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tizeline · 18 days

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Asking some writers/artists I follow:

Is there anything in your fic/comic that you as the author know about, but won't end up in the actual story?

So I have a rather uh disorganized way of telling the story of the TSAU, I jump back and forth in the timeline quite a bit depending on what part of the story I wanna tell. Overall I improvise quite a bit, and because of that I can't be 100% sure what will be depicted in the story and what wont. But I might as well share some little tidbits of lore that are probably not gonna be mentioned in the main story (though they still might who knows lol)

So uh. April and Kendra are exes. Kinda. They were pretty close friends when they were younger and decided to become a couple when they were like 9 or something. This lasted for a grand total of.... 2 days, maybe? Then they had a huge fight about something silly like, I dunno, Kendra hacked April's tamagotchi as a prank and she got mad so they broke up and they've had major beef ever since.

Draxum made Mikey wear some type of artifact or gear that supressed his mystic powers as a kid for his own safety. Mikey started showing an incredible talent for the mystic arts at a very young age. Draxum was excited about this for all of 5 seconds before realizing that Mikey is a VERY small child with NO impulse control and he's definetily gonna turn himself and the rest of the family into glitter unless Draxum finds a way prevent that from happening until Mikey has the chance to develop an understanding of consequences. (He's learned to control his powers well enough to not need them by the time of the main-story, so he no longer wears the supressors)

Donnie's whole villain-act he puts on is partially a coping mechanism. He grew up never knowing anyone like himself (unless you count Splinter, I suppose) so the only times he saw himself represented in anything was characters in comics and shows and such. There were plenty of anthropomorphic reptile characters in the media he consumed, and Donnie clunged to anyone or anything that he could at least somewhat relate to. Problem is, a lot of these anthro reptiles were like.... y'know... villains. It's pretty common for super heroes and stuff to fight evil mutant reptile creatures, and even stories with only anthro characters reptiles tend to be charactarized as more villainous. Granted, turtles specifically usually don't get this treatment, but it still had quite an effect on Donnie as a little kid that most characters similar to him would be viewed as evil, which caused him to internalize that mindset. So turtle tot Donnie basically went like "Yes! This is what I am! A villain in someone else's story! It all makes sense now! This is a healthy mindset to have!" and just kinda embraced the role that human society had given to him because he didn't really know how else to deal. (Things changed after meeting April and he found out that there might actually be humans out there who might treat him like a person and not just a freak of nature! He still plays into the villain-persona, partially for fun and partially as a coping thing, but he doesn't have nearly as a negative view of himself now as he did as a tot)

And last, but certainly not least................ Draxum owns a Lou Jitsu body pillow (PURELY for research-purposes, NO other reason!)

#Tiz Sep AU #tizel talk #rottmnt #tmnt #rottmnt au

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doomsday-dj · 14 days

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Hello! So this is kind of a heavy ask and I totally understand if you don’t feel like replying, but I just thought I’d reach out on the off chance. I’ve been curious about Rizzles for a while, just never getting around to watching, and I somehow ended up reading fic before I actually have lol and I LOVE your fic sm in particular, thank you for that. Unfortunately I did also however come across some …. Less great facts about Angie…. I went into a spiral and did find her saying she doesn’t consider herself part of that party anymore and pretty sure she supported differently most recently (thank god). But I still can’t shake the horrible knowledge of what came before, it’s making me insane, and is really putting me off starting the show which I was SO excited about. I just wondered if you had any words of solace about this? We should let people grow and change right? That’s how the world gets better? Anyway, sorry for all this 😅 I hope it hasn’t brought you down and again no worries if you want to ignore this ❤️

Not a heavy ask at all, I totally get it.

Before we dive in, thanks for letting me know you love my fics. :) Now, I should preface this all by saying that I have plenty of problematic faves. There's not a band in the world that I've listened to more than The Smiths, and Morrissey is just the fuckin wooooooorst. So I obviously am capable of looking beyond someone's unsavory qualities to enjoy art they've helped make.

I'm aging myself here, but I was familiar with Angie Harmon's character on Law & Order well before Rizzoli & Isles. If you never saw it, Abbie Carmichael was the, like, token conservative character to contrast with all the liberal New Yorkers. She was from Texas, anti-abortion, pro-gun, pro-death penalty. She sucked, I hated her, and so I went into Rizzoli & Isles with an Anti-Harmon bias. Were it not for the fact that Sasha Alexander is such a fucking smoke show I don't think I ever would have watched. And then I got hooked.

It does sound like she's changed her mind about some things, and good for her I guess, and if that makes you feel better about watching the show then hold on to it! If it's not enough for you to enjoy the show, that's okay too. We all have our dealbreakers, myself included. But like she can be a bad person and you can like the show, if you want to.

Here's how I see it: Angie Harmon, girly girl Republican, was told by the producers to play Jane as a rough and tumble tomboy and she overshot it by SO MUCH that she accidentally created a lesbian icon and it really resonated with a lot of us and that's okay! She played against type and inexplicably crushed it. She made the most lesbian possible choice nearly every time. It makes me crazy every time I watch it. Abbie Carmichael was NOT hot. Not even a little bit hot. But Jane Rizzoli is hot.

Further to that, I am personally doing god's work by making that accidental lesbian icon have lots of fictional sex with women (well, mostly woman). Angie Harmon complained out loud that she was always "the man" in the fan fiction? Too bad, girl, I'm going to have you laying pipe in internet stories EIGHT YEARS after your stupid show ended and people are gonna eat it up.

But I realize your stated problem isn't with reading fan fiction, it's with watching the show, so listen. She's hot in it, Sasha Alexander is hot in it, it's a fun, dumb little show. She's playing a cop, so you should at least hate her a little bit anyway. Give the show a try and don't make yourself feel guilty if you enjoy it. And if you can't get over her politics at the time, don't be too hard on yourself for that either. At least there's fan fiction. :)

#rizzoli and isles #rizzles #ask doomsday #Jane Rizzoli fucks #Angie Harmon sucks

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animalinvestigator · 4 months

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hey! i havent had tumblr for a while but ive been thinking about cathys eldest sister who wants to run away when she turns 18. is she equipped at all to deal with the outside world? all of the kids seem pretty isolated. ty!

hello anonymous -- first of all let me just say, i am really touched that you remembered my story, and even a pretty minor character in it, and remained so interested that you sent this ask even after being away. really it means a lot more to me than i could ever articulate, i was so stunned and happy that you would. i appreciate it a lot. i really hope someday i can make the story real so that you'll be able to have all these answers without tumblr asks, LOL.

which made me think about -- how mysterious do i want to be to make sure everything still stays fresh if i ever do write it , lol. i thought for a bit about this, and i think i can still say plenty of things without giving away any plot beats or information i havent already shared. espescially about the character youre inquiring on ! so: about bridget.

even though bridget is a side character whose arc plays out largely incidentally in the background of the story, she's definitely the supporting cast member i've thought about most, because she shares a lot in common with catherine, but her motivation to escape is from a completely different perspective, and her approach is entirely different as well because of that.... i'm not sure how much i've talked about catherine's family's history, but they haven't always lived where they live, and they haven't always been as isolated as they are ; bridget is one of the few kids in the family who is old enough to remember a time when she was marginally less secluded from the world, where she was permitted to have relationships among a slightly broader community, instead of having no one and nothing outside of the nuclear family. this, combined with the amount of time she's spent living the way that she does, and the increased responsibility /mistreatment she incurred by being born first, leads her to a feeling that is shared between only her and cathy among her siblings, that something is deeply, implacably wrong with the only world she's ever known, and an abstract need to "run away" as a result.

UNLIKE cathy, bridget has the perspective to know that there does exist a world outside(though she's never been part of it) that she can run away to. because of this, and due to the repertoire she has built up over the years by adequately obeying her parents and avoiding their scrutiny, and her general grew-up-too-fast big sister maturity, she has the increased freedom and general skills she needs to actually enact an escape plan . to get to the meat of your question, though, that definitely does not translate exactly to being able to survive well and easily when she leaves. basically the only thing bridget has ever been is a homemaker, essentially; her days are commanded by the needs of her siblings and the demands of her parents, and there's little room for developing any sense of agency outside of her role as fill-in mother to the younger children in the family. i can't imagine there's anything she even wants to do when she gets out -- she wouldn't have any idea how to want things in the first place -- she has been actively discouraged from learning administrative adult tasks even as mundane as shopping for herself or driving a car out of a desire to keep her subserviant, and she has no safe grown-ups in her life to teach her these skills. she has no education outside of her family's """"homeschooling"""", and when she leaves, she will have no access to her legal paperwork, and no funds or resources whatsoever. which is all to say: bridget knows how to take care of herself and take care of her siblings and take care of her household, but she doesn't know how to be a human being, and she has none of the prerequesites that society would expect from her. even as the /least/ isolated member of the household, she's been completely cut off from any ability to develop as a person, form external relationships, and live without relying on her parents, because that's how catherine's parents maintain their sense of control.

so, the long and short of it is this: the reason that catherine's family is the way it is (and ESPESCIALLY in the case of bridget, whose obedience they rely upon to keep the household running smoothly) is that catherine's parents want to raise adult children, who are simultaneously competent enough to personally benefit the parents in keeping up appearances and in putting in less work themselves, and also so completley reliant on them ideologically, financially, and emotionally that they have no hope of surviving in the outside world. thta's the situation bridget is in when she decides to escape.

that being said, i think she's alright... much like cathy, i try to keep my own ideas for "what happens to this character" private, because i would really like to leave it at "there's no right answer". the main emotion i'm writing this story from is a feeling of lack of closure -- a story where nothing good happens, everyone is worse off at the end, and the main character is left all alone with her memories, wondering for the rest of her life if any of it even happened, not knowing if anything turned out okay, and having to carve out a place to live in that painful ambiguity... that being said, my hope for my own characters is that they'll have a happy ending in the audience's head.. and i feel like i can strongly picture bridget living in a big city somewhere very far away long after catherine's story ends, coming home after work to a tiny , mostly empty apartment, her own space, and thinking for the first time that she can finally breathe.

thank you so much again for your inquiry <3

#ocs #<33 :3 #hope its not too wordy

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wigglebox · 2 years

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Let’s talk Mary’s costuming in The Winchesters’ trailer!

One of the first things I saw pop up specifically was about how Mary looked in this, 1972, in comparison to her 1973 counterpart in SPN prime.

Neither one is out of place, but their styles do seem pretty different. I’m not going to get into why they decided to style her like this as opposed to in SPN prime, but I will say that Mary never seemed to have her own “style.” She’s had vaguely girly things that’s hit trends in the various times we’ve seen her but she’s never felt like she’s had her own “style.” The most we’ve seen her with a style is after she comes back to life and we see her for three seasons in outfits that more or less mimick Dean and Sam. Jacket, over shirt, under shirt, simple hair, minimal make up.

But even then, her style felt more like the boys’ style, and not her own.

Which is why I was so excited to see her costuming in the prequel’s trailer. It felt like they were trying to finally establish her style to us. And with visual storytelling, how you stylize your character just sets the tone and vibe and gives us subtle or not-so-subtle hints at who they are as a character.

When looking at the line up up there ^ I see someone who’s vaguely girly, though the 1980 Mary in Asa Fox -- girl your hair. Help. Who did this to you.

But, 1980 flashback Mary in Asa Fox matched 2019 Mary more in my opinion of someone who doesn’t really care about her appearance and is just wearing someting to wear something. And that’s how I feel 1972 Mary’s styling looks like.

At least in the trailer. Idk what else they’re gonna have her wear.

From her hair, her jacket, the pin buttons, and the necklaces – some people were confused as to why she looks like she walked out of 1997 than 1972, but to me she’s still 1970s (especially because all aspects of 70s fashion from 1970 to 79 have been revisted in subsequent decades of fashion up to this day).

Her look is just not conventional, typical, generalized 1970s. To me they personalized her more to tell us her story.

Note, I’m not a certified fashion historian, but I do like fashion from the ‘60s and ‘70s a lot lol. I may get some things wrong, but this is just what I’m thinking. I know there are fans of this show who likely were even walking and talking at this time and may disagree with what i gotta say but whatever I’m gonna go for it anyway lol.

Also a reminder: this is The CW, not some period drama on HBO Max or anything.

Despite not having expertise in this area, just going off of the numerous vintage fashion video’s I’ve watched on Youtube, there are some things i personally always keep in mind when it comes to studying fashion trends.

Trends do not exist purely within the boundaries of a decade. The early 70s take with it some late-60s fashion trends, particularly the hippie/boho stuff but other things as well like jewelry and some hairstyles. Every decade bled into each other, and with the rise of fast fashion, trends can change even easier. Now, in 2022, you can’t really even pin down a trend because things just move too fast.

Trends didn’t often quickly permeate more isolated, conservative, or poorer areas of the country. The population of Lawrence in 2020 is estimated at just over 97,000. You can imagine it’s smaller for the early ‘70s. But these places didn’t often have people who played into fashion trends be it too expensive, extravagant, or just not having the resources to buy and invest in trends that would flip in a few years anyway.

Let’s start with Prequel-Mary’s hair.

Some said it looked too ‘90s or just not 1970s at all. But it is! Long, straight, sometimes messy-looking hair was indeed a trend for women in this time. It may conjure images of hippies for many, but it was also on other women. For me, Mary not having curls means to me that taking the time to curl and stylize her hair, and going in for trendy haircuts, wasn’t her priority. There are plenty of images, spanning multiple countries, of women at this time not doing anything with their hair, leaving it more natural and not having blowouts or curls. Also, since Carlos evoked the name of Janis Joplin, Mary’s hair also reminded me of her.

Onto Prequel-Mary’s necklaces.

Another thing that made people say she reminded people of the ‘90s were her chokers, but chokers are hardly a ‘90s thing. Indeed if you look closer at her necklaces [which is harder to do in non-HD lol] you’ll see they seem to be made of wooden or shaped shell beads, which was common at the time and a hold-over from the late ‘60s. They aren’t out of the ordinary at all, especially later in the trailer when we see her sporting one with some kind of pendant on it but still with what looks like natural-material beading.

Prequel-Mary’s leather jacket?

This was a little harder for me because the leather jacket combined with the vintage pin buttons felt very punk when the punk fashion movement is usually hard marked at 1974 and beyond. The prequel takes place two years before that, obviously. But, women wearing fitted leather jackets weren’t uncommon, but usually signaled that she was a “bad girl.” To me, just with the quality of the trailer, it indeed looks like a motorcycle jacket or just something simlar. Women in leather jackets became more popular with the rise of the Mod fashion movement in the 1960s.

It’s not a current fashion trend for someone of her age to wear that i think in 1972, but I imagine the costumer designers had their reasoning. Between the hair, and the jacket with the pins, they are establishing Mary as someone who isn’t following typical young women trends and societal expections. Basically, she’s living outside the “norm.” She doesn’t have time to look “cute” or fashionable. Who knows, maybe the jacket has some personal meaning to her.

I’m unsure if this is also influenced by her music taste lol. We don’t know enough about this Mary yet. Though, I do want to know what her pin buttons are really realyl bad lol.

Prequel-Mary’s t-shirt/under shirts.

This isn’t really something anyone complained about, and it’s because there’s nothing to complain. Young women wearing t-shirts and jeans were common throughout the 70s.

This tank top:

This is 1973 but:

The tanktop isn’t out of place at all. There are multiple variations of different kinds of tanktops and a scoop neck tanktop wouldn’t be out of place I think in 1972.

Prequel-Mary’s make up

I’m not going to get too into makeup because it’s harder when you don’t have actual fashion historians doing your costuming and make-up – idk if this show does but again it’s The CW, not a high budget period film. But also, being on TV, especially if they’re going to be shooting this with specialized lenses and the like... just in general, you need more make up I think on an actor.

However if we go off that ^ image above we can make out a peachy kind of blush, pinker lipstick but not overdone, thicker eyebrows, and just some eyeliner with mascara [maybe a little shadow but it’s not intense imo].

Given her jacket, her hair, and her apparent t-shirt and tanktop thing going on, I’m willing to bet she also seems to be the kind of person to put the least amount of time into her makeup. Obviously not every woman can be painted with the same brush -- we all decide on our personal style and if we want to care about trends and all of that, and if we want to follow societal norms, but a trend that followed into the 70s, also due to the women’s liberation movement, was a more natural look.

Compare this Covergirl ad from 1972 to Mary’s look:

It’s not too far off imo. Her lipstick is a little pinker but I don’t think it’s like, out of place.

Mary’s eyebrows I think are what threw a lot of people off because they are darker and thicker. If you look at fashion magazines at the time you’ll see a lot of pencil-thin eyebrows for the most “trendy” but her thicker eyebrows aren’t out of place.

To me (as someone with thicker eyebrows lol) it’s going in theme with her minimal make-up, little hair styling, and shunning of young women’s fashion trends at the time. She doesn’t have time or the need to go to a hair salon, get her hair layered and permed or put in those hot rollers. She doesn’t have time to go and get her eyebrows waxed or spend time in front of the mirror to do it herself.

She feels androgynous in a sense. A little more masculine than our 1973 Mary who wore embroidered cowgirl shirts and sported shorter, more styled hair.

I’m unsure if they’ll change Mary’s appearance once they hit 1973 in the show. I don’t even know when they want to hit 1973 in the show.

If anything, what i’m gathering from little comments from jackles he’s made regarding this show, it sounds like it won’t be told in a way we’re expecting so who knows what’s going to happen tbh.

But regardless, I love this Mary’s styling. I can’t wait to see what else they put her in!

#long post #spnwin #if anyone has any other thoughts pls jump in #i'm not an expert #just sharing observations #i also wanna just do everyone else lol

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tohisprettyc00l · 7 months

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Hello! I’m here for a toh oc matchup! I’m glad that ur open to writing them bcs I didn’t know if you’d be ok with any of that cuz I’m sure u have plenty of matchup requests lol

Ok so I can’t send pictures to u for some reason so I’m gonna do my best to describe my oc :’)

Oc’s name: Kai Maeverick Riverten

Species: Human

Tracks they’re in at hexide: Oracle and bard

Gender: Non-binary

Sexuality: Bisexual

Palisman: Female Cardinal

Age: 15

Likes: Puzzles, anime, video games, nature, music, daydreaming, riddles, escape rooms, magic, fantasy, sci-fi, cats, dogs, animals in general, cryptids, exploring abandoned buildings, collecting weird/antique objects, stuffed animals, zombie movies, Disney movies, space, playing the guitar, Gravity Falls, Amphibia, bad jokes, puns, sarcasm, shiny things, creepy stories, conspiracy theories, listening to missing person podcasts, true crime cases, Scooby Doo, Ghostbusters.

Kai has short black hair with a side cut with hair that was swept to the left, pale skin, dark purple eyebags, blue and hazel heterochromia, a sharp (ish?) jawline, a thin face with the slightest hint of cheek bones, and a round nose with a slight dent in it because of their square blue glasses that had a few tiny cracks in the frame.

Kai is kind of like Luz’s older sibling

Kai and their mom live with Camila after their mom divorced her dad, and has basically been Luz‘s childhood friend/sibling figure

Kai is usually very quiet and never really speaks, but whenever they do their usually saying something sarcastic or smug, but they’re secretly very kind and compassionate towards people they are close to (such as Luz)

Kai loves Luz like a sister, but also resents her because people in the demon realm always seem to prefer her over them

Kai usually hangs out with Hooty a lot since they’re both attention deprived, and once Lilith came along, they became a trio instead of a duo

Eda prefers Luz over Kai, which is another reason why they hang out with Lilith a lot, because she doesn’t play favorites

Kai is the more pessimistic one, and always focuses on the negative instead of a positive

Kai is also an over thinker, constantly wondering if Luz doesn’t need them anymore because of her new friends or if everybody secretly hates them

The reason why Kai doesn’t have any friends in the human realm was because of their interest in true crime and missing person cases, everybody found it weird and creepy when they were just interested in it

Kai is good at giving advice and helping people

Kai is extremely selfless and doesn’t focus on their own well-being that often

Kai’s father was abusive towards them, which is why their mother divorced him

Kai loves studying things about the Boiling Isles, which is what they do most of the time since nobody really hangs out with them

Kai has insomnia

Kai likes exploring the Boiling Isles with portable Hooty

I hope this wasn’t too much info/not enough info for ya! I don’t wanna overwhelm you :)

I match them with: Willow Park!

-Willow would solve puzzles with them.

-Obv with them liking nature and her liking plants and all that.

-Also to expand on that last one of liking nature not only does she like plants she loves animals of all types.

-Girl collects stuff animals.

-Okay I'm sorry that I keep bringing my ships into this but I ship huntlow, so I guess she just has a thing for Luz's older siblings.

-Idk why and canon literally disproves this in a way but I feel like Willow gravitates toward quiet people. (I know she is best friends with Luz and Gus 2 outgoing people but trust me on this one-)

-Willow treats Kai and Luz on the same level ( Okay she's Kai's girlfriend in this but she doesn't favor one in general yk?)

-Willow would reassure them, bro. She is literally known for being the person who cheers her friends up, I think it's called mom friend but I really don't know.

-If you don't have at least one "weird" interest you can't be friends with Willow actually.

-Honestly, they both seem to have their own problems but focus on others. So they just go in a circle of trying to help each other overcome their problems while not fixing their own.

-She would try to help them with their insomnia.

-Also I might be misremembering but (excluding Lilith) of all the characters who talk about Hooty she's the nicest. She makes one off-handed comment. So she'd be able to get along with Hooty.

I hope you like this! Sorry, it took so long also I didn't proofread this so I'm SO sorry if I misgendered them by accident tell me if I did so I can fix it.

#toh x reader #the owl house x reader #willow toh x reader #willow park x reader #willow x reader #toh matchups

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noodles-and-oodles · 2 years

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0_o

um- T*ey, A*e and A*ul with an s/o (hahah I'm totally not in love with those 3-) who loves romantic novels, and hides that secret until one day they caught s/o fangirling over them too hard- and wished they were like that with those 3-

ahem they got embarrassed after getting caught dhgdfhgh

i swear im not a simp-

(also drink plenty of water, and take your time dw <33)

I LOVE THIS??? JDJSJD LOL okay okay, non simp, this is for you! No gender specified so reader-san will be neutral 🙇‍♀️ AND YES I SHALL DRINK ALL DA WATERS!! Thank you for requesting @honey-milk-depresso and I hope this is to your liking!

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

Trey Clover

Kind of ‘prince charming’ trope me thinks

It had always been your long time fantasy to have a romance just like the ones in your books and scarily enough, you got your wish sooner than expected!!

Trey was so kind to everyone in general that you thought he was a prince that jumped right out of one of your books but it couldn’t be that…

The third year was kind, considerate, helpful, and above all else, handsome. It’s a no brainer for why you fell for him but Trey’s reciprocating your feelings was never part of the plan

It was when the two of you had gone back to your room to study, that Trey witnessed your collection of romance novels, much to your horror. You had gotten so caught up in them that you forgot to tidy up after waking up late and now your mortal fear was laid out for your most important person to see…

To your surprise, Trey had picked up one of the books and smiled. He was aware of this one, it was a popular story back home in the Rose Kingdom, so he’s not entirely shocked. He thought you being an avid fan of such things was also very cute. Figuring that this is what you’re into, Trey asks if you want to try replicating some with a chuckle

He was joking (not entirely) but those words were enough for you to nearly break down into tears. You’d been so embarrassed about your hobby that it was a huge relief that Trey actually didn’t find it weird. So maybe…you can be more open about it? Of course you can ;)

Ace Trappola

‘My crush is my bully’ trope right here

Ace is 100% the bully in some of your books. He teases you relentlessly and may even play an occasional joke or two, but he made it clear that only he was allowed to do that. Anyone else that dared to mess with you would face his wrath…which may be one of the reasons that you fell for him

Ace doesn’t really have manners like normal people so him barging in your dorm isn’t too unusual. He thought he’d see you with your head deep in a book as usual and yes he did, but imagine his surprise when he sees you giggling like a crazy person while kicking your legs crazily

“What cha’ doin’?” [yes he says it like Isabella] Ace’s words made your blood go cold as you turned around slowly as if you were in a horror movie only to see Ace behind you with a shit eating grin

Before you knew it, your book was snatched out of your hands and Ace was reading the lines in it, all the while keeping you away as you desperately tried to grab it back from him. You were mortified, to say the least, being well aware of Ace’s teasing nature and surely this is not something he would let you live down for as long as the two of you are together…

But when a frown grows on Ace’s face, you’re the one that ends up confused. Ace’s mood had suddenly switched and it turns out that the little sucker is jealous! He complains about the male lead in the book, saying that Ace is waaaay better than him so why don’t you ever smile like that around him?

Shocked isn’t even the word but relief surely is! You never thought that your hobby would actually make Ace of all people jealous…then maybe you should stay quiet about how many of them have become your husbands in your mind…

Azul Ashengrotto

‘The CEO likes me’ trope no one is changing my mind

Azul was nothing but a gentleman to you, at all times, and he always seems to have very nice dates planned out. It was behind you how he managed to take your breath away each and every time. At some point, you were SERIOUSLY convinced that Azul has been reading your books and acting on them

The merman even had a darker side to him, just like the ML’s in your book! You’d heard the rumors but decided that maybe, just maybe Azul was actually different from what you’d heard and how glad you were to find out that you were right

You still kept up your reading hobby, but you definitely kept it on the low. You couldn’t be so embarrassing about your hobby around Azul but that didn’t matter because Azul was soon to find out

It would sometimes get boring waiting around for Azul to be finished with work and his duties as you sat in his office and waited so one day you brought one of your books, fully intent on finishing it but you accidentally dozed off…

When you woke up, all you saw was Azul intently reading the book you had bought and like you’d been shot with an arrow laced with horror, you sat up quickly. You stammered as you tried to think of something, ANYTHING to somehow explain that book but Azul didn’t even seem to care as he just showed you a page

It seems…Azul was also hooked! He was giving critique to the writing and the characters thoroughly, leaving you stunned momentarily but then you jumped right in with expressing your feelings on the book as well!

Azul is completely accepting of your hobby and even asks you to recommend him some!! He tries his best to finish them all and you guys have like a little book club thing whenever he does 🥰 I just think Azul would be an appreciator of romance novels.

#twst headcanons #twst #headcanon #heartslabyul #octavinelle #ace trappola #trey clover #azul ashengrotto #noodlewrites

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coldgoldlazarus · 10 months

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Do you have a favorite of the metroid games (including pinball)

Despite the temptation to answer with Pinball for the meme, tragically I must admit that I have not played Pinball. I am sure that if I did so, it would take top rank, but alas. For now, my loyalty is to Metroid Prime 2: Echoes

Which isn't really an unpopular opinion anymore lol, I understand it used to be the least favorite, but now has been reconsidered and has plenty of defenders; for better or worse I came to the party late and uninformed and just like it based off my own experience with it.

I honestly think it's tied with Metroid Prime in terms of overall quality, though it has different strengths and weaknesses, and is kinda a more uneven experience overall. Soundtrack and aesthetic isn't as great and memorable, but they're more consistent in selling the atmosphere while still managing to achieve a few good wow moments here and there. World layout/progression/narrative delivery is more linear and direct compared to Prime, in both good and bad ways. (Though still less so than Corruption at least, lol) Story branches out from Metroid's usual subject matter and recurring motifs, but also feels kinda disconnected as a result. Bosses are bigger and better, and the Spider Ball gets its dues here, but there are also plentiful frustrating QoL-related decisions scattered throughout the game as a whole, one of which turns a potentially great boss into the absolute worst. (Spider Guardian Phase 3 my beloathed) Chozo Ghosts vs. Dark Pirate Commandos. Beam Ammo. (Which I had no problem with personally, but I've heard even other defenders of the game apparently tend to dislike.) From an objective standpoint, I think Echoes is on par with Prime, building off of its foundations well, but also liable to be a more frustrating experience in a bunch of little ways.

But from a subjective standpoint? I just love it a bit more despite its flaws, all thanks to Dark Aether. The creepiness of the dark world and overall moodier atmosphere, and how the game handled difficulty in a way that I really appreciated, make me able to look past its shortcomings in other areas and choose it even over Prime's overall smoother experience.

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The vibes throughout are simply impeccable, and I love how little touches like Samus slumping exhaustedly in the save station animation, and the frequency of Luminoth corpses littered throughout the world, really help to sell the severity of the situation. Not to mention the opening investigation of the missing Federation troopers, and how their eventual fate (and the sobering realization that they never even met the Ing proper) really sets the tone powerfully right off the bat.

And it's not all gloom and doom, either, I have just as much love for the bright and sunny Temple Grounds and the associated banger of a theme as for the darker stuff. The environmental design is gorgeous throughout, and I love how bits of Luminoth decoration and artwork are visually echoed (heh) later on in the Light Suit. But even then, it doesn't feel like a complete break in tone, light to offset the shadow and make it darker by contrast.

On that note, I just adore Dark Aether, with its swirling purple skies, the twisted versions of parallel rooms, and eerie distortions of the light world area music; just mwah, chef's kiss from me. Plus the fact of constantly taking damage while outside the light bubbles, further underlining the grim atmosphere and adding an extra layer of anxiety to both exploration and combat.

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Which brings me to my second point; I really enjoy how the whole concept of Dark Aether's toxic atmosphere provided a compelling challenge that is like, the kind of approach to difficulty that I actually like. AM2R, much as I love 99% of it, I wound up giving up on at the finish line, because the last two Shinespark puzzles demanded a level of pixel-perfect timing and precise execution of several consecutive, individually tricky actions within the space of a second at most that I simply could not pull off, which kinda killed my motivation to continue despite being right on the Metroid Queen's doorstep.

With Dark Aether, there isn't that same demand for perfect execution, but instead an ever-present source of danger; that emphasized, (for me at least) a fine mixture of thinking ahead by using knowlege of the light world's layout to navigate the dark, and a need to be willing to take risks and go into areas without the light-bubbles. Sometimes that risk would pay off, and sometimes it wouldn't and I'd die; but either way I'd be getting something out of it, whether the reward of success or the reward of learning.

Similarly, I think I died once or twice during the Chykka fight, to the atmosphere instead of the boss itself, and it felt like an entirely fair outcome for playing very haphazardly on that attempt. So to get back to the point, I like how it didn't demand flawless timing and execution, but still forced me to play well, and employ a fine mixture of cautious planning and calculated gambles to make my way through both exploration and the boss fights. Even if not done through the same means as Dark Aether, this is the kind of approach to difficulty I would like to see more of from the series in general; fingers crossed for Prime 4.

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Like I said, I think Echoes isn't as smooth or polished an experience as Prime, and replaying it is as much a reminder of all those little frustrations as a reinforcement of my love for it, but I still think that the fantastic execution of the tone and tough-but-fair approach to difficulty keep it my personal favorite despite the flaws.

#not a reblog #metroid #metroid prime #metroid prime 2 #metroid prime echoes #asks

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honshew · 7 months

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thoughts on bg3

overall, i had a lot of fun and would recommend to anyone interested! very ambitious game, and i'm amazed it exists tbh. there are so many really, really great aspects of it. however, i'm also glad to be done with it, bc i started to have less and less fun with it at the last part. which is an unfortunate place to have the worst part of the game. i really wish it wrapped up in a more satisfying way, because i became really attached to the characters and the incredibly detailed world. a shame it had to be rushed toward the end of development. it's incredible, though could have been more still.

i'm spending some time trying to figure out what i liked about the game, so this may or may not be updated as thoughts come to me. there will be spoilers all the way thru the end of the game so here's your spoiler warning

i think while people unfamiliar with dnd can play and still have a good time, it probably will feel overwhelming and there will likely be things you won't understand unless someone explains it to you. i can't even really call the tutorial a bad one as much as it's barely there. but i do know plenty of people with zero dnd experience still having fun and simply enjoying learning on the go!

on the other hand, being someone who plays dnd, once you figure out the interface it's a pretty smooth experience. there are some things that are a little different to accommodate how the game works (e.g. second-story work reduces your fall dmg rather than increasing your climbing speed, since the game doesn't really count climbing as distance), but those are pretty quick to learn. seems to me that the devs thought people who didn't play dnd wouldn't be all that intersted in bg3, but a ci'd be curious to see how many bg3 players will look for a dnd group to join from here.

act 1 was solid and was paced well. i really liked how many characters ended up showing up later in the game, as opposed to characters you save once and never see again. i think what was most fun was getting to know what i could get away with LOL not just an exploration of the world, but an exploration of the game itself. i have video of me talking to auntie ethel while my friends set up and set off a circle of flame barrels, so i got a front row seat of her being blown to smithereens.

act 2, also solid. i really enjoy quests that involve impacting a place in a really tangible way, like in okami, so the shadow-cursed lands were pretty cool. unfortunately, the game doesn't really show you this happening except a liiiiittle bit at the end, so it doesn't feel as good as it could. still, i liked exploring the area a lot. all of the mini-bosses of the area were unsettling, but we got past literally all of them via high charisma rolls. actually aside from the exploring, a lot of the fun was seeing how we could cheese boss fights, which carried into act 3

act 3 felt way more all over the place and buggy, which significantly lowered my enjoyment. ofc a game this massive will have issues, but i'm still sad that the last part of the game where everything crescendos is where i enjoyed the game the least. small things not working the way they're supposed to (e.g. certain npcs not running or climbing up a ladder when they are fleeing I'M TALKING TO YOU ZUMBO PUMBO AND FEATHERWEIGHT FALSON, astarion falling sleep to a spell even tho he's an elf during his end-of-quest fight). what sucks about things being so frustrating too was that the main quests had really great setups or concepts, but the execution was messy. still, we had a lot of fun messing with bosses. cazador couldn't do anything bc he was forced to dance while we killed him, orin was disintegrated, gortash turned to stone. kinda wild having a bard with 100% spell hit rate....!

i do wish we got to explore baldur's gate more. i totally get that would be a huge undertaking tho. i had a thought that maybe act 3 should've been its own game, but then i guess you couldn't call it baldur's gate 3 if you never get to baldur's gate. i didn't play the previous bg games, but i liked how they wove in the story from the previous installments and ttrpg modules without leaving newcomers to the series out of the loop too much.

i liked shadowheart's, astarion's, and wyll's quests a lot. the ansur part of wyll's was really cool. i adore trials to test character as a setup, especially ones administrated by some major figure. but also? fuck balduran for what he did to ansur and later to me. he's the city's hero, but he only really looks out for himself. which is cool for me as a viewer, not cool for the character i play as LOL

i have more thoughts but i will type them up here later maybe this has gotten long enoguh

#honshew text #not tagging with bg3 so as to avoid strangers coming into my house to yell at me as if they are defending their honor

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youngerfrankenstein · 2 months

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fire emblem avatars for the character bingo? :> im mostly interested in robin, corrin and byleth but if you want to add kris or alear to that go ahead! i just know nothing about them lel

Ooh! I have not played Shadow Dragon or Engage so not doing them but here!

I… generally don’t have very strong feelings on avatar characters. There are plenty I like but I generally don’t find them super engaging.

With that said, Robin:

I honestly wasn’t sure what to check for Robin. I think they’re the best integrated avatar, and I like how their story plays out. Their dynamic with Chrom and to a lesser extent Lucina is great! I like that they’re probably the snidest and most outspoken of the avatars and I do like them quite a bit but hmm.

Corrin:

Corrin is probably the avatar I care about least. I love their dragon design though, it kicks ass. I will say I find them more interesting in Conquest, since they have more internal conflict there but overall… they’re just there.

And Byleth!

Debated checking daddy issues lol. I actually quite like Byleth’s arc! Going from merc to teacher to leader, increasing how many people they help each time. It’s interesting to me. And I also REALLY like their whole thing of being both human and divine, and a member of both the human and Nabatean races. It’s neat! I love how they become a guiding light and hope for coexistence! …Which is why the people who go “well I like them because HUMANITY” bother the hell out of me.

I uh, kinda wish I had more to say 😅

#Ask #Ask game #Thanks!

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kenobihater · 1 year

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len my dear friend do u have a like list in ur mind of like wild west media that u think showcase what u love abt the genre(westerns?? cowboy stuff??)

ps. willing to trade jidaigeki recs gehehe

i'd LOVE your jidaigeki recs, and i have lots of western recs, tysm for asking! i was raised on westerns, and though i have PLENTY of issues with the genre overall and how it was used to enforce an ahistorical ideal of white heteronormative patriarchy on an era that was actually pretty queer in compairison to the rest of the western world at the time and had a significant number of people of color and strong women in it, i still love the genre despite all of its faults.

the first western that comes to mind is true grit, the original true grit. i hate john wayne personally, but even i have to admit he does a good job in this film, though the real show-stealer is the actress who plays mattie ross. the new true grit is also really really good and more accurate to the book, which is okay and i only read for school.

the next of the classics that i wanna mention is the dollars trilogy (a fistful of dollars, for a few dollars more, and the good the bad and the ugly), of which i've only seen the good the bad and the ugly in full and remember liking as a child. the first in the trilogy, fistful, is a remake (or a ripoff, depending on how you look at it) of yojimbo! so, if you liked the basic plot of that, you'll probably like fistful as well if you don't mind clint eastwood. also, even if you don't like the films, do yourself a favor and listen to the soundtrack of at LEAST the good the bad and the ugly. i love it so much i have it on vinyl lol!

another classic western that is a remake/ripoff of a samurai film is the magnificent seven, which is inspired by seven samurai. i've honestly only seen the shitty chris pratt remake, so i can't speak to the quality of the original, though i've heard it's good.

onto modern westerns! tombstone is the first one to come to mind bc of how popular it is. it isn't my favorite bc of how it mythologizes a kind of shitty person, wyatt earp, into this larger than life figure. same goes for doc holliday (though i admit i'm only human and i ADORE val kilmer's performance in this film). if you're at all interested in unraveling the wyatt earp myth, i highly, HIGHLY recommend picking up the wonderful biography wyatt earp: a vigilante life by andrew c isenberg! it really cuts through the bullshit and the many lies the man told about his life and got early hollywood to buy into.

another modern western i like is django: unchained. it's been a few years since i last watched it, but i really want to stress to y'all that this is both a tarantino movie, so expect gore, and a movie about slavery, so expect blatant racism. if either of these things are a trigger or exhaust you, steer clear.

idk if this is classified as a western bc it's set during the era of fur trapping and mountain men, so a little earlier than most westerns, but the revenant was a good and gritty revenge story. though it was also pretty gory, so avoid it if that bothers you

one i really enjoyed was the harder they fall, though warning for gore again, though not to the extent of tarantino or anything. it was wonderfully told and it was SO cool to see a black-led western. i know there was some controversy around colorism and the handling of a queer character which i don't feel is my place to comment on, but i do think the film was good despite its flaws.

this isn't a movie, but i cannot stress enough how much red dead redemption 2 is a good example of western storytelling. arthur morgan's journey in the waning years of the wild west is SO compelling to me, and though it isn't flawless it's imho the closest thing on this list to my perfect western story. 10/10 recommend playing this one!

that's everything that's currently out that i can think of, but a western show i'm looking forwards to is the new bass reeves show that the yellowstone creators are making. yellowstone bored me to tears and i heard 1883 was bad, but i have high hopes for this bc bass reeves was a certified badass, likely inspired the lone ranger, and honestly deserved all the hype wyatt earp got for being a good lawman. so hopefully that will be good!

oh, and i'm sure you're aware, but there's a lot of bad westerns out there bc they pumped them out like crazy back in the day. modern day less so, so i can point to specific ones that suck major ass, like the ballad of buster scruggs, hostiles, and dances with wolves, but just as a rule of thumb if you aren't vibing with what's happening onscreen just turn it off lmao cause there's so much bad shit out there you could waste years watching it.

those are all of my recommendations (and a few to avoid for good measure), i hope you enjoy some of them and thank you for letting me ramble about westerns!!

#len answers #long post tw #kicking myself for nearly forgetting rdr2 lmao. it's my favorite western idc that it's a game!!

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joleneghoul · 8 months

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if you don't mind me asking, do you have any recommendations for comics to read if I want to get into rip hunter? you have convinced me to read comics about him, but I don't know a good place to start

um well A lot of Rip to me is "what could be" because currently (or up till really recently) he has been sort of a plot device instead of a character. He is a good explanation for time travel when it's needed, plus he worked with the linear men who had their hands in plenty things in the 90s (im currently sticking my hands into this so i cant give any like reccs...im also not the hugest fan of Rip as part of that team bc I prefer him being with the time masters. but oh well. dilf ig).

Personally, despite a lot of flaws, I do enjoy Time Masters 1990, more so for the characters portrayed and the descent Rip takes and the lessons in the importance of not pushing others away and the inevitable. Rip in this story is no older than about 23-24 he is messy and he makes so many mistakes despite everyone trying to stop him. In a way he really reminds me of a younger Booster but much much more intense and distrusting of others.

Though I will say the parts of this series I enjoy less are any of the time travel segments which sucks bc..they are time travel characters! I really do feel like this series hammers in though the fact Rip SHOULD NOT work alone long term. But also this comic has like..a lot of dark themes in it and showcases some really really hurting people in many ways.

BUT my favorite story with Rip, at least this era of Rip is when he is in Booster Gold volume 1 issues 13-15 (technically he is also at the start of 16 but basically fucks off). In retrospect these stories are really interesting because of the retcon that Booster is Rip's father now (previously Hunter was legit just his last name). also this is where we are told Rip is short for Ripley. This arc is actually the whole reason time masters happens.

And also of course I love his part in 52 (the comic not the reboot). Issues 36-37 and 50-52 are where he appears but also if you want in the audio-play of this story he appears at 1:46:16 . I enjoy the play a lot :-]

other than that I enjoy the parts he has in specials like Time Warp 2013 the "R.I.P" story is where the him as a kid wanting to be eaten by a dinosaur comes from.

and i REALLY REALLY enjoy his role as the narrator of the "Nuclear Winter" special from 2019. literally one of the more recent Rip characterizations I've been excited about lol.

other than that...I am not a fan of the writing Johns does for Rip like in BG vol 2 to be honest. Because to me it kinda is the reason so many people are like rip HAS to be alone (he didnt start that but influenced it a lot) despite that being so anti what the end of TM says. so sorry abt that :-[ it makes the reccs i can make kinda small.

#ID START WITH THE BG ARC THO BC U NEED IT FOR TIME MASTERS BUT ALSO..#IDK UP TO U #that bg arc showcases a rip before one of the huge traumas of his younger life so like..i find it interesting

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retphienix · 2 years

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Persona 5 Royal.

Hm.

I think even with the newform of post shortening I'll read-more this, so let me get a gist out of the way.

This easily became one of my favorite games. It's on the list, it's embedded in my mind, it's granted me interesting plot lines and characters and it's quickly given me something I'm happy to love.

There's the gist; And the elephant in the room is that I got a smile out of the mysterious glance at what appears to be Akechi in the background, that's fun.

Now to say.

Much.

I'll try to separate different thoughts with a header of sorts because this is gonna be a mess.

This game is honestly pretty incredible.

I feel like this is a weird way to start this out but, I didn't expect to so quickly play an RPG that so enraptured my mind and heart after DQ11.

I've played a ton of games that have touched me in various ways, but it's rare for me to play one that so thoroughly entrenches itself in the miasma of experiences that make up who I am; Just finds my core and sets up shop. Offers a mirror, offers challenges, offers a shoulder, and plenty more.

Playing a game like that isn't common; It's a matter of having something to say, or do, or show, and it's a big matter of personal bias.

It's just how art can hit ya, or miss entirely. Sometimes you find one that stops you in your tracks and you dwell on it for years after.

Despite playing a lot of games, I, and I assume most others, don't play games that hit that note too often.

It's rare.

I've played so many games I would happily recommend for being phenomenal in their own ways, but that list isn't fully comprised of titles like that.

When I played DQ11 I found myself with a story so dense with things I appreciate that it took over my mind for months. It's still left quite the impact, being a title that can easily bring a happy tear to my eye if I dwell on it too long as I find what they've told to be such a beautiful heroes' tale.

Persona 5 has hit that same deep place in my mind, and, in the grand scheme of things, so quickly after I just found a different title that did the same.

And this isn't by any means a ramble on how P5 is perfect; Far from it because that doesn't exist and because it was created by people- people aren't perfect- people don't make perfect things.

Just in the way of cultural differences and personal morals there are things in P5 that I simply believe weren't handled as well as they could have been, be that gay characters, flip flopping on whether sexual assault as a subject deserves respect or laughs, or the ways in which relationships with minors and adults are presented and treated.

While conversely at least some of these faults could be argued for by virtue of life itself not being perfect, but then it becomes a matter of what is your art's morality; What is it trying to say, and is it being presented because it's true to life, or because it's titillating, silly, or something a creator believes to be right.

I digress.

This is a ramble on how what P5 is is something extremely special to me. And an incomplete one at that, as I couldn't possibly revisit every important moment in this 236 hour (inaccurate*) long story on a post made at a whim at the end of said playthrough.

*= I was AFK a lot, and my gameplay included a lot of rendering video, it wasn't this long but my save sure was lol.

I don't (currently, maybe I should) keep notes of my playthroughs- the posts themselves are catalogues of my thoughts at each time. The finale post is more to sum up where my heart lands me, not to substitute a well rehearsed and scripted video essay.

I guess that makes this even less than an essay- it's just a ramble, lmao.

Let's start with the end because it's so fresh.

I'd say what I understand to be the base game ending (I'm assuming it's just the previous god going) was bombastic, exciting, and even had the bite of the metaverse disappearing and Mona potentially dying. I fucking adore that.

The ending of Royal is a lot more clean... and reminds me of something I already mentioned lmao.

Spoilers for DQ11 skip to next red text:

but both include a Perfect ending and a Broken But Hope Filled ending but inversely placed in the story.

DQ11 ends on the Perfect ending, with the weight of knowing you created the Broken But Hope Filled ending and effectively killed yourself out of that ending to create the perfect ending.

The point of it all being that you did the best you could for the world, then found a way to try to do even better for another cursed world (parallel timeline shenanigans), so you sacrificed the life you've fought for, and the relationships you've forged to 'try again'. The Perfect ending in this case IS perfect, just not for the Hero. They gave everything up for this as a sort of ultimate sacrifice.

P5R ends on the Broken But Hope Filled ending and you spent the last dungeon literally killing the Perfect ending because you refuse to give up the relationships you've forged and the meaning you find in the struggles you're lives have experienced.

I find that interesting. (continued but not spoilers anymore)

Royal's ending is bittersweet. We're saying goodbye (THAT SUCKS), the metaverse is (I believe) gone again- but that sting isn't as bad since it's already done that before, Akechi is 'dead' but he simply doesn't compare to Morgana who was a true friend through the entire game, and we gave up a utopia to get this.

The entire moral that lead us here is literally golden in my book- I appreciate the insistence that our experiences hold value, including the negative ones as we grow from them. But I think as far as ending on a bang or whimper it's a lot less flashy than the base ending seems to have been assuming assumptions assumingly on what that is lol.

Basically, I think base had a better ending, but Royal had more to say and what it had to say was very good in my book, it just then had to end and kinda went "Uh, then we ended, shit."

I still teared the hell up multiple times doing my Earthbound walk about in the post game. And I still wish desperately that I got to get closer with Yusuke and Haru.

AH I love all the damn characters so much.

I feel I've said it all on these fuckers, I love these dunces and they are the best. The party is one of the absolute best out there- it's truly a crew you WANT to be in, you want to go hang with these guys at a ramen place, you want to go hang at a library because one of them needs help with something, you want to go wander the shops with them, you just want to be friends with absolutely all of the party members (maybe not Akechi in the later game when he actually joins the party but that's a whole other complicated goof).

It's an accomplishment to go and create so many likable and befriendable characters- I love em.

And the side characters and confidants are just a fantastic eclectic group- I'm being so vague simply because due to how P5 is formatted, I'd argue 99% of my posts are just me talking about the characters because you GET to do all these things with them. You GET to go to the movies and study and hang at the baths- so I've said all there is, I'm sure.

But I love them. <3

Another thing I've talked plenty on already but is worth mentioning in this finale post is that fantastic gameplay

I literally can't expand on it much in one post so I'll leave it simple.

It's flashy, it's EXTREMELY involved, it's combo heavy in a fantastic way (and with multiple avenues for combos!), and the worst I can say about it is that on Normal difficulty it became exploitable pretty early on and didn't really challenge directly much until the end, but, difficulty is not the end all of the gameplay's quality.

You want to feel involved and challenged in *some* way (if not direct difficulty), and I felt both of those things- just without much risk of failure. Arguably- ARGUABLY- that's damn near perfect. But for preference, I'd have preferred a slightly harder time- more HP on enemies and more risk of losing- but this isn't a complaint- it's a recognition that I will probably highly enjoy replaying on a harder difficulty :)

Simplifying the entirety of the gameplay to combat would be a crime though because this game was also half life sim, and quite an enthralling one at that. Hell, half isn't enough, MOST of this game was life sim, and I loved it so much more than I thought I would.

It also kinda screwed me a bit because I LOVE reading everything I have access to at any given moment.... and this meant a metric ton of reading every day, sometimes accomplishing next to nothing.

You could easily do all the things I did in this game in like 10 hours of gameplay, but it took me 23 times that because I would regularly take trips EVERYWHERE to seek out new NPC dialogue that added nothing to the game itself but was quintessential to my experience.

Loved it.

And before I close for good on this playthrough, I want to just speak some appreciation towards some of the morals and themes in here.

Not all, I'm stupid (for one), and tired (another), and some fucked up third thing as well so just a couple that I feel like talking about.

For one, RIDICULOUSLY big fan of the personal justice angle. It lent itself to so many narratives about the problems with the world from the angle of these things being normalized, expected, or accepted by society at large- but that doesn't mean we should accept them and stop trying to make things better.

It's just a solid theme to build around and it tied itself to the motivations of our characters so damn well with many of them being upset at how Adults handle the world or mistreat others and seeking to make things better.

Also, if the like 8 times I brought it up didn't make it clear, a big fan of the strength of kindness in the Akechi - Joker storyline. It's really a show of how Joker's refusal to turn his back on others, even people as, to be frank, shit as Akechi with his murder fun time nonsense, is literally what grants Akechi his moment of redemption.

That murder kid really tried to turn self sacrifice into a selfish move for personal revenge, and Joker's refusal to be insincere to him left Akechi stunned as his motivations were changed in real time right before he died- that's just a fun narrative, man.

And while I think it made the stakes feel less "scary" than the prior chapter, I really do enjoy how Maruki was our final baddie since he's quite literally a goodie.

It offered a completely different angle to challenge the PT's morals and allowed us to end on a narrative about the worth of our whole life experience rather than a narrative on defeating evil, it was honestly a really good choice in my book.

And I suppose that wraps up this mindless ramble.

To close I just want to say, I fuckin' love this game. It's a favorite now, as I've said.

I'd also like to say I'm surprised that getting to the post game wasn't as demanding as I was initially lead to believe.

I had been lead to believe, since launch of Royal, that this game was some weird "Do it perfectly or you're fucked" kind of game.

I avoided playing Royal for YEARS, because I thought I'd HAVE to shove a guide down my throat in order to experience half the game.

But as it turns out the Royal content is rather short, all things considered. And the requirements are MILES less intense than I was lead to believe- like- MILES. I thought you needed all confidants or else, like, it's not that hard lol.

Getting a perfect run on a blind run is a bit rough, but even that isn't remotely out of the cards if my playthrough is anything to go by.

And on whether / when I'll play more; Now that I've seen the credits, I'm not sure.

This playthrough was.... strange for me. When I pick a game up for the blog I usually stay pretty consistent with it. I've had flubs here and there over the years, but this might be the single most disjointed playthrough I've ever done- with months of no updates multiple times throughout just because of where I was outside of playing.

But because of this, I've basically been playing this game for 8 months. That's a long time to be on one single player game that I think a few weeks coulda done.

Kinda want something else. But my desire to play through on a harder difficulty, on NG+, and to get a perfect end to my playthrough with all confidants maxed remain.

Part of me wants to just jump right back in- especially since very very little of it would "need" (I do this for fun lol) to be blogged about in the first place, but a lot of me wants to sit this on the shelf and come back later in life.

And a lot of me also worries that doing that might table it too long, as I table many things and then decide new experiences trump them.

This game has the benefit of being one of my all time favorites now, so it's less likely, but I mean. FFT is an all time favorite. Doing modded runs of that for the blog has been backlogged for years. I don't want to put replaying P5R off that long at all.

But enough idle worrying in my game diary.

I am going to play something else for a while. That's my current plan. Mostly because that whole mishap with myself that caused this playthrough to be so disjointed is very much still a struggle- so I don't want to dive into a full new playthrough that's just as disjointed.

I might set a date for myself; Come back in a year's time perhaps. I have nothing set in stone. But I want to replay this. Harder difficulty, NG+, perfect confidants. I want that.

We'll find out when.

In the mean time I'm going to bask in the post-game joy of this phenomenal title.

I'm grateful for the opportunity.

And thank you to all who saw fit to interact through this playthrough- I doubt many would get this far into this nonsense post to see said thanks, but I'm sending that out there into the world all the same.

This was a ridiculously positive gaming experience in terms of the game, and a pleasure to chat with some fans.

Everyone, have a good one :)

#Persona #Persona 5 #P5 #P5R #Persona 5 Royal #RetPlays

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blackknight95857669 · 1 year

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Atomic Heart review

I recently acquired an Xbox Series X off eBay (new but with shipping damage to the housing, fully functional, $450 after taxes, wee) so naturally the first thing I did was download 600GB (oops, Comcast gonna scold me) of Game Pass games to it, including Atomic Heart which I decided to play first.

So to start off, as a first effort from a studio AH is fairly well put together. Didn't experience any crashes, game breaking bugs etc. The world is certainly well realized and quite pretty, despite the large numbers of dead Soviets laying around everywhere. Sound design is better than average for the most part, though I did notice that it was hard to exactly pinpoint enemies by sound, their SFX didn't seem to be 3D optimized.

While it looks pretty and for the most part controls well (more on that shortly), once you start playing it rapidly becomes apparent that this game was written by/for tween-teen edgelords. There so much unnecessary swearing and over-sexualized content shoved into this game it would almost make Duke Nukem blush. For ex: the upgrade kiosk being an eager to please, begging to be dominated Sub was certainly a choice. I will give them credit for having P-3 be repulsed by it, Duke Nukem probably would have fucked it. The story is also so cookie cutter obvious and ripped from BioShock I expected my glove to keep asking me "would you kindly" (it actually did say this at one point, lol). I did like most of of the "side" story text/audiologs/NPCs etc, it almost felt like a different team was writing that stuff, heh. **END GAME SPOILER-ISH ALERT** I will say it was a novel idea to give me a binary choice near the end that boiled down to "go get revenge on the real big bad" or " if you've had enough of this game, just quit". I actually picked the quit just to see what it did. Very anticlimactic possible sequel teasing 1 min end cinematic.

About those controls.. while the shooting is good, on par with most of the games in this genre, the melee combat left a lot to be desired for me. No target lock makes old man gamer get cranky. I thought it wouldn't be a big deal as they aren't shy about funneling you plenty of ammo, but there's mini-bosses that you can't harm with anything but melee/elemental damage. Even with some tweaks to the controls I had a hard time keeping up with fast dodging enemies, so I ended up dropping the difficulty from the standard the game starts with to "story mode" just so I could get through it. I liked the rest of the gameplay, especially the crafting loop, enough to keep playing through to the credits.

Overall, I'd say this game is worth a look if you have an itch to play another BioShock and you have Game Pass. I'd wait for at least a 50% off sale anywhere else, and if you haven't played it by the time it's 75% off it's a no brainer.

#Atomic Heart #game review #gaming #video games #Game Pass #Xbox

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chaosintheavenue · 1 year

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A random guide to which of my various Fallout OCs have completed various quests, DLCs etc, since I know my storyline has become pretty convoluted in places!

New Vegas:

Who's the Courier?

That's Six!

Picrew link

He got shot by Benny, woke up in Goodsprings, and did all the things a Courier does along the Yes Man route up to the point of having all factions allied and prepared for Hoover Dam. But… he never made it back to Yes Man to announce that he was ready to kick things off.

Where is he now?

He's, um… in the Sierra Madre vault. RIP buddy.

So what happens with Hoover Dam?

Charlie takes over the NV quests from there!

Picrew link

She has Complicated Lore, so for the sake of this quick post, you can consider her to be reluctantly Legion-aligned and operating in a role roughly equivalent to that of a frumentarius. She still never gets involved with the Dam, but she does convince more factions to aid the Legion when the time comes, and happen to meet all of the NV companions along the way.

She also usually has another OC as a companion with her- Chel, Red and Brutus in that chronological order- but they tend to take less of an active role in the quests.

What about Old World Blues?

That was Violet!

She originated as a Van Buren OC and has played a few narrative roles in my overarching OC storyline, one of which was ending up in Big MT thanks to her constant misfortune.

She doesn't talk about what happened during her unintended excursion. Mobius is probably still alive, at least… I think?

And Lonesome Road?

That- very recently, in fact- was Vari!

(please ignore the fact that he's in the Villa here lol)

I haven't sat down and intentionally written up much of his lore yet, but he's a Cipher, and my brain is currently so gripped by them that I can all but guarantee he'll get more content soon lol.

Throughout the DLC, he had no idea what in general was going on or who Ulysses was (I've roughly decided that Vari somehow received Six's old Pip-Boy from Elijah, who must have removed it pre-vault sealing for some reason or other, but that'll require plenty more lore-bending I haven't gotten around to) and did end up being unable to pacify him.

Dead Money?

Well, that was Six, up to a point. Several other OCs have visited or passed near to the Sierra Madre, and Elijah no longer seems to be holed up there. Kinda just leaving him out there as a vague rogue element in the OCverse for now.

And Honest Hearts?

Does not take place as depicted in game, but a few characters have passed through the Zion Canyon area.

Fallout 76:

Who's the Resident?

That's Lara!

They're the character I briefly played as at initial launch, and suffice to say, they didn't get a whole lot done. I do have a vague story outline for their post-gameplay life which involves them getting involved with Raiders, but quest-wise they spent their days terrified of the new world around them and did very little aside from creating the Scorch vaccine.

Where are they now?

Frankly, I don't know exactly what became of them in lore. But they were active in 2102, and it's now 2298, so… it's not looking too good for them :/

So who's in Appalachia now?

That's Trin!

You've probably already seen her around these parts. Backstory-wise, she has partial Cipher ancestry, but is also reluctantly tied in with the BoS, and is somewhat Scorched thanks to drinking the Nuka-Cola vaccine a little too late (AKA, Complicated Lore). She's done most of the main questline (got stuck at Fort Defiance for hardware reasons, so she'll most likely never enter a silo or launch for herself) and the entirety of Wastelanders and Steel Dawn/Reign. Has both Beckett and Sofia staying at her CAMP (plus various OC companions, of course).

#I hope this somewhat clarified the situation?#might raise more questions than answers though #if you do have questions feel free to send them my way! I know I'm sometimes not the clearest explainer lol #time to yeet this into the tag of every character for information purposes #Six #Charlie #Violet #Vari #Lara #Trin #oc cast

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burningthetree · 2 years

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1, safe and warm for 5, 10, 34 (or really your favorite thing about your style), and 45 for the fic questions!!

much love 💖

Evie!! I'm booping your nose right back <3

1. What fic of yours would you recommend to someone who had never read any of your work?

I think either one of my Sakuatsu one-shots or my longer Sakuatsu fic. I wouldn't recommend the Bokuaka one because it's MCD and also incredibly long. If you like MCD, then by all means, go ahead with the Bokuaka one. Otherwise safe and warm.

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about safe and warm?

I put a lot of thought into the character constellations. I struggled a lot at first choosing which characters to write about – I had the idea for the plot, I knew I wanted to write the story, but I had like…I think nine or ten different character constellations for it and I couldn't decide, until I ultimately settled on Sakuatsu + Kuroo (with Iwaizumi and Ushijima as the side characters/antagonists (more or less)). For our main trio, I mainly connected them to their school banners (Atsumu -> we don’t need the memories, nasty of me considering he has amnesia lol, Kuroo -> connect, Sakusa -> effort; and this all neatly connects with their motives and actions in the story), as well as some canon elements (like Sakusa thinking that Kuroo looks like a con-man, so I made him a con-man because it fits his character best). For Iwaoi, I thought that love would be a great motivation, and for Ushijima, he just has a vendetta against Oikawa which is a fun play with canon. There’s going to be more characters but I’m not going to spoil it, but I spent at least two weeks on constructing the characters like this until I was satisfied with it lol

10. How do you decide what to write?

It’s always very much dependent on my mood. Like I need to be in the mood for a certain story in order to actually make progress on it, otherwise it’ll just be extremely frustrating (hence why I often have multiple stories ongoing at the same time). I also never write out of order for a story, so I go pretty much chronologically safe for a few dialogues that might come up at a later point, but never a fully fleshed-out scene. So if I’m in the mood for the next scene in a fic, I’ll write that. If not, I’ll write something else, and if need be, start a one-shot that I may or may not end up posting

34. What aspects of your writing are inspired by/taken from your real life?

I draw a lot of emotion from real life because it makes it much easier to write certain scenes. Like, if there’s a highly emotional scene (there were plenty in forget me not), I will connect it to something I had to go through irl and relate it to how I felt in that situation to make the writing process of describing those intricate and delicate emotions as best and relatable, and realistic most of all, as possible. That also leads to me massively projecting sometimes and trauma dumping in my writing but no one will ever really know for sure what is fiction and what isn’t lol

As for my favourite thing about my style, I use alliteration a lot because it makes me ridiculously happy, or any other literary devices like metaphors or similes or asyndetons/polysyndetons, all these kinds of things to convey subtle meaning through language use that I am absolutely obsessed with because of studying linguistics. So maybe that’s my favourite thing.

45. What's something you've improved on since you started writing fic?

I started writing fic when I was ten, so…almost 13 years ago so there’s a LOT that I’ve improved on because obviously age makes a huge difference. I got better at understanding the characters and their ideals and I also got a better grasp on canon, which (I think so at least) gives me the ability to write the different relationships better and draw out the scenes/story a lot more than I was able a couple of years back. I also used to write on a very irregular basis, and I am now actively trying to write every day or at least take notes on my stories each day so I don’t distance myself from it too much if life gets busy. Something I also learned is to properly draft and outline my ideas to assure that massive writer’s block doesn’t happen (it still does, sometimes, but not as bad as before).

#if you know me irl and you see this no you didnt I never talk about fic writing shhhhhhh #asks #evie #big big love you!!!#thank you for making me talk about these <3 #julie is writing #julie is rambling #I ramble a lot and I didn’t proofread either so rip if there’s typos or any other errors lol

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