#expect more gen v to come from me

[myhyperfixationisiforgot]

Jordan Li possesses me. She's bi-gender. She fucks. He used to be a little boy and some of that never faded away. People only take him seriously when she's a guy. He's got hangups about being a girl who fucks girls. Her clothes only fit when she's a guy. She's so fucking mean. He's an overachiever. Her parents show up unannounced and she hides the nail polish before the bong. He is rude as fuck to one (1) hot girl who calls his shit and they have sex within the week. Her best friends are actually, somehow, more fucked up than she is. I am obsessed.

#i watched this entire series in the past two days and i am transfixed #anyways #jordan's weird feelings about being queer and gender made me feel things STRONGLY #expect more gen v to come from me #jordan li #gen v

[24hlevi]

— lonely star

cate dunlap (gen v) x gn!reader

genre: hurt/comfort

summary: cate has always been hesitant to trust others, and you're the first person who wasn't afraid of her. but, can this lonely star be able to genuinely trust you?

warnings: language

wc: 2.4 k

yeah im a cate apologist so what?

from the first meeting, you knew what kind of person cate dunlap was. troubled? maybe. traumatized? so was everyone at the school. lonely? definitely. you were the first person to genuinely trust cate without any fear of her powers. at first, she was lost as to how anyone, especially you, would be accepting of who she was.

cate dunlap was a lonely star in the world. thankfully, you showed up to make it better.

“do you ever take those off?” you asked her once, gesturing to the gloves on her hands.

“no,” cate shook her head. “they never come off.”

you tilted your head to the side lightly, watching cate look down at her hands almost with shame in her eyes. you rose from your spot on the chair in the room, walking to sit down next to her with no words spoken. the blonde girl stared with those beautiful eyes you always adored, looking at you confused.

“would you take them off for me?” you asked quietly.

“what?” cate said just as quietly. “i don't think that's a good idea.” she said, nervousness evident in her eyes as she shook her head.

“i trust you, cate,” you told her.

now she looked at you with indecisiveness in her eyes, as if she was debating whether or not to do it. hesitantly, she slowly took off the gloves, immediately balling them into fists as she waited to see what you would do. she didn't know what to expect, but she definitely didn't expect you to carefully grab her hand as if she was made of glass and would break at the slightest touch, the warmth of your hand touching her own made her feel things. things she couldn't explain off the top of her head. it was a nice feeling, one she hadn't felt in a long time.

then, you raised her hand to your lips and placed a gentle kiss on it. when you looked at her again, she had tears in her eyes. holding her hand in yours, your unoccupied hand gently touched her cheek, looking back at her with genuine care and love in your eyes.

“i don't want you to be afraid anymore, cate. at least, around me. i trust you, okay? i know you wouldn't hurt me on purpose. just, please don't be afraid around me. because if no one else is, then i’ll be the one person who genuinely believes that you won't hurt me,” you told her in a soft voice.

a few stray tears fell from her eyes at your words, and she was at a loss. she couldn't respond with words, too emotional knowing she would completely break down if she tried. so, she leaned forward closer to you and pressed her lips onto yours. more tears falling when she felt you kiss back, her hands were shaking from so many different things. the fact that you willingly touched her hands without a single ounce of fear, the fact that you trusted her not to hurt you with all your heart, the fact that you were kissing her like she was any other normal kind of girl.

you grabbed ahold of both of her shaking hands, interlocking your fingers with hers and pulling away from the kiss. the two of you stared at each other for some time, until she hugged you so tightly you could barely breathe.

“thank you, for not being afraid of me,” she whispered into your neck.

from that day forward, you were the only person that cate trusted. sure, she might still wear the gloves when around others including you, but when you two were alone she never had them on. she was worried in the beginning that she might accidentally do something, but you reassured her that even if she did, you wouldn't be mad or upset about it. not everyone has full control of their powers. it was understandable. but, she still had her worries and doubts.

there would often be nights spent together in one of each other's dorm, quietly talking to one another and she would again voice her concerns.

“y/n,” cate whispered to you.

“mm? what is it?” you whispered back, looking down at her.

“why do you trust that i won't hurt you?” she asked.

“what?” you said, rolling over onto your side to see her better. “what do you mean?”

cate’s eyes averted downward to the bed when she responded. “i just…want to know why.”

reaching forward, you grabbed one of her hands, feeling her body immediately tense as you intertwined your fingers with hers. “i’ll be honest, i don't really know why. i just have a feeling you won't. i know it's not a very good answer, but it's the truth. you might have hurt people in the past, but i know you wouldn't do it on purpose to me,” you told her.

“i see,” she nodded slowly.

carefully, you wrapped an arm around her and pulled her closer to you, the two of your faces merely inches away from touching. “i know you have worries about it, cate. but please, don't be scared of it. even if it happens, i won't be upset with you. okay? no one else gets you like i do,” you quietly spoke to her.

“okay,” she nodded again.

a small smile formed on your face and you gave her a quick kiss before pulling her even closer to you. cate rested her head on your chest, listening to your steady heartbeat and holding one of your hands, playing with your fingers a little bit. she then fell asleep shortly after, feeling safe with someone for the first time in a long while.

it was nights like those that cate always remembered. no one else even dared to touch her without the gloves on, and yet, you touched her like she was normal with and without them on. she didn't understand it. why you would be so believing that she wouldn't do it to you even by accident or some random instance. you didn't even have a valid answer as to why, which left the blonde more confused.

cate believed that everyone would hate her for her powers, and the majority did, except for you. you were the only one that didn't think she would hurt. she had her worries about how you would react if she did it to someone else, and you said as long as it was with good intentions, it would be okay with you. then she grew more confused. good intentions. were there ever any good intentions at the school? not really.

cate rarely worried about using her powers on someone other than you. she always made sure there was good enough reasons to back her up, even if it was close to being irredeemable. her explanations as to why she did it were good enough, so she just stuck with those.

slowly, cate let go of her fear of using her powers on you. it hadn't happened in the months you two had been together, so she stopped worrying.

until the day it happened.

cate was having a stressful day, beyond stressful, her day was going terrible and was seemingly only getting worse. she was irritated at everything and everyone, she wanted to just scream and make everything go away. then, you showed up at her dorm room.

after knocking a few times, you walked in the dorm to see cate sitting on her bed with her hands pulling at her hair. you quickly rushed up to her and looked down at her. “cate, baby what's wrong?”

she looked up at the sound of your voice, but the glare sent your way was enough for you to take a step backwards. “leave me alone right now,” she told you.

shaking your head, you sat down next to her. “i’m not leaving until you tell me what's wrong,” you replied. “i just want to help.”

“please y/n just go,” cate sighed, putting her face in her hands that weren't gloved.

“sorry but no,” you said, grabbing one of her hands which made her look at you again. “what's wrong?”

“it's nothing,” she shook her head, pulling her hand away from yours. she could see the way your eyes were saddened at her action, but she was too upset to care at the moment. “i just want to be alone right now.”

“cate,” you said softly. “please let me help.”

“i don't need your help,” she said more aggressively. “what i need is for you to go away.”

“no, i’m not going anywhere,” you told her, grabbing her hand again.

cate stared at you with an angry glare, glancing down at your hands connected with hers and placing her unoccupied one on top of yours. “leave me alone for today.” she told you in a low voice.

the second those words left her mouth, she had realized what she had done. from the moment you stood up without a word, cate tried calling your name to get you to turn around, but it was no use. she fucked up big time. she completely forgot what she was upset about when you closed the door behind you, leaving her alone just like she wanted.

immediately fear and worries flooded cate’s mind. how were you going to feel tomorrow when you were knocked out of it? would you never talk to her again? would you find her just to express your feelings and leave her alone again? she started to freak out. she didn't know what to do, so she just sat in her room and stared at the wall in silence. surely, you would be angry at the reason why she did it, and that she did it at all. she didn't know what she was thinking, she just wanted to be alone from everyone. but, she didn't want to push you away. yet, that's exactly what she did.

the next morning, cate awoke in her same spot she fell asleep in, sitting up on her bed leaving her with a strained neck. she looked around thinking you would be there next to her, only to remember yesterday's events. “oh fuck,” she mumbled to herself.

she quickly left her dorm and went asking everyone if they knew where you were. unfortunately, no one knew. so she was left scurrying through the whole school trying to find you. by the time she gave up and was heading back to her dorm, she found you standing in front of her door for the room.

“y/n!” cate exclaimed, running up to you.

when you turned to face her, she felt her heart drop at your expression. you had new bags under your eyes likely from staying up the night before, your hair was a mess, and you looked at her with a look she was terrified of.

“do you mind if we talk inside?” you asked, getting right to the point.

“that's fine,” cate nodded her head swiftly, opening the door and walking inside with you following behind.

you closed the door behind you and sat down next to her on the bed. she looked down at the ground, playing with the material of her gloves as she anxiously waited for you to speak.

“why did you do it?” you asked her, not even looking at her.

of course that would be the first question you asked. the question she knew you would ask after she realized what she did. cate continued looking at her hands as she answered. “i…just wanted to be left alone. i didn't mean to.”

“do you not want me around anymore?” was your next question.

that one she didn't expect. her head shot up as she looked at you, quickly shaking her head. “no, no no that's not what i want. i was just stressed and needed to be alone.”

you finally turned your head to look at her, and seeing the afraid expression on cate’s face made you release a sigh. “i’m not going to leave you, cate. don't be worried about that. but, i also want you to know that i’ll always be here for you. whenever you need it, i will be here. i don't want you to think that you have to be alone anymore. because you have me. so please, don't push me away. i…love you a lot,” you told her.

cate froze upon hearing the last words you spoke. love? she must have heard you wrong. there was no way someone like you could love someone like her. it didn't work like that. she could feel tears welling in her eyes as her vision became blurry, trying to blink the tears away. “you…love me?” she asked in a tiny voice.

“yes,” you nodded. “i love you more than anyone else, and that's the truth. you're the only one i can tolerate at this fucked up school. every day is like hell here, but, you make it better. even if you don't notice it. you make my life a lot better, cate. so yes, i do love you.” you grabbed her hands and wiped the few tears falling from her eyes.

a short sob escaped from cate’s lips, and you pulled her into your arms, letting her cry into your shoulder. her grip on you was so tight that you couldn't let go even if you wanted to, and for the first time she completely broke down. she thought that no one would love her. her own family didn't anymore, so why should anyone else? she was forced to be alone for so long that she had almost forgotten what it was like for someone to genuinely love her, even after all that she's done. she was starting to believe she didn't need it, the nice feeling of being loved by someone else. but, you came into her life and changed that.

“i love you too,” cate mumbled into your shoulder. “you're the only person i care about in this shitty place.”

“i know,” you nodded, gently kissing the top of her head with one of your hands rubbing her back. “but trust me when i say i won't be leaving anytime soon. i’ll die first before leaving you.”

“let's not manifest that,” cate said, lifting her head from your shoulder. “i don't need you dying on my watch.” she poked your cheek.

“i was kidding,” you chuckled, patting her head. “but i won't leave you, i promise.”

“you better not.”

#gen v #gen v amazon #gen v prime #gen v x reader #cate dunlap #cate dunlap x reader #cate x reader #gen v imagine #gen v scenarios #cate dunlap imagine #cate dunlap scenarios

[boinin]

btw, block #blue lock leaks or #blue lock spoilers if you want to filter out my babbling any time we get a new chapter 🐞

So, first thoughts on this week's leaks?

there's just this panel of Isagi's legs in the air. not a football in sight.

🌈🫡 never change blue lock never change ✊💙

More seriously, it's really wholesome how most of the team pile on to celebrate with the winning duo. KURONA you guys, he doesn't even hesitate!! He's so happy for Isagi

LOOK AT HIM ON ISAGI'S BACK OMG

Guess who I'm going to next...

I can't wait to see this in the official release, but damn... The Emperor is Not Happy. It really reminds me of Isagi's DAMN IT panel from chapter 230—probably on purpose. Kaiser is Michael's ideal after all... but is the novice beginning to surpass the star?

Not pictured in the leaks: Kunigami or Yukimiya's reactions. Hmm... We do get wonderful reaction shots of the two coaches and Ness, as well as a disappointed Ubers. Also no sign of Barou—they're saving that confrontation for next week.

We get some interesting panels of Hiori too. Waiting on the fan translation, but to me it seems like he's going to put off quitting... at least while he's motivated to pursue goals the way he did with Isagi this match.

look how gorgeous and HAPPY he looks here, I'm going to cry 🥹 he deserves the world

But for me, the key excitement came towards the end of the leaks. Because we didn't get just a glimpse of what's going on beyond the Ubers match...

We got the full-ass ending of the Manshine City v Paris X Gen match.

GUESS WHO'S BACK FRIENDS AND FANGIRLS

ITOSHI MOTHERFUCKING RIN IS MAKING HIS RETURN

oh and nagi i guess. whatever

.../s Don't come for me. I love Nagi really, but we've seen plenty of him in his spin off.

I was not expecting to get this level of detail on our favourite edgy emo. Rin is absolutely dominating PXG by the looks of it. Isagi can't rest on his laurels yet.

I was also not expecting our princess to be the sole scorer of this match! On the one hand: COME THROUGH MY STRAWBERRY HAIRED SON! ❤️❤️❤️ I'M SO PROUD OF YOU! I wish they showed more of Chigiri this chapter... but at least they gave us chapter 213.

But still, damn Manshine... get it together.

It could be years until we get the full story behind this match—but Nagi seems to be struggling just as chapter 207 foreshadowed. It's hard to believe he couldn't motivate himself against Rin, who's another established rival of his. Ah well. Maybe he'll redeem himself against Ubers and Barou?

Overall, cracking chapter... and I haven't actually read a word of it yet!

#these are the rayuga leaks btw - I touched the images up to make the lineart clearer #yes this is nanowrimo procrastination #yes I'll log off and go write... once I read the summary #blue lock #blue lock spoilers #blue lock leaks #blue lock manga #blue lock manga spoilers #bllk manga #bllk chp 239 #isagi yoichi #hiori yo #kurona ranze #michael kaiser #itoshi rin #nagi seishiro #chigiri hyoma #boinin talks bllk #long post

[kiss-seokjin]

My Time, Our Time

Synopsis: Your V-card will be lost one way or another, why not lose it together with your boyfriend of two years?

Pairing: Jungkook x reader

Genre/ au: smut, fluff, established relationship, university au, pwp

Rating: 18+

Word count: 656

Warnings: Loss of virginity

Smut warnings: Missionary, protected sex, grinding, making out, groping, aftercare, big dick Jungkook

Ty @mimikookie for beta-ing for me!

You eagerly push Jungkook onto the mattress. He smiles as you climb on top of him. Straddling Jungkook, you grind into him. Your lips press against one another as your hands roam each other’s bodies. While he is some months younger than you, you’re still both the same age – twenty. For a split second you get a flashback of when you first met: two years ago in one of your gen ed classes. His bright doe eyes and bunny smile lighting up when you both realized you shared multiple classes together.

The feeling of his growing member pressing against your core makes you feel more needy. As your hips sway into his, your lips pry each other open, tongues meeting. You eagerly unbutton his shirt, yanking it off as quickly as you can and throwing it aside. You slide off your shirt and hastily undo your bra. Throwing them aside, Jungkook sees your bare chest for the first time. His hands grope your breasts, his eyes open in an odd fascination.

Soon his member bulges in his pants and Jungkook groans.

“Fuck, Y/N,” he mutters.

“Ready?” you ask and he eagerly nods. You roll off him, allowing him to get up. As you remove your pants and panties, Jungkook finishes undressing and grabs a condom. He removes the package and puts it on. When he looks up, he sees you on the bed, legs spread, your pussy open in full glory. He groans at the sight as you eye his girth. It’s huge, you think to yourself.

Jungkook walks over and climbs onto the bed. Crawling between your legs, he positions himself above you. You wrap your arms around his back as he holds your hips, placing his cock at your entrance.

He looks at you with his doe eyes, now dark from desire, asking one last time for permission. You softly nod and he presses into you. You grit your teeth as you feel your walls expand for the first time. Jungkook coos at you, kissing your lips as he stops part way in, allowing you to adjust. It’s all so much.

Your walls slowly loosen up as you relax, so Jungkook pushes deeper gradually. Inch by inch, he slides into you - slowly filling you up. Finally, he’s fully inside you, letting you adjust once again. 

You sigh, easing into his touch. It’s not like what you expected at all.

Once you're ready, you nod at him again. Jungkook pulls out halfway before thrusting back into you. His thrusts are soft and gentle, slowly making the bed bounce. Jungkook whimpers as he thrusts, feeling your walls suck his cock as he goes back into you.

His balls graze you, catching you off guard as the bed creaks. You moan, your pleasure slowly building. You softly smile while Jungkook glides into you, gasping when he grazes your cervix.

“Mmm, Jungkook,” you mutter without thinking. His face lights up a bit at that and he slightly picks up pace.

He continues to thrust at this speed, but not for long as his hips shake and buckle. He gives one final deep thrust before cumming. He groans in pleasure and you wrap your legs around his waist. You grind against him to ride him through it.

When he’s done, you let go of him as he slides out, plopping next to you. You cuddle up next to him, mostly satisfied but wishing you could have come too.

“Can I top next time?” you ask.

“Sure,” Jungkook replies, a soft smile coming across his face. He gently kisses you, lips lingering for a moment before he pulls away. “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

“Aish!”

Jungkook smothers your faces and neck with kisses as you squirm in delight. You love him so much.

As he pulls away, he flashes his bunny grin. 

“Want to wash off together?” Jungkook asks.

“I’d love to koo,” you reply, smiling back.

#micdropnet #bangtantheatrenet #kbookshelf #52hertz #btswritersclub #bts #fanfic #jungkook #smut #fluff #established relationship

[phoenixtakaramono]

Kittens, I’ll be honest, I am getting a wee annoyed at the one remaining shadowban on my Twitter acc persisting. *stares mournfully* I just wanna post art on both of my socials and/or perform experiments to see if I can continue freely updating my little spontaneous drabbles threadfics. 😑

On the flip side, it’s been a nice one week social media break from Twitter lol. Then the shadowban got reinstated when I tweeted a pic of being freed from the Shadow Realm, which is very ironic and hilarious in hindsight. So if you saw that pic and then noticed me immediately ceasing all activity ever since, this is why.

Presumably after a couple more days or 1 week of inactivity (hopefully this doesn’t last 1 year), it should be all green again. I’ll probably wait a couple more days to 1 week more max before tweeting anything.

In the meanwhile, current plans for my stories after I come back from my writing break:

Truce ch3 will be next to be updated. The temptation is really strong to wait till S4 of The Boys airs because there’s a small part of me that’s afraid of conflicting what’ll undoubtedly be presented differently in canon, but I’ve been pacifying the urge by watching Gen V with the Boyscord boys. If you notice, there’ve already been mentions of Sister Sage, Firecracker, and even Tek Knight (*coughs* TK is more subtle because he’s only been indirectly foreshadowed via SwingWing in ch2 for ch3 and not outrightly mentioned unlike SS and F) in Truce. And watching Gen V, thankfully, has given me good ammo with the characterization of TK at least and given me food for thought with the Supe virus that’d been in the late Dr. Edison Cardosa’s possession now being in Victoria Neuman’s possession (*coughs* I can see the future bioweapon potential, especially if/when Billy gets his hands on it and he’s gone off the deep end).

I will do my best to keep Truce contained to 4 chapters only. *knocks on wood 3x* I did mention it’s essentially 12 chapters being condensed into 3, which then became 4 because I’d ultimately decided for chapter 2 to be split into two parts (ch2 and ch3). But at the end of the day, this was always intended to be a PWP and as a sort of gateway fic for people to be more interested in The Boys (TV) and spreading interest of this small enemies-to-lovers rarepair I’ve come to just adore. Somehow the self-indulgent fic where I’m just writing shameless old men p*rn became what it is today, haha, but I’m the type of writer who prioritizes “plot” and “character study” and worldbuilding so in retrospect it’s very on brand for me to write p*rn with some serviceable plot, haha.

After ch 3 is updated, unless I desperately need to take a break and jump to another fandom for a bit (*coughs* SVSSS), ch4 should be next to be worked on. This is also if I’m not hit by the strong urge to work on TNotG ch2. So what’ll come next after updating ch3 will be dependent on burnout and what strikes my writer’s whim.

But after ch4 is published and, hence, having finally completed the Truce saga (there will be a future Wedding oneshot I’ll write that takes place post-Truce universe and after a timeskip of events that won’t be covered in Truce because otherwise it’d be turned into a full on 20+ chapters, but that oneshot follow-up will be written sometime later), unless I’m heavily feeling TNotG (which is a real high possibility), what’ll be next to be updated is my Bingyuan magnum opus: The Untold Tale.

I’d written a little April Fools 2023 threadfic for TUT ch6 so if you’ve read it, you know what to expect. We’re bringing in Shen Yuan’s divine family. If there’s one thing I personally don’t like in my own writings, it’s having OCs in my stories unless it’s strictly necessary—so to strike a happy medium I’m bringing in technically canon characters (his parents, two older brothers, and little sister) but turned into PIDW fictional versions of “Shen Yuan’s” family, so technically this is my personal go-around to trick my own brain to not see them as OCs. There’ll also be a scene involving Bing gē. All and all, TUT ch6 is more of a transition and set-up chapter for the more exciting ch7, where we will get to see the transmigrated royal Airplane Shooting Towards the Sky for the first time. And I will have an illustration of him and potentially Mobei jūn. But before we can get to the exciting chapter, ch6 has to exist first, haha. But I hope when I return—jfc, I see 1.5K of you have bookmarked this fic 😳 I am honored but also a little nervous, haha—that you’ll still love the story. <3 Having been in The Boys fandom for awhile with its modern lingo, I hope you don’t mind if I take the time reimmersing myself into the headspace of TUT’s C-novelesque writing style. It might take some time but the payoff will be worth it. <3 Because I do notice quite a few of you lauded the writing style of TUT in your Bookmark notes. Which I am quite appreciative for and humbled by, though it does require me to be in the mindset to write intentionally flowery prose, haha.

It’s during this time, since Truce will be completed at this junction of time, I should be slowly migrating over the four threadfics from my Twitter to AO3. If you know, you know. Three of them, as I said, will be adapted into long fics (the M3GAN-inspired AU, the Fix-It AU, and the Sugar Baby AU). I’ll categorize them under what I’ll likely be calling either the Who Dares Wins series (‘cause it’s the SAS motto, y’get it? *wink wink nudge nudge*) or the Shock and Awe series (because it’s also another military operation name). Whichever I choose, it’s because Scorched Earth had already been taken so to be unique, I gotta go for something else cheeky but hopefully easy to remember by—aka the series of AO3 fics adapted from my Twitter threadfics. <— The only caveat is if I discover writing threadfics on Twitter will still get me shadowbanned. If this is the case, then I will be relocating them early after my experiment has been conducted even before Truce ch3-4 and TUT ch6 are written. There’ll be no real update schedule right now for them; these fics will be updated spontaneously because 80% of the content is being adapted from content that’ve already been written so it’s a bit easier for me to crank out (it’ll just need to be polished). What’ll be slow is if there are any new story content that’ll be added to the polished long fic versions.

Lastly, what’ll be next after TUT ch6, unless I’m very excited to get started on TUT ch7, is a toss-up between updating A Prince and His Baron and The Name of the Game. It depends on where my creative whim oscillates to at this junction of time.

So this is the plan! Take it with a grain of salt for now if a different story of mine will be strongly speaking to me and I change my mind later on, but this is the current list I have of my update schedule, adhering to the pinned post on my tumblr. ✨

#phoenix talks #TNotG (bc it’s so long projected at 135ch) is a special case #so I might decide to update it between each different WIP chapter update #the 🧵fics turned AO3 long fics will be updated spontaneously #the idea is to have the majority written on Twitter & still be updated on Twitter #whilst the polished versions are being slowly posted with more details & in past tense #and with potentially new content added #TUT is also one of the fics I wanna legitimately finish; thankfully it’s just ~20+ ch

[wishing-stones]

Omg your choices on a team based on the bad boys are perfect! I completely forgot about Darkrai, even with the pokedex in hand. Although my knowledge on Pokémon isn't really... updated. I stopped accompanying the franchise when Alola was announced, I kind of lost the hype there and seeing Scarlet/Violet now makes me wonder just how long it'll take for me to learn all the new mechanics and changes (the whole Gigantamax thing completely eludes me). My knowledge is more centered towards Kanto, Hoenn, Unova and Kalos at best, although I do grasp a few concepts from Unova thanks to a Pokémon Emerald hack rom.

Back at the boys, I thought about Dream and Nightmare's relationship as Pokémon. Since they're opposite aspects, I thought of something like Yveltal/Xerneas or Lunala/Solgaleo. What's your thought on this?

I've kept up, but my neat party trick of "name the Pokemon based on its cry" has kind of fallen off after gen v. I can do it with some of the newer ones, and a lot more with gen vi than gen v, but when they updated the cries in gen vi to sound more... organic? It kinda messed with that ability. LOL. The mechanics and gimmicks in each game... are okay, but I wish they'd standardize it and let old mechanics come back with the new ones. Gigantimax/Terra raids would massively benefit from each other AND mega evolutions. Ugh. Whole separate rant alongside the newer generations not having a complete pokedex. Rom hacks are always morally correct, and Citra is a great emulator if you feel like venturing into those games. (I'll always recommend the Ultra versions of sun/moon to the previous versions because the story is much better and the gameplay is more cohesive.) Still, S/V is a lot of fun, the open world is a wonderful feature, and I'm having an absolute ball playing the DLC. I also loved Sw/Sh a lot and easily put in over 400 hours on Shield. Then again, I am an absolutely unrepentant wonder/surprise trade addict.

As for Dream and Nightmare, Darkrai conveniently has a foil in the form of Cresselia! She is said to be able to dispel nightmares, and holding one of her feathers induces good dreams. Her relationship with Darkrai is also... hot and cold. Sometimes she's cooperative with it, other times she's there to chase it off. It really depends on which pair it is since there's several. While she has the moon motif (as opposed to Darkrai's new moon/black moon motif) it still fits very well. She has a lot of healing and support moves and is seen as a benevolent being in opposition to Darkrai a lot. In the games (Gen IV) you even have to get Cresselia's help to dispel Darkrai plaguing a kid with nightmares.

Solgaleo and Lunala are also great choices for them with the sun/moon motif. Yveltal and Xerneas, to a lesser degree, as they don't really do the domains of life and death as much. One could make an argument for Zekrom and Reshiram, even-- with Dream pursuing his ideals, and Nightmare stubbornly sticking to (his) truth. (And also giving them the opposing colors, with Zekrom being black and Reshiram being white, to subvert expectations. Love that.)

#k answers #feat. dream and nightmare #pokemon stuffs #Professor K infodumps

[zalrb]

I have some familiarity with The Boys, but not much. Isn’t the point that people, when they have godlike powers from being injected with Compound V, will abuse their power no matter what? It doesn’t matter to me that Homelander couldn’t consent to receiving Compound V as a baby when he was a fully cognizant adult when he commited atrocities.

So I think it’s an odd choice that the latest episode of Gen V is trying to have the audience sympathize with supes when the virus is the only line of defense that humans have against them. None of the main characters display any care or thought toward regular people; they just want to major in crimefighting at Godolkin and then because members of The Seven. They want fame and notoriety. All of them have suffered in some way, but they haven’t seemed to extend understanding and kindness as a result of that suffering, like when Andre accidentally ruptured that lady’s neck at the party, nobody seemed concerned about her and now it’s been forgotten. So I’m confused as to why the show expects me to feel bad for the characters, especially Sam, when I’ve seen the violence he’s capable and the lack of genuine remorse and not seeing him try to do better outside of Emma. I was honestly just watching for the mystery of The Woods, but now that that’s been revealed, what else is there?

Isn’t the point that people, when they have godlike powers from being injected with Compound V, will abuse their power no matter what? It doesn’t matter to me that Homelander couldn’t consent to receiving Compound V as a baby when he was a fully cognizant adult when he commited atrocities.

Honestly, one of the problems with The Boys is that it loses its own messaging and it muddles what it's trying to say (sound familiar?). But, like, we are supposed to believe that Homelander's upbringing contributes to his psychosis because he was raised like an experiment or an object without the warmth of a parent, hence his deeply disturbing obsession with milk, and then being in The Seven with Homelander at the helm and Vought as backing corrupts the other members like Maeve who has a conscience but has also done terrible things and she goes through her redemptive arc but then you have Starlight who is supposed to be "good" and doesn't allow herself to be corrupted after potentially going down that path in season 1 etc.

So I don't actually see the point of Gen V. Even when I thought the show was going to be about Marie wanting to be in The Seven to prove to her sister that she wasn't a monster, I thought the premise was flawed because The Seven is made up of supes who have literally committed crimes against humanity and are virtually indestructible so I was just like, wouldn't that just reinforce Annabeth's view of her? And then when we get to the school we see, as you said, Andre etc. getting high, Andre nearly killing someone and all of them only thinking about themselves and then when we meet the other students in the university, they're already pretty terrible so to turn around and be like Godolkin is the real villain has me like ... how? WE KNOW NOTHING ABOUT THE SCHOOL. Or the characters. And how is this different than watching The Boys and Vought? I never cared about The Woods because in The Boys, they already had a storyline like that with the Sage Grove Centre where they experiment on civilians and then Lamplighter (a Supe) burns them alive to destroy evidence so The Woods just had me like, well, yeah, we've established that they experiment on people, why is this any different?

It would've been more interesting if they explored teens/young adults whatever having to deal with the fact that their parents juiced them with V as babies and they now have powers that actually ruin their lives and saddle them with trauma like Cate telling her brother to leave and never come back and him listening to her and then her parents turning on her, I would've rather see her deal with that in real time, see Marie dealing with killing her parents in real time, instead of The Boys 2.0 that has even less character development than The Boys.

[just-sp-in-inginthevoid]

Hey! How about Wakasa for the character ask game?

Thank you for asking!! Didn't expect him at all, so that's v nice!

My first impression

Ah. Ikemen — niccce

Oh wait Black Dragon founders??? HELL YEAH; important AND interesting! Bring BD lore in!

My impression now

He carried sm and he deserves his vacation and to be drowning in beer doing nothing but fishing all days like he dreams to. Shinichiro's death and reveal about Time Leaping messed with his head a bit so that's why he's not as energetic as he was as a teen. When he makes a decision, he knows it and what it can trigger but he still does it cold-headed if he feels he has to. Wish we had more on him so I could dig more without feeling like I'm making things up. Ikemen.

Thanks you for revealing the fact Shinichiro was a time leaper, Wakasa

Favorite thing about that character

He knows how to keep secrets but he reveals them when he feels it's necessary. Keeping secret and being trusted is good and all, but the fact he's willing to share the truth after years of silence because he thinks Mikey deserves to be told? To know exactly what's happening to him and why? To know about what his brother's done? It may not change anything to Mikey's state (it likely didn't) – it's too late –but at least he'll know why.

He's the sole reason we got the Original Timeline flashback/arc. And for that reason only—

Least favorite thing

Like the rest of BD 1st gen: How little we saw of him!!! :(

There's too little information!!!

Also the fact his hair was half-cropped disturbed me at first (but I've learnt to love his zebra haircut)

Favorite line/scene

"Honestly speaking, I'm glad Manjiro died." (Chapter 270)

Where he was coming from was understandable – but that was still unexpected and the fact he said that to Shinichiro out of everyone.. Wakasa mourned Mikey already, and cannot bear to lose Shinichiro. He rather lose his friend's brother than his friend. And it's not like he takes the value of Mikey's life away (he suggests to celebrate his passing after all) but Wakasa is not one to have a confused and unsure mind. He doesn't like wasting time with overthinking. He has clear-cut answers to everything, and he's glad that Mikey died, and it's sincere – he's not a liar – and he was scared he'd completely lose his friend and he really, really thinks that now that Mikey's dead, Shinichiro is freed of every burden (he'd take a while to recover but he will, it's Shinichiro) and then it doesn't happen. He loses his friend anyway.

His introduction scene is one of my favorite too – first we can't see him coming, and then he's so tiny next to Kakucho???

Favorite interaction that character has with another

The hime moment avjfklalxkb big brother figure Waka W

The mutual trust he and Benkei have when fighting (and outside of that, I'm sure) is also top-tier

A character that I wish that character would interact with more

Sanzu and Takeomi. Takeomi, because Wakasa and Benkei are only ever seen interacting with Shinichiro and Takeomi's chapter is 3/4 about Shinichiro but there's this uncomfortable wall canon (unwillingly or not) but between Takeomi and Wakasa&Benkei that I Don't LikeTM (it's really interesting tho! Ofc their relationship is tense, but I just wish to see how it was before Takeomi got corrupted. Or even when he was, but before the end of BD.) They founded BD together!! They saw each other maybe daily for 5 years straight – their teenage years – wdym there's almost nothing about them!!(aside from Wakasa's 'A day in his life', Benkei's 'A day in his life' and Takeomi's 'feared/disliked person'???)

And then Sanzu.. Wakasa and Benkei are taking care of Senju – it'd be nice to know what they think of Haruchiyo. If they used to interact with him (and Senju, and the other kids) when he was younger; what their thought about Takeomi regarding the situation, ...

I know the Akashi siblings' nickname is the 'mysterious siblings' but still. I need answer goddammit.

Another character from another fandom that reminds me of that character

Hikishima from Wild Strawberry

They both like sweet, are strong, look younger than they are, and most importantly: they're both short—

A headcanon about that character

Okay, you gotta hear me out-

His relationship with Benkei was totally inspired by Yoshitsune no Minamoto and Benkei from Japanese History. Hence, Wakasa comes from a rather wealthy family. He's the youngest of a handful of siblings and was born out of wedlock (he's still loved dw). Most of his physical appearance comes from his mother.

(Also – yes he does like lollipops and has a sweet tooth but the stick he constantly has in his mouth is a dango stick. And I'll die on this hill.)

A song that reminds of that character

Oof, though one!

哀悼、そして日常は続く(:"Farewell and then the everydays continue") covered by 宮下遊(Miyashita Yuu) perhaps? It doesn't only remind me of Wakasa so I'm not completely satisfied but here. Let's grieve Shinichiro together.

(Edit: forgot to mention! The translated lyrics can be found in the comments!)

An unpopular opinion about that character

I think the fact I like Takeomi more is not the general consensus lol It's just that canon offers more elements to understand Takeomi's character depth yknow?

Favorite picture

The hidden 28th volume cover. Idk. His posture scratches my brain right.

#Sorry for answering late #I was exhausted yesterday #also it took me hours of listening to song before settling for this one #i promise i listen to other ppl than Miyashita Yuu #and i apologize for only listening to depressing songs #ask game #answering asks

[ghost-the-silly]

Ghost Intro, what

Hello!

Name: Ghost_Bean/Ghost

Age: Minor. I don't want any creepy people following or interacting w/ me, get out

Pronouns: They/them

Interests (In order of how much I focus on them): Murder Drones (current obsession, as you can probably tell...), Splatoon (not very educated on lore sadly...), Wings of Fire (wof discord servers), Nevermore (Webtoon), She-Ra, The Owl House, Steven Universe, Amphibia, KIPO

Uhh... There's probably more but whatever

Hobbies: Drawing traditional art, wondering if I'm doing the right thing on Tumblr, not getting enough sleep, reblogging Tumblr posts at 2 am, finding more Murder Drones blogs to follow, sleeping... Huh, ironic

What I Do: I reblog and like posts from my favorite blogs! I basically just lurk around, throwing love at people's art and posts. I hope that I can help people find cool blogs to follow :]

DNI: LGBTQ+ phobic, TERF, MAP, Zoo, etc, Proshipper. Don't be a bad person. That's all I fucking ask. Have common sense

----------------------------------------------------------

Fun facts/Trivia/Whatever you wanna call this:

- I'm in a lot of WoF Army servers, so feel free to ask me about them!

- I draw traditional art of wof ocs, but I'm also trying to figure out digital art! I also dream of being able to draw Drones one day, but anatomy is... a struggle 😭 (feel free to send me tips/guides btw!!!)

- My favorite MD characters and ships are: Doll, Cyn, Lizzy, and Yeva (top 4 char.) | Ships: Dizzy (Doll/Lizzy), RussianDuet (Yeva/Yeva's Husband ((does he have a name??)), Oilrose (J/V), Juzi (J/Uzi), and some others that I literally can't remember because brain no work

- I don't have any strong opinion or preference on ships when it comes to some characters like Uzi, V, J, N, etc as long as it's not problematic. I like seeing other people's ideas and headcanons, either about the characters or ships! I also like Butler N and Maid V, they would be so silly together fr

HOWEVER, I do NOT ship N/Cyn, I see them as siblings. Please, for the love of God..

- I may stop being active on Tumblr for a while at times, but don't worry, I'll be back eventually! [Update: Tumblr takes up ~69% of my screentime so... If I'm gone, assume I'm somewhere without wifi or just trying to save my battery]

- I swear. Just- I swear. I try to keep it to a minimum tho dw... Shit- (haha whoops). Ok but tbf MD has gotten me to say things like "Holy hell!" more often lol

- I like the color periwinkle!! I also like any color from teal to dark purple, and sage green on the side

- Uh... I also don't exactly know my way around Tumblr. Like... Can I reblog something without tags? Does it show if I accidentally un-liked then re-liked a post?? How does tagging work??? Just general stuff too, cause I mostly/only like and reblog cool things

- I'm an English speaker only :/ (but Google translate, my beloved <3)

- I use tone tags a lot! It helps me get my message across correctly, and I hope it helps others understand what I'm trying to say!/gen

- I say things like Dawg, Fr, On god, Silly, Goober, and other things like that quite often, so apologies if it gets annoying/gen

- My timezone is CST! 'Murica !!! 🔥🦅🇺🇲 (Get me out of here)

- Murder Drones is so cool, what, I can't see colors correctly anymore, help me (/pos, MD brings me joy)

- I don't do actual posts often so don't expect that much actual Ghost Content

- guh.

- I LOVE WOMEN THEY'RE SO PRETTY HOLDING HANDS WITH A GIRL WOULD FIX ME IM SUCH A GIRLKISSER (I've never kissed a girl)

- I love yuri. I need yuri. I wake up, yuri. I go to sleep, yuri. Always yuri. Robot yuri? Yes please. I wrote an essay on why I love Doomed/Toxic Yuri because yuri

- Other socials: ghost_bean on Discord, JustARandomGayPerson on toyhou.se

----------------------------------------------------------

That's it! Feel free to ask me anything (as long as it's not NSFW, political, hateful, etc), or let me know if I might've forgotten something! I'd love to answer any questions you might have, and I want to get to know Tumblr's silly and amazing community!

Have a great rest of your day/night, and may your favorite show get another season and an (actually good) movie

#introduction #ghost is losing their minds what #the tags #my newfound freedom and silliness #have a great day lol bye #how do i pin a post/j #ghost silliness

[vairiance]

I really think Pokemon should go back to 2D. Not even necessarily like HD 2D or whatever like Octopath Traveler (although that'd be cool I guess), but just what they had going in Gen 4/5, but polished up to modern tech standards.

So much charm was lost in the shift to 3D (not without benefit, of course, but still), and it brought a whole host of space issues, all in the name of making Pokemon look less appealing and having awkward movements. Like, compare these images of Hippowdon:

Leftmost is Gen 5, middle is modern, and rightmost is the (leaked) sprite from S/V.

Gen 5's is awesome! Grainy, obviously, by design, but otherwise it's super cool. You see a fierce looking hippo, posed threateningly, spewing sand to demonstrate its signature mechanic. Perfect.

Modern Hippowdon makes me sad. It's still kind of grainy (beyond what the resolution change of this image did to it), and it just looks like me on a Monday morning. You'd have no idea that this thing shoots sand, and you'd only get to see it look cool for a fraction of a second when it attacks, sometimes.

Then there's S/V Hippowdon. It's just a menu sprite icon, but look how clean it looks compared to modern Hippowdon! Imagine the Gen 5 Hippowdon pose, with the SV Hippowdon style. That'd be ideal for me I think.

3D has its benefits for sure, obviously, but I think 3D should be saved for spinoffs where a smaller scale can be enforced, and thus more care can be put into what is in the game. Comparing the 3D animations of Pokemon Colosseum/XD and what we have now proves this; in the Orre games, the Pokemon really feel alive, because they move in a way natural to what you'd expect, whereas in the modern era, everyone stands there idly and twitches once in a while to attack or get hit.

Move animations suffer as well. Let's compare the animation of Earthquake, a move that's supposed to be a terrifying massive quake of the earth. Here's how it's depicted in Gen 4:

Pretty cool, right? The magnitude of the quake is shown by literally everything shaking violently, with some dramatic flashes and rock effects. Not bad. But this could really benefit from 3D, let's take a look at how a powerful explosion of the earth is shown with the cutting edge graphics of Gen 8:

It is what would be considered a god awful green screen effect if seen in a movie.

Sure, but how much better could a 3D Earthquake animation be? Well, let's turn to the love of my life, Pokemon XD, to see how it's done:

Look, maybe you disagree with my assessment of these images, and that's fine. But I strongly encourage you to go back and play, say, Emerald, or Platinum, or what have you, if you haven't recently. You'll be able to palpably feel the difference between it and the newer games, and the visuals are just the surface of this. They're just what tends to come to mind whenever I think about it.

Idk I just miss when Pokemon games were delivered as strong single player games with multiplayer capabilities meant to last a decent while and then be put down, and returned to in a few years when you're feeling wistful, as opposed to increasingly lightweight multiplayer focused games with increasingly less single player endgame content so that they can push subscriptions of the god awful online pass

#i hate modern gaming #i hate it so so much #im literally having a breakdown about it right now #games are my only outlet i have literally got nothing else to look forward to in my life #and im slowly losing them to senseless greed and dispassionate companies #i mean thats not new obviously but it is hitting me hard as i play old classics and new games concurrently #anyway this post is inspired by the leaks seeming to confirm that there is no battle tower at all in gen 9 #the only feature that actually matters to me #sorry if you count that as a spoiler but better to be disappointed now than later #i hinged my entire mental health on gen 9 and now it looks like its starting with a massive disappointment #so if the rest of the games arent absolutely perfect im no longer going to have anything to live for #sorry if that sounds dramatic and trust me i know how stupid it sounds to say this as a 28 year old about a game made for infants #thats just what my pointless empty shell of a wasted life is like now #why did i even make this post #nothing here isnt common knowledge #long post #pokemon #sorry i forgot the tags while i was whining #hippowdon

[hullomoon]

hullomoon's 2023 works: part five

it’s the end of the year, which means it’s time for a work round-up! i had a pretty busy year so i didn't post as much, but i also know i did more longer works. so it probably balances out in the end. if you haven’t yet, check out my 2019 roundup, 2020 roundup, 2021 roundup, and 2022 roundup! all works are ordered in chronological posting order.

part one | part two | part three | part four | part five | part six

Tea-rrific Advice | Stranger Things | multivoice | Gen | 09:49

Sometimes the residents of Hawkins need some advice. Who better to ask than everyone’s favorite anonymous advice columnist, Thirsty V. What could go wrong? This is a Vecna crack fic with some dark jokes. I’m sorry, but Vecna is not. Okay, I’m not either. That’s the tea. Bonus this CRACK fic is also a podfic.

[Filk] (Voiceteam) Over the Rainbow | Fandom | multivoice | 02:30

approx. 32 takes in 27 tracks. 14 participants. 9 teams. 3 voices. One rainbow for One Voiceteam! The Voiceteam Rainbow Choir proudly presents: "(Voiceteam) Over the Rainbow" - a multiphonic filk sung to the tune of "Over the Rainbow"!

[podfic] Can you make me a lasagna, David? | Schitt's Creek | David/Patrick | 0:18:51

David has some fresh ricotta and is feeling a little brave. He remembers a request his husband once made while high on anesthetic.

[podfic] mister funny, mister cool | Stranger Things | Steve/Eddie | 0:2:47:49

He swallows. Sweat trickles along his spine. He knows what he was thinking, what he’s still thinking. The itch of being talked about still irritates him. But—but that’s also not new. He used to be King of Hawkins High—people talked about him all the way up that track and all the way down and with a lot less kindness in their hearts. Even with them, it shouldn’t weigh this heavy because if they want to think he’s crazy that’s fine. Right? It should be fine, because Steve knows who he is. The guy with stupid jokes and free rides. The guy who comes back, who keeps them safe, who’s fine. Steve should be able to shrug this off. God, he’s so stupid. Mister Funny, Mister Cool is always fine. or Steve Harrington's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad emotional breakdown.

do you have a minute? | Stranger Things | Steve & Hopper | 1.1k

After Spring Break, Steve struggles. A conversation with Hopper is a good start.

soup, there it is! | Schitt's Creek | Patrick/David | 1.3k

David thinks soulmates are overrated and then he gets soup spilled on him

sealed with a kiss | Schitt's Creek | Patrick/David | 276

Patrick is leaving for a conference and David has some concerns

[podfic] good for my boy | Stranger Things | Steve/Eddie, Steve & Wayne, Eddie & Wayne | 0:44:37

Wayne lets the front door swing shut behind him, rattling and smacking into the frame audibly. “Jesus, Munson!” A voice rings out — the freezer fiend’s, and definitely not Eddie’s. “Took you god damn long enough!” The head finally pops out of the freezer. “I got tired of waiting and — oh.” The stranger’s hand slips from the handle and the freezer door thumps shut. As does the stranger’s mouth when he looks right into the face of, not Eddie Munson as expected, but Wayne Munson. Wayne briefly recognizes him as the Harrington boy. or, the first time Wayne Munson meets Steve Harrington is a complete accident.

[podfic] getting used to letting go | Check, Please! | Nursey/Dex | 04:04:01

Dex was supposed to have a fancy job in some city upon graduation, but his plans changed once his uncle died and left the family home in Maine to him. Without immediate obligations of their own, Nursey, Chowder and Farmer follow Dex up there to help him clear it out and clean it up.

[podfic] can't hide the way you make us glow | Stranger Things | Steve/Eddie, Steve & Wayne, Eddie & Wayne | 0:38:27

“So,” Wayne finally says and looks between them. He gestures his can from Steve to Eddie and back. “Still just friends, huh?” He deadpans.

Steve chokes on his sip of beer, and a grin cracks across Eddie’s face. “To the general public of Hawkins, sure,” Eddie responds smoothly, hand absentmindedly rubbing Steve’s back as he recovers. Wayne narrows his eyes at him. “I ain’t the general public of Hawkins, now, am I?” Eddie shakes his head. “No, I suppose not.” When he doesn’t elaborate any further, Wayne lifts his eyebrows expectantly. Out with it, boy they say. He barely refrains from waving his hand in a go on then motion. “Steve and I… we’re, uh,” Eddie’s smile turns soft around the edges, and his hand goes to Steve’s beside him, drawing it into his lap and lacing their fingers together, “we’re going steady now.” Or, Wayne finds out that Eddie and Steve are EddieandSteve.

#hullomoon podfics #hullomoon writes #stranger things #schitts creek #check please #steddie #nurseydex #david rose x patrick brewer #wayne munson #jim hopper

[paigemathews]

I would love to read more about your thoughts on Cole! It's refreshing to see someone who doesn't like him either! Please do share more soon :D Can I ask did you ever like him? Or him and Phoebe or did you always not like him? I hated him and him with Phoebe from the beginning find it hard to watch their scenes if I'm honest.

Full transparency, as always: I desperately need to do a full rewatch at some point, lmao. I’ve watched episodes with Cole in them recently-ish, but I really haven’t sat down and actually watched through his entire arc in a while. I know that as soon as I do that, my opinions are probably gonna shift again lmao but my answers for now.

See, I’ve been trying to think about it for a good five to ten minutes and I honestly don’t know what my original thoughts on Cole were. My Charmed hyperfixation started when I was thirteen, and I’m turning twenty three this year and a lot of my opinions have remained. not entirely the same, but similar since I was at least fifteen or sixteen. 

My best guess is that I was probably more neutral than anything about Cole at first. My favorite character was Chris and the next gen, so Cole didn’t really feature v much, y’know, busy being dead and all. Y’know, who I did (and still do lmao) like though? Coop. And the issue is that I read like pretty much any Charmed fic I could get my hands on and I very quickly realized that a lot of Cole fans would go out of there way to vilify Coop, kill him off, etc. all in the name of Cole being “Phoebe’s true love” or whatever, which I Did Not vibe with. And I’ve noticed this with over fandoms I’m in, but when fans woobify and glorify a character, I tend to really dislike it and it unfortunately turns into me disliking the character themselves. While I try to prevent that now, Cole was unfortunately the first example for me so. 

For the character himself though, I think both he and his dynamic with Phoebe are really interesting. It’s one of the things that are constantly floating around in the back of my head, but the way that Cole views romantic vs. familial relationships in contrast to the sisters? Like Cole basically sacrifices his father’s soul when he kills the Triad to be with Phoebe, and contrast that to his expectation for Phoebe to choose him over his sisters. Hell, his reasoning to Piper in Y Tu Mummy Tambien about how she’ll obviously choose Phoebe over Paige. (Side note, I could have sworn that I’ve at least mentioned that before on this blog but I searched for fifteen minutes and found zilch, which boo.) Like Cole’s perspective on relationships is actually fascinating bc it contrasts so much against the sisters’ perspectives, y’know?

Also his backstory is really interesting! We don’t ever actually get confirmation that his mom is vanquished, so what was that relationship like? The Brotherhood of the Thorn, being a favorite of the Source, etc. are all things that I’m really curious about. He really let us get a deeper and more thorough look into the Underworld, which was neat bc I am here for the Magic Stuff.

Plus, his dynamic with Phoebe? How she fundamentally thinks that he is a better person than he is? How in the Demonic Wasteland, he asks her to use the Grimoire (which requires you to be evil to even touch) after everything? When he comes back in s5, his attempt to intimidate Phoebe and create “character witnesses” for his abuse? The writers weren’t intending to, but the relationship that they actually wrote kind of builds to that tragic/horrifying climax where a destroyed Phoebe doesn’t even hesitate to vanquish him because of what he turned her into as the Source. Like the writers were all over the map with that relationship, but even when they were trying to write a love story, there’s that dissonance between them.

Again, I don’t think that he’s a good person. His writing tended to be inconsistent as hell and they flip-flopped all over the damn place. Phoebe almost always viewed him through rose-tinted glasses and thought that he was a better man than he actually was, which he never actually set her straight on. Ultimately, their relationship was incredibly toxic, manipulative, and abusive. His redemption failed because he never wanted redemption. He wanted to become good, yes, but not for the sake of being good or making reparations. He wanted Phoebe’s love. Hell, I think that he knew that he didn’t really care about being good beyond just wanting to be good for Phoebe, but his morality is warped that he thought that was chill. (Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he thought Phoebe knew that, tbh.) That said, I think he was an interesting character and at the very least, I still want to examine his psychology at some point bc there is. A Lot going on there.

The other thing is that with different writing, I’d have probably gone to hell and back with their relationship. Like, I’ve said before, but Bianca is what Cole fans pretend he is: tragic backstory forced into the life of a killer, falls in love with a Warren witch that plays some role in the initial beginning of their redemption, backslides on that road to redemption when faced with a stronger enemy, ultimately redeems themselves, and is also still capable of redemption (probably because Bianca is like 26 and could only commit so many crimes in that amount of time in contrast to Cole’s two whole ass centuries of murder). And her and Chris are both my favorite characters and my favorite ship. With better writing, I can absolutely imagine Cole being one of my favorite characters and Phoebe x Cole being one of my favorite ships, but that isn’t what happened.

#charmed #abi speaks #asks #cole turner #anti cole turner #i stg everytime i post anything about cole i feel like im gonna get yelled at lmao #but yeah thank you for the ask anon!! i didnt actually realize how many thoughts i had about cole lol #i honestly really vibe with him as like a character you THINK is gonna be good but slowly realize that lmao #this isnt his redemption arc baby this is his villain arc #but at the same time fandom's approach to him deeply frustrates me #especially when people sit here and blame phoebe like absolutely fucking not we are not blaming her for his actions in the year 2023

[tsuchiman]

Review: Cyberpunk 2077

Recently finished this after playing it on-and-off for the last 3 months. I started it last year, it didn't hook me so I dropped it but picked it back up and got into the swing of things.

At first, the vanilla game was mostly enjoyable but certain things started to irritate me. I noticed that most guns didn't do any damage to foes, which led me down the rabbit hole of modding via Nexus Mods. After adding in a realistic combat mod, I started fooling around with other mods just to fully customize the experience. Most of it modified minor things: crowd behaviors, water textures, more diverse weather rotation, increased traffic density, etc. The mod that hit the nail on the head was an EBM music modifier, adding in songs from bands like Nine Inch Nails and Front 242 as you ride around the city.

After the mods came the post-processing. I work with Reshade in a lot of games to add in some usually much needed zest into the final image, and this game needed it. The raw image isn't as impressive as I was expecting, so after much tweaking I finalized an image that I would prefer to see. It all made for better looking screenshots. Although, I didn't play it with an RTX driven card, so no ray-tracing. But even without the high-end rig to run ray-tracing, the game does a great job creating a realistic environment while maintaining a steady 60 fps on my RX 6700 XT at 2K resolution.

The game itself was interesting and about as accurate as you would expect the title to imply. If you've read any William Gibson or Philip K. Dick, or watched pretty much any cyberpunkish sci-fi, then the experience was either familiar or felt like you walked into a mashing of those stories. Everything in this universe looks as if it's been built onto something else, creating an embedded, living greeble effect. The lingo that people use is quirky but unique; "preem", "gonk", have been set into my head as new terms. The design language is stuck between a retro-vision of what the future could have looked like from the perspective of the 80's-90's cyberpunk scene, and with modern-influenced perspectives about how the internet of our day actually works, how AI has actually come to function, etc. The cyberspace environments were somewhat predictable in their design, but functionally worked without being overwhelming, visually or conceptually.

The inclusion of transgender or trans-sexual themes should be noted, since in this universe, body modification is the norm. There is one character I came across that after some time building the relationship, you find out that she was previously a he. The game doesn't focus on it much, but the inclusion of transgender themes makes me ask why there's a lack of transracial themes. The body-modding mechanic is integral to the world-building of the story. It would have been interesting to experience more people who's identities were pushed to all sorts of extremes: differenced sexes, spliced sexes, spliced races, possibly even spliced with animals. Where's the gene modification? Where are the cyber cat girls?

The romance between you and the characters you end up working with was an interesting mechanic. I picked female V, but didn't necessarily have to try too hard to pick who I romanced. The game seemed to favor offering your lady companions as possible romance partners instead of the male companions, but maybe I'm biased since all the women are quite attractive. As conversations IRL usually have a hint of innuendo, adding in sex as an outcome adds a touch of realism since most games don't use it or can't. Flirtation and the inevitable sex scenes were half-way between intimate and comical, but this game isn't designed to be a porno. But again, if the developers are going to include sex as an option, why not push to the extremes?

The only thing that kept me motivated throughout the game was the unraveling of Johnny Silverhand's past and current attachment to you. I won't say any spoilers here, but it was genuinely interesting to experience the dynamic between you and him. It's an interesting take on psychology, implants, cybernetics, the concepts of "soul" and "personality" locations, and the morality entwined between all of these. I chose a more amicable path with Johnny, so the outcome was beneficial for both of us. But there are options where you can essentially stay combative with him, and I'm guessing eventually rejecting him outright like a parasite.

The criticisms I do have for the overall structure of the game is how open-world design can both be a benefit and a hazard. The environments were well crafted, everything fit perfectly into the name "cyberpunk", and after modding a bit, it was accentuated that much more. The drawback with the open-world element is that eventually everything starts to look the same in the city, and I quickly started watching the minimap when navigating, instead of tracking by environmental cues. I felt as lost as I do when I'm using Google Maps.

The environments could have instead been designed by something like "old" versus "new" city designs. The old city would have had an aesthetic that looked like everything was retro-fitted. The new city could have been more like Mirror's Edge. Perhaps there could have been a dome-city, for high-end-profile people only, with no air pollution from some future fancy air filtration system. Perhaps contrast this with a slum-city. Excluding the cyberspace scenes, the visual change between environments only became apparent when you travelled into the desert, or after adding in an increased weather cycle mod. Besides that, the neon eye-candy and megacity flora-fauna was like being lost inside a pinball machine. Eventually it all blurs into a revolving same-ness. In a way, it makes me wonder how the game would have been had it been designed more linearly, with a semi-open world design, something like the Metro 2033 series.

On the topic of environmental design, the faction system that's present, or not present, felt a bit lackluster as well. As it is, there isn't much weight to your decisions other than defining the personalized storyline. You end up working with people from particular factions, yet you yourself never get tied to these factions. I would have found it interesting if the factions you ally with start to define other faction behavior. Choosing to work with the police should affect how other gangs trust you, and vice versa. Maybe you can develop a relationship with a gang, only to infiltrate them for a job for the government. Maybe the government is revealed to have splinter factions within, so that a job becomes difficult with an either-or decision. Territories could be defined by faction influence and control, so maybe you could have a bounty on your head under certain territories, or given special permissions in areas with groups you've been good with. This could have come with access to special items, vehicles, body mods, etc.

Overall, the game is most definitely the definition of "cool". It takes itself seriously, pushing the tech-noir aspect while keeping the zaniness of a future one awry out of the picture. Did it break the sound barrier for me? Not necessarily. But it is rare for me to finish a game. I still haven't finished Witcher 3, which is approaching a decade old soon. So for Cyberpunk 2077 to keep me hooked until the end says something. Or maybe it was just Panam's ass.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cyberpunk #sci-fi #videogames #screenshots #photography #review #tsuchiman #industrial music #EBM

[zaptap]

i absolutely think we're due for unova remakes very soon, likely as the next game, but idk if they'll announce them before sv dlc is out of the way. seems like more of a pokemon day "this is what we're throwing out there this year" thing

seen people clinging to the idea that they do remakes every other gen but, so far, ALL first-time remakes (i.e. not lgpe) have happened 2 hardware generations after the originals

gb (rgby) to gba (frlg)

gbc (gsc) to ds (hgss)

gba (rse) to 3ds (oras)

ds (dpp and bwbw2) to switch (bdsp.... and _b_w?)

the ds was just when they started cramming 2 pokemon gens into one hardware gen so now that we're getting into ds remakes they'll probably happen every pokemon gen now

and if they continue having ilca or whoever churn out unambitious remakes then maybe game freak will keep putting legends games out around the same time.

arceus felt to me like it had pieces of what we've come to expect from pokemon remakes--the new stuff--so i think of it as being in a remake-adjacent category i'm calling a "reimagining." meanwhile bdsp avoided having much new stuff and instead provided an overly faithful recreation of the original games with graphical upgrades and gameplay modernizations and little else

are they going to do another ilca remake paired with a legends game? maybe. since legends was kind of an experiment, and succeeded, maybe they could try to work some elements into the actual remake this time. also after how glitchy bdsp was (more specifically, all the weird stuff they had to do with home compatibility to stop those Evil Cheaters) maybe they won't trust ilca with that again. or maybe they'll give them another chance, since game freak started out with a glitch-filled game too and maybe they've learned? idk

and what about bw2? so far they've been able to put things into the remakes to reflect things from the third versions (though bdsp really could've had a lot more from platinum) but how do you do an entire extra story with different protagonists and a 2 year time skip? they can't get away with just giving us bw2 outfits. $60 absolutely should cover both bw and bw2 in one, but i kind of doubt they'll do it. dlc maybe i guess? though that was a popular theory for platinum in bdsp that went nowhere, so who knows

alternatively i suppose they could release a bw remake as a single game and bw2 as another (remember how bdsp was found to be the same rom, just with a marker that determined the version? it would kind of make sense to do) but also that's kind of insane because you've never been expected to buy both games before, but in this scenario you'd have to to get the full experience. evil. too evil for tpci i think, but i suppose they could always get worse. i guess in that sense having a dual release of b+b2/w+w2 seems a bit more likely, dlc or not? if they don't almost entirely ignore bw2, that is

either way, i'm expecting unova soon. one week before black friday 2024 if tpci keeps insisting on their blatantly money-hungry release schedule they've been sticking pretty closely to for almost a decade now. would prefer they take more time, but i don't expect them to

........wait. i forgot. it actually might be johto's turn next. hgss is older than gen v, after all. whether that's going to be something with pokemon go elements mixed in again (isn't that game kind of on a decline now? idk) or something different, they might do something

so i guess 2024 johto, 2025 unova? wow idk. who give a shit tbh. point is both are probably somewhere on the horizon (though, unova is more certain i'd say since lgpe is just one game so we have no idea what kind of pattern those second-round remakes might take. maybe it was just a one-off)

anyway i've been wanting to replay gen v more and more for the past couple years but i haven't been able to make time for it yet. odds are i won't until at least when the remakes are coming. i replayed platinum shortly before bdsp released (actually started a couple months before it was announced...) and that was a mistake. bdsp was ok (though bad by pokemon standards) but it felt like playing the same game back to back except worse (very different from when i played ruby before oras, and yellow before lgpe). don't want to do that again so i guess i'll wait at this point

#pokemon #unova #pokemon presents #bwbw2

[ren-zx]

Gen V Season 1 (2023)

** Not a review, just wanting to write down some thoughts about media I've consumed to maybe look back on in the future

The acting from The Boys wasn't great at times so I had pretty much the same expectations in terms of acting when it came around to Gen V. Irregardless of how I feel about the acting, Gen V didn't really have the same charm that The Boys had, and honestly I don't really know why. I know it's a different show, but it's still set in the same universe so I think it should have the same level of urgency, and it did, but it just seemed sporadic which felt jarring to me. I'm not expecting people to share the same opinion and thoughts about the show as me, and there are things from the show that I liked, there was just more that I felt were missing, but I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what. And it's not my job to.

Now that I got some of the possible unpopular opinions out of the way, I did really like the modern setting of society being more open and inclusive with pronouns and being more accepted. I'm not saying The Boys wasn't in a modern setting, but Gen V was more apparent about it with how pronouns and current issues came into play. Having Jordan Li (Derek Luh/London Thor) an a bigender individual that struggles with their family dynamic due to their family not accepting that fact speaks volumes and gives representation for those individuals who struggle in a similar way. Cate Dunlap's (Maddie Phillips) relationship with Indira Shetty (Shelley Conn) made it clear to me that Cate wasn't on either side of the cast or Vought. It was inevitable that she wanted to do something, especially with her powers, due to insider info about what's happening in The Woods, but to who and to what extent were the questions unsolved until the final episode of the season. When her plan came to fruition, it just came full force with no turning back, and with the cameo at the final episode and where the cast ends up, who knows what's to come in season 2.

#the boys #gen v #`~. fewer thoughts cuz i dont want to be overly negative about the show lol

[diamagneticcoordinationcomplex]

Same anon! Sorry for the spam QnA, but it's interesting knowing more about your author's thought processes! If you have the time, I would love to know how do you characterize Ingo and Emmet? other than the fanstories itself of course 😊 Do you have a guideline? Some perspectives on their characters? Some shipping dynamics? I kinda view Ingo as kind of passive in this case, except for a few moments where he has to break out of his shell (like for pokemon battles where he and Emmet whoop everyone's butt 😫😫). He's a very kind character. And Emmet is a great support! He's very energetic and could be in your face, but he has good intentions even if he doesn't like people very much (Noy shy! just prefers solitude!). Except when it comes to Ingo, to which then he will be do everything!!! Pokemon make them reunite!

-💌 anon

Hello! Back at it again, anon!

I'm honoured that you'd want to know about my thought process! (I myself am not very interested in that kind of thing, so this is new!)

How do I characterise the train twins...? I wonder how I do that myself lol

Okay~ buckle in cos this might be long!

Guidelines on their character: Most of these are adapted from the multitudes of submas fics I've read prior to starting my own. These would include:

Ingo being LOUD and verbose

Emmet having clipped speech with barely any intonation

Frowny Ingo (˚∆˚) with minimal facial expressiveness (he can't help it!)

Smiley Emmet (˚v˚) with all the facial expressiveness

Ingo being polite and Emmet not giving a sh*t

I think much of these stem from how I like the twins having this complementary aspect to one another. They match each other's quirks, compensate for each other's weaknesses, encourage each other's strengths... it's just nice and cool imo ♡ A perfect two-car train! Wonderful synchronicity! Bravo!

Personal perspectives on their character: some of these may overlap with the guidelines bc I'm not sure how common these interpretations are...

Ingo being thoughtful, careful and prudent

Emmet being impulsive, active and spontaneous

Conscientious-of-other-people's-feelings Ingo

Honesty-is-the-best-policy Emmet

Ingo leans towards being a pessimist, correlating with his careful nature

Emmet's an optimist and simply wants the people around him to be happy and have a good time

Ingo is the ideals of their dynamic, able to come up with creative ideas and solutions

Emmet is the truth of their dynamic, able to work towards a goal and succeed, to 'turn the ideals into truths'

They work so well together as a two-car train that any arguments that do happen get cleared up almost instantly (idk how often other siblings fight, but I very rarely have any arguments with my own sibling so...yea)

They can be playful with each other (ie. pranks) but they are mature adults with a job, so they know when to pull the brakes and take responsibility

Emmet has this interesting contrast with being a chaotic, playful little sh*t (I say that with the utmost affection♡) but also possessing the level of responsibility and follow-the-rules mindset of a subway boss... so that's interesting to play around with

I'm probably still missing a lot of aspects but I can't think of anything else rn. Hope these little bits were interesting to read about!

Hm, shipping dynamics... I myself am a gen fic writer so I don't have any opinions on shipping. Not sure why, but it's kind of hard for me to see either twin in their own romantic relationship. They seem kind of... untouchable? I suppose? Perhaps that's evident in the Crystal Conductors AU, since the guys are literally immortal rocks lol. Not much romance to be found there, and if there was, it would be a sad one and I ain't gonna subject them to that.

But, I will comment that your thoughts on their shipping dynamics are interesting and do make sense! Ingo's calm passiveness~ Emmet's peppy enthusiasm~

The twins really do need their heartfelt reunion... *sigh* Alas, I shouldn't get my hopes up and expect too much ;;v;;

Thank you for the ask (again)! It was fun to answer your questions and apologies for taking so long to respond!

#answered asks #anonymous ask #interesting questions once again!