed.

if I may ramble for a moment!

here's my thing: based on the information available to us, it's pretty widely confirmed canon (fanon? since Larian hasn't actually confirmed to my knowledge?) that based on the translated dates on his grave marker, Astarion died at 39. which is VERY young for an elf, but still adulthood, because elves physically and mentally mature at a similar rate to humans. the "they don't reach adulthood until 100" is more cultural than physical/mental, so Astarion very much was an adult with a career and all that when he died. culturally, however, he would not have been considered fully adult by other elves.

kind of like if you had a bar/bat mitzvah at 100 instead of 13? like it's not a measure of physical/mental adulthood, it's a cultural/religious ceremony signifying the passage into adulthood. that kind of thing.

WITH THAT SAID: Astarion did die young (we think) and then was launched into a situation that severely impacted his growth and progression as a person. namely: it stopped. he's frozen in time. he had no opportunity to learn, grow, or change. he was literally prevented from doing so.

Cazador worsened and encouraged this behavior not only in Astarion but in ALL the spawn. he refers to them as children, they're considered siblings, and the journals and notes we find in the palace indicate that they frequently pranked the shit out of each other and were generally the worst versions of themselves because Cazador regularly pitted them against one another. he starves and belittles and torments them physically and mentally. no one can thrive in circumstances like that.

when we meet Astarion in game, we're meeting a severely abused soul in survival mode who's never been able to make a plan or act for himself or exist in a world that wasn't constant terror. not since he can remember, anyway. he's fully and completely trauma-brained.

SO MUCH of his behavior is rooted in that. Cazador and his staff routinely refer to Astarion as a brat, little one, child, etc. dialogue indicates that he was constantly shamed for "prattling" and being a talker. so here's a man who's in literal arrested development and any meaningful growth he could have had was cut off at the ground. and he acts it.

until he gets a chance to grow.

then he still acts like a big baby boy but, you know, one who's also beginning to think past his own nose and develop a tiny bit of empathy and consideration. if you let him lol. you don't have to.

also I have a history in writing YA and Romance if that wasn't PAINFULLY OBVIOUS LMAO.

[demigodofhoolemere]

Things I can't stop thinking about from Steven and Vicki's Tales of the TARDIS episode

- This reunion. Seeing them together again kills me anyway, but when you look at the context of the last time they saw each other, both of them could have easily thought the other might be dead. The last Vicki saw of Steven he was bleeding out and slipping away from consciousness, and to Steven he woke up to learn that they'd left Vicki in a city that was being razed to the ground and its inhabitants slaughtered. There wasn’t a proper goodbye and neither could have known for sure whether the other had survived. These are two people who must have spent decades of their lives just hoping and praying that the other was okay.

They take each other's presence in like it’s a miracle. I don’t know if they intentionally wrote/acted this with that particular context of their last time together in mind, but nevertheless it can very easily be read that way since their reactions lend themselves to it so well.

- ^ In particular, Steven’s voice breaks in a way that absolutely destroys me.

- Is this girlish giggling not the most Vicki thing you’ve ever seen?

- There are certain moments that just really hit as, ‘This is them.’ I mean, look at her. That’s Vicki. It keeps blowing my mind.

- Steven is SO happy to see her again, oh my word. “I’ve got my little sister back!” is gonna live in my mind for the rest of my life. To have that dynamic acknowledged in those words and to see how much they love each other kills me. Look at this unreserved fluff. This means the world to me.

- Hearing that they’ve had wonderfully happy lives is so nice. Vicki could have been dealing with all kinds of turmoil given the time she chose to stay in, and with Steven’s luck he could have had literally anything happen to him, like Big Finish decided to do. I’m so glad they’ve been given full and happy lives onscreen, that Vicki has done so well in such a wildly different time and that Steven’s bad luck curse is finally broken. (The trauma curse is broken at least — it’s too much of a stretch for me to believe that he wouldn’t still have mundane bad luck lol.)

- Someone needs to either sue Peter for these faces or give him an award. There is so much emotion going on here and I can barely handle it. And knowing how much Peter truly loved this show and his time on it, I get the feeling some of this is real for him.

- “Vicki, this might not be his TARDIS. I mean, can you imagine the Doctor wearing something like this?” Well I’m sure as heck imagining it now! Someone PLEASE make fan art of One in Six’s coat.

- Their reverence for the Doctor’s pocket watch. Vicki is so happy and clutches it with joy and Steven stares at it and strokes it for a good minute. 💗

- Love having some skeptical Steven wondering if it could be a trap and warning Vicki to be careful. His older brother mode got reactivated so fast. And, “Don’t be such a spoilsport!” is so delightfully Vicki.

- Space helmet for a cow!!!

- “Well, it had been a busy week.” Lol, more like a busy (or not so busy) 2 years on Mechanus! You’re more than excused!

- I know it was naturally gonna happen because they’re going over The Time Meddler but I love the references to the Monk, and I love that we also get a subtle reference to The Daleks’ Master Plan out of it.

- Another one of those moments that just strikes you. Look at him.

- “He rescued me. I was an orphan and he became my family. I became the granddaughter he’d lost.” 😭

- Vicki’s little, “Come out, come out, wherever you are!” dance is so perfectly Vicki. It warms my heart how well-characterized they both are here.

- Anyone else see this and immediately start crying thinking about her putting her hands over her eyes in The Chase? Just me?

- Steven’s face when he agrees with her about wishing more than anything to see the Doctor again. I love his relationship with the Doctor so much, it kills me to see him emotional about it, to see how much he still loves him after all this time. But on top of it, once again I feel like there’s some genuine Peter in here who misses Bill. You can see in a lot of interviews, panels, commentaries and so on that Peter really truly cared about Bill as his friend and is still protective over him as a person and his character. When Steven makes this face in agreement about wishing he could just see the Doctor again, I feel something else very real in it.

- Look at them. Just look at them. No further comment.

- Vicki’s face hearing the Doctor’s laugh is my face.

I still haven’t been able to get through this without crying at his laugh. I don’t really have the words for how magical and touching it is that they included him in that way. It tugs on my heartstrings so hard.

[aterriblethought]

First of all I want to apologize for the radio silence lately. We had almost finished wrapping up chapter 12 of Hitsuji when my daughter was born in March. If I get a free moment that's not spent with her it's usually spent eating or sleeping, just pure survival mode. My computer's been gathering dust. She's sleeping on me right now actually.

Anyway, I haven't been paying attention but it seems Tokyopop has released the first two English volumes of Acid Town digitally with the third volume coming next week. There are also paperback editions on the way, which is great news and a little wild to me that I might eventually see it on a bookshelf in the US.

If you're at all suspicious about the quick turnaround of these volumes, I think you're right. I posted some pictures here comparing pages from the original scanlator's work to the official English version. Here are my thoughts:

I've been typesetting for scanlations for years now and I've come a long way and still have a lot to learn, but to this day I continue to use rules and such that I learned from the original scanlators for Acid Town. Honestly the typesetting for both the scanlation and the official version are not fantastic, but the official version feels especially slapdash. It's not that big a deal to me that the SFX aren't replaced but it does show a preference for speed over quality. The upper right panel of Tetsu where the text is not centered is especially egregious to me and shows a carelessness not only on the typesetter's part but also whoever QC'd the page, if anyone did. There are also wildly different text sizes between the two neighboring bubbles. The original scanlation I have an issue with in the sense that too much text is squeezed into the bubbles and comes too close to the bubble edges... sometimes this is hard to avoid but it's almost every bubble. When typesetting I'm always thinking about how best to center the text and break up words for readability. The official version succeeds a little better there and is less overwhelming to look at.

I've always had an issue with the liberal and often incorrect translations from the original scanlation, but I have to admit when put side by side like this, the official version is missing a lot of character in the dialogue. I'd love to compare against the Japanese text but I'm nap trapped and my Japanese volumes are in another room, so maybe later, LOL.

I still need to buy the full volume but I am curious about the translations for names, really curious. So far everything looks about the same but they shorten Hyoudou to Hyodo... that's kind of normal when transliterating long vowel sounds in Japanese to English, but I always prefer the spelling that matches what you'd actually see written in Japanese, which is an o with a u. If you were to spell Hyoudou in Japanese without the u's it would be wrong. I'm mostly wondering how they translated the Chinese names though (Wang, Heilong, etc. Spelt Wan and Heiron in Japanese katakana, but the katakana is only intended to help read the Chinese characters and shouldn't be the basis of the English transliteration).

I'll come back with more thoughts once I get a moment to purchase the full volumes, but I would also love to hear others' thoughts if you've had a chance to read the new editions.

Chapter 13 of Hitsuji is also in progress and the translation for chapter 53 of Acid Town is done, but I'm a little uncertain what will become of that now that the official licensed volumes are out. I might come back to this later.

[sonicasura]

MECH was in luck relatively speaking. One of the giant robots had been willing to partner with them without much loyalty for her own kind. Airachnid was truly a woman after his own ideals save for a few hundred pounds of metal.

She had even managed to dig them out a test subject for Project Chimera to be implemented in full. Their (unwilling) subject was a individual neither factions knew about, so there would be no one coming to rescue this one. Silas could still feel the smile on his face as the techies were gathering their tools. Extra restraints had been implemented despite this one’s significant less bulk compared to the last—

“Oh, I was wondering where Smokescreen went! I had feared he hadn’t survived landing on Earth.” A young voice quietly announced just a few feet away from him. Leaning over the catwalk railing was a teenager looking all too out of place. The techies and Silas himself drew their weapons as the teen’s sudden appearance. Appearing too at ease, the teen merely leaned further over the railing. “Truly, I’m glad you all gave me a reason to finally come here!”

The teenager stood up stretching, still ignoring all the weapons pointed at them. Several unsettling popping noises no human should be able to make sounded off. They held themself straighter and opened their now venomously glowing green eyes. “You finally reached a high enough threat level for us to be able to act. Not that you’re threatening anyone major right now… But for their future, I unfortunately have to set an example. Should we meet again?”

“I’ll make sure none of you survive next time.”

—————————————

The Predacon had bridged back to their base all too enthusiastic while carrying around an unfamiliar Autobot. Starscream narrowed his optics at the display, his wings tense from one of Bygone’s servos being coated in Energon. They set the frankly worryingly young mech onto a medical berth far away from Breakdown.

A rumble of a laugh exited the Predacon. “I’ve been attempting to track down this particular being for months now. Lo and behold, the planetary troublemakers managed to find him first.” The Seeker was unsure if they were talking to themself, the air, or the Vehicons situated around the Medbay. He reluctantly positioned himself so he was shielding Knockout and Breakdown’s general frames.

Not that his gesture stopped the Predacon from stalking over. Knockout himself tensed up fearing their, well, predatory nature had finally reared its ugly head.

Bygone lifted up their Energon stained servo to reveal a rather freshly extracted T-Cog, one made from purple and grey plating. “I remember you mentioning we might have to replace Breakdown’s transformation cog. A donor happened to come up while I was out on an errand…” They began having a very unnerving smile on their alt-mode’s snout. “An insecticon queen’s T-Cog should function as a decent replacement. Right, Knockout?”

The medic stared at the “donated” t-cog bewildered. “It can. Is she—?”

“Unfortunately, Airachnid lived to tell the tale though I hardly expect her to ever share it.” Bygone clarified, only making the two (former) Decepticons have more questions.

—ROB’d Anon.

Dart does not like the idea of killing outside genuine cases of self defense. They are willing to give enemies a chance to never bother them again. Airachnid and MECH nearly made them break that particular ideal of theirs. Still, like how they stopped Starscream from killing Cliffjumper. They can’t preemptively attack someone for a crime they didn’t commit.

Looks like MECH and Airachnid got the monster scorpion treatment, lol. Hopefully Smokescreen wasn't conscious enough to see any of THAT. The Autobots would be confused and a bit worried if so.

Especially should he see a scorpion because Smokes will freak the fuck out. Nobody was gonna ask Bygone how they got Airachnid's T-Cog.

[melt-into-the-night]

I haven’t put in my two cents about Kelly Monaco yet so I’ll do it now I guess lol.

I love the character of Sam. I started watching not long after she first entered the canvas and I was a fan straight away. I loved her ride or die love of Jason and how bad ass and resourceful she was when they were in fight or flight mode. I loved JaSam. I loved her villain era when they broke up the first time, and I loved the relationship Lucky and Sam formed and how it went from a toxic rebound to make their previous significant others squirm to a real loving relationship where we got to see them bring the best out of each other, and I love that it was really the first road to a much more independent Sam. As much as I loved Jason and Sam, the first time round she really had no life outside of him. So it was nice to see her becoming a PI, finding a friendship with Maxie, and building her relationships with Alexis, Kristina and Molly and really becoming a family unit, and that her and Jason reunited only when all of that was established. It was a refreshing new take on their relationship and my favorite version of it. And when Jason died the first time, I liked when she found loved with Patrick, I liked her chemistry with Billy Miller’s Jason, though not gonna lie, it got weird when other Jason came back, he became Drew with Jason’s memories still in tact and she stayed with him for a while only to go back to Jason again. And of course when they broke them up again, and the show put her with Dante, I loved their potential and thought she has good chemistry with Dante too.

All of that said, I think there are two elephants in the room that people aren’t talking about enough. The first being that something changed in Kelly the second Billy Miller got let go from the show, it’s like her heart wasn’t in it anymore. The fiery bad ass personality that we seen in Sam up until then was no longer shining through, even when they put JaSam back together. It just wasn’t the same. People can and have speculated that she sabotaged the JaSam relationship, maybe had no interest in working with Steve because she blamed Billy’s firing on Steve wanting his role back. Whether it’s true or not doesn’t really matter cause at the end of the day, any viewer could see she didn’t seem all that invested any more after he left. Maybe Billy passing away a few years later factored in as well. Who knows.

The second elephant in the room is that the writing for Sam when the show bothers to even write for her has been absolutely abysmal as well. The bizarre wishy/washy way they treat her interactions with Jason since he came back has been giving me whiplash. And just generally speaking, they really stripped away all the things that made Sam, Sam. Her fearlessness, her ride or die attitude for her significant other, the passion for her work as a PI, having her be a mom that doesn’t trust or teach her kids to be prepared for anything instead of the cool mom she could have been that teaches her kids survival skills in a crisis and to be resourceful and to pay attention to their surroundings and trusting that they will grow up to be just fine no matter what kind of life they choose to live…like watching Sam has become a train wreck with what appears to be no desire to fix it.

I can’t even justify them keeping her on at this point, even if the petitions work it’s not like the writing will get any better, and with Kelly barely giving anything to the show in the last decade, I also can’t see her even wanting to come back knowing the people in charge don’t want her there. If anything the writing would just get worse out of spite.

[madigoround]

Okay so I was pulling into my neighborhood and I started thinking about like kind of the entire state of the world and all of the hurt and fear that exists outside of me but also all of it that exists inside of me and I was right on my way to a panic attack when I came in the door heart near bursting out of my chest and difficulty breathing and I could feel my brain start catastrophizing and I remembered that post about sometimes your body puts you into survival mode because your body has been conditioned for centuries to think you’re being chased by a lion or something and it needs to be shown that you’re safe and so I hopped on the treadmill thinking maybe I could trick my brain into thinking that we aren’t having anxiety, instead we are merely working out because we take care of ourselves and you know what after about a half mile or so that really did calm things down I still have the lingering crazy headache and I’m trying not to think about the things I was thinking about before but highly recommend tricking your body during the beginning of a panic attack by making it think you are physically outrunning the anxiety tiger lol

[seikotakai]

some thoughts on that tekken 8 dlc story mode (spoilers)

some more thoughts on that tekken 8 dlc:

>it was nice getting to see some of the side characters actually do something instead of just being stupid joke characters (ex. lidia, eddy, yoshimitsu). especially eddy, he got some justice after that stupid ending in tekken 7.

>also getting to beat up reina as lidia was satisfying too ngl. that's for kazuya, now if only i could beat up kuma too with lidia that would be very nice.

>lars sweetie of course jin saw lots of potential in eddy, we all remember how eddy used to cause so many broken ps1 controllers back in the day. i didn't find eddy to be too rage inducing like most people who played the older games like tekken 3 imo.

>also find it neat how the tekken monks themselves have titles named after famous East Asian deities like Seiryu and Suzaku. I wonder who has the title of Genbu and wears a mask that looks like Genbu?

>yeah, the way the explained heihachi surviving the volcano was stupid. kazuya was literally there to watch heihachi drown in the lava! shouldn't he have noticed some mysterious monk man Seiryu coming to save his dad's ass and then kill him before throwing heihachi into the lava again?

> a better explanation for how heihachi came back to life: uh he didn't lol. remember devil within mode from tekken 5, where jin fights a bunch of heihachi clones at one point? the heihachi in tekken 8 is actually a genetic clone of the real heihachi who died in tekken 7. while kazuya fought heihachi and also attacked New York, the monks sneaks into the labs of either the Mishima Zaibatsu or G Corp to create a Heihachi clone. It also makes sense why Heihachi has "lost his memories", because those memories are not real - he's a clone of a deceased man after all. Or they could just program him to have the real Heihachi's memories (like False Kasumi in DOA5). Heihachi in Tekken 8 being a clone actually kind of makes sense and most importantly, doesn't make Tekken 7 story pointless as Heihachi is still dead Kazuya killed him.

>poor kazuya now has to deal with both Heihachi and Reina. At least he has Jun by his side now I guess.

>also namco when are you going to retcon some aspects of tekken 6 scenario campaign and just say jin kazama got brainwashed by azazel and he had zero control of his actions already?! just like how nina got brainwashed by ogre in tekken 3 or madelyne pryor got brainwashed by sinister in x-men 97. i mean for fucks sake, you can retcon heihachi's motivations in tekken 7 but you can't just retcon jin being a warmonger by saying it was never his fault?(╬≖_≖) that's all i'm asking for. my boy jin got done dirty in tekken 6 .( ╥ω╥ )

overall, i had low expectations for this. but turns i actually ended up enjoying some of the content in Forgotten Echoes. I certainly enjoyed beating up Reina with Lidia lol.

[grandpa-cephalopods]

Well it was a good finalfest this one, I'm glad team grandpas won this time. It's like an echo of the original Past vs Future, lol.

Unprofreshional Splat 3 nagging incoming, but first, I'll link my other stuff for anyone that stumbles on this blog.

-

Main Blog: @thegoldendoorknob

Twitter: Petitemask

Deviantart: Chibilightsage

OC Comic: Wishway

Comic Askblog: @wishwaycrew

-

First off- unfinished plotlines.

Had plans to elaborate more on Salmonid lore. In this verse, the apocalypse was partially mass natural destruction, and part zombie apocalypse via the Salmonids. Jones was originally a regular salmonid that was tested in a research lab before escaping and starting the whole death-of-humanity thing.

Also, there was a surviving human moonbase where the rich and famous lived. They gradually replaced parts of their bodies with mechanical parts to live longer than usual, but it took an expected toll on their sanity. That's what I was going to connect the Side Order plot to, initially.

T going evil for a bit bc of the aforementioned Jones thing.

I have a very write-as-I-go mentality with ask blogs so I could go to and from these kinds of ideas, but those were some of the core ones.

-

Ok long rant time sorry

So I've ran 2 other ask blogs in the past, and I came to recognize one of the things that can keep me in a fandom for over 7 years like Splatoon is engaging with the game itself. It's one thing to just scroll through the wiki pages 10 times over, but actually playing the games is what gives them so much staying power. Not only does it let me theorize about all the loose ends stated in the plot, but I can consider the fun and technicalities of how the gameplay can tie-in with the plot.

If I didn't play the games, I wouldn't be coming up with ideas like the Respawn March, Ink Eggs, Cuttlefish making zapfish doll batteries on repeat levels, the tentacle amps in Octavio's arena being another Octoweapon, human reanimation, moon colonies...

All of that wouldn't happen if I just read the wiki and called it a day. And that's why it kind of pains me to say Splatoon 3 just.. didn't give me any lasting material to work with. I did like deep cut (especially Frye) but they showed up like.. a whopping 2 times in the actual story, and there's no real lasting impression they make outside of their idol career or supplementary material.

-And that wouldn't be too big of a deal, because the opener of Splatoon 2 ALSO sucked, and gave us table scraps for plot, but I was still able to engage with the story because the new salmon run mode was fun to play, and I still had a little breathing room with the new players before the meta scene REALLY kicked in with X-rank.

I'm not even going to get started with X-rank, or it's little brother S-rank's introduction in 1, but during my time playing I definitely got hit by the hard shift from casual to pro gameplay between these games. Splat 3 was a game that felt like it was made with the purest intention to please pro gamers, but in doing that, it really alienated any casual players from sticking around.

I have a difficult relationship with the shift in meta, because I started with Splat1 back in 2015. Splat1 was extremely defensive, and almost completely dominated by chargers, rollers, and sloshers. You'll never guess what my 3 favorite weapons were in that title I ended up spending.. I think upwards of 5 months figuring out how to play the splat charger, because I ran a Cap'n blog, and Cap'n was a historic bamboozler main. What kind of blog would I be if I didn't at least try to learn grandpa's main? Lol.

So then comes Splat2, and because of all the heckling they were getting over the hyperdefensive gameplay, they decided to shift to a hyperoffensive meta instead. Heaven forbid we got another Moray Towers or triggerfish, so they started to crack down on the level design to make it harder to lock a game down for 3 minutes with one really good charger.

So, my matches got spawncamped by blasters and shooters instead ♡

Because of that, it kind of hurt to come from being a skilled A+ rank charger at the time back into a B- level nobody who sullies their characters. But my friends were still able to play Splat2, and wanted to play splat 2, so it wasn't that hard to deal with.

Splatoon 3, however, no one wanted to play. Within almost 3 months of it's release, my mutuals were already done with it, and if I wanted to engage with it at all, I'd have to play it through solo matches. So I was already running on fumes, and then the main plot involved characters I never played, and plot that only really benefitted human lore. So, this blog's activity continued to stagnate until I couldn't find it in me to let it spiral into my human plot any further.

But it's ok sage, they reassured, because Splat2 plot also sucked, but OE pulled it out of the ashes! Just wait an entire year, and we'll show you how good this dlc is going to be!

Nope! More characters that you don't play and an average story!

I don't have a lot of hope for my relationship with a 4th game, because 2 and 3 gave me a general idea of where they want to go with the series now. I've just fallen too far behind from 2015 sage to 2024 sage that I know that the gameplay is no longer made for players like me. It's made for official tournaments and promotional material, and nintendo is going to make that bank because it's the logical choice. 3 Regulars will probably have it easiest, there.

Realistically, the easiest way for me to return to the series is if they made the map terrain "fun" again, or at least fixed the matchmaking to better pair people with similar skilled rooms (I'll wait those 20 minutes if I can be put in the right room, dammit!). But for now.. I'm sorry to return to the original character hermit shell I lived in, but the lack of community outside of my 4 mutuals isn't strong enough to keep me here when the gameplay can't.

So.. I'm glad Splat3's grand festival ended this on a bang, because I can say nice things about that. It finally gave me a fully positive impression, it just took the end of the game's lifetime to get here. I feel a little bad at the lack of an OE reference outside of Acht, but that more or less confirms to me Tartar is probably pretty dead in canon.

At least BOTH GRANDPAS MADE IT TO THE STANDS! I've had to eat crumbs for years and they reward me with a slice of toast. Maybe 4 could give all of us grandpa fans the balanced breakfast they crave, who knows.

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So I'll be on hiatus for a bit, y'all can send asks at your leisure and if the fandom bug gets me again, there's a chance I could probably answer 'em in the future if splatoon 4 actually slaps. I just wanted to lay these motivation problems out so there isn't any will-they won't-they confusion that I've gotten from many other abandoned or deleted blogs.