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padawansuggest · 1 year

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Writing a fic where Jango wasn’t a willing progenitor because his family is still alive on Mandalore so Palpy did some fucked up shit to his brain and now the clones exist but one day while visiting home Jaster (who I love writing as force sensitive af) is all ‘my child has something weird in his noggin I’m gonna unravel it’ and now they know who the Sith Lord is and Jango is all ‘well. Now that that’s outta my brain-‘ and wanders off to tell the alphas that they can leave with their vod’e as soon as the Sith Lord is killed and the alphas being paranoid as they are are like ‘okay what do we give you in turn???’ ‘What do you mean this is a freebie’ ‘nothing is free prime, what do you want’ ‘lmao idk just babysit the Jedi they seem kinda stupid a little’ and the clones take that to mean ‘they are stupid and get themselves killed keep them safe’ and Jango doesn’t correct them cause this is hilarious and allows them to dig into the Jedi histories as much as they want only for them to come back all ‘ahh, yes, we see the senate has them in a chokehold and barely better than slaves living in a Diaspora being forced to their Will and their numbers have been steadily declining over the past thousand years. We see. They need help’ and Jango is all ‘…they fucking what???’ Only for the clones to already be fucked off to claim the Jedi as part of their people and no they will not be leaving sure you can try and run but we are here to help you sorta thing and Anakin is very eager for this, they saved all the slaves on Tatooine and saved his mom and stopped him from getting married cause if he gets married without Obi walking him down the aisle his master WILL cry about it and Plo and Shaak are repeating the gai bal manda to anyone they come across and it’s really very annoying and Mace shoved Kenobi at the sternest clones he could find saying ‘this one bites, he’s feral; tame him and win the prize’ and tbh they don’t know what the prize is but that sounds like fun and Obi is very annoyed at all times except when they pull him into their sleepy piles because that’s nice and yea he likes these dudes, they did not tame him tho he still bites he’s still feral at least they tried.

Anyways. Alpha 17 and Cody are the most annoying jerks ever who won’t let him run off into danger without them and Miss Shmi is awesome and disgusted by her son eating live bugs too so we no longer know where Ani gets it from that’s a shame and Mace is grounding anyone who adopts a clone or gets adopted by clones everyone is grounded. The Mandalorian empire is sorta peeking in like ‘wow. Are the Jedi okay??? They look a little annoyed??? But I haven’t heard of any of them getting murdered this week so probably???’ And it’s kinda hilariously adorable. The Mandos didn’t know they needed to worry about the Jedi and they’re super pissed at the Sith for hurting their prince’s brain and so yeah let’s join the clones they look like they’re having fun in the temple?????

#star wars #true mandalorians #jango fett #obi wan kenobi #the Jedi #anakin skywalker #clone wars #the clones #jaster mereel #but in clone wars era #he’s gettin older but he’s still kicking ass to defend his title lol

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thewertsearch · 1 year

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Asks Compilation 11/12

I never considered that Aradia could be feeling sincere gratitude towards Equius - that's a good point, and might partially explain her flushed feelings for him. Similarly, I never thought about how difficult and impractical a relationship would be for Equius, given he has this kind of strength paired with this kind of dexterity.

Anyway, I half-agree with your thesis. I can imagine a hypothetical kismesissitude between an older, more mature Equius and Aradia, and I think that relationship could potentially be healthy, for the reasons you describe.

But the one we're getting is doomed from the start - Equius's mind-control shenanigans have pretty much torpedoed the whole thing. I don't think he can have a healthy relationship until he figures out why that was wrong.

I'll give you a freebie right now - most of the Jojo villains would fit right in with the Felt!

Yeah, it's not like romantic rivalry is a new idea. Really, the more I think about it, the more I think Hussie's riffing on real relationship tropes with all the quadrants.

Hell, I could probably list some fictional characters that work pretty well as Moirails - and I'm not just talking about The Locked Tomb!

[ sent when you posted your troll ranking! - C ]

She's the best, she's the worst, and she's destined for great terrible things.

Sorry Eridan - someone had to nab last place!

He does have a great design. The cape and scarf work well together - I can see how he'd be easy and fun to cosplay.

We have two opposing views here, and they both make good arguments. Aristocrats do tend to be egotistical by nature - but Alternia would expect him to act that way, even if it wasn't his natural tendency.

I personally don't think Eridan ever intended to exterminate the land-dwellers, but I'm not sure he ever realized that himself.

Don't forget Insane Clown Hussie, which is when your webcomic author keeps putting more harlequins in their story.

Toby, what are you doing back in my ask box? Get outta here, you scamp!

Ayy!

It's funny, I never considered that many people are reading through the liveblog/chrono/ tag. I'm almost never on my blog's page; I see it through the dashboard!

Happy belated birthdays, Jade, Dave, and, Rose!

Odd. It really looks like John's birthday should be December 2nd. Maybe something went wrong with his meteor.

The Newtonverse is a corruption of Homestuck, but Homestuck is already a parody of a million other things. It's one layer too deep, and feels 'wrong' as a result.

Unless Cool and New Webcomic is a similar style of parody, in which case, who knows? Maybe the Newtonverse is simply real, and trying to break into our reality.

Yeah, that makes sense. She certainly looks like a classic eldritch monster.

I can't see the commentary - I assume because some of it contains spoilers. For comments that don't spoil anything, feel free to send them along.

It's always very tempting to check out other livebloggers so I can compare and contrast. I won't, though - quite aside from any worries about spoilers, I just don't want to influence my own opinions!

This has always been a blind spot with me, and it always will be. Try as I might, I will never recognize the difference between Rouge and Rouge.

I knew the comic had about 8000 pages, but it's good to know it clocks in at 8128.

It annoys me more than it should that it's not 2^13, or 8192. It would have been a nice round number to finish on!

Thank you, and welcome!

Eridan's beliefs don't really make sense - but it makes sense that they don't. It's bigotry, after all.

He knows trolls like Kanaya, and can clearly see that there's nothing inferior about her - but he can't let go of what he's been taught, so he just doesn't address it, and continues on as normal.

This comic is damn long, so it's a fun reference to make.

I'd probably pick one. No special reason - I just sort of vibe with the number, and it's the closest to something kooky like zero, or a negative number.

I would have picked the cueball, but I don't think I want Scratch as a rival...

Ok, that's fair, actually.

I love how she's trying to 'cull' them.

It's a good bit. I wonder if this means Hussie's trollsona is a green-blood, like Kanaya?

Read it!

It's not intended to! The others all link to the post where the work was recommended to me, but Con Air wasn't recommended - it's just a movie slightly relevant to Homestuck. I have it up there for completeness, and it's underlined for consistency.

#asks #full liveblog #act 5

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ghostfeather · 1 year

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so! i spent the weekend in sf visiting my baby sister and also making the last minute decision to go to the ooo meet & greet event because i couldn't handle the pcd. here's how it went :)

since it was a ~fan chat~ or whatever, the process worked totally different than the concert fansign. i checked in and then a little before 12, they started calling people by queue numbers to line up outside. why they did that? i don't really know because when they let you into the venue, they said it didn't matter what your queue number was so sit wherever you want in the first 5 or 6 rows, and fans behind me were running to fill up the first row. i didn't particularly care that much to be at the very front because i needed to mentally prepare myself so it was fine. the venue was so incredibly tiny and intimate, so there was no bad seat.

also i met an older lady right in front of me in line who was also from atlanta which was super cool! she was super sweet and gave me extra freebies, and it was nice having someone to talk to because there was A LOT of waiting and they were VERY strict about having no phones out for the m&g portion. kind of wish i'd gotten her contact info. she was fun. i hope her and his husband have a safe trip home.

anyway it was set up like a typical fansign and worked like you expect fansigns to work. they called 6 people up at a time to sit with each member for a minute and get their poster/album signed. i had literally packed a seOul cOllectiOn album to have signed in my luggage and then realized halfway on the drive to the venue that it was still in my luggage in my sister's apartment 🥲 if i had borrowed her car, i'd have gone back to get it, but i wasn't going to pay an uber to make another round-trip.

so yeah staff explained the rules and then the boys walked in and it got started immediately. the fansign order was yoojung, nine, mill, kb, rie, and junji. i had a ways to wait because i was in the 4th row on the left side but i was right at the aisle with nothing obstructing me so i was pretty visible, or at least my nagongie was because it definitely caught nine and rie's attention. i could see their eyes widen when they saw it lol. the nice thing about the fansign being longer was all the fanservice the boys did in the downtime at the beginning and end, especially yoojung and nine who were on my side. it was my turn after maybe an hour.

yoojung: since he was first, i was not prepared so it was kind of awkward. the nice thing about traveling for a show is that it's a talking point so i just started off with that, but then fumbled over everything else i was trying to say. he's not the most fluent in english so i don't think he understood me and i did not make myself easy to understand. i apologized for being nervous, and he said "why nervous?" and i didn't tell him it's because he's so fucking intimidatingly pretty that it rendered me speechless but i sure did think it. so he did make an effort to ask me questions instead. he asked me what my favorite ooo stage was, and i said all of them because it's true but i feel like maybe i should have been specific instead of giving a cop-out answer. then he asked if i ate breakfast. i told him i ate cereal and he was genuinely upset that i ate such a pathetic breakfast but well. there was a mishap that morning with a quesadilla and cheddar cheese and carrots that i just could not begin to explain. he told me he ate pancakes though. i told him pancakes were good but i lied. i only like waffles.

nine: my nagongie made him SO happy. for some reason, he thought i had a drink in it and before i even could say anything, he immediately, without asking, grabbed it and opened up the zipper. then he saw my wallet in there and apologized PROFUSELY. i don't know why he did that, but i'm kind of glad because it really helped dispel the awkwardness because i wasn't nervous at all after that. we had the most chill conversation and i could've kept talking to him forever. he told me his nagongie is smaller and only comes up to mine's chin, so i said mine is the big brother and he said it could be nagongie's dad. so yeah we're more than besties now. we're family. the rest of the conversation just flowed so naturally. he was the only one i ran out of time to talk to. i forgot to show him my daisy manicure which i got for the m&g 🤦‍♀️💔

mill: he asked me for my name, and for those who don't know, my name is maryam. so of course he turns it into a pun and begins to fucking serenade me?? something like "oh, marry marry marry me." like i know it's extremely typical yongsoo behavior but the AUDACITY to do that to my face??? i told him i think i'm too old for him. then he asked for my favorite song and i said dOra maar so he started singing to me AGAIN but it was the english version 🙃 i really adore mill's tone while singing and it's genuinely my favorite of the whole group so it was a nice moment even if it was so embarrassing for me. someone gave him a stuffed baby cheetah (or snow leopard?) to wear on his wrist and i wanted to pet it SO badly. i should've pet it.

kb: he also asked for my name and how to spell it. luckily my atl seatmate had a sharpie and i'd written my name on my lanyard in case there was moment like this, so i just showed him and he wrote my name on the poster. he kept telling me over and over that it was a beautiful name and that...it sounded like marry. so naturally he asked "will you maryam me?" it actually took a while to register because he's pretty mild-mannered and he just...said it so casually that i missed it and just started telling him about how i go by mary at sbux since they never know how to spell maryam. i don't know why i told him that, but then he apologized to me i think either for the pun or for not knowing the spelling either. i'm not sure 😔 but he said again that he thinks it's a beautiful name.

rie: i went in prepared for him this time. or so i thought. he held up both hands when he greeted me, so i went in for a double high five, but then he laced his fingers with mine 😰 like...sir, i don't know you like that. then he asked me what my favorite ooo choreo was, so i said designer because it was the first thing to come to mind honestly. but then he asked me WHY and suddenly i was afraid he was going to quiz me on the finer points of the choreo? i just said i liked the formations, fully terrified that he'd ask me to specify which particular formation i liked. so terrified that i didn't see this coming-

rie: i like angel choreography

me, wishing i'd said angel: oh angel is good! i love angel too!

rie: do you know why?

me: why?

rie: because you're my angel.

😑

friendship ended with rie. now nine is my best friend. i also told him i saw him in atlanta which he was really excited about. he told me the atl crowd was very energetic. he told me the steak he had in atlanta was the best thing he'd eaten on the entire tour. he also grabbed my hands one more time before i left. now i'm just like...what are we?

junji: he's probably the least fluent in english so it was a bit difficult to communicate. he said my nagongie was cute and pointed out that he and i had matching hair. i mean, mine was dark blue back in july and i just haven't touched it up since then so it's a very faded green-ish color? and junji's hair is also a very faded green-ish color right now so i guess we are technically matching. i tried to explain it to him as simply as i could but i'm sure he didn't understand a word so he just smiled and nodded. i told him about seeing him in atl and i wanted to bring up his birthday but i think we spent too much time in awkward silence so we ran out of time 🥲 at least he was nice to look at.

after all that was over they did group photos but this time they had fans sit in chairs and the boys stand behind. i sat in front of junji but i didn't do a pose with him because he didn't offer and i was afraid to make a request but it's whatever because it was the last thing i cared about.

after that, they performed seOul drift, did a short q&a session, then did a sOng of ice & fire, which i didn't expect, and then it was over. i kind of wish they just did a q&a for the whole time and just saved their energy because they absolutely did not hold back for those two songs.

at some point during the q&a, they were asked what concept they wanted to try, and i forgot who responded but they said whatever concept lyOns wanted, and a lot of people started shouting for cute concept to which nine IMMEDIATELY went "no cute! i am not a teenager!" so it's confirmed, we're never getting another blOssOm.

mill performed a snippet of bOss and junji did a bit of picassO and i love them both so much for that. junji also did gaslighting and rie tried to strip him multiple times 🙃 nine talked about the four maple syrups he bought from canada. rie made sure to tell the whole venue about the steak in atlanta. one of the questions was "what would you do instead if you weren't an idol?" and nine said "i'd be bored." he's so valid.

and then it was snapshot time. i was lucky to get snapshots with everyone but nine and yoojung. someone was offering to trade a nine for mill but i couldn't give up mill 🥲 but maybe next time.

i went to kb first and at that point after seeing him face-to-face four times, i wasn't nervous at all. the most nerve-wracking part was choosing a pose because making decisions gives me anxiety. there was a bad glare from the window so i got to go back and take another picture with him which was nice bc i looked awful the first time but great the second time.

uhhh rie called me baby as i was walking up to him 🙃 i am once again asking...WHAT are we???? and yes i did do the cheek poke.

junji's line was long as fuck and never ending. i felt bad about having to go back to take another because the first was super blurry. he fist bumped me both times as i was leaving, and i truly appreciate that. yes, king, set those boundaries. friendzone only 🤜🤛

mill was, of course, the sweetest and cutest and loveliest person and i love him forever and ever. he had his arm around me while we did the M pose and then..as i was saying goodbye, he took that arm and reached up and he. PET MY HEAD LIKE A DOG. COMPLETELY UNPROVOKED. LITERALLY GAVE ME HEAD SCRITCHES. WHY DID HE DO THAT? I'M STILL SO BAFFLED. like i literally walked away with this reaction. how could he disarm me like that twice? next time i meet him, i have to assert my dominance 😤

so yeah that was a really fun experience, and i'd totally recommend it to anyone if the chance ever comes up again. i think i would do it again in a heartbeat if it were held in atlanta.

#don't even bother reading this y'all i'm just trying to preserve the memories #i still can't believe i did this #but i'm about to be miserable doing grad school homework this summer so i deserved it #onlyoneof #ooo in sf

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ninacarstairss · 1 year

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hello cece my beautiful wonderful beloved soulmate <3

i hope you have been well and looking after yourself! i don’t want you overworking yourself 😭 but it has been two days since i have come back from my trip (i have been exhausted plus i had work and uni to catch up on) so now i am going to sit down and tell you about my trip!! please grab a cup of tea and a snack while you read :)

so i went to sydney again, and i had a much more enjoyable experience this time around. i think it was because i knew what i was getting into, and i stayed in the exact same place, so it was all familiar to me.

although i did try to use the public transport this time, instead of ubering everywhere, and the buses were so bad, but the trains were INCREDIBLE! they were double decker and the back support moved so you could have a single row or two rows of seats face each other??? SO COOL

anyways, me and my friend caught the train to the airport at 4am in the morning 😭😭😭 (and i finished work at 12am!!!!) to get our flight. once we landed in sydney, my friend wanted to get merch from the early presale stand outside the arena and we were outside in 30 degree heat FOR TWO HOURS, with our luggage. good news, my birthday is coming up and my friend didn’t know what to get me, so he bought half my merch 🤭 bad news, i’m ginger and i get sunburnt in two minutes, so think about two hours… the worst thing is we had an umbrella for sun protection, but my right arm and the back of my neck was out so they were FRIED. i’m currently peeling like a reptile but worth it

we got some food from maccas because we were dehydrated and getting heat stroke, and then checked into our room after we managed to get our stuff. we both ended up napping in the afternoon, which we were both surprised about, because i had my phone in my hand still attached to the charger next to my bed and he still had his genshin impact loaded up onto his ipad 😭😭😭

unfortunately the place i wanted to take him to for dinner, the really good japanese place from last time, was under renovation, so we had dinner elsewhere but we had such a good time the rest of our trip

because we went to see stray kids, a kpop group, we had a lot of activities we could indulge in. they had this thing called a cupsleeve event, where someone in the fandom designs a cupsleeve to represent a kpop idol’s birthday, group anniversary or in our case, coming to the city. and i got so many freebies! we went to this kpop store that doubled as a cafe and the drinks were so good! i bought way too much but i have to remind myself that i can’t get it at home 😔

we also went to the biggest bookstore i have ever seen in my life! it took up a whole floor of the shopping centre and it was brilliant. it had books upon books, categories after categories. they even had an entire chinese and japanese section! i also spent a lot of money there BUT my best find was the entire completed infernal devices manga trilogy!! it’s so beautiful and such a rare find, i grabbed it immediately. i couldn’t find the tmi graphic novels though, but they have them on their website, so i might order them in :)

alright, the main event! the concerts! so i went and saw the kpop group, stray kids, two nights in a row! it was amazing. i was and still am a huge fan of their work, but especially because they got me through a really hard time in my life and really were my serotonin while i was at school 😔 i wasn’t allowed to see them when they first came here four years ago (parents: maybe next year, they’ll come! *next year being 2020.*) so i feel like i finally made up for it.

me and my friend also matches outfits! we did black and green (the concert colours) on the first night, and red and white on the second (to match the stray kids colours). i wish i could send you photos, we looked so slay 🤩

i do not have one concert video without me screaming the lyrics (yeah the korean ones too!) in the back. but i don’t care, it was so fun, i had a blast. and it was even better because two of the members of stray kids were from sydney and they just made it feel more homely :) do not regret how much money i spent on them or the sleep i lost at all! i’m so glad i can slowly start to give myself the experiences i missed out on as a kid/teenager :’)

anyways, enough about me! how have you been? what have you been up to? how is simba? 🥺 i adore you so much and i am enclosing this letter with a warm hug <3333

hello nero my amazing perfect beloved soulmate <3

yay i’m so happy to finally hear about this trip!!! i just made myself a cup of tea and brought out some biscoff cream!!

how was the catching up part?? did you manage to catch up without exhausting yourself too much??

nero that’s so great!! i think that having a familiar surrounding is always helpful, and staying in the same place makes it all less scary somehow. i’m really happy it went much better!!

NO WAY THEY HAVE THOSE TRAINS THERE??? they look so cool!!! i’ve seen them on instagram once and i was so jealous of every city who had those trains!! you can literally choose if you want to sit alone or have company and that’s so cool!!! it’s basically a buildable environment!!! i’m getting way too excited about this lol

so you only had like three hours of sleep?? 😭😭😭😭 and you even had to stand in the heat for hours 😭😭😭 but yay!!! merch!!! that’s a really great birthday gift!!! (also when is your birthday??? only if you want to share of course <3)

anyway merch is so amazing and so expensive. this has got to be one of the best presents ever!!! even if it means you’re skinning like a reptile now lol at least it’s just two small spots instead of your whole self 😂 but i get the struggle. i’m not ginger but my skin is so light i always get sunburnt in 0.5 seconds too. definitely not fun, but worth it for some merch :D

that was probably a really fun situation to wake up to, but you both deserved a nap for catching a bus at 4am!!! especially since you had only a few hours of sleep after work!! at least you were rested enough to really enjoy the trip!!

oh no 😭😭 i’m still dreaming about that place!! i went to a my favorite japanese restaurant in my city a few days ago and i really wanted to try that beverage you told me about but i was driving so i couldn’t 😭 i hope this other restaurant was really good too though!!

no way!!! nero this is all way too cool!!! i’m so happy it was so fun and there were so many things to do!!! also this cupsleeves event sounds so cool!! i’m so happy nero, you’re making my day just by telling me about all these freebies and amazing drinks!! and you know i’m always gonna be the little devil on your shoulder telling you that spending money is good and you deserve all that amazing stuff :))

the tid manga trilogy??? how is that even possible omg you can’t find that anywhere!!!! i’m so jealous, i wanna live in this bookstore now 🥺 it’s got to be so amazing!! (you always find the best bookstores, i had no doubt there would be one in this letter too and i was so excited to read about it!!) and let me know if you do order the tmi graphic novels!! i’ve been trying to collect those too hehe

the fact that *next year* was 2020 is so painful. but you saw them two nights in a row!!! that’s amazing!! and it must have been so good to see them after so long, after they’d been by your side in a really tough time 🥹 i’m so happy you got to finally see them live!!

also, the matching outfits?? I LOVE THAT!!! i bet you looked so slay!!! that’s literally the best idea for what to wear to a concert!!!

nero i’m so so happy for you!!! you’ve made my whole day, i’m not even joking!! i’m so happy you’re finally getting to enjoy trips and concerts you couldn’t before!! and this one really sounded so perfect!!! also the videos with you screaming at the top of your lungs to every song are literally the best. i love it when i rewatch a video from a concert and i can hear myself screaming and crying and dying more than i can hear the band or the singer. it just makes me live all those memories and those amazing feelings again!!!

the money spent on this is totally worth it!!! and you can sleep now, uni can wait lol really nero i’m so happy this trip was so good!!! i’m so happy for you!!!

i’m good!! i got three days off from work this week so that was great, and i started to reread chain of iron so that i can reread chain of thorns right after :) i miss them so much already 🥲

anyway i just booked a trip for may, because a friend is coming to visit me and i’m gonna be off work for two weeks so i’m really looking forward to it and now i just wanna skip work and plan the itinerary 😂 and i want to book more trips too. which isn’t great because my bank account is already crying and begging me to stop buying stuff. did i tell you i got the illumicrate edition of chain of thorns with the alternative dust jackets? yeah so my bank account still hasn’t forgiven me for it :,)

simba is also doing really good, he’s eating a lot and sleeping a lot as usual 😌

also, ever since you told me about the rina sawayama concert, and because you always talked so much about her, i kinda started listening to her music a lot more and i’m obsessed with some songs now!!! i adore her style so thank you for this new obsession :>

i’m enclosing a warm hug for you too and a little bouquet of flowers <3

#i’m so happy you’re back!!!#nero my beloved!!! <3

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jess-the-reckless · 6 months

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Spooky season is very much upon us, so here’s a freebie. I was planning on putting Ghosted out as a Halloween offer, but reasons, so in the meantime here’s a little spooky something I wrote back in twentysomething, maybe? Can’t remember when. I think it was one of those novels that fell into the pandemic time hole, which might account for some of its weirdness. The other thing that might account for the weirdness is that it’s about ghosts and witches and cults and things, all of which are dear to my heart for various reasons. The question I most get asked about Arcana is ‘why did you write an entire novel around Boston’s More Than a Feeling?’, and yeah – good question. I didn’t know the answer to that at the time, either. I mean, yes, I’m really into boomer dad-rock, but what of it? Don’t know.

I always wanted to write something about a cult, ever since high school, where I had a married couple of Religious Studies teachers who were obsessed with cults, particularly the Moonies. They were both Christians, she a fierce feminist who had very little time for St. Paul, while he was famous for crucifying people in class. He had a human sized crucifix, presumably sourced from a kink dungeon somewhere, and would tie students to it for limited lengths of time as a practical lesson on the effects of crucifixion. Obviously every health and safety authority in the country told him to knock this off, and he stopped, although the crucifix remained and the legend lived on. I partly took Religious Studies because we all quietly hoped that one day sir would snap and crucify someone again.

The class was fun, and dovetailed nicely with my History modules on the English Reformation, but every now and again they’d slip in something about the Moonies, mainly about how to avoid them, and how to know when you were being recruited into a cult. I never asked, but I suspect they’d been entangled in one way or another, either as members or deprogrammers. Anyway, it was something that stuck in my head, at an age where the word ‘cult’ mostly meant Ian Astbury to me.

So where did Arcana come from, exactly? Well, partly there, and partly about a dozen or more different places. George Clooney writhing dorkily to Boston in The Men Who Stare at Goats gave me the central plank of the soundtrack, and one of several aliases for cult leader Starling – Marianne. Barbara Weisberg’s superb biography Talking to the Dead made me burn to include the Fox Sisters, the Britney and LiLo of the early spiritualist movement, tipsy child stars whose health and well-being was shamefully neglected (and often sabotaged) by adults who should have known better. Aimee Semple McPherson gave me clothes left on a beach, while Marilyn Monroe gave me a séance in Westwood Cemetery, and a punchline to the dirty joke Hugh Hefner made of her when he purchased the burial plot next to hers.

Jonestown gave me a birthdate for my main character – 18th November – while Googling songs with ‘follow’ in the lyrics gave me his name, Michael, via the Fleet Foxes White Winter Hymnal. Frank Zappa gets namechecked for Kosmic Debris, a number from Apostrophe, one of those batshit albums you cannot believe even exist when you discover them as a teenage stoner, and you never stop being delighted that they do. A jigsaw of a Van Gogh painting inspired a cold reading that might not have been nearly as frosty as it appears at first glance, while Carlos Castaneda and his wild desert bullshit gave me brujos, and an idea of which cactus parts you needed to trip enough balls to put you into the stratosphere. Salem Witches, Marjorie Cameron, Elizabeth Loftus, even Isambard Kingdom Brunel gets a look in. The more I look back at it the more I realise there is a lot in this book, perhaps too much, but it is – at its heart – still a love story.

It might also be the most me book I’ve ever written. For a long time I didn’t really do introspection. I lived mostly in fight or flight mode, filling the PTSD void with stuff – books and art, information, theories, and rational explanations. I bobbed around for a couple of years on the fringes of the Sceptic movement, and that’s kind of where I think the character of hyper-rational psychology professor Gus came from. The deeper I got with the Sceptics/Skeptics the more I realised they could be inflexible, even cult-like (and don’t even get me started on the misogyny within the movement) and the lack of self-awareness was absurd.

I also wrote this book from before I went to therapy, and I think in a way Gus’s journey almost prophesied my own transformation. Gus is what happens when you stop forcing yourself to think that everything that goes on in your head is purely chemical or evolutionary. Yes, that’s a component of it, but emotions are real. That sense you have that everything in a situation is maybe not exactly as it seems? Yeah. Run with that. Dig deep, and look around. Turns out it might be more than a feeling.

#writing #original fiction #spooky season #witches #cults #paranormal romance #lgbtq romance

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calcifersfireplaceao3-moved · 2 years

Text

hellcheer wip

---

Just a short WIP, taking place in Eddie’s trailer

General audiences

"You'll laugh." Chrissy fidgets and laughs nervously. "It's not exactly…"

She gasps in surprise as Eddie rockets off of the decrepit couch with such force as to almost bounce her off with him. Despite herself, the nightmares, the dizziness and confusion — she laughs. Eddie is kneeling dramatically in front of her, hand over his heart as he bows low.

"My fair lady. Miss Chrissy Cunningham, I would do no such thing." There’s a Cheshire cat smile curling at the corners of his mouth.

"Do you do stuff like this all the time?" She may be deflecting, sure, but genuine curiosity is taking hold of her. Wanting to know this strange boy better, why he cares so little about being so different, that's not a bad thing right?

He looks up at her, brushing an errant curl aside without thinking and in his big dark eyes she can see him calculating. Boys have looked at her like this before, deciding which approach will work best. Will he change his tactic? Switch back to being the intimidating cafeteria version of himself? Pretend to be cool, that he doesn't care — but she's seen a bit of what seems to be the genuine Eddie though, too much for that to work. She drops her eyes to her fingers twisting in her lap, the last smile still halfway on her face but she knows it probably looks cynical now.

"Look…" Eddie sighs, sprawling onto the floor, one leg straight, one bent, leaning back on one hand. "I like hearing you laugh, you look like you need some good times right now and I'm happy to oblige. But I'm also hesitating fulfilling your- request. I don't know what you're so freaked by but I don't think adding a bad trip on top of all that crap will be helping you any. Honestly? You look like you'd even have a bad high on the maryjane so I — "

For the first time he looks at a loss for words, ruffling his hair at the back of his head as he ducks forward to try and look into her eyes. "Clue me in a little, yeah? Consider a little therapy another freebie."

Eddie lets her make the next move, waiting in patient stillness she didn't expect from him, the only giveaway of his usual demeanor is his fingers tapping rhythmically against his thigh. A tic he hasn't seemed to notice. She's about to drop it, ask him to take her home — or shoot, even walk if she has to — but the silence is starting to sound like the ticking of a clock. The imaginary swing of a pendulum, the faintest illusion of a whisper of her name spurs her into talking.

"Being, well… Cheering was fun, it was fun to learn and fun to perform but then…" She can't look at him anymore. "Then people really started looking, and at first I didn't mind it, you know? Who doesn't want to feel loved, to be told they're pretty? I've wanted to be called that, to be looked at, or — or I guess I was told I should want that. But now no one cares about the choreography I make, they care about what makeup I use. Now 'pretty' feels like a — a cage."

"I wanted the attention, I wanted to be the pretty cheerleader, to be looked at, loved," alarmed she feels tears leaking out of the corners of her eyes and when she swipes at them reflexively she has a panicked thought about her mascara and blush running — proving the point.

Eddie has no idea though that her worrying about her makeup just confirms that she's just as shallow as she's afraid of. He's still watching with his thoughtful expression, rolling up off leaning back to reach towards her before pausing and pulling out the handkerchief that usually dangles out his back pocket and offers it to her. It's probably disgusting but she takes it anyway, wiping carefully under her eyes with a few more sniffles before carefully folding it and returning it to him.

"Well. Like I was saying, I just uhm. I have a lot of pressure to keep that up." Chrissy smooths her skirt, feeling vulnerable having burst into tears spilling her guts to the biggest social outcast of Hawkins High. Instinctively she plasters on her best smile, her push-through-a-sprained-ankle-during-a-lift smile, shoving down her mother's voice — "I want something to take the edge off."

"Nah." Eddie shakes his head, his expression somewhere in the family of pity, sympathy, "no, I'm not gonna do that."

Just about when she's about to protest he shushes her, "Seriously, you gotta trust me, we can smoke a joint here, sure man whatever, but I'm not giving you anything stronger."

He gesticulates when he talks still, but it's less dramatic, simply the way he talks without any added flair. The rings on his hands glint even in the low light and he smiles warmly at her. "If this is going to be the start of our dealer-dealee relationship I can't have you off by yourself in a bad trip."

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

I do have an end point in mind with this, I’ll probably keep messing around with it, but idk if I’ll post it to my AO3. For someone who didn’t like this season on every level all the way down to a technical standpoint something about this one specific interaction stuck with me. Maybe I’ll continue this but since I definitely have other things I should be writing instead I figured I’d drop this off here for now for anyone else still stuck on Them.

ps. don’t be a tool, yeah? I’m not looking for an excuse to use the block button but I also won’t hesitate

#hellcheer #edrissy #eddie x chrissy #stranger things 4 #chrissy cunningham #eddrissy #eddissy #eddssy

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aza-trash-can · 10 months

Note

3, 5,11, 16, 17, and 25 for Nebula!

Nebula! My baby boy!

Quick fun fact before answering the asks: He appears/is mentioned in two of my fics I'm re-writing! So if I get bit by the writing bug, hopefully we'll see him soon!

Okay, now onto the asks

3. What is your favorite childhood memory?

Hmm, I dunno. I'm still a cadet, y'know? So how can I have a favourite? But, if I had to pick, probably choosing my name. 67 was with me, we were in the library and I saw a picture of a nebula, and do you know how cool those are? They're epic! I wanna see those one day. I know I'm gonna, just gotta wait to grow up.

5. What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Spying on the CCs, heheh. They're awesome, and I wanna be like them one day. Did you know CTs can get onto command track? Cause I just learned that, like, 5 months ago. Anyways yeah, I like doing that. And talking to 67. He also spies on the CCs with me, so I get to talk to him and spy on them. Double win!

11. What is your favorite type of media (TV, movie, books, etc)? Name some specific favorites (which shows, movies, books, etc do you like)!

What's a movie? Or TV? The Kaminoans don't let us have that stuff. Are they cool? Oooh, are there movies on nebulas? Oh, answer, right. Uh, books? Cause they're the only thing around besides all the videos for flash training. I love books on the galaxy, space is so cool! Right now, books are the closest I can get to seeing the stars and all that, so I guess that would make them my favourite.

16. Describe your perfect day.

Like, that I can have, or that I want? Perfect day that I can have is what I do every day, cause we do the same thing every day. Training, training, eating, free time to spy on and learn from CCs, more training, eating, and sleep. We don't really do a lot.

The perfect day that I want is to spend an entire day in space. I wanna just fly around in a ship and go places and see everything. I wanna see how close I can get to a star, and what it's like to fly through a nebula, I wanna see a supernova too. Just, spaaaaaaaace.

17. What makes you laugh?

Myself! I'm pretty funny, y'know. I tell good jokes, I know cause even 67 laughs at them, and it's really hard to get him to laugh. Plus, it's good to laugh at yourself if you mess up. Mess ups are funny, so just laugh instead of feeling bad. Do you know how many times I trip over my words and just make soudns instead of words? A lot. But I just laugh, and everything's better. So see, I'm pretty funny!

25.Freebie! Come up with your own question for the character to answer!

What's your favourite thing to do with your brothers?

Well, I like spying on the CCs with 67. We're gonna get to command track one day, so we gotta learn, y'know? I like doing anything with 67, he's my favourite. Library, talking, whatever, I just like being around him.

I also like when we get breaks to play games. It doesn't happen a lot anymore, since we're getting older, but when we do get to play it's really fun!

#ask box #baby boy nebula!#i love him so so much #i have a vague warning for y'all though #don't get too attached #ocs #nebula

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dumb-hat · 2 years

Text

FFXIVwrite 2022 Recap

(To start, here's a link to the 2022 masterpost, just in case I haven't spammed the link enough elsewhere.)

During the last two writing challenges, I was working the night shift at an exceptionally shady hotel, which made it difficult to carve out time to participate. I got a chunk done for 2020, but for 2021, I think I only managed two. This year, I have a much more normal human schedule and I had high hopes of leveraging that to write a lot more.

I did alright, I think. I got 24 of them done, though a few of them didn't quite make it in before the deadline. That's... yeah, that's pretty good, I think. I had hopes of getting one done every day, but while my new schedule is better, it's not perfect. I usually only had a window to write within a narrow time frame somewhere in the hour or two before the daily deadline, which sent some of them squeaking in perilously close to the deadline, and some of them well after it. A lot of the writing felt rushed, and I felt like I kind of ended up going back to the same few wells a lot, and if I'm being honest, those wells were, uh, well frequented in 2020 already.

But.

Hey.

Altogether, I did more of the prompts in 2022 than I did in 2020 and 2021 combined. That's kinda neat.

It's always kind of interesting to see what gets traction and what doesn't, and to see where that overlaps with the things that I wrote that I actually liked. So, what did I like? Well, I had fun with the freebie prompts this year, using each one as an excuse to delve into this blog's titular dumb hat. If you haven't seen those and you're curious, you can find them at Heirloom, Perspective, Memory, and Dumb Hat. I also really liked Row.

Honestly though, while I set out to write more this September, the main thing I wanted to accomplish was just to make this little blog feel a bit like home again. I've never been one of the great (or even good, or even mediocre) tumblrers, but once upon a time, I was kind of active. I know everyone says that the writing challenge is about building a daily writing habit, but (for better or worse!) it really helped me rebuild more of a daily tumblr habit. Well, I mean, outside of reblogging bird comics almost every day. I was weirdly consistent about that, somehow.

I'm not sure how well I'll maintain the presence, but hey, let's pretend I do. So, what's next?

I dunno. I should probably redo that LFRP /masterpost like I keep saying. I should really touch up the carrd, too. That thing's really out of date, and one of the (late, unsubmitted) prompts I did was a rewrite of the little thing I had on there anyway. Which probably means I need to either take or cajole @luck-and-larceny into taking some new screenshots. I've got a handful of asks from right before the challenge started, and a prompt/meme/whatever-thing or two I was tagged in during the challenge, so I should probably get those done, too.

Or, hey, I could just keep reblogging the rude bird art. There's always that, right?

#OOC

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icarus-suraki · 2 years

Note

for the halloween asks: bat, cemetery, ghoul, king, mysterious, spell aaand gory, as a freebie ;)

Bat - What’s your favorite creature associated with Halloween?

I got your bat right here!

Cemetery - Have you ever gone ghosthunting? If not, would you?

I’ve never gone, alas. But would I go? Yes. The closest I’ve come was a presentation at the library from a group of local ghost-hunters that I had to set up and coordinate. They came in with all their videos and photos and audio recordings and all this good stuff, which was neat. I’m a major skeptic though, and I was not all that impressed with some of their “evidence.” But it was fun.

Unfortunately they also told a long story about investigating some off “activity” in a recently-constructed house. So no deaths, not a lot of time for residual stuff, not a place one would expect activity. But there was a teenage girl who lived in the house. I’m sitting in the back of the conference room like “Ah ha! It’s her. Teenage girls and poltergeist activity go way back.” But no. They claimed they’d tracked the energy back to the girl’s closet where she had one of those plastic reproduction Death Note notebooks. She’d written someone’s name in it, whatever--I mean, I had one of those notebooks, we all wrote each other’s names in it. And these Serious Ghost-Hunters were just sure that this thing, this “Death Note,” was the source of all the energy and activity. No, guys. You’ve fallen for the equivalent of standing under an A/C vent and thinking it’s a cold spot.

They did talk about visual snow for a while, which was different. And a woman in the audience talked to them after for quite a while (I was nearby because I needed to pack up the chairs) about how she felt like there was someone with her, like a ghost or something, and she thought it was this former boyfriend who had died and whatever whatever. The ghost-hunters seemed to think, yes, it was him and I think she asked them to come out to her house for investigations.

Anyway, even though I’m a huge skeptic and I will pick apart any photo, video, or audio evidence of “ghosts,” it would still be fun to be like “Yeah, but what if--?” and go out looking for ghosties..

Ghoul - What’s your favorite horror/Halloween song?

Without a doubt, “Beast of Blood” by Malice Mizer

It just 100% my Halloween/secret-inner-goth aesthetic. Red-black-white color scheme, Gothic Aristo and Lolita outfits, beautiful people with beautiful eyes, mysterious and dreamlike set of images... It’s perfect. I used the MV as inspiration for a half-written Godchild fanfic.

King - What’s your favorite Halloween tradition?

You mean, like, locally/personally or like in general? I’ll go with personal traditions. Actually, it’s more a familial tradition. Actually it’s two familial traditions.

We’ve got this vintage early 1980s slightly country-style fabric witch that we’ve hung on the fireplace for as long as I can remember. She’s riding on a broom almost in profile and she’s got to be, like, two feet across. She’s called Vick Vitch because the Wicked Witch figures as a character in the children’s book Each Peach Pear Plum and my brother couldn’t quite say “Wicked Witch” yet and it came out as “Vick Vitch.” It’s been nearly 40 years since she was named Vick Vitch and we still refer to her as Vick Vitch.

(In recent years, my mom has made a small sign to hang nearby that says, “Yes I can drive a stick.”)

Besides that, my mom will always make this kind of ground beef and vegetable soup. She started making it when I was old enough to go out trick or treating, I think. It’s just an easy thing to make: brown the meat, add water and bullion, throw in frozen vegetables, throw in canned tomatoes, add a few spices and a bay leaf, then let boil. It can just simmer on the stove for hours, so she’d make it on Halloween night because she (or my dad but usually her) would be up and down all through supper answering the door for trick or treaters. She could just ladle up a bowl for each of us and that was it. We were good. We literally refer to this soup as “Halloween soup” now. We can eat it at Christmas and we’ll still call it “Halloween soup.”

A more recent tradition is that my dad and I will make some kind of goofy, electronic Halloween decoration. Like a little LED pumpkin. Or a black foamcore board bat with red LED eyes. It’s nothing for him to pull out a bunch of LEDs from his supplies and solder a little circuit together. It’s great.

I also like carving pumpkins pretty well. I like designing the pattern to cut.

Mysterious - What’s your favorite unsolved mystery?

Why must you ask me this??? This is such a hard question to answer because there are just so many fascinating unsolved mysteries. I’ve literally got a massive, massive “unsolved mysteries” iceberg in my drafts--and they’re not all murders or missing people either. Some are science and philosophy. And I don’t know all the topics on the list as it goes down further--for once. It’s got all the classics (Yuba County 5, Black Dahlia, Hinterkaifeck, the Monster of Florence, Taman Shud/the Somerton Man, Ted Cruz the Zodiac Killer, the Boy in the Box...) but there’s some weird, weird stuff in there.

I guess... Hmm... If I’m going to pick one, I really like D.B. Cooper. No one (except maybe Cooper) died, no one was hurt, the plane landed, everyone go out, and it’s just such a bonkers story. I know intellectually that Cooper probably died after jumping out of the plane in a storm. But in my heart I want him to have survived.

My favorite pet theory about D.B. Cooper is that he was actually a trans woman. She had transitioned at some point before the hijacking but could pass as a man (having presumably done so for years). So she disguises herself as a man, passes herself off as a man, carries out of the hijacking, escapes, survives, and then goes on living as a herself. The FBI, the CIA, the police--everyone’s looking for a man, so she goes undetected for the rest of her life (maybe she’s still living, I don’t know).

Addendum: her name was Barbara Dayton!

I read about this one I think in 2016, when the FBI formally suspended the investigation.

Not gonna lie: I do think of Cooper as a kind of folk hero. I almost wish this one was never solved.

Spell - What kind of magical power would you like to have?

I’m so basic but my longtime answer is “to be able to fly.” Anymore I think it would be so cool to be able to shapeshift. Want pointed ears? Got it. Want wings? Got it. Want to be the hottest possible version of yourself but another gender? Got it. That would be amazing. That would be entertaining to no end.

Gory - Do you like horror?

Are you really asking me if I like horror? Are you really asking me if I like horror?

Of course I do. Don’t be silly. I’m a bit picky about it, not because I get squicked or upset by a lot of things (I have one (1) thing that really gets me in visual horror media) but because sometimes the work or piece of media is just...boring. I’m not a huge fan of horror novels and stories but that’s mostly because they don’t seem all that horrific. It might be because they’re obligated to explain or overexplain elements of the story--much like creepypasta stories or horror ARGs or horror YouTube channels end up doing. The Backrooms were more unnerving before there was all this fucking lore attached to them. But on the whole, yeah, absolutely, I’m a complete fucking sicko and I like horror.

Spooky Season Asks!

#ask game #ask me things #spooky season

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nightingaleflow · 2 years

Note

idk how the numbers got messed up hahaha

Nezumi

Who is your best friend? Tell us about them!

Holly

What is your favorite childhood memory?

What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

Evie

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?

Who do you look up to?

Mariana

What is your favorite type of media (TV, movie, books, etc)? Name some specific favorites (which shows, movies, books, etc do you like)!

Aki

What’s the best way to cheer you up?

What makes you sad?

Freebie! "Will you ever try cooking with Rukia again?"

Yeah, the numbering system is really weird on Tumblr. But oh well, on to the questions! <3

~Nezumi Chisaki~

Who is your best friend? Tell us about them!

"My best friend…honestly, it's Rock. Don't get me wrong, I like Sakura and Choji. They're very nice! Don't get the wrong idea!

But Rock…he never tries to push me beyond my comfort level. He always checks in with me to make sure I'm ok. I never have to worry when I'm with him, even if we're doing something scary, because I know I can trust him to have my back.

Yes, he's my…b-boyfriend. But he's my best friend too."

~Holly Reed~

What is your favorite childhood memory?

"Coming home from the hospital after getting attacked by the alligator. My family threw me a party for surviving, and I not only got to try my favorite food - fried alligator - for the first time, but my uncle gave me a gator skull as a present.

Gus the Christmas Gator still sits in my room, guarding the door in his little Santa hat."

What is your favorite thing to do in your free time?

"Free time…that sounds nice.

Ok, but seriously, I'm not really sure I can call the time I'm not drawing or communicating with clients 'free time'. I'm the DM for my D&D group, so I spend about four to six hours every Wednesday running our games. But I also have to plan things out ahead of time - board layouts, enemies, potential storylines, and so on.

I do like playing regular board games as well, if Mariana, Evie, and I all happen to have the night off. It doesn't really matter what kind, but I prefer games with a defector such as The Resistance and Dead of Winter. It adds an element of surprise and strategy even if I've played them a million times before.

That's how Evie talked me into trying Among Us, by the way. I normally don't play video games, but Among Us was a lot of fun, even if she did yell at me for framing her for the murder in Electrical."

~Evie Moss~

What’s the hardest thing you’ve ever had to do?

"Learning to walk again. Have you ever had to relearn how to do something you had been doing for years? Because lemme tell you, that shit was hard. It was like I'd been playing through the tutorial for a Pokemon game only to realize I was actually playing Cuphead."

0/10, would not recommend."

Who do you look up to?

"God…so many people.

Brianna Scurry was my first idol back when I played soccer. She was the first black woman and first woman goalkeeper to be elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame. I still have her poster on my bedroom wall.

I also have a bunch of esports idols. Remilia. Geguri. Maddiesuun. Obviously, women are just as good as men at gaming, but esports is still a massive dickfest, so any time one of us "makes" it, it's a serious moment of admiration because we all know how hard we had to work and what challenges we had to overcome to get where we are.

There's also my parents. They never failed to support me or encourage me no matter what I put them through. They might not always understand me, but they always try, and I couldn't ask for anything more.

Then there's Rock Lee and Might Guy from Naruto. Some might say it's dumb to idolize fictional characters, but those people should go fuck themselves. I was a fan of them anyway back when I was an athlete because they always encouraged me to work hard and do my best. But after I lost my leg, watching them deal with their struggles helped me deal with my own.

And of course, Mariana and Holly. God knows I wouldn't even be here without them. But even without that, they've never failed to be there for me or help me. I couldn't ask for better friends, or sisters really."

~Mariana Rosales~

What is your favorite type of media (TV, movie, books, etc)? Name some specific favorites (which shows, movies, books, etc do you like)!

"Anime. I'm not ashamed to say I was always a weeb. I started watching Sailor Moon when I was really little, and I never saw a reason to grow out of it.

Obviously, I still love Sailor Moon - Sailor Pluto is my queen. Naruto is obviously fantastic - my signature cosplay is Sakura Haruno, and it's a show that really helped myself and mis hermanas deal with some stuff. Soul Eater was great, Konosuba was great, Pokemon, Sword Art Online…dios, I could go on.

Right now, I'm watching through Boruto with Evie and Holly. I'm not entirely sure what to think about it yet, but I hate that Sakura ended up marrying Sasuke. She deserves so much better."

~Aki Kamiya~

What’s the best way to cheer you up?

"Be Gaara. If you aren't Gaara, food is always appreciated."

What makes you sad?

"The people I love being hurt, especially if I was in a position to protect them and failed."

Freebie! - Will you ever try cooking with Rukia again?

"Certainly, as long as she's willing. I've had more than my share of kitchen disasters over the years. I have no reason to hold that against her. I just can't guarantee the results will be any better if I end up being the one cooking."

Thanks for the asks, Jmor! <3

OC Interview Questions

#ask nightingale #Nezumi Chisaki #Holly Reed #Evie Moss #Mariana Rosales #Aki Kamiya #oc talk #my ocs #Naruto oc #Naruto #nightingale writes #justmyownreality #A Crystal in the Sand #Who You Are At Night #fanfiction #writing #my writing #my fanfiction

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thebluenebula · 2 years

Text

Repair

~600 words

Major Characters: Ashleigh Wayne, Harper Row

Minor Characters: Dick Grayson

Furniture finished, and finally unpacking, Ash asks Dick for help. While unpacking, he finds an object of sentimental value to Ash, but it's long been broken. If only she knew someone who specializes in tinkering.

Now that her furniture had arrived, and was built, Ash finally decided it was time to unpack. She sat on the ground by her bookshelf, placing books in an order that only made sense to her. Dick had offered to help her unpack, so she had him unpacking her video games, sorting them by console.

He placed what felt like the dozenth Call of Duty game onto the shelf. "You really like shooters, don't you?"

"Yeah, Sean got me into them, we used to go over to each others house, and play split screen for hours, it was so much fun."

Dick smiled at how happy Ash sounded. He tossed aside the empty cardboard box, and grabbed a nearby one labelled Xbox. He opened it, and to his surprise, it wasn't full of games but an old 360 console.

He picked it up out of the box, and examined the stickers on it, there were all kinds of them, video game characters, hearts, even a pair of name tags, one had Sean written on it, and the other was scribbled over, with Ashleigh written above the scribbles. "This is cute."

Ash glanced up from her box. "Yeah, but it doesn't work any more."

"So it's just around for sentimental value."

"I meant to get it fixed at some point, but the longer I left it, the more it got put on the back burner."

"You could give it Harper, if it can be fixed, she'll fix it."

"No, that's okay, I don't won't to bother her."

"No bother, I swear, Harper loves fixing things, plus it'll give you something to talk about."

"I'll think about it."

- - - - -

The next day, Ash found herself gently knocking on Harper's open door. "Hello?"

Harper looked up from her desk. "Hey Ash, what's up?"

"Hey, umm... I have a thing, and old xbox, and I was wondering, if you've got a couple minutes one of the days, if maybe you could try to fix it? Dick said I should ask you."

"I'm the girl to come to if you have any things broken, my expertise is gadgets, but I'll take a go at anything," she explained as she stood up. "I've got no plans for today, how about I take a look at it now, if that suits you?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

The two headed to Ash's room. There were still a couple boxes scattered about, but most of her stuff had been put away.

Harper made her way over to the desk, which was a mess, papers, and trinkets were scattered across it, but amongst the mess was the Xbox. "You know, these things aren't that expensive. Plenty of second hand ones for sale."

Ash stood by her. "Yeah I know, it's more sentimental value them anything else."

"I figured. Do you know what's wrong with it?"

"No idea, it just stopped working one day, but before that the disc tray was stuck so that's also not working."

"If you let me borrow it, I can take it apart, see what needs to be done, and bring it back in a couple days, good as new."

"Yeah, sure, but it's alright if you can't fix it."

She scoffed as she picked it up. "Hell will freeze over, before I can't fix something."

Ash smiled at her. "Want do you want for it, I'd offer to pay you, but that seems kinda pointless."

"We'll just call your first a freebie."

- - - - -

A few days later, Harper knocked on Ash's door, Xbox in hand. She set it up, and two watched as the Xbox logo flashed up on screen. Harper grabbed a game case off the shelf, Halo. "Now, what do you say to a little one on one?"

Ash smirked. "You're on."

This is another story that's been sitting around almost finished for ages, I'm realising I have a lot of those, and I finally got the... inspiration? Sure, inspiration. I finally got the inspiration to finish, and I'm quite happy with it. Anyway, I hope ye enjoyed - Blue >^u^<

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icharchivist · 25 days

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I SAID YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT YOU'D DO!

I figured it'd be something like that anyway. It sure is a good thing that I can't read

Also, I'll definitely be able to do the transcendence quickly, but that's because I already got all the mats from the Relink codes. I have so many jade sword relics, I'm kind of terrified. But yeah, I couldn't take credit for that, I just got another freebie

At least I did the 5* all by myself

Though I did decide to recruit Feower next, so I've been stockpiling rusted daggers, so I can get the entire Eternal boyband together and I got the event Seox from SoR, that's a start

Ohmy god youre ready to get him up to 130 thats insane

You're doing amazing. Loved your way into hos arms and power.

And i love that after the horrors of the grind you're thinking about unlocking another Eternals lmao. That's when you get to "well at least now i know what im doing" and end up doing insane stuff again

Cheering for that though

Consider also taking his sister, she boost droprates when in a party ;)

Glad to see youre very normal about it

Also now that i think about it we can see Seofon's ass on Feower's skin. I see now why you'd want to recruit him to but this art on your homepage :)

Have fun <333

#ichareply #anonymous #ichafantalks gbf

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pokemonxhyperfixation · 5 months

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This is a late birthday gift for an IRL friend.

So my friend Swirly (That's what she goes by online, so I'll just call her that) had her birthday six days ago, and I made a team for her favorite Touhou character with her beforehand and planned to post it on her birthday. Then I forgot to. Woops. Anyways, have Raiko.

Honestly, Rillaboom is a freeby. I'm not explaining why the girl who's a living drum has the drum monkey.

So, Swirly INSISTED that Raiko have a Melloetta, as it's the funny music legendary. I allowed it. When I make the Prismriver Sisters, they'll have a hole in their team, and that's because the Prismrivers and Raiko share ownership of this Melloetta. I imagine Raiko caught this thing and got it Rune Song when she went to the outside world.

Mudsdale is kinda a strange one. For some reason I can't place, I felt REALLY compelled to give Raiko a Horse. IDK why, but I did. Well, actually the reason is just because I could see her going into the Outside World and traveling on horse back on her journey of self discovery. We decided the work horse Mudsdale would be the most fitting. (Also it's the only one that realistically has the strength to help her carry her drumset around.)

Raiko is often associated with electricity, and after racking our brains for a hole 5 seconds, we came to Toxtricity. It's a music based electric type, and the Punk Rock vibes on this guy really feels fitting for Raiko's character. Went with Low Key because we felt that it fit her vibe more.

So, fun Swirly lore, she used to be a percussionist (no wonder she likes Raiko so much). I mention this because this background allowed us to decide to add a marginally less traditional percussion instrument. We were originally gonna do wind chimes with Chimecho, but Chimecho is fucking terrible so we decided to do a Bell with Bronzong instead. While I know Bronzong is a bell, and the kinds of big bells don't really sound TOO similar to this, I could honestly see her kinda useing Bronzong in place of a Gong.

Slowking is a really weird one. I had the idea that we should give her a Belly Drum pokemon, and Swirly agreed, so we checked what Pokemon got Belly Drum. Swirly just decided that Slowking was the most fitting for her, so that's what we went with.

Honorable mention to Chatot. We both collectively decided that Raiko AND the Prismrivers have Chatots, but that they don't use them in battles. So yeah.

(Also fun fact, the first draft of Raiko's Trainer Card used Lyrica as the Character, because Pokecharms' Classic Trainer Card Maker I use DOES have Touhou Character Icons, it's just that they are Reimu, Marisa, Flandre, Byakuren and Fucking LYRICA for some reason. Thought this Red Headed one felt more fitting, so I changed it when we added Toxtricity.)

#touhou #touhou project #pokemon #raiko horikawa #Happy Super Late Birthday Swirly!#Swirly also pronounces Raiko like EGREGIOUSLY wrong.#Like she adds a whole ass extra syllable that just blatently isn't there #All from her misreading the name #Bonus Fact: Toxtricity was the LAST pokemon added. She originally had an Indeedee in reference to her style.#Then I remembered she had to do with electricity and she needed ONE electric type.#And Indeedee was kinda just filler anyways.#Doesn't even synergize super well with her team because GOD knows that Rillaboom has Grassy Surge.

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randomboo256 · 7 months

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Four Swords Rant

I've been playing the Four Swords games for the first time recently, and they're honestly not as good as people hype them up to be. Specifically, I'm referring to the games Four Swords Anniversary Edition and Four Swords Adventures. I was really excited to play them because they're some of the only Zelda games I never touched, so to say I was let down is an understatement. Let me go one at a time with these two, because they're surprisingly different.

Also they're pretty old and are a pain to play nowadays (hell, they were a pain to play even back then), so I imagine a lot of people haven't touched them seriously in forever, so let me recap you as well.

Warning: This post will be long. I am sorry.

Firstly, Four Swords. It's probably the most obscure official Zelda game made for one of Nintendo's main systems. Four Swords was a freebie with the GBA version of A Link to the Past, and it's remaster Four Swords Anniversary Edition was a downloadable freebie to all Nintendo DSI owners. Needless to say, but there's no reason to be too overly harsh on the game. Honestly, the main problem with Four Swords is less to do with the game and more do to Nintendo's refusal to act normal for five seconds. Four Swords Anniversary was delisted just a few months after release, and the GBA original has never been rereleased (despite the fact Nintendo charges us a $50 sub to play GBA games with online multiplayer as being its main selling point).

Anyway the game itself. It's a weird one. There's four main levels, but they're randomized. It's kinda like a roguelike game or something. The gameplay is basic, but it's fun enough for a freebie. The original GBA version was multiplayer only, but luckily the (delisted) remaster added a singleplayer which works fine enough. I wanted to play it multiplayer with a friend (and believe me I tried), but it was too much hassle. As a singleplayer game, I can see it working very well as a way to get your quick Zelda fix on the go.

"But where's the complaining?" you might be wondering. Well, I haven't gotten into the bonus levels yet. Anniversary added two extra worlds... which consist of three levels each... which themselves are batches of three levels each. So 18 levels, except unlike the base game, these aren't randomized. These were all handcrafted, and are identical on every playthrough. The first 9 levels aren't bad at all, actually. They're loving homages to ALTTP, LA, and TLOZ respectively and the level design and puzzle were pretty good imo.

Now the second batch of levels are what grind my gears. They're positioned as like the greatest challenge yet but they're more like greatest test of patience. These levels are LONG (admittedly I play slow), and they're the only time in the game where Rupees became a real annoyance to me. Basically, Rupees are your extra lives. If any Link dies, you lose 50, then 100, then like 200, etc until it caps at 500 Rupees per death. If a Link dies, they respawn on the spot. Now critically, if you can not afford the death fee it's GAME OVER. You have to go back —not to the start of the level— but to to the start of that batch of 3 levels. Just one of these levels can take me like 30 minutes because they're huge and I'm looking everywhere for all the rupees I can get. Add them all up and that's like 90 minutes of progress I can potentially lose from not having my damn tax money. Even that wouldn't be too bad if these levels didn't have some downright horrible game design in my opinion. For example, the second batch of levels are all filled with ice physics that make the game near unplayable. Yeah, it's hard I guess. But the developers didn't seem to understand that hard things should also have to be fun.

You may think this is a lot of pointless complaining considering it's about 1 bonus world in a free and delisted remaster of a relatively obscure game, and if you do think that you're completely correct. However I was so completely miserable playing it that I just had to rant to get it off my chest, ok? Despite my whining, I think Four Swords Anniversary Edition is a good game for what it is, at least from my singleplayer perspective.

Four Swords Adventures on the other hand... I am not so forgiving to. Disclaimer: I have not finished this game yet. At this point, we only have a couple worlds left. Multiplayer games like this need scheduling, and we haven't had the chance to end it yet. Firstly, Four Swords Adventures is the polar opposite of Four Swords in terms of price. While Four Swords was basically just a free giveaway, Four Swords Adventures is perhaps one of the most ridiculously expensive games to ever exist on a home console. Between the $50 price tag of the game itself, you also need four $100 GBAs, and four $10 GBA to GCN link cables. If you just want to play your Gamecube game with multiple people the couch, you had to spend over $500 (including tax) when it was new. Keep in mind, I was using the pricing of back then when it was new. Nowadays it's even worse. Just one of those GBA to GCN cables alone and used can run you like $40.

You might defend this with, "So what? The GBA Four Swords required a bunch of consoles and stuff. You didn't give it shit for it." But there's a huge difference there. It's not unreasonable for a GBA game to need more GBAs for multiplayer. In fact, for simultaneous multiplayer it simply needs to do that. There's no other way it could reasonably work. Not only that, but Four Swords—again—was a freebie to a normal Zelda game. It was more like a bonus if you had the extra hardware to play it.

Meanwhile, it's completely UNreasonable for a Gamecube game that's literally all about multiplayer to require four separate game consoles on top of the existing home console that you needed to buy. Spoiler alert, but the GBAs basically just act like Wii U Gamepads before the Wii U Gamepad, and they're about as useless. You can see your health, force gem count, and if you're in a house or underground you appear on the GBA screen. Is it neat? Kinda, but not $500 neat. This game should've just had split screen, like a normal game. The GBA stuff could've just been optional if you own the hardware already. It's completely and utterly ridiculous, and it's insane that Nintendo got away with it.

Well for a game this expensive, it must be worth it right? God I wish it was...

Firstly, the good. I really love the combat. It feels like 3D Zelda combat adapted right into the second dimension. It took me a bit to get used to, but it feels great. I can't remember if any other 2D played like this, but I like it. Secondly and despite my upcoming issues, I do think the game is decently fun most of the time.

Ok I'm out of good. Now for the bad.

Firstly, WHY IS EVERYTHING RECYCLED FROM OTHER GAMES?! Graphics, music, enemies, everything! Everything is taken from either A Link to the Past, Wind Waker, or the OG Four Swords. Even some of the characters are just lifted from Ocarina of Time like come on Nintendo! Give this game some identity! The original GBA game felt like it had more of its own identity, and it was literally a pack in! It makes me feel like I'm playing some weird mod or fangame or something. It doesn't help that some of the graphics just look bad. Some of the bosses reused from Wind Waker, for example, just have some really cheap looking sprites. Combine that with the constant mismatch of assets from random Zelda games on top of this game's tacky UI elements and it ends up looking like a Newgrounds fan game.

Secondly, the multiplayer experience is seriously flawed. There's no way around it. So, it's a co-op right? After all, the goal is to work together to finish the dungeon. Well the co-op experience is frankly lacking. All the co-op amounts to is "Push thing together" or "Grab thing together" or whatever. There's rarely any creativity in it. Most of this game could be completed with a single Link, which ends up meaning that there's rarely any feeling of actually working together to get through it. Often, one person will just end up doing everything while the others are just following them around with nothing to contribute.

As for the puzzles? What puzzles? So far, there's hardly been anything at all. That's baffling to me, because four player Zelda is literally perfect for tons of super fun puzzles, but so far it's like they aren't even in the game really. It's such a damn shame, because that was the part I was really looking forward to. Elaborate co-op puzzle solving?? Like sign me up! But alas. The game is basically just exploration and combat. The combat is fun, but the exploration? Well, I'll get back to that.

So the co-op is already wounded as is, but what kills it the fact this game feels deeply confused on what kind of multiplayer game it wants to be. On one hand, it seems like it's a co-op. On the other hand, it adds a bunch of annoying shit to try to make it competitive. I don't mean the side modes or Tingle's tower or whatever. I mean the core level to level gameplay. The fact that things like heart containers and bracelets are only given to one person is terrible because it undercuts the fact we're working together here. When I get an upgrade like that I just feel bad about it. A lot of the intended competitiveness revolves around the Rupee replacements, being Force Gems. The game really wants us to be aggressively fighting each other over these damn gems that none of us give a shit about. So much so that the game has freaking friendly fire on at all times. Not only that, but we also have hitboxes and can bump each other around and get in each other's way. This means that this a co-op game where the other players are more likely to get in the way of each other (whether they like it or not) than they are to actually work together. Even from a purely competitive perspective, what's the appeal? Being a dick to your friends just ends up costing both of you in the end, so like???

Plus like, there's practically no punishment for death at all. The only punishment as far as I can tell is ranking lower on the end level tally, which again is just an unwanted competitive element.

Finally, the exploration has problems too. It's generally fun, but there's a constant sense of being tethered too heavily to your teammates. Despite the fact that the game forces every player to have a glorified Gamepad, there's still very little freedom in walking around. Sure, another player might walk into a cave, but you're all stuck on the same overall screen. That means that if one player has to backtrack, everyone has to backtrack with them. It also means that the four players can't multitask. Unless there's a bunch to do on one screen, and there usually isn't, it just leaves someone waiting for the other players to get finished.

It doesn't help that every player only gets 1 item each. It's so lame. They totally could've added an inventory menu and had you unlock items for at least the rest of the level, rather than temporarily putting them in the hands of one Link. Any excitement I feel finding a cool item is completely ruined knowing that I'll likely be forced to toss it aside for like, a shovel or something. Plus, it's the main source of obnoxious back tracking. God, it really feels good for the whole group to backtrack multiple screens because one of us needs to grab a certain item that we need to progress. Feels great. Definitely not wasting our time.

I know I've been really negative, but I don't hate this game. When I can ignore the issues, it's pretty fun. But man this game can really get on all of our nerves at times, and not in an enjoyable way. Four Swords Adventures just reeks of missed potential. Multiplayer Zelda??! That sounds awesome! But nah this was super underwhelming. My gameplay issues combined with the insane hardware requirements just makes this a huge no go nowadays. It's frankly not worth it, in any capacity. If you have to play it, just play it on PC if you can. It's too much money for a game that feels this uncreative.

What a let down.

#gaming #rant #legend of zelda

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