#a friend has been watching gravity falls lately

[egglands-worst]

it's really actually super unfair how gravity falls made me care SO MUCH about the smelly old conman with zero redeeming qualities. but i do care about him so very much

#gravity falls #stan pines #a friend has been watching gravity falls lately

[quotedfictions]

A Crystal Rose

Synopsis: As the princesses fight off Gramorr and save Ephidia, Mephisto sacrifices himself to save his sister, but in the process, his fate unknown, breaks more than his sisters heart.

Themes: Angst, heartbreak, Lolirock, forbidden love

Warnings: Implications of death, Death

Word Count: 768

Edit: Grammar and Spelling, I forgot the word count (again)

Note: This one was a little hard to write because it's been three months since I last watched Lolirock

Y/n wasn't a mighty princess, and she wasn't one of the five sent to help Iris, but she was there when Iris activated her Shanilla; she was there to see her protect her friends; she was there because y/n was scared, and worried even, for someone she wasn't allowed to be near, let alone look at in a caring way. She had been hiding behind some rocks when a green crystal rose formed before her eyes; he had noticed her, of course, he had. He loved her. He was focused on the fight but made the small gesture under the belief that he would survive this fight no matter the outcome.

What neither of them counted on, what broke Y/n from her hiding place, was when her beloved rushed in to save his sister, a massive crystal falling from the sky towards the thinnest part of the cliff, running past Gramorr and shocking the other girls with her appearance, Y/n rushes towards the falling crystal, not wishing for her beloved to get hurt. Unfortunately, the small girl was too late, screaming his name as she tried to grab his arm; Praxina was too shocked to try before leaning over the hole, watching her brother fall to his presumable end. Noticing the ground crumble, Praxina pushes Y/n away, understanding how much her brother cared for her and not wanting the girl to get hurt.

Y/n falls back, tears rolling down her face as she watches his sister meet the same fate as him, only that she had a higher chance of survival as Y/n watched Gramorr's body follow suit. Talia grabs y/n away from the edge as she tightly clutches his last loving gesture, as it begins to set in that her love might never come back. Y/n starts screaming, sobbing his name, slowing losing consciousness from the shock; she audibly cries one more time before losing all consciousness. When Y/n comes too, the sky is blue, and the Kingdom of Ephidia is free; looking around, the events of Gramorr's defeat are hazy.

Suddenly reality hits her, and she walks to the new edge of the cliff and falls to her knees holding the crystal rose, his last gift. Y/n begins to cry; the only words leaving her lips are the sad sobs of her calling out his name, "… Mephisto…." She jolts when she feels a hand on her shoulder and a guilty, regretful face standing behind her; it is Iris. Y/n couldn't blame Iris, considering the princess had no idea that the crystal would go flying or that gravity would take effect right above Praxina. Iris didn't plan on Mephisto running in to save Praxina; she didn't even plan to hurt the twins.

Y/n tries hard to be happy when they reach the palace of Ephidia, but it is difficult; the girl has just lost the most important person in her life, the love of her life, and she has no way of confirming if he is gone. Shortly after Iris is reunited with her parents, the doors of the castle slam shut, and the room grows dark; Y/n keeps a hold of her rose, scared that more danger is coming for Ephidia. In the middle of the room, a large, maroon-colored magic circle, detailed with butterflies, appears on the floor, and Y/n immediately knows. Praxina. The mourning, angry twin makes a whole speech about how she would harm everyone Iris ever cared for on earth and leaves, smashing a hole through the doors and disappearing to the other realm.

Y/n knew Mephisto very well, and he would have never allowed his sister to take her pain out like this; as much as he was evil, Mephisto loved his sister as much as he loved Y/n, an unknown princess who saw him for him and not his magical ability or intelligence level. Y/n felt even more heartbroken, seeing what Mephisto's fall had done to his sister; she cared for Praxina like a sister, and although they didn't get along well, they respected each other for putting up with the comical boy, but Y/n believed the Praxina's drive for avenging her brother was more potent than common sense more than what her brother would have wanted. All Y/n could do was let the tears roll down her face as she finally let the fact that Mephisto was gone sink in. The last of the pain finally set into Y/n, her voice gone; She decided to go to earth and stop Praxina, to escape the realm that reminded her of her love, and never feel that pain again.

End

#x reader #fem reader #fan fiction #reader insert #fanfic #female reader #lolirock #mephisto lolirock #praxina lolirock #lolirock x reader

[taytrashmouth]

Consent

Eddie Munson x female reader

TW: issues surrounding consent, lack of self-confidence, tears.

You had been in relationships before, serious ones, flings, one night stands, situationships, the list went on, the point is you had a fair amount of experience.

Eddie Munson was your latest relationship and Lately you’d notice him asking before he did anything remotely affectionate, looking back he did it when you were friends too.

“Do you mind?” He’d ask before putting his arm around your shoulder, or “can I sit here?” Before cuddling up next to you when watching a movie. When you had your first kiss, a moment before he asked “can I kiss you?” Although he was already inches away from your face.

He always gave you room to back out if you were uncomfortable. This wasn’t a bad thing, it’s just that nobody had ever asked you questions like this before, it was always you asking “are you sure?” Before clothes became a thing of the past or glances indicating the next move…

But with Eddie he always checks first…does he need reassurance? Obviously you were into him, I mean you just didn’t understand why he kept asking.

It was 6 months into your relationship when the movie you were both watching in the trailer was forgotten and you were facing Eddie, sitting on his lap wrapping your legs around his torso. His hands brushed up and down your back as you kissed.

You moved your hands to the rim of his shirt, breathlessly breaking away. “You sure?” You asked. He nodded and you pulled the material over his head.

Your hands traced his chest when his hands reached your shirt now. He broke away from your lips once more.

“May I?” He asked. You threw your head back.

“What?” He asked, looking confused.

“Ed’s! I just asked you if it was okay, why- I mean why do you always ask me if I’m okay with everything.” You sighed, genuinely confused, exaggerating the topic.

He half laughed. “You asked me the same didn’t you?” He frowned.

“Yeah but I don’t ask to hold your hand or kiss you- I just- is it not obvious I like you?” You stumbled.

He smiled slightly. “You do make it fairly obvious….” He trailed off his face twisting as he spoke. “Has nobody ever asked you if you were okay with what they were doing?” He frowned.

“No.” You shook your head.

Eddie’s face looked concerned, caring and almost sad, he looked sick.

“What’s wrong?” You asked.

“Do you ask other people?” He questioned.

“Of course but I just assumed it was a mutual agreement after that, I don’t expect anyone to ask me.” You explained, feeling weirdly emotional.

Eddie looked upset, almost mad.

“I’m sorry, I- I wasn’t trying to upset you-“

“N/n…you didn’t upset me.”

“I did- I’m sorry, I wasn’t trying to make you mad.”

“I’m just angry at anyone who ever touched you without asking and thought that was okay…” he whispered.

Tears filled your eyes, you started to realize the gravity of the situation but at the same time couldn’t understand why anyone would care to ask you.

“B-but Ed’s I-“ you stumbled.

“Don’t I deserve to be asked before something happens?” Eddie asked, a gentle look on his face.

“Of course Ed’s.” You shook your head.

“Then why don’t you think you deserve the same?” He asked softly.

“I don’t know, because I’m me…It’s different you’re you, and you’re perfect, and sweet and-“ your tears had started to fall.

“Sweetheart…” Eddie wiped your tears. “You are the most perfect person I’ve ever known, and I will make it my new quest to make you see that. You’re the kindest, most generous, funny, brave and Hottest woman I have ever known.” Eddie explained.

You let out a chocked laugh as Eddie wiped your cheeks again.

“Now may I kiss you?” He smiled.

You smiled too and nodded as his lips met yours.

#consent #stranger things #st4 fanfic #y/n #eddie stranger things #stranger things fanfiction #eddie munson #eddie munson x reader #eddie x reader #fanfic

[skell3]

Jan Kilbride Fairchild musings

Because I've been writing him more lately and wanted to put this down somewhere. These are just personal headcanons for RP stuff, really.

• Jan grew up with parents who didn't really plan or want a child, so they provided only the 'necessary'; no need for birthday parties or Christmas, with the 'You already have toys, buy whatever else you want with your allowance'

• While quite smart, his is Very Blond and can be dense about feelings and emotional stuff (mostly directed at him/his own). If someone's crushing on him, they're going to have to tell him directly or show him how they feel.

• Smart, and by secondary school he realized how his parents were compared to those of the others at school. He compromised with some things, enjoying friend's birthdays and wishing happy holidays to people but never got into participating. To the point that, as an adult, he just took on the holiday hours and spent any vacation time at his home.

• As he got older, some of the most simple of affections had drawn him in. He's got some questionable exes that not only taught him some life lessons, but he would rather not talk about them. His first love is space, after all, so he can move on and hope for something better.

• In this AU, he became an avatar of the Vast and eventually was tucked into the Fairchild fold by Simon. His particulars have to do with gravity and space, with fears like falling/floating into the sky and not having anything close enough to grab on to. He also could instill the feeling of insignificance to the universe at how small and not even a breath to the things out there so much larger than them. He's still a baby avatar and learning what he can do, what works best for him, and how to bend his version of Sky Blue- The Void- to suit his needs.

• Growing up with an interest in science, it was a primary school teacher that got him into space. Since then, his allowance has gone into books, magazines and even his first little telescope. He did get a bunch of glow in the dark stars to stick on his ceiling but his parents refused to allow him to do that, so he stuck them to his school things and had them until they fell off.

• Jan would make a great housewife, keeping things clean and tidy and also a decent cook. It helped up on the Daedalus and would be perfect for having roommates (Maybe Manuela and Carter). He's chatty, however, and a bouncing golden retriever of a man who also cries pretty easily, so someone would probably need to help care for him emotionally.

• After the events of the Daedalus, Jan has hearing aids for both ears and a difficulty walking at times. Like he can never quite get used to normal gravity anymore, even as he can control his own. When he's super 'hungry' and hadn't taken on enough fear, he feels heavy and can't move as easily. It started a little before he became an avatar, but intensified after and he has to watch where he's going.

• Without his hearing aids in, Jans brain fills in the sound void with the sound of the Titan. Though it's just a memory of the noise, the Titan essentially sings him to sleep or comforts him when he has to have his hearing aids out for loud things or when it rains.

• Along with the gravity issue, he gets lost in staring up at the stars a little too easily. Sometimes he can be found somewhere up high just stargazing and totally not paying attention at all to his surroundings. This has gotten him in trouble a few times, but others he's had Mike Crew or Manuela to hang out with him and enjoy them too.

Space man. Man space man. Vastard Jan my baby boy. Gertrude did not get her hands on this one, nor should she ever. She might find it difficult to because he keeps close company with a lot of people who would protect him.

#jan Kilbride #jan fairchild #tma #tma fan content #roleplay musings #the magnus archives fanwork #tma multiverse

[thranduilsperkybutt]

Warnings:  Stranger Things Season 4 Vol.1 SPOILERS!

Gif source:  Here

Imagine pining after Steve Harrington for years, only being seen as a friend by him, until you catch the eye of Eddie Munson and Steve realizes he cares about you more than he thought.

---------  Request for ME ---------

“If this works, and we do ever get out of here, I’m taking you to a movie--- no protesting! A guy’s gotta’ have a reason to live in times like these,” Eddie jokes, and Steve rolls his eyes. No way a line like that was going to work on you---

But you’re laughing.

You are laughing, looking at Eddie with a bit more interest than could ever be comfortable for Steve to watch dawn along your face all because Munson flirted with you.

Clearly enjoying the idea, you push him by the shoulder, only for Eddie to rebound right back, “How about we worry about getting out of this hell-hole, first, yeah?”

“Get a room, you horndogs,” Robin groans, taking the dangling bedsheet-turned-rope in her hands before looking up towards the gaping hole that this gate had made in Munson’s ceiling. Nancy snickers at his side, but Steve is feeling less than humored by the way you and Eddie continued to pick at each other.

How had this happened when he wasn’t looking?

First Dustin, and now you? What else of Steve’s was this guy going to try to move in on? You’re his friend, have been for years--- Munson can’t just---

“Ladies first,” the way Munson grins at you as he offers you the rope after Robin has Steve clenching his teeth, but it’s when you fumble on the makeshift rope and Eddie’s hands catch at your waist to keep you from entirely falling to the ground that Steve feels like his head might implode.

“I got her, Munson,” Steve steps in, almost shoving his way between the two of you as he hoists you up while you try to climb. You make some half-hearted comment about how you should’ve worked harder in gym, but Steve’s too busy focusing on inserting himself where Eddie had once been to care if your legs fumbled along his shoulders. Calling up at you when you’re nearly there, “You got it? Yeah, keep going.” No way was he letting Munson manhandle you like this. You were his friend first, after all.

He does his best to ignore Nancy’s snide comment of, “I think she’s got it, Steve,” when your hair starts raising due to the changing of gravity with your passage through the gate, and just as quickly as you begin to shift, do your thighs slip from his steadying hands. Up, or in your case, down, you fall onto Eddie’s mattress, gasping and blinking up at where the three members remaining in the Upside-Down stare back at you.

Steve grins, calling through the gate his support before he even thinks too hard about what he’s saying, “That’s my girl!”

No way was he letting Munson take his---

The smile falters on Steve’s face with realization almost as quickly as it takes Eddie to grip the sheet next, and the sense of dread that seeps into Steve’s gut isn’t from the Upside-Down, or Vecna, or even Munson’s flirting. It’s from the sudden, startling realization that, at some point in your friendship, he had designated you as his girl somewhere in his mind. Not just his friend, but something more, and yet the shift had been subtle enough that he hadn’t even realized the feelings causing him to be jealous of Eddie Munson were even there to begin with.

Maybe he’d gotten too comfortable, far too used to the idea of you always focusing exclusively on him, because that’s what you’ve done for the past few years. Maybe it took the threat of shifting that attention away from him for it to finally dawn on him that he liked you, perhaps more than he ever really thought about before.

All Steve really knows is, when Eddie falls out of the Upside-Down, the way you tug the man off the mattress and into your excited arms is enough to make his troubled heart plummet. This feeling swirling in his gut, Steve doesn’t like one bit. He’s worried he might even be too late to change what’s happening before his very eyes, because Munson’s arm settles over your shoulders as he peers back through the gate, waiting for Steve and Nancy to come through.

Worse than that, you keep looking at Eddie.

There’s this nagging fear in the back of Steve’s mind that, maybe you’re finally done waiting for him to see you.

God, he’s been so stupid.

#spoilers #stranger things spoilers #eddie munson imagine #steve harrington imagine #stranger things imagine #imagines by me #gif not mine #😈 hehehehheheh #whats better than one dumb boyfriend? two dumb boyfriends

[badgermcghee]

9 people to get to know better

thank you @bluespring864 for the tag!! lovely to get to know u a little better ^ㅈ^

LAST SONG: uhh it was either something from Unreal Unearth by hozier or Making It! by Montaigne since those are the albums I’ve got on repeat lately! (listen to gravity xoxoxoxoxoox)

FAVORITE COLOR: all colours have their place but I’d say green, especially sage green, is my favourite. Closely followed by wine red/marone

CURRENTLY WATCHING: I almost exclusively only watch shows when my mum starts watching one dkkdjdj. I’m very bad at keeping up with shows because i have to be in the mood for it. I think the last show we watched was the fall of the house of usher!

SWEET / SAVOURY / SPICY: sweet! definitely sweet, although any flavour that is too strong is a no-no for me, so nothing too sweet.

RELATIONSHIP STATUS: blissfully, wonderfully, and eternally single (im aromatic-asexual with no desire to ever date!)

CURRENT OBSESSION: hmm i guess tennis is the obvious one in that I’ve never been this invested especially outside of a slam (and the discord has been so nice). I’ve also gotten really in to making little plushies for myself and my friends although that’s an activity more than a thing. also pui pui molcar but that’s always on my mind.

LAST THING YOU SEARCHED: bing bunny flop- unironically obsessed with this guy he’s literally perfect in design and animation and character

as for tags well i don’t know if i’ve got nine people to tag.. i did just get loads of new mutuals but OWO tagging is scary.. and by my personal blog law mutuals r automatically tagged in any tag game i do.. for now i will tag @oedipushansen :3

#tag game #Spotify

[unfurledluna]

Hello! Here's a little about me!

My name is Luna! My pronouns are she/her. I am 20 years old. I am Mexican and bisexual. I like to draw, read, write, watch TV and movies, musicals, and listen to music so I will mostly be posting about that! :)

Some of my interests and favorite things!

Books: The Lesbiana's Guide to Catholic School, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (and the sequel), Hearstopper, Radio Silence, Loveless, Solitaire, Ophelia After All, Last Night at the Telegraph Club, Perfect on Paper, This is Why They Hate Us, The Luis Ortega Survival Club, An Absolutely Remarkable Thing, Cemetery Boys, One Last Stop, Red, White, and Royal Blue, We Are Okay, and Imogen, Obvisouly. I love to read so if anyone has any recommendations I would love to hear them!

Tv Shows: Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, One Day at a Time, How I Met Your Mother, Parks and Recreation, Anne with an E, Hearstopper, Sex Education, The Good Place, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, Steven Universe, and Everything Sucks. Currently, I'm watching Our Flag Means Death season 2!

Movies: Everything Everywhere All At Once, Spirited Away, Mamma Mia, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Kiki's Delivery Service, Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Ponyo, My Neighbor Totoro, Encanto, and Tangled.

Music: dodie, Mitski, Laufey, mxmtoon, Matilda Mann, Lizzy McAlpine, and Orla Gartland.

Musicals: I love musicals so much! I work at a musical theatre!! Here are some of my favorite musicals: Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812 is my all time favorite! I also like Hadestown, SIX, Waitress, Falsettos, The Phantom of the Opera, and Moulin Rouge.

Other things: Moths! Butterflies! Lepidoptera in general. Cute animals! I have two dogs named Tiger and Oso that I will probably also post about. I love Sanrio and Cinnamoroll is my favorite! I've also been trying to get into video games lately like Life is Strange.

I love to draw a lot! Most of my art is self-portraits or depicting mental health. I have a few mental illnesses (Depression, Anxiety, BPD, OCD, CPTSD, and dissociative disorders) so it helps to be able to draw them. I'll be uploading my digital art and art from my sketchbook. I may also share some writing about my experiences with intergenerational trauma. I'll try to share some of my experiences with mental illness and trying to heal from a traumatic family.

Here's a drawing I made of myself!

Thank you for reading all that! Feel free to message me at any time if you want to talk or be friends! :)

#intro post #unfurledluna #about me #looking for friends #looking for moots #looking for mutuals #unfurledluna art #luna talks

[onyx-archer]

I Don’t Really Like Sasha Waybright: A Look Into Redemption Arcs

Oh boy, it’s time for me to make another analysis piece based on some dumb Disney cartoon. This time though, it’s about the Frog Show™ and not the Owl Show™, because I also like Amphibia, warts and all. (yes, that was an intentional toad pun)

As the title would suggest though, we’re going into territory about a character I’m not particularly fond of, despite how much the fanbase seems to collectively like her, and that’s Sasha Waybright. I’ve never really been a fan of her, which some people I know have found somewhat amusing given that I tend to like similar characters. While that is sort of true, I’d argue it’s not quite true either. It’s complicated. In order to really get into it, I’m going to have to talk about spoilers for several shows... so spoilers for Amphibia, The Owl House, Gravity Falls, and The Ghost and Molly McGee. As always, it’ll be under the cut.

Oh, and before I get under the cut, I just wanna say one thing real quick for the people who see this under the Sasha Waybright tag: I’m not trying to shit on your good time, I’m tagging the post with her name because it’s largely about my opinion of the character (and to a lesser extent, Sasha ships, but I won’t be tagging the ships because that’s not relevant enough for the bulk of the post).

Anyway, onto the meat of the post:

Watching Amphibia is something that came about for me because I enjoyed The Owl House immensely, and because Matt Braly also worked on Gravity Falls (which was, until TOH wrapped, my favorite show). The show has a charm that took a little bit for me to really “get,” but I’ve since come to really appreciate the show in a lot of ways. Particularly, I think “The Hardest Thing” is singlehandedly one of the best finales of all time, and I’d personally rank it higher than both The Owl House’s AND Gravity Falls’ (though I don’t really like GF’s finale, which I’m gonna make a post about eventually). I think Amphibia’s emotional moments are genuinely better than the ones in TOH, but the show is still not quite as good over all. This isn’t meant to be a dig at Matt and his team, I still love Amphibia, but it’s not my favorite show, y’know?

As far as the cast of Amphibia is concerned, I grew to like Anne a lot as the series progressed, and she exhibited a strong character arc from a bit of an entitled brat that shirked responsibility into a responsible person who is empathetic to the needs of others. Her and her found frog family are a highlight of the show, and lead to some great comedy and emotional moments. When Marcy debuted, I was instantly like “yes this is my favorite character” because she’s just a genuine delight to watch, and I’m really sad she didn’t get used more as the series went along.

Sasha, on the other hand, was a character that I just never clicked with. The first impression I had of the character was that she was going to showcase the opposite end of the development spectrum, where she would gradually become a worse person, or that her negative qualities would be highlighted more so than her positive ones. I wasn’t entirely wrong by the end of Season 2, and when we got to her sort of redemption in Season 3, the show kind of lost me a bit.

The problem I have with the character is basically rooted in the fact that she enters the show a kind of toxic person, and then she just kind of decides to change because one of her friends got mortally wounded, and she feels guilty over stuff that happened as a result of her treacherous actions earlier in the story. She was willing to do whatever it took to get home, even if it meant manipulating people and killing those who stood in her way. She had no issue with the idea of killing the Planters, and often showed she didn’t care if she hurt people until it was too late. I get this was done to emphasize that Sasha needed to grow up, change, and become a better person... but I still think the way it was done leaves a lot to be desired.

The issue is more so how it was built up. For basically two seasons, we get to know this girl who is all kinds of toxic, and the show works hard to showcase that she’s not above lying to her close friends about her intentions to get what she wants. She learned nothing from the events at Toad Tower, despite suggesting Anne would be better off without her in the end of that whole thing. The next time we see her, she’s pissed that Anne didn’t side with her, and that she sided with frogs, which she has been told are lower on the societal/racial hierarchy by the toads. There’s a racism allegory in there somewhere, but I’m not particularly interested in getting too deep into that can of worms.

She then shrugs off Percy and Braddock’s desire to leave when facing the Narwhal Worm in “Barrel’s Warhammer,” despite saying she would leave if they wanted to. She then basically plays Anne and Marcy for fools by inciting a rebellion in Newtopia in “True Colors.” She put up the front of being better to Anne and Marcy because she wanted control, because she’s made to be the toxic “friend” that craves control. Sure, she has moments where she clearly feels a bit bad for being like this, but she doesn’t learn her lesson until one of her friend is nearly killed in front of her. She only cares about the consequences of her shitty behavior after she has to face losing someone she cares about for real.

Now, I know someone would likely point out that a lot of characters that can come off as mean or toxic have similar moments of revelation... but I don’t really think this is the case.

Let’s take one of the biggest points of comparison for Sasha from The Owl House, Amity Blight, and compare elements of their arcs from “jerk” to “good person.”

Amity obviously starts the series as something of a bully character, with a need to be seen as “the best,” and is willing to humiliate Willow to remind everyone how great she is. It takes her being humiliated by Lilith and Eda’s cheating during her and Luz’s duel, and Luz showing how determined she is to be a witch for Amity to soften up. She recognizes Luz is doing her best, despite being a magicless human in a world of witches and demons, and softens up. She’s still wary of Luz until after Luz helps her deal with the corrupted Otabin in “Lost in Language” for her to really see that Luz is a good person. From here, she gradually continues to become a better person, because Luz’s positivity has that effect on her.

By the time she has to face the consequences of trying to uphold her reputation nearly causing Willow to lose all of her memories, Amity realizes that she’d become a bad person, and actively begins to truly improve. She attempts to mend the rift between her and Willow that was caused by her parents demands as a kid, and she eventually distances herself from Boscha during the events of “Wing It Like Witches,” saying that she made her social life better by cutting Boscha out of it. Her growing feelings for Luz culminate in her finally standing up to her mother’s abusive ass to save the person she’s grown to love, who is also the person that lit the fires of change within her. She accomplishes this in a way that is organic. Seeing her go from stuck up to a girl doing her best to make her girlfriend happy just makes me smile.

Let’s use another example: Pacifica Northwest from Gravity Falls.

Pacifica starts her time in Gravity Falls as a foil to Mabel, serving as the bratty rich girl who thinks she’s above everyone. She gets humbled a few times as part of a gag, but when “The Golf War” and “Northwest Mansion Mystery” (which is my favorite episode of the show btw) take place, Pacifica begins to showcase some added depth. We see first hand that she has a lot of expectations placed on her by her parents, and they have a Pavlovian response to an abusive method of control via her father’s bell that she is conditioned to see as “you’re acting out of line for a Northwest.”

When she learns that her family’s current situation (the Lumberjack Ghost) is a result of the family’s poor attitude about “common folk” and lies told in the past, she is visibly shaken that her family is as bad as Dipper said it was. She then decides she wants to break free of her family’s twisted values, and while we don’t get to see that pay off much, she’s still seen as a better character by the end. This is one of the reasons I’m bitter that Gravity Falls only has 2 Seasons, as I feel like this would have allowed us to see Pacifica become an even better character, among other characters. To briefly mention shipping, part of the reason I love the idea of Dipcifica is because it highlights how Dipper had a profoundly positive impact on Pacifica’s life, even if just for that one episode, because it’s through her interactions with him that she was forced to confront how her family truly is, and how she desires to improve as a result. It’s kind of like... a straight prototype for how Lumity panned out, ironically enough.

To use a more modern example: Andrea Davenport from The Ghost and Molly McGee.

Andrea’s not really a character with a full blown arc, but she is far from the worst person around. She’s a girl who has her moments that reflect Pacifica’s early days, but with a more livestreamer mindset, and she has more compassion from the outset than Pacifica. She does things so her parents will praise her, much like Amity, but is also fully committed to helping people who are nice to her. Even though her and Molly got off on the wrong foot, the fact that Andrea is shown to be Molly’s friend when things get bad for Molly and her family around “Home is Where the Haunt Is,” Andrea uses her social media influence to help raise money to save the McGee’s house.

Season 2 of the show, thus far, has shown Andrea to be a good person, and is super supportive of Libby during “A Period Piece,” despite their past history. In the most recent episode of time of writing, “Davenport’s On Demand,” Molly gets Andrea into coding, and makes an app to help her family’s business. When she learns how the app is threatening the livelihoods of the other businesses of Brighton, she decides to delete the app, and works with Molly (and, unknowingly, a reluctant Scratch) to do so. It’s at least somewhat clear that Andrea actually values Molly’s opinion at this point, and seems to be positively influenced by Molly’s chipper vibes. While it’s not the most drastic character arc or anything, and actually feels like it’s missing a little bit of context, it still works because Andrea is has more room to grow, as the show is not finished yet.

Something the three I just mentioned all have in common is a positive influence on their lives. While it can certainly be argued that the positive impacts aren’t super comparable, insofar that they have varying degrees of depth of impact on said characters, it’s undeniable that there’s a moment where, because of a positive influence in their lives, the three girls begin to change for the better. Think of it like a sort of Olive Branch to become a better person, and they take it. How far they get in that journey of self improvement is not important, because they got the chance to improve and took it. They all feel earned to some extent, in my opinion, because there’s a bit of a gradual curve to seeing how they act.

Sasha, on the other hand, doesn’t feel like she earned her sudden chance at redemption. While she certainly puts on a good show, and makes good on her desire to change for the better, I find that because we had two whole seasons of her being a pretty crappy person, only to have the show give her one episode to improve as a person before Anne gets back to Amphibia and works with Sasha again... it just feels like Sasha got replaced at some point, and while the character looks and sounds like her, we didn’t really see much of the transformation, and I find that extremely jarring.

Pacifica is a character that, in basically 2 episodes, managed to get the depth needed to make her shift into a better person feel like we got to see her improve in real time. We even have a comic where we get to see Pacifica improve a bit more helps too.

In the case of Andrea, we see how her need for validation from her parents has affected her, and that’s why she’s so obsessed with the instant gratification of her online following’s praise, and why, after Molly helped her like, once, she was so quick to call Molly her best friend. Plus, there’s still more time for her to improve even more, as The Ghost and Molly McGee is currently airing it’s second season at time of writing.

Amity is the one that has the best arc of the ones mentioned, because we see her gradually change. They showed a gradual shift in her character, and the reason for that shift being Luz also lead into the best lesbian romance we’ve ever had in almost anything ever, period. We get a full display of how Amity grows as a person, and that helps make her shift feel believable and earned.

Sasha doesn’t really have that moment. She changes as a result of a bad thing happening to her. While you could say that is a realistic response, we don’t really get much in the way of a change. One day she decides to be a better person, and then we see her as a better person. While I’m not saying we needed a whole ass season dedicated to Sasha improving as a person, it’d have felt a lot better from a writing stand point if she was given more than a single episode to actually turn over a new leaf.

While one could easily argue that Sasha had moments throughout the show of expressing some semblance of doubt in regards to how she was acting, and that she showed signs of regret for being the way she was, she continued to be that kind of person anyway. She continued to manipulate people, and try to control things, until Marcy got a sword shoved through her chest. And while that’s not the worst reason for a change, people don’t just change who they are overnight, or even a few days. She needed more time to show that the change was something that she had earned, rather than just tell us “Sasha’s gonna be a better person starting... now!”

As for me mentioning ships... I feel like this is one of those instances where I know I’m going to get a little heat for saying it, but like, it genuinely feels like some people give Sasha a pass because she’s confirmed Bisexual, and we are sorely lacking positive queer characters in popular culture as a whole. I could make a whole ass post about queer characters (because man, as a queer person, I have a lot to say on how we view queer characters on the whole), but that’s for another time. I’ve never really liked Sashanne, Sasharcy, or Sashanarcy (I’m 10000% fine with polycules and polygamy, and if you aren’t, you can fuck right off), largely because I feel the romance well is too poisoned by Sasha’s past actions. I don’t really fuck with the idea of enemies to lovers much, and while they weren’t “enemies” persay, I feel like Anne and Marcy having dealt with Sasha’s more toxic side for as long as they did would make them wary of entering a romantic relationship with her, even if she didn’t regress into that mindset during said relationship. The shipping thing is totally a personal opinion though.

Anyway, hopefully I got across my feelings on Sasha as a character, and why I’m not the biggest fan. If you have anything you need me to try and clarify, then by all means, ask away via reblogs or replies. Otherwise, I look forward for the shit I’m gonna get for disliking a popular character. I guess I’ll see people in my next post lol.

#Amphibia Discussion #Amphibia #Amphibia Spoilers #Amphibia Analysis #Amphibia character analysis #Sasha Waybright #TOH Spoilers #The Owl House Spoilers #Gravity Falls Spoilers #GF Spoilers #The Ghost and Molly McGee Spoilers #TGaMM spoilers #analysis #Pacifica Northwest #Amity Blight #Andrea Davenport #comparing characters

[spectralharvest]

20 Questions for Fic Authors

Thanks for tagging me @sunhatllama although I only have 2 posted fics so this is gonna be kind of sad

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

2, although I used to have a lot more that I orphaned because I wrote them when I was 12 and was ashamed of myself lmao

2. What is your AO3 wordcount?

2,242

3. What fandoms do you write for?

I've posted things for Spy x Family and The Longing, although I've been sporadically working on something for South Park

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

I only have two but I'll put them here anyway

1.) Happy Endings - My Spy x Family fic about Twilight's mom that I based off of a fan animation. Ironically, a couple months after I posted this, Chapter 62 came out which basically dealt with the same thing lmao

2.) Counting the Seconds - My fic for The Longing, an idle game that I really really love. It's not very popular fic wise though, so it makes sense why it has less kudos.

5. Do you respond to comments?

I keep meaning to, but I get nervous and then forget and by the time I remember, it's way too late to respond. Or at least it feels like it's not socially acceptable anymore.

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

None of mine so far have had angsty endings, but I'd probably go with Happy Endings just because there's some canonical character death.

7. What is the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

Counting the Seconds? It's just me going through my favorite ending of the game and what The Shade might have been thinking.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

No, I don't post enough to get that kind of engagement lol.

9. Do you write smut? If so, which kind?

Nope, I just haven't seen a reason to.

10. Do you write crossovers? What’s the craziest crossover you’ve ever written?

I have not written crossovers, I like to keep my fandoms separate.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Nah, like I said, I haven't done anything notable enough to get my things stolen.

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

^^^

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

No, but it does sound kind of appealing. I would worry about dragging down someone else's work though since my work ethic is so goddamn terrible.

14. What’s your all-time favorite ship?

Creek!! I actually wasn't all that into them the first time I watched South Park, but when I came back to it years later the Post Covid special had come out and the fact that they were still together 40 years later really cemented them in my heart. I <3 old man yaoi.

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

I have a Creek-focused South Park 60's au that I've been trying to write since June, but I went to work one day with a bunch of ideas and then I left my shift feeling so drained and I haven't been able to get that spark back. I also have a Damianya-focused Spy x Family royalty au based on that one line from chapter 88 but I got too carried away with the planning instead of actually writing.

16. What are your writing strengths?

My roommate (@sunhatllama) says that I conveyed emotions pretty well so I guess I can do that

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

My work ethic :(

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

I've certainly tried it before with some of the fics I orphaned, and I feel like it can be fine. Nowadays, I'd just rather have it be like "character said something in a different language". idk i don't feel strongly either way

19. First fandom you wrote for?

Gravity Falls! My ff.net account is still up with them but they're BAD. I wrote them when I was like 10 and I don't remember the account info so I can't go and delete them.

20. Favorite fic you’ve written?

Probably Happy Endings, just because I wasn't expecting a lot of engagement but the creator of the fan animation that I based it off of actually found it and left a comment about it! It made me so happy and I was so goddamn happy when I went to high school the next day lmao.

I'm tagging no one because I have no friends heehee

#spectre talks sometimes #fic game #writing game

[purplekoop]

I think because of the specific ways I had internet access growing up and what I was dealing with during "traditional fandom baby time", I've felt kind of distant from the standard fandom experience, even for fandoms that I've followed the main official content for while it was ongoing. At most it was a one-way thing, where I could look into the fandom but not really be an active contributor.

I saw 2012 TMNT on the night of the premier and did my best to watch any episodes I could for a good few years after that, but looking up fanart at 2 AM on my phone when my parents couldn't see was the most I really saw people interacting with it further. I saw a Raph x Mona fankid and it blew my mind for... some reason. Look maybe just the image and notion of the tall space lizard lady being affectionate just did something to a young me. I'm not even sure I saw her debut episode before seeing the art so that was. Probably confusing.

There was also Gravity Falls, a show that I was really only able to follow thanks to wiki articles youtubers piecing together the clues that I didn't have the brainpower or ability to pause episodes to figure out myself. Shoot, shoutouts to Valiskibum, a channel I haven't checked on in years but is still a legend for posting about the theory that predicted *Ford.* I don't know if they came up with the theory on their own or if they just made a video sharing it to a wider platform, but in either case they get appreciation from me for making my dumb kid brain aware of it. And even other than that, I watched ANY news about the show LIKE A HAWK while it was still airing. I tried to follow the Cipher hunt but at that point I lost track, and any side media like books and comics that were released after that is news to me whenever it gets brought up now.

But like. Even *then* it feels like there was so much I missed. I've been following Hana Hyperfixates on YouTube lately (their tumblr url is escaping me), and it boggles me that even for a show I stayed caught up with constantly throughout its entire run, fully aware of its deeper mysteries, it still feels like I missed so much of the experience of being a fan of the show because I just. Wasn't in the fandom loop.

And those are just the shows I *did* follow as they were airing, that doesn't even scratch the stuff I wasn't into as it was happening.

I didn't see a full playthrough of *Undertale* until November of *2021* where I played it alongside my partner during thanksgiving break that year. And not making the same mistake twice, I had followed Deltarune soon after its spontaneous reveal, because I didn't have much better to do with my increased internet access. I played Chapter 2 as soon as it came out, so I was lost on everything from the lion waitress to "what's a NEO" until after the fact. Look, I just thought an Undertale was an annoying popular thing my friends with bad taste were into back in middle school. Now here I am, quantum egg on my face, panicking over the fact Papyrus has touched grass.

All this to say that now finally having this here tumblr starting at "only" the age of 20 (which, in the grand scheme of things, isn't as far off from 14 or 16 as people make it out to be, I'm basically just a teenager with more self awareness) is... interesting. In a nice way, I think.

It's this silly little fandom stuff like fics and OCs and RP and AUs that always felt so distant to me, but was basically the later childhood of my partner and many of my current friends. Stuff that they treat so naturally because they basically grew up on it, while I'm basically just now really getting a grasp on it myself.

It's stuff that I'm just now getting the platform for and familiarity with to really let myself indulge in. It's why I'm so happy with the Splatoon OCs, it's me finally getting to have that silly fun with this kind of stuff that it feels like I've been missing out on for a while.

I've had fan OCs before, all the way back in middle school, to the extent they made a full expansive crossover universe combining every series in Smash Bros into a unified cohesive canon (that's where my username comes from in fact, my sona for years was literally just a unique purple-shelled koopa). My friends were in on it and everything. But then after hitting high school, I eventually abandoned that universe, despite the expansive story I made with it. Partly because I felt like it was too convoluted with too many characters at that point, but also because I'd convinced myself it would be stupid to commit to a creative project that I can't make a profit out of. Essentially, I thought it was dumb to put so much energy into something if it wasn't "productive." This was a sentiment it took me way too long to shake.

So! Yeah! This is officially the "living my cringe" era! I'm going to make Splatoon characters with very canon-inaccurate proportions hold hands and give each other a kiss on the cheek! I'm gonna make a Deltarune AU that I know is probably gonna age like milk because the actual story isn't finished yet! I'm going to post my ideas for how I'd turn the TF2 mercs into Overwatch heroes! And NOBODY's gonna stop me!

...

Hey when did 5 AM get here.

#koop's oc stuff #long post #extreme ramble #this was all on mobile #if it was on desktop then I would've used more italics instead of asterisks and all uppercase words #passing out now

[astrobstrd]

2022. GAME OF THE YEAR. OK?

Hey folks, season's greetings. Runner-up for most sentimental gamer 2021 here and I got a bug up my ass to write about video games. It's equal parts games that did and didn't release this year. Forgive me for any run-ons or excessive commas, this started as a piece on one game on the list and then became a top 10, then it spiraled out of control a tad as I forced myself to write more. Regardless, I'm happy with it and you can check it out under the read more. Happy holidays!

GUNDAM EVOLUTION

Gundam Evo is so goddamned weird. It’s a great game that I cannot recommend anyone jump into now. I really enjoy the core gameplay loop and what it does versus a game like Overwatch— the dash and boost system serve as a salve to the ever-present hero shooter roll-out problem and offer a little bit of movement unpredictability, the lack of clearly defined roles prevented the game from having a dichotomy of “hard” or “soft” tank and support units, and, generally, I found myself having more fun with it than I could recall having with OG Overwatch at the time. Every time I think about going back, however, I remember that it’s one of the clearest examples in recent memory of a publisher just not really giving a shit about its product.

The game sits at a sub-1k player count on Steam, with no way for people in certain regions of the world to even play the game, the console versions took a full two months after initial release to hit digital storefronts, and there’s no backfill system in any capacity. For a game to have such promise in a world where only one hero shooter really survived the late ‘10s burnout period, then to fizzle out so quickly… it’s just kind of a bummer. I would not be surprised if the game is shuttered by this time next year. Still, the time I spent with it felt immensely satisfying.

FORTNITE

Yeah. I fell in last year, (completely by coincidence, when they put the skanking emote in, if you can believe that, which you shouldn't,) and now that I can play Zero Build, my playtime's only gone up. I've also watched as the remaining capital G-I Games Industry folks I follow, who poked and laughed at the Tower Building Gaming For Children also fall into the exact same hole. So... lmao.

I think as you get older you do look for a few more opportunities to have a common activity that you nor your friends really pay a whole lot of attention to but use as a vehicle to shoot the shit. That's Fortnite. It's like getting drunk at a baseball game in the middle of the day for late millennials. It also has full patch cycles that are genuinely, unabashedly, very fun. We got dirtbikes and gravity hammers and fuckin Doom Slayer now man! It's great!

Oh, and to defend my honor just a little, I've spent a grand total of $14 on it. I caved to buy the Rasputin and Gangnam Style emote. What are you, the IRS? Leave me alone.

SONIC ROBO BLAST KART 2

...henceforth referred to as SRB2K because I'm not typing all of that out again, is not a live service game, and also a mod for Doom. It's (probably) the best Sonic kart racer ever made, and it's all built in a game that has nothing to do with the little blue freak. It feels fantastic to play, and it evokes the same feeling of fuzzy-warm coziness that I got from playing a lot of Skulltag one winter. I spent quite a lot of time in late January and February compiling user created SRB2K mods, hacking together soundpacks for existing characters, and screaming into a microphone as I careened through some of the best and worst maps I've ever played in a racing game.

DEAD BY DAYLIGHT

I pretend to hate this game and sometimes I do.

And now it's time for

Let's find out!

10) Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge

Man, was this a fun surprise! I’ve never been the biggest turtles guy, but I am enough of one to have a favorite that I’ve picked almost entirely on the basis of color and weaponry. (It’s Don, for the record.) I am also enough of a fan of cooperative side-scrolling beat-em-ups that playing this whole game in a little under four hours with a group of friends was a complete blast. I have this weird hang up where I just can’t play these games solo. I think most beat-em-up devs also know that the real meat is in flying through them with a buddy or three or five. (After all, the only way I was ever going to finish Double Dragon: Neon, a game that I love but was definitely not the target market for, was playing it in co-op a year after its release.) That all being said, the fact that TMNT: Shredder’s Revenge allowed for six players at a time is as perfect as it is completely batshit and overwhelming. I’d routinely lose my place altogether as the genuinely fantastic backdrops and battle arenas turned into a flurry of blows and flying footclan bodies, and I simply did not mind.

While my time with it didn’t last long, I couldn’t help but admire the fact there was enough depth in the combos and strategic use of heavy moves, super attacks and thug-juggling technique to potentially make the game worth replaying. This is not even mentioning the genuinely fantastic sprite, level and sound design work. Fast, fun, and punching above its weight class as a title that was free day one on Game Pass, a fact of the gaming landscape that I constantly feel like we’re on the verge of having a reckoning with. Anyway!

9) Rumbleverse

I must preface this blurb with the fact that I have completely fallen off of Rumbleverse and I am genuinely sad I don’t have more to say about it. It’s been probably 3 months since I last fired into Grapital City, but the pull to go back amidst my neuroses and general malaise has been strong. It’s one of the few battle royale games where the insane love for its inspirations and the dedication poured into the game itself both shine right through. From the looser fighting game influence in its move priority and combo systems, to the completely unmistakable wrestling mark DNA, Rumbleverse is authentic and just plain fun. Compared to your bog-standard, shooty-bang-bang battle royale, the hype, guttural-noise-inducing moment ratio is off the fucking charts here, and that’s reason enough for me to include it.

By the way, every now and then I’ll hear people bemoan the fact that there are no melee-focused battle royale games. The fact that this game did not once and for all solve this quandry for people despite being the best implementation of that concept? It makes me want to scream.

8) Marvel Snap

Don’t look at me like that.

I really didn’t expect to like Marvel Snap. I’m not a comic book or superhero movie guy, but it’s amazing what being both free and available on Steam can do for you. Despite starting a little rough and having some growing pains in making decks that I actually wanted to use, the game of Snap itself is undeniably fun and incredibly easy to fall into. As of the time of writing this, I’m collection level 593 and I can no longer deny that I’m just playing it for giggles. This is the game that the certain-Blizzard-card-game-playing-me of 2017 wanted and just didn’t realize. Despite the whale bait in this very obviously mobile card game being clear and evident, and the fact that there is no way to assuredly get cards you want before level 500, I still somehow feel like this is the one online CCG I’ve seen that treats you with some modicum of respect... so long as you pace yourself and play in chunks. The quick nature of Snap, of course, isn’t really conducive to this, but you really just have to chalk that one up to terrible, awful, no-good, very bad mammalian reward responses.

I know the one thing that people just cannot shut up about is the game’s brevity, but it really is important to herald. As someone who’s played half-hour Hearthstone matches, it’s an undeniable factor in its continued popularity. After a particularly rough two days in late November where I kept snapping and kept playing despite losing six(!) ranks, I remembered an extremely salient realization I had while falling out of love with MOBAs a few years ago— if it sucks bad enough, you can leave. You can hit da bricks, so to speak, if you’re not making anyone else suffer as a result of it. If you’ve put a handful of your chips on black the last six spins and lost every time, it's okay to walk away from the goddamn table.

Latent gambling impulses aside, Snap is undeniably fantastic, and not even the only card game I’ve been playing this year.

7) Downfall: Slay The Spire

I’ve played a lot of Slay The Spire. It’s probably not even a fraction as much as the truly dedicated card gaming wizards that I’ll occasionally see screenshots from on the Community Hub, but damn, I love that game. Slay The Spire also came to me in a weird time; I was knee deep in my graveyard shift job at a gas station and spent my evenings, (7AM-11AM on any given day,) trying DESPERATELY to find a game that didn’t require too much of me but was still engaging enough to play between smoking pot, drinking, doing laundry, or all three. I bought the game on a whim, knowing only that it was a rogueli(k)(t)e and a card game, then fell ass over end into a Spire shaped hole.

Downfall: Slay The Spire is a lovingly crafted mod that pretty much just serves as an excuse to get me to play even more of this damn game. From the incredibly well-translated boss characters to the Hermit’s ability to pass as a character that Mega Crit would’ve made themselves, Downfall is fantastic. It could easily pass as an officially released expansion, and it's something I’ve already lauded over in the Steam Reviews for it

6) HYPER DEMON

This shit is bananas, man. I loved Devil Daggers so, so much, and despite still being squarely stuck 50 seconds away from the Devil Dagger, I swear I will get it before I shuffle off this mortal coil. And you’re gonna give me another lofty goal to strive for in a completely different game 6 years later? Fuck you m4tt. I love you m4tt.

I’ve played 3 ½ hours of HYPER DEMON so far. It was all in one sitting. I was amazed I didn’t forget to breathe during all of those 210 minutes. It’s the exact same all-consuming, focus demanding immersion that Devil Daggers ensnared me with in 2016. It’s Devil Daggers: Puzzle Fighter. It’s a cocktail of cosmic horror, Windows Media Player visualizer, Quake 3 montage over-editing, what I imagine the visual sensation of DMT looks like, and pure, unfettered skill-based FPS ecstasy. HYPER DEMON holds you to the sanding belt of its incomprehensible blazing-fast iridescent horrorscape and is unfeeling to whether you can handle it or not. I want more.

I need to play more. I will be playing more. I live to serve SORATH.

5) Super Mario 64 — B3313

I have never completed Super Mario 64. In fact, to my recollection, I never actually owned a copy of it despite having an N64 around the time of its release. I did, however, play an awful lot of this Super Mario 64 romhack in January. It has stuck with me ever since.

In second? grade I’d pass the controller at my best friend's house, as each of us desperately tried to clinch the red coin star in Lethal Lava Land or not tumble off Cool, Cool Mountain. In my teens I’d boot up an emulated copy through Project64 and try, to my behest, to play a game that paled in comparison to the breadth of experiences I’d already had with, at the time, recently released games. (Of course, when your high watermark is something like Garry’s Mod with workshop support or Just Cause 2, anything else feels like hoop and stick.) Even still, I appreciated what Mario 64 meant at both of these stages of my life, for one reason or another. Now, as an adult who claims to have a pretty good understanding of video gaming history, that respect has only deepened.

As a kid, I could recall broad strokes of the in-game world when I was away from the Mario Sanctioned Zone of my best friend’s house. The general layout of the first floor of Peach’s Castle, the first Bowser stage, the royal slide, as well as strange fragments of the hub world architecture scattered through my brainspace. In the days after a hang-out or sleepover, I’d devise ways to get around stages in my head, but SM64 never stuck in my craw for long amounts of time. Yet, I still had moments where it was forced back into my consciousness.

During a particularly shitty bout with the flu when I was about seven, my child brain conjured up visions of a castle that… sort of existed. In between retching up anything that wasn't saltines and soup, half-watched segments of Nickelodeon’s Games and Sports channel, and confronting the sickly taste of bile and lemon-lime Gatorade, I’d pass in and out of dreams, seeing feverish facsimiles of Mario 64. Strange floating voids that might’ve resembled a run-up to Bowser, Tick-Tock-Clocks that didn’t seem to match up with what was on the cartridge, and impossibly long hallways that bled into one another.

I had a passing knowledge of the “every copy of SM64 is personalized” “meme” before playing B3313, and saw increasingly convoluted icebergs and the Wario Apparition, (something that thankfully doesn’t show up in this romhack,) as laughably goofy addendums to already lame gaming creepypastas. The general idea of this hack, despite being fueled by this mix of amateur horror, is something still so genuinely fascinating to me. It's not even really the concept of a game with a “personalization AI,” but moreso the idea of imperfect memory. Things might be changing without any input from some spooky and malicious entity pulling the strings, you just can't remember what these places looked like. Those who are as equally fascinated with B3313 as I am use that term— “fever dream.” They use it liberally when talking about the general feel of the romhack, while also mentioning that at some point during their childhood, they would also have dreams about parts of Mario 64 that didn’t exist, or were slightly off. As one of those people, B3313 nails that exact feeling one-hundred percent.

Super Mario 64: B3313 is a fever dream come true. It’s a slurry of beta, demo-build and original content that bleeds into areas from the retail copy of Super Mario 64. Despite its brief, eyeroll-worthy, yet awkwardly fitting brushes with metatextual horror writing, (enter this cave if you want to see your deepest fears unfold!!!!!!!!!,) the main conceit of this strange, alternate-history beta-dump Mario romhack still hits like a guided missile to my brain. The seldom-played yet still familiar memories of Peach's Castle turn from a welcoming environment into an LSD: the Dream Emulator-esque maze of doors to entirely different castles, alternate versions of existing Mario worlds, densely foggy ominous hallways, and harshly inhuman architecture. It’s bizarre, surprisingly unsettling and manages to evoke a sense of familiar unfamiliarity.

B3313, Wet Dry World’s Negative Emotional Aura and the Personalized Copy concepts are at a bizarrely interesting confluence of childhood imagination, video game folklore, niche meme culture, and, most importantly to me, the impermanence of memory. It already feels like decades ago that we were telling people that, no, Nelson Mandela did not die in prison, the Berenstain bears’ surname was just being misremembered, and, uh, that Taco Bell never had “medium” sauce, but there’s something weirdly different about the foggy, self-aware recollection of sections from Peach’s Castle that never actually existed. There’s an unspoken understanding in YouTube comment sections and other circles versed with B3313 that none of this is, y’know, for real. It’s all gotten a bit tongue and cheek and suffocatingly ironic now, and while some would consider this a horrible breaching of kayfabe, I see it as a necessity to prevent B3313 and other experiences like it from becoming deeply lame, reminiscent of the early days of extremely self-serious YouTube ARGs.

There’s a seal that you break at some point if you came up playing video games. It’s the realization that everything in the game you’re currently playing is there on the disc. Emotion engines and curated experiences cannot magically conjure a completely unique experience specifically for you. With digital games, automatic updates, and the increasing capabilities of neural networks and AI, this becomes a harder point to make, but we’re not quite to the point where games can just generate new assets out of thin air. New content speeds through pipelines for still-alive service games, patch notes get nailed to the theoretical doors of your chosen Gaming Chapel, yet ghosts do not haunt hardware. There is no “personalization AI” present in a two-decade old N64 rom, and with how fast information travels and the fact that leaking video game news and secrets is basically a goddamned industry now, most games don’t get to keep their secrets for long, no matter how much I may want them to.

As you do with the childhood loss of innocence, you learn to eventually understand and cope with the feeling that games are not infinite dream machines made for you and you alone. However, you inevitably replace that malaise and disappointment with the fact that these collections of data and if-then statements still have so, so much to share with you. Experiences like B3313 come along from time to time to serve as a haunting reminder, though. This romhack is a transmission from a moderately different yet hauntingly similar reality that threatens to plunge you back into the depths of childlike mystique, wonder, and, funnily enough, horror, but with your current adult understanding and awareness. It’s equally as enticing as it is terrifying.

I know part of it is just getting older, not having enough space in your head for everything, and generally just "recording over" less important events in your life, but I've realized in the last few years that I don't remember parts of my childhood. I'm not talking year long spans or anything like that, but traumatic experiences that my brain has blotted out, or lengths of time that I just used to remember very succinctly. I don't think my childhood was any more or less extraordinary than anyone else's, probably on the "less" side of that spectrum, actually, but… it just feels weird. In finding old TV show uploads and reliving games from that time period, I feel like I've been trying to piece it back together or convince myself that I shouldn't. I think this romhack, in its own way, helped me cope with a little bit of that.

Playing B3313 is tasting honey lemon cough drops as I sweat into my childhood bedsheets, drifting in and out of tenuous sleep in my dark bedroom in the middle of the day. In its own weird way, it’s beautiful.

4) Hitman: World of Assassination

Thanks for sticking with me through that.

Up until recently, I always felt like an outsider when I said I was a fan of the Hitman games. I loved Blood Money when I was at the ripe old age of 10, and loved watching Tom Bowen’s “How Not To Play Hitman” series slightly more than actually playing it. I did end up finishing Blood Money, eventually moving onto Silent Assassin and, for some reason, Codename 47. I could not finish the first, nor stomach the latter, and it always made me feel like… a poser, I guess? They were pretty “hardcore” games at the time, known for stringent stealth and detection mechanics, and looking at forum posts and videos at the time it felt like I wasn’t getting The Full Experience by not being a bad enough dude to play them, let alone get Silent Assassin ranks. The World of Assassination trilogy has blown that locked door off the fucking hinges for me.

The three newest Hitman games are wonderful romps. As someone who’s been following Giant Bomb for a decade and loved their Hitman coverage and content, it feels like I’m just copying their homework here, but oh well. From throwing homing briefcases and walking around as a clown with a WA2000, to actually seeing the bald beauty's story wrap in the third chapter, Hitman asks you to take these games as seriously as you can. While you’re still definitely Agent 47, (nom de guerre, Tobias Rieper,) and still definitely going through an actually pretty good plot thrust in between garroting sociopathic billionaires, you are given carte blanche to steal so many clothes, chuck so many wrenches and empty as much lead into bystanders as possible with very little restriction. It's this distinction that I feel makes stuff like World of Assasination and, in my opinion, the Dead Rising series work. Comedy is often a hard thing to do in games, and I feel it's best left up to player expression and interpretation in most cases.

Whenever possible, I WILL go for alert-less stealth runs in any game where it's possible, and I killed hours meticulously reloading checkpoints, or missions wholesale, in the World Of Assassination trilogy back in February just to get Silent Assassin. But I also had plenty of moments where I had to break my own self-imposed restrictions to, for example, shoot Vanya Shah right in the back of her smug head and beat a quick, immediately exposed retreat as I let the exhausted sweatshop workers she rules over see her body careen two stories to the ground below her. This was a moment so satisfying that I am struggling to not reinstall the game right now and record a clip myself. (By the way, while Hitman has never been about killing people who don’t deserve it, WoA’s targets ride a hell of a line between being laughably sociopathic and ripped from the headlines of [what is hopefully not] the near future. I really do admire it.)

Hitman had some of my absolute favorite moments this year and, despite it pushing you strongly to a lot of those moments, they never felt unearned. I often yearn for the desire to feel like I truly was the brain genius who earned my moments, but Hitman helped lessen some of that stringency on myself while still allowing me to push my understanding of the game. From throwing Erich Soders’ replacement heart into the trash to whacking the Janus in a send-up to Blood Money’s A New Life, it’s some of the most satisfied I’ve ever been getting lead to water.

And, god, that fucking mission in Berlin? Insane. Insane. I know people talk up Dartmoor a lot and it does deserve it but… man.

3) Dicey Dungeons

In the midst of my summer-time seasonal depression, nothing was really working for me. I found myself pouring over what was on PC Game Pass, writing off games that seemed like too much of an undertaking after I’d completed a certain, lengthy RPG earlier in the season. Dicey Dungeons was a blip on my radar once upon a time, but had slipped through the cracks of my memory until I scrolled past it in my Xbox app, then inched my way back up to it.

I am both surprised and not that I spent SO much time playing Dicey Dungeons this year. As a man that will play any rogueli(k)(t)e you put in front of me at least to the completion of one successful run, it’s basic fuckin’ math. It’s the logical conclusion of just how rudimentary you can make a roguelike and have me still play it.

It’s also, by technicality, the third god damned card game on this list.

Dead simple— Dicey Dungeons is a game of rogueli(k)(t)e Yahtzee with RPG classes, inventory management, and an absolutely fantastic soundtrack that has me picking up my chiptune defending sword-and-board once again. The fate of your runs are, with some influence from the player, entirely up to literal dice rolls. I truly love just how much the game leans into being a stone-cold RNG fest, down to the fact that the entire thing takes place in a game(show) of fate hosted by an anthropomorphized Lady Luck. Its writing and enemy design is sickeningly, saccharine sweet and just a tiny skosh insufferable, but it never gets in the way of how rock solid and addictive the game itself is. So much so that I squeezed this damn game dry of content.

I’ve seen quite literally every piece of new content the game has to offer shy of the Halloween expansion, (it turns the game into a lethal puzzle thing, just not my cup of tea,) and I still had to stop writing this section of the list to go play a quick round. Played Robot in Parallel Universe with a decisive victory against Madison, in case you’re curious. And I cranked the volume in the boss fight for the first time since I turned it down to catch up on podcasts and video essays while whittling through the end-game hard modes. Lifeline goes completely insane as does the rest of the soundtrack. I was throwing ass in my kitchen making sandwiches listening to this months ago. This game just rules.

2) Yakuza 7: Like A Dragon

Of all the ‘guys’ I have claimed to not be in this GOTY list, I am, maybe least of them all, a turn-based RPG guy. I’ve tried, multiple times to breach them, and the best I can get is about halfway through most mainline Pokemon games before the tedium of Okay Now You Go battling gets to me. And yeah, I know, I just got done rattling on about two different card and dice-based roguelikes that are also turn based but… that’s different, y’know? I’m not just highlighting Firaga and watching an animation play out, I’m throwin’ dice and channeling lightning orbs and…

Look, it’s not important. What is important is I finished my first fucking Yakuza game this year. And it was the goddamn turn based RPG! Yakuza 7 is one of the most charming and enjoyable games I’ve played in my life! And it’s a turn based RPG!

That’s horrifying!

I don’t need to sing the praises of any of Ryu Ga Gotoku’s games. If you’re following me, you’re probably fully bought into the series or have heard people around you audibly get boners for Goro Majima and Kazuma Kiryu. In fact, I find it incredibly difficult to write anything new or provocative about this game that hasn’t already been said, but I just feel so strongly about it. It’s the insanely fun video-game-meets-real-life premise and immeasurably loveable cast of misfits that excel. It’s the heat moves. It’s Zhao. It’s the raw passion, genuine heartbreak, and joy of just being here that really got me. It’s Zhao again. Combine all that with an active battle system that satisfies the goopy goblin gamer brain’s need for near constant input and man? I’m set.

I know through cultural osmosis that Yakuza is a series about a few key things: compassion, loyalty, the bonds we share with others, and what loyalty really means. Yakuza 7 obviously has all of this in spades, but especially what it has to say about the lower/working class, anyone unfortunate enough to be homeless, sex workers, and those from impoverished backgrounds is so effortlessly excellent that it makes me excited to go back and play this series from the word go. I’ll miss the hell out of Ichiban and the shonen protagonist brand of fire-blooded vigor and bullheadedness he brought, but I’m excited to (…eventually) start anew.

1) Jabroni Brawl: Episode 3

Here we are. Finally. I’m not only writing something about a released version of Jaykin Bacon Jabroni Brawl, but I also genuinely feel it’s my game of the year. And now that we’ve arrived at this juncture I just keep thinking… what the hell do I even say about this game? I found something, but fuck, it took a while:

It must be said that I was raised in a triple parent household: I was brought up by my mother, father, and the Source engine. When I was 9 years old, I tuned into a mid day re-run of the now anicent television program The Screensavers that showed off version five of Garry’s Mod. At that point, I’d already played scattered chunks of the short, but enthralling Half-Life 2 demo we had on our family computer, (of course, the Icthyosaur jumpscare and being teleported to Ravenholm scared me right off,) but hadn't picked up the game. I begged my poor cash strapped father for a copy probably too many times, and after we both realized the pirated copy he nabbed wouldn’t be compatible, got a Half-Life 2 & Counter Strike: Source double pack for me as a birthday/Christmas gift.

I loved Garry’s Mod. I’ve got no clue how many hours I poured into version 9 before its subsequent release on Steam as an officially sanctioned mod, but let’s just say it was a lot. In December 2005 I joined the Facepunch forums, learned the difference between models and textures, corrected a lot of spelling mistakes, had my first bouts with navigating Windows folder directories, definitely made some crude sex poses, and found my first group of online friends shortly thereafter. I would eventually slowly slip away from regular patronage to Facepunch sometime in the early 2010s, but the impact it had on me as a youth is unquestionable. We can talk about whether it was a net good some other time though.

Before this gets too far into navel gazing and nostalgia, I’ll say that along the line I played a wonderful mod for Half-Life 1 called Half-Life 2: Jaykin Bacon Source that serves as the genesis for Jabroni Brawl. It’s a mess, but up until its Facepunch-branded revival and subsequent alpha/beta tests, it was the only thing I’d ever played like it. It’s full of ripped assets from other mods, purposefully goofy voice acting from its shithead (lovingly) teenage creator, and plenty of stuff taken from the then-recent Metal Gear Solid 3, a game I had also fallen in love with prior. It was dumb fun that I have forced multiple groups of friends at varying stages of my life to play and have a ludicrous amount of attachment to.

And Jabroni Brawl: Episode 3 is that, all over again, from the faithfully recreated weapons and impenetrable Facepunch callbacks, to the fact that this more or less ended up being a surprisingly official-feeling love letter to anyone who has ever made anything in either Source or Goldsrc. Jabroni Brawl knows what it is, and that’s all it is. It’s a deathmatch mod for and by the people still cherishing the rapidly atrophying muscular structure of a game engine that just won’t seem to die. It's for the people who want to get a group of people together on a Friday and throw friction grenades at/fart on each other. And that's all it needs to be to knock it out of the park.

Source and its modding scene still means a lot to people, myself included. For a lot of us weirdoes, it was a playground that evolved into a way to make friends, hone skills and even turn interests into hobbies and jobs.

But hey, this is getting KINDA GAY!!!!!!!!

Jabroni Brawl is frenetic FPS bullshit. It’s terminally stupid, rough around the edges, and unbelievably fun with the right people. Jabroni Brawl is gaming. It’s e-sports. It's, dare I say, hobby-grade. And it’s a complete goddamn miracle. I mean, fuck, this is probably the one project to start on Facepunch and actually see the light of day, right? Even seeing the Tales From The Galactopticon models in the customization menu made me feel positively ancient.

Here’s an in-game clip of a good friend killing himself in maybe the funniest way I’ve ever seen. Take care, and Feliz Navidad.

#goty #long post #writing

[therisingphoenixden]

OTP/OC Song Association

Apologies for the late response to this tag, @mxkelsifer​, but I had one HELL of a time picking who I wanted to focus on! Usual tag game rules apply from me - you see and you like, feel free to do it!

Since it’s been a hot minute since I’ve done anything Dragon Age-y, I figured I’d focus on my wonderful walking disaster rogue, Astrid Hawke and her love interest, First Enchanter Orsino! Lucky for me, I have a full playlist dedicated to this disaster human already with some carefully curated songs to reflect her at each part of her journey. Under the cut lies my selection of songs, the lyrics, links to the songs in question for your listening pleasure, and a brief blurb for each!

Song 1: Stolen Roses by Karen Elson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wd0i85dync

Astrid did not have an easy life growing up constantly on the run from Templars with her mage father and sister. Malcolm had designated her the family protector should anything ever happen to him, although he gave her that duty before she was even 13. She had to grow up too fast and masked her pain and trauma with humor. It took a lot for this young girl to break, but break she did.

Song 2: Hardest of Hearts by Florence + The Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzXp3PaE-dg

Naturally, being on the run and smothering every negative thought with poorly-timed humor will do things to a person. Astrid began to have feelings for an absolutely unsuspecting First Enchanter Orsino when she would visit Bethany in the Gallows, but the poor rogue has absolutely zero idea how to process those feelings. The feelings get stuck within her, and without knowing exactly how to get them out, she feels alone.

Song 3: Dust to Dust - The Civil Wars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a-j86tzxi8s

Little did she know, the First Enchanter was equally lonely. Despite the gulf between them following her mother’s murder at the hands of a past associate, he joined Anders and Bethany in healing Astrid after taking a Qunari broadsword to the gut. The pair grew closer as Astrid convalesced at her estate, and she finally found it within her to forgive Orsino for his past association with Quentin as well as confess her feelings. Life was lonely for the Champion and the First Enchanter, but they didn’t have to be lonely any longer.

Song 4: Seven Devils - Florence + The Machine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUMAhf9nMTA

Lines have been crossed and an internal struggle rages within Kirkwall. Meredith had called for the Rite of Annulment of the Gallows even before Anders blew up the Chantry. Astrid has chosen her side. If Meredith wants to kill the two people she cares so deeply for in cold blood, the Knight-Commander will have to go through her.

Song 5: Lazarus - David Bowie

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Piq-_MOcnRc

As she’s falling from the shattered bridge at Adamant Fortress, Astrid’s thoughts linger over those she’s more than likely leaving behind - Orsino, their twins, Bethany, all of the mages under her protection in Freemount, her friends. If this is to be her end, she is remorseful. “I’m sorry,” she whispers to nothing. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” But before oblivion takes her, her mind wanders back 10 years, to an old witch in a locket. And time stops. Gravity stops. And she finds herself in the Fade once more.

[defying-gravityfalls]

Here we are, 10 years later

Hey folks. It's been a while. I really wanted to have something to post in time for the anniversary but I've gotten held up and was unable to make anything in time for the date. We are however on 618 today! So I'll take what I can get lol.

You may have noticed this account has been pretty barren the last couple years, and it's not hard to guess that is because I had moved on, I have fallen into other hyperfixations, and I'm also an adult now with more responsibilities than I had when I was running this account as a teenager. I almost have some sort of guilt from leaving this behind and even wonder if anyone still cares about what's on here, which is part of the reason I haven't posted much. But I'm feeling nostalgic and I want to talk about Gravity Falls and this is the perfect place to do it! So I thought I'd give you all an update on what I have going on and how I've circled back here.

Let me just start off by saying I'm sorry for falling through on a giveaway I had promised right before I had left this account, I still feel bad about it, I was at a real low point in life and should have never promised something I felt I could not follow through on. I didn't know what else to do except run away from it. But I'm better now, and to anyone who is still upset at me over this I encourage you to contact me for a free commission of your choice, because I'm actually serious about art now! (Seriously you have no idea how bad I feel about this I am so so sorry yall)

I have had one major hyperfixation since my GF one faded, and that would be Hatchetfield. I guess I'm just drawn to small towns where weird things happen! In the same way GF changed my life, Hatchetfield also has, I would not be where I am today without either of them. And if you also like Hatchetfield I have side account if you wanna check it out! This is definitely where I'm most active these days. I actually have a fic for it with a premise which many times has been compared to Bipper, and yes I do think that is an accurate callout lol

I've also gotten into The Owl House quite a bit lately, I wasn't too into it when it first started airing like I was with GF but once season 2 hit I started watching pretty regularly, and I'm sure many of you also watch it because of Dana. I'm definitely not as into it as I was with GF but I'm having a good time! A thing doesn't have to take over my life to be good lol.

On a personal note I have moved back to Minnesota! I'm currently a waitress trying to save up enough money for an apartment, I haven't finished college yet but now instead of animation/writing I'm hoping to get/finish my degree in theatre with a focus on costuming and SFX makeup. While I still love animation and could see it as something I would like to be a part of, theatre just seems more realistic to me at this point, and I like it and am already kinda good at it! I've always done theatre, this makes sense for me.

Back to why I came here. With all the hype recently leading up to the 10th anniversary I have been missing Gravity Falls, and I have been missing the community, and I want to get involved again. I don't think I ever truly left Gravity Falls behind, it stayed with me one way or the other, having this presence in my life I couldn't deny, and I think I want to come back home to it. My life has changed a lot the past 10 years, i wanna look back on something that made me so happy.

So I'm gonna try to be more active on this blog! I'm gonna start a long overdue rewatch on the series and maybe liveblog some parts of it. I think that's a good starting point. I'm happy to be back, and I hope I maybe still have friends here after being absent for a few years, and I'm willing to make new ones too. Thank you everybody, for everything. Stay weird.

#sorry this is long and a bit of tangent this is a long overdue post dsvdfbgfb #i love yall if you are still here after all these years thank you <3

[vinnievespucci]

The glow of street lights cast eerie shadows against the exquisitely carved architecture of the Church, the grandeur of the sacred place somehow magnified in the dark of the night. And as gravity draws the steady fall of rain to the earth below, Vincenzo lingers within the darkness it allows him. The cherry tip of his cigarette glows brightly as he inhales, observing the way the city before him moves. It’s a wonder that his mother hadn’t continued to chastise him for the act, though a thousand memories of seeing her through her own puff of smoke rendered her argument moot, long before she’d ever tried. Like her, he remained near statuesque, if it weren’t for the fact that his hands could never remain still for long. It’s only within the flicker of ash to the wet concrete below that Vincenzo’s shadow holds life.

There has always been something different about London. Regardless of such infrequent visits throughout childhood, he still recognizes it now. The city is careless, casting strangers to the abyss that lives between each crack in the cobbled sidewalk. With each breath taken by the innocent, the toxicity of all that the underbelly holds still permeates and takes victim those that need never know the truth behind it all. The war for territory will always prevail over that of the heart. Greed is a vice that holds no bounds, and London had seen that every beating organ within its reach understands all that the darkness holds. Crippling, the city lives on the edge of baited breath and there is so little that can be done to stop it. 

His arrival came silently. Never the what, but the when. It was only a matter of time with the Russians involved. Reaching their skeletal hands out to stake their own hold in the war between the British and the French. Only a matter of time before it would provoke the Sovrani, however silently, to remind them that they would never forget and they certainly didn’t intend to allow sleeping dogs to lie. Through the mist, Vincenzo watches the blacked-out SUV pull up to the curb. He makes little effort to move, remaining ever still in the dimly lit offering of the Chuch above. He’d made clear his intentions, their offering to the French - yet he would do no bartering away from the eyes of God. The terms of the Italians entering the ring would come with a hefty price; one seen to by none other than the Lord himself. It was on the sacred ground alone that he would make his introduction to the cause, and it was through no argument of theirs that a time had been set. 

The old pocket watch that sat heavily in the inside pocket of his jacket ticked away slowly, it’s glass and edges pocked and marked from years of use. Truly, he doesn’t remember when it came to him - by who’s offering it was gifted to him. Neither family nor friend, he knows only the initials scratched into the back hold stains that mimic rust, yet hold a much darker explanation. It serves only as a reminder that his time was limited, and that blood would stain these streets before the end ever found him and it remained a promise to all those that came before him. 

The toe of his boot snuffs out the cigarette on the step below and the breath of air that doesn’t contain nicotine feels almost too clean to him now. Calloused digits brush roughly at the line of his jaw, noting that the shadows beyond the tinted mirrors seem to be making little effort to exit the vehicle. He doesn’t trust it. He doesn’t trust anything in this forsaken city. A mobile is plucked from the depths of his pocket, redialing the most recent unsaved number. “You’re late,” the woman’s voice on the other end feels prickly at best, despite the warming edge of her tone. It feels out of place. “Change of plans.” It’s curt, without the offer of further explanation and before she can find breath enough to respond, he cuts the call short. Flipping the hood of his jacket upwards, he steps beyond the shadows with a final thump of his fist against the nearest window pane. Perhaps, little more than an eerie creek of an ancient building, but to those inside offering their confessional, Giorgio, Giordana and those alike will undoubtedly be aware that he’s on the move.

There were a great many things he could never be - his brother, Alessia and he certainly made little effort to fashion himself into all that Lucrezia had become despite finding herself in much the same position as he had. His mistakes would follow him to the grave, and no forgiveness from God himself could grant him redemption, but for all that he lacked, he had never walked away from a fight. Shadows carried him beyond the church and he mentally reminds himself that this is exactly why he insisted his contact with the French was advised of a false meeting place; sometimes it paid to be paranoid. 

As if on cue, the duo that might usually have flanked him descended the steps of the Church. Arm in arm, a bright bloom of laughter leaving the woman’s lips and the sound carries it’s way across the street in the most harrowing symphony of the night. It’s the distraction he needs as he crouches lowly, approaching the SUV from the rear, popping open the drivers passenger door and slipping inside.

Low level grunts, foolish enough to situate themselves close enough to be in the open and yet just far enough away that nothing that transpired from this moment forward would draw too much attention. The scent of overpolished leather stings the inside of his nose, and the blade that drives its way between the third and fourth rib of the drive cuts through like a hot knife in butter. “Fucking Russians,” he seethes through grit teeth, the heaviness of his accent curling around the sneer of his lips. The cool barrel of a gun that was now pointed at his own temple little more than the ghost of thought as he noted the minor tremble within the hand that held it. Near onyx hues level themselves on the man that couldn’t be anymore than twenty-five, and would certainly never see twenty-six. 

The passenger door flings open and just as expected, Giorgio’s arm slips around the youth's throat, tightening as the smooth metal of his weapon finds its place against the side of his head. And perhaps in sync, Giordana slips into the backseat beside him, the ethereal glint in her eyes an easy encouragement that lights a flame within his chest, “Don’t be hasty now..” Vinny clicks his tongue against his teeth and the skeletal beginnings of a harrowing smirk begin to creep across features barely lit by the glow of street lights. “Let’s take a ride, shall we?”

Their infiltration would be meticulous, a secret carried only on the lips of the dead, an aspect that Vincenzo would see to himself should the need arise. Unfortunately, for the current head of the French organization, he holds absolutely no qualms with allowing their petty war over territory to cost them casualties; perhaps at his own hand.

There is, after all, no war without the petulant taste of death; and the reaper has come

#* memoir #* this looks janky but hi vinnie #pls love us

[cosmictulips]

Okay, so initially I wanted to do the tarot reading but then I got an intuitive message like I never have before. I am not sure how helpful this is or will be in the future but I just have to tell you I am almost dizzy. First I was seeing you and your sister in your room. You were on the computer, I think maybe studying for a lecture or something, you were quite serious and deep in thought, pensive, but very content. Your sister was laying on the bed, she has rainbow striped kneesocks and she’s watching gravity falls with her headphones on (Idk why this specifically stood out to me but it did), there is an open suitcase with a bunch of stuff in there. Maybe you‘re going to travel somewhere? this feels all really peaceful and both of you are at ease, something tells me that this comes after a time period where you two were so tense and on edge that sometimes you couldn’t‘ stand being in the same room but not because you hate each other on anything like that!! Rather you both were soooo fucking preoccupied with life that there was no way you could allow yourselves to relax even in the slightest. But now there is peace, you‘re breathing. It is late at night but there is no rush, you both just seem to enjoy each other’s company while doing your thing. Then the next scene I saw was you driving in a dark blue or maybe black car? Not sure but you are taking a right turn then you are on the parking lot of a huge mall, you are wearing a really colorful flows dress and you‘re laughing because *now don‘t shoot the messenger* for the first time in a very long time you do not feel as if you have to care about how much it will cost (I think you might be buying a bracelet or something, because I am seeing shiny metal). Then the next scene, I saw you at the concert for a split second and your face is so bright with the headlights and all and you‘re watching the stage but at the same time you‘re seeing Apollo and he‘s giving you a smile. Then I felt Hermes presence and he put his hand on your shoulder. But this was all just in the blink of an eye. Then the next and final scene: you and your sister are sitting on the couch, feet on the table, both of you have a hot chocolate (i think? Or Irish coffee idk but like a warm dring with whipped cream). It is dark outside and starts to snow, this has to be a few day‘s before Christmas because I heard „oh the weather outside is frightful but the fire is so delightful since there‘s no place to go let it snow let it snow let it snow“ you were watching rupaul‘s drag race first and the grinch second. Both of you are laughing and this whole scene just feels so so so safe. I think, however that this is a different apartment form the first situation, so maybe you weren‘t going to travel but to relocate? Not sure, but this feels so secure, so … i don‘t know what other word to use but there is stillness, calmness. Then I was like… what does this all mean? And I saw the star card and heard „you have to be a fox. You have to take the next step“ my fingers are tingling writing this down and I almost want to take a pen and sign my name somewhere. I feel like you‘ll know what this means either some parts now already or just when the time comes then you‘ll remember this message but yeah. Not exactly an exchange reading (sorry!) but I think still worth sharing. Now it‘s up to you to interpret this I guess????? Sorry if this is vague I don’t even know what to do with myself now lol. Sending you hugs and kisses <3

Helllooo friend!

there's actually a lot to unpack here and it's funny that I get this after having a dream of my own that was kind of similiar to this reading lmao. are we just sharing the same energy? you mentioned it in your other ask and I was like lolol maybe??? but now I'm like... maybe lol

OMFG

did YOU NOT JUST GET THE FOX CARD IN YOUR OTHER LITTLE THING YOU SENT ME.

and... dude

Apollo, Hermes ... and even aphrodite have been such bros for me lately lmao. one of the songs that was played at the concert was called "satellite" and part of the lyrics are "if you lead, I will follow. I will be your apollo alone in outer space" you know referring to the rocket

but like --- I swear to you it felt like I was just singing to and with apollo the whole time LOL. and like I carry hermes with me wherever I go and I was gushing to both of them about the concert lmao.

I have been hearing for awhile now that I'll be moving. moving to where I don't really know lol. but that star card indicates that something big is coming my way. it's all being kept vague for a reason and I will trust it.

like yea, I felt my bois and aphrodite at that concert lmao. like genuinely, it just felt like I grew a stronger connection to them lolol.

but yea, as for the rest of it it's funny cause Gravity falls is my favorite show lololol. and I've been catching my sister up with rupaul xD

butttt this actually gives me a lot of hope because we've been praying heavily for the day where we can just relax and not look at the price tag lolol

#thank you my friend #this actually makes a lot of sense #me #but yea I screamed at the apollo and hermes part #I knew they were with me LOL

[simpsonsnight]

Episode #708

Bart's in Jail Season 33, Episode 2 | October 3, 2021

Hey! SURPRISE! I am back, sporadically, to review episodes of The Simpsons from season 33. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out how to watch these as they aired, so I gave up and decided to wait for Disney+ to get them. A billion other things happened in the meantime, so lets get down to it, I GUESS:

This is a pretty simple episode, and it doesn’t really reach a satisfying conclusion, but that’s okay, I guess, because I laughed at it twice. All those laughs happened during the first act. 

Abe gets his social security check and is immediately scammed by a telemarketer who convinces him that Bart is in jail and needs bail money to get out. Homer, mostly acting selfishly because the money in question was to be his only inheritance from Abe (10 thousand bucks which is his winnings from games of chance he funds with said social security money), decides to go on a crusade to take this boiler room operation down. They do, sorta, but all they get out of the deal are gift cards (which the phone operators get paid in) for chain restaurants. 

The emotional core of the episode is mostly on Marge’s faith in humanity; she grapples with the fact that the Simpsons raiding the call center of it’s gift cards is in itself not justice but yet another scam. This development is fairly late in the episode, so it’s sorta safe to call this “tacked on”. Honestly, it’s another fairly bland episode of the show where they simply decided to pivot and go for a heart-stringy moment. It ends with Marge taking a leap of faith in a woman asking for cash at the gas station by giving her 20 bucks and her address, the woman promising she’ll pay Marge back. Surprise: she actually does get the money back. Double surprise: it was GRANDPA who forged the note and gave her 20 dollars of his own money so Marge wouldn’t lose faith in humanity. Okay. 

There are a few notable bits in this one. The episode actually starts out with a flashback to Abe and his friends as young men, working in a Meatball factory. This is where they learn the concept of social security, and we get some previously untold backstory to Grandpa’s youth. I have not kept up with the show at all this season but from what I read the show seems to be trying to unburden itself with the concept of canon. Make Grandpa a factory worker at a Meatball plant because it’s funny. It doesn’t have to jive with other Grandpa backstories. OR: he just had a lot of jobs but no real career to speak of, which also makes sense. Homer refers to Abe as a former “Meatball man” in the episode as though that’s always been his main gig, which is fine by me. 

Gags I liked: Homer imagines a life with $10,000 more and he looks at his toaster and imagines owning one just like it, but with 10 slots instead of two. That’s good. 

Another gag I laughed at was Principal Skinner explaining that his mother fell prey to a similar scam when someone called her pretending to be “punk rockers”, threatening to cut Seymour’s hair into a mohawk. Also very funny.

Two cameos: Grandpa’s is seen dozing off with a magazine that I forget what the title is, but it’s a reference to the Fuxley Archives, who are on facebook and do great hilarious work. The fella’s name is Chris Shapan and I know he’s worked on Tom Goes to the Mayor from covering it on my Adult Swim 2021 blog. 

The other cameo is Bill Cipher from Gravity Falls, who is among a rogues gallery of false idols. He’s played by what’s his name. The guy who voices him. Like, the real guy. I don’t feel like looking it up. He’s there! He’s real! He’s a real guy and I am going to start being scared of him!

MAIL BAG

TV Tropes said that The Simpsons was edited out on The Tracey Ullman Show when it came to the UK because of they lead into advert breaks which BBC never has advert breaks it is the first UK Channel from 1960 and started on radio in 1936. It is the reason why in UK we pay for television license.

Blimey! I did not know that about the Tracey Ullman Show but it makes sense. You’d think the BBC would just put a picture of the Queen smiling nicely where the commercials would go, but I guess not, I guess they killed her instead.

#simpsons #season 33