#what if i did art twice? wouldn't that be cool

[daizedndconfused]

You wouldn't happen to be open to doing a cole x reader where they are asked by wu to train the ninja (because there extremely flexible and skilled) and they end up beating all of them without using many weapons would you??? Mehehehe I love your writing and cole is so Under Appreciated (people should give him so more love!!) and you portray his character so well thank you thank you :3

new girl

a/n - hi lovely!! tysm for the request and kind words hello?!! also loved this request we love us a strong girl hahaha i kinda drew some inspo from our icon ty lee. this lowkey ended up being longer than i thought but SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG SOME RANDOM SICKNESS WAS KICKING MY ASS ALL WEEK??? but we’re getting better now hahaha (also totally agree give my boy cole some love he deserves it) anyways enjoy i hope i did your vision some justice honestly if you want me to make a pt 2 i sooo can with some more one on one moments

characters - cole x reader

type - fluff!!

warnings - just some mild violence in the form of sparring

synopsis - the ninja a relying too much on their elemental powers and master wu needs some help reminding them of what’s really important who better to teach them than you??

“Breathe,” your mother reminded you gently.

Easy for her to say, she wasn’t the one suspended in a middle-split between two rocks over a stream. Regardless, you did as she asked, feeling the air move in and out of your lungs and the sweat forming on your temple.

“The key is concentration–balance,” her voice came from the bank to your right.

Most of what she said you already knew having been doing this for years, but you didn’t mind.

In and out your breaths went, eyes closed, relying only on your hearing until you felt your mother’s presence hovering next to you.

Peaking your eyes open, she stood on a nearby rock smiling down at you.

“Very good,” she nodded, offering you a hand to help you up.

“Thank you,” you exhaled, stretching out your legs a bit after so long in your previous position.

Your mother smoothed your hair back before leading you across the stream and back onto the land where you promptly shoved on your shoes.

The two of you chatted beneath the warm sun and cool breeze all the way back to your house. Though even before entering, you heard voices coming from within.

You shared a look of confusion with your mother.

That was odd, your father should be the only one home at the moment.

You gently pushed the door open and followed the voices to your living room where you saw your father in a deep conversation with an older man.

“Wu!” Your mother chirped, rounding you to greet the stranger.

The old’s eyes crinkled as he smiled beneath his long wispy white beard. Your mother bowed slightly as a sign of respect, and you thought it only best to do the same.

Eventually, you all sat around the living room, each nursing a steaming cup of tea.

“What do we owe this visit?” Your mother asked kindly. Apparently your parents and Master Wu went way back. They learned all they knew from the man himself, which then trickled down to you.

Wu took a sip of tea before answering. “I wish to offer your daughter a job.”

All eyes moved to you.

A job? What kind of job?

Your back straightened slightly at all the attention. “Sir?”

Wu sighed wearily, “I have realized I may need more help than I currently have. Upon opening a tea shop, I have less and less time to teach my students.” He swirled his tea twice before his eyes set upon you. “Would you be open to helping out?”

“Oh, uh… your students are?” You trailed off.

“The ninja, dear,” your mother filled in gently.

Oh. The ninja? What could you possibly teach the ninja? Sure, martial arts was nothing new, and yeah you were trained in combat thanks to your father, but they had elemental powers for heaven's sake.

“I’m not sure how much help I could be,” you answered sheepishly.

“You do not need special abilities to teach,” Wu smiled. “And I fear the elements are why I am seeking this help in the first place. It appears my students are disregarding their training for their elemental powers.”

That made sense. Whenever you got frustrated while training with your father he always reminded you you didn’t need flashy powers to be strong. Because while they may be useful, there’s always a chance they can vanish, and then what?

Eventually you made up your mind. “Okay, I’ll do it.” You quickly looked to your parents, “If that’s alright with you?”

“Of course,” your mother wrapped her arms around you. “We know you’re in safe hands with Wu. Just promise you’ll call?”

“Of course,” you assured her as your father also joined in on saying goodbye.

Before long you were packed with enough things to last a few weeks. You might have to repeat some outfits for a while since the duration of your stay wasn’t specified. But you always had money you could spend on clothes.

“How do we get there?” You asked Master Wu after he informed you he and his students were residing at his tea shop, Steep Wisdom.

He glanced at you out the corner of his, and you just caught the glint of a smirk beneath his beard before golden particles started to form in front of you.

From those particles, something even greater arose. A dragon.

Your mouth gaped open. Wu laughed before tossing your luggage on top of the large white and gold dragon that had just materialized in front of you.

--

The dragon flight was frightening at first, but as you relaxed it wasn’t so bad. You got to see things from an all new perspective. Dragon-eye view style.

Eventually, through the clearing of teas you flew over, you spotted a cozy tea house nestled between the woods.

The dragon dipped lower and lower before let out a warning, “The dragon dissolves, can you stick the landing?”

“Of course,” you smiled. A drop from this height? Easy.

You prepared yourself, but the disappearance of the dragon beneath you still caught you off guard a bit. However, that didn’t stop you from landing perfectly on your feet.

Flawless, you thought as your luggage somehow landed just as gracefully next to you.

The space around you truly was beautiful. A wall surrounded the tea shop and courtyard, and you heard rushing water faintly in the distance, telling you there was some type of natural water nearby.

What you didn’t notice was the five boys lingering outside upon your arrival.

“Uh, anyone gonna introduce us?” A slightly high pitched voice asked.

You snapped your gaze away from the scenery and towards the voice. Five boys around your own age and dressed in colorful gis regarded you curiously.

Before you could introduce yourself, Wu cut in. “This is your new strength trainer. She’ll be taking over lessons when I’m busy. I expect each of you to treat her with respect.”

A course of “Yes, Sensei’s” were said before the bowed in unison.

Then, an older woman with a long braid falling down her back summoned Wu. Something about an inventory issue.

“Excuse me,” he said to you, and then to his students, “someone will need to show her to her new quarters.”

With that he was gone. And you were left with five teenage boys staring at you.

“Um, hi I’m (Y/N). Nice to meet you.” You stuck with a polite introduction.

“Hey there,” a brunette boy with somewhat spiky hair said. “You know we don’t usually get many new people, may you and I could–”

“Kai,” a tall boy with black hair, cut him off. “Don’t be weird. She just got here.”

“What?” Kai gaped. “I was just going to ask if–”

“I apologize for my brother.” This time the voice came from… a titanium robot? Now that’s something you don’t see everyday.

Clearly the surprise was written all over your face at the unanimous chuckle that came from each boy.

“I am Zane,” the robot didn’t seem phased by your surprise. “This is Kai, Jay, Cole, and Lloyd. Kai’s sister also resides with us, but I’m afraid she is busy helping Misako and Master Wu.”

“Oh, that’s no problem,” you responded. “Do one of you know where I’m staying? If I don’t unpack now I’ll never get it done.” You admitted with a laugh.

“I got it,” said the boy with black hair you now knew to be Cole. He walked over, and grabbed each of your bags as though they weighed nothing.

“You don’t have to do that, I can take some of them. I know they’re a little heavy but no one told me how long I’d be staying.”

“Please,” Cole smirked, “it’s nothing. I can lift more than ten times this weight.”

“Show off,” Kai coughed.

“You okay?” Lloyd asked him.

“Yeah just something caught in my throat,” Kai shook his head before coughing the phrase again.

Cole rolled his eyes at Lloyd and Jay laughed. Zane didn’t seem to get it. You even found yourself smiling at the joke before following Cole to your room.

“Don’t mind them,” he said. “They can be a lot sometimes.”

“Something tells me you also fit into that category,” you teased. You are who you hangout with afterall. Though it wasn’t always true, it seemed fitting for this situation.

“I guess you’ll just have to find out won’t you?” Cole joked, looking back at you over his shoulder.

Eventually the two of you climbed a set of stairs hidden in the back of the tea shop. Upstairs was a small apartment looking room with multiple sets of doors, one of them being your own room.

It was a decent size, about the same as the one you had back home, with plenty of closet space.

“It’s not much I know,” Cole said, “but there’s been worse places we’ve stayed trust me.”

“No it’s perfect,” you insisted. “I don’t need a whole lot to get by.”

Cole nodded, setting your stuff down. “There’s two bathrooms, the boys and I share the one on the left, and you’ll be sharing with Nya on the right.”

You nodded, looking around your new room, thinking of all the ways you could make it look homier. Cole didn’t say anything more, but he didn’t leave either. He simply stood in your doorframe, looking at you, looking at your bare room.

“What?” You asked him, smiling.

“Nothing,” he shook his head with a grin. “Sorry, I’ll let you get settled in.”

You wanted to tell him it was no problem, but he vanished before you could. Out of all the boys you had just met, was the best looking in your eyes.

Shiny black hair, tall, and built like the mountains he commanded. Your new job was off to a good start already.

It was well into the evening when you finally met Nya. She sighed thankfully at the sight of you. She loved her brother, and she didn’t have any problems with the boys. They were all equally respectful, but other than Misako she had no other girls to talk to.

You too were happy for another girl to talk to. There was only so much testosterone someone could be around.

The two of you got along quickly as you offered to stock some shelves with her. Even though you were technically here to train the ninja, you weren’t due to start until the next day.

Your alarm woke you up at six thirty sharp. You know you weren’t supposed to start with the boys until eight that morning, but you wanted to get an early start on your first day before you got lazy.

Passing your way to the bathroom, you ran through your morning routine groggily before you headed downstairs to make yourself a cup of tea to wake you up.

Scanning the shelves for something that looked appetizing for the early morning, you didn’t even hear someone approach you from behind.

“I personally like this one,” a familiar voice said from behind you before a hand shot out and grabbed a case off one of the shelves just a hair too high for you to reach.

You jump slightly, startled by the person’s presence.

Spinning around, you saw the voice and arm belonged to Cole. He was smiling softly at you, a case of green tea in his hands. He too held the appearance of just waking up–tousled hair, sleepy eyes, and the lack of a shirt with black plaid pajama pants.

You quickly averted your eyes from his bare chest and instead found refuge in his earth eyes.

“Why green?” You blurted. It was the only question you could think of at this moment. And maybe it would distract him from the fact you were ogling him just a bit.

“Helps with energy,” he shrugged, tossing the case up in one hand. “I’ll start the kettle.”

It took you an embarrassingly long time to follow him to the back of the tea shop where a small kitchen resided.

He filled the kettle up with water and placed it on the stove before taking a seat at the island next.

“I’d make you some breakfast, but I’m afraid it wouldn’t be edible and that’s not the first impression I want you to have of me.” Cole laughed sheepishly.

You laughed with him before you took it upon yourself to scope out the fridge.

“How do you feel about omelets?” You asked after finding multiple cases of eggs. With this many ingredients you would be able to feed the whole team.

“I’m down,” he nodded.

You closed the fridge slightly before you saw a slip of paper taped to the front. It seemed to be a list of written chores, and at the bottom written in all capital letters next to a star were the words, ‘COLE IS NOT ALLOWED IN THE KITCHEN UNSUPERVISED.’

“Jeez, what’d you do?” You giggled, gesturing to the paper.

The boy flushed slightly, shrugging his broad shoulders before saying, “You set fire to the oven one time and suddenly you’re untrustworthy.” He rolled his eyes.

“Funny how that works.”

“Hilarious.” He deadpanned.

“Well since you can’t help with the food why don’t you just grab anything you want to add to the eggs, help me find the pans, and I’ll take care of the cooking part.” You suggested.

“That I can do,” he slipped off the stool.

Even though he wasn’t helping with the actual breakfast, the two of you worked in harmony together. He’d hand you the spatula, chop some vegetables, and give you some spices upon request. However, when you thought you could trust him with cracking an egg and he ended up getting it all over his bare torso you took it upon yourself to tie a black apron around him.

“Seriously?” He laughed as you tied the knot around his waist.

“Yup,” you nodded. “Damn. I’d need a magnifying glass to find your waist.”

He tipped his head back and laughed as you returned to flipping omelets with a smirk.

At this point you had successfully made two cups of tea, and three omelets. On the fourth, you were starting to grow more confident.

“Think I could flip it without a spatula?” You asked.

“No,” Cole shook his head, now seated on the island behind you.

“No faith,” you gasped, offended.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” he shrugged, leaning back on his palms.

“Oh yeah?” You challenged before grasping the pan handle with both hands. You’d never done this before, but how hard could it be really? The answer was not very as you successfully tossed up an omelet and caught it gently on the other side.

You cheered, victorious as Cole also encouraged you, both laughing all the way.

Eventually, more and more people started waking up, and the more competent ones (Zane) began to help you with breakfast.

By the time eight in the morning rolled around, breakfast had been done, dishes were washed, and you were gathered in the courtyard with each of the ninja. Wu had given you the rundown of what he’d like you to work on with his students, and that’s exactly what you’d do.

“So,” you said, shaking the jitters out of your hands. “I’m thinking I’ll just spar one on one with each of you to see what you need to work on. Okay?”

The boys traded uneasy glances. “Are you sure?” Jay asked.

You smiled a little at their apprehension. “Yes, I’m positive. We’re just sparring, remember. But don’t hold back, otherwise it’s just a waste of time.”

“Yeah, you get your ass handed to you by Nya all the time, this shouldn’t be different.” Cole patted Jay on the back.

The others laughed at Jay’s blush and he grumbled something inaudible under his breath.

“Okay Jay, since you’re so worried you’re up first.” You waved him over. “Sensei said no powers.”

“Right,” Jay nodded as he approached you slowly.

“I’m not gonna bite you, Jay.”

“I know that!” He defended as the boys behind him howled with laughter.

You couldn’t help but tease him as the two of you got into a fighting stance.

You dug your feet into the ground and steadied your breathing. The key to combat was focus, controlled breathing, and anticipation. At least that’s what your father told you.

It was no surprise to you that Jay attacked quickly. He was the master of lightning afterall. However, that was what made him so predictable.

He’d throw a series of quick jabs that you avoided with grace. With each attack you’d be just an inch out of reach. Jay was quick–but you were quicker.

You didn’t notice it, but the chatter was nonexistent, and Jay was wholly focused on sparring. Though the sweat building on his forehead, and his attacks slowing were also becoming more prominent.

He threw a high kick in there this time, which was just what you were waiting for. The second his foot came off the ground, you moved to the side, grabbed his ankle, and with your own leg, swept his balancing leg off the ground causing him to fall straight onto his back.

Jay landed with a wheeze, but you helped him up just as quickly. “Your attacks are precise, but they’re sloppy. You try to cram in a lot of combined attacks and hope for the best. If you slow them down a bit you’re more likely to land a few.”

Kai ‘Ohed’ from the sidelines. “You didn’t even get one hit dude.”

Jay glared at him as he took a seat beside Lloyd.

“And you won’t either, your turn.” You pointed to Kai.

The others laughed, but Kai rose, determination clear on his face.

You got into position again, but this time you’d change up your evasion techniques. Since he spent the previous match observing you he no doubt knew some of your moves.

Kai fought more aggressively than Jay, but with less accuracy making him easier to avoid. You twirled around him after a hard punch threw him off balance slightly. With your backs to each other, you only had a moment to grab his arm, crouch, shift your weight, and flip his body over yours.

Kai landed as hard as Jay.

After explaining his problem to him, you called up Zane next. You wanted to get the analyzing robot out of the way before you completely ran out of cards to play.

You had to admit, Zane almost got you, but you quickly threw yourself from his reach with a well timed aerial over his shoulder. Just as you landed he threw a punch, but you were ready for that. You crouched the moment you landed, and swept both his legs.

Standing quickly, you had just enough time to catch the front of his gi, suspending him above the floor ever so slightly. You felt a bit bad–you didn’t want to dent him after all.

Lloyd whistled, impressed, as he was finally called to the stand.

Lloyd, the green ninja. You knew he would also be pretty difficult, but it was like you were in a trance at the moment. You weren’t about to lose your winning streak, were you?

Being as flexible as you were didn’t hurt either. Sure the ninja were pretty flexible, but you could contort yourself into the most uncomfortable positions making it easy to avoid each of the ninja's blows.

All you had to do was wait until they tired themselves out, and then deliver the final blow. It was almost as if they were fighting themselves.

Lloyd looked concentrated, but his stance was off slightly. You feinted one way, and he fell for it easily, shifting all his weight onto one side of his body to prepare for the hit he thought was coming. Instead, you spun and shoved your shoulder hard into the opposite side of his body.

Lloyd crumbled like a house of cards.

When the green ninja retreated with a defeated look on his face, you were left with only one ninja now.

You suspected because of his height, Cole would be slow and off balance, but you were wrong. He was sturdy, and his height only added to his balance if anything. You’ve fought people bigger and stronger than you all the time, bad unlucky for him they only went down one way.

After a while of going through your song and dance of avoidance once again, Cole laughed.

“You’re slippery, huh?” He joked.

You winked before sliding between his legs, kicking the back of his knees and then once more between his shoulder blades to send him tumbling down to the ground.

“Wu was right,” you huffed, wiping the sweat from your forehead. “You guys rely way too much on your powers.”

“Alright, cough it up, where’d you learn that?” Jay asked.

“Learn what?” You laughed, helping a grumpy Cole from the floor.

“You flip around so much I got sick from just looking at you!” Jay whined.

“Lots of practice and some time in the cirque,” she shrugged.

“Like the circus?” Cole asked, looking down at you.

“Not the stuff with the tent and the animals,” you clarified. “More like the Cirque Du Soleil shows, you know? Anyway, I did a lot of acro as a kid. Made it easy to learn combat.”

“That’s awesome,” Kai said. “Have you ever juggled fire?”

“I told you, it’s not the tent type of circus,” you laughed. “It’s classier than that. That’s besides the point, you all have work to do. Lucky for all of you we’re going to start with yoga today! Just as a warm up.”

You giggled behind your hand at the unanimous groan coming from all five boys.

[isosceles-is-never-here]

I've been playing Hades, and it’s got me thinking about if Danny Phantom was in the game

This is rough concept art, trying to best translate Danny into the Hades world & art style. I plan to refine these into finished pieces that look like they r from the first game! (if the art gods r kind to me T_T) I'd love to hear any ideas on how Danny would be a part of the game! Would he have his own boon set? or his own chamber with 3 options for the player to pick from? I also like the idea of him randomly showing up like Thanatos to help kill enemies for a possible reward. And the idea of him showing up in the lounge sporadically after you get enough hearts with him! or in the halls being surrounded by shades!

He's definitely gotten mistaken for Zagreus with his spikey black hair, I could definitely see Alecto attacking him because of it rip

My Designs Explained:

I'm taking a page out of the hot glowing feet of the Hades bloodline book and giving Danny frozen glowing hands representing his ice powers

I snatched Pariah Dark’s cloak and skull details (just like Danny snatching Pariah's Ghost King status), which really translates well into Hades fashion. Might add Pariah's belt buckle? I know a lot of people do fresh takes for Danny's Ghost king forms, but this works so well translating it into the art style & setting.

Danny is the King of Shades: Danny’s ghost form is designed after the Shades (who r the ghosts of Hades!) I'm really leaning into Shade vibes with the built in robe and hood, with his face in shadow and cartoony features. but he is the King and only half Shade, so he gets more accessories and has a more distinct form.

Danny is a God/Immortal (i.e. human form): Keeping a lot of design elements from his Shade form, but I'm gonna invert the colors & metals. I want him to be swarmed by little shades! Any ideas on what he should be holding? Probably will keep the ice crystal..

[genshin-obsessed]

so I was in martial arts for 8 years, got my black belt and everything. Something I keep fantasizing about is asking hoyo hubby to spar with me.

Have headcanons for how Wriothesley, Tartaglia, Blade, and Jing Yuan would react/do during the sparring match? XD

Ooh very cool, I wish I could fight, I just know some self defense that’s all

Wriothesley

Gotta love sparring with the love of your life

That’s how he sees it anyway. Wrio enjoys working out and honing his abilities, but there’s gotta be someone to practice with right?

He won’t admit it, but he was a little soft in the beginning. He just didn’t wanna hurt you, but he wasn’t underestimating you, promise.

However, as he saw you move and keep up with relative ease, he found himself putting his all into the fights. Sometimes you’d win, sometimes he’d win. It was fun and honestly, he finds it humbling when you beat him up.

Childe

Are you kidding? Sparring? Whenever he wanted? You’re like his soulmate. You should marry him now if you two aren’t married already. And if you are married... well marry him again!

He absolutely loves fighting you. It gets his blood pumping and is probably the most exciting part of his days.

He tries not to be too over the top, meaning you don’t have to spar him every single day. You definitely have to spar with him once a week. No, wait, twice a week. No, no, four times a week! Wait how about—

No, he does not hold back. Not even a little bit.

Bladie

He was wary at first. Sparring was one thing, but he didn’t want to hurt you. You two had a long talk and he eventually decided he’d try.

Bladie doesn’t hold back. He doesn’t go slow, he doesn’t warn you. He treats it like a real fight, save for stabbing you. This was something you've known from the beginning. If you're gonna fight him, be 100% ready.

If you do happen to pick up any injuries during your sparring session, Blade is sure to care for you after. He helps you clean the wounds, bandages them up, and will even place kisses on the really bad ones.

Just because he doesn’t take it easy, doesn’t mean he’s ok with hurting you. Actually, it almost physically hurts him to hurt you. While he isn't a fan, he's ok with wooden weapons for your safety.

Jing Yuan

He said no at first. Mainly because he sparred with Yanqing during his training sessions. He didn’t need another partner. And in his busy schedule, he just never had time for anything so he wouldn't have time for you either.

After bugging him for a good while, he caved. No weapons, just hand to hand. It was a learning curve for you. As mentioned earlier, it was hard to find time but because you asked... he had to.

Jing Yuan barely teased you during this and mainly focused on helping you improve beyond what you could already. While he did have his little quips, he actually took them seriously. If you misstepped, he would immediately let you know.

He had to admit, it was fun. The days he went all out were usually when you’d lose but you were getting closer and closer to beating him. Or… putting him in his place, as you like to playfully say.

[sucuretcannelle]

hi! i briefly remember you saying that you're into if's, so i was wondering what your favorites are

Sighs and shakes a red cup full of ice

Nobody thinks I'm a nerd till they hear the way I talk about interactive fiction...no one knows...

Anyway I started playing IF's in like December. Time flies

This is kind of in order? Of like enjoyment. HOWEVER take this with a grain of salt because I was sitting here trying to rearrange them (except the top 3) for 40 minutes. If it was mentioned, it's good 🙂‍↕️

1. The six that thrive by @the-six-that-thrive-if —

the way I was playing this bro. I wouldn't let myself sleep until I was done with the demo and not because it felt like I had to, but I knew I would be PISSED if I went to bed without absorbing all the content (Dante give me a chance PLEASE 🙏🙏🙏). Anyway the hierarchy system reminds me of the one that I have for the way I wrote hell and I was like 🫵 OMG THATS SO COOL.

Key factor that I appreciate: Dialogue, descriptions, and transitions. Dante is deadass so funny I'm not even playing bro. Buddy how do you write like that, lmk. Also the official art has me gnawing at the bars of my enclosure

2. College Tennis: Origin Story by @collegetennisoriginstory — I ACTUALLY HAVE A FUCKING PROBLEM BRO. LOOK. IN MY HEAD, I WAS IGNORING THAT THEY WERE PLAYING TENNIS SO I WAS VISUALIZING VOLLEYBALL. SO AT SOME POINT I READ THE WORD RACKET AND I WAS LIKE WHAT ARE WE PLAYING???

Key factor that I appreciate: Skill checks, attention to side characters, amazing use of character tropes. Idk how to describe it but the writing felt so CLEAN. Like so organized and orderly. Plus I wanna study all of the characters under a microscope

3. Superstition (omg first IF I ever played) by @13leaguestories — I played this while I was sick and that's literally all I did for 2 days besides eating and sleeping. Am I okay? Yeah cuz it happened in December but like I was OBSESSED. And ashamed. My friend told me i would be into Zillah and she was right. I haven't recovered. I promise I'm in therapy.

Key factor that I appreciate: The fact that there was always something going on. Literally at least 3 things were happening at the same time, all the time, and it kept my lil depressed ass stimulated. Who could ask for more

4. Infamous by @infamous-if — this game makes me scared of commitment cuz I can't have Orion and Griffin😐 I might be biased because. I sing! So I was just really connected to this story immediately. Either way, one of my favs cuz the writing is saurrrr good, makes ya feel

Key factor that I appreciate — Infamous is generally well rounded, so I don't feel like it's LACKING in anything. Me gusta.

5. Mind blind by @mindblindbard — I have a problem so I'm a stereotypical Rosie fan. But anyway I personally loved this one because of the world building, even tho I'm a character-focused girlie. Plus the game is so funny for no reason

Key factor that I appreciate— I actually really like the MC in general. Which is funny to say, because they're supposed to be you, but MC's are different from game to game, and I like this one

6. Soulmates Inc by @soulmatesinc-if — idk with some games, it's just the vibe. Like the vibe is right so I'll read it (which like...it's hard for me to find games where the vibe is what drags me along. Tis really good)

Key factor I appreciate — Wyatt. omg who said that...I also love this game's take on soulmates. It's simple, but original, and I fw it

7. Nine Blood Dances by @nineblooddances-if— I'm boutta cry, how did you end up here twice without me noticing bro. Idk this one and TSTT have like, vibes that are connected by a small string, and I did play this one first if that matters.

Key factor that I enjoyed: It felt very structured, and again, clean. I really don't know what this feeling is

8. When Twilight Strikes by @evertidings — I love ALL the characters because damn near all of them pissed me off once. That's actually impressive /pos. Anyway Rylan hit my line

Key factor that I enjoyed: watching my relationship descriptions change. Some left me devastated stop... Like sorry A you're driving me nuts...

Honorable mentions:

Apartment 502 by @apt502-if — I can't wait to see the future parts cuz like I like it but I cant analyze any of the characters yet. But trust me I'm ready 📝

The Kings Hound by @the-kingshound — Same typa situation was Apartment 502... I'm waiting...patiently 📝

[jamtoro]

Just a drabble in large part inspired by the first Challengers fic I read by @cybersunnie Content warning for masturbation but this is mostly just mutual pining

- Of course you knew who Art Donaldson was, because, really, who didn't? So why wouldn't you be surprised when he approached you, offering to be your hitting partner for the night?

- You hesitated on your response, a mixture of embarrassment (you were practicing for a mandatory athletics class and were far from being even decent) and confusion (why would he ask you? What did he gain from it?).

- But, still, you agreed. Practicing tennis with Art, the Art Donaldson, was not an opportunity afforded to many beginners (at least you imagined). And despite the preemptive embarrassment, it beat hitting a ball against a wall.

- So, you begin with a backhand warm up before advancing to a rally.

- You miss volleys left and right, and even fall on your ass at some point. But with the cool spring night breeze on your sweat-slick skin and a lack of the pressure you thought you'd feel when sparring with Art, that 10 AM lecture class you have tomorrow feels light years away.

- When you've both had enough (well, you're sick of running after missed balls and you feel bad for making Art watch you flounder) you thank him, trying not to fall into realm of gratuitous gratitude. "I know it's not what you're used to, and it felt like torture at times, but thank you. I had a lot of fun losing to you."

- "You're not terrible," Art says, looking at you. Really looking at you, a soft smile on his face. You open your mouth to protest, but he tilts his head back a certain way as if to say Are you really going to debate me on that? Me? And you avoid breaking into a gigantic grin, but your giddiness is evident.

- You felt drunk on luck. First he offers to be your partner for the night, then he complements you. Well, sort of, but it's enough to make your heart stammer in your chest.

- You'd be lying if you said Art didn't look beautiful under the florescent light of the tennis court, a light sweat above his brow. And the scent of his musk, it could grow addicting.

- and you'd be lying if you said Art wasn't the reason why you continued to practice tennis on late nights. Some nights you saw him practicing with someone, sometimes he was alone, sometimes he showed up after you, but most nights you practiced alone. But lighting can strike twice, you told yourself.

- It took until the night of your last final, but thankfully eventually Art approached you.

- "Most people leave as soon as their last final's over, but you're still here," He says. "Summer classes," is all you manage in return. You force a barely there smile with pressed lips. You're wrought with tension.

- "There's a two week bre--" "Can you teach me tennis?" You cut Art off, the words basically stumbling out of your mouth. "I can pay you whatever, and I won't whine, and I know you have your own practices, but I just want you. I want to play tennis with you."

- It's bold and you know you're asking for a lot. You hold your breath as you wait for an answer.

- Art pauses in consideration, turning your words over in his mind. And your heart twists like a wrung towel as you watch a faint smile tug on one side of his mouth. "If you can win against me, I'll coach you."

- Your mind goes into hyperdrive with inquiries. Why would he say that? Does he really believe I could beat him? What happens when I lose? Does he have to be this cruel? Am I too desperate? Is it obvious? And before you could even begin to verbalize such a question, you see Art setting down his tennis bags on the far end of the court.

- "Are you gonna go easy on me?" You yell from the other side as you stretch your upper body.

- "How could I assess your abilities as your coach without seeing how far you'll go?" Art asks when he finishes a set of side lunges.

- yeah, you're gonna lose.

- And at least it's not a humiliating loss. You've definitely improved since the first time you and Art played, even managing a point here and there (but deep down you feel like Art let you have those). And even though you've lost two of three games, you're laughing, you're joking, you're having fun. Even though you approached Art so seriously, so desperately, you can't take yourself seriously, not in earnest, even when playing for something as coveted as a Summer with Art. And you can't even hate yourself for it because you feel so free.

- "I won't torture you with the idea of a rematch, so thank you for playing with me." You say, hand extended as you walk towards the net. "I'll still see you around, right?"

- But Art doesn't respond when he shakes your hand. He kind of just stands there for a moment, shaking your hand in a trance.

- Within Art, something shifted, or clicked, rather.

- No stranger to desperation, he recognized it in you, saw himself reflected in your curious eyes. And though he expected himself to be more repulsed by your desperation, each volley blunted the edges of such an emotion.

- And it helped he saw what Tashi loved about tennis within you.

- Maybe you could've been great if you had more than a casual interest in the sport, or if you had started in the single digits like the rest of the college athletes, or if you stopped blowing rasberies and laughing everytime you hit the ball into the net. But you didn't care about greatness. And to Art, it almost seemed like you didn't care about winning him as a coach, not for lack of trying, but because you became someone else on the court. You found a liberation that Art could only dream of. A liberation that could only be afforded to someone who's highest aspiration is the intermural leagues. Your relationship with tennis, with your opponent was more self-serving. This was less of a relationship and more so voyeurism.

- And that appealed to Art in some capacity.

- "I mean, you played pretty well, considering," Art finally says, returning to himself. "Do Tuesdays work for you?"

- It scratches an itch to be wanted. Even if it isn't by the person you want.

- Art reminded himself of this, like a mantra, on the first night he cums to the thought of you. A late night tennis session turned mildly risqué with an absent minded question ("Do you think some people use rackets sexually?" You asked before the stream of laugh that followed due to Art's flusted expression) was all Art really needed to follow through on what was a burgeoning feeling.

- On one hand, Art struggled to remember why he's keeping himself from you. He's already this close. You never shy from his touch when he corrects your grip on the racket. You don't seem to mind sharing towels or water. And he feels the way you watch him, even when his back is turned.

- On the other, he's kicking himself. Even though he's only your senior by a year and he's not an official coach by any standard, it feels wrong. Especially when he's the catalyst in Tashi and Patrick's teetering relationship. You were meant to be a scapegoat if Patrick and Tashi got messy and Art's culpiblity was revealed. You were not supposed to stay.

- But being wanted is like a drug. And the thought of your mouth on his, along his body, around him, is irresistible.

- He knew, as he watched his cum thin out and disperse in the shower stream, that this wouldn't be the only time he came to the thought of you.

- (Should he feel ashamed that he's wrapped around your finger, too, even though you're the one who wants him so obviously?)

- Art leaves the locker room without looking in the mirror.

[salt-cedar]

I'm rewatching 1899 now for the 3d time and my brain is spitting theories that are all 100% valid now since we'll never know, ok?

🜃 This theory, that the show is heavily influenced by Jungian philosophy, is still what I believe is the core of the story. However I'm now leaning towards thinking that Virginia is Eyk's wife. She is much closer to him in age and the role of a mistress also can leave a wound of being not chosen (yes I'm thinking of Hannah from Dark).

🜃 I think that, for the second season and the second level of simulation, the earth symbol means Earth. Something happened to it, and the Prometheus is maybe one of the ships destined for another planet(s?). That' would explain the persistent motif of betrayal and taking a dead man's name and place -- people would do a lot in order to get on a rescue ship. Notably, the stories of Julien, Olek and Lin Yi could be explored deeper here.

🜃 Based on the visual emphasis on the episodes' titles and their weird simplicity, I decided that it'd be cool if for every season the names of every episode were the same. Like, s2e1 - The Ship, s2e2 - The Boy, etc. The events in an episode would not be the same (that would be a very boring show) but would have references to the previous episodes, building up layers of meaning. Idk if the showrunners actually planned that, I just think it could be a very neat idea for such a cerebral show.

🜃 Following this, I think it's pretty obvious that the second season would be in another layer of simulated reality which is the space ship. The first episode of the second season, titled "The Ship" would be about the space vessel Prometheus, the second, titled "The Boy" -- about the ship's computer, probably modeled after Eliott (see another Eliott crack theory below). The last one, "The Key", would be about another key to get out of the simulation -- which is Ciaran (KEY-ran). The third season would take place in a real reality, with the last episode being the key to complete understanding of the story in all three layers (and it has to do with Eyk).

🜃 The Eliott crack theory that was promised is that he is made in the image of Ciaran. Yes, I am the one who said that Eliott is Maura's inner Child in season one, I stand by that. Maura identifies with men a lot, both in relationships and on a deeper personal level. In the 1899 simulation she has studied for a masculine profession, wears pants, has no particular sentimentality towards children, etc. In the 2099 she is the only woman in the chamber with hair cut short, which also makes her stand out. If her family story is true, she was probably raised without a woman's influence, making her identity lean masculine. So her Animus is a guy and her inner Child is a boy, that's fine. But upon rewatching now I am not 100% sure that Ciaran is alive. The question: "What have you done to my brother?" was poignantly repeated twice. Maybe Ciaran is dead and papa Henry made him into Prometheus' board computer (and that makes him capable of knowing what did he do with the people on the ships!). That could also help with not explaining why Eliott's/Ciaran's actor grew up between the seasons, as he is made in the image of Ciaran at different ages.

🜃 With that said, I don't think that we wouldn't have seen more of Daniel in seasons 2 and 3. Aneurin Barnard is too much of a cutie pie and a talented actor to not hire him for later seasons. Maybe we could get cool scenes with Maura visualizing him at the time of need and maybe even conscientiously going back into 1899 simulation to learn or find something. After all...

🜃 ..."What is lost will be found" is about integration and wholeness. Jungian philosophy and art based on it is often about going into the depths of madness/subconscious to the point of seemingly losing all sense only to come back out of it healed and wiser than before. I maintain that probably all the characters experienced some sort of disintegration of psyche due to trauma and had the misfortune to experience that disintegration in the collective subconscious on the 1899 level. Remember how in Dark the triquetra was not only a cool symbol but also a graphic expression of oneness of past, present and future; the loop itself as it is a knot; and the entanglement of three worlds/timelines? Maybe the Earth symbol also stands for multiple things at once, one of them being a broken whole? The slash cuts off one of the corners of the triangle, after all. And I believe that, at the core, this story is about healing that cut and becoming whole again.

🜃 The third, "real-real" season would probably take place in 1999. Though it might contain flashbacks, too. The abundance of references to 70s and 80s is fine because that would be the time of most characters' childhoods and youth. My pet theory is that the simulations are to stimulate character's brain activity because they are all a part of human supercomputer program. It's a rarely explored old-fashioned sci-fi idea, that people can solve problems and work through data in their sleep which produces intense dreams as a side effect. My strongest argument for this? All the references to "Alice in Wonderland", a book that is notoriously all about math under the guise of nonsense adventures.

🜃 Of course, there is going to be something even more sinister about the whole putting people to sleep to see nightmares scenario but as per tradition, the twist is that all the horror was for love. And we would cry about it, and never feel normal again.

?? The one thing I really can't decipher is what's up with all the Alien references. Like, what are they about.

[fitgirlfemdom]

hi! I’m just curious about something you mentioned about not being explicitly into everything you post - do you think it’s attracted unwanted attention? would you rather discuss non-kink topics on here as well? I think it would be cool if you incorporated some of the other stuff you’re passionate about (anime, music, etc) 🖤

The real me is not as sexual as this account displays. I've been celibate for half a year and I masturbate maybe once or twice a week for like 20 min. I still write and draw NSFW content, but that's for my main art account that isn't linked here (this isn't for privacy or anything--i just have art moots that probably don't wanna see fat bears eating cake on their timeline 24/7).

90% of the stuff I write/have posted about, I'm into, and I enjoyed writing, especially my longer posts! If I wasn't interested in something, I wouldn't write about it for free. The issue was messages in my DMs, especially near the beginning of this account. It's why I tried enforcing the rule that if you send me face pics, I'd block you, because a lot of the people that messaged me I did not find sexually attractive. Without a face, it's much easier to RP. Also because of the dick pics. Don't get me wrong, some of you guys had very respectable cocks but I can't deny that it made me feel gross to be sent them without my consent.

The worst part was actually enjoying talking to some of you, and then realizing you clearly just used me as a dumping ground for your fetish pics, without any consideration as to who I was. It was like my DMs were just "Send Photos of Your Gut to 19 Year Old Girl Here" without any personality, any interest in who I was. Just a nameless girl who you could imagine your fantasies with. I'd ask about your day or what you were interested in, and I'd get a pic of your gut in an office chair with "whoaaaaa just drank two liters of soda :/ so bloated rn." How do I respond to that? "Good"? 😭

I think the worst DM I got was a guy saying I was "in denial about being a housewife," which I mean, I've dabbled in misogyny kink content before. Bimbofication is literally on my profile. I've never brought up my feminist views or politics, although I would consider myself a feminist, since all people should have equal rights and freedom of expression. I also believe housewives can be feminists. There is nothing on my account about my political views, nor about my career or education, because it's not important to writing porn about feeding dudes cake.

When I brushed him off with a "Haha," he just kept going, paragraphs and paragraphs about how he wanted me to be his trophy wife and clean his shit out of a bucket??? You don't even know me??? And I never responded, but it really just made me realize--just saying I'm into femdom, no matter what it is, is seen as a political transgression to these people. I'm literally into gentle femdom and want a chubby hubby/wife that I can make happy and secure financially. None of my posts are "Women are superior, men should be locked in cages." Most of my posts are "I want a gym guy who enjoys my cooking and jerks off a lot."

I DO use female supremacy tags sometimes because I use dozens of tags, and that's on me. I just type "fem" and click the ones that come up. I've also written works that are VERY misogynistic, like calling myself a fleshlight or literally writing fics about me getting gangbanged. I feel like this guy just saw "femdom" in my username and lost his mind. By tagging my stuff like this, I honestly was asking for trouble to come, so yeah, I think I just got unwanted attention I wasn't ready for.

In regards to talking about others topics, I just figured no one gave a shit, and people probably don't, but I am very passionate about metal music and music history. I have a useless amount of knowledge about various 90s/2000s metal bands and music from that time. If I get asked questions about it, I'll answer, and I DO need to follow more people on this website, but my current answer is: I don't know, maybe. I'll see how I feel.

[msnihilist]

Person Who Has Never Watched the Reboot Decides to Liveblog Alien-X-Tinction

First scene and I already hate Max's voice. #NotMyGrandpa

idk what alternate universe this is yet, but I like 1) that Ben is sad :), and 2) that his Omnitrix looks like that??? It really sells the idea of a prototype 🥺

"resistance will only beget pain" — villain who is smart enough to know that Ben doesn't know what "beget" means

"you always try to interrupt" okay, ouch, I actually love that angst (I already know who the Alien X is and what he's been doing to alternate Bens (I'm only watching this because the Wiki page for the special was interesting to me), so this is lovely :3) Max always tries to save his grandson and he never succeeds </3

Side note: evil Celestialsapien is a cool idea, and I like that this one is taking a "hands on" approach. It's about the thrill of the hunt :) And loving making people suffer

"oh, no, not again" LMAO, the dimension-hopping Max sounds soooo mildly inconvenienced

WAIT, DID THE ALIEN X RIP OFF BEN'S ARM??? I can't tell what happened here?? Fuckin' kid's show censors 😭

Max's face when Ben hugs his grandpa…… I love suffering 🥺

"you'd think I'd be used to it all by now" coming from a man who lost his grandkids and tortures himself by watching it happen again and again in other timelines hurts so good 😭 😭 I also love that they let Max cry about it. It's a small thing and it only lasts a second, but in the Classic continuity, Ben only cried on screen TWICE, both when he was 10. Letting an aged man hurt like this without making a joke about it is good to see <3

Back in the Real Timeline, I guess, lmao. I love that Gwen is tied up and just looks so bored with the whole affair

GWEN'S VOICE?? #NOTMYGWEN (I like that Zombozo is voiced by Drakken, tho)

Hm. I kinda like this angle with Ben's frustration. He feels like he's not living up to his full potential as a hero because he always has Gwen and Max helping him. It's different from when Ben would get cocky in the OG, and I think it's an interesting point, too :p This blatantly isn't about being a hero, it's about the thrill, which is something that ten-year-old Ben consistently struggled with

Still hate reboot Heatblast, but whatever

I definitely don't like how the fights are animated? It feels... slow. And I get part of that is to build up suspense/show of Alien X's abilities, since this show is aimed at a younger audience who wouldn't be familiar with the Classic continuity, but still :/ I don't like the flat camera angles and the hits don't have a lot of weight to them

Love that Alien X is killing off Ben's, though — something Eon was always too pussy to do

I hate this art style, but I appreciate that the writers are trying

I love villains who are obsessed with Ben Killing him, hunting him down, whatever. Watching villains shove aside whatever or whoever gets in their way to pursue Ben with single-minded fervor always hits good.

This fight between Ben and Alien X, up until he loses the Omnitrix, is probably my favorite fight in the special. Alien X was at his coolest and Ben really gave it his all, no matter how badly he got beat in return.

"there's no omniversal road-side service that drops out of thin air" — man who has forgotten that this is Ben he's talking about

BRO, THEY'RE PLAYING THE ALIEN FORCE THEME SONG WHEN OLDER BEN STEPS OUT OF THE PORTAL 😭 Okay, even though AF had kind of a lame opening, I'll admit: that was pretty hype

Holy shit, wait, the reboot has been going on for five seasons and this Max STILL hasn't told his grandkids about the Plumbers??? I hate him, worst grandpa

LMAO, Maximillian calling Ben a stubborn brat <3 AF Ben looking away in embarrassment because he knows it's true (he literally JUST tried to walk off and go it alone for?? no reason, literally), I love them. They're a family in every dimension

I think it's cute that Gwen already likes teenage Ben <3

Alien X: "You're in the wrong dimension." Ben, who's relaxing nonchalantly waiting for his plan to pay off: "Is that why my keys don't work?"

I MISSED AF BEN SO MUCH, HE'S SUCH A DRAMA QUEEN 😭 HE LITERALLY TRANSFORMED JUST TO GET UP THERE AND HAVE A DRAMATIC ENTRANCE

AF BIG CHILL DESIGN + VOICE, MY BELOVED!!! They even kept Ben shouting out his transformation's names, nreulgneklge. That's some attention to detail that almost makes me forgive the art style <3 (almost)

"little me," omg, he's such a fuckin' dork

I love that when Bens get together, they literally just love each other, it's so so sweet <3

"I should rethink my prior mercy." "Your generosity will not go unappreciated… or unpunished." ngl, this guy is a sick villain

Okay, this made me love him. And Gwen's faith in him is sooo <3 Truly the best cousin of all time

"Are you okay?" "Better now that you're back, cuz." Ben and Gwen are so fucking cute in the reboot, I love them 😭 🥺

I love that Gwen 10 goes, "And, yes, we're [Gwens are] better" and then fucking picks Ripjaws for a fight in a rocky desert, sfbrygbrku. She's such a dumbass I do love her Ripjaws design, tho!! Love that they avoided the Omniverse problem of making the female aliens excessively feminized. ALSO OG HEATBLAST, MY LOVE

OV Ben ruffling younger Ben's hair 🥺🥺

AHAHA, OG Ben immediately assuming that this Gwen is also a magic user, pfft. Even in a dimension where they don't get along as well, he's got so much faith in his cousin <3

Gwen's little watch tech is like her UAF powers!!

Of course OG Ben would get pissy about someone picking the same alien as him 😭 He's so chronically ten years old

"But I'm not your Ben." "You're all my Ben." Okay, maybe this Max is actually the best one 😭 🥺

Jeez, that tragic backstory was pretty fucking brutal. Vilgax straight-up just vaporized Gwen and Max. I love the idea of an evil Ben who's lost everything, though. His Max and Gwen are dead, what more can they take away from him? Eon could never

LMAO, MAX JUST FORCIBLY ADOPTING EVIL BEN AT THE END. Ben is so unenthused, he's gonna get loved whether he wants to or not!!

Okay, just finished it. Final thoughts? It was really cute. Is it good enough to get me to watch the rest of the reboot? No. It's definitely not as hype as some of UAF/OV's high points, probably in part because I still can't get into the art style and also because the fight scenes just aren't as good.

It had pretty good pacing! I was surprised by that, I thought 45 minutes was gonna be too short, but it ended up feeling right. (Also, I'm upset to say that Max's voice grew on me. Gwen is on thin ice.)

You can tell that this was made with a lot of love, both for the characters and for Ben 10 as a whole. It really does feel like a love letter to the fandom, and for that, it was a good watch :)

Final score: 7/10, not NEARLY as bad as I was expecting, worth a rewatch <3

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.72 The ambassador

On our way to the Arboretum, I highlighted a few noteworthy features of the neighborhood, including a shameless plug for my yoga classes at the Celebration Center. Clear skies and warm sun made it the perfect day for this tour. Though, there was never a wrong time to visit San Sequoia. Every day was perfect.

"This is Gilbert Gardens," I said, vaguely gesturing around us. "It's my favorite place in San Sequoia because it has so much to do for all ages."

"I can't get over this weather. Is it always this nice?"

"Amazing, right? That's one of the best parts about San Sequoia."

The warm rays beamed down on us while a cool breeze whisked back and forth, ensuring we remained comfortable. Dub glanced around, shaking his head in disbelief at the gorgeous weather.

"Henford is usually covered in snow right about now," he said with a hint of snark.

I chuckled at a memory that popped into my head.

"I've seen snow exactly twice in my life. It doesn't snow much in Willow Creek. That's where I've spent the most time."

"I think snow is overrated," Dub huffed, waving dismissively again.

"You might be right. I mean, it's super cold...you can't see if it's too thick...and you have to clean it up!"

He slapped my arm.

"See? I knew we were in sync."

"Playing in it looks fun, though."

"That's overrated too! I don't like my hands being cold. There's no fun in that!"

He was hilarious and I know he wasn't trying to be, but the fake outrage amused me.

"I might have to agree with you there," I said.

We got halfway around the lake before I realized I hadn't shown him much. I made a terrible tour guide, but I think we both enjoyed the company more; I know I did.

"I teach at that spa over there sometimes," I said.

"What do you teach?"

"Yoga. I also lead guided meditations."

"So, yoga videos and classes? You must really love it."

"I do."

His eyes squinted a bit, like he was processing my words or something. I hadn't said anything too deep. Was he one of those yogi haters?

"A good friend of mine just told me she's into it too," he said. "She says it's for therapeutic reasons."

"Good for her. I think everyone should be into yoga."

"Why do you say that?"

"It's great therapy. I think everyone should learn healthier ways to deal with stress. Sims turn to so many self-destructive ways of dealing with their problems, only to make it worse. Having a healthy body leads to a healthy mind."

"I'm sure Maia would agree. She made me promise to try it with her."

"I hope you do."

I hadn't heard of many men who had platonic relationships with women. Even I had some sort of physical attraction and a bit of lust for my female friends. What was his relationship with this friend?

"So...Maia, huh?"

"Yeah, she's my friend I mentioned."

"I see... Well, I'm glad you'll try it. I think you'll find it helps a lot.

He didn't catch it that time, but I wouldn't let him miss it the next time, and there would be a next time. I was sure of it.

"Over there, you have the splash park. Mostly kids hang out there. We can swim in this lake."

"It's huge!"

"Tell me about it. My dad and I jogged around it once. I think I nearly killed him. There's all kinds of trails around here, but this is my favorite."

As we approached the trailhead, Dub looked around in awe, exactly like I did the first time I visited. The garden was what made it exceptionally beautiful. The way they expertly arranged the flowers and creatively teased the topiaries, it truly was a work of art.

"Woooow. I never would have seen all this back here."

"They call it the Arboretum. You ready to go?"

"Always."

We stretched, and I recommended we take it easy and pace ourselves, but Mr. Funny Man had other ideas. Good thing I was also athletic. I accepted the challenge, but of course, I had to flex on him a few times.

I asked about his family. The fact that he was the oldest of three boys amazed me. With no brotherly figure or close friends in my life, I found it difficult to imagine the dynamics of such a relationship. Would I enjoy little brothers? Would they annoy me? Maybe both because little sisters could be fun and annoying. Dub and his brothers grew up on a farm, and he hated it. Memories of the sights and smells of cleaning out chicken coops and milking cows disgusted him all over again. I would never laugh at anyone's pain, but he was so easily grossed out. I almost wanted to try it to see if it was really that bad.

Naturally, he returned the same questions, and I told him about our family dynamics and how my sister and I bounced between Willow Creek and Evergreen Harbor our entire childhood. I kept it casual and didn't say anything emotional, but he remained silent. Maybe he was contemplating my situation just like I was considering farm life with a bunch of brothers.

We took a few breaks, and he guzzled his water as if he were on fire. I shook my head, secretly laughing at him for dashing off like it was a race. Eventually we arrived back at our starting point, winded but feeling like a million simoleons.

"That was a good run," he said. "Maybe the longest I've done so far."

"Yeah, before I ran around the lake it was my longest too."

"And it was very scenic, like you said."

"You should see it in the summer! It's amazing."

I could tell by how golden the sky was, and the emptiness in my stomach, dinnertime was near. I had another idea I hoped he'd be keen on.

"I'm usually having dinner about now. If you have more time, you wanna go to the best restaurant in San Sequoia?"

"Yeah! Uhh, actually, let me check with Maia first."

See? I knew he'd bring her up again. This dude was in love and didn't even know it, and it was so fun to watch. Even the way he said her name had hearts all over it.

"Of course. I wouldn't want to get you in trouble or anything," I said in a cheeky way.

"Whatever, man!"

He may have sounded offended, but I did not forget that grin. One way or another, I'd get their story out of him. Ugh...I was unquestionably my mother's child.

Wade Banks by @mysimsloveaffair

[astralartefact]

Placeholder Name for Atarase's Media Diary

Entry 006 - The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom <<Prev: Paper Mario TTYD Remake

Synopsis

Once and for all the truth behind the enigmatic Zelda of legend is revealed; We finally get to hear her side of the story - and even the art style won't hide her war crimes.

How much did I know before playing?

I wouldn't call myself a Zelda person, for some reason that's the big Nintendo one I'm just kind of "Sure!" about and yet weirdly enough I've played almost every Zelda. Yes, even both Oracles (twice) and Link's Crossbow Training! I'm pretty sure I've played more Zelda than a lot of people that you would call Zelda people! I don't know either!

Relevant to this one - I do tend to prefer the 3D ones, not really a Link to the Past kind of guy (and yet i've played a randomizer of it before - i don't know, maybe i need to figure something out here about myself, is this imposter syndrome? why won't i call myself a zelda guy??)

Did I like it more than I expected?

About as much as I expected! *thumbs up*

Since I liked it, here's what I hated about it

why is there no retry button on time trials, the menuing & transitions required for one retry take longer than actually loading in the power of technology, 15 year old me couldn't imagine

Speaking of the menuing, it is at a lot of points more troublesome than it feels like it should be, specifically menuing the echoes

the final dungeon was far too short, there was like one single puzzle room where you have to build something for Link but I guess the Final Boss slapped so Jury's still out. Some of the other bosses were kind of a little lame though :(

don't sue me but i don't like zelda's design in this one all that much i ended up using the pyjama for her outfit

I guess I am coming to the realization that I don't actually like the BotW approach to an open-world all that much (which this game also uses) It's not bad bad evil bad or anything - I don't know where in the "the game everyone and even their grandma loved is bad actually" Cycle we're at right now, I know people have turned on ToTK pretty quickly but this is not that - I think BotW, ToTK and this are totally fine in their approach, it's just not quite for me.

Basically, being able to go anywhere and unlock everything at the word go sounds nice but without any "forced" meaningful progression points what ends up happening is that I end up with a murky second act where I'm just going through the motions of "Yeah sure, let's do the stuff I didn't want to do first so I can get to the ending."

And when you can unlock op summons relatively easily from the get go there's also a lot of "Aha!" Moments lost when you can just brute force every puzzle with the Waterblock or the Magic Tile or that Yellow Thwomp Thing or an unholy combination of the three (at that point it feels cool again though actually) before even the half way point and the game doesn't really go out of its way to not let you basically just spam the same echoes to break every puzzle in very similar ways.

That being said you can still of course set yourself rules Nuzlocke style - you have agency over your own interactions with a product after all - and I think this game in particular is great for that.

What did this game make me think about?

Women, am I right. (zelda sweetie, i don't think the devs hate you, i just think they haven't thought all that much about you. i'm so sorry, i know that doesn't make it better. i love you <3)

Specific Impressions that will stick with me

The Final Boss is pretty good and I especially loved how long it was! I know for a fact a certain sect of the internet will complain about it, something something combat is just you standing around waiting for your mobs to do something, but I liked it!

Also, some of the ways Zelda can kill mobs without a sword are heinous in a way even the artstyle cannot hide:

grand scale arson in the middle of a forest

violently ripping off the heads of Dekubabas

the most efficient way to kill those jumping four-legged spider creatures is to grab them and then dive to drown them

hug the electric slime hug the electric slime hug the electric slime

etc...

Outstanding Audio

This is another one where I don't really have specific tracks to highlight, but I thought the Soundtrack was pretty good :3

The only ones that really jump to mind are the Link Mode versions of the Boss Tracks, they did something with those that they certainly didn't do with the normal Link Mode theme (that's the only piece of the ost that i'm kind of :/// about and i think that's just bc it plays so often)

also, the Void(?) OST really reminded me of Super Mario Galaxy

Favorite Character

This is going to be fun because I will argue against it later on, but I did like this game's interpretation of Zelda! I think they used her well.

I'm also always fond of Impa for some reason, but I am sad we didn't get a Dark Impa Mid Boss :((( I was so sure that was going to happen in Dark Hyrule Castle

Also VOLVAGIA IS FCKING BACK THAT WAS ALWAYS MY FAVORITE OoT BOSS btw in general i really liked how they did call backs, it felt like a very cohesive mix of a lot of games and not just the obvious choices

Favorite Arc/Story Line

I actually found most of them sweet :)

Favorite Set Piece

Maybe the Zora Performance or the escape sequence after the tutorial? Since aside from the Final Boss the Bosses were for the most part a little bit lackluster in presentation there weren't really big stand-out set pieces for me :/

Best Performance

Doesn't really apply, but just like with TTYD Remake the speaking noises were really pleasant to listen to, don't know what they're doing with those.

German Localization Notes

Pretty good! *Thumbs up*

--- ENTERING THE PRETENTIOUS SECTION OF THIS ENTRY ---

What about this game gives me Hope for the future of gaming?

I'm glad that games like Zelda keep this sort of more "Formulaic" Video Game alive when more and more things become more free form and "unscripted."

I'm somewhat of a Video Game Meta-Metaphysicist, I guess. (this section hasn't lived up to the section title in quite a while and i'm here to remedy that) (it's also not the right title, i think just meta-analyst is actually more right for what i mean, but that doesn't sound as pretentious and I think calling what i'm doing "thinking about the reason of meta stuff" is at the very least not wrong)

My favorite parts of video game series are always how reoccurring elements and structures are re-used, shared, opposed, that sort of thing - not in an asset-reuse sort of way god forbid ugggghhhh please spare me context-less software engineering talk, that's almost as bad as people talking about immersion as if it's objective - I just love to see how series staples, things that you come to expect from a tangibly related series of games are redone, how they are expressed this time when they were expressed another way that time and most importantly how that creates relationships between entries in video game series and how those relationships create additional meaning - that's the part I'm obsessed with.

Like how in Bravely Default, the letters that fall away from the subtitle are FF when BD is a clear successor to FF Four Heroes of Light, or how Bravely Default 2 doesn't really reuse Motifs from BD1 except for Wicked Flight in that one section of Edna's Theme (and also the first BD2 Asterisk Theme is a battle theme version of Eternity's Moment) I'm obsessed with shit like that ugh!!!

And Echoes of Wisdom has that a lot in very cute ways, I've already mentioned the return of Volvagia but the Ice Temple also had Yetis like the ones from Twilight Princess, I absolutely loved the way Dekus were used this time, it felt fresh and yet also just like I remember them, I loved that we had both River and Sea Zoras,... It shows an appreciation and veneration of the series' own history that is a little bit more internally meaningful than just "fanservice".

I hope in a world where 2B's ass cheeks can be sold off to whoever is willing to pay for them - even the guy that's blatantly ripping your work off while pretty much belittling your games entire point - revisiting the legacies of your games in interesting ways sticks around.

What about this game makes me scared for the future of gaming?

So this is finally the Zelda game where we play as the titular Zelda, huh. Surely there's nothing that that could tell us about how Society views Women and Girls, right...

I said I liked her in this game and I do. I do think the way she's depicted is pretty cool! I like and appreciate that she doesn't primarily swing a sword, that when she's doing that it is an external "Link Mode" and that her game is not just Zelda in the role of Female Link, I think that would have been a lot lazier and not in the spirit of Zelda as a character (even though I would also like to see female link and more importantly male zelda one of these days). (i actually also really liked the Link Mode from a gameplay perspective btw, i think it's pretty cool as a strategic element)

That being said, it is a little weird, isn't it. We have to wait how many years until the name in the title finally gets the sole playable character spotlight because apparently even that "Zelda as Link" quick swap premise was just too far-fetched, a fact that is certainly not helped by this game showing us that Zelda, the girl, can't just possibly swing a sword without some form of magical assistance. She has to summon creatures to do that for her. She has to use the Sidekick to be strong for her. She has to enter Link Mode for her to be able to do any of the stuff Link would do. Her frail little girl hands and feet just simply can't move as fast, jump as high and hit as hard as those of a boy hero.

And sure, we can handwave that away making up some Lore about how Link had Training and Zelda didn't - but Lore is made up, Zelda isn't a real girl we happen to watch a recording of, the writers wrote this, all of this shit is made up. The fact of the matter is that it took years on years for Zelda to finally be the Playable Character (listen it's my favorite but no i don't count spirit tracks) - and as much as I liked it, it's an almost overwhelmingly straightforward take on Zelda as a PC. In everything but mechanics this could have been released directly after A Link to the Past and nobody would have questioned a thing. By which I mean to say:

Why did it take so long to get here? You could have done this game years ago, years and years ago even, but you didn't - for some reason this was such a burdensome step for the devs to take it took this long to act upon something people have been asking for for years - and tbh that kind of makes me worried that this is going to be their one and only take on Zelda as a PC for a while, because again, as much as I liked it, looking at this as "another product of the usual Zelda formula" this was just really fucking basic, a regular ALttP Zelda with a neat little gimmick, but it's something that was apparently that big of an ask. The thing this game has shown more than anything else is that nothing about Zelda as a PC is all that "out there." So then where was she all this time?

The Ramble Section where I get to actually talk about what I thought about

I don't really have anything eloquent to ramble about this once, I'm just currently imagining if Zelda could have worked as the MC in Twilight Princess (pretty sure she could have. easily.) tp was btw my first actual Zelda game, but only since i don't count the oot demo from brawl and also not link's crossbow training. yes i did own crossbow training before twilight princess

Honestly, I liked BotW and TotK but for now I just want another dungeon crawl-centered 3D zelda :/ the dungeons are the best part and were also the parts that were sorely lacking from those two (the ones they did have didn't hit the same at all) - and honestly the weirder their themes the better... like the weird rail sand temple or the ice manor in tp (honestly all of the tp dungeons are exactly what i want out of a good dungeon theme) or the weird buddhist poem lotus water temple and the sandship from skyward sword... (btw that's my favorite 3D zelda, i didn't mind phi and i didn't even mind the motion controls also i really really really like zeldas design in that one it's so simple and so pretty q_q but it's second only to her hyrule warriors design that one is absolute fire do you guys remember they gave her the dominion rod??? i love her she's so pretty)

Like, I want a 3D Zelda with a Demon Train-Train Level, maybe even with a Spirit Tracks gimmick where you have to draw lines to tell the train where to go... that reminds me, as a child I used to design zelda dungeons (and their bosses ofc!) with the weirdest themes and gimmicks I could come up with... I vaguely remember thinking of a desert temple that was a giant pot with the gimmick of growing plants or something? i should do something like that again, those were the good times...

...

...let's face it, as it turns out i was a zelda guy all along.

[kaija-rayne-author]

Reaction to Dragon Age Veilguard Gameplay Preview. Editorial Critique.

Heads up... this isn't the most positive of reviews. And I'm a die hard (bleeding into the dirt) solavellan so if that's not your cup of tea you can stop reading here. Images and videos are all copyright of Bioware/EA. (Updated after the Q&A on June 14th)

Spoilers for all previous games, books, comics etc.

Content warnings for extremely colourful language.

I've worked really high powered corporate jobs, so I can play the part of cool, calm, perfect professional. But this is my gaming blog. I don't censor myself here. I grew up around truckers and it shows 😂.

I'm also neurodivergent so please know my emotions about this are confusion, sadness, a bit of horror, and depression. I've been told the way I use words can be read as confrontational. It's unintentional. (And again, it's my blog, I don't particularly feel it's right or necessary that I mask my AuDHD traits here, too.) I'm honestly not angry, or pissed off, or anything like that. Shrugs. I'm just sad. I don't bother to critique things I don't love. (Unless I'm being paid for it.) Much less to this extent. How much I've written here is in direct relation to how much I love Dragon Age.

Well.

I've watched it. Twice. Once on slow mode so I could get a better glimpse at the details.

I re-watched the trailer that I hated twice more. Again once on slowmo.

What. The. Actual. Fuck. Is. That?

It sure isn't Dragon Age. If it didn't have Bioware copyrighted material, I really wouldn't have been able to tell that it was supposed to be Dragon Age. If Rook had whipped out a light-sabre, it wouldn't have seemed out of setting. I want to play Dragon Age, not some weird Star Wars knock-off.

And yes, I know most of the fandom is going gaga at this point, but I don't understand why people can't see the issues amidst the excitement. Being the odd enby out in this situation is depressing as hell. I want to love it as much as everyone else seems to. But my editor brain won't shut up.

I'm used to having unpopular opinions. Just don't bloody crucify me for these. Editing media is my actual job. It's what I do. It's a highly developed, niche skill set I've been practising for over a decade.

Some people are extremely good with cars, I'm extremely good with editing. I only started doing it professionally because my writing critique partners told me my suggestions and the things I noticed were worth their weight in gold.

TBH, it wouldn't surprise me if I have some savantism when it comes to editing and writing. When I look at a piece of fiction in an editorial perspective, it's a lot like looking at a 4d puzzle for me. I can instinctively see what works, what doesn't, and how things that don't work can be tweaked so they do. I don't meet many others in my profession who do that.

And I have multiple NYT bestselling clients. I'm truly not talking out of my ass here. I'm not perfect, no human being is, but like many middle aged AuDHD/neurodivergent people, I know where my strengths and weaknesses lie. It comes off as arrogance for some reason to many people.

So, back to the preview.

It's got the right voice actors. It's got the copyrighted characters. It's got an absolutely terrible art style that is far too reminiscent of the comics for my taste. Because those comics were a travesty of both writing and art style.

And again, why the fuck does Varric have black hair? He's a strawberry blond! He looks like Varric and Blackwall DAI had a kid together. Or like they shrunk Blackwall DAI down. I don't want Varric to look like Blackwall. I didn't like him that much.

What? Did Varric have some sort of end of life crisis and dye his head, beard, and even his chest hair black? (Much reduced chest hair, fuck Bioware, why did you reduce his chest hair!) Did it all caterpillar its way up to his face? There were story significant reasons Varric was a dwarf without a beard. Did you forget that?

(Update from live stream Q&A. One of the devs said it's because Varric has been adventuring for a time and is mostly grey. That he's shown in dark light so it looks black.) Uhuh.

Reality bites sometimes, cause my dad is a strawberry blond gone grey and he never looks like he has black hair. Not even in the dark. But whatever. They've got an excuse for it. I don't buy it because it doesn't track with y'know, how hair usually works.

I could maybe get used to the steampunk vibe? Big maybe. That's still within the realm of Dark Fantasy.

Also... I've seen some reaction videos and y'all... Dark Fantasy is a genre. It has absolutely nothing to do with the colour palette! It means it's fantasy with dark/horror elements FFS!

I swear the reading comprehension of people has suffered since I was a kid.

But, but, but... if you've been reading me for a while you had to know that was coming.

What. The. Fuck. Is. This?

Walmart Sans? Bad Halloween decor they couldn't sell until it was 99% off at a home goods store?

Is that... is that supposed to be a Darkspawn? SERIOUSLY!?! Given a Warden was fighting it, I have to assume someone at Bioware has ergot poisoning.

It looks like a modern cartoon version of Skeletor. Which is definitely insulting to Skeletor. This dude looks like he's got on his tights, speedo, boots, a bitchin' mohawk, and orange lights on his garb for the Halloween party at the club. He might win best costume, but he fails at being a Darkspawn.

They didn't just swing and miss with going to the club dude, they couldn't even find the bat and glove.

And yes, I've heard the 'lore' excuse that it's the red lyrium warping them that way. I could buy that if they were A) red lights, not orange. B) Kinda spiky, crystal-like in structure. Y'know, like the red lyrium infected creatures in DAI? (That's called continuity.)

The lines are too smooth, bone doesn't warp like that, and he (the ogre version too) seriously just look like really bad Halloween decorations.

Also, whoever drew that needs to study human anatomy a bit more. That skull shape is so wrong. In so many ways. Former forensic anthropologist and artist. I've held more human skulls than people can probably guess. I've literally pieced them back together. I'm not awful at drawing either. That image is just bad.

I'm not a player who lusts to have DAO back as the only kind of Dragon Age. I've loved them all for different reasons. Games change over the years as new ideas, new creators, and new technology comes out. That's honestly a good thing. Innovation is awesome. Most of the time.

Sometimes it's a complete miss. Like with going to the club dude up there. I love a lot about the art in these games. It's a large part of why I play them. And that thing up there? That's not a Darkspawn.

THIS is a Darkspawn.

This is a Darkspawn.

This is a Darkspawn

This is a Darkspawn

They're supposed to be kinda gut wrenchingly horrific. The graphics are older yeah, but maybe you get my point? If you know the Lore of Dragon Age... I've marinated myself in it... the Darkspawn are blight corrupted humans, dwarves, qunari, and elves.

It's supposed to be the whole concept of 'what used to be, but no longer is' that's often used in horror. You know... the thing that looks like it was at one time a deer but is walking on its hind legs with a broken neck and glowy eyes that sends atavistic shivers down your spine?

They aren't... modern cartoon Skeletors or the Halloween deco you hide in the back of the garage 'cause you're embarrassed you ever bought it.

WTAF were they thinking? I honestly can't get past my utterly confused shock on this whole thing.

I've been saying for quite a while now that Bioware needs better developmental and diversity editors. (Or maybe even any? Do they have any? 'Cause that preview really makes me doubt it.) And uh... well. Yeah. That. (I'm an editor, yes. I do both kinds, yes. I'm very good at it, yes. No, this is not me hoping for a job at Bioware/EA.)

I suppose me writing all this down is mostly just to get it out of my head. And to maybe let other disappointed Dragon Age fans know they aren't alone. Given some of the things I've seen on the 'net. I'm far and away from being alone in these opinions. You're not wrong. They've absolutely changed it so much it doesn't even remotely feel like Dragon Age.

And no, before you take that and run with it in an anti-diversity direction, I utterly love that they depicted Rook as Black. I love that Davrin is a Black elf. I love that Neve has a prosthetic leg. It's not the diversity changes I have an issue with. I adore those.

Snorts. Would I accept a job if a Bioware fairy dropped into my life and offered me a good living to look critically at that game for problems that could maybe be fixed?

Probably. They'd likely pay better than my current job. And I really do love Dragon Age so much that if I could contribute to it in a way that made us middle-aged gamers happy too? It would be pleasing.

The likelyhood of that is probably akin to winning the lotto though, so no, it's not the point of my post.

But I'm going to slide this monstrosity of a post toward the devs. Maybe they'll listen to the free editorial critique and make this game make a wee bit more sense? Or at least feel like Dragon Age, sheesh.

Because who the actual fuck wrote most of that dialogue?

I want to point my finger at the ground and scold them like a puppy who peed on the carpet.

Then give them a really basic 101 lesson on dialogue.

It was either boring for the player characters (I absolutely assume it will get better there, it was just the beginning of the game, to be fair). And I definitely trust Patrick Weekes to have done an amazing job as lead writer for most things.

But I really would've figured that Bioware would know by now that fans want to know what the character is going to say exactly before picking an option. Not just a yes, no, mediocre choice. Players have been pretty loud about that. BG3 gave us (mostly) what we wanted and it swept GOTY.

The rest of the dialogue was such freaking factory canned bullshit that I almost rolled my eyes out of my head. Which would've been awkward. Fishing them out from under the dresser and all.

A Venatori shouting 'avenge our fallen brethren' (or whatever, I'm not watching it again to get the exact dialogue) has so much stanky cheese on it I can't even. People don't talk like that. Apparently, a few Bioware writers could stand to take a few writing classes. That's basic.

Patrick Weekes is an amazingly skilled writer. But obviously, not all Bioware writers are. (Snorts, which I know very well and it's why I'm so disappointed they chose Lucanis.)

Although, since Mary Kirby did the writing for him for the game (glares at Bioware) there may be hope for him.

Music? There was music? Hans Zimmer was a bloody mistake. Everything he's made in the past decade has sounded the same. Such a shame, because the soundtrack of DAI was epic.

The demons are fine-ish? I guess? If you utterly ignore how similar they look to Fortnite demons. They look a bit weird, but demons are just emotional emanations from the fade so could conceivably look like anything they wanted. (Lolz, the rather skilled artists I know are kinda pissed off at the lack of artistic skill used for their development. Even the under 30 years old ones. Especially them.)

But also... they had really cool demons already designed from DAI (from what I understand they used the same engine, Frostbite). Why didn't they just give them a glow up and use them?

This dude would've been way better for the pride demon. Plus, there would've been some continuity between DA:I and DA:V. In series work, some continuity is important. Or the thing doesn't feel like the thing. Just like based on those previews this doesn't feel even remotely like Dragon Age.

While I don't have epilepsy, I can guarantee those demons as pictured/audio in the preview are going to give me and probably many other gamers massive headaches. Gods know what they'll do to people who actually do have epilepsy. I mean... there are epileptic gamers. Gaming is supposed to be inclusive.

And I don't really want to fight Fortnite demons. I want to fight Dragon Age demons. I don't like Fortnite. (Or, y'know, I'd spend my money and time playing Fortnite?)

Why are there so many freaking Venatori? I mean... I'm flattered to have been right when I called it that we'd be fighting them again. But in Tevinter Nights they're depicted as being on their last legs as an organization.

They're freaking everywhere in the gameplay preview? You fight so many of them! They're like toadstools after a rainstorm. Popping up like daisies! Whatever. Guess the major amount of bad guys in the Tevinter cities is likely to be Venatori. Which is just weird considering their god, Coryphyfish, is dead.

And dear gods he had better stay dead. He was such a lackluster villain in DAI to start with. And bringing back a previous defeated-supposed-to-be-dead villain is an overused fantasy trope that needs to die the miserable death it deserves already.

Again with the Venatori. A little uninspired to be completely frank.

I bet they have huge spiders in this game somewhere, too. Sigh. Why is it always spiders? Or wolves? Or big cats? It's fantasy! Where is the creativity? (Also, you know that's kinda ableist against people with arachnaphobia, right? Which is a lot of people.)

But I've gone on at length before about Bioware and their ableism issues. (Which is why they need diversity editors.) I personally like spiders, but they could at least stop having them everywhere. Or give arachnophobic gamers the option to turn them off or replace them with a different image.

Moving on from their complete loss of the horror element with the Darkspawn; I wouldn't be scared of that thing even if it surprised me in the dark. I'd laugh at it. (And I'm a jumpy person. A lot of things can scare me if they come at me in the dark.)

And I'll ignore the absolutely uninspired bad guys in Minrathous, and the Fortnite clone demons.

What is that thing Bellara is holding?

It sure as fuck isn't a bow. Someone has been playing Final Fantasy a little too much. Don't get me wrong, I've got a lot of hours in FF. I like it a lot. But one of my major complaints about it? Is the completely, utterly, ridiculous weapons. Someone is compensating. Not sure what exactly they're compensating for but it's for something. Sheesh.

I've always loved the somewhat realistic-ish weapons in the Dragon Age universe. I mean, yeah. Still heavy on fantasy... but they at least looked like they'd work. I loved Neve's reduced staff, that was awesome! Whatever Bellara is holding does not look like it would work.

I remember grinding for days in FF to get a special bow. Bows are my thing in a lot of games. When I got it made, it looked like someone had glued two surfboards together and tried to call it a bow. Bows have to be, y'know, functional? All weapons do? That's rather the point?

So... I'm not an archer and if you are, do feel free to weigh in, but would that thing even work?

A bow is a precision instrument. Our species has had bows for a long damned time and their form hasn't really changed all that much. Because they, y'know, work the way they are, and don't if you change them too much?

You've got the curved wood/horn/other material with a string kind (I'm being deliberately simple in terminology, I do actually know what a bunch of bow types are called) and you have the cross bow type.

What we do not have is front heavy monstrosities like that thing. Okay, okay, she's a veil jumper. Maybe she got it from some ancient Arlathan temple or something. But the ancient Elvhenan were supposed to be technologically advanced. Not Final Fantasy obsessed gamers.

Oh, but what about Bianca, gods rest her beautifully crafted soul. They excused that as a one of a kind thing never to be replicated. It's handwavium, but fine, rule of cool works for her. It doesn't work for whatever Bellara is holding unless they come up with a damned good story reason for it. (And it had better be damned good 'cause that thing might be pretty, but it's just severely uneducated about weaponry, at best.)

Also, why couldn't it have been the less useful Bianca Solas blew to bits? (Can't stand the dwarf version in the slightest.)

Moving on.

The settings look interesting. The teams doing the backgrounds and settings have always blown it out of the park, so I imagine they'll be suitably gorgeous when we actually do see the game.

Though I had sorta expected Arlathan to look a little more... jungley forest like, rather than paved shopping mall. But whatever, I'm hopeful there'll be better parts of it later in the game.

Rook looks like they'll be fun to play. And I really hope we're not class locked as a rogue. Rogues are my usual choice but I'd still like to have the choice. (Edit. Reports say we have complete flexibility in our character creation. I just want to know if I can make a fat adventurer.)

The steampunky science-fantasy vibe. Enh. It's not my favourite. I feel it was a mistake to try to horseshoe the depicted kinds of science into the fantasy of Dragon Age that way. Because it really feels shoved in whether it fit or not.

And I write science-fantasy, so it's not like I don't love it. I adore it. It's just something that sort of has to be designed that way from the start. Which Dragon Age most certainly was not. Don't they ever get sick of retconning stuff? I sure get sick of seeing the retconned stuff.

I could see how Minrathous might use magic in a way that we use neon lighting. Or for any number of cool fantasy type magical uses. I just don't get why it had to look like a Star-Wars knock off. If I wanted to play Star Wars, I'd, y'know, play Star Wars?

I think they did capture the grunge and dirtiness and personality of an ancient city pretty well. Like it almost has a consciousness of its own. But as I've said many places, the settings artists are freaking amazing at what they do.

Although, if they have floaty spaceship like things why exactly are the Qunari even a worry? I don't have strong feelings one way or the other on the Qunari, but I know a lot of gamers were hoping to see a Tevinter/Qunari war. If Tevinter has space shippy things, what threat could the Qunari possibly be? Or even the teased Minrathous monsters?

Last I checked (which was a couple of days ago, re-reading those awful comics) the Qunari were still using bows, swords, spears, and knife type war implements. Some bombs, too, because gatlock. And enslaved, lyrium addicted mages.

Big floaty space-shippy thing means small floaty space-shippy things because that's how invention works. Where are the small ones? That thing is just a plot hole the size of Canada. (And a skilled developmental editor could've told them that before they put it in the sky. Sheesh.)

The fighting and conversation options look very similar to DA2. I liked the fighting in DA2 so after the usual adjustment to a new game it would probably be fine. Not sure how I feel about only having the ability to have two companions.

That art style though? I just cannot imagine having romantic scenes with characters done in that art style. And the Romances in Dragon Age are a large part of why I play them. Cartoon sexy times aren't my thing.

You do you, I'm not judging. But for me cartoony sexy times are just weird. Not sexy.

And no matter what they said after that disastrous character reveal the other day, the gameplay reveal doesn't look different enough for me to not call it cartoony. Especially for those Halloween decorations.

Now, I need to get to the end where we see some weird looking mage who I think is supposed to be Solas.

Really? That's supposed to be Solas?

This is the Solas my solavellan heart fell for so hard I've been simping over him for the entire time since I started playing these games.

Regardless. THIS is Solas.

Beautiful, nerdy, a little stylized, but with an art style that really worked for me (and probably most other solavellans given how much we love him).

So who in the living fuck is this?

I guess he's Solas shaped. But he doesn't make my heart squeeze in that OMG he's finally back!! way. He doesn't do anything for me. All I feel is numbness for that version of Solas. Which is disappointing as hell.

I didn't really have high hopes for him given his early looks for this game, but dang. Just dang. He's like a plastic ken doll. Very much like a too shiny plastic ken doll. And while I know Gareth David-Lloyd did the voice acting for him, he somehow doesn't even sound like Solas?

I've also been sadly informed by someone who would know that that is the absolute best they could do with him. We're not getting him fixed no matter how much we scream. He doesn't even have freckles! (And your eyes are fooling you if you think you're seeing them. Our brains often do that. Fill in things that should be there when they really aren't. There was some sort of design issue snafu which is why he doesn't have and cannot have freckles. This is confirmed insider information.) Freaking Lace Harding is peppered with them. Why can't my Solas have freckles?

Edit from Q&A (I think? It's second hand). Someone said they wanted to make everything look more 'painterly'.

Listen. I paint. Digitally and traditionally. You really have to work at it to get something that texture free. That's not 'painterly' its like... glossy modern playing cards. I hate it. Especially given the kind of fresco style paintings that Solas did in DAI. There is ALL sorts of texture with those.

Sigh. Maybe he'll grow on me. Like virulent mould. (Edit. He honestly hasn't. Every picture I see of him kills Dragon Age a little more for me. Which is bloody heartbreaking.)

IDEK man. I keep asking myself what Bioware was thinking. This game feels like it was made for a much different type of gamer than those of us who have loved the previous games for so very long.

It feels like they were trying to draw in a younger crowd while almost keeping the appeal that held us older gamers. That 'almost' is important there. (Edit. Confirmed by John Epler during live Q&A. This is exactly what they did. I feel incredibly betrayed.)

We older gamers are the ones who've kept hope for this game alive. Who have kept Dragon Age alive. The company made it, but without us hoping for it, talking about it, making mods for it, repeatedly replaying it? Would it ever have gotten there?

And we get Fortnite demons, Ken doll Solas, Halloween decoration 'darkspawn', and space shippy nonsense that kills about 50% of their foreshadowing.

I know I'm not the only older Dragon Age player feeling a little (lot) betrayed right now.

Based on these two trailers (and I'm absolutely praying I'm wrong) I think they failed project Dragon Age. Miserably.

I am pleased to learn that there are confirmed non-binary options for character creation and decent hair. So that's a plus. (Looks at the drops in the bottom of the almost empty bucket and sighs.)

I'd still like to play the game. I'd honestly LOVE to be wrong in my opinions on this. I'd really, really love to be wrong as much as I love Dragon Age.

I will happily sit down to a meal of crow if I'm wrong. I want to be wrong, because I love Dragon Age.

Though, I'm pretty good at prediction. I have stereotypical autistic pattern matching, which is a lot of what prediction is.

But I'm sadly coming to an end of what I'll be able to write about Dragon Age, no matter how much I love it.

My computer, which is literally duct taped together, isn't going to be able to handle DA4. It can barely run BG3 without overheating. As much as I love my computer, (and I really do, I get attached like a lot of AuDHD people do) it has broken or missing keys, and several of the more important keys just don't work. The screen is also starting to go.

I have lived and breathed the art and lore on these games since I started playing them. They're one of my most prominent AuDHD special interests. It's killing part of my soul to know I won't get to play it.

I'm a disabled, neurodivergent editor/author with a family to support. There's absolutely no extra for me to save up for a new rig. I'm ineligible for disability aid because I'm an immigrant. (Not that you can actually survive on disability here, anyway.) And I live in Canada, which is having a rather obscene cost of living crisis right now.

Even with my issues with the... er... everything, I still want to know what happens. I want to see it for myself.

Being an editor makes reading/tv fraught for me. If a piece of media makes me feel like I'm at work I can't really enjoy it. And 99% of books/shows do. (Don't become an editor if you love to read.)

Games tend to have fewer things to trip up my editorial brain. (Not this particular game, obviously 😂.)

That's all to say that gaming is basically my only form of accessible entertainment. I do it a lot in whatever spare time I have.

Even with my misgivings on the previews. I really would like to both play it and be utterly, completely wrong about it. I'd love to be able to keep writing about Dragon Age. But without being able to play the next one, all I can really do is rehash old stuff.

My work of words is my only income. And most writers really don't make all that much. Editors can, but I'm currently working a job that pays less than minimum wage doing editing. I'm under NDA, so I can't even tell people which huge corporation a lot of people use every day pays their editors so poorly.

Doing freelance work, I make between $50 and $70 an hour. Because editing is skilled, niche work. Experienced editing even more so.

That's why someone can be an amazing writer and a shit editor. You really do have to dedicate yourself if you're going to be good at editing anything. Most people don't put in the time or effort. I'm a better editor than I am a writer. (I'm not an awful writer, I just know where my strengths lie 😂.)

But there isn't a whole lot of freelance work available since COVID.

My partner has a broken back from his last job so can't work (and they denied his disability because that makes complete sense) so we barely scrape together enough to pay the bills each month (and lately have been failing even on that).

I think Rook and company fucked up badly by interrupting Solas' ritual. Lolz, I rather hope Solas 'greatly disapproves' in Rook's head or something. That would be bleeding hilarious.

I suppose if Solas had... I dunno... talked to people and told them why he felt he needed to take down the veil it would've helped. But his arrogance always does get in the way. In the writing trade that's termed his fatal flaw.

I think what Rook did at the end there is probably going to get Varric and a whole lot of other people killed.

Solas killing Bianca was awful, yes (and the merciful option, btw, Bianca can be fixed, Varric can't). But I think it's just the prequel. I don't think our beloved Varric is gonna be around long enough to miss her.

[scarletsaphire]

This is the second fic I did for @ecto-implosion. This one was for @skarlettskwrl's art, which can be found here. Very cool art with a very interesting concept, lots of fun to write!

Summary:

Jazz moved away for college to start her own life, far away from ghosts. She didn't expect for her parents to finally capture the ghost boy and bring him to their lab. She didn't prepare to race back to Amity Park in an effort to save her brother from whatever grizzly fate awaited him. No matter how fast she went, she wasn't fast enough, or strong enough. She would never make that mistake again.

Trigger warnings for: Gore, violence, permanent disfigurement, dissection, unwilling transformation, patricide/matricide, bad parents jack and maddie, and wolves

Jazz's heavy breathing kept time with the pounding of her footsteps on the pavement, which in turn matched the pain in her head. She was tired. She was so, so tired, but that didn't matter. She couldn't stop. She was too late as it was.

Danny had assured her that he would be just fine. "You don't need to put your whole life on hold just to look after me," he'd said with a roll of his eyes. "I took care of myself just fine before you figured everything out."

Jazz had mirrored his eye roll. "Yes, because getting beaten up twice a day, failing your classes, and trying to give yourself stitches at one in the morning is taking care of yourself."

"I survived, didn't I?" He'd said.

"No, I'm pretty sure you didn't," Jazz had said. "But you are right. You've gotten better at taking care of yourself. And Sam and Tucker will still be here to clean up whatever messes you make." She ruffled Danny's hair. "I'll accept the offer."

The next few months had passed in a whirl of ghost fights and preparation until the day was finally here. Jazz had packed up her car with her belongings and had driven twelve hours to her new college campus. She'd declined her parents offer to help her move in; she appreciated it, of course, but she wanted to commit to the move - jumpsuits and the GAV weren't the greatest way to make a first impression.

Jazz wasn't able to disconnect from Amity entirely. She watched the news every day, normally as background noise while she studied. It was nice to see what her family was getting up to, even if it was normally accompanied by some kind of massive fight.

It was, of course, stressful. The first few days had her regretting her choice to move away at all, with every live report sending her down another spiral of what ifs. But she had been working on managing her anxiety, and she'd been a part of those fights enough to know how they would go; ghost shows up, Danny kicks butt, their parents show up, Danny runs away. She didn't need to worry.

And then Danny had gone down to a surprise Fenton Bazooka, gotten sucked into the thermos, and been carted away in the GAV, and Jazz knew she had messed up.

She'd already been awake for nine hours before she'd seen the news.

She hadn't grabbed anything besides her keys, hadn't even bothered to check traffic or the weather or anything. She just ran down to her car, skipping as many stairs as she could, and peeled out of the student parking lot. She'd driven as fast as she could, but the drive was still twelve hours, and she had to stop for gas, and she was still human and needed to eat and it didn't matter what she did she wouldn't be there fast enough.

Jazz was beyond tired by the time she entered Amity Park. If she hadn't pulled so many all-nighters in high school and then so many more as a part of Team Phantom, she would've been a mess. But she was fine. She was fine. She had to be fine because Danny-

She hoped that her hunch was wrong.

She hoped that she'd get home, and find her whole family, safe and sound sitting around the kitchen table, fighting off a hoard of ectodogs before deciding that they should just settle for takeout again. She hoped that Danny would be playing Doomed in his room and her parents would be down in the lab, trying to figure out how to remake their technology to not hurt Danny.

She hoped that Danny had gotten a chance to tell them and their love for their son was stronger than their hatred for ghosts or their need for knowledge.

Jazz hoped. But she knew her parents, and she knew, with a sick kind of certainty, what she would find when she finally reached Fentonworks.

Amity Park was nothing short of a disaster. Some time during her drive, another ghost had attacked. Neither Danny or her parents had answered the call, which left Valerie to try and take the threat down by herself. The roads were torn up from the fight, and traffic was at a complete standstill no matter what way Jazz tried to take.

It had only taken a few minutes stuck in traffic for Jazz to ditch her car entirely and start sprinting across town. She ignored the exhaustion clouding her brain, weighing down her arms and legs. She ignored the pain in her chest and her head.

She needed to keep going. She needed to be faster.

It took far too long for Fentonworks to come into view, another small eternity on top of the long one she'd already put up with in the car. She barreled up the front stairs, tugging on the door knob. It was locked. The door was never locked; locked doors didn't do anything to stop ghosts, and that was the only concern that warranted concern in the Fenton household. Jazz fumbled her keys out of her pocket. She squinted down at them, trying to figure out which one of them opened the door.

It took too long for her to figure out which one it was. It took too long for her tired, clumsy fingers to open the door. It took too long for her to get into the house. She shouldn't have left in the first place. What had she been thinking, abandoning Danny like that? Her own brother, who had been working so, so hard to keep everyone safe, and she'd just up and left.

She was a horrible, horrible sister.

She pushed her way into the house. It was dark, and quiet, and mostly clean. That was terrible. The only time Fentonworks was anything comparable to clean or quiet was when her parents were busy. And they were only ever busy when they were in the lab.

Jazz started the walk into the basement on shaking legs. She should be running. Maybe if she ran she would be able to stop them. She would run down the stairs to find her parents standing over an unconscious Danny. They'd be shocked to see her, and listen to what she had to say, and they'd apologize and hug her and Danny would wake up with no memories and a family that loved him.

Maybe, if she had stayed. Maybe if she had been faster. Maybe if she'd been a good sister. Maybe if she'd kept her promise and been the only other Fenton that put family first, that didn't get swept away in their own desires. Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybes didn't matter right now.

Right now, Jazz was descending the stairs, and she could taste the sour tinge of ectoplasm mixed with a too-strong metallic flavor, and she could hear the sound of her parents talking, even if she couldn't make out the words. And then she turned the corner, and she could see.

The portal at the back of the room was the same bright green it almost always was, rendering most of the room as green tinged silhouettes. Everything except for the table in the center of the room, the blinding fluorescents all resting on three people and lighting the scene with blinding clarity. Jazz's family.

Jack had his back to her, humming a familiar tune to himself. His normal orange suit had an additional mask.

Jazz recognized it from a half dozen science experiments the two of them had worked on when she was younger. He'd worn it while they worked on her first baking soda volcano, Jazz wearing a much smaller, teal one. They'd added too much, and had gotten the mixture all over their suits. She remembered laughing about it as they wiped their hands across their faces, trying to clean off their eye protection.

Now, Jack's suit was covered in a bright green liquid, specks of red just barely visible in every splatter. His hands weren't busy wiping off a harmless foam, but carefully depositing something into a jar. It might've been a liver, but Jazz tore her gaze away before she could properly identify it. She didn't want to know what it was.

Unfortunately, her eyes found something so much worse. Maddie was dressed nearly identically to Jack. She was faced towards Jazz, just enough for her to make out Maddie's expression. Her face was steady, frozen in a look of concentration, but Jazz could recognize the glimmer of fascination in her eyes. A fascination that was directed at Danny, lying unconscious on the table.

At least, Jazz hoped he was unconscious. If he wasn't, then he'd be aware of Maddie's hands wrist deep in his chest cavity. He'd be aware of his skin peeled back and pinned to the sides of the table to keep it out of the way, as if it was nothing more than a nuisance for Maddie and Jack to deal with. He'd be aware of the fact that his organs were being carefully packaged into labeled jars, that he was being taken apart piece by piece as if he was some fucked up puzzle that they were going to rebuild later. If Jazz didn't do something, then maybe they would.

But Jazz was going to do something. She didn't know what, exactly, it would be, but it certainly wouldn't be pretty. She wanted to make them hurt, just like they'd made her baby brother hurt. But how could she? Jazz may be strong, but her parents were stronger.

And wasn't that just the theme of the day?

Jazz just wasn't enough. She wasn't fast enough, wasn't strong enough, wasn't dedicated to protecting her family enough to keep them safe and sane. And now she'd lost all of them.

It didn't matter.

She wasn't going to just stand there and watch. Even if she couldn't actually do anything, even if the only result was that she'd end up on the table next to Danny, then she'd do it. Jazz lunged down the next step, charging towards Maddie as fast as she could. She was the one who was hurting Danny. She was the one that needed to be stopped as soon as possible.

Somewhere in her leap, something shifted in Jazz.

Originally, her jump had been clumsy. She hadn't put any real thought into what she would do when she landed, pushed forward entirely by her frustration at herself, at her parents- at everything that had happened.

She definitely didn't put enough power and care to soar through the air, and yet that's what she was doing; her feet were stretched behind her, yet never so much as brushed the ground, even as she traveled further than she had intended to.

That was fine. It just meant she was closer to her goal.

Jazz landed crouched on the ground just ahead of where Jack was standing. She was moving again before his shocked yelp even reached her, continuing towards Maddie. Jazz tackled her, knocking Maddie away from Danny.

Good. That was the goal.

Jazz tore at Maddie with her hands, sharp claws tearing through both protective clothing and skin. Maddie shrieked, the sound shrill and loud. Maybe it was from how long Jazz had been awake, but the sound made her head spin.

She blocked it out. She couldn't afford to get distracted.

Her hand was sticky with blood when she felt the burning pain of an ectoplasm blast, she whirled around, snarling towards Jack. His eyes were wide with terror, a Fenton Blaster pointed directly at Jazz, the muzzle dripping the small bit of ectoplasm that had liquefied during the blast onto the floor.

Jazz almost laughed; was he really so far gone that he couldn't recognize either of his children? He should know that that wouldn't work on her.

Oh well. It worked in her favor.

She left Maddie bleeding on the floor, pushing off of the ground with her hands and feet. She stayed low; the Fenton Blaster might not be able to hurt her as badly as it might hurt a ghost might hurt Danny but it was still unpleasant. As long as he had the blaster in his hands, Jazz needed to stay small and fast. Another blast went over her shoulder, leaving a sizzling puddle on the ground where it hit.

That was her opening.

In just a few bounds, she was next to Jack. She wasn't sure what came over her, but before she could think, her mouth had closed around his leg, teeth digging into soft flesh. She could taste the latex of the jumpsuit he always wore, but the flavor was quickly washed away by the salty, metallic taste of blood.

Jack howled and tried to tear his leg away, but Jazz only bit down harder and harder. Distantly, Jazz could hear the sound of the Fenton Blaster being fired again and again, but Jack's aim was just as terrible as ever. Still, Jazz bit down harder.

The snap of bones between her jaw was not surprising.

Jack was strong, and his continued struggles only put more and more pressure on the bone. Honestly, the fact that Jazz had managed to keep the leg clenched between her teeth in the first place was impressive. With the breaking of his bone, Jack crumpled to the floor, the blaster flying from his hand and skidding across the metal floor with a horrible screeching noise that caused Jazz's ears to ring.

She let go of his leg and made her way so she was positioned just above Jack. His eyes were filled with tears, and broken pleas to not hurt him, to let him and his family go, that they didn't do anything wrong tumbled from his lips.

This time, Jazz did laugh at the irony of the situation, but all that came out was a low growl.

She could spare him; he'd learned his lesson about messing with her pack- he wouldn't be making that mistake any time soon. And he was still her father. Her eyes met his gloves, stained a sickening mixture of red and green.

No.

He hadn't had any mercy on her baby brother, on his own son.

She wasn't going to have any mercy on him.

Once again guided by instinct, she snapped down on his neck. Jack's strangled cry of pain was quickly stifled as he choked on his own blood.

Jazz stood up from the fresh corpse. She should wipe the blood from her mouth, but her job wasn't finished yet. Maddie was still whimpering and moaning from her side of the room, unable to move from the damage to her abdomen.

Jazz could finish her off now. It would be easy.

But Maddie wasn't her priority. She never had been.

Jazz padded up to the table to start assessing Danny's injuries. She could just barely see him, the edge of the table blocking most of her view. She must still have been crouched, even though she felt like she was standing.

She tried to straighten to her full height, only to find that she couldn't. Maybe she'd hurt something without realizing it, but she didn't feel hurt. The only pain was a slight sting from where Jack had hit her with the blaster.

If she wasn't able to stand, Jazz would just have to pull herself up. She reached both of her arms to the table, trying to grab the edge and was met with the sight of clawed paws drenched in blood. She flinched backwards, and the paws flinched with her.

Oh. That was her.

Jazz felt the familiar feeling of panic surge in her chest yet again, carrying with it the taste of bile. She forced it back down and returned to her quest of getting to Danny. She couldn't afford to panic right now, not while Danny was on the table bleeding out. Everything else was a secondary concern.

This time, when she lifted her paws, she did not flinch away. Moving felt weird, now that she was aware of the changes, but she managed to lift her head up to get her first clear look at Danny.

She wished she hadn't. Just as she had seen before, his abdomen had been cut in a neat Y shape, the skin peeled back and held down by evenly spaced clamps. His rib cage was exposed to air, and the left rib bones had been severed, letting her see straight to the thin layer of flesh on the other side, no organs or muscle to block her view. His stomach cavity was exactly that; a cavity. Everything had been removed until all that was left were some twitching muscles.

His face had not been spared from the mutilation. His mouth had been pried open with a metal gag, the device still stuck between his lips. Teeth had been forcibly extracted, the front part of his tongue had been cut off, and dried blood and ectoplasm pooled in his open mouth. His eyelids were pulled back, similarly to his torso, and his eyes had been completely removed. The cavities left behind had been filled with some kind of brownish silicone mixture. They had been trying to make a mold. Jazz didn't know what to do. If she'd had hands, then she'd be able to gather the organs, stitch Danny's torso back together, and inject him with the emergency ecto dejecto. If they were lucky, then he might be ok, at least physically. Eventually. But now she didn't even have that small hope.

She couldn't stifle the whimper that came out of her throat. She couldn't recognize it as her own, far more animalistic than any sound she should be able to make. By all accounts, nobody should be able to recognize it as her, and yet the moment the sound passed her lips, Danny's mouth opened.

His voice was broken, garbled and strained, but his words were still understandable. "Jazz?" he whispered. He seemed to be trying to lift his head to turn and look at her. He couldn't, obviously. Jazz couldn't actually reply, couldn't offer the comforting words she wanted to, no matter how empty they may have been. She couldn't offer the apologies she'd been reciting in her head for hours now. All she could do was whimper again.

"I..." Danny said. He gave up trying to move, letting his head and neck go limp. "I knew you'd come."

If Jazz hadn't forced Danny to drive her to the Far Frozen to learn ghost medicine, she would have panicked as Danny's body started to glow a soft blue, and then started to collapse in on itself until all that was left was a glowing orb in the same color Danny had glowed. But she had, so instead she saw it as a symbol of hope.

It was very, very hard to permanently end a ghost. Most of their physical forms were built on ectoplasm, so they could sustain a lot of damage. Even the worst injuries could be healed in time. However, in the case that they were seriously injured, they could retreat. Reduce themselves to just their core, focusing all of their energy into fixing their form.

Doing this meant that ghosts could heal nearly everything in a matter of weeks, sometimes sooner. It wasn't something that could just happen at any time; the ghost needed to feel truly, completely safe, and even then, it took energy to condense like that, so if a ghost was too far gone by the time they got somewhere safe, they wouldn't be able to do it.

Danny had enough energy to retreat into his core, and had trusted Jazz enough to do it. As long as Jazz kept him safe, then he would heal. He would be ok. Jazz nudged Danny's core gently off the table and into her mouth. She'd seen videos of dogs carrying eggs in their mouths before, and figured that was the best way for her to get Danny out of the lab. She was surprised to find how natural it was, even with how incredibly cold Danny's core was.

Jazz made her way out of the lab, not sparing so much as a glance at the carnage she left behind.

She had already failed Danny once. She wouldn't be letting him down again.

[studentinpursuitofclouds]

hello can I request for one or maybe more inhabitants from each Stardew valley and extension and Ridgeside witnessing the farmer acting strange during weird hours of the night and covered with blood and the farmer doesn’t seem to be hurt at all , the farmer wants warm gentle friendly personality who likes talking to everybody changing to somewhere quiet and distant, causing cold feelings in the air with nervousness and somewhere fear because of the sudden changes, of course the farmer doesn’t directly tries to hurt the other inhabitants but tries to avoid them, maybe even the villagers will go and talk to the farmer in the morning, only to see the farmer is normal and doesn’t have any recollection, got the idea from seeing a beautiful art about the farmer acting different because of the mods. And sorry if it’s confusing English is not my first language.

wish you a wonderful day.

Hello, dear anon ❤️ Don't worry, English is not my first language either, but I understood everything 😊 (God bless the translator, otherwise I wouldn't be able to write headcanons at all).

You got idea from art "about the farmer acting different because of the mods"? I think you meant this beautiful art! by @/a-substantial-trash-pile! (Want to tag artist, but also I don't want to be annoying, will leave a link instead). The last one shock me in a good way, this art is really beautiful and cool ❤️ Enjoy, and have a wonderful day too!

_________________________________________

Sam and Sebastian could have sworn their souls had left their bodies at that moment, and Abigail struggled to keep from screaming. It was understandable for the young trio to react to an unknown figure in the woods, covered head to toe in blood, mud, and Yoba's guess what else. Abigail had dragged her friends into the forest at such a late hour, but she wanted to "see the mysterious tower". They, however, saw someone else.

And what was their shock when Sebby shone a flashlight on the stranger's face and it turned out to be.... A farmer?

Sam relaxed too soon, noticing the face of their all-too-familiar friend, the kind and sweet farmer, as he took a closer look at their eyes. That look... No human being could have that look. Cold, aloof.

The farmer didn't respond to his name. He didn't even budge when Sam asked. Abby and Sebastian huddled closer to Sam, afraid of getting lost in the darkness and not knowing what their friend was doing....

Is that really friend, who was standing in front of them...?

Eventually, Abigail's nerves failed her and she grabbed both boys by the arm and ran with them away from the forest, anywhere but away from.... This.

The horror and scolding their parents after night would make them think twice about going out into the wild woods at late hour.

But their curiosity became stronger than their fear when the Farmer, the same Farmer who had frightened the whole Pelican Town trio, behaved as if the meeting in the dark forest had never happened.

If they claim it was not them.....

Then who... Or what?...

_________________________________________

Not even the roar of corrupt monsters in the merciless Crimson Baldlans had made Isaac grab the hilt of his sword as quickly as his encounter with that annoying farmer not far from the Adventurer's Guild.

No matter how Isaac tried to call them out, insult them, or growl at them, there was no response from them.

Blank, cold stares, their clothes and their hair exuded the scent of blood and steel, but not fear. Their backpack reeked of black magic, stuffed with the loot of defeated monsters, dripping with someone else's, black as night, blood.

Without breaking his gaze with the tense adventurer, the Farmer took a few steps back until their figure was hidden behind tall bushes. Only now did Isaac wake from his stupor and run toward the bushes, baring his sword. However, no one was already there.

What he had told Marlon and Gil about last night's incident had done nothing: they didn't believe his words. Isaac was not surprised, for he had no proof but his words. That didn't mean he wasn't angry, on the contrary. He was furiously kicking rocks near Marlon's guild, cursing at that strange farmer.

Who, by the way, reappeared before Isaac, and only raised his eyebrows in surprise at all the accusations. What was he talking about? They weren't there.

Either Isaac had gone mad with fatigue...

...or there was a threat in the valley far worse than any monster he'd seen in the Crimson Baldlans.

_________________________________________

Poor Sonny had been troubled for days. His job as butler to the Amethyne family was not affected because of it, but Irene couldn't help noticing the huge bags under his eyes. The good-natured butler thanked her for her concern, but assured the worried girl that he was fine. However, Zayne, who had arrived for a few days, overheard their conversation and insisted that Sonny at least rest in the evening. The Amethyne members' words are law for every servants in this mansion, so tired Sonny wanted to visit the fox statue late at night, seeking solace.

Reaching through the forest to the statue, Sonny had no sooner paid his respects to the symbol of the forest spirit than he turned around at a strange sound.

A dark figure, so similar to his farmer friend, wearing a fox mask and covered in scarlet blood, was staring at Sonny like at prey. The old butler realised that all avenues of retreat had been cut off and he had nowhere to run.

But he wasn't going to.

Clenching the symbol of Yoba that hung around his neck in his fist, he spoke calmly:

"Whoever you are, I do not fear you. Yoba and the spirit of the forest will protect me."

Sonny could have sworn something had changed in the gaze of the person who stood before him. Without a word, they seemed to vanish into thin air. With a sigh of relief, old butler hurried back to the mansion.

He was surprised when he saw the Farmer at the next morning, unharmed. Was not them?

All Sonny could do now was thank the spirits for protecting him and ask them to protect the farmer, too, if it wasn't really them...

[dgdraws]

Artfight Postmortem

as you may know, i am prone to reflection on my art and process and progress. herein, i'm gonna navel gaze a bit about artfight 2024.

top line: really enjoyed myself, did a bunch of new things and this was "The Year of Artist Friends" which is spectacular.

i completed 20 attacks this year, including my first ever mass attacks! altogether I drew 28 different characters (incl 4 of my own).

for the first time, I had *users* i wanted to attack, rather than just characters i'd gathered via search or discord. honestly, three years ago when i picked up the stylus i was just excited at the prospect of drawing for other people, period. artfight was a cool way to be in community without prerequisites. i didn't quite dare to dream i might make some real connections and make proper friends. and yet :) here we are! i went in with three 'art friends' and i'm leaving with at least three more

in addition to being the year of artist friends, this could be "the year of clip studio paint was on megasale a week before artfight" because i knocked out like 2 practice pieces before July 1st so i wouldn't be starting with completely unfamiliar tools, but i used/learned csp for the vast majority of my attacks. one i finished in krita (lonnie), and my final attack i only used krita.

definitely trial-by-fired myself! but it motivated me to explore csp, and most important, gave me a reason to practice practice practice. last year i drew almost exclusively humans, lots of full bodys, because i wanted to get a better grip on anatomy and drawing a variety of faces. it worked then, and, well, i think i learned more of csp in one month of artfight than i would have if i was just plodding through my personal projects for 33 days :) *looks at my wip folder with months old files* pretty sure.

ok i'm gonna look at a few faves/standouts now:

came in hot with 0tt0 here! the main brush for this one (froggy pencil) was a mainstay for the whole month. so versatile!!! and lovely texture. this isn't quiiite brat green but this was what made me go, hmm, what if i... did a few pieces inspired by this album i can't stop listening to?

and then i took a huge turn and just used a soft round brush for Desa and Iryna for my dear friend @bobomcfoe bc i really wanted to turn these out in something approaching my "usual style" of late and i feared getting too deep into the temptations of csp if i put them off. and, um, yeah i love them. i got sooo close to matching that angle but ahh i can see the tilt now! nonetheless, love these two, not least bc brookie has some of the most pleasing color palettes to work w :)

then on to Rosé and baby's first vector lines! you can RESIZE lines in csp. did you know that? i didn't know that. i did forget to use it as much as i could have in later ones though, so i still only kinda know it ig. and halftone shading! bc why not? another thing i really only did this once, but want to experiment with more

Rook here, for my new friend @gender-premium-tm, was me realizing how to use filters/filter layers in csp. now THAT is something i used a lot this month! also something i use often in krita. i must say, though the csp options are slightly more limited (afaik), they have oomph!

okay these two are my "explicitly brat pieces"! artfight keeps you moving, which i find really valuable, bc i could have dithered foreverrr over Lonnie's gif here. like, do i add his arm? maybe he should be wearing a shirt? or, what if i just draw him twice, instead of splitting the expressi--see it just never ends. and as i am always going on about, art is so precious bc it is a reflection of us when we make it. maybe for some future artfight i'll redraw this (as Lonnie's artist @wenmistry did for me with Ebon this year), but for july 2024, i'm amazed at how well i executed this for just 2.5 days of work! (i did forget his glasses, which realization gave me a different take on the composition, so this is high on my list of potential redraws)

and then Aagatha. this is in my top 3 for this year. the pink just works so well with the green and her artist added the song to her character playlist AND added the necklace to her actual dnd inventory. like. omg. the impact your art can have!!! how freaking cool is that???

two mass attacks! i was in a silly goofy mood. i feel like i really got a handle on vectors w the anthro mass attack, i adjusted every single point on that one by hand. weird what hyperfocus makes you do sometimes, but i learned a lot from that. mainly that i will probably never user vectors as my main linework tool. there are circumstances it is perfect for, and outside of that i'm good w my raster lines lol

which is exactly what i used for this other mass attack, featuring mostly my ocs. hey, sometimes you need to shake things up! i can see here the style starting to hew back to my "usual style", though i'm thinking that might have a lot to do with drawing 5 people very quickly. falling back on practiced techniques. and by this time i apparently knew csp well enough to reproduce them pretty closely! ooh, one thing this made me miss was the transform tool in krita. that floor was ROUGH to wrestle into place in csp.

purple and green turned up a lot this year!

Echo is my crowning achievement with the froggy pencil, most of the shading here is just layers w that. and one last nod to brat green :)

i've worked in the paper cut style before (both my pfp's use it) but i really exploited csp's clipping layers to make Scraps here. they did make me briefly forget how they work in krita when i switched back, so well done w that

i played with gradient maps a little earlier in the month but for Okanar i actually made my own gradient! really a useful tool for ref'ing real human skin tones to make non-human ones, without muddying them up too much.

finally, Chaos. this actually might be my favorite! ironically this is the one that i made in krita. it was like, ahh, yes my old friend. wait where is the scroll bar. ah, okay, yes my old friend... the line layer is set to burn which just makes the whole thing so warm (and the cause of the red outlines on the earrings). used my old sable brush, a pattern fill set to overlay... my old stomping grounds! but plus a rendering technique i picked up this month and some other random habits i picked up in csp (like copying a detail to a new layer, moving it where i want a copy, and drawing/tracing it back onto the original layer in the new position. nothing i couldn't have been doing in krita all along, but made easier by the tool layout in csp, and therefore now discovered by me. amazing how one integrates new knowledge. it's like magic sometimes!!!)

that was a good roundup! if you actually read this to the end, wow! and thank you! i hope it was interesting... and inspiring! bc i want to read about your process and reflections too! yes you! and plz tag me, i'm always down to gush about art XD

[amethystfairy1]

hi I'm back, back again. I did more art, this time of witch Martyn, bc I LOVE him :)))

also I have more questions for u

so u know how u said in ttsbc that it's respectful to learn the courting rituals of the individual you're trying to woo? Well, I was just wondering if that happened with doc and Etho, and I did some research, and...

I might draw this lol. I'm picturing Doc just SCREAMING and Etho w/ a thought bubble that just says "hot" LOL.

Anyways the question was over whether doc ever did that for etho or vice versa, but considering the rituals, I'd think not...

2. For traveling thieves, do the collars respond to intentions? In the latest treebark fic, the guy says "do not harm him" whilst referring to Martyn, which made me wonder how vague it could get. Could you say "don't go too far away" in leu of any other movement restrictions (ex. Grian's old "don't fly higher than twice the height of the market), and the collar would just understand? Or, even vaguer, "don't do anything I don't want you to do" to prevent any loopholes people like Pearl would find?

3. Are witches that rare/powerful? Ren comments that Martyn could have the world eating out of the palm of his hand, just because he's a witch, which makes me wonder how important they really are. For example, would he or Gem have more authority? Also what powers do they have besides the training in healing that Martyn got? Any fighting ability, or stuff like that?

ok that's all, have a good day :)

Hello!!!

I SAW! I SAW WITCH MARTYN! He's SO PRETTY! I absolutely ADORE HIM! Thank you so much for drawing and sharing him! I reblogged him as well, I absolutely love him! Super super cool!

Doc just screeching at Etho and Etho doing the like anime girl blush is absolutely hilarious to me. Y'know what. Headcanon away. I love this idea. 😆

Questionsssss 🏃‍♀️

2. Ok, lemme see if I can explain this properly. The collars respond to an 'understanding' of the order. They'll enforce whatever the hybrid hearing it understands the order to be. So in this situation, Ren understands the arena master is referring to Martyn when he says 'do not harm him' so therefore the collar accepts that as the order, and Ren can't make any aggressive moves toward Martyn without triggering it. For your other example, if someone said to Pearl 'don't do anything I don't want you to do' there's a million loopholes in that, because Pearl doesn't know for sure what her master does or doesn't want her to do. I mean, obviously they wouldn't want her attacking them, but like...what if she attacked some other guy? What if she flew really high in the sky? What if she stole some food? She doesn't know for certain that those things aren't things her master would want her doing, so the collar wouldn't trigger. Another example would be if someone said the same thing, 'Do not harm him' but the hybrid truly didn't understand who was being referred too. Then the collar wouldn't trigger. They didn't understand. Of course, in these scenarios, most hybrids as we know them would ask for clarification to ensure they didn't disobey, but even still, that's how it would work. Hopefully this makes sense!

3. Witches are quite rare and powerful, yes! Not to the extent that they're insanely rare and completely unheard of, but like, if you saw one walking down the street, it would be quite the event. Most major cities have a coven of witches established in them, but that's only a few dozen individuals within a population of tens of thousands, so that's still quite rare. Martyn is headed out into the sticks, so the more remote areas he heads too probably only have one witch per town, and so that witch would command a great deal of respect and their word would carry a lot of sway. Martyn being someone on the same playing field as those sorts of people automatically makes him very important. Comparing him to Gem isn't exactly possible. Gem holds a ton of authority in the underbelly of cities and with the mercenary guild, but with your average person...well, they wouldn't even recognize her. Like in the story where she and Pearl are going after that dude, he doesn't recognize her as the Slayer, she has to tell him that's who she is. Martyn is obviously a witch, from how he dresses to his charms and pendant, you can tell at a glance, so that's a much more sweeping sort of authority. He'll come into any conversation already being heavily respected and any average person would take him at his word. As far as powers go, the thing about witches is that they have an incredibly high level of inborn mana, to the point that they can actually die from mana overdose as kids if they don't find someone to help them with training, and we hear about how this almost happened to Martyn, but lucky his teacher took him in. Witches are special because they have unique inborn skills, such as the pocket dimension spell 'Inventory' (yes I know I'm very clever 😭) and also several different appraisal skills. But that's not all! They also aren't restricted to one form of magic. Martyn studied healing magic, but he can still cast fireballs, ice spells, weather magic...pretty much nothing is off the table for him so long as he's at least passable familiar with it. He might not be as good as an expert, but he can pull it off. The only sorts of things he couldn't do would be nature magic, which is specific to elves. But basically any magic a human is capable of, Martyn is capable of. And he also trained and studied for the purpose of being able to mimic and manipulate spells and mana usage that he sees off the cuff, unlike mages who would need to train up to using spells in their domain. And Martyn isn't trained as a fighter! He can't throw a punch, but he can throw a fireball! That's why he needs Ren, because like all good witches, he needs space, focus, and casting time to get spells off. Suddenly being assaulted by bandits on the road by himself wouldn't end well for him, so he needs someone like Ren who is capable of physical combat to keep him safe and give him that time to get his magic going!

Jeez that was long-winded...whoopsie! Well, I hope you enjoyed my rambling! Thank you again SO SO SO much for the witch Martyn art! I will cherish him! 💖

[babacontainsmultitudes]

In Defense of the Other Teens

Hello besties :)

SO how about that last episode huh? I've certainly seen a lot of interesting takes and cool art and all that come from it!

And I'm... Here to offer my two cents.

Alright y'all, a few things before we actually get into the meat of it. First, this is a long post. Like, even by my standards this post is pretty fucking long. I hope that I'll be able to keep you entertained throughout at the very least, but maybe grab a cup of tea or coffee or the like before venturing under the cut.

Second, my stance on things will become pretty clear I think fairly early on, if you haven't already put two and two together from the title of this post. That said, there are some fairy bold claims I'm gonna make here, and the fact of the matter is some of them may very well be disproven as soon as today's Teen Talk drops. But I wanted to get this out beforehand, partially as a show of faith in a certain someone, and partially cause honestly I think it's good to practice giving oneself room to be wrong about things. That said, there are still many other points that I think remain important regardless of what we find out next episode (or in teen talk), and I hope you'll find those interesting as well.

Next, honestly, the first few chunks of this little essay really start out as more of a rant/vent than a tight analysis, and I kinda start things in a weird spot if I'm being frank with you, so maybe just try to bear with me for the first few parts, ok? They're still important for the bigger picture I'm trying to paint.

Finally, if I come off as a little extra salty and sassy in this one, I am, but I *promise* it's all in good fun. :)

Alright, so let me tell you my thoughts about Lincoln.

You know what I think? What I honestly, genuinely think? Linc is the most selfless of the teens by a long shot. Like, there's literally no competition. Enough "all he wants to do is help other people and all they ever do is betray him" with respect to Mr. TalkedGrantIntoAPanicAttackThenLeft and more appreciation and recognition for Lincoln Li SayHiToYourDadForMe Wilson, I'm begging you. I could sit here and start listing examples of Linc's selflessness to you for a good long while, but really no set of examples could better illustrate what differentiates Linc from the rest of the teens than this exchange:

**

Scary: "Chosen one…""

Jodie: "Bat’tholemew, we don't use those words." 

Scary: "Somebody they wouldn't expect."

Taylor: "It's me. It's got to be someone that they don't expect."

Scary: "Yeah." 

Taylor: "Yeah." 

Scary: "It's got to be somebody who's really earned—"

Taylor: "Somebody who’s really earned—" 

Scary: "—the respect."

Taylor: "—the right to... And all the knowledge of all the animes together…"

Scary: "Somebody with more knowledge than anybody else."

Taylor: "Someone with— who knows what to do. S… "

Scary: "Somebody who knows what to do to step up."

Taylor: "Somebody who can step up and be the chosen one."

Scary: "And be the chosen one."

Link: "Hey…"

Normal: "Guys, I think… I might be the chosen one…"

**

Yes, funnily enough, it's Linc's absence here that says a lot about him rather than his presence.

What's more, I frankly just don't think it's fair that Linc can do *so much* for the people around him but the *one time* he decides to do something that (seemingly) goes against Normal's plan, it's depicted as some ultimate act of betrayal or Linc "giving up". I feel like we significantly understate how much the other teens *have* done for the sake of Normal's plan (seriously, are we actually gonna ignore Linc stabbing his leg on a candy cane- TWICE??), and how much they've lost in doing so. If every time they fuck something up undoes everything they've sacrificed or done right, well, that's quite the negativity bias!

So why don't we talk about Linc's decision, actually. Did we just witness Lincoln finally snap? Has he given up on Normal's plan to help the doodler? Has he given up on using empathy? Did Lincoln Li Wilson choose the easy option? I would say no! No to all of those! And I think especially upon a relisten of the final moments in the last episode, Linc's train of thought when he breaks the pic is actually quite clear. And yes, this is about Linc showing empathy towards Scary, but I want to talk about the actual implications of that a bit further as well. Let's start by looking at the final bits of dialogue leading up to the breaking of anchor:

**

Linc: "Scary, what are you even doing?"

Scary: "You gotta destroy it"

Linc: "We can't- you just heard the Doodler's gonna make the world worse it's gonna kill we just gotta find something, why do you have to destroy it-"

Scary: "You don't know that!"

Linc: "I mean you don't know it's not that way we can find another way to destroy it"

Scary: "No, Willy said that it's easier to control if we destroy the anchors"

[ANTHONY EXPLAINS THE SPECIFICS OF WHAT WILLY WOULD HAVE TOLD SCARY]

Linc: "Well we're not gonna do it that way okay, come on like, the easy way is-"

Scary: "Who died and made you the leader?"

Linc: "The easy way is usually the bad way right? Sometimes the better thing is harder."

Scary: "This is easier what you're just gonna tell the pic 'Oh I love you I'm so nice to you' and it's just gonna give you all its secrets that's not how life works."

[LINK TRIES SAYING I LOVE YOU TO THE PIC AND NORM EXPLAINS THAT HE ALREADY TRIED THAT]

Linc: "Okay well like you're right it's gonna be hard but- I know it's not a person but I don't want more people to die we've already killed enough people like can you just do one thing with us and just try to find a way to make this-"

Scary: "The Doodler is gonna kill more people you're not seeing the bigger picture!"

Normal: "What no, Linc don't listen to her!"

Scary: "Listen to me!"

[AND THEN LINC SNAPS THE PIC]

**

Okay there's... A lot to unpack here. I'll start by pointing out what I think are a few key things to take note of:

- Linc is seemingly adamant on choosing the empathetic route and not letting any more people get hurt

- Linc affirms that sometimes the harder route is the better one

- Scary rejects the notion that simply saying "I love you" or otherwise being kind in words could actually do anything

- Norm says "don't listen to her"

- Linc's decision to break the pic only occurs after Scary says what she does (above point), seemingly in conflict with what he himself said only moments prior about not taking the violent route.

What I think needs to be understood about Linc is that, more than anyone in the group, Linc's decisions are calculated. Yes they often catch us off guard (seriously the amount of times Linc has done something that's made me actually gasp in shock is a bit crazy), but once the dust has settled, his decisions are always clearly consistent with who Linc is as a person and his philosophy, and accordingly, never come from a place of selfishness. The humor of it aside, when Linc says that he never misses any shot that he takes (:( Can't find the exact quote), he is entirely correct (and admittedly while I probably should gather various examples to show you what I mean, Linc swapping places with himself and Nicky really is the most perfect demonstration I could possibly ask for, as it showcases both Linc's aforementioned selflessness and how Linc's seemingly shocking decisions are never actually accidents or executed with uncertainty on his end). Try to keep these above points in mind as we move forward.

Next, let's consider the pros and cons for Linc of breaking or not breaking the pic, as seen from Linc's perspective. I suppose the general impression I've gotten thus far is that many people seem to be interpreting Linc breaking the pic as a likely (or sure) sign that he has "given up" on Normal's plan, and given in to choosing the "easier" route. This, I perhaps a bit boldly argue, raises a number of questions and ultimately implodes in on itself as an interpretation after even a brief consideration of them. At the most basic, and perhaps least interesting level, it's not like it would be that hard to search a little bit for some demonstration of love (especially with a certain pair of will-they-won't-they partners not too far away... Though I feel like the pic also could have been interesting as applied to some of the other characters around right now? Anyways...) You could say then, that maybe Linc simply doesn't care about using empathy, and has ultimately lost confidence in Norm's plan by this point, so he takes the path of absolute least resistance cause, well, whatever. But wait, didn't Linc *just* say that they weren't going to do things that way, and that he doesn't want more people to be killed? (You might say then that he thinks Scary has a point on "not seeing the bigger picture" and believes that choosing violence here will result in less deaths, but frankly I just don't think there's anything promising or compelling enough about Scary's argument here for Linc to have any real reason to believe it, all the more so given Willy’s involvement). Are we to think, then, that Linc changes his mind purely on a whim, and a whim influenced by Scary of all people no less? Frankly, I see this as a severe underestimation of Linc's strength of character, and this is where we really do need to consider the degree of calculation and confidence that goes into Linc's decision making and risk taking. What I'm saying is, Linc simply doesn't fall victim to selfish impulses that way (and within the group this is a quality unique to him!). Moreover, even if Linc might have his doubts in Norm and his plan, he still has significantly more reason to go with that than to listen to Scary. Seriously, Linc has every reason to not listen to Scary here. When it comes to what Linc cares about the most, Scary has without a doubt harmed Linc more than the Doodler ever could (The significance of Tony Pepperoni being stabbed in Linc's home in front of his dad  c a n n o t  be forgotten or understated!!!). Even if Linc didn't care at all about showing empathy to the Doodler, if he were acting purely out of selfishness he would still have more reason to do so if only because it means not giving the satisfaction to or otherwise helping Scary (and Willy).

But Scary is confused, and Scary is lonely, and from her perspective she probably does feel betrayed. We (and Linc) are given some important information regarding Scary in this episode. Firstly, we get a glimpse into how Willy has twisted things and convinced her that violence is the better option (not because it's easier per se, but because more people will apparently be saved in the long run). Second, Linc finally understands what Scary needs... Or at least what she doesn't need. Specifically, he understands that simply saying "I love you" isn't enough. He understands that Scary will never believe it no matter how many times it is said, and that to really prove to Scary that she is loved and get through to her, he needs to show her, has to prove to her that, despite everything, he is still on her side.

Linc, I dare argue more than any of the teens, has so much reason to leave Scary behind. But he understands her now, and, against Normal's wishes, listens to her. In a weird way (if I'm not dead wrong about this whole empathy thing), this kind of is Linc's "throne of the doodler" equivalent. It would be so easy to not break the pic, to not choose to (help and) empathize with Scary after all the pain she has caused him, but that's not the kind of person Linc is, and I hope the points I raised earlier make that reasonably clear.

So no, I don't think Linc chose the easy option. I think he believes himself when he says that sometimes the harder route is the better one, and followed through on this when he took his shot.

Sincerely, if you think the Doodler is just a scared teen deserving of empathy and sacrifice and making tough decisions, but Scary isn't, then I think you've missed the point. The Doodler is just acting out and needs help, but when Scary or Linc break an anchor through violence (be it violently empathetic or not), we give up on them? We hope for Normal to abandon them when they're hurting and depict it as deserved or even righteous? I can't get behind that, I'm sorry. 

Furthermore, whereas Norm would certainly be justified in feeling concerned for the Doodler's sake if Linc's actions count as an act of violence, apart from that like, if Norm chooses to interpret Linc reaching out and showing support to someone as lost and alone and in need of help as Scary as a personal attack against him, either as a betrayal of their friendship (Norm is very jealousy-prone we’ve known this from the start!) or as a direct attack against Norm's perfect little violence-free narrative that lets him be the hero regardless of who gets left behind wait does he actually just hate Hero cause of her name hm, then that is, respectfully, completely a problem with him, and not with Linc. I think if Normal actually snaps from this, then his entire philosophy of choosing empathy is based on a lie, and Norm just wants to follow the narrative that allows him to be the hero on paper, so that everybody finally loves him.

Well that's a bit harsh huh. Believe it or not, I'm genuinely not trying to throw Norm under the bus here. But... I am trying to expose his flaws and shortcomings in relation to the other teens. This is important moving forward, because in refusing to seriously acknowledge the fact that Norm, while still having plenty of good in his heart, is someone who can be quite self-centered, and ultimately cares about being well-perceived and loved first and foremost, we become blind to the ways in which Norm, like Scary, is vulnerable to future instances of manipulation. That bit on appearance vs. true compassion isn't mere interpretation, by the way, Will has stated this quite clearly in episode 27 of teen talk (and in general I'd really rather not rely on that kind of bonus content in these sorts of posts but, well, it's hard to ignore this):

**

Will: (In reference to Norm's scene in the pride layer) "I feel like I understand Normal better now, like a kind of darker side of his psyche that's different from Henry... Like Henry's very concerned with being a good person but I don't think is super concerned with whether people like him or not, whereas Normal is like a little concerned with being a good person but *mostly* concerned- it's two different ways to solve love [he explains what it implies for Henry], the other is 'if everyone else likes me, that means I can take that in as well'."

**

I need to stress that I am not trying to imply that Norm is anywhere close to being a bad person, btw. Normal, like everybody else, has his flaws, but has proven that he has plenty of good qualities as well. What I *am* trying to imply is that Norm does have a tendency to put himself at the center of things, and is from a more meta standpoint benefiting from a narrative that puts him at the center of things (more or less guaranteeing that he will be seen as a hero of sorts no matter what- evident even in how fandom largely depicts him vs the other teens), and I'm just saying that if ever he found himself in Oakvale by some chance he might really appreciate the enforced anti-violence initiative put in place by the town's noble leader who really just gets him and praises him and-

I know (almost) nobody wants to hear this, but if Normal actually had a villain arc, it would most likely consist of him falling down the same path that Barry did. Barry was a hero, on paper. And the people around him certainly saw him as such, and loved and accepted him in some sense of the word, which is what he truly wanted at the end of the day. And he got rid of all the violence!!! 

But none of that makes Barry a good person.

*sniff sniff*

Hey... Has anyone else noticed the distinct lack of stinky weebs in this post?

As much as I myself am a bit more interested in the Linc side of things right now, I do need to talk a bit (or a lot) about Taylor too. My little guy! You haven't even had a proper, serious character arc yet and people have already decided that you don't have a shot vis a vis the upcoming anchors, despite easily being the most emotionally resilient and stable of the group. You know what, I'm gonna throw in most loyal too. If you'll humor me...

Taylor may not be the most empathetic of the teens (in fact, he may very well be the least), but this doesn't mean he doesn't care, and doesn't mean he isn't kind in his own way. What's particular about Taylor's brand of loyalty compared to the other teens that I think might make it a bit easy to overlook is that it while it is very strong, it tends to be reserved only for the people he chooses to call his friends (oh, and his mom!). There's no question of Taylor's choice to disregard what Nick tells him and go back to save Linc from the FBI, it embodies some of the most fundamental parts of who Taylor is as a person. Which I guess is to say that, there are ultimately only so many people Taylor chooses to have in his circle, but those bonds are extremely important to him, and he really is ride or die about them. I think that this aspect is most obvious when looking either at Taylor's relationship with Linc or Cassandra, but also with Hermie actually! Oh, and similar to the example with the FBI, Taylor's response to the whole Tony situation is perfectly consistent with this aspect of his character as well. Tony was not part of Taylor's circle, not someone he chose to let himself get attached to (because when Taylor gets attached to someone, it is indeed a very deliberate choice), so no, he's not gonna care that much about Tony's death. But he is bothered by Scary's betrayal. He is bothered because, even if they weren't the closest, Scary was, I would argue, still part of Taylor's circle. And yes, he is bothered by Linc leaving him alone in the last episode for the same reason, except that in this case it's probably worse actually. I know I'm straying pretty far from the original topic here, but still I think it's worth exploring the interesting position this puts Taylor in going forward, especially with respect to Nick. 

("Seriously baba when did this become about Nicky literally what are you talking about right now?")

Thus far, Taylor has made it very clear that no, he is not going to allow Nick to be someone he becomes attached to. There's a risk, in loving and becoming loyal to someone as strongly as Taylor does, and Nicky has not yet proven himself to be a risk worth taking. So what happens next? Nicky is (finally) around after all, so what might the future hold for little Taylor? On the one hand, Nicky's "words of advice" might begin to get through to Taylor, which could leave him in a pretty dangerous position. Taylor takes a big risk every time he lets someone in (everyone does but Taylor more than all the others because of how fully he loves and trusts and protects, is what I'm saying- er... He's a lot like his dad that way actually!), so what if Nick convinces him that nobody is worth that risk, and that everyone you hold dear will ultimately betray you? Well, I think we'd be left with a very lonely Taylor! Conversely, what if Nicky decides to prove himself worthy of Taylor's love? What if Taylor comes around and lets him in? ahaha shit I feel like there's a bad joke to be made about Taylor keeping his dad at arms length and his dad not having any arms right now god fucking damn it what even is this post. Will Nicky be able to maintain that trust? If he abandoned Taylor again, after Taylor has allowed himself to become attached (or if something happens to Nicky cause lets face it horrible things tend to happen to Nicky), I think Taylor might finally have a hard time getting back up.

What the fuck was I talking about? Oh yeah, so I guess going back to Norm, on the one hand, I guess on the more extreme end Taylor could actually take Linc's actions very hard, in which case I actually could see him sticking with Norm as an act of self-preservation. That said, I don't personally feel that this will be the case, that Linc is still ultimately in Taylor's circle, and accordingly Taylor's loyalty towards Linc will persist, albeit perhaps with a seed of doubt sewn at the back of his mind. And I don't think in that case that it's fair to frame this as Taylor betraying Normal? As others have pointed out, Norm frankly just hasn't really earned much in the way of Taylor's friendship. Really, as far as I'm concerned, Taylor doesn't really owe Norm much of anything at all. From the very beginning Norm has made it clear that he doesn't particularly care for Taylor, and ultimately has let his own jealousy and desire for attention (especially Linc and Hermie's attention) get in the way of ever really getting to know or appreciate Taylor beyond the surface level. Would I call it betrayal for Taylor to choose to continue to support his best friend instead of the guy who told him that anime isn't real? No, and I think the double standard is pretty obvious if we consider the reverse. That is, if Taylor chose Norm over Linc, after everything he and Linc have been through, would we be framing Linc as the victim of some grand betrayal? I genuinely don't think we would, at least not to the extent that we would with Norm. I suppose I'm saying all this, because well as aforementioned I just find there's been a lot of undeserved cynicism towards Taylor, and I think a lot of it does genuinely come from Normal's privileged position within the narrative as its de facto "hero" and what is most convenient for maintaining that image (and when I say "hero", that does include "righteous villains" who "deserve(d) to snap", just so we're clear on that).

Hmmmm I kinda wanna talk about Taylor and Normal as each other's foils but this post is getting a bit long isn't it... *Sigh* Not today, no, not today.

......Okay but still I have to say that if Taylor actually does finally get his "main character moment" I actually think that would be a great opportunity for Norm to acknowledge, reconcile, and learn to cope both with his jealousy and the parts of himself that are self-centered. Conversely, if Taylor does for one reason or another stray a bit too far into the habit of keeping people at arm's length out of fear of abandonment, betrayal, or the like, I think he could learn something from Norm too (having trouble phrasing exactly what I mean here, so perhaps I'll save the full notion for another time!)

So that's... Yeah, I think that's the most important stuff. I debated on sort of elaborating on examples of Norm's major character flaws, but despite everything my intent here was first and foremost to offer a "defense of the other teens" more than anything else. Though I will say that I think there is something to be said about how Normal's self-centeredness gets in the way of his ability to actually help those around him (Grant and Taylor both being great examples in "The Staircase"), how this contrasts with Linc's willingness to actually listen to and figure out what Scary needs in this most recent episode, and accordingly what Normal could potentially learn from Linc about not just choosing the route that's easiest for you.