#mix that and you get some goddamn interesting vibes

[transingthoseformers]

I think I've explained this before, but in my au Starscream is a youngest child.pdf in a large family. Like, the only reason they're considered the prince of Vos is because the other siblings either up and died, mysteriously went missing, or were disinherited for other reasons. Why am I mentioning this?

Imagine the 'Bots and 'Cons meeting one of Star's older siblings. Imagine the reunion, the chaos, petty petty fighting, perhaps some sibling rivalry Mufasa and Scar style?

#tfp au #look i absolutely love the idea that in some universe Starscream is royalty because damn if they does not explain some stuff #there's a reason wheb people think of the middle ages they think about the batshit monarchy drama #tfp Starscream #especially since from what we've seen in canon the aligned continuity Cybertron was an interesting place indeed #there is definitely roman/latin influence in tfp but in rid15 you get the vibe that prewar cybertron was more like the prohibition era #mix that and you get some goddamn interesting vibes #in damn general Starscream has royal vibes and i don't just mean this as a compliment— just remember the crown and cape

[gubbles-owo]

if folks on Terra regularly have two pairs of ears, then like. how do they hear. how do they hear. what does it sound like. i NEED to know. I'm no biology expert, but the primary disadvantage I can think of with human ears is their inability to tilt, adjust, or otherwise move to better spatialize sound. we have to tilt our heads around to get a sense of where the heck a particular sound might be originating from, and even then it's far from infallible. higher frequencies with very short wavelengths are notoriously difficult to locate, and lower sub-bass frequencies with very long wavelengths can sometimes suffer a similar phenomenon. slapping on a second pair of animal ears on an otherwise human head might help in alleviating these issues. many are able to move around, and typically detect frequencies outside of the standard human range of around 20Hz to 20kHz. the bit I don't get tho? they all seem to face forward. like, if you're going to evolve to double the amount of ears, wouldn't it be optimal for the 2nd set to be aligned backwards for fuller coverage?? or at least in SOME different direction. like sure, they have a range of movement to work with, but I can't imagine having a 2nd pair of ears that, at rest face the same direction as my existing ones. it sounds like a recipe for needless sensory overload... r-right?? this has real "three dimensional idiot atttempts to grasp four dimensional space" vibes LMFAO my former specialty was doing music/audio, and the whole concept of binaural audio is super interesting. heck I made my own goddamned edit of carameldansen to try and really make it sound like it was blaring on the other side of your wall. but what the heck would that sound like to april? does she listen to her music with standard headphones while the bnnuy ears are still keeping tabs on her environment? is she forever cast from the basic human pleasure that is shutting out the world via total replacement with blasting music? do they even make 4-driver headphones, or even mix audio in quadraphonic format? does 2-channel stereo music, to them, lack the same sense of depth and space that music summed to mono sounds like to us??? arknights not only refuses to answer any of these (to my knowledge), but instead laughs and spits on my face yet more questions

april. wh-what. kind of earplugs. do you have four of them or is it just two. are either pair like. human sized. please do not shove corn cob-sized earplugs into my head they will NOT fit

#this needlessly long post brought to you by “im nauseous from unspecified chronic illness and require distraction” #yeahh i'm probably thinking too much here. but it's fun! #arknights

[hypnodrea]

songs/artists i’d force TWST Housewardens to listen to

— Riddle Rosehearts aka Rizzle Smoulderheart

Mans would probably be like, making me study or some shit, hopefully helping me or just around me in general. And I just whip out the nasty ass phone Daddy Crowley gave me and boot up whatever version of Spotify there and bat my eyes at Riddle saying, “Oh, music helps me focus more when studying!” When we all know that is a full on lie.

So he would be around or something and I would just start blasting the most inappropriate music ever. Probably something like Man Areas or Squidwards Nose. One of those, y’know? Just cause I think it’d be funny seeing him get all red and angry, like a raspberry.

He’d prolly yell “Off with your head” at me but that would be useless because I’m magic-less

— Leona Kingscholar aka Mr. Worldwide

Me, personally, me, personally, I’d be rockin’ to take a nap with this homie. He’d prolly hate it, but I would! And y’see, I’d come up with some bullshit that like, music helps with dreams or some shit, just anything to convince him to let me play a playlist as he sleeps.

And it’d be full of Tyler the Creator. But specifically the genre of his songs like, See You Again, What a Day, Earfquake, BEST INTEREST, songs of his like those. Now I think Leona would probably like Tyler, idk, they both have them vibes and them two my favorite men.

But yeah, I’d make him listen to Tyler, he seems like he would like at least one or two songs of his, and I sure as hell know that I would be down on my knees just to hear him sing a song.

— Azul Ashengrotto aka ‘Baka Tako’

I would literally sell my soul to him just to make him listen to every single FNAF song. It has to be FNAF. I want to get at least two or three stuck in his head, so he feels cringe and ashamed to admit liking the songs.

It would be so worth it though, seeing Azul all dripped up for Board Game Club (azul + idia club card when—) and just him humming like, Join Us For A Bite, and Idia slow head turning to him as he experiences flashbacks.

I’d be soulless for the rest of my life just to hear Azul singing Five Nights At Freddys, but god, wouldn’t that be a sight to see.

— Kalim Al-Asim aka the most nicest boy ever

I could not do anything mean to this boy, I would introduce him to like, Kali Uchis or Laufey. This man deserves all the pretty women music. I’d also just give him genuine song recommendations for like, parties too.

Maybe some like, Odetari type of music for like movin’ & groovin’. Definitely some Pitbull, Daddy Yankee, y’know all the good body mover ones. Songs that just make ya wanna swing your hips and drop it down white boy style.

Kalim is such a precious boy I would make it my life’s goal to give him all the classic bangers and new shit. Also Peso Pluma. No words. Just Peso.

— Vil Schoenheit aka the IT Girl

He scares me. I don’t want him calling my music taste ugly 😭 I’d get like, Rook to get him to listen to any of my recommendations. Or literally any one else but me. I’m sensitive :(

Anyways onto the songs/artists, ahhhh, probably K-pop. I like a lot of songs but I also heard that the dances are pretty sick too. So he can like, have fun with that. Maybe specifically like, Red Velvet, or like the BTS members but only their solo songs because I like them better like that.

Also giving him like, serious recommendations because I don’t want him to curse me if I made him listen to like a fucking Lorax song.

— Idia Shroud aka the loser gamer boy

I’m making him listen to every single Tom Cardy song I know. If there is any one in the goddamn school that could appreciate him, it would be Idia. And I wouldn’t go for the obvious choice of making him listen to Hatsune Miku because he has his little Fates idol group thing, and also because it would be too predictable.

Tom Cardy on the other hand, he is extremely unpredictable and I love him for that. Specifically showing Idia all the more funny and mainstream songs of Tom Cardy like Red Flags, Mixed Messages, and Perception Check.

Making him hum Perception Check as he beats the hell out of Azul on online Uno as Azul screeches and everytime he gets a +2 or +4 making him say ‘Nat 20 let’s fucking go’

— Malleus Draconia aka …who?

I think my more modern music taste would kill him, so I’d just give him the entire Nutcracker ballet to listen to because it is such a banger ballet, dude.

Or just ballets in general, I think he’d enjoy them in the background as he does whatever he does in his little Gargoyle club thingy.

Me and him when that beat drops in the Knights Dance from the Romeo and Juliet ballet.

{This is not at all supposed to be close to canon, this is just for funsies. I’ll prolly do the first years next…}

#twst wonderland #twisted wonderland #twst riddle #riddle rosehearts #twst leona #leona kingscholar #twst azul #azul ashengrotto #twst kalim #kalim al asim #twst vil #vil schoenheit #twst idia #idia shroud #twst malleus #malleus draconia #twst imagines #?

[panicloser]

DDLC characters when they're drunk headcanons

as someone who has never gotten drunk I am obviously the right person to make headcanons on this ;D (some of this headcanons are more set for when they're older)

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

Yuri

-I think would handle it the best out of all them. She has the most experience drinking out of all them so she knows her limits

-She has a pretty high tolerance though

-One of the big reasons she likes drinking is because it lessens her social anxiety 

-Gets increasingly more social and talkative the more she drinks, she’s gets more open and relaxed and is more willing to try talking to others even if she still comes off weird

-Along with that she also gets increasingly more impulsive

-She can already be a bit impulsive at times when she’s sober but this fact skyrockets when she’s drunk since there’s no voice of reason holding her back

-When she gets really drunk, without fail she will always do or say something in the spur of the moment that she horrifically regrets the next day which she’ll then proceed to agonise over it for the rest of the week

-If she’s in a good mood when this happens it’s usually just something really embarrassing that her friends tease her for

-If she’s in a bad mood when this happens something more dangerous could happen 

-She learnt from experience how much to drink as to not get to that point but also feel the weight of social anxiety lighten a bit

-If she’s drunk she needs someone to babysit her and keep a close eye on her, when she’s tipsy she babysits her drunk friends

-Also if she’s around someone she’s interested in romantically while she’s drinking she can turn real flirty

-She’s got some banger pick up lines up her sleeve, Yuri rizz is real

-When texting, still tries to spell good when she’s drunk but it doesn’t work out so well

-Imagine her infodumping while drunk, imagine a drunken Yuri rant, 10/10 must have experience

Natsuki

-She’s got a short tolerance and she’s not afraid to use it

-Was scared to drink at first because it reminded her of her dad but it ended up working out okay

-To sum up her drunken self, whatever emotion she’s feeling when she drinks will be exacerbated when she’s drunk

-if she’s in a good happy mood, she’s the life of the party, she’ll be energetic, much friendlier, she’s loud, excited, might stand on a table or two

-if she’s angry, she’s willing to throw hands over a slice of pizza. Copious amounts of swearing and angry half baked rants, again she’s loud, she’s a scary little feral gremlin. Tries not to angry drink since she usually ends up regretting those the most

-if she’s sad, she’s a hundred percent gonna end up crying. Will be more willing to spill her feelings, she’ll complain to the nearest friend, she’s pretty quiet and soft-spoken in this state.

-You might even see a rare clingy Natsuki if she’s in a certain mood

-overall she’s a wild card, a mixed bag of a drinking buddy

-Really likes going to karaoke and singing really badly and loudly between drinks

-hates the fact that she ends up throwing up 90% of the time

-a lot of burps and hiccups, she chuckles at it everytime

-still has a pretty good sense of danger when drunk off her ass

-a drunk Natsuki gets flustered cripplingly easily and can’t hide it, she falls apart, keep that in mind if you flirt with her

-cannot fucking hear you if you talk to her in a reasonable tone at a slight distance, goddamn deaf woman

Sayori

-the least coherent drunk out of these four

-also doesn’t have a very high tolerance, it doesn’t take many drink for it to get to her

-doesn’t like drinking too often but every now and again is okay

-is just super duper out of it when she’s drunk

-she’ll be half zoned out the whole time, her brain is %100 just vibing

-surprisingly won’t say much, she’ll have mild reactions to what’s happening around her or she’ll say or ask something really random out of nowhere every few minutes

-if you ask her a question she’ll reply like ten minutes later, very slow processing, windows 98 brain

-is extra clumsy when drunk. She’ll drop and knock over so many things and probably fall at some point. The next morning she’ll wake up with a bruise with no memory of how she got it

-if she’s in a good mood when drunk she’ll be really calm and lightly bubbly

-but drinking is bad for her when she’s not in a good mood. Can turn into a sad drunk, her feelings become even heavier than usual and she can spiral really bad, she sometimes fears drinking due to experiencing this before

-tends to get sleepy and drowsy. She’ll always end up passing out by the end of a session

-on rare occasion, if there’s alcohol in the house she’ll drink a bit when she’s having problems insomnia problems

-also most likely gets extra cuddly and affectionate when she’s drunk or tipsy

Monika

-usually drinks the least out of the four of them

-has a medium sized tolerance

-the only reason she drinks the least amount is because of  the lack of control she has when she’s under the influence

-doesn’t mind being a little tipsy so much, will just be more relaxed at that point

-an existential drunk 

-starts questioning the meaning of life, her purpose, why things are the way they are and other deep questions, half of them end up not making sense

-can spiral too deep and either get depressed or turn into a conspiracy theorist

-either that or she’s a clingy affectionate drunk

-if there is anyone she cares about there, especially if it’s in a romantic way, she will cling to them the whole time and use every type of love language she can think of on them

-she also talks a lot, she talks about random stories or things she finds interesting or about her feelings, anything, she wants to shut up but she can’t stop

-and of course she’s more impulsive too and will go along with whatever idea someone comes up with

-she perceives her drunk self to be annoying and embarrassing which is why she now avoids it as much as she can

-protecc drunk Monika

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

was gonna do some hcs on how the interact with each other but might do that another time im lazy now

(apologies if this whole thing is a terrible grasp on what being drunk is like I've just had these headcanons stuck in my head for a while now man)

#ddlc #ddlc plus #doki doki literature club #headcanons #ddlc headcanons #monika hcs #yuri hcs #natsuki hcs #sayori hcs #monika ddlc #yuri ddlc #natsuki ddlc #sayori ddlc #drunk headcanon #drinking headcanons

[fuckyeahaudiodrama]

REC: Neon Inkwell - Of That Colossal Wreck

“An existential science fiction horror [which] follows five survivors who awaken on a vast space station, intended as humanity’s last defence against oblivion. Little do they know, however, that other beings are interested in the facility…” (x)

7 episodes / approx. 2.5 hrs

a long-anticipated limited series by Jonny Sims and Sasha Sienna, exploring what it means to be human, how identity is shaped, and what can be done when all seems lost.

first standout thing about this series is the sound design (and the music.) it’s GORGEOUS, discordant and haunting, and really just sets a mood before the story even gets its stride. reportedly, the RQ production staff got to mix things up and try out new roles for Neon Inkwell, so Katie Seaton actually got to do the music and sound design for this series. i have to assume this means she was responsible for bringing the alien “whistlers” to life — and i just think they’re so goddamn cool. i want to know everything about them. check out this post for a sampler of that. i was so impressed overall that i’m currently checking out some of Katie’s other work.

obviously, i knew i was going to enjoy the writing — Jonny Sims has produced nothing but bangers from TMA to both of his published novels, and what i’ve seen of Sasha Sienna’s writing in the TMA bonus “What the Ghost?” episodes, as well as their ttrpg work, left me with no doubt that i would enjoy any characters that they helped to develop. but i was still really moved by how each character interacts with the others individually. despite being a fairly short series, there’s somehow room for the development of all six characters — in fact, for the majority of the cast, they’re as in the dark about their own personalities as the audience is at the start of the story, so you get to go on that journey together. i thought that was a neat new spin on the classic amnesiac protag trope that i see so often in this flavor of sci-fi.

this story is at least partially a space survival horror. that being said, the worldbuilding necessitates some pretty daunting existential questions about human ethics, community, and personal identity. from a narrative standpoint, i was wondering how such a short series would even be able to deliver satisfying answers to all of this, but i think it was pretty well done. no spoilers, but man — that finale was like a whole round of emotional gutpunches. a surprisingly hopeful finish.

i already miss these characters terribly ;_; i didn’t even have them very long, but they’re all so lovable and their group dynamic has so much potential. highly recommend checking it out (but mind the content warnings for each episode.)

strong start to the new feed!🪶a behind the scenes episode has been promised soon as well, so look out for that :)

__

similar to: Deviser, Project Nova & The DECA Tapes (premise, setting) ; Red Valley, Down & Janus Descending (vibes)

#neon inkwell #of that colossal wreck #audio drama #podrecs #it’s so funny the first episode of this has Such similarity to the first ep of project nova #but project nova is comedic and this is Dramatic. cool to see similar ideas explored so differently

[serenhoshi]

𝐖𝐨𝐨𝐳𝐢 𝐚𝐬 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐲𝐟𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐝

got a request for the best composer ever :))

Not very surprising, but Woozi is not interested in relationships

maybe he had interest in a few people, but never enough to actually date them, he was mostly interested by them because of a few aspects of their personality

he’d clearly be a pansexual, in my opinion ofc

and finding the right person would be very hard for him

because 1st: he doesn’t have a lot of time for himself, he works a lot 

and 2nd: hes very selective of the people around him

seventeen are so close to his heart that he wants to find someone as wonderful as any other seventeen member (but with the romantic side added)

so it’s very hard to find that very person

For the sake of the imagine, you’re “that very person” that he needs in his life

you’re a mix of a big ball of energy, like hoshi, who matches very well with woozi

but you can also be much calmer and mature like the8 or seungcheol

so you do have the safe vibe that woozi associates the members with

you get closer with time, but it’s very slow

woozi is not the type to take things fast when it comes to love, not only because he’s kinda shy and clueless, but also because he doesn’t have the time

conversations on the phone like “wyd?” “I’m in the studio” are very recurrent

The biggest step in your relationship is him inviting you to his studio, and this becoming a habit for you two

everytime you come with some snacks and you both spend time together

theres a dilemma for him because he falls progressively more and more in love with you, and it inspires him for songs, so he works more and sees you a bit less

it annoys him

ofc to ask you to be his s/o he wrote a goddamn song

very cute, he didn’t look at you during the whole listening, his hears bright red

so now you’re in a relationship

the members still can’t believe woozi has an s/o

WOOZI

LEE mother fucking JIHOON

has someone????

damn

he was SO shy at the beginning

almost ghosted you for a whole week lmao

shyly initiates touch and stuff like that

like when you walk next to each other his hand brushes yours and then he progressively takes your hands in yours (without looking at you lmao)

also progressively puts his hand on your thigh when he drives

like first it’s on his lap, then on the gear lever, then on your seat, then on your lap, his eyes focused on the road

you have good morning and good night kisses

very quick everytime, but he gets less shy with time

like now he kisses you but his hand(s) holds your chin, or goes to the back of your neck, or holds your waist

he loves little touches like that

one thing he’ll NEVER do

is matching outfits/accessories

when you go out on a date and see some of these couple things, he pretends to be disgusted

one day you offered him a key chain for his phone, and then showed him your matching one

he pretended to be annoyed, but in reality he secretly enjoys it

likes having his special moments with you

like on every friday night you go out in the streets and enjoy fast food while looking at street artists singing or dancing

it’s his little habit, and he loves enjoying this kind of simple moment with you

ALSO

doing sports together?????

like him coaching you and all

he really motivates you while working out

he is the first one to see the well-being of the gym on your body

will play the strict coach but in reality he makes sure you stretch well, and you don’t hurt yourself 

Now for the music, I don’t think he’ll make you listen to his productions before they’re out, he’d be too pressured to hear your opinion

many many songs will be inspired by you

the cutest ones

maybe a few sad ones that he wrote after an argument

but thats really it

still expect him to sing under the shower, and play basically any instrument at any random time in the appartement, any time hes inspired

i think i’m done here :)

now the smutty part below!

it takes a lot of time for you both to have sex for the first time

but when its finally done,, it gets less shy with time and practice

remember how you do sports together?

well it has its benefits

you both last longer, and see how each other has more defined muscles each time

no matter what, woozi is always on top of you

every damn time

his strong arms on each side of your face-

kinda noisy too, like small whines and groans

the pace is more slow and intense than fast and rough

making love with you lasts long

around an hour, maybe more, maybe less

as for the place, its either in your shared appartment, in his studio (only happened like 2 times because he was VERY horny), or at the gym (only once, because you were both very horny and no one was there)

his FINGERS-

makes you go through at least 2 orgasms just with his fingers

not a big fan of toys, but likes bondage (on you)

you once covered his eyes for sex and he complained during the whole thing so you gave up

after care is long as well

he doesn’t talk much, each time he does its to ask you how you’re doing, or if you need something, and of course he compliments you

i think almost every time after sex you take a bath or a shower together

and uuuuh yeah thats it :)

#woozi #lee jihoon #woozi imagines #woozi reactions #woozi fluff #woozi smut #jihoon scenarios #jihoon smut #svt jihoon #seventeen #svt #seventeen scenarios #seventeen fanfic #seventeen imagines #woozi scenarios #jihoon imagines #seventeen smut

[ofliterarynature]

DECEMBER 2023 WRAP UP

[loved liked ok no thanks (reread) book club*]

Mixed Magics • Chalice • To Shape a Dragon's Breath • The Haunting Season • Hither Page • The Henchmen of Zenda • System Collapse • The Phantom of the Opera • An Unexpected Peril • A Minor Chorus* • The September House • (The Dream Thieves) • The Fragile Threads of Power • The Pinhoe Egg • (Network Effect) • Some Desperate Glory

total: 16 (audiobook: 12 / ebook: 4)

Happy New Year booklr! Here's to actually getting my last monthly wrap-up post of 2023 out in decent time for once.

Some Desperate Glory - I'm getting myself off to a bad start here because I don't actually remember much from the book and I didn't write a review at the time. oops. But I do remember that once things got going I was hooked, and I couldn't wait to pick the audiobook back up. Definitely some content warnings to look out for, but an incredible read. I definitely need to go back and check out the author's other work.

Network Effect - the last book of my Murderbot reread, still great, glad to have finally read this in a text format! Also better suited to be read *after* Fugitive Telemetry, I wish I'd known to read them in chronological order the first time.

The Pinhoe Egg - a nice wrap up to the main Chrestomanci series! Though if anyone can tell me why on eARTH the 'recommended' reading order is like *that*, please explain it to me. I'd forgotten so many things by the time we got back to Cat, if I ever reread I'm going chronologically.

The Fragile Threads of Power - lord help me, I could do a whole rant. A quick summary of my relationship to this series: loved Shades of Magic when it first came out, did not love/was very annoyed by most of it when I reread them in 2023. Also have not really liked any of Schwab's other work. BUT. I was under the impression that this spinoff would have new main characters, and the old ones would be present but not in the center. If I didn't just make this up, it was LIES. The original MC's still dominate probably at least 60% of the book, and you'd think 7 years in-book and more experience on behalf of the writer would mature them, but a) no, and b) so many goddamn flashbacks. And Kel's assasin-sona was so cringe I wanted to cry. I did actually like the new main character which really is the biggest shame of all. If you see me contemplating the next book please stop me.

The Dream Thieves - I don't know that I have much to add yet to my thoughts about TRB in my Nov post, but I've been having a very strange experience where when I'm actively reading these, I'm having an incredibly good time; when I'm not I completely forget I was reading it. lol?

The September House - this is possibly the closest to my ideal horror book that I've ever found??!!? I have a weird relationship with horror, wherein I am not uninterested, but I almost never enjoy the ones I read (I think it has to do with my irl anxiety, idk). But THIS one. It's such an INCREDIBLE blend of like, mundane horrors and dark humor? I loved it. The "you can live with the horrors if you just follow the rules" is very much my vibe, and the way the author chose to have it integrate with the main character's experiences of domestic abuse was very smart. Deeply enjoyed, but probably won't be a favorite.

A Minor Chorus - this month's book club pick! I really really wish I'd liked this, and I'm torn between "thank god it was short," and "oh I wish this was longer." It's about a queer Indigenous doctoral student in Canada who's somewhat lost his way on his dissertation and is instead writing a novel (maybe), inspired by the stories of people in his community. On one hand, the writing was sometimes very beautiful and the different stories were interesting! On the other, my academic-speak abilities are limited, and the narrator did not hold back. He even explicitly states at one point, oh I can't describe my book this way to [character] because he won't understand my academic language. And...yeah. My brain got a little overwhelmed and I skimmed a lot of those parts. The hopeful part of me thinks if that if the book had been longer maybe I would have had time to "get it," but idk.

An Unexpected Peril - Veronica Speedwell is as Veronica Speedwell does. Had a good time with this even though it's proving to not be the most memorable. Mostly I remember intensely panicking over whether or not V had practiced forging the princess's signature, lol.

The Phantom of the Opera - this was a last minute sub for my classics challenge; I've never seen any of the adaptations, but I happened to see the book on tumblr when I was scrambling for a replacement and thought it might be fun. And it was! Quite ridiculous and dramatic, and I had a good time reading it. I was surprised by the outsider POV on the story, but it was good, just a shame that it didn't allow Christine to tell her own story. If anyone has a Christine-centered retelling I should read, let me know! And are there any adaptations I should watch?

System Collapse - new Murderbot! I was so excited for this, I'm irritated that my brain and work schedule didn't want to cooperate and let me read my nice pretty hardcover; I ended up getting the audiobook from the library instead. I had an incredible time, because it's Murderbot, how could I not? But it's also interesting, because Network Effect felt quite cohesive and contained on its own, but this feels very much like an in-between story (almost like Fugitive Telemetry), rather than a continuation of the same thread. I'll be interested to see where Martha takes us from here.

The Henchmen of Zenda - my last KJ Charles of the year! I did mean to get through all of her books, but things slipped by me these last few months so I still have a couple, but managed to fit this standalone in! It's not the only time she's pulled characters from works of classic fiction, and I admit, I'm now very curious and kind of want to read the original Prisoner of Zenda? Definitely this version had an exciting plot that was fun to read, though I don't think it'll be my favorite of her works (yay for a non-traditional relationship structure tho :)

Hither, Page - I don't think I've read Cat Sebastian before, but I've had this one recommended and it sounds right up my ally - historical/cozy myster/spy shenanigans/gay romance! And it was an incredibly pleasant read, would recommend, but I do think it could have been better as both a mystery and a romance.

The Haunting Season - I almost picked this up in October for spooky season, but put if off for Dec since it's meant to be wintery ghost stories - and only just remembered it in time! I almost wish I hadn't. The first two stories were so meh for me that I almost DNF'd it, I just didn't want the fuss of having to find a new audiobook for work the last day before Christmas break. Luckily Natasha Pulley showed up next with a good story (I really ought to read her books) and there was a good run of 4 stories with another 2 meh to round things out. It wasn't a total loss, but I wouldn't really recommend.

To Shape a Dragon's Breath - If you've seen people singing the praises of this book, they're not wrong! It's a very good if sometimes heavy read, and this is definitely the closest I've gotten to liking a boarding school story since Protector of the Small (I got burned out on them very quickly, lol). It does sometimes read like the debut it is, it's not perfect (lots of infodump speeches, lord save me from the technicalities of alchemy/chemistry, and I would have liked to see more done in her relationship with her dragon), but it's also doing some incredible and unique things that really make me want to see more books in this series and whatever else the author writes.

Chalice - I've read Robin Mckinley before and I've found her work ok, but this one has been repeatedly recommended in the HOTE discord server - I figured it would be a good one to wrap up the year with! And surprise surprise, the fealty-coded discord loves a book about... fealty XD and good stewardship, and magic bees, etc. It's incredibly on brand, and I had a lovely time with this fairy-tale of a book.

Mixed Magics - a collection of Chrestomanci short stories; I actually read one of the stories a few months ago due to the recommended reading order (bleh), and thought it would be fairly simple to finish it off before the end of the year, now that I'd finished the rest of the series. All fun, if not equally interesting, and a nice end to the year. Now I just need to find a new Diana Wynne Jones series to try (not on audiobook, alas, my library is all out of those).

(I did almost consider then binging the Hither, Page sequel on new year's eve, just so I wouldn't split the series, but decided against it :D)

#bec posts #book log #2023 #wrap up 2023 #books #booklr #book review #chrestomanci #murderbot #diana wynne jones #some desperate glory #threads of power #the september house #chalice #robin mckinley #to shape a dragon's breath #the haunting season #hither page #the henchmen of zenda #the phantom of the opera #veronica speedwell #a minor chorus #the dream thieves

[books-with-shriya]

Book Reads and TBR for February 💗!!

Hey Guys!! Sorry for literally being absent for like forever...but I'm back, and I swear that I'm going to try to be more consistent now! Anyway, I wanted to share the books I've read in the past couple of months and my tbr for February!!

My Reads:

The Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros: Surprisingly, I read a lot of my tbr and this book was one of the books on it! I know there were mixed reviews and some people really hated it, but I goddamn loved it! Literally, this book was to die for. Ngl the first two or three chapters are a bit slow but it gets soo much better after so its completely worth it. Also can we just take a second for this immaculate enemies to lovers..absolute perfection. Also the amount of times I had to put down the book after the male mc said something and literally squealed....anyways I would rate it a 4.5/5 stars :)))

Foul Heart Hunstman by Chloe Gong: LOVED!!! I fell in love with the first book, also I just love all of Chloe Gong's writing, just absolute masterpieces. And I knew as soon as the second book came out that I was gonna love it just as much, and I did! The plot was beautifully executed, the characters are just so well written, AND we get some new but old characters !!! I just loved every second of this book and it just made me so happy to finish this series. 5/5 stars

Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen: This was one of the first memoirs that I've read, and for it being the first one this was actually pretty good. It was a pretty short read, and it was still interesting. Overall just a good story and it feels nice to read something that's not fiction in a while. I really loved reading about the main character's experiences in this book, I would rate it a 4/5 stars for a memoir.

Powerless by Lauren Roberts: OOOH, I loved this book sooo much!! Another great enemies to lovers!!! This book had Hunger Games and like Red Queen esq vibes to it but I was completely fine since I completely adore both of those series, the plot was so well written, the characters were also interesting and so were the side characters. The trope was also executed so well, and it made me so happy to see well-written enemies to lovers !! Can you tell I've been in an enemies to lovers trope vibe lately reading-wise?? Loved it, and would rate it a 4.5/5, and I'm excited for the second book !!

Glass Castle by Jeanette Walls: Another memoir!! This one was actually better than the first one I read for me. I felt like I enjoyed the storyline of this a lot more. This storyline was very interesting and it really changed my perspective about some things in general, also a reality check :). Overall, I really just loved this book and I finished it in two nights cuz I was just so invested!! 4.5/5 for my second memoir!

The Way I Am Now by Amber Smith: OMG THIS BOOK ACTUALLY MADE ME SO HAPPY!! Ifykyk, The Way I Used to Be is an absolute rollercoaster and made me an emotional wreck. But this sequel healed all those cracks that the first book made. I was so happy to see Eden finally get what she deserved and just her happy and actually living in the longest time...don't wanna spoil anything.. Overall this book just made me so happy and I finished it in a day cuz I just couldn't wait to see how it ended!! 5/5 cuz it holds a special place in my heart <3

One of Us is Back by Karen McManus: UM...ya ngl this book was not it.. Don't get me wrong, I loved the first two books like the plot and characters were amazing, and the mystery aspect was good too, and when I heard that a third book was being released, I was like YAY cuz I loved the series. But this book was just so underwhelming. It took me like 4 days to finish cuz I was dragging myself through the book almost. I just didn't really like the plot, there were some good twists but it was just meh. I feel like the series would have just been better without this book, but that's just my opinion. 🤷‍♀️ I would rate it a 2.5/5.

MY TBR FOR FEBRUARY !!!

The Hurricane Wars by Thea Guanzon: Ya this is still on my tbr.. prob has been for a solid three months, but I finally out a hold on it in my public library so yayyy. Still, Im very excited to read this book and I just can't wait!

Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros: Yall already know I was gonna put this on by Tbr after reading Fourth Wing 😭😭! I just have no words..I can't wait to get my hands on this stupid book, like I'm so excited!!! I just know I'm gonna love it based on my interaction with the first book and I'm also invested for the next 3 books after cuz apparently its a 5 book series..and might become a TV show!! But also idk if its even gonna pan out, cuz Ive been waiting for that Red Queen tv show for a fat minute now..

Fate Breaker by Victoria Aveyard: My literal queen has finally published the last book in her trilogy of Realm Breaker and damn am I excited!! I own all of her books so Im excited to finally add this one to my collection and also can we just take a minute for how stunning her covers always our..love the royalty of it. Im just really really excited for this book and I already know Im gonna love it!!

Anyways guys that's it for now, sorry this was a long one but I did wanna put a lot of stuff out for the months that I missed!! I swear I'm gonna try to stay consistent so hopefully, y'all see me later this week or early next week!! 💗💗

~Shriya :)

#the fourth wing #rebecca yarros #foul heart huntsman #chloe gong #victoria aveyard #realm breaker #karen mcmanus #the way i used to be #powerless #lauren roberts #thea guanzon #the hurricane wars

[quirrelli]

Quick and dirty Kiriko redesign

Main issues I tried to address:

The shilouette is pretty meh. It's not dire but at a glance/distance there is potential for confusion. So I tried to exaggerate notable features (hair, mask ears, hakama) and added a spear, like she has in some of the concept art. For one thing it looks cool and for another, it's been established through the Shimadas that these animal spirits are tied to a weapon and a spear fits in very neatly with a sword and bow.

The design is bland. (Which at least makes her fit in with the other OW2 default skins lmao). The first time I saw her I literally thought it was a D.Va skin. The idea, I would guess, was to merge traditional japanese clothing with modern day hip street fashion vibes and it just doesn't come together at all. Instead of enhancing them, all the aspects that should have visual impact are watered down. From her leggings to her face, there is no flavor; except in that trash garbage mask-visor nonsense. So I leaned into the traditional clothing, since leaning into the "hip young person" would just make her even less distinguishable from similar characters. I also tried to add some bits and bobs for flair (like the seals on her arms), just can't be bothered to really go into texture and detail atm.

Generic personality. This is more of a vibe thing than a character design thing but I want her to, at least at first glance, come across as a bit more cool and confident, maybe a little mysterious and just more interesting than the knock off Tracer/D.Va she turned out as. She can still be a bit of a goofball behind the mask but I feel her protector role demands that she can be at least a tiny bit intimidating.

That trash garbage mask-visor nonsense. My least favorite part by a goddamn mile. It just looks so fucking dumb and there's no way to make it cool; with its teeny kitten ears, dumbass white eyebrow triangles and perfectly flat bottom cut off. Again it's like mixing two things (naruto style ninja headband and kitsune mask) and ending up with the worst of both worlds. And you just know the reason she doesn't have a full or even half mask is because god forbid you can't see a female characters cute, utterly indistinguishable from the other cute 20-somethings, face. Fuck you, she gets a whole mask and it's badass.

Color. Her color palette has powerful "I'm 14 and this is my OC" energy. Actually, everything about her kinda has that, but the color palette especially. Now, I'm the first to admit that color isn't my strong suit either but even I can see some very obvious improvements. Like, why are her normal healing and her ult different colors? To me that's unnecessarily confused and looks bad, simply put. On top of that, they're yellow and cyan respectively, aka the most overused colors for glowy things ever. So I picked a yellowy orange bc it matches the fox motif and sets a nice contrast with the Shimadas' blue and green, just like the red in her outfit does. I incorporated some of that orange into her clothes as well, you know, for cohesion, and kept the green hair as a nice complementary to all the warm colors.

Feel free to make suggestions for improvements, might do a V2 eventually

#idk to me that already works much better and with some more finessing could be pretty awesome #kiriko is the first (and so far only) OW character I looked at and went “wow that's pretty fucking weak” #even the second worst design (Echo) is merely boring #my stuff #overwatch #ow2 #kiriko

[kyogre-blue]

OK, Wuwa chapter 1 is done.

It turns out the place I stopped last night was the very last scene of Act V, and Act VI is just the extended finale of chapter 1.

It was... a very mixed bag! If I had to describe it in a word, I would pick "clumsy."

The ideas they were going for are mostly fine, and their execution at least clearly shows what they were trying to do, but man. It gets aggressively Too Much at multiple points, the gameplay is so hand-holdy in parts that I honestly feel kind of confused as to what kind of audience testing led to this (are most people really this stupid??), and the details are, as always, painfully unpolished.

Speaking more specifically, I'll give an example. When defending the city, several NPCs show up to fight too. It's cool seeing them using their skill and ults, I like that! However, not only Verina, but even Yuanwu and Lianyang show up. We haven't even met Yuanwu before and he's, from all indications, just some dude who runs a gym. Every time he talks and then inexplicably shows up in montages of Rover thinking about everyone who is counting on him and Jiyan, it's just so silly. We don't know him! And Lianyang just looks so goofy with the liondancing in this extremely serious situation. I haven't even done his character quest yet, team. Be real, how much did the government give you for this character...

This is a case where less would have been more. Just leave it at Verina healing people, Taoqi getting introduced as leading the NPCs in battle, and Chixia as the face of people we actually know enough to care about.

And it's not the only example. There's stuff like how awkward it feels when everyone talks about Rover, Yangyang and even Baizhi with just first name and no other comment, like they're all very familiar with each other, which doesn't really make much sense. It feels very forced. Or stuff like Jiyan making you "pick" where the troops will be positioned during the operation, but there's only one correct answer anyway, so what was this even for? And just the general excessive amount of padding that isn't congruent with the urgent atmosphere.

(All of this is not helped by the poor EN voice direction.)

Which brings us to the gameplay. I won't comment on them giving us a full party of nothing but trial characters for the entire act, it isn't really a big deal either way. But the "platforming" was just... who the hell needed Jiyan to comment about every single use of the grapple? The grapple points freaking glow! There's nothing else to do anyway! Just explain it once and players can figure it out from there! It was so ridiculous.

And then there's the little details like the "Trial Resonator has left/joined the party" popping up over dramatic cutscenes. It's almost funny. Jiyan is leaving the party! Jiyan is joining the party! This is starting to look like a parody with the uuuuh gameplay and story integration here.

However, the two most unfortunate points were the minor gripes that ruined the very, very end for me. 1) Saved by an ugly mascot. 2) Stupid sounding storyteller cap off.

Not only does it look extremely silly to be shielded by a little mascot's butt with its bunny tail, but the mascot is pretty ugly. Why this thing...... who asked...... especially given the overall tone and vibe of Wuwa??

And then the storyteller.... god, I hate storytellers. They are so fucking awful, I do not understand the CN game obsession with them. Bruh, I don't need some dumb-sounding asshole to tell me the story, I'm playing an interactive modern medium so I can watch the story be acted out by the goddamn characters.

I was so mad I literally took out my headphones and did not perceive anything past the mascot. Which I also hated.

It was otherwise a passable if rather jank ending to the storyline, suitably dramatic and at least there was Jiyan, but those two last points....

Anyway, I'm mildly disappointed that we didn't beat the Threnobian (it just left) and nothing else interesting except the mascot was revealed. Jiyan was nice tho, and I'll play his character quest next, I guess.

#playing wuthering waves

[yurisorcerer]

"I had a dream. A strange dream about the sky."

So yeah, I started watching this today, because my buddy @joshhhhhhhhhhhhhhh is watching it, and I am easily influenced by outside forces I suppose.

This is Air, a 2005 Kyoto Animation production from just before their legendary run that began with The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. It's adapted from a KEY visual novel, and my first impression is that it is very visibly "VN-y" indeed.

The main feeling I get is one of overwhelming "summer energy." There are near constant cicada sounds in the backdrop, the skies are a clear crystal blue with huge, billowing white clouds which flip to creamy streaks of the Milky Way across an inky black at night. Everyone, especially our main character, is sweating all the time because it's so goddamn hot, and the whole thing takes place by the shore. The vibes are absolutely on-point.

In addition to this impeccable sense of place---a deliberate artistic vision---there is also a decidedly non-intentional sense of time. This show absolutely radiates 2005, most obviously from the character designs which are of a highly sexually dimorphic kind that was common in VNs and adjacent work at the time. The main guy is tall, lanky, and angular. Almost all of the women are comparatively short, round, and have the massive headlamp bug-eyes inextricably associated with the period.

The plot, such that it is, is simple but also rather odd. Essentially, our main character, Yukito, who we are given no backstory for at this point, simply arrives in town one day, nebulously "looking for" something, and attempting to earn money by plying his trade as a puppeteer---it is very much worth noting that he appears to control his puppets with no strings or other tricks---but has little success. When he meets an odd, clumsy girl named Kamio Misuzu, who trips a lot and says "gao!" when upset or frustrated, he ends up following her home, and improbably, the girl's drunkard mother drafts him as a live-in babysitter.

Some of this is probably a remnant of the show's origins as a VN---an eroge, at that, although this particular pipeline of H-game -> clean visual novel -> anime or manga adaptation was not rare back in the day---where a man randomly shoehorning himself into the lives of various women about town is the norm.

About the "gao" thing; Kamio's mother disapproves, and this dynamic can't help but remind me of Rosa's disapproval of her own daughter Maria's verbal tic from Umineko, itself a visual novel that later got a (particularly poorly-regarded in that case) anime adaptation. So far, the dynamic here seems far less fraught and abuse-laden, but it's an interesting parallel, and given that Umineko postdates Air, I wonder if it was an intentional reference. (Ryukishi07 surely would've been aware of Key at the time.)

The second girl our protagonist meets seems to style herself an alien, from a planet where everyone is "free." Freedom. Air. 'Free as a bird'? There's something here, especially when she rebuffs the idea later and makes fun of Yukito for believing her in the first place.

I cannot shake a strong feeling that this show is keeping its cards close to its chest. Given how crazy the visual novels of this period could get, I really have no idea what to expect. Although, to sell the show more on what it's doing *now* than what it might do *later*, the comedic aspects are very well done. It's a nice mix of slapstick and conversational comedy. Also, as mentioned, the show's atmosphere is just absolutely immaculate; you can practically taste the salt of the sea on the wind as you're watching this.

At the end of the episode, at around sunset, Kamio gives a little speech as she's standing, arms stretched out, with her head tilted toward the sky. I don't normally just include a bunch of screencaps in these little writeups because I like to keep them short, but what she says here just struck me as so…profoundly odd, strangely beautiful, a little reminiscent of my own experiences with mania and spiritual fervor, that I just kind of need to include it.

In a much more serious sense than usual; what DOES she mean by this? This is the most taken I've been with the first episode of an older anime in quite a while, and I really feel like I need to know more.

Sadly I probably shouldn't watch more right now, so I suppose I'll save my next batch of episodes for tomorrow or Wednesday....but gah, the temptation to just stay up until 6am and try to marathon this all at once is SO present.

#Air (2005) #yurisorcerer talks about media

[queenofbaws]

ah, and once more, it's wednesday my dudes!

a slightly different update from me this week - things have been slow in terms of words being put to paper lately, and this will probably be the case for a little while. i'm gonna be trying to get a chapter of something out in the near future (probably like wringing blood, but don't quote me on that), then ya gurl may or may not be taking a slightly more official break from the internet to deal with some stuff here at home ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

such is life. ANYWAY, for this reason, i'm offering a few snippets/sneak peeks of multiple projects this week, just to show y'all what's bubbling away on the backburner. if you're interested in seeing any of that, click the readmore! either way, hope you're all having wonderful weeks so far, and taking care of yourselves as best you can <3

like wringing blood from a stone

There were a million things he could say to that, maybe even a million and one. What he settled on, however, was probably the lesser of all those evils. “You kidnapped my counselors.” Travis’s whole face puckered at that, letting him know in no uncertain terms the lesser of those evils had still been pretty fucking evil, in fact. “What did you want me to do, Chris?! Huh? Huh?! You bit one of them! They both saw—” “Oh for Chrissake, quit fucking whispering, wouldya?” Obviously he’d been expecting something else—an actual fight, maybe—and so Chris took Travis’s surprised spluttering as an opportunity to dig his own heels in. “If you’re gonna bitch me out, at least do it with your big-kid voice.” A vein ticked furiously in Travis’s neck, making it look like something was itching to burst its way out of him. He narrowed his eyes to slits, then leaned in until the two of them were nearly nose to nose. He could smell the blood beginning to clot where Jack had split his eyebrow, the ointment he’d smeared over it before covering it with a bandage. “You and I both know,” he began again, still fucking whispering, “That anyone could be listening outside. I don’t—” Before he could finish that thought, Chris threw his arms up into the air, shouting at the very top of his own voice, “I DON’T CARE! I do not fucking care, Travis! I couldn’t care less if you paid me to! Know what?” He cupped his hands to his mouth then, tipping his head back as he did so, and, tapping even deeper into his (presumably very bruised) diaphragm, hollered, “I HOPE YOU’RE ALL LISTENING! I HOPE EVERYONE IN THE GODDAMN COUNTY CAN HEAR ME LOUD AND FUCKING CLEAR!” If Travis’s face went any redder, it probably would’ve started looking purple. It was Chris’s turn to narrow his eyes; instead of glowering like an asshole, though, he flashed him a grin, sarcastic and savage and sharp enough to nearly slice through his tongue. “Big-kid voices, Travvy. Why the hell not, right?”

of mummy men & bathtub soup

“My oh-so-charming brother is just running his oh-so-charming mouth,” Julia said sharply, calling the Smith brothers’ chit-chat to a screeching halt. “Here’s what I think actually happened: Conrad made up a story in his head, decided it was funny, and now he’s done so many mental gymnastics convincing himself it’s true that he believes it too.” Her head swiveled on her neck, only adding to her overall mean girl vibe. “That’s something Connie likes to do, you see, mix up details from stupid made-up bullshit and real life, then decide it’s all real.” Oh. Oh! If she thought he was gonna be easy pickings just because he’d brought a date along tonight, she had another thing coming! Hell, she hadn’t been paying attention to his whole deal! Jules was the one who got embarrassed by this shit when other people were watching—Conrad reveled in it. So he did the one thing he knew would get her goat (the only move a self-respecting sibling could take in a situation such as this): He brought up the bathtub. “If this is about human soup guy, you’re actually calling Dad a liar and not me, sooo…nice try, but my feelings remain totally unhurt.” Then, he waited for what he knew would come next. He held Julia’s gaze. He took a drink. It was Daniel, God bless him, who finally bit. “…human…soup…guy?”

the tale(s) of the champion

“All right. If you are so…determined to have me discuss Hawke, then fine. I will discuss Hawke.” He leaned forward over his desk, a gesture, she thought, meant less to evoke authority than to simply steady himself as he braced against the unpleasant tide of memory. His eyes found hers for only a moment, but that moment was all it took for her to understand perhaps ‘unpleasant’ was too delicate a word to describe a return to Kirkwall. ‘Agonizing,’ maybe. ‘Wretched.’ “Cassandra and I are of a mind on one thing, at the very least—Varric is a liar. However. I would be remiss if I didn’t draw your attention to the one thing, the only thing, I’ve heard him say about our shared time in Kirkwall that at least approaches the truth.” She couldn’t help but notice that Cullen spoke the city’s name in much the same way Hawke had spoken Elthina’s: as though it tasted bitter on his tongue. “Namely, if, for whatever reason, you wanted to find Hawke,” he continued, speaking with a terrible evenness that smacked of everything but calm, “All you had to do was follow the blood. “What blood? Whose blood? Some might argue that since Hawke killed so often, so indiscriminately, that it wouldn’t matter—couldn’t matter—which blood trail you picked. Oh, I’ve heard the jokes. I’ve heard them all. How it must’ve sometimes seemed Kirkwall was populated solely by nameless, faceless throngs of gangs and ruffians that she cut through at nightfall, slashing and hacking her way towards the betterment of the city. How Varric had to keep a running tally of all the vendettas held against her, lest she forget which seedy element might be coming after her next for putting an end to their leader. Hilarious. Truly.” Had Cullen not been wearing his gloves, the Inquisitor had the singular sense she’d be watching his knuckles turn white as bone; the way he’d taken to gripping the edges of his desk, she was a bit shocked that nothing had given way. Yet.

A MYSTERY CREEPS PROJECT OOOOOOOOOOH!!!

"Which is why, boys and ghouls, we’re gonna be packing our bags and taking a roadtrip this weekend.” Which was…also what Ashley was afraid he was going to say. Her shoulders slumped, and she felt Chris turn to her as he noticed, but Josh kept going, as he was wont to do. “Turns out ‘ghost shit’ was a gross understatement. You lovely ladies aren’t going to believe what a little snooping dug up about this place…” “It’s pretty messed up,” Chris nodded. “But pretty messed up in a way that I gotta admit sounds like it’s gonna make a juicy episode or two.” “Or five. So c’mon, hop to. We got a business dinner to catch—on me, obvs—and details to hammer out. You’re not ready for the shit that went down over there. Hope you’re ready to start trending in the true-crime feeds though, because I know I am!” Dropping the book back on the table, Josh hopped to his feet and playfully tweaked Sam’s ear before starting back for the microfiche where he’d left all his stuff. “Hey Edgar,” he said as he passed him by, “level with me here. Have you been a ghost this whole time? Is that why you know all this crap? When we get in the elevator and leave this floor, do you just poof off into the ether and cease existing until we come back?” In a voice so flat, so disaffected, so wistful, that Ashley very nearly forgot about the pang of fear that had seized her at the sight of those five Death cards staring her straight in the face, Edgar sighed, “Don’t I wish.”

#queenie rambles #queenie writes supermassive #queenie writes dragon age

[hrodvitnon]

This theorized ritual could be very similar to what happens in the film- but maybe with Tiamat needing to act as a conduit for the energy (she connects to her lair and channels the stored Solar Energy into Goji- thus why she ends up injured. Gojirans are more equipped to handle the energy then the Sea Serpents).

This- actually would explain a helluva lot now that I'm thinking about it. In the movie, Tiamat's lair is described to sit directly where the coronal ejections most often strike Earth- so it's been building up solar energy for centuries, and is the second largest deposit of Solar Energy on the planet (minus the literal core of the Planet). I headcanon that Zohar is Solar Energy mixed with some kind of Life-Force intrinsic to Earth (think: Lifestream)- or the force that usually powers Godzilla. This explains why he was sucking up radiation before heading up North- he needed to overload himself with the Earth's radiation so he could get pumped full of Solar Radiation by Tiamat- causing a Fusion Reaction that creates Zohar. This would actually go to explain that 'Consumed a Star' mantra we've heard about Godzilla so much. Except in Abraxas, it would apply to Ozzy because he 'ate the star' around the time the line was written.

Zerm said something too I really vibe with. The ritual hasn't been done in so long because Goji and Tiamat both suspect it's what led to Ozzy going missing (the insane spike of Zohar would alert forces beyond the Solar System, causing them to investigate and see what's up)- but fearing what's coming from the Hollow Earth- they have no choice but to risk it. Plus, the lair needs to build energy after each ritual, so that's another reason why it hasn't been done in so long.

Speaking on Tia's lair- this place may actually have much greater meaning as another temple or sacred place of sorts. Kinda like the ancestral home of the Sea Serpents. Perhaps it's Tiamats' species duty to keep watch and defend this place from Titans and humans until the next King needs it's power. It would also be sorta like a reserve of Solar Energy instead of the actual stock, which is in the Hollow Earth, only to be cracked open and used in emergency times.

Also- neat detail I'm just now thinking about. Coronal Ejections are the causes of Northern Lights. Looking at how Goji's new Atomic Breath looks (which... I think we may be able to now graduate into calling it a Coronal Blast, it's the same equipment that Ozzy has now), you can almost compare the colors to Northern Lights themselves.

On a character level- this could also be a big moment for Tiamat, who has to fulfill her peoples' duty and destiny, while at the same time recognizing it could lead to catastrophe down the road like it did last time (losing Ozzy was already the worst thing that's ever happened to her- even someone like her who pretends not to care can't fathom losing Goji in the same way, she's come to love him too in her own sorta standoffish way). Huge moment for Godzilla too- who's taking the final step towards becoming the King his brother once was, inheriting the power he once wielded to seal Skar and the apes away the first time. With this- he becomes primed to become the next King of Kings; all he has to do is finish the war once and for all and tie up the final loose end that not even his brother got to: Shimo.

Interesting, plenty of good stuff for an AbraxasVerse GxK! I'm also a fan of the Godzilla going so powerful it becomes a beacon for Big Bad Beasties from beyond the stars... the logical consequence of reaching a certain power threshold.

(I would say more but just got off work and the brain is already locking into Finish This Goddamn Fic Mode, apologies!)

#tosho89 #frostbite814 #abraxasverse

[fnaffersblog]

Spoilers for the newest Sun and Moon Show episode "Sun and Moon's NEW ENEMY in VRCHAT" below

Beware, word soup below the read more. I'm just throwing out thoughts willy nilly.

The sarcastic laughing is SO goddamn funny. I'm crying. I love the AI's. They are such funny characters to me.

I would love to see just, like, a funny side episode where Moon's two AI's meet up with Monty's AI on his space craft. Interactions between the three of them, especially if Moon, Sun and Monty are there. I think that has the mixings to be a funny episode.

I don't know how to describe why I like the way the AI talks to Moon now. Pre-mind wipe it was so much more respectful towards Moon and now it treats him with the same level of what feels like contempt to me as it treats Sun. I like the way their interactions have changed, I wish I could articulate why. (Also the concern that pops into it's voice when Moon sets the portal or whatever? Yus.)

"The Entity" jumping out of the ball pit caught me off guard. It was really cool to see, but it was also so unsettling. It felt like a lot of movement for VR Chat, watching them just vault over the thing with ease. Super cool.

I LOVE this new character. This "Entity". Heavy Nobe vibes, a character of Invisible_Davis's whom I also like a lot, I'm SO excited to see where they take them. They're all sing-songy and cheerful but also threatening. Goofy but capable. Good shit. The LAUGHING. Genuinely making me nervous.

Also, another thing I noticed. Pre-Wipe, Moon was always a very threatening character to me, he had a sort of 'this is a villainous character on the side of the good guys' vibe to me and now his threats against the Entity just didn't hold up here. For some reason his 'negotiating' which he's done before didn't hold as much weight while I was watching it. Super interesting for me to realize I've had this perception change of the character.

Everything post 9:25 before the return to the present in the video was great. Moon getting sucker punched and then screaming for the computer to take the Entity down. The AI immediately responding. The Entity's joy at having sucker punched Moon. The Entity dodging fucking lasers as well as their whole unconcerned reaction to being shot at. Moon's reaction to hearing the Entity had left the daycare already. "It's just you... and Sun in there." Moon getting scratched, physical damage. That entire section was fantastic.

The entire conversation about what they should call the Entity is really funny.

What happened to Moon's mic at the beginning of the episode? He went "Spiiiiiiinnnnneeeeeerrrrrrrr̷r̶r̷" It was really funny.

Sun launching the barrel into the far cosmos a la animation error style had me crying. Fuck me that was hilarious.

The AI bashing Marvel

Tiny detail I really liked, the 'ha' being cut off mid articulation after Moon told the AI off

Based Dragon Ball opinion from Moon

I appreciate they got distracted talking about Dragon Ball being mid that was funny as hell

"Welp you heard it here first! My Dad said no!"

"We could play hide and seek." "Stab and seek? I like that idea." "That's not what I said."

"Like stab and go seek." "But like... rewind."

" I don't have lips I don't know how I'm doin that noise."

"Three years. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha. That was a joke."

"Give me a legitimate answer you sarcastic [REDACTED]."

It occurs to me that when Moon said "C'mon you're a gamer Sun I believe in you!" He meant Sun and not son, but I heard son the first time which is infinitely more funny.

"GUNS."

...

"Guns."

I love this show so fuckin much. Absolute banger of an episode all the way through.

#fafferchat #fafferlivereacts #sams #sams spoilers #tsams #tsams spoilers #sun and moon show #have i #have i ever mentioned #that i like this show #have i done that yet? #also have i ever mentioned #that voice actors are fuckin cool? #cause they're fucking cool

[triflesandparsnips]

Not an ask, but I made your orange blossom lip balm! While I was at it, I made the face pomatum too. The lip balm seems great, although I couldn't get it to colour at all and it smells more like coconut than anything else. Oh well. The pomatum is, uhm... trickier. It's way more waxy so harder to apply, I can't imagine using it on my face. But I did my elbows and it seemed fine for that. Anyway, thank you for the happy little piratey lunacy!

YESSSSS

So the lip balm:

With regard to color, the only experiment I really tried with that was adding colored mica, and I only did it the once. I've never tried alkanet (because Potential Liver Problems), and while I've considered trying tumeric or similar I've largely shrugged and backburnered that aspect for now. However, you can see a bit in this photo the color differences between the first batch (with the mica) and subsequent:

Figure 1. The first three versions of the lip balm. Bottom left (v.1.1) has the mica, and is slightly more orange-ish than the other two.

With regard to the coconut smell, I've found that I have to be very generous with the orange-blossom water at several stages of cooking in order to keep it present as a scent. While my initial recipe calls for only two "spoonfuls" (which I decided meant a soup spoon of some kind), as of version 3.0, I now specifically use 2+ tablespoons (2 in the original mix, enough extra for the arrowroot, and then... idk, a bit more to Vibe as needed, so it really comes out to more like 3 Tbs). I have notes for 3.1 to up the count to 4-5 Tbs, though we'll see what that does to the consistency.

I also pretty much always make two variants these days: one with coconut oil, and one with sweet almond oil (as described in the original French recipe!). So that might be a fun avenue to try in future.

ON TO THE FACE POMATUM:

I am deeply interested in what your consistency ended up being -- version 1.0 (which I have completed THIS VERY EVENING, and for which I must write up proper notes, because GOSH) is what I'd call a Ye Olde Cold Cream rather than a more modern facial lotion (which tend to be moisturizing without being heavy, as opposed to this, which is easy to use, deeeeefinitely moisturizing, but, uh, will definitely get that moisturizing goodness on anything it touches, goddamn).

Anyway, mine came out buttery af, and seems to still be so, but somewhere between removing it from the water and adding the borax, the fucker got itty bitty granules in it-- just enough to be annoying. Bah. Further research is required.

Figure 2. A smooth(ish) operator pomatum; aka, a sneak peek into later apothecary revelations.

ANYWAY. Thank you @ivoryfeathers for joining in the gay pirate mad scientist experimental fun!

#our flag means death #yes #Y E S #more people having more fun with #experimental archaeology #a pomatum for the lips #aka #stede bonnet's lip balm #the pearl pomatum #(or what WILL be the pearl pomatum anyway) #stede bonnet's theoretical self care extravagances #from #stede bonnet's theoretical library #trifles the amateur history enthusiast strikes again #funky little alchemist with funky little interests #btw if we took out the borax and fixed the granule issue would I call THIS the 'seaman's friend' from that one fic I wrote? #POSSIBLY YES #get yer pirate lube RIGHT HERE FOLKS #WOO

[choices-binglebonkus]

I haven't caught up with TPA since like late December, but I've been rereading your post about 10 Rights and Wrongs with TPA and I wanna add my thoughts on it. I'll mainly only comment on stuff that I have something to say about. These may be subject to change when I complete the book.

Soundtrack

Agreed with you, it's absolutely brilliant. It has a James Bond vibe that I like, and even ignoring that it's just really well-composed. I love the adventurous intro theme especially, as well as the steamy scene track– I will happily listen to those on repeat and never get tired.

Outfits

Agreed on that too, I didn't vibe with majority of the f!MC outfits besides the default ones but they still did do a good job making them look good for the most part.

I definitely hate the fem MC having a crop top as the cold outfit. I wouldn't mind it as much if they did the same with m!MC; it'd still be impractical, but like, either give both of them crop tops or neither of them crop tops. Enough with the "must be sexy because woman" outfits, goddammit.

Speaking of shitty outfit gendering, I also hate that m!MC's "sexy underwear" equivalent to fem MC's lingerie is a goddamn robe and boxers. The robe is admittedly nice and has a "luxurious evening" vibe that I like, but come the fuck on, stop playing it safe and basic with the m!MC and m!LI outfits all the damn time.

Vivian

I'm very mixed on her. On her own, I quite enjoy her as a character. She's fun, she's got some good lines, and she doesn't really come off as obnoxious.

But in the story, she just feels weirdly out-of-place in it? Perhaps because I've associated TPA as being the Choices' edition of a James Bond adventure, so it does feel unusual to have one of the main characters be a quirky nerd type. But hey, that does make TPA a little more unique.

But while I haven't caught up, I know others said that missions and tasks are way too easy with her being present, hence the lack of stakes.

Hookups

I didn't play any actual dirty-30 hookup scenes, but I did enjoy the buildup scenes to them and I'm sad we haven't gotten other hookup opportunities. Especially since I played as wlm, where the dynamics were very different from how PB usually writes their average wlm romance. I am forever here for male Lou swooning over f!MC being heroic and male Alexis's femme-fatale-esque persona. I found them way more interesting than the majority of MC and Agent Grey's dynamic. Speaking of which...

LI

One thing that is nice about the romance is that MC is the one who is more experienced in GAIA while Agent Grey is the new member. Honestly it's very refreshing (especially as wlm) considering how often PB's romance involves MC being the newbie and LI being the boss/teacher/celebrity/etc.

But character wise? Agent Grey doesn't work as an LI. Or at least not a main/single LI. It's It feels like they're only the LI by virtue of being MC's work partner. I'd rather Agent Grey have just been... still our work partner, but also as a casual hookup option like Alexis and Lou rather than our romance interest.

Possibly controversial opinion, I think a book that is just "no romance, only casual hookups" would be something unique for PB to write (granted the hookups don't take over the entire story). PB needs a break from writing romance and it shows.

GOC/Pronouns

A lot of people said this one "actually feels like it was written with male MC in mind for once". I have a lot of issues with that statement due to the fact a lot of the fandom's takes on what counts as "female coding" can be very dubious.

Regardless, even if this was written with mlw in mind, I've still been finding it very enjoyable and made sense (dare I say better and more unique) in a wlm route.

Any actual gender coding errors I've seen or heard about are very minimal. Though I will say that it made me want to sob to see male Agent Grey's swimsuit described as a "swimsuit that hugs his hips" despite his swimsuit in question being boring swimtrunks and a basic-AF open beach shirt rather than, yknow, a swimsuit that actually hugs his hips.

And that's about all I've got for now.

Thanks for your insights anon!

#this was fun to read #I love when people dissect books and their aspects #asks #the phantom agent