#hey so i originally got the levels mixed up. whoops

[melverie]

Sometimes I'm doing well, and then other times Lucifer's level 30 intimacy phone call in Nightbringer suddenly comes back to mind, and I am once again reminded how Lucifer is so utterly desperate to connect with Satan in any way. It doesn't even have to be meaningful; just having his brother despise him a tiny bit less than before would already be more than enough

And when they finally do make the tiniest, most insignficant amount of progress imaginable, Lucifer is so overjoyed about it that he ends up celebrating with a horn of Demonus......or two, maybe three... Might as well finish the bottle. Let's open another one! And another, and another, and another! We've got to celebrate tonight, after all! Hm? No, he isn't drunk MC, what a stupid question to even ask. Here, he'll drink some more just to prove it! Then after that--!

And all that because he and Satan managed to hold a conversation for a minute longer than usual

#hey so i originally got the levels mixed up. whoops #anyway #had to stop everything for an hour or two and just lie there thinking about satan & luci again #there's so much i want to talk about when it comes to the two of them bc their relationship is so fascinating #but most of the time when i try to write smth down it just comes out as “hnnngghhhh these two.....they're making me go insannnee” lol #also luci admitting in his lv25 call that satan is the only one he has problems with and that no matter what he tries nothing seems to work #broke my heart fr </3 #obey me #obey me nightbringer #obey me lucifer #obey me satan #;mel's analyses

[windstormwielding]

How did you come up with Kotaro's zanpakuto? (i really love the bird theme of his attacks!) did you go through a lot of changes when coming up with names, abilities, and the general concept?

{ ooc } bUCKLE UP KIDDOS ‘CAUSE IT’S TIME FOR SOME LONG OVERDUE GODDAMNED KŌTA META-

Kōta’s zanpakutō was essentially conceived out of my own love for great big storms and heavy winds – and yes, I have a story to go with that! On one occasion many years ago, I hopped on a bus to visit a friend in town, but I was ill-prepared in that it was about to rain heavily and I had jack shit but a jacket. No raincoat and not even an umbrella. I thought I would make it there on time, buuuuut evidently, I did not. It already started raining and thundering hard by the time I walked out of the bus and had to walk a few blocks by myself.

And honestly, Plouton, looking back? I would not have changed a single little detail that day. Those several minutes I spent outside at the mercy of a live thunderstorm left such a huge impression on me! The incessant rain keeping me tethered to the ground, the sheer volume of deafening thunder cracking so hard and so loudly that the air around me quaked... pair that with times I’ve enjoyed feeling myself at the mercy of heavy winds, or even the smell of the outside after rain falls...

...pretty much all of that served as the biggest source of inspiration behind the wind and storm-oriented zanpakutō, and I wanted Kōta to embody that himself.

Besides, aside from Senna herself in Memories of Nobody, the Gotei 13 lacked a dedicated air-manipulating shinigami barring Kensei’s unique take on the topic with Tachikaze, and we’ve only seen antagonists use this power (Dordoni of the Arrancar within the main story, Kariya if you want to go filler with the Bounts... whom I’ve honestly forgotten about prior to creating Kōta WHOOPS) in the traditional sense. Not to mention, air as an element is SUPER malleable and there’s so much you can do with it if you get creative?? So, given we’ve got some real powerful element-leaning shinigami already with water (lbr Kaien would’ve been a beast had he not been nixed), fire (Yama), snow (Tosh), and electricity (Sasakibe), why not keep adding to the idea?

With that, we’ve got the main concept locked down. Powers and general theme? Check. Bird-like zanpakutō spirit? Check. Defined attacks? ...noooooot quite there yet—in fact, those were a fairly late addition well after the blog reboot. As for what led to it, this never took off since the other mun blipped on an indefinite hiatus, but our thread would have likely turned into a fight thread between our muses and uh...

...yeah, I realized named techniques are kind of an important thing to have, especially when writing within the context of an action-oriented series like Bleach. It wasn’t just about the cool factor, but having a readily available kit for reference (for myself, my writing partners, and folks reading in) was a must, not to mention it helped better define just what his main friggin’ weapon is capable of like those of most of the existing cast. In case a fight thread does come around in the future, it’d be an ideal thing to have ready to go and bring him further up to par with other fighters!

Just like that, I subjected myself to extra homework. Coming up with the moves themselves came to me simply enough, in seeing how air was played with in other media I was familiar with (key ones being Sonic the Hedgehog, The Legend of Zelda, and Avatar: The Last Airbender) and fashioning some of my own spins on top of some original ideas. I knew I wanted to lean hard on the bird motif since his zan spirit is a tengu, and given the wide variety of things the element of air/wind can do, I thought to make full connections between the two by theming each special move after certain species of bird! Creating those moves and naming them were the easy parts.

Naming them, that is, in English. Naming them all in Japanese was, by far, the hardest part. Why? Parce que je ne suis pas japonais, et aussi parce que je ne parle pas la langue, you see. On top of language barriers, the Japanese tongue operates on a whole other set of rules, compared to the Latin/Germanic-based ones I’ve grown used to with English, French, and (at one point) German. I did take some Japanese classes as an elective back in university, but that was only in first year – my own understanding, as a result, was threadbare and surface level at best, so that was not going to get me anywhere. I did not want to half-ass it with romaji and I love Bleach too much to not want to do these ideas justice.

I am a stickler when it comes to detail and canon-compliance, so getting the naming right by abiding to the proper conventions as best as I possibly could became my topmost priority. Google Translate was not going to fly because lord knows it’s no good without proper context between wholly different languages in English and Japanese, and it only gets wilder once you throw Chinese into the mix, given I’m supposed to use kanji. Thus, the name of the game here turned out to be “reverse engineering,” and I had to go in accepting I probably wasn’t going to get it 100% right the first time.

“What rules do zanpakutō names and special attack names follow?” “How do I apply on- or kun-reading in spelling out a group of certain kanji?” “Where are the common denominators in those rules that I can identify?” “Which language conventions have I already picked up from watching god knows how much anime over the years that I can replicate?” “Which set of words best conveys this particular English word that has no direct Japanese translation?” “How does [x] roll off the tongue? Does it sound right and fluid enough, or does it still feel super stilted and weird?” It was a loooooooot of this until I was finally satisfied with each individual end result!

Tl;dr: Jisho.org and Wikipedia were godsends during this whole process. I also want to thank @tigrextoque who gave me some helpful pointers after the fact!

ALSO... the ones on the Battle Info page aren’t even all of the ones I’ve thought about. Because I’m a glutton for punishment apparently, I purposely went and submitted a request for a certain ask meme on an ask meme source blog, JUST so I could play around with more ideas that came or would come to mind. This time, however, it was through the form of COMBINATION ATTACKS (which, by virtue alone, are honestly peak awesomeness). Those that implicated other shinigami got new bird motifs to meld the aesthetics of both muses, while I did get a couple of Quincy ones (with their referenced attacks actually using romaji as a base! Whoo-hoo for saving me the effort!) as a bonus to mix things up!

I’ll link them all right here (and later on the Battle Info page) for your convenience:

Noboru no mai, Shiro Fukurō (騰の舞・白梟, Rising Dance, Snowy Owl), with Rukia Kuchiki

Ahōdori Kyōka: Flying Battery (群烏強化: フライング バッテリー, Albatross Strengthening: Flying Battery) with Bambietta Basterbine

Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Volley (群烏強化: ガルヴァノ ボレー, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Volley), plus upgraded variant Muragarasu Kyōka: Galvano Storm (群烏強化: ガルヴァノ ストーム, Flock of Crows Strengthening: Galvano Storm), with Candice Catnipp

Hagetaka Rinbu (禿鷹輪舞, Vulture Round Dance) with Rangiku Matsumoto

Senkō-fū: Kitsutsuki (穿孔風: 啄木鳥, Drilling Wind: Woodpecker) with Nemu Kurotsuchi

Gyaku-fū Fūsa: Benizuru (逆風封鎖: 紅鶴, Headwind Blockade: Flamingo) with Byakuya Kuchiki

Hikuidori Hinshō (火食鳥 頻傷, Cassowary Frequent Cuts) with Ueno Chie​

Yes, “Flying Battery” was a deliberately written Sonic the Hedgehog reference. No, I will never apologize for that.

...might I reblog that meme again in the future though...?

...probably not right away.

So, uh... Plou, I should probably apologize for giving you a lot more than you likely bargained for, but hey, I just didn’t want to leave any stone unturned! Thank you so much for sending me your three questions, I enjoyed writing these little deep dives into my Bleach OC, and thanks for taking interest in Kōta! I hope all of my responses have been both enlightening and to your satisfaction.

#deivorous #{ i’m falling free in the wind ☁ headcanon ☁ } #{ cut for length } #{ whispers in the wind ☁ replies ☁ } #{ beyond the sky ☁ ooc ☁ } #{ ooc: we hope to return to our regular programming tomorrow-! } #{ i just could not focus much until i answered all of these hahahaha- }

[writingforanxiety]

Spell Gone Wrong

It was finally the day! Luz had gotten up before the sun had risen  at the promise from Eda the night before of teaching her the basics of potion brewing today. She couldn’t wait to get started, throwing off her sleeping bag cover and burying King in the aftermath as she made her way straight to Eda’s door and started yelling enthusiastically outside of it.

“Eda! Eda wake up! It’s morning and you promised to show me magic stuff!”

Luz continued to excitedly chat outside of Eda’s door as Eda awoke with a loud groan. Rubbing her eyes and sitting up she let out a loud long yawn as she made her way over to the door, rubbing her lower back and grumbling quietly. 

‘Alright, alright! I hear you kid hold your dang horses, I’m coming geez. And do you even know what time it is?! How do you expect me to teach you when I’m a sleepy little owl?”

Eda opened the door and Luz let herself in, dancing excitedly around Eda and tugging at her sweater sleeves. Eda could’t pretend she wasn’t glad to see the kid so ecstatic about learning from her, stroke of her ego or her own effections she’d never tell, but she ruffled the girls head affectionately before walking past her and out the door. Luz strode close behind her talking about how excited she was and how she couldn’t wait to become a great witch while Eda scratched her scalp and called out to King to get his lazy bones up and help them downstairs. 

Entering the kitchen and pushing King off the counter Eda set to work grabbing jars out of cupboards and an assortment of pots and pans. Luz had taken a seat at the counter and was ogling every ingredient Eda sat out before her with pure elation. Setting down the last few items and pushing a handful of baby carrots in front of Luz, Eda gave a grand flourishing gesture with her hands and let out an overly enthusiastic “TADA”!

Luz looked down at the small carrots in front of her and back up to Eda’s big smile, then back down.

“Eda… these are baby carrots. Are they important for the potion? Or are we having a surprisingly healthy breakfast for this house”.

“Ha Ha, and no this isn’t breakfast, these, Luz, are what we’ll be enchanting today. I’m going to show you how to make a potion that can make things shrink and one that can make ‘em grow. Super simple and almost impossible to mess up kid”. 

Grabbing two medium sized pots and some of the scattered ingredients she layed out earlier, Eda began explaining to Luz what to mix and how long to cook it before it would work properly. Luz was wide eyed and ecstatic to be learning this, and it made Eda’s heart jump seeing how enthralled in the lesson she was. Once she had both potions to the appropriate consistency she slid them over to Luz and picked up one of the baby carrots.

“Okay now Luz, I want you to take this and dip it in a pot, users choice”.

Luz grabbed the carrot and looked between the pots, choosing the pot on the left at random she swirled the tip of the carrot around inside until Eda told her that was enough, then set it gently on the counter. She heard Eda explaining what the process about to happen was Luz was far too concentrated on the carrot to really process any of it. With a gentle shake at first and a building tremble after, Luz’s eyes grew wide as the carrot seemed to grow ten times its original size, now roughly the same length as the smaller girl’s arms.

“Eda, this is so.So.Cool!!! I can’t believe I’m actually learning this!”

Luz reached for another carrot to try the other pot as King made his way back onto the counter, perturbed at the lack of inclusion he was receiving. 

“Hey! That’s nothing! If you want to see something really cool then check this out.”

King slid his demon book onto the counter with a loud thunk, grunting as he repositioned it and flipped it open to a random page.

“Okay, now this dude is really terrifying, just the saliva on his fangs could-”

He was cut off mid sentence by Eda grabbing him by the collar and plopping him down onto a chair next to Luz, handing him his book and giving him an amused look.

“Sorry there small fry, you’ll have to wait your turn at teaching the human, It’s professional mentor time.”

“Hey! That’s not fair! I have just as much important information to teach her as you do”!

The two started a back and forth argument about what was more important to learn while Luz continued to dip carrots into the pots. Dipping the carrots into the shrinking pot resulted in them becoming so small she couldn’t see or feel them. Wondering if they disappeared or if they were just too small to see she prepared to ask as much to Eda when King jumped up onto the counter and upset the shrinking pot. Before Eda could catch it or Luz get out of the was a glob was splashed onto the kids lap as she pushed away from the counter.

“Oh no! Eda, what do i do?” 

“It’s okay! None of it touched your skin. We have to be careful and get you changed and you’ll be fine. King, run upstairs and grab a new shirt for Luz and help me-”

Eda was cut off by King jumping from the counter and upsetting a book that has spilled potion on it. With a horrified look Eda watched as a few droplets splattered across Luz’s forearms. Thinking quickly she grabbed a damp rag from the sink and quickly rubbed Luz’s arms down and mopping off her shirt as best she could. When nothing happened Eda let out a relieved laugh and sat back on her heels, mentally planning to strangle that little fuzz ball of a demon when he was back with Luz’s clothes. Standing up to see where he was Eda heard a surprised gasp and turned around to see Luz staring wide eyed at her hands, a look of surprise on her face.

“Eda, I think, I think somethings happening.”

As she finished her awed sentence her legs began to tremble and she fell to her knees, her body appearing smaller than Eda recalled as she rushed over to put a hand on her shoulder.

“Oh boy, okay kid listen up. You’re going to be fine, alright? Not a lot got on you and all we have to do is use a little bit of the growth potion to reverse it okay? You’re going to be back to normal before you know it!”

Eda knew she was right but didn’t like how fast the girl was getting smaller. As she heard King’s little claws at the top of the stairs Luz was down to the size of a toddler, her clothes shrinking with her at a slower rate and looking adorably big on her. As King rounded the corner into the kitchen carrying some fresh clothes and a bathrobe with him Luz had finally stopped growing and was looking at her small hands with amusement. She was no bigger than one of the Bat Queens babies and couldn't get over how cute King was from this angle.

“Oh my god!! King you’re like, 1,000 times cuter from below! Oh your little face and paws! Oh my gosh I love you so much.”

“Alright king’s cute and all but let’s get you fixed up before anything else happens. I’m going to clean up that spill so no more accidents happen and then we’ll have you right back to normal kid.”

King scurried over to Luz and threw his loot onto the ground. Luz was a little below his eye level and giving him the biggest sparkle eyes he had ever seen from her.

“Okay I know I’m usually the cute one but Luz? You’re like a little baby! Is this how everyone feels when they look at me? No wonder I’m getting cuddled all the time. Come on, I’ll help you get up on the counter.”

Kneeling in front of Luz he invited her to climb onto his back. Luz gave out an excited yell and climbed up, grabbing his collar to hold onto.

“Is it weird that I’ve dreamed about this before? Except instead of me shrinking you were larger and also there was a forest made of candy.”

“Luz you are the weirdest human I’ve ever met.”

“Jokes on you! I’m the only human you’ve ever met!”

“Okay that’s enough, King get Luz up here so we can get this over with. Also, stop being weird, you’re freaking me out.”

With an annoyed grunt King scampered up the chairs with Luz whooping excitedly from his back. He wouldn’t admit it but it was kind of fun to be the one giving the piggy back ride for once. Once at the top of the table and safely over the edge, Luz climbed off of King and over to Eda, who was standing with a small bowl in her hand near the table.

“Okay Luz I had the amount you need, also sorry in advance for the mess.”

“It’s okay Eda I’m ready! Wait what mess?’

With that Eda upturned the bowl over Luz, emptying the contents over the miniature girl and stepping to the side to grab the bathrobe. Moving back to her original spot she draped the immensely oversized robe over little Luz and leaned her elbow on the counter to wait out the process. It didn’t take long for Luz to grow back to her full size, although the bathrobe was still way too big. Smiling up at Eda she hopped off the table and embraced her around the waist and hugged tightly.

“Thank you Eda! I can’t believe I learned how to do all that! And I got to ride King like a little demon horse thing!”

Eda just laughed and gave her an encouraging pat on the back before stepping back and eyeing the mess on the counter.

“Alright kid that’s enough magic lessons for one day, now grab those clothes and go shower up and we’ll work on some real breakfast after, okay?’

Luz nodded enthusiastically and grabbed the clothes off the floor before sprinting up the stairs two at a time to the bathroom, she got to learn new magic AND Eda was going to actually help them with breakfast? This day was the best!

#the owl house #Fic #Eda #Luz #King #the owl house fic

[imagine-darksiders]

What would happen, if the horsemen swapped bodies? Maybe add in Azrael and Ulthane too xD

This is such a stupid little drabble lmao, even I’M confused as to who’s who.

—-

Perhaps, in hindsight, they should have known theday would end in disaster when all six of them entered the same room.

Four horsemen, a boisterous, burly maker and thesoft-spoken archangel, Azrael.

‘The Incident’ – as it was affectionately coinedby Strife – happened eons before the creation of mankind and notlong after the Nephilim’s destruction.

They were all there at the behest of the HellguardCommander, Abaddon, who seemed to be under the impression thatinviting the horsemen to an extravagant gathering in the Templedistrict would be a fine idea. This was, of course, a blatant show offorce, an arrogant boast meant for his political opponents. For whowould dare stand against an angel backed by the Charred Council’sdeadliest weapon?

However, what went on behind the scenes was anentirely different matter.

There had been a monumental argument when Warquite ardently told Abaddon where he could shove his 'invitation,’that had only been resolved by Death and Azrael prying theirrespective companions off one another.

Azrael had then taken over negotiations, askingrather than demanding, that the Four attend, pointing out that ifthey did, he, Abaddon and Heaven itself would owe them a great debt.Death, of course, conceded because it was Azrael. Strife admittedthat it could be fun, Fury accused the two of them of being soft, andinevitably the fighting started up again.

In the end though, they reached a begrudgingagreement, which leads to the Four gathered inside Azrael’s privatestudy, hidden away in a corner of the Crystal Spire, each sporting adeep scowl as they gather around the angel’s tidy desk.

“What is the maker doing here?” Fury spits,jerking her chin at Ulthane where he towers behind the archangel,head and arms squashed in on themselves to appear as compact aspossible in the too-tight space. He levels a sneer at her.

“He is here at my request as well,” Azraelsighs before the maker can shoot her what’s sure to be a rude retort.Rubbing at his temples, he leans forwards on the desk, resting on hiselbows. “What use is my position if not to bring my friends to themost lavish of parties?”

“Aye girlie,”the Old one drawls, bending over Azrael’s head and bracing his handson the relatively flimsy desk, ignoring its protesting creak andgroan. “You got a problem with that?” As he moves back, pushedaway by the angel’s shooing hands, his bulky wrist knocks into a pairof tall flasks that were already teetering precariously close to theedge, sending them toppling down to the hard, marble floor below.

“NO!” the typically composed Azrael all butshrieks, throwing himself across the desk after them and stretchingout his arms in a fruitless attempt to catch them. Time seems to slowas the flasks fall.

Death reaches out for them as well, War rolls hiseyes up to the ceiling, Fury turns a glare on Ulthane and opens hermouth to call him a 'bumbling oaf’ and Strife merely watches withmild interest as the carnage unfolds.

As for the maker, he manages to eek out a sheepish'whoops,’ before the sound of shattering glass and sloshing liquidfills the room.

There’s a flash of blinding, orange light thatsears their retinas and throws them all into disarray.

When the light eventually fades, it reveals thateverything is….the same as it had been.

Ulthane flaps an enormous palm through the air,wafting away a thin layer of lingering mist. “Those were,” hecoughs, “highly volatile chemicals of – as of yet Unknown –origin! I have been conducting experiments on them for months! Do youhave any idea how hard it is to-”

The maker trails off as he cracks his eyes openand spots Azrael gaping up at him. The angel’s face is twisted intoabject horror and he raises his robed arms to run pale, slenderfingers along his angular jaw.

Ulthane tears his gaze off him to inspect his ownhands. “By the Light!” he squeaks – a very odd noise comingfrom the rough and tumble maker. At around about the same time,Azrael leaps to his feet, sending his chair crashing to the groundand exclaims, “What in the bloody name of Stone!?-”

At which point all Hell breaks loose and severalstrange things happen in the space of a few seconds.

Fury staggers forwards, totters on her heels andpromptly collapses to the floor with an undignified yelp. Deathrecoils as though he’d been struck and sputters, “Oh! Oh– What is that repugnant stench!?”

Across the room, Strife suddenly begins toscrabble at his helmet, wrenching it off and pitching it franticallyat one of Azrael’s bookshelves. “Who put that on me!?”

War meanwhile simply lifts his gauntlets and turnsthem over in front of his face. “Troubling,” he murmurs.

Just then, all four of them glance up and takestock of one another.

A series of outraged, confused and urgent yellsbombard the study.

“What happened!?” Strife demands,yellow eyes gleaming brightly against his charcoal skin.

As he speaks, Fury tries to drag herself uprightagain, using the desk as support whilst Azrael’s wings give a suddenflap and he barks, “Does someone want to tell me what’s going on!?”

“I was about to ask you the same thing, Azrael,”War growls, taking a step towards the angel, who shoots him anannoyed huff. “Azrael? I’m not Azrael! I’m Ulthane!”

Working his hands through the slick, black hair onhis head, Death mutters, horrified. “My hair! There’s so muchgrease!” before whipping a furious glare at everyone in the study.“Well, one of you must be Azrael! Speak up, so that I may throttleyou, bird!”

“Over here,” the maker pipes up, raising ameaty hand into the air, “And before we lose our heads, we shouldprobably sort out who’s who…”

Bending over the little desk, he tries to pinch adelicate quill between his thumb and forefinger, lips pressed into ahard line that gradually becomes a soft snarl after each failedattempt. After an awkward silence in which everyone watches the makerstruggle, he huffs and turns to the angel beside him. “Would youmind?”

Not-Azrael stops fiddling with the enormous,primary feathers and gives a start. “What? - Oh…Yeah, hang on atick..”

Sliding over to take the real Azrael’s place, hemanages to smack several book stacks over with his extensivewingspan. “Sorry.” He flexes his fingers a few times and picksthe quill up, holding it gently in his fingers as though he’s worriedit might break, then poises it over a scrap of yellowed parchment.“Alright, when you’re ready..”

“Good. Now then-” The enormous maker claps hishands together and winces at the volume, tentatively lowering themagain a moment later. “Let’s find out where everyone is, shall we?Death?”

The Red Rider, War, nods. “Here, Azrael.”

“Excellent. War? Ah - The real War?”

“I’ve never felt so puny,” Strife’sbody grumbles, throwing the giant a heated glare.

Propped up on the desk, Fury snarls at him. “Hey!You ought to be grateful you got me! Fury, how the hell do you walkin these heels?”

the angel continues to scribble on the parchment.“Safe to say we know where Strife is..” Raising a snowy eyebrowat the remaining, eldest horseman, he asks, “Fury?”

“You have no idea how much I wish that weren’ttrue, maker,” she gripes in her brother’s deep, gravelly voice.

“Wonderful,” Azraelremarks, “I propose to avoid confusion, we all refer to each otherby our proper names, rather than those whose bodies we inhabit.”

“Avoid confusion?” Strife scoffs, peeringwarily down at his breasts like he’d never seen a pair of them in hislife, “Now that is wishful thinking.” “

Chin propped on the back of his knuckles and theother hand fidgeting curiously with a pistol on his belt, War asks,“Was it the potions?”

The maker hums thoughtfully and starts to steparound the desk to pace, realises there’s very limited room to do so,and opts to remain where he is, tugging at the bushy beard framinghis entire jawline. “That seems most likely, I doubt the two weremeant to be mixed but I wasn’t even sure what their purpose was tobegin with..”

As he puzzles, Ulthane stares up at his own body,morbidly curious. “Is that really what I sound like?”

“Of course, as with most potions, the effectstend not to be permanent,” the non-angel continues, ignoring hisfriend’s fingers that poke sharply at his side. “I’d wager theeffects won’t last more than a few hours.”

“A few hours!”

“Uh, Azrael? That’s too long!”

“Surely you know a counter spe- Fury! You leavethat mask where it is!”

“Hang on, I gotta take these shoes off.”

The maker taps his fingertips together, shruggingsheepishly while the actual Ulthane grunts, trying to get hiswayward wings under control. Managing six limbs when one is usedto four is not an easy task.

“Alright, s'fine,” he barks, effectivelybutchering Azrael’s prim and proper accent, “We just stay in hereand wait till it wears off.”

Slowly, but agitated nonetheless, the groupconsiders this, sharing glances before they begin to settle, mumblingwords of reassurement..

Unfortunately, millions and millions of years fromthis point, Death would be travelling on Earth and hear a term thehumans refer to as 'Murphy’s law,’ which he would then think back andattribute to the situation he, his siblings, Azrael and Ulthane foundthemselves in. It’s a very fitting law that simply states, 'Ifsomething can go wrong, it will go wrong.’

And it did – spectacularly.

A knock on the heavy, wooden door has all heads inthe room snapping towards it and before anyone can move, it creaksopen and a head pokes through the gap. It’s a young angel with a mopof curly, silver hair flopping messily into his pale, amber eyes thatdart timidly around the room.

“I – Uh….Lord Azrael?” he utters,shrinking under the weight of several, intense scares.

“Ah! Sebastian, there you are,” Azraelsmiles pleasantly, his tone measured and perfectly calm. In fact, itwould almost fool anyone into thinking that nothing world-shaking hadoccurred there at all just moments ago, were it not for the fact thathe’d said it in a rumbling, nordic accent and stepped forward on tree trunk legs,bumping his knee into a free-standing bookshelf and almost upendingthe whole thing.

In an instant, Sebastian’s pale skin flushes pinkand he drops his jaw, glancing uncertainly between Ulthane and theangel sitting at the desk.

War coughs into a fist and discreetly kicks theangel’s robed shin.

“Oi! What?”

Pointedly, the horseman flicks his eyes at thenewcomer.

Following his gaze, Ulthane’s wings give anotherinvoluntary jerk. “Oh – er…Aye, I mean – Yes! What is it?”

Fury drags a hand down herbrother’s bone mask as Strife stifles a snort.

Understandably flustered, Sebastian gulps and drums his fingers on the doorframe. “S-Sir Abaddon sentme to ask for you. The guests have begun to arrive and he’s getting alittle…ah…impatient.”

“Abaddon? Impatient?” Death chuckles beneaththe crimson hood, “Somebody alert the scribes.”

Shushing the horseman, Azrael turns his head toaddress the young angel again. “Please tell him we’ll be alongpresently. Thank you, Sebastian.”

Once again, the angel’s face seems to turn an even deeper shade of crimson and a chorus of ’We will?’ erupts from the others.

Swivelling his head about to Ulthane, thearchangel wrings his hands together. “That is – of course – ifit’s alright with you, Lord. Azrael?”

Heaving out an exasperated sigh, the angel liftshis shoulders in a lazy shrug, failing to notice the twitch ofAzrael’s eyes when he does. “Fine, tell his Lordship we’ll be thereas soon as….as Strife here stops throwing a hissy fit.”

Everyone’s eyes shoot over to the gunslinginghorseman. War’s shoulders tense, eyes narrowing. After a moment ofperfect silence, he sighs flatly, reaches out a hand and pushes oneof Azrael’s ink pots off the desk.

“Brother!” Strife gasps in mock horror and shoves hissister’s body away from the wall he’d supported it on, wobblingunsteadily towards the door. “Honestly, we can’t take him anywherethese days.” Grabbing the young angel by the shoulders, he spinshim around and gives the middle of his back a quick nudge, betweenthe wings. “Run along now, and tell Abaddon we’ll be there in no time. Alright?”

“O-okay! Yes, Miss Fury.” Sebastian’s feathersshiver under the unwarranted touch to their sensitive tips but heallows himself to be steered out of the room, flinching when thehorseman slams the door behind him.

A scribe stacking tomes on a spiralling book caseacross the hallway looks up at the echoing sound. “Sebastian?”she calls, “Are you alright? Your face, it’s…it’s pink!”

Dazed, he smooths down his russet-brown robes andambles towards her, gliding the last couple of steps on hisremarkably dainty wings and landing heavily by her side. “He knowsmy name!” he sighs wistfully, slumping down the book case, “Me! Asimple messenger! And he knew my name!”

“Who?”

“The Black Hammer!”

She arches her brow scornfully. “That lug? So what? He’sjust a maker.”

“A gorgeous maker!” the youngster swoons.

Rolling her eyes to the painted ceiling highabove, she clicks her tongue and smiles knowingly. “Don’t let LordAbaddon hear you say that-”

All of a sudden, Sebastian shoots up off the wall,a sharp gasp leaping off his tongue. “Lord Abaddon!” he squawks,“The party! I’ve got to go!”

And with that, in a flurry of threadbare feathers,he zooms off down the hall, around a corner and out of sight.

Behind him, the scribe shakes her head and watches after him for awhile before she turns and continues her duty, placing books backinto their rightful spots.

—-

Back in Azrael’s study, any semblance of orderclings to a thread, threatening to snap at any given moment andplunge the room into mad chaos.

Livid, Death rounds on the angel in the room.“What possessed you to go and -” He pauses for a second, thentuts and turns to the gigantic maker. “- and say that? We can’t goanywhere like this!”

Strife passes between them, concentrating hard onplacing his heel down first before his toes follow. “I don’t know,I think I’m getting the hang of this.”

War folds his arms across his chest, ignoring hisbrother turned sister. “I concur with Death. In this state, we arecompromised. If anyone were to discover our…predicament, this wouldbe an opportune time for them to strike us down.”

“Well, we can’t remain in here,” Azrael pointsout, “If we do, Abaddon himself will come looking and he’ll knowstraight away that something isn’t right.”

“I am notkeen on having him find out about this,” Death mutters.

Holding up a bandage-wrapped fist, Fury clenchesit tightly. “We could always kill him,” she suggest, only halfjoking, “Come to think of it, I feel I could kill anyone at themoment….So this is imperviousness..”

The eldest horseman furrows his sleek, white brow.“Put it from your mind, little sister. This will not last.”

She shrugs, but continues to tense and flex hernewfound, sinewy arms.

“Furthermore,” Azrael coughs, “I’d rathernot make this situation any more uncomfortable than it already is –No offence, Ulthane -”

The Old one waves his apology aside.

“- and I fear that killing Abaddon will tip thescales into 'awkward.”

“So what do you propose?” War grunts.

“We could always just ditch this thing.”

“Oh yes, Strife. There’s an idea,”Death scoffs, “A maker, an archangel and four horsemen try to sneakaway through the streets of Heaven during a large-scale, socialevent. What could go wrong?”

Falling into grumbles, he absently finds himselfchecking the joints in his littlest brother’s metal gauntlet. 'Hmm.War never does use enough oil…’ he muses distractedly.

“If I may,” Ulthane interjects abruptly,venturing out into the middle of the room and eying the muscles onhis hijacked body longingly. He wouldn’t say it aloud, not to Azrael.But even as a youngling, he’d never felt this small. Fragile even.Shaking the sensation from his mind, he goes on, “I say we givethis a shot.”

He receives several incredulous looks, so he adds,“Look, you’re siblings. I would hope you know each other wellenough to pass as one another.”

All four riders share skeptical glances.

After a couple of long minutes where nobody uttersanother sound, Death sighs and rolls his shoulders. “Fury, you’dbest start teaching Strife how to walk in those shoes.”

War smirks at his sister’s objectionable groans.

“We’ll have to be careful,” Azrael warns, “Bevague, don’t talk to one person for too long, and for the sake ofeverything holy, don’t forget who you’re supposed to be. Ulthane -”He turns to the angel. “- This will be your biggest challenge.Everyone will be wanting a piece of me – I mean, you. Butworry not, I shall be by your side the whole night.”

Straightening out his back, Ulthane adopts hisbest dignified expression. “S'long as I act like a stick in themud, we’ll be fine.”

The glare Azrael throws at him pulls a chucklefrom Death.

Levelling a chunky forefinger in the old one’ssmug face, the archangel says, “And please remember to enunciateyour words. If I have to spend an evening behaving like a vulgarbrust, you had best be the picture of civility and grace.”

“No promises.”

“Hmph.”

Strolling past them to the door, Fury throws itopen, standing in the entrance and tapping Death’s leather sabatonson the marble. “Can we get on with this before Abaddon or someoneelse comes looking for their choir boy?” At her remark, themaker’s lips draw back over his fangs and he snarls, only to presshis lips together a moment later, a look of surprise flitting acrosshis rugged features. “I do apologise. I don’t know where that camefrom.”

“Don’t apologise to her, Azrael,” Death sighs,following his own body to the door, a motion that does not fly overhis head. “She’s just moody because she knows Strife is boundto make a fool of her tonight.”

“Bootlicker,” she snaps behind the mask, “Thefirst thing I’m doing tonight is finding the nearest fountain andjumping in it with a wash cloth.”

Strife follows her next. He – for lack of abetter word – sashays over to the study’s entrance, throwing hiships out around each exaggerated step.

Cringing, War coughs into a closed fist. “Sincewhen does our sister walk with so much hip, Strife?” Theirmiddle brother glances back over his shoulder at the remaining three.“Too much?”

“Definitely,” War replies.

“Just a tad,” Azrael puts more gently. At hisside, Ulthane purses his lips and shakes his head.

“Right,” the sharp shooter nods, “Less ismore. Got it.”

Shoving his brother out the door, War moves afterhim, standing with the rest.

Letting out a tired exhale, Azrael angles his bulktowards Ulthane, his pointed ears twitching and giving away his mood.The angel smirks up at himself and slaps a hand above the other’senormous elbow. “You always were a worrier.”

“For good reason, I think.”

Ever so slightly, Ulthane’s smirk softens – itdidn’t feel like it belonged on his face anyway. “We’ll be fine.”

Azrael’s ears perk up a little and he allows thesmaller being to give him a gentle push, guiding him towards thearched doorway. “I suppose you must be right, my friend. Afterall-” He places his colossal hands on his hips and casts ascrutinising eye over the mismatched band. “-What could go wrong?”

Oddly enough, nobody felt like following that upwith an ensemble of ’everything.’

#Darksiders #body swap

[fantroll-purgatory]

World:  honestly not sure yet; i’m thinking either alternia or some sort of alternate universe that follows pretty much all of the same rules but with a different history, whatever my friends decide on.  (i’m considering the latter due to my friends having limeblooded characters based off of their extended zodiac. pfft who knows.) Name:  Diezzi Cafein  (truly i wish i had some sort of interesting and witty explanation for this name, but nope, all I can say is this is a cheap bastardization of my league of legends user haha: dizzyoncaffeine)

Hey, the name has meaning, then. It means Dizzy on Caffeine! You just gotta pull that characterization through. Make sure Diezzi is caffeinated. Age:  7.5 sweeps

Theme/Story:  Diezzi fears becoming just like their ancestor, The Betrayer (personal hitman for the ruler at the time who killed some close friends and/or the ruler before killing themselves), doing their best to avoid a fate like theirs though subconsciously failing to escape the inevitable as their personality, interests, and morale paralleling that of the former assassin. though i’m not set yet on wether or not i make this next bit canon, i think they might directly follow in those footsteps by killing some friends for *time*, considering their classpect.  Goals:  I’m looking for a general overview! I really want to have a second opinion on both general and visual design so that I can fix all the flaws I may be unable to fully see. I didn’t have any thematic or vision at all when I first made this character, most of it just being random fun, so there’s probably a lot of issues thanks to that haha Strife Specibus:  scissorkind, 1/2scissorkind  (their main weapon consists of a *rather* large pair of scissors, white + glowy blades with bright red tips. i have yet to name these scissors mostly due to my laziness. though it’d typically be able to be weaponized in a variety of different ways unique to the scissor form, Diezzi’s dumbass managed to find a way to accidentally break it resulting in them pretty much just being two weird swords. oh well.) Particular weapons don’t really need names until you hop into Sburb anyways! Now something important to consider here is that weapons for Trolls usually tend to be related to a character’s interests or ambitions. (See: Karkat using a sickle because of career ambitions, Nepeta using claws because She’s Cat, and Vriska using dice because she loves luck and pirates). So what is the utility for Diezzi? Why do they use the scissors? Create an interest or ambition that leads to this. Fetch Modus: honestly not quite sure what to make it yet. suggestions are welcome!

Fetch Moduses are also usually interest-based. Since your character likes bones, how about a Skeletal Chart? Each object is placed in a bone on a fake troll skeleton and in order to get the item, you’ve gotta Name That Bone! 

Blood Color:  indigo Symbol and Meaning:  sagiries (this was actually the answer i originally obtained from the extended zodiac quiz haha) Handle:  grievousCollections  (the name simply alludes to Diezzi’s skull collection. don’t worry, they’re not troll skulls! … yet?) Quirk: - types in all lowercase, except for the last letter of every sentencE. - (uses parenthesis when whispering or saying something somewhat offtopic) - sometimes spams the semicolon ;;;;; to emphasize disbelief or confusion. - r-plac-s all ‘e’s with a hyp-n, -, unless the last l-tt-r of the s-nt-nc- is an e, in that cas- it is replac-d with a plus sign + - doubles all ‘i’s, even in proper names or words that already have double consecutiive ‘ii’s. - question and exclamation marks are always separated from the sentence by a space ! but not periods.

Special Abilities:  n/a

Don’t forget that Blues usually have Big Strength. Not Equius level, but still pretty strong. Lusus/Guardian: a large quadraped with a graceful yet very canine-like build, a slight bit bigger than a deer. their front feet have paws but their back have hooflike ends. no visible eyes or ears whatsoever but have horns just like Diezzi’s. long, furless, and slick tentacle-like tail that you hopeful won’t get slapped in the face by. haven’t thought of a personality/relationship yet whoops!

This is nicely creative. AND the descrip vaguely reminds me of Horsaroni, which is fun.  Interests: Diezzi collects the skulls of different lusii and boasts a rather impressive collection too. while it may seem to be something for intimidating other trolls, it’s really just a bit of morbid curiosity and they *tend* to get their skulls for already dead lusii. on the topic of, Diezzi likes milk (haha get it cause like calcium and stuff). wait no, they *love* it. their moirail pokes fun at them for this odd fixation on the liquid but they don’t care anymore. they would live exclusively off it if given the chance. no cap. aside from that, they’re honestly a bit of a dork and like to play whatever troll the troll version of league is although they honestly aren’t all that good at it.

This is a good start, but I think for a more well-rounded character you might want to throw two of three more things into the mix. To bring in the example of another blueblooded milk fan, Equius likes Milk, but he also likes fine art of hoofbeasts, and archery, and robotics. Tavros liked obvious theme stuff like Peter Pan/Fairies/General Fantasy, but he also liked jousting and Fiduspawn and FLARPing and slam poetry. Try to bring in a few more broad fascinations and then narrow down the particulars and you’ll have a stronger character.

Appearance: +  +  +

Personality:  they like to think of themself as the more sane one between them and their palemate but honestly? not really. they’re a bit stressed + anxious at any given time but cover it up with a chill and reasonable demeanor. though this might make them a generally cool and sensible troll to be around, sometimes the unspoken inner turmoil can lead to poor mental health if it’s bad enough. for some reason time’s never on their side, though that’s partly because of their *shit* sense of time. they have a bad tendency to stay up late (sometimes to the point they’re well into daytime until they realize they should probably get some sleep) and usually over/under estimate how long something will take. they suffer from this ever-constant sense of running out time, even when there’s nothing to do. they’re surprisingly open to different ideas and don’t really dwell too much on blood color for a member of a cooler caste, though Diezzi probably won’t stand for any specific cause if it could potentially lead to pissing off higherbloods, for several reasons. however, if something directly affects a lowblood pal, this is tempted to change. sometimes you gotta prove yourself better than your shitty ancestor… but hopefully something like that won’t happen cause being loyal and self sacrificing is fucking scary dude. Lunar Sway: Derse

The personality you describe is honestly more in line with a Prospitan. The fear of becoming like their ancestor thing especially- remember that Prospit players believe more in fate/destiny and are more likely to believe that the ancestor thing holds any weight. Most trolls don’t know or care much about their ancestor, who usually died well before their time. 

Vriska knows about Mindfang because she discovered her journal, but most trolls aren’t going to have that kind of knowledge or connection unless they’re deeply invested in the narrative of the ancestors-- It’s kind of like the human idea of the Zodiac in that way. While some people are really diehard believers that it’s some kind of predetermination of personality, other people don’t know or care about it at all. 

Which isn’t to say dersites can’t know about it, they’re just probably not going to actually BELIEVE it as much. So if Diezzi is the type to believe in ancestors Thoroughly and Passionately and to worry about their inevitable fate, they might make a better prospit character. 

If you wanna make them more derse, you’ll need to pull back on the predetermination idea and give them a little more of that dersite “something to fight for” spirit. That doesn’t mean they have to want to fight for anything Big, they could just like... want to start a Got Milk? campaign in their local neighborhood.   Title:  Thief of Time

Thieves and Princes/Bards are up there as the most Selfish classes. That’s something you have to think about with this title. How do you want this character to develop? Do they need to learn to be selfish and take time for themself instead of sharing it with others? Or will Thief of Time play on their worst habits and make them into a terrible person? Is that what’s necessary for the course of the story? Those kinds of things are hard to consider, but necessary. 

Now, the EZ can get a little Time and Space happy (since those are the two necessary aspects and so they come up more often), and I think that’s what happened here. Which isn’t to say I don’t think Diezzi (or you) wouldn’t make a good time player. I think you just need to emphasize the fact that Diezzi needs to Learn to rail against something. Because Time is about Fighting The Flows Of Time, and making them your own, ESPECIALLY as a thief.  Land: Land of Embers and Constellations (LOEAC), inhabited by crocodile consorts and the denizen Hephaestus.

I don’t have any design notes, I think this design is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing and I hope this helped. 

-CD

#blueblood #submission #review #cd review #711parkinglot #diezzi cafein #diezzi #cafein

[twiststreet]

Mission Impossible 4: Ghost Protocol Blogging, Chapter 3

I’m blogging about the 4th Mission Impossible movie, Ghost Protocol.  The blogging starts here.

Paula Patton is the perfect member for the team to infiltrate the Kremlin.  Her job is to fly a balloon over a vent and then drop some bullshit into the vent.  She got the highest grade in her balloon class at IMF School.  Her teachers:  “You are the one they spoke of on our balloon scrolls, before they popped.”  

(Come to my blog for the full frontal male nudity; stay for the balloon humor.  I’m very proud of “Before they popped,” though.  I felt good about that one...)

Annnnnd that’s all Paula Patton does for the first mission.  Except she doesn’t even really do that right-- she’s slow to drop the balloon thing so it takes a while for Simon Pegg’s “fake being a Russian general” widget to work...?  This movie’s rough on Patton...

Then between 23:15 and 23:56 is nearly a minute of Simon Pegg and Tom Cruise just walking while Russians-are-spooky music plays.  They walk all sorts of places--in a hall, in a big room, in the same big room except at a different camera angle.  About 40-seconds of just pure walking content.  They’re not talking as they walk even-- it’s not a walk and talk-- just taking a leisurely stroll in the middle of the action movie. 

There’s like 4 or 5 different shots that somebody had to light.  “What are we lighting today, Phil?”  “Another walking scene.”  “Why aren’t we married yet?  My mom’s starting to ask questions.  How long are we going to be engaged?”  “This isn’t the time for that.  We’re in the middle of an entirely unrelated point being made through the magic of hypothetical dialogue.”  “Excuses, excuses!  Always with the excuses.”  

I get it though -- When you get older, walking becomes the most impossible mission of them all.  :(

We’re now at one of my favorite parts of this movie -- when the IMF invests about $5-7 million dollars in US taxpayer dollars to create the most elaborate way to walk halfway down a hallway humanly conceivable.

The IMF has to invent a handheld machine that creates the realistic sound of water dropping -- but then the machine has to be like a fucking gun so that it looks like water is coming from where the wielder wants that sound to originate from.

Then, the IMF has to invent a device that generates a photo-realistic image of a pre-existing hallway, from the point of view of a person sitting behind a security desk.  Now, how the IMF collected enough data seeing as they don’t have access to the hallway or the desk or data about the desk, is well beyond the scope of this blog post.  But again, an extremely sophisticated and expensive piece of technology.  To get ... halfway down a hallway.

Here’s the thing:  a tranquilizer costs about... $4.  

They could just shoot a tranquilizer at the security guy.  All this technology, it’s all overkill.  Tranquilizer, Poof, done.  Instead they build the most amazing technology ever and then just leave it there, cause fuck keeping that shit.

Sure, you could say “well if they used a tranquilizer, that’d show up on the security cameras.”  Except they could hack those because this is a movie, anything can be hacked.  Also, you know what else would show up on security cameras?  Tom Cruise and Simon Pegg setting up a floor to ceiling fucking greenscreen in the middle of the got-damn Kremlin.  Don’t be giving me no “Security camera” shit.  I ain’t gonna be fooled by no banana in the tailpipe, man.  

(ALSO:  Tom Cruise has gone there dressed as a Russian general.  Why wouldn’t a Russian general be able to go and just walk down the hall wherever he felt like it?  Or why did he bother to dress up as a Russian general if it wouldn’t let him walk down one whole fucking hallway without getting harassed by security??  I saw Death of Stalin-- after that movie, fuuuuuck, I’d let anyone in a Russian military costume walk into your mom’s sex closet, without even trying to stop them or the pals they brought with them, to make group-love to your mom...)

I love this scene though.  It’s just the dumbest heist scene.  But even the dumbest heist scene’s still a fucking heist scene.  I always want there to be one of those in a Mission Impossible movie... Every one of these movies has the same plot-- “some bad guy just got me disavowed so I gotta do a heist so I can be avowed because it’s important for a man to be avowed”-- but it’s a good one.  It works.  It’s more of a spy plot at least than James Bond’s one plot, which is just “I got a mission, but hey, I still make time to get totally laid.”  I like that plot, too, because it teaches a good lesson to the kids, but I’m just saying MI’s one plot feels more rooted in the spy genre, is all...

But the bad guy knows they’re there and deviously sets them up for bombing the Kremlin.  

Want to know how the bad guy knows that the IMF is there?

Want to know how the bad guy even knows what the IMF is, considering it’s a secret organization whose existence is not known to the public?

Want to know how the bad guy knew he had to go scrub the Kremlin of his identity?

Want to know why the bad guy didn’t feel like he had to scrumb the Kremlin of his identity before that, even though he was actively trying to buy nuclear weapons?

Want to know why it’d even be bad for the bad guy to have his identity known?  Like, what’s the IMF going to do with his name -- look him up in the White Pages?

Neither do I.  This is the key for me to this movie -- Pleasure>logic.  If only the campaign managers of Clinton-Kaine 2016 had listened to that message!  Viva Le Revolucion.  Welcome to my propaganda abattoir-- the Mission Impossible content was just a ruse to lure you in, much like the Russian General costume that Tom Cruise is wearing in this thrilling scene.  Now I convert you to being a Bro!

Tom Cruise runs away from the Kremlin exploding.

A+.

I’ve never seen this movie and not gotten confused how Simon Pegg isn’t dead after this scene.  That’s my personal theory about the movie, is that the rest of the movie is all what Simon Pegg imagines is happening, as he’s dying under a bunch of rubble.  It’s Simon Pegg’s Vertigo.

Another character who only gets to mix it up in one movie.  Not as sad a thing as it is with Kittridge, the tough Spy Boss from Mission Impossible 1.  But I like that they created an Inspector Zenigata to Tom Cruise’s Lupin in these movies.  I’ve always figured that for being Bird’s little nod to Miyazaki, though that kinda character’s pretty common to these kinds of movies anyways.  Zenigata’s just where my mind goes to, I guess...

Of this movie’s additions, I’d have been happier to see him come back in other movies then Jeremy Renner.  

Who ... you know, I liked him in the Hurt Locker and The House.  He doesn’t irritate me the way a Jai Courtney does.  I’m not 100% anti-Renner-- maybe someday, someone will figure out what to do with that guy, even though what that could possibly be is not really immediately obvious.  

But he’s just got an impossible job being likable in these movies.  Because he’s got no function-- they already have a cool, action-smart guy-- that’s Tom Cruise.  So anytime Jeremy Renner has to say anything, as an action analyst, he has to say the wrong thing, to show that Tom Cruise is saying the right thing by comparison.  Because the only rule in these movies is “Tom Cruise is going to be awesome at whatever he’s doing on-screen.”  So if there’s an argument, it’ll always be like 

Tom Cruise:  You need to trust me.  I know how to win on this Blue Rose mission, and defeat the evil of Judy once and for all.

Jeremy Renner:  We can’t.  Waaaaah.  Even though we know you’re awesome, we’re going to not trust you because I went to Big Brains College and... oh no, I forgot that a degree from Big Brains College isn’t as good as your real world experience, whoops.  OH NO I just peed in my own mouth in the bathroom.  I’m a big dummie!

Tom Cruise:  I guess trusting me sounds like a much better idea now, doesn’t it, audience?  Yay!  Quick-- to the dynamite factory.

That’s a tough role to play.  On the other hand, we get to go to the dynamite factory-- they go to the dynamite factory in these movies.  So who’s got time for any sympathy?  Not me!

I’m going to have to go through this bit slowly because I get confused here...

So, Tom Cruise rendezvous’s with The Secretary and his quant William Brandt.  Instead of shaking Jeremy Renner’s hands (because gross! he probably just spunked with those hands), Tom Cruise starts badgering him for a pen.  

Brandt gives him a pen and then Tom Cruise draws the face of the bad guy on the palm of his hand-- after Tom Cruise walked by him for 5 seconds... That’s the kind of memory that having your thetans Zoofrau-Cleaned lets you have.

Tom Cruise shows him this drawing and then says “Who is he?”  

Really overestimating his art skills, Tom Cruise. Really has a high estimation of his doodling.  

This is what Baby Boomers think all millennials are like.  “We gave Tom Cruise too many participation trophies and now he thinks he’s the frickin’ Norman Rockwell of palm-scribbles.”  I thought “it’s the worst thing in the universe to teach kids to feel okay about themselves and have good self-esteem” was Brad Bird’s whole entire point in The Incredibles, but here he seems to be taking the opposition position.  Sell-out bitch. 

I mean, you draw on your hand o-kay Tom Cruise, but I’m more into a kind of Todd McFarlane artstyle.  Put some chains on that guy; try some crosshatching... 

Okay, so now they know who Cobalt is.  It’s Kurt Hendricks...

Here’s Jeremy Renner’s description of Hendricks:

190 IQ.  Served in Swedish Special Forces. Professor of physics.  Stockholm University.   Specialist in nuclear endgame theory.  Asked to resign... Well, because he’s crazy.

So do you happen to remember why they had to infiltrate the Kremlin to begin with?  

In your absence, IMF has learned that Cobalt is or was a level-1 nuclear strategist for Russian intelligence.

In other words, IMF knew that (a) Cobalt was a nuclear strategist and (b) knew that Kurt Hendricks was an insane-genius nuclear endgame theorist with Special Forces training, but somehow couldn’t figure out that (c) Cobalt was Hendricks.  This isn’t Finkle being Einhorn -- I would think that would be a pretty easy solve.  I guess what I’m saying is ... M-maybe I should be on the IMF?  Mission accepted.

Anyways, then Tom Cruise says something that... 

“Cobalt.  You have to alert the Kremlin that one of their strategists has a nuclear launch device.  And one of his operatives has the codes to activate it.”

Okay, so the codes... that was the file that Sawyer from Lost got killed over, but...

When did Cobalt get a nuclear launch device?  What nuclear launch device is he talking about?  Where did Tom Cruise get that info from?

Cruise explains:  “I saw him, leaving the executive armory, bag in hand.”  So-- remember why they had to infiltrate the Kremlin?  They had to infiltrate the Kremlin to get records before Cobalt got there first.  But now, that wasn’t Cobalt’s plan-- his plan was to get a Nuclear Launch Device.  

Which they just keep down the hall from the personnel department.  

The Kremlin’s Human Resources dept. doesn’t have the same level of resources as the IMF Impossible HR Department does, I guess...

Oh, then Tom Wilkinson’s got a flash drive.

Gee, I wonder what’s on the flash drive?

The Secretary gets killed, an action scene involving a daring underwater car hooplah scenario ensues, until Tom Cruise and Jeremy Renner get to a train that the IMF has decked out.  

Finally, we can see what’s on the flash drive.

Oh, it’s a video of Hendricks.

The bad guy.

Who ... the IMF was unaware was the bad guy ...

Until Tom Cruise saw him at the Kremlin.

The Secretary had video of the bad guy before Tom Cruise had found out who the bad guy was.

The Secretary had a flash drive of the bad guy on his person, even while fleeing from Russia, just coincidentally.  

In a folder marked “Tinder Matches.”  That’s not an Impossible Mission.  The Secretary just swiped right.

This is also a video the IMF just kept around of Hendricks giving a speech about how much he liked nuclear war and blowing people up with nuclear weapons.  The IMF couldn’t figure out that was Cobalt, the nuclear weapon loving intelligence analyst, after watching that video?  Couldn’t piece that one together?  Okay. Okeydoke.

 Maybe all the  missions are impossible because *they’re not very bright.*  

It’s like that saying how if everyone around you is an asshole, maybe you’re the asshole, or however that one goes.  It’s like that-- maybe if all the missions are impossible to you, maybe you’re the one that’s impossible.  BOOM-- Oprah!

#Ghost Protocol #The Very Spookiest of All the Protocols

[tottwritesfanfic]

I was tagged by @humandisasterbuckybarnes (I totally didn’t even notice at first because I’ve been away from Tumblr, sorrryyyy!)

1. How did you come up with your username and what does it mean?

OOH. Well. This actually goes back a long way! The ‘tott’ part of TottWriter is really an acronym for the title of a series of fantasy novels I started writing in my teens. (They’ve undergone a lot of revisions since then.) I picked TotTWriter as a username when I joined a forum in 2006 because it summed up how I saw myself at that time, and it just sorta...stuck. As for what the acronym actually is? Gotta wait and see. 

2. Which fanfic of yours has the most feedback? (bookmarks/subscriptions/hits/kudos).

Ohgosh. Well, I think that one’s gotta be my Digimon fic Hope’s Fire, on pretty much all fronts. It’s my oldest, longest fic, and it’s posted on both Ao3 and ff, so it’s had plenty of time to accrue attention. 

3. What is your AO3 profile icon, and why did you choose it?

My Ao3 icon is a picture of a pen and paper roleplaying character I rolled a few years ago. (And was drawn by @iddstar, not me, because I am Not An Artist and Vic very much is.)

After finishing this I’m dropping the rest of it beneath a readmore, because it got a teensy bit long, and I complain bitterly if these hog my own dash.)

4. Do you have any regular/favourite commenters?

You know, I feel bad talking about regular commenters, given how irregularly I actually manage to post anything these days. I feel like it’s more appropriate for me to grovel and thank those people who have stuck with me this long. (I’m particularly grateful to @ittybittymattycommittee​ because it has been A While. You’re wonderful.)

5. Is there a fanfic that you keep going back to read again and again?

I’m...I mean, there isn’t really a particular one? I have a few which I’ve read multiple times, but I tend to read the really long fics, which make regular re-reads a bit trickier. I absolutely want to go back over fics I’ve loved and enjoyed and experience that again, but it’s tricky when they take so long, and I have so little time. 

...Actually, probably my most re-read fic is a YoI one called Rumble In Detroit. It’s a goddamn masterpiece which appeals exactly to my sense of humour. (Also only 6.4k, so totally readable in one go if you’re me.)

6. How many stories are you subscribed to? How many do you have bookmarked?

I’m really bad at bookmarking. I’ll read a fic, think, “This was awesome!” and then just...forget to bookmark it and pull my hair out later wondering what the hell it was. I scroll through my history to find stuff entirely too often. I have 53 bookmarked fics, and it should be way more. 

Conversely, I am very prone to hitting that subscribe button. I have ten pages of the dratted things apparently, and okay, some of those are now completed fics, but...every now and then I get an update notification and can’t remember what the actual fic was. 

7. Which AU do you find yourself writing the most?

...I mean, angsty ones? I don’t really have a preferred setting tbh, although more often than not there is something fantastical about what I write. Generally with my fanfiction I try to mix things up a lot more than my original fic. I make a point of trying to do as many different types of story as I can. Statistically though, Apocalypse/Dystopia scenarios and (surprisingly!) Soulmate AUs work out as the most common though. 

8. How many people are subscribed and bookmarked to you in total? (you can view this on the stats page)

25 brave souls have signed up for my infrequent update notifications (bless all of you), and the stats page shows me as having 201 bookmarks. 

9. Is there something you’d like to write about but are afraid of people judging you for it? (Feeling brave? If so, share it!)

I mean, I’m pretty sure people judge me for what I already write. I’ve got fics tagged with MCD, after all, and I’m probably straying into shipping wars with at least one of my stories. I’m plenty nervous about the reaction people will have to the end of some of my fics, but I figure...ehh. I write these stories because I love them, and I share them because someone out there is bound to find them passable. 

The only thing I won’t write under this name is explicit NSFW stuff, which is because, hey, I’m hoping to get YA fiction published someday, you know? I don’t want an underage reader looking my name up (see question 1 for why they might know it) and finding something like that.

10. Is there anything you would like to be better at? Writing certain scenes or genres, replying to comments, updating better, etc.

It’s funny, because this is something I technically am better at than I used to be in years past, but the main thing is actually sitting down and writing more regularly. Despite appearances, I’ve actually written a lot of fanfic recently (Secret Santas mostly), but I could have done more than that if I’d been able to manage my time better. Also if Life hadn’t come along to mess up my day, but, hey. Go figure.

11. Do you write rarepairs or popular ships more often?

I guess it’s a bit of both? I never used to set out to write ships at all, because for me, relationships are secondary to plot when writing, but they do seem to happen more than they used to. I’m a big multishipper though so I like to mix it up.

12. How many stories have you posted on AO3 to this day (finished and unfinished)?

I have 33 works on Ao3 in total. Of those...some are oneshots, 12 are in-progress multichapter fics and...um...one is a complete multichapter fic. Whoops.

13. How many stories do you have saved in/with your writing program?

*coughs and moves on*

For real though, I posted about this recently and it’s...including original fiction, we’re talking more than thirty, possibly over 40 by now. I very deliberately don’t keep track.

14. Do you write down story ideas, or just keep them in your head?

It’s a bit of both really. Sometimes I get an idea, and it’s too fragmentary to really do anything with, so I just sorta leave it in my head to fester and ferment. If I forget it, it probably wasn’t worth saving, but if it gets to the mindworm stage I write it down in my nearest notebook at the time and expand on it a bit.

...If it’s a really fun idea, I then track down that notebook later on and copy it out onto the computer where I can actually find it again.

15. Have you ever co-authored a story?

Not for yeeeears! My sister and I started co-authoring a story back when we were teenagers, but we never actually finished the project. I really enjoyed collaborating though - it’s fun to combine forces and see what each person brings to the table!

16. How did you discover AO3?

I honestly cannot remember.

17. Do you consider yourself to be a popular or famous author in your fandom(s) on AO3?

Hahahahaha...no. It’s okay though, I’m not doing this for fame or attention. I just get these stories in my head and the only way to remove them is to write them out.

18. Do you have a nickname or fandom name for your readers?

I don’t! I...honestly can’t think of a name, tbh. Names are my nemesis, why would I add more to my life?

19. Was there an author who inspired or encouraged you to write?

WELL. 

I’ve been writing stories for as long as I can remember. Probably since I was 6 or 7 (I can remember stapling paper together at school to make a “book” to write in). Probably I was doomed from the start, but the works of Tamora Pierce, Brian Jacques, Tolkien, John Wyndham and Sir Terry Pratchett are what shaped me from my teens onward. Those are the books I read which make me want to write my own. 

20. What writing advice would you give to a beginning author?

Look, it’s really tempting I know, but don’t share online just yet. If you’re just starting out, you really are far better off keeping your work between you and trusted friends. I always look back and marvel at how damn lucky I am not to have had regular internet access until I was 18.  

You see, it meant that all my early stories - from when I was figuring out who I was as a writer, and how I wanted to write - are tucked safely away where no one can shit on them. And people do. Not everyone of course, but some, and those first few years as a writer are the most fragile.

Every author builds up a thick skin over time, because trolls are gonna troll. But it’s hard, when you work on something and do your best, and someone leaves a shitty comment about it. To my mind, the most important thing you can do as a beginner is to shield yourself from that nonsense until you’ve found your feet. There will be time yet to post your stories. Wait until you can leave it to one side for a week and come back and not despise it. (Some level of “ohgodno” is expected for your own work pretty much forever, but you should at least feel some level of pride in your work first)

...it’s hard and it’s pretty unrewarding at first, I won’t lie. But think about it like this: beginner violinists often sound awful. No one wants to hear that. But if a musician can stick it through; work past the squeaking and the cringe-worthy missed notes... What you end up with is something which can reach right into someone’s heartstrings and leave a permanent impression. 

And that is every bit worth the slog.

21. Do you plot out your stories, or do you just figure it out as you go?

A bit of both! I have at the least a rough outline (sometimes a lot more than that) for almost all my stories before starting, but I generally add to and amend it as I go. 

22. Have you ever gotten a bad comment on a story? If so, what did you do?

I think maybe once? It really wasn’t too bad though, so I just left it be. I’ve been stupidly lucky with my readers and love all of you.

23. Is there a certain type of scene that you have a hard time writing? (action, smut, etc..)

I was about to say NSFW stuff, and then I remembered confession scenes, which differ from NSFW in that I actually write those sometimes, and they take approximately five hundred times longer than literally anything else, including the smut which I hate writing so bad I practically never do it. Confession scenes are freaking hard.

24. What story(s) are you working on now?

TOO MANY. For real though, I have 3 secret santas, 3/4 active HQ fics, Hope’s Fire, and more which are sorta lurking in semi-activity beyond that. I have zero chill.

25. Do you plan your next project(s) before you finish your current ongoing story(s)?

...I mean it’d be great if I could finish an ongoing story, NGL.

26. Do you have a daily writing goal set for yourself?

Nope! I try to stick to one during NaNo, but outside that life just sorta gets in the way too often.

27. Do you think you’ve improved as a writer since you first started?

I mean, the answer is yes either way, but I tend to distinguish the various phases of my writing? age 6-12 was half-arsed writing. Just sorta jotting down stories and not really thinking too much about them. From 13-16 I was so preoccupied with writing and finishing my novel that I didn’t leave room for such trifles as quality control. 16-24/5 was slow but steady improvements. 

At 25 I realised hot damn, I have a lot to learn, and that is the point at which I consider that I started getting better for real.

28. What is your favorite story that you’ve written?

You know, it sorta depends? Assuming we’re talking fanfic only (or, sorry, but my novel beats them all), I actually...really like the Trinacrifom series? 

29. What is your least favorite story that you’ve written?

It was for a telephone prompt, it’s less than 600 words, nope, I’m not sharing it XD

30. Where do you see yourself (as a writer) in 5 years?

I mean I’d like to say something like “getting paid for it”, but we all know I’m still gonna be here writing fanfic instead of my original work.

31. What is the easiest thing about writing?

For me it’s actually the ideas! I keep getting them pop into my head.

32. What is the hardest thing about writing?

…Actually finishing things.

33. Why do you write?

At this point, writing is a little like breathing for me. It’s my identity. It’s who I am. I have so many ideas in my head and the only way to get them out is to write them, so I do. I hope that people enjoy them, certainly, and I want to think my words have an effect of some kind, but ultimately storytelling is hardwired into me and I don’t know how to stop.

Oh! Tagging. Right, after that textwall how about I pass the buck to someone else, hehe. @draculasstrawhat, @lethesomething, @iddstar and @quinnlocke as well as anyone else...if you wanna, you know? (No one’s obligated tho)

#ask memes #holy shit this got long #I waffle a lot I know #long post

[fearofaherobrine]

Roleplay Server Log #267

“Sleepwalker Sammn, Kraz Revealed and Stev Revived”

[Lie] Yawns sleepily as she heads out the door to tend to her animals first thing in the morning-

[Sammn] (is dreaming) - she standing in darkness, hearing shouts & screams from all around. She can't see, but knows her army is on the cusp of defeat. She tries to command them to retreat, but is unable to speak. She tries to move and finds herself frozen. In the darkness, a figure begins to take shape. -

[Sammn] - (still dreaming) - tries again to move, fails. Figure is closer, but it's nothing but a dark shape. Then a deep voice fills her head - WAKE UP! IT'S NOT REAL, WAKE UP!

[Lie] Notices her dogs crowding towards one side of their pen and goes to investigate- Hello?

[Sammn] - gives a scream and wakes up.

[Lie] - Sammn!

[Sammn] - jumps, and stumbles back - Huh? What?

[Lie] - Hey. it's okay, I think you were sleep walking.  Is everything okay?

[Sammn] - blinks, looking around - I guess? This happens sometimes.

[Lie] - Do you need to sit down at all?

[Sammn] - Na, I'm fine. Sorry if I startled you.

[Lie] - Not at all, were you having a good dream?

[Sammn] - frowns - Don't think so, can't really remember much, except the voice. That's always in my dreams.

[Lie] - A voice?

[Sammn] - Yeah, don't know who it is, but they always tell me to wake up.

[Lie] - Wake up?  That seems more like something that my husband would say, he can manipulate dreams, control them, and trap people in them

[Sammn] - Interesting. So... Why you up this early?

[Lie] - I have to take care of my animals, do you want to help?

[Sammn] - Sure.

[Lie] Smiles and leads Sammn over to the horse pen and shows her how much hay to throw in-

-The horses all whinny and press up against the fence-

[Sammn] - Wow, collect horses? - holds out some wheat.

[Lie] Laughs- A bit.  So how have you been?  Are you doing okay?

[Sammn] - shrugs - Yeah, just been sleeping alot. Looked around some, but got lost. Took me hours to get back.

[Lie] - If you ever need help getting somewhere, just call out in chat, somebody can always teleport you.  But I do remember how easy it was to get lost when I first came here

[Sammn] - looks at her funny - Chat?

[Lie] - You know, the words that occasionally pop up in the corner of your vision?  That's the chat

[Sammn] - Hum... Ok, let's go with that. - turns back to feeding the horses.

[Lie] - If you don't know how to use that, you can always call out mentally, several brines here are psychic so we will be able to hear you

[Sammn] - nods - Someone else told me that too.  Hopefully I'll never have resort to that, but I shall remember.

[Lie] - So do you remember anything from before?

[Sammn] - sighs - Not really. Just more random bits, but little of it makes sense.

[Lie] - I almost envy you

[Sammn] Envy? This... I hate not knowing. It's maddening to know I've forgotten something, or someone.

[Sammn] - That I can't remember anything about myself or the life I may have had.

[Lie] - I willingly gave up any good memories I had from when I lived in the real world, but I have all my memories from when I was first dragged into the game up until now

[Sammn] - Oh, I have to guess they weren't pleasant. In that case, I can understand.

[Lie] - Well, I was originally my husbands victim, a means to the ends of a bet

[Sammn] - frowns - That doesn't sound good...

[Lie] - It wasn't, I was hounded, tortured, sexually assaulted...  You name it he probably did it

[Sammn] - looks down at the ground. Something stirs in her memories, but it's fleeting and gone just as fast.

[Lie] - However it's because I was human that Doc found us.  CP was not the type of brine they would have invited here, but they did so for me, to help keep me safe

[Sammn] - nods absentmindly.

[Lie] - Hey?  Are you okay?

[Sammn] - Ah... I almost remembered something. But it's gone...

[Lie] - It's okay, we'll help you in any way we can

[Sammn] - nods and forces a smile. - So, what critter is next?

[Lie] - The sheep, they need to be sheered to

[Sammn] - Lead the way.

[Lie] Leads them a few pens over where the sheep are grazing, Rosebud trots up to the fence and bleats at them- Hey there Rosebud

[Sammn] - Aw, they're so cute.

[Lie] - A gift from my husband.  She's glitched so she'll never grow up

[Sammn] - kneels down to look better - Poor little thing.

[Lie] - Oh she's perfectly happy.  A baby pink sheep is not a natural spawn, so he had to make her specifically.  She was a valentines day gift

[Sammn] - holds out hand - A gift, but broken from the start.

[Rosebud] Lips Sammn's hand, looking for treats-

[Sammn] - smiles sadly - Sorry little one, I dint have any treats.

[Rosebud] Goes back to nibbling the grass-

[Lie] - So do you have any plans for today Sammn?

[Sammn] - No, not really.

[Lie] - Then why don't you hang around here for today, spend some time with the animals

[Sammn] - Maybe. Sad to say, not like I got anything better to do.

[Lie] - Eh, we can always have quiet days where we don't do much

[Sammn] - Yeah, but I've kinda been doing nothing anyways. - stands up dusting skirt - Any more critters I can help with?

[Lie] - Hmmm, everythings been fed, but if you want to take some of the dogs out to play with them I'm sure they'd appreciate it

[Sammn] - Sure. Let me go find a stick or two, give them something to fetch.

[Lie] - Alright, I'm going to work with some of the horses so if you need me I'll be in front of the house

[Sammn] - nods and heads toward the trees.

[Sammn] - searches under the trees, looking for a couple of thick sturdy sticks.

-They both sit in silence in the desert, NK behind Mix, examining the emerald between her shoulder blades. There's almost a sense of sadness in his eyes as he does. He touches its surface curiously, wondering if a weapon type had been decided. Maybe not yet, too soon for her he decided.-

-NK takes a deep breath, eye glow brightening intensely before he blows deeply onto the gem. The air he exhales is deep, deep indigo in color, almost black in spots. Its speckled with white points of light, like distant stars in the mist. It condenses around the emerald before sparking and then sinking into the gem. Mix breaths a bit steadier now, as her energy level smooths out into a calm output rather than spastic bursts of energy. -

[NK] There, that should do, Mix. Self sustaining now... Now I just need to make sure it's functioning right....

[Doc] Scuttles up to the top of a sandpile and looks back- You ready kiddo?

[Yaunfen] Yep!

[Doc] Just topples over and rolls like an angular log to the bottom, kicking up sand everywhere. Xe scoots over and looks back-

[Yaunfen] Wiggles their butt excitedly before doing the same, tumbling down the much less steep slope their parent made in the sand- WHEEE!

[Doc] Stands up and shakes off hir mane-

[Yaunfen] Bounces around - Again! Again!

[Doc] Gestures with a claw- Go ahead.

[Yaunfen] Dashes back up the hill and rolls down again laughing.

[Doc] Flips hir tail and a big cloud of sand goes flying-

[NK] -Sputters and swats sand off body, getting up and turning to yell at who threw sand everywhere- What the fuck!

[Mix] -Sand covered, amazing. Awkwardly stands up and dusts self off-

[Doc] Hair poofs! - Whoops! Sorry guys. Did I inturrupt something?

[Yaunfen] Starts running up the hill again-

[NK] I was sealing her stone, so no. I'd just finished. Actually.. Doctor, would you like to help us? I need someone to look at the code, make sure it's connected now.

[Doc] Sealing it? Oh, sure! You know I'm happy to help out. - Xe shrinks down to hir human shape and sets up a command block. - Just put your hand here Mix. I'll have a look.

[Yaunfen] Comes racing over and jumps on Doc-

[Doc] Is knocked over completely by their nearly horse-sized dragon child- OOOF! -Xe just lays still for a minute. - Can we save that for when I'm in my bigger shape Yaunfen?

[Yaunfen] - But fun!

[Mix] Just put my hand there? Alright. -Sets hand on the command block-

[NK] Got around to sealing it finally, thank the stars.

[Doc] It's more fun when you can just crawl all over me without making me flatter then a lilly pad! - wiggles out from underneath-

[Yaunfen] Goes over to Mix- We play?

[Doc] Pulls hirself up to the block and looks at the readout-

-The code seems more full now, and the energy source is her Stone rather than any food she might eat. Interestingly enough there's an additional respawn code. Older coding is hidden farther in, broken and barely holding together. It seems to be basis for other newer codes, but never removed. It could probably be put together, maybe?-

[Doc] Tilts hir head curiously - You have some odd files here... it's like you're carrying part of someone else's backup disk...

[Yaunfen] Nudges the command block-

-The readout flickers as it glitches from being shoved-

[Doc] Careful, I'm trying to read...

[Yaunfen] Flops with a huff-

[Doc] Reaches over and rubs Yaunfen gently between their spikes. - No need to be huffy.

[NK] -Slightly guilty look where Mix can't see it- It's probably nothing.

[Mix] Really? Is it-- is that dangerous?

[Doc] I don't think so. It looks like basic stuff. I see some bits that look like Steve-type coding actually.

[Mix] Well I am.. a Steve...? I dunno.

[NK] -Softly increased guilt look-

[Doc] It's not that simple Mix. I- I'll just make some copies and start a new folder on my block.

[Yaunfen] - Mada we play!

[Doc] Hang on sweetie... this is a little odd. There's part of a another personality matrix here. - Gives NK a questioning look.

[NK] -Shies back from the look a bit, baring teeth silently-

[Mix] What?

[Doc] Moves Mix's hand off the block gently. There are only a few files and they're already copied. - Nk... what did you do...?

[NK] Nothing. -That's clearly a lie, no one who did nothing would react like that-

[Mix] -Looks back at NK with a confused look-

[Yaunfen] Digs through inventory for entertainment and pulls out a white flitter to play with that they caught-

[Doc] Doesn't notice the flitter but speaks more openly because of it.  - I don't believe you Nk. What is this?

[NK] ... -bites lip a bit and crosses arms- It....

[NK] -Softly- It's the original.

[Doc] Original what?

[NK] Steve from our seed.

[Mix] What?

[Doc] You copied his memories for Mix to carry?

[NK] No... I didn't. I think it's the same body too.. I don't.. I don't know. It might've been Kraz and hir folk who did all that but I don't.. I don't know! *hunches on self a bit

[NK] I don't know.

[Mix] -Looks a bit winded over this all, sitting down and looking up at them-

[Doc] Why didn't you tell me this sooner?!

[NK] I didn't want too! I didn't think anything remained except memories and chunks of broken code! I wasn't going to ruin a child at the chance he'd come back! She deserved a life too!

[Doc] You don't have to ruin anything NK! You've seen me rebuild people from scraps! There's no sacrifice here! For all you know he's been helplessly watching through her eyes this whole time!

[NK] -taps foot a bit anxiously, looking away- ..I.. I was scared. I don't watch you that often, Doctor. I didn't know. I... You can bring him back? Is-- Is there enough?

[Doc] I'm sure the End going to find out! - Still upset-

[Yaunfen] - Mada?

[NK] He wasn't there through it, Doctor. I know. He was resilient, but not that resilient. Do you want to know what he looked like last I saw him as him? If he was aware this whole time I'll apologize myself!

[Doc] Lets out a long whoosh of air, and makes a sad face. Xe reaches for Yaunfen and gives them a small hug to steady hirself- Yes. I need to know everything.

[Yaunfen] Curls around Doc, batting at the flitter-

[NK] -Deep shuddering breath and looks away-

-Fluttery connection to share memories, He's clearly looking down, and likely crying judging by the drops falling. A person who's definitely a Steve is laying motionless on the ground. A good portion of his face is scorched, and black patches on the collarbone vanish under the shirt. One arm is gone completely just beneath the shoulder, while the other is gone below the elbow. A hole in the shirt over the chest is saturated in blood, and NK was clearly trying to avoid looking at it in the memory. Sobbing is about the only sound in it-

[Nk] I-- It was bad. Real bad..... We... when someone with a spellstone dies, their body stays because it rebuilds. But.. His stone was shattered completely. He wasn't coming back. It.. It was all that monsters fault... *huffs

[Doc] Takes a good look at the face and the damage in the connection before it fades and sets hir jaw. - I'll be the judge of who can and can't come back. And don't lie to me again Nk. Not ever.

[NK] -Softer grumble-

[Doc] Pulls out hir carrot phone and starts making a new player account -

[Mix] -Holding sand in her hands, just, processing everything-

[Yaunfen] Stretches- Mada...

[Doc] Yes?

[Yaunfen] - Snack?

[Mix] So I'm a copy?

[NK] I-- No! No. You're not, you're you, sweetheart. *bend down to smooth Mix's hair- You're you.

[Doc] Here you go - Xe takes out the equivilent of bread on Yaunfen's seed. It's a rather large Snickers type bar, and holds it out-

[Doc] You're not a copy Mix. You're an orginal, but your body has... transplants.

[Yaunfen] Vacuums it into their mouth-

[Doc] Slides off Yaunfen and connects the phone to the command block, there's a faint electrical buzz and a Steve skin forms on top of the block and flops over like a doll.

[NK] -Soothes Mix a bit more before turning to watch Doc and the Steve, nervously-

[Doc] Pulls the limp and empty skin down so it's flat on the ground and connects a wire to it with a bit of statick. - Tell me about this... gem. Can one be made? I mean, I can run a basic Steve as a player with no problem, but still... it would be more accurate that way.

[NK] I don't.. I'm not sure if it's safe for both to have a spellstone.. There's only ever been four....

[Doc] Can we just use one of your basic clear crystals? Then if it's rejected, I'll cut it out myself and sew him up again. If he's supposed to have one, it might adjust automatically.

[NK] Sure.. -Pulls one out of his inventory and gives it to Doc.- His was in his back, Like Mix.

[Doc] Takes it and pushes the skin up a bit to add it in. It sinks into the flat surface and leaves a lozenge of whitish pixels over the blue of his shirt-

-There's some crackling and a faint hum as the files are copied and the player skin accepts them-

[NK] I uh... He... -soft grunt and vague gesture- -slight flush to cheeks-

[Doc] Lays the figure back down flat again and watches intently as it begins to spin up and load. After a moment xe disconnects the wire and crouches beside the prone Steve before checking it's code. - It's fragmented... but working so far.

[NK] -Settles and very gently pokes Doc, wanting to say something-

[Doc] Goes for a little zap to try and wake them up- Huh?

[NK] -Softly- He-- No dick. -embarrassed flush- Didn't have one.

[Doc] Head whips around to Nk-  Do what now?! I needed to know that Nk!!

[NK] I-- was getting to it--- *flustered noise

[Steve?] *Squeak and slight wiggle before pained breath

[Steve?] *blinks eyes open

[Doc] Welcome back? I suppose. How do you feel?

[Steve?] -Just stares up blankly for a bit, head turning slowly toward Doc and NK- ...... What the fuck is between my legs?

[NK] -Embarrassed noise as he covers his face- Sorry

[Doc] Male genitalia, sorry about that... Nk didn't tell me you weren't a basic Steve gender-wise.

[Steve?] .. Oh. Can.. Can that get fixed? I- It's making it hard to focus. *pushes self up to sit quietly, avoiding looking at anything farther than his stomach area

[Doc] How do you want it? Just nothing for now?

[Steve?] A slit. It was a slit. I don't-- I don't know how this happened or where I am, but familiarity is helping. It-. .. It went up to here. *Gestures a bit below belly button

[Doc] Gingerly lifts up their shirt and disconnects their unwanted bits, before making a bit of a dark line where they were, xe stuffs them into the sand so they'll quietly despawn. - You don't have any internal organs at the moment. so that'll have to do for now.

[Steve?] *Soft relieved noise

[Steve?] Thank you kindly. I'm Stev. I don't think we've officially met? -Distant look as partitioning memories that are there in his head

[NK] -Just barely containing himself, watching Stev-

[Mix] I.. I've got to go. -Clumsily stands up and moves off. She's shooked-

[Yaunfen] Tries to snag Mix's clothing- Don't go! We have new Steve!

[Doc] No, I don't think so. I'm Doc. And this is my child; Yaunfen-

[Yaunfen] HI!

[Stev] Nice to meet you... -Eyes linger on Yaunfen for a second.- What an odd creature...

[Yaunfen] I'm a dragon! RAWR!

[Doc] We've got lots of dragons here actually. This is a sanctuary for any who require one.

[Stev] Like the mines... I'm glad others are kind..

[Doc] Mines? Well, obviously we have those here. We have several Steves, and Alexes, and Herobrines too. But I'm not sure what you're reffering to specifically.

[Stev] ... The.. The name escapes me..

[NK]Dark Ice Mines. It was called Dark Ice Mines.

[Stev] Hm... Sounds.. About right. Thank you Darlin'. -Offhandedly gives NK a pat to his hand-

[NK] -Looks ready to be in tears-

[Yaunfen] Stands very still as the flitter lands on hir nose - chuff!

[Doc] Dark Ice Mines? That sounds a bit grim.

[NK] It was an odd place. But it was mine, and I took care of it best I could....

[Stev] Pleasant place.. I think... My memory feels broken... Cycling through what I can..

[Doc] I didn't have much to work with. Only time will tell what comes back to you.

[Stev] The last thing I can really remember is pain.. So much....

[Doc] Well you did die.... It looked like you were either torn or blown apart in some accident....

[Stev] -Turns head to look toward NK, questioningly-

[NK] -Looks away nervously, holding onto Stev's hand a bit tighter-

[Flitter] Bats it's wings lightly and glides between them-

[Yaunfen] Reaches for it with their long whiskers-

[NK] Prince.. ... Destroyed you. ..In.. A fit of rage. -Very softly-

[Stev] .. I.. Oh....

[Doc] Who is Prince?

[NK] Our notch. His spellstone was made from gold. -Referencing the gold bits that had been inside Mix's chest- He was prone to.. fits of rage.

[Stev] -Gently- He was good otherwise... Really.

[Doc] If he was an older NOTCH AI... some of them do seem to be rather... quirky and unpredictable.

[Yaunfen] Sneaking up on Stev-

[Stev] I mean.. He had his troubles, but he was good. He took care of his people..

[NK] -Bitterly- Not always.. Otherwise the Mines wouldn't have been as lively as they were.

[Stev] -Head tilts a bit to look at the sneaky sneaking Yaunfen- What doing?

[Yaunfen] Playing! - Xe gives him a light bat with a paw- You're it!

[Doc] Oh dear... He wasn't running a prison, was he?

[NK] No, No... The mines were my domain. Part of them was in the Nether. That's where those who felt unsafe with Prince stayed most often...

[Doc] It sounds like an iffy situation.  So... what happened to everyone else?

[NK] What do you mean?

[Stev] -Looks down at his other arm almost blankly, like he's registering it before lifting it and reaching for Yaunfen to boop them back-

[Doc] What happened to your seed Nk?

[Yaunfen] Is booped and giggles-

[NK] I... -bites lip- I'm not exactly sure to be honest with you... There was a later stage on the seed? Like coded or something... A.. Parasite I guess is it's analogue? Bad code was what it was for us. .. Some of the memories are fucked up here so I might not remember everything.. We... Well we did what we could to keep the seed together..

[Stev] -Listening while scratching Yaunfen's head-

[Yaunfen] Is petted and starts purrring-

[Doc] I see... Is there anyone else in your group carrying fragments of other people?

[NK] I'm.. Not sure. Kraz is unaccounted for... And I'm assuming Prince is as good as Dead... Unless... -head tilt- Unless MA has the other pieces somehow..

[Doc] What was Kraz? A glitch? A player? Or something else entirely?

[NK] Uhh.. Something on our seed, A Krazoa. Powerful... Thing. Kraz was the head of them all..

[Doc] Thing? Was he some kind of monster?

[NK] Uh... You know uh... Gamemode 3? Spectator? Is that how it's phrased? Where you can go through anything?

[Doc] Oh geeze... I hate that mode... It makes me feel like I'm going to throw up... Even when I'm moving through the ground I can't see that far ahead of me.

[Yaunfen] Mada can go through everything!

[NK] Well all of them were like a weird combination of that and creative.

[Doc] Like ghosts.... That's unsettling....

[Kraz] I dunno, It's just our natural state of being... -Just delicately leans onto Doc's shoulder, looking down with a cheerful smile. They're filtering into view as they do so, expression turning cheeky at NK's spooked face across from them-

[Kraz] I don't get how you can remain solid constantly. So tiring.

[Doc] Legit screams and scrambles backwards, xe bangs into the command block and it spazzes for a moment, reacting with hir statick-

[Yaunfen] MADA!

[Kraz] -Keening laugh, covering mouth with a hand, finding delight in the spooked Doc- Delightful.

[Kraz] -From about the hips down they've got just barely visibly wispy limbs, in a blue purple hue-

[NK] You've been here the whole time, haven't you.

[Kraz] Yep.

[Yaunfen] Runs to Doc and curls around them- Mada? Why you hurt my mada?! Blue meanie!

[Doc] What the...?!

[Kraz] Honestly Just been poking around at everything the whole time! Mix didn't notice a thing. Gee, wonder why this painting moved to the second floor? Where did the painting go?... Clueless. We could've done more putting her together... Kind of in a rush... -Shrugs and regards Doc with a hum-

[Yaunfen] Hisses at Kraz-

[Kraz] Oh shhh.. I'm not going to hurt anyone.

[NK] So... The body...? Are the others Jammed in there or what?

[Kraz] -Exasperated sigh- Yes, they are. 8 says Hi.

[Doc] 8? Are there more pieces I need to revive?

[Kraz] No, Not at all. We're about.. 12 entities in one body. Needed to be to put a spark of near permanent life in a corpse.

[Kraz] -offhandedly- We're good, but not good enough to do it separate.

[Doc] Ah... welll..... I don't think I like the idea of people wandering around invisible spying on everyone. That makes me uncomfortable.

[Stev] -Unconsciously leaning into NK, looking at his hands-

[Kraz] I don't really do that much, boring. You all are pretty normal, almost. I usually just follow Mix around. She was such an interesting experiment...

[Doc] Narrows hir eyes at hir friend being reffered to like that. - Nonethless you are not an admin, and I'm not sure I trust you. So... - Xe does some quick typing on the block behind hir-

-  /effect playersKraz glowing 1000000/ -

[Yaunfen] Glowly blue meanie!

[Doc] Now I can keep an eye on you.

[Kraz] -Spooked jerk as a glowing aura surrounds them, only to panic back up as it comes with- What the-- -They flip around so they're upside down, looking as it continues to follow- I... Wow... That's... Huh... Weird...

[Doc] Just a little light so you have an outline. Nothing damaging.

[Kraz] -Upside down- An interesting punishment, Doctor. -Flips back to normal and examines hand, turning it back and forth before fading it, watching the outline remain- I see..

[Stev] -Soft inhale, eyes widening and his grip on NK tightening-

[Nk] Hmm? -Looks over at Stev, only to tense up a bit- What's wrong?

[Doc] It's not a punishment, you're just on probation. I'm aggravated because I don't like people in here who weren't specifically invited.

[Kraz] I was invited! Mix just didn't know I was there. *shrug

[Stev] -Softly- I remember dying...

[Doc] That does not count! -Turns to Stev - Yes... those last files were mostly complete...

[Stev] -Just quietly clinging to NK, eyes flicking around, probably recalling the memory-

[NK] -running fingers through Stev's hair and rocking them back and forth gently-

[Kraz] I mean, It does? I was part of the group and you invited them innnn.....

[Doc] Flat look of annoyance- I would not have nessesarly refused you. I just don't like people decieving me. You hiding all this time makes me suspicious.

[Kraz]  But there was no deception~ If you don't check for extras, it's your fault. Not mine.

[Doc] Nk? Stev? Will you vouch for this entity? If not, I'll boot his ass out.

[Stev]-Still in memory hell-

[NK] -Looks up- I... I guess I'll vouch for them. They're not harmful, and it's not like they have anywhere to go anymore...

[Doc] Then I'll be satisfied with that.

[Kraz] -Just nods a bit.- I'm going to go check on the science nugget then, my spookage is done here... -Fades, but the glow is still there. Outline shifts and looks down before shrugging and going off-

[NK] Gangs almost all here.. And I'm fine with prince being a dead motherfucker... Affections be damned. *soft growl, only to stop as Stev shifts a bit, sniffling-

[Doc] If he's nasty to Mix, let me know. I'm sure I could figure out a way to keep him from constantly shadowing her.

[Yaunfen] Don't cry Stev... - sad eyes-

[NK] I doubt they're nasty to Mix.. They wouldn't have gone through the.. effort to make her, if they were going to be rude to her. ... Can.. You help me get Stev somewhere comfy? -Awkwardly scoops Stev up, tucking the Steve to his chest-

[Doc] Of course, You know my house is closer - Xe scoops up hir command block and puts it away before making a small roll backwards into hir dragon shape again -

[Yaunfen] Prances to hir and buts against hir happily- Mada...

[NK] -Shifts Stev carefully, checking on him before nodding- That'll do.

[Doc] Slides undrground and comes up softly under them so they end up on hir back. Xe starts walking gently back to the castle as Yaunfen runs ahead-

[NK] ..... Thank you, doctor.

[Doc] You're welcome Nk. Just don't be hesitant to ask for my help in the future. Okay? - Xe trots onto the grass and down towards the horsepen.

[NK] I'll.. Keep it in mind.

[Doc] Slips down the stairs and into the ground again leaving them by the side entrance.

[Yaunfen] Changes into their kid form and opens the doors. There's a bed and the fridge just visible inside. -

[NK] -Steps inside=-

[Doc] Comes back normal again and helps Nk get Stev in and onto the bed Endrea once occupied with Ashe.

[Yainfen] Hits the button on the fridge a few times and theres suddenly a scattering of cooked pork chops, apples and potatoes in the vicinity. - Awwww.....

[Doc] It's okay Yaunfen. I'll get you some food. - Xe opens a trunk and gives the child a huge candied apple and a couple of donuts.

[Yaunfen] Tucks in-

[Stev] -Curls up on the bed, holding onto one of NK's hands-

[Doc] Pulls out one of Steve's kitted blankets and drapes the gaudy thing around the new Stev's shoulders-

[Stev] -Softly- Thank you...

[Deer] Comes up the stairs- Love?  Do we have visitors?  I felt you doing stuff

[Doc] Yes... I found some odd code and extracted it. Mix was carrying part of a Steve...

[Deer] - Oh!  Is this them?

[Doc] Indicates the cozy couple. - This is Stev... and Nk, of course.

[Deer] - I see, and now what about the person who's constantly glowing?

[Doc] Mix was also carrying another entity... someone who snuck in with her party. They're partly in spectator mode. I don't like the idea of someone invisible sneaking around.

[Deer] - Ah, well that will take some getting used to...

[Yaunfen] Hi mama. - Goes to hug her-

[Doc] Is it causing a system issue?

[Deer] Picks them up into a snuggly hug- Hello my sweet little one.  Did we have fun today?

[Yaunfen] Yeah! I had candy and rolled in the sand and Mada made us a new Steve!

[Deer] - Good for them, but I bet your a bit dirty now, should we go take a bath?  Maybe we could use the big tub in the lab?

[Yaunfen] Okay!

[Deer] - And maybe Mada will have to join me later~

[Stev[ -Looks up at Deer-

[Deer] Glances back at Stev and smiles warmly- Welcome to the server-

[Stev] It's.. Nice to be here? I... think...

[Doc] Heh. I presume it beats being in limbo slash dead?

[Stev] Yeah... Definitely... *Grimaces a bit and leans into NK slightly

[NK] -Rakes claws through Stev's hair quietly- Definitely..

[Stev] ... -Blinks a bit before tilting head to look up at NK- ...If the seeds gone, does that mean my toys are too?

-Mildly flustered NK noise-

[Doc] Toys?

[Stev]... -Turns to Doc- Sex toys...?

-Even more embarrassed NK noise-

[Doc] ... What did you have in mind?

[Stev] Something that vibrates? Usually.

[Doc] Well you currently don't have any internal organs besides your hearts... but I can arrange it for when you're fully regenerated. Do you need a specific shape?

[Stev] I'm fine waiting... Something Egg shaped, maybe..?

[Doc] Remembers the big slit - Ah... I'll make it happen. You just rest for now.

[Stev] Much thanks..

[NK] -Highly red faced-

[firebirdsdaughter]

Still watch Chou Super Hero Taisen RAW...

... And, unfortunately, still haven’t become fluent in Japanese.

(spoilers? ish? gonna do a read more since this gonna be super long...)

(AND I DO MEAN LONG)

Still not sure where the real world is.

Okay, it feels kinda like they just remembered the Kyurangers existed.

Come to think of it, whatever happened to the other Kyus? Where are Lucky, Garu, and Hammy? Where’s the Aibous (even though I don’t think they’d become Aibous yet when this came out)? Much as I love Balance and Naga... I’d love to see the others, too.

Wait... Is this Hiiro’s house?

Did Amu follow him? I still don’t get why she’s here... Though I’m glad she’s taking care of the Hiiro-wrangling (because this is before the majority of his development, I think... Though I’m pretty sure it was after he discovered he’d accidentally started caring about Emu).

Okay, why don’t I just admit I don’t remember where either of these shows were when this film came out?

Come to think of it... Did Hiiro see a kid get sucked into a game and nots ay anything? It’d probably be less confusing if I knew what was being said.

Also, Tokusatsu suit actors are all bloody gifts to this world and should be cherished. Their physical and silent acting is positively charming and magnificent.

Oh, god, he did the surgeon hand thing. That means shit’s about to go down. Not sure if he said one of his catchphrases, but the hand thing is the equivalent of the hat turning around for Hiiro.

In other news, Seto is so pretty. Just getting that out of the way. No one wants to hear me gush about it, probably.

On a technical level, I’m super curious how they filmed this scene. I mean, it’s Seto talking to himself, and then fighting himself. You can do camera angles for the conversation, but it’s pretty cool they made it look like he was getting kicked through a wall by his doppelgänger.

Also, I detect an error. Taddle Legacy is higher than Lvl 50. Alternate Hiiro, you lie!

Though, no way around it, I still love Brave’s henshin jingles. All of them.

It was the real Utcchy! Wait, it was? Then why was he in the game thing before? Was Candelira/Torin’s ghost just like ‘whoops, shit’s happening in this game! Utcchy! Handle it!’ and dropped him in?

Oh, whatevs. He’s still a good little muffin.

Announcer does unnecessary but still wonderful ‘A-MA-ZON’ style proclamation for Amazons Amazon. And this after we saw original Amazon. Except he wasn’t actually... Oh, forget it.

Actually, what happened to the rest of the GoRiders? Did I miss it? Since Jin’s very dead, that wasn’t actually them anyway, I guess. Maybe. I DON’T KNOW.

SO MANY AMAZON.

Slightly disappointed by the loss of the scarf. I liked Amazon’s scarf.

Emu shows off his need to say ‘Dai Henshin’ with multiple ‘Dai’s whenever he Henshins these days.

So... The kid is the villain?

HOW DARE HE HURT TWO OF THE WORLD’S MOST PRECIOUS CINNAMON BUNS!

I found the other Zyuohgers! Though... I’m pretty sure their lines are prerecorded. Oh well, nice to know they came.

STOP HURTING NAGA YOU HORRIBLE LITTLE BOY!

Okay, this faux, alternate Amazons gang up on Emu has gone on far enough.

Also, I love Emu, he’s a precious baby, too. Especially in that form. And, of course, why wouldn’t he stop the battle to explain to the Amazons how a game worked! (I think that was what happened? They certainly all paused)

I feel like Hiiro is saying friendship words, but I can’t understand him, so I don’t know.

WHO IS THE RED HAM MAN?

Oh... Hi... Drive-Spectre? WTH? And... Is that Necrom? No, it’s not Necrom. He hasn't got a hood, but... Yeah, I have no clue who y’all are.

YOU MONSTER CHILD HOW DARE YOU MAKE NAGA CRY! BALANCE COME KILL HIM RN!

NOTE: I do not condone killing children in any way. Please do not quote me on my emotional outbursts.

CTTOI... What is Balance doing?

And... The Hiiros are still throwing each other through walls... At least the originals seems to be winning...

Think he’s saying friendship or something cool again, but I don’t know. Actually, knowing Hiiro, it’s probably meant to be cool, but is actually dorky.

Hiiro’s like ‘yup, just killed myself. That was awkward.’

Naga is now saying friendship words! But... clue what they actually are.

Wow, Emu! You beat all three of those fake alternate Riders I couldn’t identify! I’m so proud!

Wait... Why are the other Zyuohger just showing up now? Like, if Yamato saw or Sela heard Amu being taken to a hospital, wouldn't they come running? And if not, shouldn’t they have been looking for her?

Ah, drama on roof tops at night. That’s all I got, folks. No idea what’s being said, though I did hear ‘intern’ in there, so I guess Hiiro’s being Hiiro? Meaning uninformative, aloof, introverted, and incapable of normal social interaction without offending others.

Oh! Wow, he punched Emu, that’s new! I guess fighting an alternate version of yourself to the death makes you a little emotionally volatile?

Alternate thought is that he’s doing it to force even heartless monster boy that made Naga cry to see that people care about what happens to him? ‘Cause I can see Hiiro identifying with that view because he’s a big self-loathing little baby. If that made any sense.

Or maybe he knows something they don’t? He and his doppelgänger were talking and fighting, so the alternate may have said something. Then again, I have no clue what anyone is saying.

Good to know Hiiro is still super parkour surgeon!

It was really whacky when he broke that out all of a sudden. It was like, whoa, okay! Hiiro just ran up a wall! Out of suit!

Also, I think Hiiro just made a Vulcan call--lives of the many.

Mr RED HAM is upset and taking it out on Utcchy. Someone please kill him. I don’t even know who he is or what he’s doing here, but he’s hurting my children so shoot him!

Holy fuck, are those... Are pincers coming out of his eyes? WHAT IS THIS MOVIE?

No, seriously, what happened to the other Kyurangers?

Nice line up, kids. Good to know we can all put our differences aside to form a Sentai line when necessary.

IT WASN’T THE REAL UTCCHY?

What happened to the Kyurangers, AGAIN? (Oh! There’s Balance!) But this is more like a Zyuohger/Ex-Aid crossover...

Welcome to Taisen, pause the music while everyone takes a brief glance at each other’s Henshins!

Poor Parad. I almost for got he was here. Taiga too, honestly. Sorry guys!

We have Kurous, but no ToQgers...

FURY!

Hey, there’s the rest of the GoRiders! I’d watch a whole series with those five, they’re a good mix.

SUDDENLY JARK MATTER.

Another reason Toku suit actors aren’t paid enough; those falling in shots.

RIP everyone.

OH, THERE THEY ARE! What, could they not get the actors for more than the opening?

I’m assuming that’s what happened w/ Kiriya, since I know for a fact Hayato is working on other things as well.

GIANT SUPER SPRINGY EX-AID MAX ROBOT HEAD THING!

Finally some other folks!

Did ToQ Ichigo just hit his hand w/ his sword?

Glad too see you again, Marv! Even if it is just a fake alternate version and you have no lines. Same goes for you, Decade. And Diend, from earlier.

MISAO! Baby, I wish you coulda been in more of this!

Brave, WTF is that Gashat? That’s... I don’t even... Take it off. NOW.

Ex-Aid baseball?

God, the fireball and his eye on it!

RIP Red large ham man whose name I’m not sure we ever learned.

Where’d the rest of the Zyuoghers go all of a sudden?

Dramatic lineup!

So... How do Hiiro and this kid know each other, exactly?

They seem to have a sort of ‘we’re isolated geniuses who have trouble interacting with others and believe no one cares about us/we don’t deserve to be cared for’ bond going...

Now, we all talk to an evil demon child through a game screen!

I can see why a small, very intelligent, super introverted and social-awayness lacking child would look up to Hiiro enough to have him as a sort of ‘guardian entity’ being a game/world he made... Then again, I am none of those things.

Oh! Lucky’s back! And... Hiiro is confused by him.

I feel like we’ve mentioned Saki, like, twice in this film and I’m not sure why.

Now they’re still alive? WTH? I find it real interesting that the people the kid choose to put into this game thing were Utcchy and Hiiro. Those two are pretty different, if you ask me. And how does he even know Utcchy?

Aw, Naga awkward smile is back!

Awwwwwwww, it’s a socially awkward trio shot! (meaning Hiiro, Naga, and little evil demon boy)

Hiiro just looked at Lucky like ‘why are you touching me?'

Actually, now that I think about it, if I go w/ my theory that the boy did this/started this because he was a lonely, socially inept genius kid, I can see why he’d go with Utcchy. God knows that man is socially inept. Still don’t get how they knew each other. If anyone actually read to the end of this, have an imaginary cookie!

#Kamen Rider Ex-Aid #Uchuu Sentai Kyuranger #Chou Super Hero Taisen #Naga must be protected at all costs #Poppy too #REALLY LONG POST #RAW #DO NOT FEEL THE NEED TO READ ALL OF THIS #SUPER LONG POST

[theatricalsorrow]

The Bang (part 1 of 4)

An original short story by me

With a Chai Tea in my hand, I exit the Tree Spirits coffee and tea shop. The friendly, tucked away store has always been my first stop every morning before my first college classes. Without my Green and Chai teas, I probably wouldn’t even get out of bed in the brisk city’s mornings. I tug my backpack’s strap up high on my shoulder and take a sip of the sugary drink.  The warmth that spreads through my veins feels fantastic during fall. A smile spreads my lips as I hop over a small crack in the pavement and people rush past me. This was home.

The hustle and bustle of the streets doesn’t really bother me, even when I was little it didn’t. I tried once to live in the countryside, but the stillness that surrounded me out there was more unnerving than relaxing.  Born and raised a city boy I welcome the screech of tires on the streets and the honk of horns in traffic. It all becomes the daily background noise to whatever I’m doing. Today, I hear sirens. The loud whooping of the police cars in chase catch my attention due to how close they are. I turn my head to look down the street for the source,  but the action must be going on around the corner. I’m not sure what urges me to follow the racket, but curiosity has always been a strong part of my personality.  Taking up a light jog, I weave through the masses of people and reach the end of the block. Just, as I stand on tiptoes to peer over the heads of the crowd, I loud bang sounds out. Blinding white light sears my retina’s and heat washes over me in a heavy wave. I can hear the the screams of panic from those near me only for a few seconds, before I lose consciousness. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

My ears are ringing as if old church bells have replaced the brain inside of my skull. The ground beneath my prone body is uneven, hard jagged shapes jutting upwards to contort my limbs. Slowly, I peel my eyes oven, wincing at the pain the light brings. My chest and stomach tighten, and bile rises in my throat. Forcing my body upright with push off from my arms, I get to my knees before I throw- up the contents of my stomach; apparently, all that is in there is my stomach acid. With shaking hands, I reach up and pull my ginger hair away from my eyes. I can feel the grime and dust woven into the curly strands before I can, once again, see. Then, I suck in a harsh breath through my burning esophagus at the mess that surrounds me. Through the coughing fit that follows, I scan the crumbled remains of  buildings. I myself am a top a pile of rubble with shards of glass, rusty nails, and stripped wires scattered about. My entire body aches. As I attempt to stand, my legs wobble as if the bones are about to snap in two. My arms are jello; even as wave them back and forth, they have this hollow throbbing inside of them. I take a single step and nearly fall face first into large, ragged edged, chunk of concrete. I cannot even begin to express how relieved  I am to not have my eyes gouged out, or to have my whole face broken. As I steady myself, I finally notice the one thing that is the most out of place. It’s not the crumpled buildings,  the shattered windows, or even the cracked pavement that makes up what's left of the streets. It’s not any part of what I can see, or the musty and dry smell that lingers in the air; it’s what I can hear. There is  nothing but wind. That is wrong on more than one level. A heavy shudder runs down my spine, nearly knocking me off my feet again. My fingers start to twitch restlessly by my side, and my shoulder spasms for a second.  Where is the noise? My gut twists again and I retch and heave for a moment, nothing coming up, before I collapse to my hands and knees. That’s when I make my first sound beyond that of throwing up, a mangled cry of pain, and discover just how dusty and strained my vocal cords are. My right hand is covered in blood when I hold it up; a deep gash has been gouged into the palm by a torn sheet of metal.

Where am I? What happened to the city? How much time has passed? Why is there no noise? Am I all alone here?

These questions race through my mind as I watch scarlet slide down my wrist and drip onto the concrete slab beneath me. Drip... drip...drip... Red on red on grey.

Why am I doing nothing?

This questions send me to my unsteady feet, and I nearly fall over again. “I’ve got to find somebody,” I rasp. My voice is far too loud in my empty ears. It takes a while to pick my way down the hill of rubble I had woken up on, as it is unstable and littered with trip hazards. Also, about halfway down I have to stop to bandage my wound with the scarf I had been wearing before being knocked out. Upon reaching the street, I take a moment to catch my breath before I take in my surroundings once more. The buildings loom far overhead, their foundations either crumbled or threatening to; broken glass was literally everywhere, creating a dangerous walk for anyone without strong shoes on. Fortunately, I am wearing my winter boots, as it had been cold on my.... On my way to class... Another wave of questions slams into my brain, paralyzing me for a moment, but there is no answer to the repeating word in my head.

WHEREWHEREWHEREWHEREWHEREWHEREWHEREWHERE????

I can’t breath, my heart and lungs have constricted, and it takes all of my will power not to fall into the glass splayed underneath my feet. My head aches, and my stomach is sick, and my eyes sting with tears. My body starts to tremble, and I try and cross my arms to hold it in. A nervous laugh bubbles up in my throat, and suddenly it’s out in the air, bouncing off the buildings so sharply it comes back to pierce my ears.  I stop immediately. My whole body is frozen as listen to the sounds of my crazed outburst echo and fade; its the only sound until it isn’t. My blood runs cold at the INHUMAN noise that follows mine, some kind of  wail or high pitched shriek mixed with a howl of pain... or maybe...bloodlust. Fear quickens my heart; my brains goes on autopilot. I’m in my city, but at the same time I’m not. This place is foreign to me, but my mind knows what I need to do. I take off running if what I hope is the opposite way of where that god awful scream had come from.

Oh god, oh god, oh god.

I can’t think straight. The glass crunching underneath my boots, the dust that hovers in the air starting to coat my lungs, the beam that I almost hit head on; they all are afterthoughts to the word RUN flashing behind my eyes on a neon sign. Something is following me. I can hear it dashing over the broken streets.

IT’S NOT HUMAN. IT’S NOT A FUCKING HUMAN.

My mind is screaming this as it processes the speed at which the THING is moving, and how it can’t be moving on two legs. I want to look back, but I don’t. I used to watch horror movies for fun, but feeling like you're in one is terrifying. So I tell myself if I look back I’ll die. Maybe I should have been a watching the ground instead. There’s a beeping noise as I sprint through the opening in a chain link fence. I barely process it before I’m thrown violently by an explosion behind me. My cry of pain and surprise is lost in boom, and the screech of the thing that was following me. I land on my back. What little air that was in my lung is knocked out by the hard come down. I skid across the glass and tar a few feet  and come to a stop in the middle of the street. I’m not dead, but I now wish I was. My arms are bleeding from the glass embedded in them. I can’t feel my right leg below my knee; there’s just an agonizing pain that is spidering out from whatever injury is down there. The sky looks red and grey... I wonder if it had been cloudy since I woke up. My visions tunneling, my head is spinning with dizziness. I can feel myself sitting up, but I don't feel like I’m controlling my body anymore. An unfamiliar scent seeps through my unfocused senses... I know it at the same time through... two words float past my eyes. Burnt flesh. I register faintly, that there are body parts scatter across the ground. A smattering of scarlet and blue decorate the fence, and the concrete. My head feels heavier; I drop back onto my elbows.

My leg? Where is it? Wait, why am I asking that? It’s right-

A cough rattles through my chest, and then blood is dribbling out from between my lips. “The fuck?!” A human voice, but they sound like they’re so far away....”HEY, KID!!!” Breathing is really easy right now. “Oh fuck, he’s injured bad. We gotta get him......  stupid idiot.... didn’t.....  mines... ” I’m warm all over, and I feel safe. Maybe I could just take a nap....

#Theo writes #Theatrical sorrow writes #original story #short story #my writing #blood #gore #trauma

[exotahu]

Bronycon 2019 “THE END”

Okay so... I kinda procrastinated on putting this out. I wrote the shell right after the con but only now finished it for posting. I don’t use tumblr much anymore but I couldn’t think of anywhere else to put this. Here is my rundown of the 2019 Bronycon. As per usual, this was written in pieces over time and might be a bit of a mess. I’m not the most coherent person when it comes to writing this sort of thing. So for one final time, Here we go. I apologize if tumblr breaks it all. 

Wednesday

The power went out as I was getting ready to leave. I had everything pretty well prepared ahead of time this time.

 I was super stressed about things going wrong and of fucking shit up actually helped me get my shit together. Still thought, I left the goddamn pop-tarts behind I had bought to have cheap easy breakfasts, but oh well, wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Left a little bit later than planned but, we weren't too terribly late either despite all this, and we got to Baltimore in good time. Made a couple stops a long the way. Found a nowhere gas station with a super yikes level sticker display next to a rack of GFT comics. Place sure had an aura about it that did not suit my pastel-horse ribbon wearing shenanigans. Made another stop and bought some twisted tea tall boys that I never ended up drinking at some other rando gas station. Made another stop at the Speedway that was a Hess and got some hot dogs. The one with the M&T next to it, that I've stopped at almost every time I've gone down. It’s dumb, but I’m gonna miss that spot. Some of these places, though dumb and random to anyone else, have memories. Like sitting on the hood of my Geo just shooting the shit with friends on the way to Otakon, or my first solo trip where I unintentionally scared the shit outta my parents cause I accidently made them think I was on the wrong side of the state or how I always took the wrong turn and had to use a middle school parking lot to turn around. Recorded a bunch with my phone cause its gonna be a long time until I’m back to some of these places. Little videos or pictures for nostalgic purposes. Made it into the hotel. No issues with the weirdness with the room reservation, thank god. (I had to do some nonsense with having two reservations and rewards points and stuff due to not getting Sunday night in the con block) Pre-reg was starting at 6 and going until late some time so we did other stuff instead. We went to Tir na Nog for dinner and hung out in the inner harbor, went to Barnes and Noble then the ice cream place. Just some of the staples of hanging out in the Inner Harbor. Went to CVS and I bought some more pop-tarts to replace the ones I left at home. Then we went to pre-reg to pick up badges. Line was pretty huge at the start when we walked past to go get dinner, figured it’d get smaller over time, but holy fuck it didn’t. Pretty sure they had no idea that many people were going to show up which was unfortunately a pretty accurate descriptor of the whole weekend tbh. We waited in line for like two hours, but it went fast enough and was kinda fun. Lots of songs being sung and merriment, especially for a two hour line. A bunch of people asked me about my digital badge or goggles. It’s funny how often the answer to “Where did you get those” is so often “Here a couple years ago” or “Otakon, a whole bunch of year ago”. A 4th of all the people registered showed up supposedly. So many people showed up that they capped line but we were already in. Not much to do after so we went back to the hotel for sleep. Got to bed Pretty early. The bar trot wasn't this night so we just went back. Got a great night of sleep sleeping on a mattress that wasn't butt, almost 8 hours. I wish my mattress at home was as good as this hotel one.

 Thursday

 Today was the bonus day. There wasn't much going on con-wise, which was fine. It was good to just relax and wander. I got to meet up with a friend from a discord server I'm in. Wandered around a while and took pictures. Also met up with someone who is actually from Baltimore but is moving to Syracuse (and only like a couple days after the con) Waited for vendor hall to open and hung out as a group for a while. There was a big line to get into vendor. It was in a weird spot this time, inside of the harmony plaza and not its own space. Bought a KDA Akali mask but mostly just did a scope out. The vendor was packed. A little more cramped due to the limited space. It was a little hard to move. Couldn’t maintain unit cohesion. Learned the layout though and where most of the vendors were. Got to briefly see a few other cool people from that Discord sever. Planned to do most of my buying, but Justin lost his hotel key (always get spares), had to go let him in the room. On the way back I did a Rayquaza raid with a couple friends. Me and Josh forgot we were one day away from best friends in game and that raids count towards the daily interaction so we didn't pop a lucky egg, whoops. Ate at Jimmy Johns before going to meet up for opening. Unfortunately, Opening got capped due to space. The BCC got shared with a Rubix cube competition so we only had half the space because I don't think they planned on having their highest attendance ever at over 10k people. We didn't have the top floor big hall so the Mane Hall was in where palooza was and it's certainly not sized to hold that many people. This would be a difficulty the whole weekend. I got back into the Harmony Plaza/Vendor Hall. They were livestreaming the Mane Hall, so the staff set up a huge monitor in Harmony Plaza to watch it sorta live. It was pretty emotional. Even the BCC president showed up and said we should keep going. That was a little rough. Then they did something neat. They got Gilbert Gottfried to sing/read This Day Aria. Everyone in the room went bananas. It was hilarious. I met back up with everyone at the hotel and we headed to the bars. Part of our group went to a ramen place they all like. There wasn't enough space for all of us without waiting an forever, so me and Justin just went to the bars. I started drinking at the Dogs Watch. They didn't have any pony themed drinks but there were pony decorations and music playing. It's a nice atmosphere, it's a bit hard to explain, being in an alcohol establishment with music from a colorful pastel horse show playing. I had 3 vodka cranberries. Met back with everyone and went to The Admiral. They had almost no Trixie left, but still enough for me to have one. And I fucking did it, I got the recipe or at the very least I know the materials. Had some of the other drinks too. There was a Pinkie, Twilight and I believe Tempest? The bartender used Champagne for the Pinkie themed drink because it was the last Bronycon. I had a bunch of those, a couple of the others, then a mix of everything. Everyone in our group went back in groups. Me, Sam and Cody were the last ones in our group. Met up with some cool people. One of the guys ordered a Vodka shot for everyone, and then a Tequila shot. After that before I left I thanked the bartender one more time for all he's done to make the bar one of the highlights of our yearly trip and all the cool theme drinks. (Seriously, if you're ever in Baltimore and drink alcohol, go to Fells Point. Find the Admiral Fell Inn, it's a little underground bar and it is AMAZING, and the bartender is a really cool guy.) Our newly formed group left. We didn't want to walk all the way back to our hotels drunk, which funny enough were all next to each other so we summoned a Lyft. While waiting we took a group selfie. We took two, Cody was missing from the first one and then Sam was missing from the other. Plus there was a random guy in both of them we didn't know who it was. THey were seconds apart and I still don't know how that happened. I got a selfie in front of a lingerie shop which amused drunk me greatly. The Lyft came and we all got in, Don't Stop Believing started playing and we all started singing along. It was a good ride back. We got back and me and one other person decided hey, Palooza is still going, lets go. Met up with a fursuiter on the way. Got to catch the last couple acts. It’s a hell of a time drunk. I could feel the soles of my feet vibrating. I had a blast and then went back to the hotel after it ended. Got to bed at like 3. It's fun to stay up doing the late things but it makes it hard to do early things.

  Friday

 I tried to get up early so I could get there earlier to get one of Baron's commission slots. Alcohol didn't cause many problems outside of a minor headache and mild plumbing problems. Still slowed me down a little. Surprisingly not really hung over aside from that, despite how much I drank. Drink water everybody, it really does help. I went to the con and got into vendor hall. I bought some stuff. I got a Soarin' daki, a game for a friend, among some other things. I bought some original art from Baron too. Didn't get there in time for a commission though. Went to the comic vendor and bought my comics. I'm only missing a couple now. Ended up getting into the line for Whoves Line almost on accident. Got in with no issues, which was cool. It’s good fun, they put on a good show. There was a proposal too which was neat, especially how they did it. Dropped stuff off at the hotel. Went to meet up with our other group and got to see the other hotel we’ve never stayed in. It's fancy af. Our group went to Bubba Gumps and I went in. I figured if it's gonna be my last time here for a very long time I was gonna do it big. Someone jokingly said I should get two Shrimper's Heavens. And then I did it, plus my usual shrimp cocktail. The Great Shrimp Massacre of 2019. Also discovered that their cheese sticks are fuckin massive and I wish I had known. I got a bunch of them that the others couldn't eat. I ate all of that. I did it big. Plumbing didn’t even break. Dropped 100$ at once. It's the most I have very spent on one restaurant trip. I don’t think I’ll be doing that again, but hey, for the final BronyCon that's kinda the point isn't it? We went to ice cream place. (Okay so I don't eat ice cream but they sell some really good tea) Then we went to the Palooza. Forgot to change my socks. Knee-high stockings no good for rave as I discovered. Vylet’s set was absolutely fantastic. (I mean all the acts were great, but she’s a favorite). Also got to see the secret guest whose name was obscured the whole time. I knew who I wanted it to be, and it was. Garnika came back for one more and played a wonderful set. Like usual we stayed the whole thing. It’s so much fun despite knowing waking up will be hard cause I’ll only get like 4 sleep. There is like this odd sense of dread knowing the effect the late night is going to have on you, but you stay anyway because there is such an energy you can't pull yourself away from.

  Saturday

Once again I tried to get up early to get a commission slot form Baron. Didn’t end up making it, however, he said he’d do it anyway, and mail it out. (I'm referring to Baron Engel, he's an artist I really like, go look him up!) It's a picture of Fluttershy dressed as Jotaro from JJBA. I've gotten it now and it's really good! I bought more stuff, including another daki that Kyle and Josh jokingly pointed out to me. Didn't think I was going to, but I couldn't turn down the price the guy gave me. I lined up for VA panel script reading. It was an EqG script about the cast graduating and the Celestias swapping places and causing chaos. It was not so subtly about the end of the con. I started to tear up. I realized that was gonna be a common theme throughout the weekend, I fuckin knew it. I do not like crying, especially in public. The closer we got to the end the worse it got. Ran into the cosplay photoshoot which was neat, and there was another proposal. After that I made a hotel deposit and got some Jimmy Johns, and then went to anthology panel. Because of course it was, Gardevoir community day was the same weekend as the con. I bought a new Pokemon+ thing that does it automatically, so I still got to play despite being in a panel or in line for most of it. It was alright. Anthology was great (and holy shit a little raunchier than usual), But then at the end they told us that it was actually longer and they had to cut it for time. (To which I call bullshit, any additional content I’ve seen was far too explicit for the actual con, lul). Went to the Palooza for one final time. I remembered to change my socks this time. Saw Black Gryph0n and Michelle Creber, and then the super band made up of a large variety of fandom musicians. It was really cool. Even got to hear an orchestral performance of one of 4everfree's songs which is something I've not seen them do before. Things ran a little long and it threw the schedule off a bunch. 2 AM hit and Eruobeat hadn't gone yet. (2 is usually when we have to leave by) But Eurobeat did get to do his set despite this because whoever was in charge decided to be cool. "We're suposed to be out by 2, but its 2 and Eurobeat has to play still. We can stay for this but, but when it’s over I'm gonna need y’all to get the fuck out.” And then Eurobeat performed he was one of the first fandom musicians and one of the first to perform at the original BronyPalooza. And of course, for his final song, he performed his 2019 version of Discord. The whole fuckin' room went nuts. It was nothing short of magical. It was the perfect way to end it, the final Bronypalooza. The energy in the room was insane. Bronypalooza was always one of my favorite parts of the con. I’m told other EDM concerts are crazier, but I don’t know if I want crazier. There was something absolutely magical about a room full of all different kinds of people losing their shit to pastel horse based music waving dakis and plushies and some in full fursuit and some in cosplay and some in plain clothes and every kinda nonsense you can imagine. Just rocking out and having a good time. It's an experience and a kind of magic that I don’t know what will ever be able to compare. I'll never forget it.

 Sunday

THE FINAL DAY. I switched over reservations with no issues and went to the con. Ended up mostly wandering around the vendor hall yeeting money away before lining up for closing. I recorded a bunch of wandering around. There was a Bronycon memorial shrine that was set up too that people had left all sorts of crazy stuff at too. I bought some random but cool stuff. I also commissioned a badge of my pony character! (Better late than never huh?) Was gonna buy a couple things but ended up not. I ran into Vylet wandering the vendor hall! Got a picture with her and Namii!. Lined up for closing, which turned into a bit of a clusterfuck. It got capped again due to room. In the clusterfuck I was able to meet back up with Andy, Sam, and Justin. However while in line I got to see a whole bunch of con staff set up huge monitors to stream it to the overflow room so as many people as possible can see it. It was... very emotional, was pretty much just sobbing in a whole room full of people. Got a conclusion to the mascot storyline too. I never want to forget how I feel after these things. Walking out of the con center for the last time was fucking surreal. I've been there so many times. I remember being confused by the layout the first couple times and by the end, I had the whole thing memorized. (Okay, I couldn't remember lobby names for shit, but I knew where it all was.) I cried a whole bunch as we all walked out together reminiscing. We sat in the hotel room as a group just kinda being sad and reminiscing and decompressing for a little while. Then we went to a bar after party event things in a place I’d never been. It was a pretty relaxing atmosphere. Instead of being in the bar we sat outside on these sofa things on the deck rather than watching the concert on the inside (But hoenstly it was so loud you could hear it well enough). A lot of the non-EDM rock musicians there. It was honestly really nice sitting there under the open sky just listening to music. Feeling the sunset while the city lights get brighter and the sky fades to dark was nice. I checked Pokemon Go since I had my automatic bracelet thing doing it's thing, turns out I caught a random Shiny Alolan Geodude. I nicknamed it the Bronycon Memorial Rock, it's a Golem now. Had some shots too. After a while we went back to the hotel. We decided to do a Insomnia Cookie order, since it went so well last year. And oh was it a clusterfuck. So we made our order. I forgot to mention that we were in a hotel so I called them and they said they'd call us when they got there and that I would come down. Roughly 15 minutes later, the call came. I said I'd be down. I went to the lobby and found a delivery man with a white box. He comes up to me and asks me if I was the one that ordered pizza. Nope, wasn't me. He got a little frustrated but continued to wait for his people. No cookie delivery guy. I call him back. This was basically the convo: "Hello, I'm down in the lobby but I can't find you" "Wait, it wasn't you that picked up the cookies?" "No I just got here, there is a confused pizza man down here though." (I should note that they're both white square boxes) "Oh fuck I'm so sorry I gave it to the wrong person we'll remake your order and come back" "No problem man, it happens to the best of us, I'll just wait down in the lobby this time" I repeated the order, he apologized and hung up. The pizza guy just left the pizza with the front desk. I saw that they still had the menus up for the pony themed alcohol so I ordered an Applejack(Apple brandy, hard cider and ice). Accidentally ended up calling another friend trying to call the cookie guy back who also happened to be at a bar back home and had a chat about what we were drinking/doing so that was cool. Eventually the cookie guy came back and we had cookies. Then everyone wanted pizza. Yet another clusterfuck occurred, turns out they ran out of dough or something so after like a half hour wait, we got our money back. After that we just went to sleep.

  Monday

We packed everything up and loaded the car when we got up. Then we decided to have one last day in the inner harbor. We went to Tir Na Nog as a big group for one last time, then headed to the aquarium. The aquarium is nifty. I like to watch the jellyfish. They're so goddamn relaxing. Even one of the employees said the same thing. We left and took a group picture in the harbor before finally heading back. Once again, leaving was a bit sombre, there was just such a finality to it, walking past the BCC down Pratt St. After hanging out in the hotel lobby for a little bit, we got on the road to home. During the ride back, It ended up coming up why the area is significant to me and why I wanted to do certain things and why this whole crazy thing started in the first place. I never really bring it up, but it felt kinda good to talk about it. It was a relatively uneventful ride home. We stopped at a McDonalds at some point. Got home, unpacked and crashed, feeling exhausted from the weekend.  

  Conclusion:

 Yeah it's no secret I procrastinated writing/finishing this for a couple months. I guess I just didn't want to deal with it being over. I've mentioned before that this con and the surrounding area is pretty important to me. A yearly tradition that I looked forward to and saved for. I had gone to Otakon almost every year between 2006-2012. Once I realized interest in Otakon had waned, I got kinda sad, but then something wild happened. Bronycon announced they were moving down to a new location. The Baltimore Inner Harbor in the BCC. I had been talking with a couple friends about going to the next Bronycon and that absolutely cemented it. That was 2013. Then in 2014, I was contacted by some guy my dad worked with who was wondering if I had intended to go the next year. That's how I met Andy. I made a bunch of friends through the con/show and reconnected with old ones too. I made sure to go down every year since. Aside from 2010, I've gone to the Baltimore Inner Harbor every year since 06. It's gonna be hard knowing I won't be back there for a while most likely. I've got a bunch of memories down here across many years. I know this has been totally disjointed because I'm writing it months later, coming off the MLP series finale, so I'm feeling some feels. I think that's part of why I decided to finish it now. I've said for a while that Bronycon was one of the best conventions I've ever attended. The atmosphere was something unique and magical. I don't think I could ever describe it properly. I don't think I'll ever find anything that quite captures the magic, but one thing is sure, I'm never gonna forget the times we've had here. It really has been magic.

#bronycon bronycon2019 ididntmeantowaitthislong

[wingedsam]

Replaying KH

Getting ready for the release of KH3 by playing through 1 and 2 [and watching all the explanation videos I can find to explain the stuff that happens in the other games] and it's been interesting so far. This is also the Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 Final Mix whatever for the ps4.

I played right up to the final Ansem gauntlet at the end of 1... then watched someone do the last bit of the game because fuck a 7 part boss what is wrong with you Square? I'd forgotten how meh the controls were in the first game, took some getting used to on a replay, but I did get all of the trinities and puppies, and beat the Phil, Pegasus, and Hercules cups to get the keyhole and keychain from the Colusseum. Also got all the summons. It was fun.

Now I'm on KH2 and the controls are smoother. Some of the voice acting has gotten sort of mediocre, but I'm still having a good time. I didn't get too far when I played it back in the day [I overplayed and gave myself motion sickness then never picked it back up], but I'm ready to play through this time. I never noticed, also, that the game got bigger, but emptier. The levels feel bigger, but there's so little in them and you get railroaded much more than in the first game.

Sure in KH 1 you had to go world by world, but once you got to a world you were pretty free to explore the space while doing the story. Meanwhile in having made KH2 bigger they needed to have shoehorned prompts at the paths you weren't supposed to go down yet to tell you "no this isn't the way to [blank]" or "c'mon, we gotta do [plot thing] over by [place]!". It just feels like the level layouts weren't as well planned. It's not a huge deal, but still something I hope we don't see in KH3. I don't mind a level with a linear story, but you can lead a player through a level organically without "whoops don't go this way yet, go over there" hand holding. Hey maybe i'll do a breakdown or something about it that could be cool.

Also even with my limited first playthrough I noticed cutscenes had been added to this version that weren't in the original, probably to help pad things out a bit for people who hadn't played the offshoots and handheld titles to help with the story. And damn, the picture resolution drop on the cutscene before the 1000 heartless fight was noticeable. [Maybe could also do a breakdown of my current understanding of the game, that might also be fun]

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 1 #kingdom hearts 2 #kingdom hearts hd 2.5 final mix #sam plays games