#I've been trying to include as many games as I'm familiar with into each of these posts so i don't leave any zeldas behind

[stellartales]

Zhongli: headcanons with pregnant s/o (she/her)

following the one for diluc, so i've decided that i should write a pregnant headcanon for our lord geo as well. tbh, the scenario i've been trying to come up for zhongli keeps being scrapped. my folder is full of incomplete pieces i abandoned each time cause i really didn't find any of them suitable for sharing. so i'll stick to the headcanons for now —i proofread this once but there may still be errors so sorry in advance!

finding out

being in love and marrying her means doing things couples do is pretty much natural even if he's a god. so this includes AHEM *cues horny sounds* XD (hinting at 'dominus lapidis' - find it on the m.list yourself; minors, pls stay away!)

so he wouldn't be surprised to know she got pregnant from the result of doing *cues horny sounds again*. when it was first revealed to him, he would of course be surprised by the news and quickly take it in stride from what they did.

Zhongli would definitely be extremely pleased to know that those nights bore fruits, in this case, fruit. BUT Zhongli would also be concerned about her well-being 'cause she's carrying his child — child of a god; whether or not it would be too much for her.

this makes me wonder if it's possible for him to put a shield inside her womb, around the child or something to protect her from whatever effects the child could give off? — like how we see Zhongli do so around traveller and Kun Jun during the archon quest featuring Azhdaha

idk hahaha my imagination's bit over the top here; sorry if it's weird—

during the months

he is familiar with births of life since he is possibly the oldest living being alive (one that we are familiar with) but he only knows about this phase of life in theory.

he is a knowledgeable man, er, god but even his knowledge had limits. 'Cause knowing and doing is different. he'd seen and met father-to-be and pregnant mothers so many times in his longgggg life, but when it comes to his own experience, he is as awkward as new fathers can be.

but trust Zhongli to know what is good for pregnancy such as good teas, herbs and etc. - if he doesn't know he would consult the adepti (especially those who had children with humans) and humans themselves too.

i'd like to imagine that Zhongli has his own realm like how we have our own serenitea pot, and in there, he owns a mansion; not those multi-tiered type, but ground level with the courtyards and winding verandas (those open-air corridors), with a solid gate around this compound.

Even if he doesn't own a realm, i'd imagine he would own a property like this all the same, somewhere near Liyue Harbor; if he didn't previously, he did after getting betrothed to her. (tbh i'm really curious where zhongli stays in the game)

when he is within their mansion, he would usually don on his hanfu (depicted in sunlit, as written by yours truly).

and on topic of hanfu, he would have a few specially tailored for her for many reasons:

to accommodate her growing belly.

hanfu were more comfortable - flowy sleeves, soft materials and warm

tbh, he secretly developed a fascination over seeing her wearing the hanfu while she's expecting.

Zhongli has always been affectionate towards her but he'd become even more during the months. He enjoys talking to their child in her belly

in the morning without fail, she would wake up to a low, gentle, soothing voice against her rounded belly.

and before bedtime, she would fall asleep to his hand caressing her middle, smoothing over the soft material of her sleepwear. She often falls asleep to the same low, gentle soothing voice. (Zhongli is such ASMR master; his voice alone oh gawd he should be on Youtube lol)

Zhongli is definitely even more protective over her now that she was with child.

before she was pregnant, Zhongli is a lover who believes in her capabilities to protect herself. Just like how he silently watches over Liyue even in the present, he protects her from a small distance. He's not overbearingly protective but enough, Ofc when time calls for him to do so, he'd step up. (don't mess with Geo daddy hohoho)

he respects her as a fellow warrior? someone who is experienced in combat? yea like he doesn't have that kind of misogynistic mindset, like those kind of 'oh because she's a woman so she must be weak and a damsel in distress that can't do a thing so i ,the man, have to step in everytime' mindset.

though i would say that he's more quick to step up when it comes to her than to Liyue (well, cause Liyue has the Qixing and the adeptus)

but now that she's pregnant, who dares to mess with Geo daddy literally daddy HAHAH

while he is sure that she is capable of defending herself even when pregnant, he wouldn't want her strain herself while she's carrying his child. he know it isn't good for her and the baby if she stressed herself. AND OFC, he just wants to protect her; he becomes overprotective papa Geo bear. it's like some kind of instinct more than a thought for him.

Because Zhongli becomes overprotective papa Geo bear during the pregnancy, he sticks around her a lot more.

Hu Tao would definitely see less of that man at work hahaha

He would spend time, bringing his s/o out for short walks; he knows this is good for her. Brings her around the city, listening to stories told by the storytellers, drink good teas, admiring the sceneries around the harbor especially the sea at the wharfs - basically when she's pregnant, they go out on dates a lot more? hahah

but across the months when it gets harder for her to walk 'cause she is getting so big, he would stay home with her, catering to her every needs.

rubs her sore feet, combs through his library for inspiration in finding names as she took naps, spends his time to talking to her and their unborn child

hands are mostly on her belly, caressing it and pressing his lips to it. (oh zhongli is so obsessed, so dedicated to her and their child at this point)

the birth at last

Zhongli would be calm when it happens.

near the due date, Madam Ping who volunteered to help with the birth, would stay around. Madam Ping visits them often during the pregnancy. Giving sounds advices to Zhongli every time she comes over, and discussing how to prepare for the day to come.

He wouldn't show it on his face that it affected him when her hand clutching onto his gave him crushing squeezes when she has to push - being a god, his pain tolerance far exceeds a normal human's so he's gonna be okay hahaha

Zhongli would only be concerned about her 'cause she's in so much pain. Worries again about the effects of his child on her, whether or not it would be too much for her.

but thank god, everything went smoothly. mother is fine, baby is fine.

Zhongli would be so grateful to her, he shed silent tears after Madam Ping left them to be alone. he would thank her for carrying his child and giving him the chance to experience what it's like to live like a mortal, as if she was the one who brought rain after a drought.

ironic for someone who had lived for so long, Zhongli is still experiencing his first-times; finally learnt how to truly live.

he still got a lot more to learn- how to be a father, a husband and lots more things to come.

published on 23.06.2022

#zhongli imagines #zhongli x reader #zhongli headcanons #zhongli scenarios #genshin imagines #genshin x reader #zhongli genshin x reader #zhongli genshin impact #zhongli fluff #zhongli x traveler #zhongli x y/n #zhongli smut #zhongli x you #zhongli x her #zhongli x pregnant reader #zhongli pregnancy

[buggin-0ut]

BUGGIN-0UT CAS CRASH COURSE!

I have zero video editing/ recording knowledge so i had to settle for this, hopefully its still helpful.

REFERENCES

@ iamkimey, blkkstar, dravenonline

When I use references, I rarely aim to make the Sim look exactly like the actual person. Instead I tend to select my favorite parts or features from each picture. Sometimes I don't use references at all, and people's features just pop into my head. Either way, my Sims are inspired by real people 95% of the time.

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

PRESETS

I loosely picked presets that were Similar to the reference I was using. I specifically liked the shape of her features and the fullness of her face, so that's what I focused on. Btw, I never aim to make it look exactly like the reference. I learned years ago that trying to make a perfect match is impossible unless you're using a face mask and As a perfectionist, it only sets you up for disappointment.

SIZING THE FEATURES

I think we all notice how cartoonish vanilla sims are so to make my sims look more "realistic" I do not make the features any bigger than the default size and I usually size the eyes down 1-3 bits, average being around 2. For the rest of the features I try to balance it out so that they're all cohesive.

SKIN

When selecting a skin tone, I usually click around randomly or aim for something similar to the reference. In this case, I chose a tone randomly and adjusted it using the color slider.

For this Sim, I desired a fuller, more plump face, so I searched for a skin that went with that look. Now, here are my most important tips! As you can see, this skin is an "Asian skin” but I'm not aiming to make this Sim Asian, I just chose it because it lacks cheek shadows. Skin details are important to my Sim making process and I cannot stress this enough! I plan to show the difference it makes by creating two different Sims using the same base at the end.

SKIN DETAILS

When it comes to skin details, I always use the Faaeish cheek and eye details. I've been using them for years and they significantly enhance my Sim creations. I use a variety of skin detail overlays, especially those that include skintones, because they offer more texture and definition. However, many overlays don't align well with the base game skin tones and I generally prefer non-overlay skins because overlay skins often have grey undertones for black skins. For this reason, I recommend using the color slider mod.

MINI COLOR SLIDER TUTORIAL

Here's an example of how I use color sliders to match my skin details. It helps if you're already familiar with color, hue, tone, etc., but it's not difficult if you're not. The swatch here is the closest match I could get in terms of color, so I'll use saturation, opacity, and brightness to achieve a closer match. 1) If it appears too orange, adjust the brightness and/or opacity. 2) Darkening the brightness helped, but it still looks too orange. 3 & 4) I reduced the opacity to slightly less than halfway, and it worked.

TWEAKING SOME STUFF

I adjusted the nose and lips to align with the fullness of the face. Remember when I mentioned cohesiveness earlier? Well, I'm going to dive into that a bit more right now. I chose a softer nose overlay to appear less defined and more rounded because a sharply defined nose on a full face wouldn't be as harmonious (although it can still work and look beautiful for sure). I added a lip overlay for fullness for the same reason. I then tweaked the face to ensure all features were facing neutrally (straight across, not up or down turned) to maintain consistency, because what???? cohesiveness blah blah blah!

MAKEUP

Time for the fun part! I also use makeup skin details, which are superr helpful with giving my Sims distinct looks. This is how I can use the same base skin for almost all my Sims and still make them look unique. For eyeshadow, I use eyelid overlays and adjust the color using the color sliders, following the same method as before :). In the images, you can see the difference between using no makeup skin details and using them. You can also see the difference in lipstick before and after using the color slider. OH! I also included heterochromia, inspired by one of the references!

EYES

I always reduce the size of the eyes and go for ones with less shine to achieve a more "realistic" look. Since these were the only Heterochromia eyes I had, and they leaned towards the cartoonish side, I made them very small and raised them a little to appear less round and more oval-shaped. I also adjusted the brightness to darken the eyes, creating more shadow for the sclera, which I feel like enhances the realism…Then ofc I make them a lil cockeyed, cause whats a buggin-0ut sim if the eyes dont look like they tryna see each other.

SKIN BLENDING

This is a new method I've been using to add texture to my Sims. I utilize the color slider mod to blend skin overlays, non-overlays, and facemasks. For this Sim, I chose the Tems skin by ClaikSims, mainly because she fine BUT !, it was a good choice because the spacious eyelids matched up perfectly. When doing this step, I recommend not setting the opacity too low, it can make the skin see through, which makes double nipples, eyebrows, belly buttons, etc. If this does happen, I honestly just use the body and cleavage masks by Sims4Melancholic.

DO WHATEVER YOU WANT!

The final step! I revisit my references and see what else I can include, such as their hair, makeup style, aesthetic, and so on.

I didn't change anything except the makeup. I just wanted to show an example of how much it can change a Sim, regardless of the skin used.

….

And that's my CAS process! Nothing too crazy…i think???. I've been doing the same routine since 2018, minus the sliders ig.

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask. I dont say much, but I do not bite, またね！

#b0:tutorials #forgot to mention i also use HELLA sliders and use them at every angle #Didnt realize i did all this until i had to break it down step by step #AND DONT ASK ME FOR SHIT ELSE! #nah im jp #i am a proud gatekeeper tho so you probably wouldn’t want to frfr

[olderthannetfic]

This might be a somewhat controversial opinion/rant, but as a black queer woman (i really id myself as being more genderqueer, but since i'm afab there are just things about womanhood growing up that has just stuck with me as formative experiences.), I find it really difficult to build community with queer men, even in fandom. I've tried to have friendships with transmen, but so many just feel the need to ramp up misogyny to 1000 to validate themselves as men, and then with gay men, some will say the most out-of-pocket, misogynistic things but because they're not attracted to women, it's somehow okay, I guess. But lately, there's been this trend among queer men of saying and doing misogynistic things but justifying it by stating they're talking about white, cishet women. But the thing is, there's nothing in what they said that can be specifically applied to only white women. It's a target to all women (I refuse to play the oppression olympics of who has it worse). And now I see other queer women in fandom saying the same things to each other. I typically stay in anime/manga and danmei fanbases because that's where a lot of my interests are now, and I don't have to deal with USAian nonsense as much. But now that 7 Seas has unfortunately decided to translate more danmei into English that's changed. A queer male fan of a popular series has been unfollowed en masse by danmei fans for saying wildly misogynistic things about the author. Everyone all week has been scrambling to figure out where this came from. "He only ever said these things about cishet white women," but you guys... he was always talking about us the whole time. Now, I just don't know. Now I see why men aren't generally welcomed in or are common within romance-genre circles. It's just really frustrating to see the same thing over and over again. I'll add on that the only genuinely cool queer men in fandom I've met have come from yuri circles. The ones who try to talk about BL are, from my experiences, generally misogynistic, toxic, and feel as though everything should center around them because they're men and in BL the characters are men, as well. But when other women don't want to form community with them, they scream about 'homophobia' and 'fetishizing gay men.' No, you're just an annoying, awful person to be around, and the queer male yuri fans didn't want to deal with you either. Has anyone else, or you specifically, dealt with this? Is there a way to become friends with more queer men in BL spaces who aren't... like That? Or are there specific things/patterns to look for as far as who to avoid?

--

God, so much of this sounds so familiar.

I've known a sad number of trans dudes who overcompensate in dickhead ways. A lot of them do calm down a few years into presenting publicly as male, but it's infuriating to see that crap even if it's temporary.

I will say that two of my close circle of offline friends are trans men, including one who came out during the time we've all been friends. The defensive tomfoolery is in no way inevitable. Both of these dudes are nonwhite and have experience in various other geeky and queer spaces beyond BL (gaming, drag queens, etc.). Maybe that broader perspective helped, or maybe they're just nicer and more mature people than a lot of the little jerkfaces I run across online.

TBH, I often have better luck in offline meetups because to show up at all, people have to be a little more comfortable with getting along with others and behaving themselves. It's also sometimes easier to detect the people you want to back away from slowly when you can see how they treat people in person.

One of my neighbors is a cis gay guy. White, able bodied, middle class, yadda yadda. Exactly the demographic you'd expect to be the worst in certain spaces. He and his partner have lots of queer friends, and plenty of them aren't fellow cis gay guys, which is basically my litmus test for non-annoying cis gay guys offline. (Toxic cis gay dude culture is its own kettle of fish with a different set of issues than defensive trans boy culture, but I've encountered it plenty too.)

This neighbor is interested in geikomi and was delighted to find out I'm a fellow nerd and eager for all my nonfiction book recs about queer Japanese stuff. We don't necessarily overlap in our manga tastes, but there's still a lot we do share. When I ramble on about how AFAB queer people and/or bisexuals study history that's presented as cis gay men's history because that's all we have for most historical periods, he's like "Yeah, that makes total sense!" and not "Mine and not yours!"

I think the key here is that this is a dude who is secure in his identity, who's getting both his media and queer community needs met, and who's in his 40s, so he has some god damn perspective and doesn't need to pretend BL is aimed at him.

A lot of the little jerkfaces make me think "Did your preschool teacher not teach you how to share your toys?"

--

To be honest, there seem to be plenty of dudes hanging around my tumblr. A few cis. Many trans. But they're not going to bring it up incessantly in some defensive "you know I'm not a cootie-having girl, right?" way because who does that?

It comes up when there's a discussion about trans shit or BL as #ownvoices or whatever. (And, in general, any dude worth hanging out with will not think BL as an industry is, or should be, anything of the sort—even if he's expressing his own sense of queerness by writing some.)

On the flipside, I have seen some pretty extreme "no boys allowed" clubhouse nonsense in fandom. It's less common than it was, and past shitty dudes have often been the inspiration, but it can still be a bit much. The nicer class of fandom dude is often pretty hesitant in certain spaces because he's expecting to be met with hostility and is trying to figure out how to participate without tromping all over everyone. (TBH, the guys worrying about this are rarely the problem, but you know how it is.)

I've had dudes send me private messages being like "this thing you said seems kind of stereotypical and anti-man", but in the adult capable of conversation way, not in the tantruming 5-year-old way. And we had a conversation, and they stuck around.

I think having a very clear "It's not #ownvoices, fuck off" stance deters a lot of the more pestilential set. Being equally clear that everyone is welcome and that male yuri fans and female BL fans are pretty equivalent makes the guys worth knowing come out of the woodwork.

In 99% of spaces, I do not give a fuck if some man has his precious feelings hurt by a double standard or default suspicion of men... But fandom is a little unusual because of the demographics and relative power here being so different from in most spaces.

I've definitely seen some people who think women liking BL are fine because we care about characters' personalities, while male fans are all predators or all write f/f that is just fetishy porn or m/m that sounds like Nifty.org and not other fanfic or whatever.

And, yeah, I'll shut down the dumbasses crying in my inbox because I made a joke about Nifty and "coke can dicks" (the kind of guys who have clearly never read m/m that's aimed at dudes outside of fandom spaces), but at the same time, we should extend a little benefit of the doubt to our fellow fandom members of whatever gender. There are usually plenty of men facepalming right along with me at these inexperienced young fools who cannot bear to share.

I think you're just running into the problem that the loud people whose identities you know are often using those identities to browbeat other fans on social media.

--

There are fewer men in BL spaces than women or nonbinary people, so one will typically end up knowing fewer men.

Honestly, I think you find the reasonable people and get rid of the unreasonable ones in the same way regardless of gender: Gatekeeping bullshit is a red flag. Very Online understandings of oppression are a red flag. Enthusiastic and clueless blanket endorsement of own voices as a concept is a red flag. Lots of talking about "fetishization" or even "appropriation" in a very online way is a massive red flag. Monetizing fanfic or seeing other pro authors as competition instead of peers is another. (Professional jealousy and fear about earning potential are behind a lot of bad behavior.)

A lot of it is down to whether you're willing to make yourself a target by publicly telling annoying people to fuck off.

If others can tell what you stand for, they can figure out if they want to hang out with you. Most people keep their heads down a lot of the time, so it can be hard to even hear of them, let alone know if they're your sort of person.

--

tl;dr – Be nice to nice men. Tell shitty men to take a hike. Making friends with men is really as simple as that.

There are larger issues here with what kinds of queer spaces exist and whom they prioritize and with toxic understandings of what representation even means and what should be demanded of whose art. But as you say, a lot of women are also promoting toxic-ass understandings of these things.

The bottom line is that we must resist social media clout-driven understandings of justice. The loudest assholes in the room are rarely worth listening to.

[anachrosims]

I'm so tired of this "baby-proofing" of the internet and pop culture. And no, I don't consider warning for sensitive topics/words to be baby-proofing.

(Warning: Mentions of common trigger words below.)

Can't say words like death or sex or suicide-- can't say swear words-- can't post even tasteful nudity or sexual content, much less all your niche fetishistic things-- without worrying about the banhammer or being censored or having your content removed. And yet, we do need content moderation-- within reason. A balance needs to be struck between legitimately harmful content and everything else.

There is no easy answer to this. Bots do not solve the problem of weeding out things that are uploaded with ill/harmful/illegal intent and there are horror stories out there (feel free to look up what human filters go through on YouTube) of actual people gettiing rapidly burned out because of having to weed out the millions of GB of absolute shit being dumped online every hour. This is nothing to say of content that helps spread inflammatory rhetoric and misinformation but is not outright graphic--and where the line on that is drawn varies from person to person. A robot cannot make a call on all these perfectly and neither can a team of people due to the sheer volume.

The last ten years, I've seen this spread into online culture where people are increasingly unable, unequipped, unwilling (or all of the above) to address more tough/sensitive topics in a productive manner.

What it comes down to, in my opinion, is corporatization of western culture (speaking for the hemisphere I live in and am most familiar with). The "corporatization" of culture has been going on for a long, long time, it's true. But at least for a time, the internet was a "wild west", a pocket of culture and subcultures that wasn't monetized, commodified, sanitized, and whitewashed for mass marketing appeal--it's easier to reach the widest audience if your content is bland enough to be palettable to the lowest common denominator.

It's been upsetting, to say the least, to watch the rapid sandblasting of so many things I love--including, but not limited to: Video games, social media, online spaces in general.

The only way I can think to effectively fight this can be summed up in one word: Education.

Read books. Take free/cheap courses on media literacy from reputable sources. Look up effective ways to communicate with other people. Learn how to debate and present arguments and how to listen, in turn. Try to learn how to stop yourself when you're getting emotional about anything and ask yourself: Why am I upset about this? What will flying off the handle do? Am I justified in speaking out? If I'm justified, is this really the time/place to speak out? Learn how to hold your tongue--not because of other people but to protect yourself and your mental health from overextending and from bringing eyes on you when you aren't ready for those consequences. Learn to read and speak in good faith.

All of these things take consistent practice. Culture can't be changed overnight and neither can you, but how those changes start to stick is by all of us practicing and changing over time.

We don't need to put up with the sanitization of our world by people who will be dead in a few decades. Gen Z and Millennials and even Gen X have already had so much stolen from us; I don't want to see them take it all. We have to build our own world brick by brick in the crumbling remnants of the past and that vibrant and good place starts with educating ourselves and each other.

#stfu elizabeth #not sims #kind of sims??? #tl;dr #long post

[petrichoraline]

For the honest answer ask game: what's the history of your blog? (this really just includes how/when you began blogging on tumblr, content, your interactions and your special moments on here etc; whatever you wish to prioritize for the ask in context).

honest hour question answered 3 days later <3 truly hope the wait was worth it love hahah

as someone who's gone through my archive already, you know i started out as a bts fan account in 2015. (my previous blog is not gonna be discussed for the simple reason that it's barely relevant to this one)

i believe i used to tag and organise my reblogs? there was a time where i cared enough and i loved srolling through my own blog, i stopped enjoying that when i became more involved w/ fandom on here and things weren't aesthetics based anymore. i don't like going through it that much now. i used to play around with themes, search for them, tweak colours and fonts for hours. after i returned years later there was an issue with the editor so now i can't change my theme at all and it sucks cause i just want to edit a few things.

so it started of as a bts fanblog, then i started rb-ing other kpop stuff, maybe afterwards i started sharing gifsets from movies and series i liked? as for fandom, i had a good amount of mutuals - accidentally became one with a girl from my country, we went out once and it was very nice <3 procrastinated and lost track fo tag games back then too lmaoo i felt a lot of dissatisfaction over it so i try to do everything now with my current fandom :)

back then is when i started reading fanfiction - i believe my first imagine was a taegi one where v was an artist and yoongi a photographer lol i stumbled upon it on the dash randomly and i got introduced to ao3 a bit after

iirc for the following years after i'd stopped stanning bts, i used to come back either relatively often or once in a blue moon - in the beginning i was just enjoying wtv my dash was offering me or seeking out specific stuff, then i started using it as a tracklist of what shows i've watched haha, no tags, just rb after finishing a show.

i started engaging with fandom around the release of episode 5 of kinnporsche, i read a bunch of posts on here, then tms2 came around and i got even more into reading people's takes..at some point i started talking to people i guess hahah i don't even know when i started trying to put out content, so to say, i just know i was doing screenshot posts short before i found myself pushed to attempt gifs and that was after big dragon had just finished airing.

then i started my giffing journey. had support from @gillianthecat whom i loved giffing paulnice for. honestly that and the discussions we had were such an important part of me having fun with this site and keeping it up. and @joyladagang, my self-proclaimed #1 hype woman, made me feel super welcome. then i got even more moots, at some point i started reaching out or actively reciprocating others attempts at getting closer (though i had been active in discussions before that, i just mean i got a bit braver and started acting more familiar with everyone (esp w/ ppl i got closer to through @joyladagang like @cankersoregirl, @feralmuskyscentedhoepran, @loserlesbianongsa etc.)

i'm grateful to a lot of people on here, truly. it's not supposed to be a shoutout post so i won't be tagging any more people (esp since i would have to tag everyone who follows me plus a bunch of people i follow which..it's a bit much) but i'm genuinely thankful for each person that enjoys my rants, gifs, theories or wtv the things i post classify as, whether they found a post by accident or follow the blog. and i'm grateful to the creators i follow, and i'm happy to talk to so many sweet, smart and funny individuals on various topics daily.

so this is where my blog is at right now - trying to do a bit of everything and talking a bit with everyone. my issue, tbh, is i'm trying a bit too hard to satisfy everyone which sounds ridiculous but i am a bit of a people pleaser at times so it checks out lol

#ana thats such a good question!! thats a sleepy head answer youre getting though im sorry <33 #thank you sm for asking me smth <3 #ppg #petri replies #ask game

[taupewolfy]

*sigh* I know I said I really wasn't going to do this but at the same time I want to briefly talk about what I did enjoy playing this year, or what was fairly standout to me. Of course, caveat of how the industry has been churning over so many developers and workers and axing people left and right for nonsense reasons. And for the most part, some of these I've talked extensively about through the year so I won't include all my thoughts on them here. Anyway let's dig into it:

Hi-Fi Rush- You know when you play something and it oozes love for it's topic and the game itself? Yeah, that comes through in so many facets of this passion project of a game (especially since it had a surprise drop and surprising team behind it (Tango more well known for the survival horror series The Evil Within). Somewhat...hmm ironic that this game contains so many jokes/nods to the abusive working conditions of the industry (while certainly framed in a negative way I sure do hope the devs that worked on this didn't have the need to crunch). Coming off of the backs of the dmc games at the end of the year prior had me well equipped for this game's very fun rhythm combat, and I deeply adore the 'classic' ps2-gc era feel of the game, both in the level structure and the fact it has levels.

Dragon's Dogma (Dark Arisen ver.) - I'm not going to repeat what I've said like a thousand times. Sick as combat and really fun systems. Feels very classic rpg in the way quests and the worlds come across (helped by it's very traditionally fantasy monsters). And of course, I would be remiss to not include a link to my absolute favourite track that plays whenever you topple a giant creature. As soon as you hear that choir and strings kick in? Yeah that's the good stuff.

Baroque- Ahhh baroque. Baroque, Baroque, Baaaaaaroque. What haven't I said about this game? It very quickly became one of my absolute favourites of all time last year. Helped by the fact I could instantly attune to its all too familiar mystery dungeon styled gameplay. An intense and highly atmospheric game.

Ai Somnium: The Nirvana Initiative - Another game I talked about a lot this year. One I enjoyed a hell of a lot more than it's prior game, even if it underutilises some of its characters. Did you know this game lies to you and then pulls the wool off of your eyes and goes 'HA! You thought this was happening and it was actually this!' and it's so fucking rude about hahahaha. Actually made so everything does line up the way it does, I even replayed things after that reveal to get my facts all in order and was amazed that they hid a sneaky character swap between cutscenes loading. I feel the game is fairly hampered by it's 'silly spoiler filter', which I feel subtracts too much from the game to really let it be a decent sequel.

Misericorde - Man. I love a good mystery. Misericorde sets itself up so well I love the degree of doubt and I love a unreliable narrator speaking of events past all the while being affected by their emotions in the matter. Hedwig is a sopping wet beast of a nun (prior achoress, essentially someone who takes a vow of isolation, so she's got many years of learning how to socialise to catch up on) thrown out into the world to discover a murderer in the abbey, all the while trying to learn about the other nuns that live and work there and not raise suspicions. Really fantastic and chapter 2 is one I am keenly excited for this year.

Pentiment - This worked incredibility well as an almost companion piece to Misericorde. The games are technically set around 100 years apart from each other, in very different parts of Europe but a lot of the way religion and the world works was helped by what I had learned from Misericorde. It's an Obsidian RPG if that isn't enough of a indicator on the quality idk what to tell you. It's got a nice quality to it that really rounds it out well and while some people may be disappointment by how choices resolve I quite liked the way it mulled in my mind. OH ALSO fuuuuuuck you gotta play this one for the way text is displayed. Truly amazing stuff.

Basilisk 2000 - You might be a bit suprised that Lunacid doesn't show up on this list, I've instead opted to pick one of the other games KIRA released last year, which is Basilisk 2000 - a follow up to Basilisk for the SNES. Basilisk 2000 is an unfinished, unreleased game that was re-discovered by some bloke called Kyle Tubman, who found the build tools for the game and repackaged it into an executable file so folks can poke around on this unreleased project. Except...not really! This is a 100% original game by KIRA! No, what you spend most of your time in B2000 is using the dev engine to poke around the unfinished build of the game and try to...discover why it never came out...?? Tbh I'm still poking around with this one (literally just found a new level TODAY opening the game on a whim). Notepad is required and it's pretty unlikely you'll find 'everything' on your own. It's a really eerie game pocketed with vast emptyness (especially as you start finding some really hidden levels), perhaps made scarier if you're unfamiliar with floating around 3d spces with dev tools...

Persona 3 Portable - It's persona wadda you want me to say? Nah I hadn't prior played any smt or persona game (I had watched my sister play p5 and p5r) but I had always heard good things about p3...so it was on sale and I picked it up. Let me tell you it did not disappoint! Having a female protag is a great bonus and I really enjoyed the added aspects of the main cast brought into this game through her. Interesting playing the shifting point for the series and seeing the roughness of things like social links (stuff that comes very obviously from actual dating sims) and the combat mechanics being sooooo tantalisingly good. It had me hooked.

Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate - MH3 was my first of the series to play and still sits at this very comfortable familiarity. This one is mostly here because I get to play it with my sister, who has a special interest in the series, and neither of us have played this title before so it's been a blast to return to Moga and go through some familiar locals and creatures.

Void Stranger - Aside from the fact I couldn't shut up about this game for (even after) the three solid weeks I spent playing it and digging into ever secret I could puzzle and get my hands into? Yeah this one takes the cake and crown for the year. All time favourite, easily...almost effortlessly.

ZeroRanger - So this is a game made by the same devs of Void Stranger, which I was so impressed by, I quickly ran out and bought this one...even though I'm not the biggest fan of shoot 'em ups lol. Anyway this game rules as well, very fun shmup and apparently a good entry point for the genre. Much love in it to games of the genre as well (which I've discovered now in checking out other stuff...cute references that don't feel trite).

Chrono Cross - Loooooove the battle system in the world, charmed by it's tropical archipelago flavour etc. I actually really like this game, even when it doesn't really meet it's potential make much sense. It's solid enough and got enough good/interesting things that I can like it.

Armored Core 6 - This is probably the biggest title from the year I've got on this list. Holy wowee fuck me this game is awesome. Much like Hi-Fi Rush it feels good to have levels again, especially since you can replay them anytime. Had a blast swapping play between my sister for each level....helped keep a good pace between us and made for some fun moments when one of us meets a boss and the other can replay that level with their own mecha kit.

Guilty Gear Strive - I've play this majority of the time, if only, with sis and it's on here because...well? Some point while we were playing last year it 'clicked' for us. I've struggled with fighting games in the past and can't really understand them but something really did 'click' and suddenly we got it. And it's been a blast to just go toe to toe with sis in this flashy and fun game. Just good times with this one.

MegaMan Legends - One of the neat things I was able to get last year was a psvita....which I proceeded with loading up full of ps1 titles that I've always wanted to play - MML being one of them. I mostly came to this one to check out the art on display but I'm glad I've played it, this is a delightful game. I do need to return to this one but if i have any major complaint about it, it's the bosses. Otherwise the charm oozing out of this game is soooooo good. I love dungeon crawler <3 It also essentially plays like a mecha game, which is heaps fun. Eventually excited to tackle it's sequel sometime this year, hopefully!

CrossCode - Hi, Lea!

#anyway this took longer to type than i thought it would. #taupe talks #vg #if you want deeper thoughts on any of these feel free to ask

[beta-adjacent]

Playlist Makes Brain Go Brrrrr

First off, the playlist in question here was created by the amazing @softomegaposting. They did and excellent job I'd highly recommend listening to it first, especially if you weren't familiar with the songs like me!

Vibe Assessment

I was really struggling to describe the tone of this playlist. To solve that, I....may or may not have roped in some of my irl music-loving friends.

I challenged myself to describe this playlist without mentioning omegaverse. These are the phrases I came up with: "utopian domesticity and All its vile implications", "calming your lover down like they're a feral animal", "you've been reduced to your body and pray you will transcend physicality", "bawling your eyes out as the credits of an indie romcom roll", and "healing a debutante of her tuberculosis despite knowing her illness is prized".

After many listen-throughs, I still stand by these descriptions, except for the tuberculosis one (though it has great potential to be for another dynamic).

I think it's interesting how you found songs that have shockingly great parallels to omegas. "Froot", "Calm Me Down", and "One Day Robots Will Cry" FLOORED me when I first heard them because of this. I thought the religious aspect to some of the songs was interesting; not only were they good portrayals of that nuanced worship, but it also fit into the late 20th century domesticity theme?? I don't know, it's just *chef's kiss*

Song Reccs

Dicslaimer

What this is: Chai trying their best at using their and their friends' knowledge to find songs that Chai would include if this were their playlist. Chai is heavily biased by their musical background, and tries their best to explain the issues they have with each recc What this is NOT: Chai stating that these songs should actually be added, that these are the perfect/most-fitting songs for the playlist, or that these songs were chosen purely through an objective pattern-seeking lens

Friend's picks:

"Video Games" by Lana del Rey, "Abandoned" by Alexander Ryback,

Putting this category first because it's the shortest and also incomplete since I'm still waiting on another friend's reccs. To be fair, my friends had way more suggestions than this, but these were the only two I felt really fit the themes described? But they're, naturally, missing the canine edge

My picks:

"Sweet Nothing" by Taylor Swift, "Grenadine" by Dreadlight, "Impostor Syndrome" by Sidney Gish, "Los Angeles" by Sugarcult,

"Sweet Nothing" hurts the most if it's played directly after "Hey Good Lookin", which is what took it out of the Honorable Mentions category tbh. It is the only song I believe actively captures one of the listed descriptors

"Grenadine" feels like it has the most on-the-nose for feral animal energy, but I also feel like it doesn't nail the theme 100%? It has more of a 'man-eater' vibe than anything

"Impostor Syndrome" is just a personal favorite of mine, omegaverse aside. Content-wise, a song about feeling disturbingly different/lesser than others feels very omega-coded, at least by many verses' standards. Lines like "these sweet instincts/ruin my life" and "for canine/grossly overqualified" are just icing on the cake

LISTEN!!! “Los Angeles” is THE typical omegean heat story. This is the hardest song to place in the descriptors, since it's describing a common trope instead of the psyche of an omega, but I've thought about this song for too long to not mention it. There's something very omega in struggling between intimacy and just getting through the day, especially as you try to fight against the "heat".

Honorable mentions:

"Summertime" by Dutch Criminal Records, "Sirens" by Elefant, "Sanctuary" by Utada, "The Detail" by Delta Sleep, "Self Defense" by Paul Westerberg, "The Garden" by the Crane Wives

Out of all of these, I think "The Garden" is the strongest, but I couldn't sit down and explain why to you if I tried :')

"Sanctuary" is here because I listened to FOB's "Church" and heard the singular word 'santcuary'. And then I read the lyrics and debated for 20 minutes on if this was a good addition, so I compromised and put it here

"Self Defense" first entered the scene for the 'cheekbones and hormones' line, and remained because it felt on-theme in its somberness

"Summertime", "Sirens", and "the Detail" were just ones that stood out when I was pilfering through Spotify, and fit the musical themes enough for me to say "fuck it, someone could reasonably interpolate this probably"

A few other artists I listened to on the quest for suitable reccs: Owl City, The Smith's, Crystal Castles, The Pierces, Melanie Martinez, the Front Bottoms, and the Barbie album (haven't seen the movie yet either oops). I wish I could've gone through so much more, but life really caught up to me

#fun fact: day 3 into my research I rb'd the original post and cass said I didn't have to do any reccs #little did she know this whole production was happening lol #I think overall this took me... 5(?) days?? #I don't quite know Why my brain decided this was the penultimate project for me to take on this week but it is what it is #omegaverse playist #omegaverse #a/b/o #Spotify

[sol-consort]

Greetings commander Shepard, hopefully things are going well for you.

Me. Calibrations, there aren't very many scenes I remember of Garrus. The scene I remember the most was in the third game where he and you are having a shooting contest and can let him win or win for yourself. I always chose to let him win, his enthusiasm over the victory was enjoyable. Though a less pleasant action he did was arming micro explosives in the new apartment you get, I forgot his code so fast. Finding him in mass effect 2 brought a smile to my face seeing him again. Never really looked into his character, currently I'm trying to remember his missions. The black market dealer confrontation I think I chose the paragon option. We arrest the Salarian I think. I don't know why but it reminds me of Sera's mission where you can confront a noble. Both characters show concern about hearing the opposition out and I think you can say something about trying to test out their reactions.

"I'm sorry Pill, but the family has spoken. You will need to disappear. You will be missed, collect your thoughts." Sorry you pill pet had to go, but congratulations on your niece's latest patch.

As for the modding, I'm not familiar with it in general aside from stories of Bethesda games getting a lot of mods. Some for amusement, some for quality of life, and some for personal. Hope the experience was fun and congratulations on fixing or finding a work around. I've seen some mods for stardew valley, mainly from a channel I think, Dangerously funny is the handle, but I don't think they've uploaded stardew valley content in a while. Has the new update come out for stardew? How are you enjoying your time with it in general?

I do not know how much work and research you've had to do for your blogs, but it definitely is a lot. I can see why you'd get burnt out. Take your time and see that you made your spot. A lot of people enjoy your stories and so enjoy your response. Your efforts have paid off. I'm happy you got to where you can converse with people you can trade or share information on interests you have. The consort sol settlement you place on the map has been marked. The little camp you set up turned into a little town. Or would it be your outpost has been approved of expansion from the a space setting?

Regarding you not doing well mentally, I'm sorry about that. I know people have different ways of dealing with it and I wish you the best with dealing with them. Hopefully my wording is careful. I don't know how you feel when it hits or for how long, but I do wish you the best in whatever means are available to you.

Walnut.

Your previous post about your actions with walnuts made me think of Shepard in your place and Anderson in your father's. The rest of your crew by the third entire would most likely be joining you but a few may stick with Anderson, giving you a bag and probably just watching.

Had to look up the disk of humanity, found out that they made references to it in some early transformers cartoons and some more recent ones from Netflix. I didn't know about the whale songs, but that does sound nice. Space whales can hear their sea siblings. As for the super volcano, had to it up and, very big. Often forget that each planet has its own thing going and that we're looking into colonizing mars. Your love for space shows as well as your enthusiasm for things you wish to learn about. Hope you get to explore more things of interest.

Hopefully this finds you well, and thank you for the wishing of good things to come. I hope the same for you, remember to hydrate, stretch, rest your eyes and to take time for yourself. That includes taking a break from hobby diving to rest. I know not all of the previous can be done, just do what you can for yourself and hope you have time.

Thank you

I don't have any energy. I read your sweet letter multiple times and milked it for every drop of happiness I could get when my days were getting dim. I'm thankful for your existence.

Life has...taken a huge dip. I feel like I'm crumbling. My headaches are worse.

I was waiting to have some resemblance of good news to share with you before replying to the ask. But I kept waiting and waiting and nothing came, I'm sorry. I thought I'd achieve something or go through a fun even if I just postponed replying to this, I didn't and it hurts to ignore it any longer.

I don't want to talk about the bad either.

So I guess this is it for this time around. I hope I have something more cheerful and interesting to share with you next time, if there is a next time.

I hope you're well and if you're not, then know it's okay to be unwell. Life still goes on, the world still spins and no one turns off the sun. The indifference of the universe is comforting if you think about it, like an estranged relative that will always send you money but never send their congratulations or condolences. It's safer this way, to put a wall between you and others.

-

I'm trying to write a new fic, a character in it speaks latin and I have been researching latin because of it. I still don't understand the difference between "Mi" "Mei" and "Meus" when it comes to possessive pronouns but I'll manage. I think "Mi" was for feminine nouns and "Meus" for masc but I think I'm wrong. "Mae" is probably for feminine nouns.

I also don't understand how that rule applies to names. If I wanted to say "My Bob" would I say "Bob Meus" or "Mi Bob" or "Meus Bob"

It apparently also changes depending on if I'm currently speaking directly to Bob, thinking about Bob or just talking to someone else about Bob.

Arabic is also a gendered language but it feels more...manageable? Like how come a noun's gender effects the way I say MY possessive pronouns? But not possessed noun pronouns?

In arabic to add "my" you just add a "ti" or "li' at the end of a noun. So for example my table would become "Tabla-ti"

"Tabla" is table and "ti" is mine.

It's actually just the "i" that you add without the "t" but when you say Tabla, the last "a" is actually a "t" that's pronounced as "A" if left alone but with an added letter it becomes "t"

If we do it with Bob it becomes "bobi"

Funny thing that's where the confusion about the word "habibi" comes from. It's so hilarious when I see fanfic writers make arab characters say "my habibi" because they don't know better. It's like someone say "my my love"

"Habibi" has the "i" of possessive. "Habib" is the noun by itself which means lover. It comes from the word "hub" which is love. It also depends on the lover's gender and quantity.

"Habibti" for feminine while the other for masc

"Habibye" for two masc or mixed lovers. "abibaatye" for two fem lovers

"Hubi" for plural masc or mixed lovers. "Habibati" for plural fem lovers.

Now this is with the first person pronouns. If you change it to second person where I'm saying this lover belongs to you then it all changes again to slightly different words. Also each word now has two versions depending on if the "you" is a masc or fem.

It also changes completely again if we're talking in third person about a "he" "her" or "they"

Also lover is a general endearment term that is used to be friendly rather than flirtatious? Like I'd call a stranger "habibi" just to show I'm glad to see them? My dad calls me that when he brings me something and I call my little niece that when she's crying and I comfort her.

It's almost like "darling" for British people. Sure the literal translation means something but the culture itself around the word changed its meaning.

You can still use it for your actual lover, however, and no one will bat an eye. But again, it won't impress your lover. It's not romantic by nature. It's a term for platonic love.

Unless you introduce someone as your "habibi," then yeah, it develops romantic context.

With words that already end with "i" then you add a ّshada which is like a tiny "w" that shows this letter should be pronounced twice as intensely

So with chai it would become chaii or chaiّ

You can skip the tiny w and add two letters but it is considered childish to do so.

And all of this is just formal arabic, which no one actually speaks irl. It's only used in official documents, professional books, government, and news. If you spoke it irl, people would laugh at you endlessly.

Regional dilect changes the way gendered terms are spelt and written, and also how the possessive and gender rules work. It becomes so severe that most Arabic countries don't understand each other from how much each of their dilects has evolved and changed. Sometimes in events, you need an interpreter to translate dilect arabic to fromal arabic in order for other arabic people to understand it.

that's why we still teach formal arabic despite it technically being a dead language since no one speaks it. So we can use it to communicate and document things when you don't understand the other person's version of arabic.

When foreigners want to learn arabic, we gently sway them to learn Egyptian dilect arabic because it's the "easiest" by far and most understood in all arabic countries thanks to Egypt being famous for their movies and theater shows. It's how I learned Egyptian arabic actually because I didn't have a clue what they were saying before.

It also has a lot of french influence in it thanks to the colonisation. So to a western tongue, it's spoken more smoothly while with my country's arabic, you'd have to learn new letters and new sounds to make.

A dilect and an accent are completely different, btw. I have an accent in arabic, my own mother language. Because I decided to learn English as a kid at the same time, I was learning to speak my country's dilect version of arabic, so they mixed a lot of wires in my brain. As a conclusion, I can speak formal arabic more authenticity than my own county's arabic, which is...insulting and embarrassing.

-

The world isn't doing well. I'm afraid of dying. My country is so close to the current genocide going on and all airports here were closed recently.

The idea of dying by itself is weird. It's not so out of reach anymore. I'm barely healthy and alive as I am right now, would I be strong enough to survive an attack or a war?

It sounds grim but I'd prefer dying before it happens.

-

You mentioned letting Garrus win, that's very sweet of you. And interesting since I always chose to let him lose. I felt like Shepard earned a win between everything that's happening, a chance to show off to an old friend.

But you let him win. I didn't even consider it as an option. It was kind and selfless.

The micro explosives and hottub trap incidents are one of my favourites in the apartment party mission. He was so enthusiastic about it that he didn't even consider the home part in "home defence" he didn't want you to not get robbed, he wanted your house to almost get broken into so he could force the intredurs through traps that are a mix of saw and home alone. Doesn't matter if the house isn't livable anymore. This is war shepard. You could easily fit a Browning .50 calibre machine gun in the fridge if you take out all the food. That way, if an intredur comes in, you can pretend to fix yourself a little sandwich and then boom 1200 round/minute to the face.

-

I ate donuts lately. They were really tasty.

I got strawberry chocolate, white chocolate and milk chocolate ones.

The strawberry was my favourite.

Do you eat your donuts hot or cold? I always eat them when they're hot because they're bakery goods. They are baked. They come out of an oven. They are supposed to be hot.

They're not cake. You don't have frosting to worry about or anything. Just plop them into the microwave for 30 seconds, then eat them hot and tasty. I genuinely can't understand people who eat them cold.

Sponge cakes without frosting are best eaten hot too.

What is a baked good if not bread that's sweeter than usual? And you don't eat cold bread do you?

-

Fojwofjw that walnut incident, I will never live it down huh?

I think Grunt would join Shepard and consider smashing walnuts on the ground (or on someone) as the only correct way to eat it. Ashley would definitely bully tf out of Shepard for it while Kaidan tries to politely hint at how unhygienic it is and maybe just ask him to open them next time?

Thinking about it, I've done a lot of stupid shit just to fuck around and find out. Consequences didn't even register to me when the promise of a tempting experiment was on the horizon. Staying up long enough to induce a psychosis episode, stealing alcohol and cigarettes as a kid, not to consume mind you, but to cut and mix them trying to decipher what makes them so addicting to adults.

I hid so well in hide and seek as a kid once, stayed in the same position for 4 hours, and didn't move even when the my friends went to ask my parents if I came home. Cue my parents panicking and asking the neighbours, searching the streets and calling my name while I sayed in my hiding spot gigging and thinking of how impressed they would be of my great hiding skill.

They were not, especially when the police were called.

A waste of my talents I tell you.

I also ate rat poison as a kid once. Out of spite because they made it look like candy and my parents were like "hey listen fuckface, this bag that looks like candy IS NOT candy, it's for the rats. Do not eat it."

So of course I went and ate it after they went to sleep like duh? I knew it wasn't candy, I was just insulted they thought I was dumb enough to fall for it. So I decided to act even dumber.

Being frank, I don't think natural selection wants me here.

-

I'm feeling better, actually. less miserable than when I started writing this. It made me happier, like writing to an old friend. I was so scared of answering this since I didn't have anything interesting to talk about, but now I see that my fear was misplaced.

I don't want to worry you or anyone reading this. I deleted so many parts that slipped out about my personal problems. Life is just disheartening and it's bitter to not be loved as much by what was supposed to be a family.

But I will love myself regardless. At least I will try to. Because there is no other option. If natural selection made a mistake by not taking me out when I was a dumb kid, good fucking luck catching me now. I'm planning to live and enjoy life out of spite. I love so many things in this life, it's beautiful.

#☆other

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee

It's taken me some time to start the game. I'm enjoying it without being super impressed.

I love Oddworld Abe's Oddysee on PlayStation 1. Its' perfect in every possible way. Even load times. How? because the load screen tells the player to get over it. Anyway, knowing that the series was intended to be a Star Wars-esque universe of unique stories and characters, playing Abe's Oddysee really pumps one up for that vision (New 'n' Tasty, not so much). Munch's Oddysee, so far, fails to carry us forward on that promise.

The original Abe's Oddysee made a claim that each game would feature a unique protagonist. But the success of the game led to a request for a direct sequel with a short turn around time. Enter Abe's Exodus. The game expands on the familiar formula with good feature updates but also breaks the promise of a unique story/experience. I kinda enjoyed it, from what I remembered, but in the same ways the themes, characters, and gameplay was reused--so was the humor. Instead of being a succinctly perfect experience, it was an overlong encore. It's been decades since I've played it, so my memory could be way off.

Anyway, Munch's Oddysee seemed like an opportunity to put us on track. Originally the game was advertised for PS2. I have recently learned that PS2 "tech demo" was a pre-rendered visualization of what the game could be. It presented itself as a tech demo showing off features, when it was actually a publicity stunt to secure funding. Either way, I was excited by the visualizations promise: a fully 3D game with new ways to play. I was less excited by the return of Mudokons. Don't get me wrong, I love Abe and his people--but I had hoped we were moving beyond that, as promised.

The game half-way delivers on that promise in that you switch between Abe and Munch. This potentially allows us to explore new ways to use familiar Mudokon gameplay mechanics in a 3D space while also trying to branch out. We'll see how well that succeeds.

I'm also going into this game with some baggage. Oddworld Inhabitants betrayed their PS2 fan base to make their game an Xbox exclusive. The assumption at the time was they got paid-off:

Given the original vision of Oddworld, I could see where you'd want the extra cash to provide exceptional storytelling and production value. But it also means that this game deserves extra scrutiny. Personally, I think abandoning the most successful home game console in history (and the established fan base) set Oddworld on a path of ambiguity and failure that has seen the franchise struggle to meet its promise and potential. And as I play it now, I'll be considering:

Could this have been possible on PS2?

Does the Xbox provide anything the PS2 couldn't?

Did Microsoft's cash lead to a well produced product?

My hypothesis is 1) Yes, 2) not really, 3) No.

The opening scenes are very reminiscent of Abe's Oddysee. That's good wink to the fans, but once again chains this game to a more original experience. Familiarity is comfortable, but it's also a little unexciting. Kind of like how many of the new Star Wars films/shows try to maintain that 80's aesthetic. It's instantly familiar and recognizable, but also boring. Episode 1 did a great job changing the design to feel different based on the new species and planets featured, but also recognizing that this was a different decade and era--things are not going to look the same. It's really sad that no other branch of Star Wars has been able to outgrow this narrow view of Star Wars design.

Anyway, same for Munch's Oddysee. It looks like 3D Abe's Oddysee. The fact that it features Abe and Mudokons means that's probably how it needs to be, but fails to deliver on the promise of fresh experiences.

Now the opening story (yeah, we're still at the beginning), the story follows the environmental themes of the original: good. But the pacing is horrible. I'm not sure what happened because Abe's Oddysee was near perfect. The little cut scenes were well timed, the visuals were engaging, and Abe told a good story...that rhymed. Every shot in Munch's Oddysee overstays its welcome. Once Munch gets trapped, screen direction tells us that he's looking at an approaching light overhead--but the edit shows that this light is actually far away. Someone didn't take film courses before being in charge of editing.

Next, we cut to Abe hearing about Munch's plight. the creature telling the story is a great, new thing, weird and wonderful in an Oddworld-way. But the fact that we switch to Abe here once again removes us from this being Munch's story. It's once again the Abe-show and failure to deliver on the original's promise. Next, the creature falls asleep and many Mudokons moan as they walk off. Once again the shot overstays its welcome and there's no significant story beats or clever humor that makes the stay worth it. It likes comedic punch. It's like All That during the final seasons--no ideas and just wearing silly clothes as though that "counts" for comedy. I think the problem is the game is trying to make you laugh while Abe's Oddysee was trying to tell a story. AO could have lacked all humor and been a great story still. It wasn't the humor that made that experience. Instead, it was the great story and production value that made the humor work. It reminds me of Edgar Wright films. Those movie's best comedic moments come from telling a story, and not bending over backwards to create ridiculous situations.

So now we start playing as Abe. First of all--fuck the movement. Abe moves at a brisk pace. There's also a run button. But if you're moving down hill, Abe picks up a LOT of speed. This could kinda make sense from a physics perspective, but 99.99999% of all 3D platforms do not change your character speed while moving downhill (or not significantly). So there was a real struggle to get used to the sudden speed changes. Next--the jumping is awkward. Abe leaps pretty high into the air, but gravity is such that he doesn't get much hang-time. Most 3D platforms are a tiny bit more floaty--which allows the player land their jumps more accurately. It gives you time to think about your next move after you land. So far, it's not been a huge issue, but I don't love it.

The game also introduces collectibles: Spooceshrubs. They're green fungus looking things that grow on the surface. Except they don't look natural at all They look like designer put them in very specific places. This is disruptive for a couple of reasons: 1.) it looks totally unnatural and so reminds us that this is a game with rules and currencies. 2.) it adds a tedious layer to the experience not present in the previous game. Truly, why is this time of currency necessary? I sit because you couldn't think of interesting things to give the player to do, so you forced a basic, decades old collection mechanic on them? Collection like this (Mario's coins, Banjo's Notes, Crash's Wumpa Fruit, and Spyro's gems) are all about moving the player around the environment: to challenge you to explore. Abe didn't collect coins, though, he collected Mudokons. A mechanic that's very much at play already. So there's no need for this.

A matter of fact, the better collection mechanic is shown in the game. Abe has to enlist the help of Mudokons to open barriers. He needs three mudokons to chant a gate open, Mudokons to fight off enemies, and Mudokon to activate electrical currents. Exploring the environment to find Mudokons is sufficient to challenge the player to explore, and collecting "enough" mudokons to open gates is enough currency. If a mudokon dies, you can resurrect them by paying spooceshrubs--but why put the player through that? It's a waste.

Now let's touch on graphics and level design...

The graphics and level design appeared to be tied together in mutual self-destruction. Like Jack and Rose both trying to bet on the piece of wood after the Titanic sank, but because neither will sacrifice themselves for the other, they both struggle to get out of the water and die. See, this is where the BS around focusing on Xbox starts to infuriate me...

Being that this Oddworld Inhabitants first fully 3D game, I'm not surprised that they didn't knock it out of the park--but I am very disappointed. Firstly, there's fog. FOG!!!

The purpose of fog is to hide pop-in. PlayStation 1 fans are very familiar. It was also present on N64, but less so. And even games without fog would still have character/object pop-in (Banjo Kazooie). The move to PS2 was meant to be a move beyond the limitations for PS1. Not every game could achieve that (Dynasty Warriors), but there was a concerted effort from the best studios at the time. The reason I hold MO accountable to the fog issue is because so many great 3D adventure games on PS2 avoided fog. Grand Theft Auto 3 for example. Here was a giant open world with three islands. You could stand on one island and look all they way across to the other. This islands are pretty big too! While there was vehicle and character pop-in, there wasn't much in the way of environmental pop-in--which helped the world feel large. Also, Jak & Daxter featured a semi-open world--and they were able to show off environments that were very far away. They did it through some clever placement of walls and mountains and reduced detail, but they avoided fog for levels as big as or bigger than MO. So I'm having a hard time accepting that fog was necessary. It just shows a lack of technical and graphical fine tuning that takes a major hit on the production value of the game and makes me question what going to Xbox exclusive actually provided on a technical level.

Maybe it wasn't the performance of the P2, but performance of the development.

That's kinda harsh--but also kinda true. I'm sure the team was doing their best, but this was simply new territory and they were not prepared. In a sense, they set themselves up for failure. Look at Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot. For the time, that was a great looking game (and the design still holds up). But the programmers had to pull out every trick in the book, and invent some of their own, to get this very simple game to look as good as it did. That's production value. That's saying, "Our game looking, playing, and feeling good on the surface is key to making it great". Crash Bandicoot is also fun. All the prettiness would have been meaningless if it wasn't fun. But there's a balance, and they walked it perfectly. And you saw through the franchise how they grew in both gameplay and graphics--always balancing fun and production value.

Munch's Oddysee is more focused on fun (I think). The team just couldn't deliver on graphics (whether it was time, money, or talent--I don't know). So to be the next step in the Oddworld franchise and basically presenting a weak tech demo as a finished project--it's quite disappointing. This is almost like going from Starship Troopers 1 to Starship Troopers. Now that's kinda not fair, because jumping from 2D to 3D brought unlimited challenges--but not being prepared to mitigate those challenges and present one of the best looking games of that console era meant letting down the spirit of the franchise.

And I feel confident the team could have done better. I watched some raw-ps2 playthroughs of Jak & Daxter and Just Cause 1. JC1 is a huge, open world game. It doesn't look beautiful, but the draw distance on the environments is massive. You can see for miles. I think the game opens with a sky-dive and you can faintly see all the islands of this huge world from hundreds of feet up. That means fog shouldn't have been necessary. While Jak & Daxter may not attempt the gameplay depth of MO, it does have great animations and design. The cliff walls are not flat surfaces, but bumpy blocks that take up dozens of polygons per squar meter. Whlie Oddworld features very rough, unnatural walls acting as obviously constraints to guide the player. There was an attempt to make the ground walls not so flat by stretching a few vertices into odd angles. But unfortunately it also stretched the pixels, which once again hurts the production value.

Really, the team just needed to redesign areas to hide the draw distance and other limitations. Naughty Dog is great about using the environment to hide draw distance limitations and it makes the game feel more impressive--even if it's a little more claustrophobic. Another issue while playing as Abe, we seemed to be up in some mountains. And instead of showing us a distant valley, kind of like Halo, they put ugly clouds/mist just below the cliffs. It's not only obviously hiding limitations, but it's ugly.

Gameplay wise--this area was ok. It's a training area, so hardly challenging. You collect enough Mudokons to chant barriers out of your way. Basically finding a key to unlock a door--if the key were broken into 8 pieces and each was able to talk.

After the Abe Training I did the Munch training. This started with a really bad video explaining how Munch was equipped with sonar so he could fetch captured critters for the badguys. The seen was irreverent way over stayed its welcome. Once again, the developers were trying to be funny instead of just telling a story. So it was cringy and a waste of time.

But once I started playing as Munch, I felt the graphic designs had improved. The team is better at making rusty, industrial interiors than organic outdoors. This is unfortunate. I think taking lessons from Jak & Daxter would have helped. Like the wooden structures in Jak feel like they're made up of individual logs of various size and shape. It's simple detail that took a lot of time to do, but makes the game more engaging and immersive. While Munch's Oddysee has a flat rectangle with log-texture painted onto it. So when you look at it, you think: "That want me to see this as a wooden ramp". But you don't buy it as a ramp--you just accept it. The Jak games do a much better job here.

Alright--that was a lot. I probably only played an hour or two, but I've spent more time writing this. There was some things I wanted to say that I don't hope to repeat. So far, I just don't think Oddworld Inhabitants were up to the task they set for themselves. They likely either needed more money/support, or to focus on a smaller experience. Fully breaking from Abe and Mudokons might have helped--since the designs wouldn't be compared, even subconsciously, to the great work in Abe's Oddysee.

#Zach's Game Journal #PLAYING #Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee #Oddworld #Video Games #Gaming #PC Gaming

[love-bokumono-fics]

Okay so.

Summer events.

I've been turning the idea over in my head for a while now and I have the problem where I keep coming up with more possibilities.

My main goals for any event through this blog is that it is: Fun, Casual/Low Key, accessible to everyone who wants to participate, not a huge stressful obligation or commitment for participants, and relatively hands off for me. I really don't want to go around herding cats, or pushing deadlines on people.

So for now that eliminates things like exchanges, collabs, gift events, etc.

What I have in mind are pretty much Prompt Fill events, but with different themes and slight tweaks to keep things interesting.

Right now I'm mainly thinking about 3 possibilities.

1. Write This In Your Own Style - your garden variety Prompt Fill. I love the idea of "if you give a dozen writers the same prompt, you'll end up with a dozen different stories" and we have such creative writers in the fandom. And with so many towns, characters, and pairings to work with, the possibilities are endless. Stories can be as long or short as the writers want to make them, they can take place in any bokumono game, they could be ship or gen, include whatever characters they want. So much could be done!

2. Somebody (Else) Write That Fanfic- I feel like most writers have a story idea that they would love to read, but do not want to write. This one is a little more participation heavy, but the idea is for the first part of the event, people will submit requests/ideas for stories they want to read. And for the second part of the event, writers fill the requests that inspire them. It's less like a gift exchange, where there is a 1 to 1 swapping of gifts. This one would be more... lottery like I suppose. What I've been thinking is: all requests will be anonymized, and people can submit as many requests as they want. Once all requests are in, writer's can pick whichever one(s) inspire them and then write that fic. This one has the potential to be a lot of fun, particularly for writers who want to try something new. But also there are some drawbacks.

3. Bokumono Incognito - this one stems from me realizing not a lot of people on AO3 are familiar with all the tools the website has for them. In particular the Anonymous Collection was recently brought to my attention. The idea behind this one is simple, write and post a fic Anonymously. It does require a much longer explanation of how the Anonymous collection works, but my idea behind the event for the fic blog is to just let people know the collection exists, and have a free pass to write whatever you gosh darn feel like without worrying about it getting attached to your ao3 profile. Short explanation of the Anon collection: you keep full control and ownership over your fics, but all identifying info about the poster is removed. You still get to see stats, and can even reply to comments all while staying anonymous.

So that's my 3 main ideas for an event. Part of me wants to turn them into a summer-long thing, like one event each month June, July, and August. To give people plenty of time and flexibility to participate. But also that might be a bit ambitious, and I might just pick one for now.

Anyways, thoughts and comments are appreciated! I am still in the brainstorming/planning process.

#last night as i was falling asleep my brain said 'call it summer camp!' if we do multiple events lmao

[kwaggysshardmindemporium]

So, my LARP character has a kind of ridiculous hobby that started from an even more ridiculous way. He researches where in the fuck our currency comes from, because there's no god damn mint or other central body making it. He does this because at one point some buddies of his were hatching a dumb get rich quick scheme to make counterfeit money and he wanted to find out who they'd be pissing off if they did. This game also has an in-game library that players get paid for submitting texts to, so I've been rewriting my research results in the format I would if I actually had an in-game journal to submit to the library. If you'd like an absolutely buck wild ride about some really dumb niche fantasy lore, keep reading because here's the notes:

Researching the Origins of Currency

Master Alchemist Durand Nash, Captain of the Little Victory

Editor's note: Leaf is the name of the currency, and dates are written in the in-game calendar so dates will look like nonsense. These notes comprise about 6 to 9 months of writing, and about the same span before I started writing these notes like this. Also some of this is redacted for containing Alchemy Guild secrets. "Davenstern" are a culture of tradesfolk and legal scholars. Basically medieval guilds if they were a general union and international. "Velliar" are people who either study at or help run the Velliar College, which is the only real formalized education structure but they operate internationally as well.

Firsday, 11th of Firmament, 823 NVR

I begin to write this a small ways into my attempts to find where Leaf, our currency with which everyone should be familiar,  originates from. I've already found a few interesting theories. I'd like to detail my process in arriving wherever this ends in addition to the findings themselves, as many often say that the journey is more important than the destination and gaining knowledge is its own reward even if you gain nothing material from it. A surprising amount of this knowledge seems to require my clearance as an alchemy master with the Alchemy Guild to find in the libraries, and as I begin I'm not sure if I'll be able to make this readable by people without that clearance. I'll try, but I find that unlikely.

I will confess, right up front, that this research started from a motive most would find morally objectionable. I've since pivoted to more pure reasons, but this all began as some friends of mine and I were in the beginning stages of hatching a plan to create counterfeit Leaf. A shallow get rich quick scheme that, in hindsight, would never have worked on any scale that would make it worth the effort. You will probably understand very quickly why this has been dropped, and if you're anything like me you'll also understand why I kept researching anyway upon finding my initial idea to be a dead end.

So, from the perspective of wanting to be a counterfeiter there's some questions you likely want to ask up front. Who makes the legitimate version? A central body, tightly controlled? Individuals? I initially assumed it must be some Davenstern smiths somewhere. Or maybe the Velliar since they have a bank.

Wrong on both counts. As far as I've been able to discover at time of writing there is no central group that crafts Leaf and its legitimacy is as far as I can tell entirely because the people of Evren simply agree it is legitimate. As good a reason as any, but unsatisfying in context.

I was able to find that Leaf has magical properties in some capacity. I haven't yet delved much into this, but a bit of surface information is that this includes making it so "relatively mindless" monsters can be on rare occasions exchanging Leaf with each other. To put it mildly, I found this distressing as it would seem to imply Leaf can effect the mind of its bearer. This deserves further study.

In, of all places, the library's alchemy section, I found the piece of information I followed up on first. Some old theory speculates that Leaf is made with Elam. I don't know much about Elam except that it's old and powerful, so that struck me as something to look into next. This also seemed unrelated to the art of alchemy, so I suggested to the archivists that this be re-filed. You, dear reader, have NOT learned any alchemy secrets from this.

Editor's notes: Peleset are the seafaring folk of Evren. Elam is a language that carries some funky metaphysical power when spoken or written. Kalmak are a warrior culture with disparate clans around Evren.

Elmsday, 12th of Firmament, 823 NVR

This is simply a continuation of my notes from yesterday and not new findings yet.

So after the initial findings I've already described, my group's hopes of piles of illegitimate wealth were gone. Clearly however one makes Leaf, it is far beyond what some random Peleset from a small settlement. Even, if you'll forgive some self-aggrandizing, a smart and capable one. But I also simply had to know more. And I will know more. Here's the remainder of what I've found so far:

The idea that Leaf is made with Elam was intriguing. So I set out with two goals: see if this theory held any weight, and then also seeing what other theories and stories exist.

I'll first discuss these other theories, because they're interesting and the other research is incomplete at time of writing. I found these by cross-referencing terms and discovering that one place Elam and Leaf appear together is in the Imperfect Arts section in old stories. Exactly what my secondary objective was with this round of study.

There are several Kalmak stories from the 600s that feature a sort of origin story for Leaf. In them, rival groups are each trying to break ground on mining out the same one vein of ore with which to make defenses for their towns. The stories are dramatic, filled with events that feel more something out of a play than accurate historic events. At the end of these stories, the rival towns come together and share the mine they were looking to build. Once the differences are settled and agreements reached, Leaf appears outside of the smithies and the mine itself. Not that they smith the Leaf, mind you. The Leaf simply appears. It's a story to teach children about the benefits of sharing and cooperation. I will look further into whether there's any truth within these accounts, and I suspect there may well be, but I also wouldn't be surprised if they are stories and nothing more.

The other thing I found I believe to be more substantial. Much older tales, some translated from Elam. Old enough that I don't currently have a solid date on when they were written down. They're much simpler stories, about groups of people that suddenly find themselves in strange places, stalked by creatures they don't necessarily understand. A huntmaster bands them all together, they slay the beast, and the huntmaster is wreathed in laurels of silver leaves of glory.

I pause to note here the iconography on a Leaf coin is laurels of leaves, and the coin itself is silver in color if it hasn't tarnished. Perhaps some conspiracism on my part to assert that this is no coincidence, but for now I think this is a real connection and am open to the idea that I'm wrong.

Editor's note: Oak Harbor is the town in which the game takes place. It's a dead end frontier town at the edge of the incredibly hostile and dangerous Witchwood forest for which the game is named. Eidolons occur when someone dies and their body dissolves into their spirit to go to the gatekeepers of death.

Maplesday, 36th of Firmament, 823 NVR

This may seem like a strange turn, but let's talk about primal languages of the realms briefly. Unsurprisingly, Runes are the Primal Language of Vigor. While the scrolls I’ve gone over didn’t mention this, it stands to reason that Elam is the one in Firmament. There is some supposition that the language of the trees is the primal language of Evren, but what I've read text asserts that this is unlikely because individual trees write out message-sticks while primal languages just seem to appear. That text posits that Leaf is this primal language, as it seems to just appear in the wake of things which benefit the community.

Combined with my previous research of folk tales, it seems my hypotheses at the time were closer than expected. Is Leaf the Primal Language of Evren? Maybe. Does it seem to manifest from nothing when people act in the common good? It seems that way. Reading this text has left me at a bit of a dead end for what to research next, as I feel I haven’t reached the bottom yet, but I’ll think of something.

So as I think about this, I’d also like to recount an experiment I came up with off the cuff while in conversation with Ellisar, another resident of Oak Harbor, for testing the limits of this. Sadly, there’s no practical way to do this under controlled conditions, but I encourage any Velliar interested in trying it out to come visit your newly established Guardian Tower in Oak Harbor for ample opportunities in UNcontrolled circumstances. It’s a rather simple test. You band together with your fellow townsfolk to eliminate a threat to the town that is sapient and can communicate. For us in Oak Harbor, that has lately been Necromancers in the woods trying to kill us. You search the body and count all the Leaf you receive. You then cast Speak With Dead on the body before they become an Eidolon, and ask how much Leaf they had on their person. Obviously this test leaves something to be desired. What if they concealed their Leaf? What if you find NO Leaf? What if the presumably very upset at being killed test subject just LIES to you about how much Leaf they had? And these are all practical concerns. There are ethical ones as well. Primarily: how does one determine what is and is not a legitimate threat that the world itself seems to consider it an important communal priority to kill it?

As I write this, I've been struck with some inspiration for the next line of research: try and find down the earliest accounts I can of Leaf being used as a CURRENCY. I will have more findings soon, I hope.

Editor's note: Romanza are one of the great merchant families of Evren. Felicitoro are the larger culture the Romanza are part of. Quintessence is the in-game term for XP, so the section talking this refers to the fact that the regular "Income" ability that represents having a job takes a small chunk of your soul to buy.

Elmsday, 36th of Reverie, 823 NVR

The oldest reference to Leaf I was able to find is a Romanza poem recounting a celebration practice from 243. It remarks that even that far back, the town square of Aethis has a beautiful fountain with a reflecting pool in the square. And at the bottom, piles of Leaf said to symbolize the beauty of people working together. That's lovely, isn't it? I am very curious where the Leaf goes from this point. Does someone collect it for something, or does it simply disappear back from whence it came? I suspect the former, but it is a question worth asking on the narrow chance it's the latter.

Also, Felicitoro artisans hoping to earn a Commission as a master would apparently take all their money and dump it into the fountain as part of the ceremony to receive their first workshop to call their own. This is believed to have evolved into simply paying rent, which while more practical is far less interesting. It has also resulted in people tossing coins in as payment for the forces of fate to give them good luck. You may have done this at a well or fountain, yourself. I know I certainly have.

More interestingly, 10-Leaf coins are a "mere" three centuries old. Written reference to them begin in the mid-500's. This is also the exact period that the term "income" becomes synonymous with "spending a piece of your Quintessence to guarantee an influx of an extra 10 Leaf every month or two." I had not really considered the implications that people could do this before now. I propose a practical experiment, which I will go about doing either this month or next. Take a very exacting account of all your Leaf. Continue doing whatever job or pastime earns you that income, but refuse to take payment. (Only do this if you can afford the obvious financial problem this can create. Do not starve for science, especially if the science is not about the effects of starving. I will be fine, personally.) Then, check wherever you keep your money and strictly monitor any money you just incidentally happen to find, and see if it totals to 10 Leaf over the same period your income normally comes in.

As far as my next step, I've realized I've never seen a Leaf coin be destroyed. Can they be? What happens when you do? They are known to be at least slightly magical, so surely the results would be at least a little bit more dramatic than "you have one less Leaf." I'm going to research if anyone has recorded Leaf being destroyed and its results, and also going to be using some skills of my own to go about destroying some myself. In a controlled environment, of course.

Logging my next things to attempt, I have the following:

-The aforementioned income experiment.

-What happens to coins that get tossed into fountains and wells? This may yield no further research avenues, but ruling it out is just as valuable.

-Use my abilities as a Seer to see if I can get visions of anything related to Leaf from before the NVR calendar began. I'm a touch ashamed to admit this only just occurred to me as an option.

#larping #larp #witchwood

[njtw-notes]

why njtw-notes?

hey!♡ in this post I wanted to outline the purpose of this blog, and how it can be used by both me and you!

﹖why njtw-notes? with njtw being my favorite variety show, I've watched it countless times, and picked up a lot of words and phrases, that helped me with learning korean! so I've decided, that I want to go the extra mile, to not leave a stone unturned and try to learn everyting unknown from this show, all the words I was too lazy to look up when I was watching lol; but also I wanted to make a place where if you're also watching the show & learning korean, you have a space where each episode's vocab is broken down and explained!

﹖ why so much effort for a variety show? in my exprerience, variety shows have been one of the best ways to learn and remember new words, its always like a random chance, you might get an everyday word, that just will be easier to remember, or a completelly out-of-pocket word, that you won't hear in your daily life or study curriculum

﹖ how does everyting work? if you have a corresponding post opened while watching an episode, you will be able to have most of the words explanations visible and ready to read! also good for if you've watched the show before and want to refresh your memory, or if you're picking up a new show to better your korean!

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ what kind of posts can I find here?˖ ݁݁ 𖥔.

☆ long-format vocab posts - like most of the currently existing posts, these are basically as the name of the blog suggests lol all of the notes I'm taking while rewatching the episodes, all of the new words & expressions that are interesting to me;

☆ short-format vocab posts - however, I believe that not every single person is interested in all the little tiny details, so these posts will feature a top-10 selection of the most useful words/expressions from the episode! (level varying from beginner-intermediate)

☆ konglish posts - these will feature all the konglish words used; because these are way easier to remember and there's not so many, words from multiple season could be combined in one post!

☆ 사자성어 & 속담 posts - special posts for four-syllable idioms and proverbs

☆ other phrases and words posts - a post here and there about an episode of a different show, like I've done for HYBE x Game Caterers (also produced by Na PD so it counts lol), or about the use of 비글, or "beagle" and other dog breeds as a personality type

.𖥔 ݁ ˖ can I..........˖ ݁݁ 𖥔.

......ask questions about a specific word/grammar? - yes, of course! please include all the relevant info (like season, episode, time stamp etc) and I'll try my best to explain it!

......use the 사자성어 and 속담 lists for preparing for TOPIK? - yes, that's exactly why I'm doing it too! the goal is to at least be familiar with as many as possible, so this is a good way to do this!

......request a different show/episode breakdown? - if the show/episode is related to njtw and its cast, then I will probably get to it and it will be covered in the future, so absolutely yes! however for other shows it might be not always possible :( someone stop me before i make running-man-notes too lol

✖ please do not.... ✖

.......reuse for personal or commercial profit - this includes posting a screenshot and claiming creation of it or using all the matherial to make a study course etc. while creating these posts is fun, it's also hard work with all the compiling, rewatching and researching, so for someone else to just take it and run with it would be unfair. BTW just sharing / reposting is absolutely fine! just if not done maliciously c:

☆ ending thoughts ☾

this blog has been an idea of mine for a few years now, and I'm so happy that I finally get to do it! I hope you enjoy it as much as I do! ♡

also with doing these few posts I'm realizing this will probably take months if not years so....it's gonna be a long ride!! :D

any updates to this post will be linked here

thank you for reading and being here! here's to all the seasons we have ahead of ourselves <3

#new journey to the west #njtw #korean #korean vocabulary #learning korean #njtw-notes

[unforth]

Fandoms I'll write for (in vaguely alphabetical order):

Fandoms in Bold are those I'm currently most interested in/active in/invested in/wanting to write.

2ha (The Husky and His White Cat Shizun)

Babylon 5

Check Please

Disney (almost any of movies, including Pixar; I'm familiar with but won't write for most Disney Jr titles, too)

Doctor Who (9th and 10th Doctor specifically)

DMBJ (books 1 - 6, UN, TLTR)

The Elenium (book series by David Eddings)

Fake

Final Fantasy 7, 9, 10, or 12 (esp. 12)

Firefly

Fushigi Yuugi

Golden Stage

Guardian (show or book)

Gundam W

Hercules

Horatio Hornblower (BBC 90s show version)

Jane Austen (all except Northanger Abbey)

Leverage

Love Nikki

MCU (movies only, have seen most of them; Deadpool also okay, and non-MCU Spiderman; haven't seen Venom)

Miraculous Ladybug (but I've only seen 2.5 seasons)

The Muppets (esp. the original show and movies)

MXTX Fandoms (MDZS, TGCF, SVSSS)

Psych

Rurouni Kenshin

Sherlock Holmes (books or Jeremy Brett version)

Slayers

Star Trek (ToS, TNG or DS9)

Star Wars (movies only, excluding Solo)

Supernatural

Those Years in Quest of Honor Mine

Thousand Autumns

Tokyo Babylon

Voltron

Wheel of Time (I've read through...11? and seen part of s1)

The Witcher (I've only seen s1)

Word of Honor (including Qiye)

Xanth (mostly Bink generation)

Xena

Yuri on Ice

Note 1: I am NO LONGER WRITING HARRY POTTER FIC I'm sorry I tried to separate the fandom from the author but she's just being so awful that I can't in good conscience be involved in anything related.

Note 2: I haven't been "actively" in a lot of these fandoms for many years, and so I can't promise to remember every canon character or event, but I'm always willing to try, especially if it's only for a ficlet.

Otherwise, if it's not on the list, you can still always try. I'm old. I've been a fan of a lot of things over the years.

I am a multishipper and tend to be open to anything except incest and villain x hero (ie Samifer in SPN, Xuexiao in MDZS) - no judgement, you do you, I'm a pro-shipper, I just don't want to write that stuff. But, if you really want to get into the nitty-gritty of what I will and won't write for each, I tried to make a semi-exhaustive list. (read more)

I'll write most ships, and honestly, you can always try me on anything - you won't offend me, I just may opt not to write it. Fandoms are in vaguely alphabetical order.

A few general notes:

I will virtually never write incest (as in literal blood relatives - adoption, raised together, known each other since childhood, none of that is incest) EXCEPT for twincest (idk brains are weird I can brain it for twins, I think because somethingsomething power dynamics)

I don't write RPS except for Yizhan.

Generally, I don't like shipping villains, especially villains x heroes, and especially if the villain committed extreme violence and/or sexual violence and/or massive mental manipulation against the hero in question. (I know that their relationship can be super different in AUs or if events diverge I'm just not personally comfortable with it anyway. See again: brains are weird).

I usually avoid intergenerational shipping (for example, a parent and their kid's friend) because, again, somethingsomething power dynamics.

I'll write underage, but again, I sometimes have power dynamic concerns, and I tend to prefer not to write CANON underage (like, I'll age up or age down characters, but if they're underage in canon I'm often less comfortable with it.)

Other than that - I'll try almost anything. This is NOT a list of what I ship, but instead a list of what I don't ship for any given fandom:

* 2ha: fuck Shi Mei. Not literally of course, but I really ain’t out here shipping Shi Mei with literally fucking anyone. Other than that I think I’m mostly game? Though I don’t remember some of the side characters that well, there were just too many names in that one big reveal about Xue what’s-his-name and Luo something-or-other.

* Check Please: I basically only write Zimbits. I’d try other things, especially with Shitty, but no Kent Parson at all please.

* DMBJ: I haven’t seen Mystic 9 yet so I don’t know those characters and can’t write for them yet; stick to folks in UN and TLTR and I’m probably good for most stuff? Except Wu Sanxing, and the villains, big ol’ nope. I'm also part-way through Sha Hai, and I can write those characters (not Wang Can, haven't met him yet) but again I'd rather avoid intergenerational ships.

* Guardian: I see Chuguo more familial/brotherly, and I haven’t really thought about other ships but idk try me? It’s fun to experiment.

* Leverage: anyone in the team x anyone else in the team, I’m game.

* MCU: No HTP, and I'd really rather avoid most of the villains, but I'm open to basically any hero x any hero. I do ship Thorki.

* MDZS: no Xuexiao or really any Xue Yang ships (though I think I’d be okay with Xueyu). No Lancest, Niecest, Wencest, or Jiangcest. I’m a little reluctant on most Jin Guangyao ships too tho I’ll do 3zun and variations there on. As I mentioned, intergenerational stuff often makes me uncomfortable so tend to avoid older folks x juniors but I’ll ship the juniors together and depending on the ship I’d probably be willing to try?

* SPN: no Wincest or Samifer or Lucifer x anyone. I tend not to ship villains in general. I prefer a ship with either Dean or Cas or both but I’m open to Sam ships too.

* Star Trek: No Gul Dukat or Kai Winn. They should suffer alone. No Voyager or later series, I just haven’t seen them so I don’t know the characters. Other than that...idk try me? I haven't written much shippy stuff for Star Trek so I don't have many strong opinions yet.

* Star Wars: mostly I ship JediStormPilotRose and permutations there of but idk I’d try other just about anything other than villains and LukeLeia. I am not familiar with Clone Wars or the Mandolarian and have only seen the movies (not Solo).

* SVSSS: other than family/relatives (like Tiankang jun x Luo Binghe) I can’t really think of any no’s? Im especially a proponent of Shen Qingqiu/Yuan harem rights. I’d rather not write Shen Jiu or Original Luo Binghe but…eh, I’m open.

* TGCF: …I kinda don’t get Qiurong but I’d be willing to try? But otherwise I think I’m good. I’d even be willing to do Bai Wuxiang ships as long as it’s understood it’s gonna be dark as fuck. No Xianle cousins as a ship. I think I’d struggle with Qi Rong in general but I’d give it a go. No Shicest.

* Thousand Autumns: until I reread and get a better sense of the side characters I’m pretty Yanshen only.

* Voltron: I don't ship Lance with anyone, mostly because his fandom led me to hate him. I also don't really get Lotor ships. I'm mostly interested in Keith, Allura, and Shiro.

* Word of Honor: note I haven’t read TYK yet, but I’m open to virtually anything I guess? I’d prefer no Zhang Chengling x older folks. I favor Caoxiang, Wenzhou and Wenzhouyi. I've also read Qiye; I can't really think of any solid nos for that except maybe Helian Pei, Helian Qi, and/or Helian Zhou x like...anyone. Fuck those guys in no fun ways.

* Yuri in Ice: I don’t really like Otayuri, Yuri’s just too young for me to personally be comfortable shipping him. But the older folks I’m pretty open to multishipping them.

(if you're wondering about ship restrictions for fandoms not listed here just drop me an ask; I just thought these were the ones people were most likely to care about/I was most interested in writing in general).

#unforth rambles

[lovee-infected]

twisted wonderland theories part 3 : Opening explanation and parallels

Well well , hope you guys enjoyed reading the previous two parts of twst theories so far

Anyways , this is the third part . I decided to go through the opening and original disney animations and also black Butler anime references one more time so this is the combination of all I've found this time , together with some stuff you might've missed

Twst's official opening was pretty mysterious and is most likely giving us hints of the upcoming adventures during the storyline . Well here's the link to opening with eng sub and also the summary of the main character references that were given to us:

1) Ace and Deuce's rivalship : We talked about this one a lot back in (part 2) so let's skip this one

2) Leona's sadness and pain : Leona's tearn falling to the ground and the Ruggie and Jack coming for him ; that's just how he always is : mentally sad and broken with a horribly frustrating past , but will avoid expressing himself and letting anyone see his pain anyway . Not really weird that these two are always around him , Leona does really need to be looked after ...

3) Azul's seek of power : He just looked...mad in this scene . Ursula's shadow on his fave and that creepy smile totally freaks anyone out. It really explains how great his desire of power is . His neglected self in the childhood and pretty poor talent got him to this point...

4) Jamil's cold and kinda confused self : Well this one isn't really clear yet since ch 4 isn't out . But perhaps depression has this guy... spending his whole life serving the the nasty Kalim he might've grown the same characteristics as Jafar , who was so long sick of being the second one in everything . But still his ideal of life is much different from Jafar's . We saw him hypnotizing Kalim in order to make him force students to do better at school . He's trying his best to leave up to his promises as the vice dorm leader but still , having the nasty Kalim as the dorm itself is making it a lot harder for him so he's got no choice but to hypnotize him...

5) Idia's severe anxiety and his protectiveness toward Ortho : This one was mentioned in s rather old re blog but here e go again : Well with how the rumors of the "cursed Shroud family" , Idia's anti-society self might be a bit explained . This guy's overblot is surely going to be EPIC ... we just know very few about him and yet that's more than enough for him to overblot at once . Also the mention of the process of bringing Ortho back to life was a bad hit...His family curse might've been the reason of whatever thst has happened to Ortho

6) Vil's anger of not being the fairest and breaking the mirror: This one's been pointed out a lot . His anger being the same as evil queen's and also the fear of him actually poisoning someone to become the fairest one more time....**

7) Malleus' isolated self and his hidden evil aura : This one's being shown too obviously . The lonely dark prince exposing his evil side under the full moonlight . All alone , beyond the forest of thorns (Lol how ironic) while the others are running to save him before it gets too late...***

(note : **,***: Vil and Malleus' description will be continued undercut)

Very well these were the general hints found on the opening , but don't miss the final seconds which included the biggest hidden facts you could've missed

Firstly , the splitted ink (This one was previously discussed on part 1 but still...) : We talked about how in the "Epic Mickey", Mickey accidentally splits the magic ink over the kingdom and which led to the creation of "shadow blot". This sight seems to be much similar to what we had here in the epic mickey

Well this parallel might be more than just an accidental one and finally and it might actually be that overblot is kinda Crowley's fault , too

Crowley crosses the mirror , turns into an actual crow and flies away...(DaMn YoU bIrDiE wHERe ArE yOu gOinG I'M noT doNe YeT-)

Well the reason he suddenly runs away isn't clear yet but being a fan of black butler for years , I was suddenly reminded of how Undertaker disappeared all of a sudden at this scene from the movie :" Book of Atlantic "

pretty similar , aren't they..?

In Book of Atlantic , Undertaker revealed his original identity as a reaper and the mastermind behind the "Bizzare dolls' " project after pretending to be a just a crazy cookie lover for so long . And at once , he comes up with his stunning sudden self-reveal , leaving everyone in the room speechless

Now now , what do we have with Crowley?

A principal who keeps hiding his face (remember that Undertaker hid his eyes , too?) , telling everyone "how kind he is" many times ... also:

1) In the opening , he was standing smiling in the mirror hall while the seven dorms were burning through seven mirrors

2) He didn't ever try to stop anyone from overbloting ; even Riddle whose overblot occurred right in front of him

3) In the beggining of the game, he asked the mirror to choose the right one and then! and MC was chosen ! MC took the hand of the one appearing through the mirror (seemingly Dire Crowley) and came here. With all said , so why did the mirror reject MC afterwards?

Also , how couldn't he help MC return to Their own world and didn't know about it if he himself brought MC here..?(Could it be that...MC doesn't remember how she/he was brought here?)

4) If he literally is THIS useless and can't ever stop or help anything, then why would he be the principal.....?

Sooooo enough with Crowley ; but what's with these two....?

The spindle wheel & the poison apple ; Sleeping beauty and Snow white

Well it seems that Diasomnia and Pomefiore are going to play a greatly important role in the storyline . We were kinda sure of Diasomnia's but Pomefiore's...? What's so special with it?

(A few hours earlier)

(Me : Hmmm ... the black mirror...where have I seen this before..? *googling - searching Snow White- going to the magic mirror scene* Me : Uh...)

Well... here it is : The Crowley's beloved flower of evil , back at his days with evil queen

feeling old yet ...?

Btw , just how important is being "the fairest one of all "to him ? How 'far' would he go to be the fairest...? With the bitten apple in the last few seconds of opening , it most likely seems that he IS gonna 'kill' to be the fairest again ...Who would he kill ? We don't know . But how about our pretty small guy Epel? Could it be him ? The stubborn freshman who refuses following Vil around and is usually mistaken with a girl......?

Also , why would the original mirror be so important to Crowley? If Vil's supposed to represent evil queen , why isn't 'he' the one owing the mirror...?

And now , the spindle wheel .Great maleficent's legacy , in the hands of Crowley...Well well this is 'too' much . Malleus' family treasure being kept hidden in NRC... pathetic

Also , the mirror which Vil broke in the opening . Well well seems like he isn't having the original magic mirror , afterall....

But wait , if there's the spindle wheel , who's gonna be the evil witch to pull the sweet princess to eternal sleep..? Right , there's only one who might be...

Well we talked about all we'd got so far , but what about Grim ? Isn't anyone going to mention his importance or why he was also mentioned in this chaotic final seconds of opening ???

So... this is what we had in the final seconds :

1)The apple

2) Crowley

3)The black ink

4)Grim

5)The spindle wheel

We talked about all of them except nu 4 . But before that , I've got the same question as before : Why is it "Sleeping beauty" & "Snow white"..?

We discussed the "overblot Grim " hints in (part 2), but here's another thing :

Very well , ever heard of "Grimm brothers"...?

In the case that you don't know who they are , here' the point : They are the authors of 'original' versions of sleeping beauty & snow white; two of the darkest , deepest and possibly creepiest stories of their own throughout the history

I believe that most of you are familiar with the original versions , but you may like to take a look at these two if you haven't yet heard of them check the two of these stories out : (note: I'm aware that there are darker , deeper versions of these too but I'm not gonna mention any of them because : 1)They aren't written by Grimm brothers & 2) They include overly sensual and inappropriate content which has no place in my posts . If you care to know about them , check them at your own risk)

Alright , if you ever wondered who was Grim named after , I guess we've got it now . Mentioning Grim , Snow white and Sleeping beauty together at once is too direct to be a coincidence ...but it's also terrifying ...

Thinking that Disney is actually referring to the original books written by Grimm brothers is a bit too dark... Original stories are really horrible and a great way to ruin one's childhood , but all these hints fit each other way too great and now , they may no longer be just a coincidence...

#geo writes #twst #twisted wonderland #twst theories #twisted wonderland theories #dire Crowley #malleus draconia #azul ashengrotto #leona kingscholar #idia shroud #kalim al asim #jamil viper #riddle Rosehearts #deuce spade #ace Trappola #vil Schoenheit #Pomefiore #diasomnia #disney #anime #grim #grim brothers #sleeping beauty #snow white #kuroshitsuji #black butler #undertaker #black butler theories #kuroshitsuji theories #Sebastian Michaels

[naggingsugaisar]

[Anime Review] Shakunetsu Kabaddi!

One thing I dislike about watching sport anime is that I couldn't shake off the tension from the episodes - Up till today, I still re-imagined crucial scenes from the anime. I wonder if any anime watchers will experience this (manga readers always have this so I'm not shocked).

<Shakunetsu Kabaddi>, an anime which introduces kabaddi, a tactical combat game. I used to watch kabaddi match in Indian movies because I heard it's popular there. I am familiar with soccer, rugby, basketball, and certain commercialized sports such as volleyball, swimming, cycling, and many more. To me, kabaddi is a new idea in sport anime, which it still has more room to be developed as powerful as other sport anime.

The story begins when Yoigoshi Tatsuya, a gifted soccer player, quit soccer and comforted himself in the world of live streaming. Due to his nickname "Yoigoshi The Unstoppable", many seniors of other sport clubs (obviously soccer club was included) tried to scout him as their member. His identity as a streamer is known by Iura Kei, a vice captain of Noukin's Kabaddi Club, hence he used that secret to lure Yoigoshi to try playing a match.

<Shakunetsu Kabaddi> is outstanding in getting the story flow almost effortlessly. I mean, as a newbie, Yoigoshi and other first-years should be explained about rules and regulation of Kabaddi; raiders, antis, defence and raiding, lona, bonus line, etc. Through this 12-episode anime, even the viewers could learn along how Kabaddi actually is. From a very heart warming episodes, the story progresses with increasing tension, especially when Noukin has begun joining real matches against other high schools (though it was only a practice match)

I am amazed at how smooth the progression Yoigoshi has made through the anime. From training his body for physical movement, to training his mental for strategies, he did great as a newbie. In Noukin's Kabaddi Club, he was one of the first year students beside Azemichi Souma, and another new members Ban Nobutaka, Hitomi Yuuki, and Seki Ryuuta. He successfully applied most of his training session whether in soccer or kabaddi, in real matches. The ability to instantly think of tactics was the most amazing part of Yoigoshi.

Other than Yoigoshi, the members of Noukin's Kabaddi Club were improving as well. Such as Azemichi Souma, Date Shinji, Misumi Kyouhei, and Iura Kei. Each of them, somehow, has quite gloomy past, however they chose to move on and get stronger. Nevertheless, there was one character that I've been watching in every episodes.

Commonly, people for Kabaddi have larger stature, stronger brawn, or at least strategically bright. This particular character basically has only light body and quite frail limbs. Oujo Masato is the captain of Noukin's Kabaddi, and surprisingly even a captain of powerhouse school dreamt of defeating him. He has the smallest body among the club members, yet the hardest to fetch. Thanks to his light body, he could move his body in either direction and produce almost no sound and sensation which always fools the opponents.

His love towards Kabaddi is infinite - He knows he has feeble body, but because of his passion, he utilizes his weightless body excellently. This makes him a formidable foe (even his own team could not take him down). He has apprentices who want to defeat him, and in this Season 1, I could say there's one person who will one day actually surpass him.

The opening and ending songs are good, but I would like to tell more about the voice actors (*scream internally*) Most of the voice actors are well known for having wide range of tones. These are some of them.

1. Uchida Yuuma as Yoigoshi Tatsuya

2. Okamoto Nobuhiko as Oujo Masato

3. Furukawa Makoto as Iura Kei

4. Suzuki Tatsuhisa as Misumi Kyouhei

5. Takeuchi Shunsuke as Date Shinji

6. Satou Gen as Azemichi Souma

7. Murase Ayumu as Hitomi Yuuki

8. Suzumura Kenichi as Takaya Ren

9. Hanae Natsuki as Sakura Manabu

10. Saitou Souma as Utou Hiromoto

I just realize Uchida Yuuma has voiced quite plentiful anime this year. I must congratulate him for getting more and more chances to appear for his fans (I'm included).

For a moment, I heard Nishinoya's voice in Episode 10, if I'm not mistaken. I blinked in surprise.

#shakunetsu kabaddi #anime #manga #yoigoshi tatsuya #oujo masato #iura kei #misumi kyouhei #date shinji #azemichi souma #uchida yuuma #furukawa makoto #okamoto nobuhiko #seiyuu #hanae natsuki #saitou souma