#fave way to screenshot dragons

[hummingbird-games]

2023 In Review (Indie Games)

Last year's! | 2021

I apologize in advance for how long this might be. As a reminder, I don't bash games here so even if I hated something with every fiber of my being...I ain't sharing. As a second reminder, my more in depth reviews and live blogging has moved to Gem's Game Gems so I don't clutter the HBG's main blog. Okay. ON WITH THE REVIEW!!

DEMOS

Diffraction (Demo)- A rainy day otome indeed. I love the quiet gentleness of this game, the two romance options, and the fact that our MC is a photographer and struggling with her art and stack of life "failures" (because...SAME!!)

Alaris - I was asleep and now I am awake: I came late for the advertised fae and dragon lore, stayed seated and waiting for Fenir zjgjdf. Oh, and I guess the mystery surrounding our MC's abilities LOL.

The Summit Library - When I say I was maaaaaad when I realized I blew through chapter 1 and would have to go back to waiting for more content??? LOL, I was very miffed. Anyhoo, check out this title for the gorgeous art, another intriguing mystery (like what is *up* with the magic in the poor library?? who or what is to blame?? 👀) and of course the lovely characters we've been introduced to thus far.

Of Sense and Soul - I'm a regency romance girl. Like after you strip away the other stuff, I am but a poor woman with simple needs: a good ass love story 🤧💛 It's about the yearning and the slow burn and the will they/won't they/PLEASEEE they...I've never been so charmed by a demo, and the full game is going to be amazing I just know it!

Made Marion - This project is a game I've been keeping tabs on for a hot minute but hadn't taken the time to sit and properly enjoy the demo. I'M SO GLAD I DID!!! It's in early access now, so I'm hoping eventually I'll be able to carve out some time to play, but guysss Velvet Cupcake is doing the Thing?!? No idea which love interest I'll go for first, but I had a fun time meeting the Nottingham peeps in the demo.

Herotome (Super Demo) - Oh gosh. Oh gosh oh gosh oh my GOSHHH. Where do I even began?? (Really the question is where the hell do I end because this is one of those projects I talk about a lot/think about a lot and surprisingly haven't run out of things to say zkjfksjd). Another game I've been following for a while, it 100% lives up to the superhero genre in its aesthetic, the characters you interact with, the music and sound design, and of course the slowly unfurling story. Jade and Mia had come out as my top faves, Warden is still there, like hovering in the backgroud, shhhh but I have a special place in my heart for Griffin too (that conversation we have with her?? I have so many screenshots just so I can go back and reread and sear the words in my brain. Like a weirdo. Yup.)

Celestial Crowns - Stats building, celestial royalty, dating sim where you fuck around and find out your choices directly affect your MC's personality?? I'm sat. I supported the Kickstarter and now I try to practice patience for the full game's release siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiighh.

OTOME/JOSEI JAM

Please note this is a SUPER abridged list for my sanity and I fell a little more in love with these 2 jams with each entry I played...

Intertwine - As embarrassing as it sounds, I've never given much thought to the "red string" thing, and I consume more than enough romance media LOL!! But Van is suuuuuch a beautiful man, the UI for this game is so interactive and lovely, the music is ALSO lovely, just lovely-love all the way around teehee. (Also this game encourages replayabillity so like, do with that info what you will.)

Spring Boy [Demo] - I believe this game is going through a complete rehaul, so my thoughts and feelings refer to the original jam entry I played. The art is bright and cute and it's a super super short demo, but I was intrigued by the other student we meet on our mission to plead with our professor about our bombed exam lol!

Assignment Due: Project Blue - IRl group projects??? Suck absolute ass. Group projects with a guy name Asher?? Suddenly it's my new favorite thing in the world 😁

Cryptid Campaign Manager [DEMO] - Remember the last time I looked over a cryptid dating sim??? Remember how I was SUCH a fool?? Good thing I didn't make that mistake again!! The prologue is such a tease but you get an idea of what the full game is gonna be like, and I'm excited to see where my career involving love (and politics) goes!

Heart Cage [Demo] - Yoooooo I stay my ass far far far away from yanderes (could never get into the trope or the character type). WELP. Guess I just needed to keep searching because I really downloaded this off a whim--well, the whim being one of my fellow dev peers playing and rating-- and proceeded to get sucked in 🤧I thought being a detective would be the highlight, but I guuuueeesssss I was more into the romance options than I thought. Oops.

Evernight - I tried to explain what this game meant to me on the side blog, but words failed me. I still don't know what to say other than I loved it?? Which is like ummm I say I love everything, and yeah I'm easy to please BUT Y'ALLLLLL if you play no other game, play this one. Please. Date a werewolf. Or a vampire. Or a fae. Plz. Also figuring out the mystery of your MC's abilities and past is just delightful, ugh.

Bright Oak (demo) - Anotha one I wrote about on the side blog!!! Play this one!!! The writing is lush and atmospheric and the characters are all delightful and it's another game with a mystery to untangle!

The Faithfulness of the Universe- This one gets the award for most unique all around entry that I played. Theeeeee prettiest pixel art to bless my eyeballs, and this tasty mystery concerning Fate and witch Faustina's future (or lack thereof 👀) and what it all means. As a player I very much want to know what it all means!

A Cup For All Seasons - Another game that needs its flowers y'all. It's short but super healing and super cozy and the voice acting and music really tie the gaming experience together???

The Working Woman's Guide to Burning Bridges - DEMO - It's the way I played the demo twice and I've been thinking about it ever since 😭😭😭🙃 obviously life happens and things come up, plus this was a demo. But. BUT!!! I am on my hands and knees prayinnggg the team gets together again to finish the game. I love playing as a stressed, lowkey bitter hot mess who doesn't have her life together 😂somehow the fictional version is soooo much more entertaining!!!

Keyframes (Spring Demo) - After the game College Craze, this is legit THE college, slice of life visual novel of my dreams. I cannot wait for the updated demo next year, and the Kickstarter whenever that rolls around. And now that the developer is on Tumblr, I've definitely been stalking the account and reading each new post like it's my day/night/weekend job 🤧

Hello Counsel 💋 - Okay I take it back, Evernight is like a 20/10 but Hello Counsel is like an 100/10 👁️👄👁️ This game is necessary for my mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, alright? The banter ✅ the character designs ✅ the music ✅ the sizzling chemistry between Poise and Salem ✅ I wish this game had more buzz because IT'S SO GOOD!!! (also the dev, Miseri, is who I wanna be when I grow up. I've made it through almost their whole backlog of games and there are no misses and EVERY game is different from the rest and it makes it hard for a toodler dev--ME--to cope LOL)

Candied Hearts - Isekaied into a candy themed game?? Sign me TF UP!!! (Peppermint I love you dearly, you must understand.)

Fully Released & Played (at least 1 playthrough)

The Knight's Dilemma - I don't even know how I originally stumbled upon this??? I just know it had been in my backlog for a hot minute and I was intrigued enough to save it way back when. Y'ALL WHY DIDN'T I PLAY SOONER SKJFHFJFH! There's a couple different endings, I loved the voice direction, AND it's such a simple concept of a game that was just executed beautifully.

Trouble Comes Twice - If I had to make a top 5 list of romance VNs, guess who makes the list?? Guess. Guess guess guess. Have you guessed yet??? LOL! I have been in love with TCT since it's development days and with each passing month, waiting in anticipation, playing the Pateron beta builds, screaming on the main blog about every single thought I had about Jace and Hazel (shoutout to Jace for helping me figure out *me*) Lol if you're curious about said thoughts, those posts are on this blog and not the side blog.

Aelfric the Wondrous - 10/10 would love to forget my first play through JUST to have that experience fresh again 😭😭💛Cute and funny and a wonderful parody type game all around.

A Summer's End - Hong Kong 1986 - Goodness, there's no excuse for why this took me years to finish but anyhoo, I finished, I loved it, I recommend it! It's romantic and achingly authentic and the art is soooo gorgeous I literally can't stand it 😭

The Things You Do For Love - Unhinged yandere manages to entertain and garner sympathy and laughter from Gemini. And that poly ending is chef's kiss too????

Band Camp Boyfriend - There are a handful of games I found and loved before I began my game development journey, and this is one of them. BCB is so dear to me, because of the story and characters but also because of the Dynamic Duo creators and their team behind the scenes. I was never a band kid I was a chorus kid but just as the band geeks loved this game to pieces, us normal folks do too!! Even the boys who I didn't like I STILL managed to find joy in playing their routes (still have a few more to finish at the time of this posting lol, GOTTA GET THE FINAL ROUTE YO). Anyway, this game more than delivered for me and I hope more people keep discovering it!!

Belle Automata: Chronicle I [RELEASED] - While only Chronicle 1 is out at the time of this posting, I already know that the 2nd and 3rd parts are going to be just as amazing???? I wrote about this one on the side blog, so here's my copypaste that still rings true:  

I love TNP (The Nightmare Prince) but Victor’s route hit the sweet spot for me. Maybe it’s the slow(er) burn nature of this route, maybe it’s the reserved nature of Victor and watching him slowly start to care (AND NOT KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH THOSE FEELINGS TEEHEE) for me.

A Date with Death - I wrote about this on the side blog--again--. The demo. And then right after finishing a route. And then again where I was fully awake and still managed to sound deranged. No copypaste for that, I shall be nice. But yeah!! Another game where I was screaming at the sky about how much I love it and how I'll never know peace as long as I live.

Our Life: Baxter DLC - I need to offer an official apology to both Cove and Derek because falling head over heels, down the stairs, crashing into the parking lot, falling again but down a manhole for Baxter's infuriating ass was NOT on my 2023 bingo board??? HELLO???? I bought his DLC just to complete my OL collection. Was not expecting to love it this much. Was not expecting to be called to write fanfic and abandon all responsibilities to do this. WHILE DOWN WITH COVID TOO. Allow me to play the song of my people. *Send in the Clowns plays*

Our Cinderella - (this is so funny I'm taking about a side game before the main game LOLOLOLOL) Guys. Guysss. You guyyyysss 🥹if you're looking for a cozy, hilarious, equally oddly and wonderfully sweet short game, this is the one!! You may have your personal favorite Iggy ship (like me) but all the pairings are so amazing and just make sense lol!

Wylde Flowers - This is the only non visual novel game on here but it gets the spotlight because I did NOT spend 90+ hours on this game to gatekeep this beauty. No. It the coziest, the funniest, the funnest, the most addictive Switch game (after Teacup) I've ever played.

Fully Released (& still on 1st playthrough)

Garden of Seif: Chronicles of an Assassin - Life kicked my butt and then sat on me SO while I finally got my grubby hands on the full copy, I still have only played the entirety of the demo. But. We will return to this in 2024 and hopefully I'll have a full review for the next wrap up!

Our Wonderland - I looked back at the side blog and I can't believe it was only THIS year that I started OW??? Because I'd known of the game and the dev for longer than that??? So basically what I'm saying is that I was chicken shit for longer than I've been in love with this world that Developer Carrot has created kjzhhshggj. But OMG to get me, who is scared oh so easily to get hella invested in this clearly labeled horror game??????????????? And even with shit gets super absurd and hella disturbing, I cannot stop playing. At the time of this post, I'm only in Act 4, hence the category above, but it's only because I play each act in a sitting and lose track of space and time and myself. That's a compliment btw.

...

Okie!! That's 2023 in a nutshell! I played a looooot of really good games this year and while I would have liked to talk about them all, I think this list provides a nice overview.

Let me know if we share any favorites!

- Gemini 💛

#gaming year in review #gamedev rambles #yeah no I cannot keep creating more work for me #2024 I am GOING to make a shorter list 😭🤧 #hmmmm fun drinking game: #take a shot every time the word 'mystery' is used ☠️

[finch-velutina]

Gear 5 Foreshadowing/Analysis

One of the things that absolutely delighted me about gear 5 was how natural it felt for Luffy. It was Luffy to a T - which is what makes it so incredible! That's the best part of him :)

I learned about Gear 5/Joyboy/Sun God Nika like a month after starting One Piece, and I was just able to see how every element of the show was building up to this.

luffy vs. kaido fight spoilers under readmore

GEAR 5 GEAR 5 GEAR 5!!

Part of the reason it feels so natural is because of how it shows that the Devil Fruit's Awakening builds on Luffy's growth and understanding of his powers, particularly his use of all 4 gears, which are all incorporated and clearly referenced in the Gear 5 fight:

Gear 1- Luffy interacting with lightning!! Because since we have known since Skypiea, rubber is nonconductive, meaning luffy isn't affected by it. Luffy grabbing the lightning strikes and using it to catapult him around? That's gomu gomu no rocket! On top of that, he manages to become the lightning and swoop towards Kaido (in a move that looks a lot like Python). He's able to combine his base rubber powers in a wild and wacky way, and absolutely loves it :)

Gear 2 comes in play in this incredible screenshot from the fight after Luffy restarts the Drums of Liberation. Gear 2 is also about controlling bloodflow and breathing - and by extension, the heartbeat!! Its all there. Thank Gear 2 for luffy's auto-defibrillation skills.

Gomu Gomu no Giant is the logical progression of Gear 4 Boundman, (which builds on gear 2 and gear 3 as well). It's like a version of Luffy without the additions

Gear 3: ... Yeah, this one is pretty obvious.

But the most important aspect of Luffy it brings in from his previous fights is his silliness. From the shocked face Crocodile gives him when he sees Water Luffy to Kaido's eyes popping out as he uses him as a jump rope. Things that seem meaningless, like his Gomu Gomu no UFO move. (I had to include this because I thought about how Joyboy it was from the moment i saw it. He's just joyously having fun in weird ways!! <3)

The magic of Gear 5 is in how everything from before comes together and combines seamlessly, which brings us to section 2:

Foreshadowing of Joyboy

Luffy has always been the sun. Tanjiro has nothing on Luffy for Most Sun Coded Anime Protagonist. Luffy is from the East Blue on Dawn Isle. One could say he rose from the East. The beginning of his story is called romance DAWN. This is from other posts that delve into it more, but luffy has been liberating people from the start- Koby, Zoro, Shells Town. Thats just how he rolls, it's part of his existence- Luffy will see someone oppressed, think "Is anyone going to help them free themselves?" and not wait for an answer. Punching a celestial dragon? That's ridiculous. But Luffy was made to do ridiculous things.

Skypiea, which is where we learn about Joyboy, has Luffy facing off against Enel and winning easily because of his nonconductiveness - the true god destroying the false one.

On Fishman Island, he frees Shirahoshi from her prison and promises to take her to see the sun. Another aspect is the symbol of the sun pirates being changing the celestial dragon's slavemark into a SUN. Luffy also takes away the giant shadow of Noah hanging over them.

Dressrosa? Known for it's SUNflowers.

When Luffy loves and accepts sanji, freeing him, the sun literally dawns on him. One of my fave moments with him. (To go into sanji & his wano arc i would need a whole different 1000 word essay on him. Bbg u are simply so fucked up)

Wano arc amps up the dawn = freedom references by 100. referencing the dawn 24/7, having luffy become a slave

Luffy has always been free because he is himself.

#one piece analysis #monkey d. luffy #one piece

[theviridianbunny]

self-love time! talk about which ones of YOUR creations (edits, artworks, fanfics) you like the most then send to other creators to do the same <333

AAHH SPIN HELLO ANGEL!! OK- i will be talking about my beloved blorbo Viridian !! I want to talk about how she has grown over the past year- seeing as she is one of my creations!! ♡⸜(˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝ heads up this might be a long read because i have a lot to say (and lots of screenshots aaah)

So- I've had Viridian as an OC since July last year. She has gone through a new small chnages- but every version of her I love with all my heart- she is so special to me (an explination to one of the reasons why can be found here)

OK LETS START WITH VANILLA VIRIDIAN (from my blind run of cp2077 which lasted from July to septmber 2022) - vanilla viridian looks very similar to my 2071 viridian (minus the arasaka cyberarm)- this version of her had No mods (because I didnt know how to mod). At this time I Couldn’t really make out her vibe- all i knew was she loved jackie and had hair kinda like mine &lt;3 - the vanilla run was more- more for me to just sit and play cyberpunk- and cry because i went in blind not knowing what would happen (ugh uhm komepki plaza I AM LOOKING AT YOU) - this version of viridian was played / used before transmog was a thing in cp2077- so i was always like "GOS HOW DO I DRESS HER?!?!?" and she looked... interesting at times XD

After my vanilla run- I though "oh hey... what If i gave modding a go? 2022 is all about trying now and scary things after all!!".. so I shopped around for a basic mod and ended up trying out this pride eyeshadow mod - took me... god a few hours and lots of screaming at my pc to get it working (because i had no idea the main file had to be unzipped- hey @genocidalfetus - i am forver greatful for your help with that!!) after getting that one (1) mod installed- i felt like i could fight god and went ham installing mods (then the gamer gods humbled me when i deleted a main game file by mistake and it took 8 hours for my game to re install) BUT WE MOVE- I started to play around with more mods- realised I wanted Viridian to have her arasaka cyberarm so I managed to get that- then started to play around with hairstyles- viridian had a really shirt haircut for like-- ages!! --- and and i found a mod for jackie's leather bomber which made me SO HAPPY AAAHH

This was around october/november 2022- kinda around the time i was shyly approaching tumblr and posting blorbo stuff. But then the 1.61 patch dropped and i yelled because all my mods had to be re installed - but again we move - we learn and grow!

In the december of 2022 I came up with my first ever AU- the devil canon (which is an AU where Viridian gose back to arasaka near the end of her life- a very angsty AU)

At the start of 2023 I played around with more outfits and hairstyles (finally figured out what shair i'd like viridian to have canonically) - learnt about model swapping too! also started to actually flesh out her alter ego "arasaka's red rabbit" a brutal netrunner !! As my confidence with modding has grown- I've tried many fun outfits for her !! some of my fave looks can be found here, here , here and here (others are below!)

And now we are at the present- May 2023!! Viridian now has a solid design- I'm still having fun making new outfits for her- trying out new things- new poses- new ways to light my work!! Viridian also now exists in a few other universes / games such as The sims 4 or dragon age inquisition! (was inspired by my dear friend @halsin !!)

Recently- like as in- yesterday I made a very fun shoot where I dressed Viridian in summery clothes/swimwear and photoed her at a pool with Jackie!! One of my fave sets i've made so far this year- very fun to work on!!

well ok- if you've gotten to this point you're a champ!! I know i do rammble a lot about my ocs- but Viridian means a lot to me- It was very fun traulling through my tumblr and old chat feeds with friends to find stuff!! I am forver growing and learning when it comes to creating- I have fun and- yknow dont mind if stuff looks a bit janky or off at times!!

Thank you for coming to my TED talk <3 thank you for being such lovely humans - for all the hype and support- i love you all a lot and can't wait to see where I go next on my little modding and photography adventure !!

#bunny takes virtual photography #asks #oc: viridian #cyberpunk 2077 #idk how to tag this send help #long post #bunny screams into the void

[imperial-nuisance-rudje]

Time to start a series of EW effortposts, i guess.

Note that I got sick (AGAIN) and had pretty bad weather-based connectivity issues since i took the earliest of these screenshots, so my memory will be pretty shoddy.

Anyway, postin'.

I've already hollered about the twins' shitty dad so I won't reprise that, instead skipping forward to when you pick who visits you. I've been too busy moving MSQ forward to re-check everything, but given my faves it's probably not shocking that i chose...

Estinien.

I didn't get most of his little speech, but he just wanted to express support and a desire to protect in his cute, awkward way.

Also, jfc if a character as pale as Shayun is nearly invisible due to the cutscene lighting, anyone with darker skin is just going to be a shadowy blob.

Anyway, Estinien flees.

Out the window. You know, as you do.

Also if I hadn't established that Shayun and Estinien are just utterly incompatible this cutscene would have had me making jokes, but no it's just more autism to autism communication.

There's a couple cutscenes I didn't grab establishing both what people are thinking about the Garlean prisoners as well as setting up ominous shadow effects on people.

Which Erenville seems to be able to sense? Not sure if it's a nod to how Viera are typically very magically sensitive in other FFs or just Erenville being sensitive to changes in his environment, since the former hasn't really been established in 14.

Anyway!

So Thavnair has a mild case of the Armageddons (as in, the weather is literally "Apocalypse")! I'm sure it's fine, says the dog sitting in a burning house.

The dungeon wasn't anything special, but the final boss is incredibly fucking rude to the photosensitive--one of its attacks causes the whole screen to pulse red or blue as the tell, and it's really bad to look at. Not quite Paradigm's Breach tier, but at least on the level of World of Darkness. Very nasty.

I still murdered the fuck out of it, of course.

Ahewann trying to convince Vrtra that his fears are unfounded and revealing himself as the true leader of Thavnair would only help.

I can't remember the lead-up to this, but Estinien refuses to let a troubled member of the First Brood pass by without getting into position for Dragon Therapy.

I think investigation into why people were transforming into monsters happens after this? Which, uh, leads me to a major issue I had.

So. Ahewann's death.

Besides being another victim of the two-for-one deal that is Endwalker (if we'd had an expansion+patches to come to know and care deeply for him, his death would have hit MUCH harder--as it is it feels like he jobbed), it's also just really badly blocked out. The last time the WoL has a case of the Glueboots this severe is when Asahi is beating the shit out of Yotsuyu, and it feels just as bad now as it did then. If they didn't want to have the WoL have to pause and attack bc of job reasons (tbf the correct distance for one job to feel right is different from another, so i don't blame them), they at least should have put them further back.

It's just way too obvious that Ahewann died entirely due to authorial decree. It doesn't feel like a natural outgrowth of the events of the cutscene. Given how little time we've had with Ahewann, it also feels like a cheap move for free emotions!

I do not like Ahewann's death.

Oh yeah, and afterward catboy proves that he is also the Crystal Exarch so anyone who thinks i should chill over things the Exarch did can shut it, the game itself says they're the same person now.

Final WoLshot for this post, bc the next post is a behemoth and will need every last bit of image space I can give

that's right it's time for

DRAGON THERAPY WITH DR ESTINIEN (vrtra edition)

#rudje plays ffxiv #final fantasy #endwalker spoilers

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Super 005

...

Yeah.

So by this point in the arc, we’ve reached roughly the 20-30 minute mark in the Battle of Gods film.  This is the part where Beerus meets Goku for the first time, then Goku asks to spar with Beerus, who demolishes him in two blows.  It’s my favorite part of the movie, and Dragon Ball Super Episode 5 tries to re-enact it and botches the whole thing.

This episode started a whole discourse in 2015 because the animation was awful, and fans argued over who to blame.  The artists who worked on the series seemed like the obvious pick, but then people started to point out that Toei had been running a sloppy shop for a while at this point.  There was a Sailor Moon series that had been running around the same time, and fans of that show noticed the same quality problems.  In a nutshell, Toei was trying to cash in on as many of its popular franchises as possible by churning out lots and lots of new content, without the manpower needed to actually produce it properly.  So they were hiring anyone who could hold a pen to work on shows like Dragon Ball Super, just to keep it ahead of deadlines. 

I don’t claim to understand all the details, but the result seemed to be that you had a lot of overworked, underqualified artists animating this series, and the only thing working in their favor was that the first four episodes were so slow and dull that they didn’t have to animate too much.  But Episode 5 is basically a big fight, and even though it’s a total mismatch, you still have all these shots of Goku flaling around trying to hit Beerus, while Beerus plays the artful dodger.  So the standard shortcuts don’t work here.  You’re going to have to animate Goku and Beerus leaping around, twirling and moving in every direction.  And the animators gave it a try, but wound up exposing their limitations. 

Now, to be sure, there were plenty of badly animated scenes in classic Dragon Ball.  Yukio Ebisawa supervised the animation for every sixth episode, from Emperor Pilaf all the way to Uub, and every one of his entries in the series featured comically off-model characters.  You can see a lot of animation shortcuts too, especially in filler episodes, or in spots where it just didn’t matter all that much in the long run. Nobody gets into Dragon Ball because of the high-quality animation.  There’s some real classic episodes, and a murderer’s row of talent, and frankly I maintain that Yukio Ebisawa is highly underrated, but the point is that they were making a weekly cartoon show, and sometimes quality had to take a back seat to logistics. 

However, Dragon Ball Super Episode 5 was notoriously bad.  So bad that fans were swapping screenshots of the off-model characters and openly mocking Toei for putting out such a poor work.  So bad that GT-likers were coming out of the woodwork to gloat about how their fave was no longer the worst Dragon Ball series.  And it was so bad that Toei actually went back and had some of the scenes redrawn for the home video release. 

Well, I’m here to tell you they missed a spot.

Here’s the thing.   This episode was always going to suck.  They can go back and redo it as many times as they like.  They can re-animate the whole thing from scratch, but in the end, it won’t make a bit of difference.  And that’s because they already had a good version of this Goku/Beerus fight in the movie.  Episode 5 was never going to be able to measure up to that standard, and even if it could, it would never be seen as anything more than a rerun. 

There’s three things working against this episode that have nothing to do with the production values.

1) We’ve seen this before.  I know I keep harping on it, but it’s true.  By this point, the DBS manga had published its own adaptation of this fight, so how many different ways can Toei keep repeating the same scene?

2) It’s slower.  The whole point of this scene in the movie was that Goku wanted to experience Beerus’ power, and he came at him with everything he had, immediately powering up to Super Saiyan 3, and getting jobbed out almost immediately.  It establishes that Beerus isn’t just a paper tiger.  Goku needs to solve the mystery of the Super Saiyan God, because nothing less will do.  And Vegeta needs to watch his ass, because he can’t even go SSJ3, and Beerus would wipe him out in an instant either way.

But DBS #5 pumps the brakes by having Goku fight Beerus in all three of his Super Saiyan forms.  This is probably meant to introduce them all to new viewers, or to just make the fight last longer, but it’s stupid.  Goku even starts out by saying that it would be an insult to Beerus to fight him in base form, then he proceeds to fight in Super Saiyan 1, even as he tells Beerus to hold nothing back.  It makes Goku look like a hypocrite. 

Then Beerus reveals that he can perceive Goku’s power level, and he knows Goku is holding out on him, but Goku is still reluctant to bring out Super Saiyan 3.  Well does he want to go all out with Beerus or not?  The studio and the character are working at cross-purposes here.  We know what Goku ought to do in this situation, because we saw him do it the right way in the movie.  But the studio wants him to sandbag a while, so he does.  Beerus ought to be offended by this-- or at least irritated with Goku for wasting his time-- but Toei wants to drag this out, so Beerus indulges him for no good reason.

3) This whole scene is one guy dodging the other.  Even if you had enough story here to fill an entire episode, even if you had an unlimited budget and a staff of highly skilled artists to animated it, how much can you really get out of this?   The highlight of the fight is the one new wrinkle Toei added, where Goku’s about to attack and then he suddenly stops short and backs off. 

Beerus congratulates him for somehow intuiting that he was about to strike.  Even though Goku wasn’t consciously aware of it, his body somehow reacted on its own.  Like some sort of ultra-instinctive thing.  This will become an important plot point 100 episodes later.  But right now, it’s just another minute or so of Goku and Beerus not touching each other.

So Episode 5 was a failure from conception, even without the quality issues.  With the quality issues, it became a laughing stock.  It didn’t matter if the artists were the problem or the studio failing to use their talent more realistically.  Once Episode 5 aired, the fans could tell there was something... off about this show.  Even quiet, static scenes like this one could fall under scrutiny from the viewer.   I’ve been staring at these deck chairs for a while now, because something doesn’t look quite right about them, and I can’t put my finger on it.  From here on, the damage had been done, and every episode of DBS was basically an open challenge to the viewer to find something wrong with it. 

#dragon ball #dragon ball super #2023dbapocryphaliveblog #goku #beerus #whis #vegeta #bulma #king kai #bubbles #gregory

[shadow---ninja]

A sisters journey through ffxiv,

so my little sister had into gotten ffxiv, and now she's just finishing up shadowbringers and on the way to endwalker. It has been fun playing the game with her as there's always something fun going on.

Out of the screenshots I've taken with her, this is my fave as it's like a child showing a distracted parent a new toy they got.

"That's nice estinien, now go back to playing with the dragons."

(I promise after she's done endwalker, and I've finally done pandæmonium 4 savage I'll get back into drawing it's been motivation and artblock hell for me)

#ffxiv #ffxiv screenshots #ffxiv oc #ffxiv wol #ffxiv viera #ffxiv auri #ffxiv aura #ffxiv gpose

[omaano]

I guess you've already got a dozen of these BUT

💕 self-love time! talk about which ones of YOUR creations (edits, artworks, fanfics) you like the most then send to other creators to do the same 💕

That is a rather flattering assumption, my dear, but I believe I've proven to have a horrible track record in answering asks, and where is the fun in sending such nice asks to someone who will just hoard them and then feel too ashamed to answer months late? ^^; Anyway, thank you very much for this askl! ❤️ And while it is a bit mean to make me pick favourite(s) from my children, I'm only gonna pick one here (not even my biggest recent fave), because I want to talk about it and show off some details.

I thought about picking my recent cowboys DTIYS redraw, because that would illustrate pretty well the direction where my art inevitably seems to be going (and the one time where Cobb's face didn't fight me like it was his job - and returned to the old normal of Din giving me grief lol) BUT, then I remembered that I filled my (so far) last Desert Witch!Cobb AU drawing with quite a few details, and I want to show them off and talk about them a little. So here we go:

I wanted to showcase the colour palette I predominantly used in all my pieces for the Monster Mash drawings - I'll admit that I'm not very confident in my colours, so Procreate's feature of generating colour palettes for me from already existing photos is an absolute godsend, otherwise I'd be stuck with my purples and pink-oranges for eternity. I had to add the blue for a bit of contrast though, but by the third drawing I really enjoyed the warmth of these bright oranges and reddish browns. They added to a nice and cozy feeling while I was freezing and huddling close to my little electric heater.

Plus this is a good shot to point out all the shinies dangling from Cobb (he's now got a mythosaur pendant with dangling beads for the teeth(?)), and the tattoo on his arm I had an awful lot of fun with! Something's clicked in my brain and now it's permanently stuck on pairing Cobb with suns and moons imagery (mostly the moons, because A) Din is the one who is shiny and blinding and hurtful to look at when he's fully decked out in his armour, and B) I find the dichotomy of the deadly sharp points and curve of a crescent moon vs the gentle face of a full moon very fitting for our Marshal here). So he's got two crescent moons on the underside of his forearm and elbow, and a third one on the right side of his neck. And there is also a sun on the curve of his shoulder, behind the sharp-toothed skull (because I gave in and finally put a sun on him after you all somehow kept seeing it on him - although it still eludes me how you managed that ^^;). He had another one on his right shoulder as well, but well. Glass doesn't take all that well to tattooing, does it? He's also got a lot of swooping cloud and smoke shapes to match his eternally billowing robes and the sand-storms that hide in his pockets.

And now to the fun part of the chaos that the background was:

I really wanted to put an absolute mess of a workbench behind Cobb, and I tried my best to deliver it - then forgot to take into consideration how much of it he'd block out with his shoulders XD and so I filled it with books, datapads and candles, little notes and jars and vials and a real fancy scale that I tried to model after the krayt dragon. And then once I realized how many of those details got covered up, in my infinite wisdom I erased everything instead of just masking them out so that I wouldn't even be tempted to somehow work them back into the picture... so I had to take these snapshots from my process video (hence the poor screenshot quality, sorry ^^;) but this way you can also see how I used those box shapes to try and keep even the otherwise circular/organic shapes of the flowers and pots (and cauldrons omg, were those a struggle!) in perspective. I think that was a neat little trick.

It was really challenging, and I cursed myself a lot for the angle I picked for this picture, but in the end it was very rewarding to see that while I never thought I'd ever be able to pull off a detailed background, I still managed to do this here!

#answers #my art #oh my this felt good to talk about my art process a little bit #I just recently developed the desire to even think about how I do things not to mention maybe talk about it and share it on my socials #look at me finally working through my shame of daring to be an artist and feeling good about these things #and giddy about the process of creation! #there are a lot of other details that I didn't mention here because then that would be an EVEN longer post #but I need to point out that Din's single earring in his pointy ear is Tosye's fault #dincobb #maybe I should do this more often for my own entertainment #and combing some thoughts into order #like without prompting for the self-positivity or whatever #long post

[deathsmallcaps]

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[rakumel]

Raku Plays Her Faves: Pocky and Rocky

Part 3: An Enchanted Forest and The Cemetery Mystery

Well, it is getting closer to Halloween, so it feels appropriate to be dealing with ghosts and goblins and such.

Just a couple of shots of two different parts of the forest. Looks empty because - and I apologize for this - it's hard for me to take screenshots while actually playing the game. Would rather have some much more action-y shots to show off. But I promise there's plenty of evil critters here, including tengu, giant cylopes that breathe fire, bamboo shoots that try to sprout up right under you, and near the beginning, a constant stream of little monkeys that come down from the trees. It's not a good idea to linger in that area for very long, because it's very easy to get swarmed by them if you do.

About halfway through the level, you'll encounter the Easiest Midboss Ever. Just stand in the middle near the bottom of the screen, hold down the button that rapid fires your projectiles, and win. You might occasionally have to bat aside a bamboo leaf that it throws at you, but it travels so slowly you'll have plenty of time to see it coming. Otherwise, there's no need to dodge or worry about the bamboo shoot minions that home in on you.

Next you'll have to travel down the river, which is full of kappa and crabs that float toward you in bubbles. You can't ignore either one of them: the crabs will crowd your raft and shoot towards you after a few seconds, and the kappa will both throw things at you and attempt to drag you off the raft into the water. Falling in the water isn't an insta-kill, but it does hurt. Just keep shooting, and try not to get too overwhelmed, because the end level boss is up next.

This octopus...dragon-tentacle...thing...surfaces and calls off the kappa and all the other Nopino goblins. "Ugh. God, y'all are useless. I'll handle this."

The nice thing about the bosses in this game is that almost all of them attack with a recognizable pattern. Once you figure it out, it's generally easy to figure out where to stand in order to counterattack (usually diagonally to the boss), or dodge or deflect their attacks. Most bosses also like to try and aim where you're standing; you can use this to your advantage to lead their shots and get in attacks of your own.

This one's no exception. First it'll send up a couple of tentacles that shoot fireballs at you; you can either deflect the shots with your close-range attack, or shoot the tentacles with your long-range one. Then the main body surfaces again, and shoots a stream of water across your raft, trying to push you off. You'll see the disturbed water a few seconds before the boss appears, plenty of time to run to the other side of the raft and fire away. Finally, after it loses a certain amount of health, the boss will do both those attacks at the same time. Sounds bad, but honestly I've not had much of a problem juggling the two.

Anyway, once the octo-whatever-the-fuck is defeated, the local goblins become friendly again. Pocky and Rocky ask if they know anything about what happened to them, or about Black Mantle.

...well, thanks, that's super helpful. Totally makes up for you throwing bombs and shit at me on the river.

But the kappa with the eyepatch does mention that he saw the octo-monster talking with some other goblin he didn't recognize down at the cemetery. It's the only lead we have, so off we go.

The map even changes to a dark sky, which is pretty cool.

This is about the time when the game takes the gloves off and really starts throwing swarms of enemies and projectiles at you. Zombies will constantly erupt from the ground, bats are all over the damn place, and ghosts with pumpkin heads hover in your way and shoot stars at you. But it does have a nice spooky atmosphere with that waving fog, so there's that.

About a third of the way through, you'll come across this haunted house - the door actually shuts in poor Rocky's face and catapults him to the bottom of the screen. This priest? ghost floats out, taunts you, and attacks. It can randomly attack with homing fire, a pair of small scythe-like weapons that are hard to dodge, or frost breath. You especially don't want to get hit with the last one as it'll freeze you in place for a bit; but dodge it and you'll have a generous amount of time to retaliate. Shouldn't take long to chase this jerkass ghost away.

Inside the house, you'll be stuck in a room with even more damn bats, slimes, and at the end - why not? - a jester that randomly teleports around with an annoying "bwermp" sound effect and fires out rounds of projectiles when it appears. And when I say "rounds" I mean they literally encircle it - you'll have to slip in between them to get your own attacks in.

The next room has this midboss, an angry genie that goes in and out of each of these pots in the four corners of the room. Once again, diagonal shooting is your friend: the genie only fires back if you're directly in his line of sight. After a few rounds of that he turns into a cloud and chases you across the room, then repeats the first pattern. Nothing really difficult or exciting here.

The last stretch of the level is this cave with moving walls. Naturally you don't want to get squished in between them or get pushed off into the abyss below.

At the very end of the cave is...the asshole ghost. Again. "Let us show you our strength," he says, and then proceeds to...do exactly the same three attacks as he did the first time. The only differences are that he has a little more health, and you have to be a bit more careful when sliding to dodge his attacks - it's possible to slide off the cliff sides and fall. That, and he'll occasionally float offscreen and attack from where you can't see him.

But honestly, this boss isn't much of a problem. In fact, he's one that you can take out with just one of Rocky's bombs if you time it right (and if dumbass me can time it right, anyone can).

After defeating the asshole ghost for good, we get the next part of the story. This next screenshot is just text, but I'm including it anyway because otherwise you may not believe me when I tell you the name of our adversaries. (Besides Black Mantle, I mean.)

Yes, you read that right. The Gorgonzola goblins. The boss monsters we fought the last two levels? The monsters we'll be facing in the upcoming levels? Cheese goblins. I mean, I guess Gorgonzola is vaguely evil-sounding, but it's still cheese. I don't know if this was their name in the original Japanese, but I'd be interested to know.

It's not clear how Pocky and Rocky learned the name of the Gorgonzola goblins, or that they were going to invade Nopino territory soon. I guess the asshole ghost told them after his defeat? But we don't see that happen, so who knows.

But we do see this awesome shot after they run out of the cave, and I wish I could make a gif out of it because a still doesn't really do it justice. The clouds in the background do that parallax scrolling thing, and...well, when I was a kid, it looked pretty damn cool.

By the way, we also don't know how Pocky knows that's the Gorgonzola fortress - I guess it kinda looks like cheese of some kind from a distance? Nor do we know if that creepy-looking airship parked nearby belongs to them, but our heroes assume it does, I guess because it's...creepy looking. They plan to board it and sail to the fortress, where they believe Black Mantle awaits.

Are they right about any of this? Or is it all just random guessing? Find out in part 4!

#pocky and rocky #raku plays her faves #raku plays her faves: pocky and rocky #spoiler alert: yes they're right #but you have to admit #it'd be pretty funny if they boarded a *completely different* evil airship #''gorgonzola? naw man'' #''we're the gruyere goblins'' #''...yeah we get each other's mail all the time'' #''in fact we're about to drop off this package Amazon left on our doorstep'' #''so we're headed there anyway'' #''y'all need a lift?''

[edric-whitemane]

#skyrim dragons #and one of the moons #hell if i can remember which one #fave way to screenshot dragons #so here it is again #different dragon different angle #but essentially the same photo as i've posted before :P

[comfyswitcherblanketfort]

please please a part 2 of that gamer!geralt au, them doing something like Q&A

Nonie, I hope you know what you signed up for. This got out of hand lmao. like 2.4k of Q&A kind of out of hand. 

Warnings: swearing, talk of drinking to excess, kinda spicy questions, lil kisses, idk how but I meant for this to be goofy and horny and it got kinda soft? what’s new?

____________

“Holy shit,” Geralt sat staring at his phone as he mindlessly stirred pasta.

“I swear to god, if you found a way to burn noodles-” Jaskier turned away from the blender to wave a wooden spoon covered in pesto puree.

Geralt shook his head and held his phone up to him, scrolling through the replies to a tweet as he did, going on for ages as Jaskier’s jaw slowly got closer to the floor.

“What are those for?!”

“I put up a poll for a boyfriend Q&A or a game review and not a single person has voted for the game review.” Geralt was still scrolling through questions people wanted answered as he watched Jaskier’s face go from shock to confusion to a smug grin. 

“They love me,” he sang, kicking his heel up as he turned back to the pasta sauce.

Geralt rolled his eyes and started screenshotting some of the less invasive questions, shaking his head and muttering, “Course they do.”

-

Geralt pressed record, waited a moment, and heaved a dramatic, long-suffering sigh, “You guys literally didn’t even give me a choice on this one,” he reached off frame and scruffed Jaskier, plopping him down on the couch with him. 

Jaskier didn’t stay where he was put for even a moment, using his momentum to bounce up onto Geralt’s lap with a shit-eating grin, “Oh? Are we rolling?”

Geralt dropped his forehead to Jaskier’s shoulder, stifling a laugh, “This is gonna be a long one.”

“Yeah, it is,” Jask agreed, then turned to the camera, stroking Geralt’s hair, “My fans want more!”

“OH-kay,” Geralt manhandled Jaskier to sit next to him which earned him a pout and a leg draped over his lap as he continued his intro, “I’ve got a bunch of questions from twitter. I didn’t even have to confirm which video we would do, you guys just went straight for the kill. I picked a few, Jask picked a few, neither of us knows which ones the other picked.” he turned to see Jaskier wiggle his eyebrows at the camera, “Why am I thinking you picked the raunchy ones?”

The brunet pretended to be offended before he smirked, “Only a few.”

Geralt rolled his eyes. “Of course,” he nudged Jask with his shoulder and opened up his phone to his screenshots, “Okay! First up is AdamSandlersBitch, nice name. They asked what Jaskier’s favorite gaming console and game to play is.” he turned to Jaksier with raised eyebrows.

His boyfriend cringed, “My.. my phone? I don’t know? I play a lot of Candy Crush while I listen to podcasts?”

Geralt smiled sweetly, “Wait what about Stardew Valley? I thought you started that?”

“I did!” Jaskier brightened up for a moment before he deflated again, “But I got confused and then the ADHD made me bake cookies.”

“Those were good cookies. I’ll play with you if you want?” Geralt’s normal ‘streamer dude’ persona melted away while he played with the rips on Jaskier’s jeans. 

Jask leaned forward and kissed his temple, “I’d love that.” 

Geralt blushed, even after years, Jaskier’s affection still caught him off guard. 

“Mkay! My turn!” Jaskier flashed his devilish grin and read, in his most obnoxious voice, “Dwn2Clwn said ‘do you two live together? Have you said ‘i love you’? And who tops?’”

Geralt’s mouth twisted into an upside-down U as he stared at Jaskier in muted surprise, “Honestly, not as bad as I expected.”

Jaskier looped his arm around Geralt’s, “I’m starting off easy.”

Geralt let his mock-disapproving gaze linger just a bit before he answered, “The living together is kind of new-like a few months. This one said ‘I love you’ on, what? The fourth date? Fifth?”

“Fourth.”

“No, it was the fifth, Eskel locked himself out on the fourth. Remember?”

“Shit you’re right,” Jaskier gave the camera a stern look, “In my defense, we’d been friends for a good four years before this. I wasn’t just confessing my love to a tinder date - though I have done that before.”

Geralt nodded, “That was very amusing.”

Jaskier tapped his nose, “Don’t avoid the last part, darling.”

Geralt huffed and stared down the camera, and, in the most matter of fact tone possible, said, “We switch. Compromise, folks. Can’t have one person doing all the work all the time.”

Jaskier nodded sagely, patting Geralt's chest, “We got a pow-”

Geralt clamped his hand over Jaskier’s mouth, 100% sure he was going to say ‘power bottom pillow princess’, “Nope. I’ll get demonetized for that.”

“But not who tops?” Jaskier asked through Geralt’s fingers.

He just shrugged, “I don’t make the rules.”

Jaskier tapped his phone and raised his eyebrows, telling him to move to the next question. 

“Mis- Mischanication? Shit I hope I said that right, Mischanication asked, ‘would you ever get a pet together?’ We did! Her name is Roach and she’s a little shit! I told Jaskier not to feed her, but he did, now we have the snuggliest, crankiest cat I’ve ever met!” 

Jaskier had gotten up to pluck Roach from her perch on the windowsill when Geralt had read the question and plopped down with her as Geralt finished his proud speech, “She’s not a little shit! She’s just delicate! Isn’t that right, darling?”

Geralt scratched under her chin and cooed, “You are a nasty little dragon baby, aren't you?! Just a little garbage child! Yes, you are. We love the tiny demon beast.”

“Geralt!”

He snickered and kissed Jaskier’s hair, “Next question, love.”

Jaskier grumbled something about positive reinforcement as Roach scampered back to her cat tree and he unlocked his phone for his next tweet, “This darling wants to remain anonymous,” Geralt gave him some serious side-eye at that, “they said ‘I think I’m in love with the flower twink, where can I find one of my own?’”

Geralt frowned at the camera and pulled Jaskier onto his lap, holding him close and snuggling into his chest, almost growling, “Hands off.”

Jaskier giggled, brushing Geralt’s hair out of his face as he talked to the camera, “You heard the man. Unfortunately, I was not mass-produced and I’ve been spoken for.”

Geralt looked up at him with what could only be called suspicious puppy eyes, “You picked that one just to sit in my lap didn’t you?”

“Yes. And because I want to change my socials to ‘flower twink’.” 

“Do it,” Geralt kept Jaskier on his lap as he swiped to his next question, “Eggsfuckingsuck - heh, my dad hates eggs- Eggsfuckingsuck says, ‘what is the most embarrassing thing you’ve caught each other doing/saying?’ Oh boy, do I have a story for you!”

"Oh I couldn't say the thing but you can tell this story!?" 

"...you have a point... Check my insta stories. I'll put it there after I post this." 

Jaskier nodded, ever so pleased, and turned to the camera, "Our dear Yennefer of sorceryglammour once beat Geralt at trivia night when the theme was 'video games'." 

“We did shots before we went to the bar and she goaded me and Lambert into a chugging competition before the round started. I’m telling you, she planned this. Yen is ruthless.” Geralt desperately tried to justify his defeat but Jaskier was having none of it. 

“She’s mostly harmless, plus I have video evidence from that night. You weren’t that far gone.”

“Pull it up! Let’s settle it.”

Jaskier patted Geralt’s head like one would a toddler, “I’d have to get my old laptop out. Later, darling.”

Geralt had a smug look on his face, “That means he doesn’t have it anymore.”

“Next question!” Jaskier squeaked, not at all changing the subject. 

Geralt shrugged, “If you admit I won that one.”

“It’s not a competition!” Jaskier laughed, looking down at him with that stupidly smitten look on his face.

“Hmmm…” Geralt tilted his chin up defiantly, “if you say so.”

Jaskier kissed him, lingering a little bit more than could be considered chaste, “I do.” 

Geralt looked up at him, batting his eyelashes, “Fine then, next question.”

Jaskier handed him his phone and he read it off leaning his head on Jaskier’s shoulder, “CountryBumpkin42 asked if we play any instruments. I play the recorder very poorly, but Jask plays everything.”

“Not everything, but yes, I could cover a Trans Siberian Orchestra song if I had a pedalboard with enough loop settings.” Jaskier preened. 

“And more,” Geralt added, counting on his fingers as he spoke, “In this house alone he has two pianos, three different types of guitars, a drumset, a violin and fiddle, a flute and piccilo, an oboe, a mandolin, a lute, bongos, saxophone, clarinet, tambourine, trumpet, and xylophone. Did I get them all?”

Jaskier glanced from side to side with a guilty look, “Ah… no, I bought a bass sax that showed up last night.”

“Oh, did Thursday at 3 decide they wanted to switch after all?”

“Yeah! She got the third chair as a freshman on a loaner instrument! I’m very proud!”

Geralt seemed to remember they were recording and turned back to the camera, “J teaches music at the university and does private lessons.” 

“It’s how I can afford such a pretty trophy boyfriend,” Jaskier teased, ruffling Geralt’s hair and earning a little chuckle.

“Mkay, what do you have next?”

Jaskier smoothed Gearalt’s hair back down as he read the next question, “3R4108F6!J asks if we have any cute nicknames for each other.”

Geralt’s eyebrows nearly flew past his hairline, “J has a new one for me almost every day.”

“Its true,” Jaskier nodded, “I am a slut for cute nicknames. This morning was Ger Bear, one of my faves. I called him Thumbs for a bit, I lovingly call him Dumb Fuck rather often.”

“And he is Dip Shit, it’s balanced. I usually just shorten names? Jask or J is usually it, right?” Geralt asked, shifting so Jaskier was sitting on the couch between his legs and they were both turned out toward the camera but very much still cuddling. 

“And when I’m being childish I get Alfie. But Geralt is much more deliberate and specific with his nicknames. It’s a bit of a friendship level up when he uses nicknames.”

Geralt frowned at him, “I do that?”

Jaskier giggled, “You never noticed?”

He tilted his head, giving Jaskier a quizzical look, “Not at all.”

Jaskier cupped Geralt’s cheek, “You’re so cute.”

Geralt blushed again, leaning into the touch just a tad, “Who’s turn is it?”

“Yours,” Jaskier hummed, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead. 

“Okay,” Geralt blushed even more, “I had this one as an alternate, but uh, Yen asked what we’d name our first kid?” 

Jaskier leaned into Geralt’s shoulder and hummed as he thought for a moment, “I always like Blake or Spencer, but I seem to remember you saying something about old world traditional names?”

Geralt nodded, absentmindedly running his fingers up and down Jaskier’s arm, “My grandma was hoping each of us boys would be a girl and wanted mum to name us Cirilla every time. I quite like it, but I’m rather open as long as I don’t know someone with the name. I really like Eric?” 

“Oo, I like Eric.”

“But you like the neutral names.”

“I do, but it’s your hypothetical kiddo too.”

Geralt gave him a little squeeze, “There’s time for that later. What’s your next one?”

Jaskier snorted when he looked at his phone, “What are your guys’ love languages?”

Geralt just looked down at Jask, completely entangled in his arms, then up to the camera, “I’m gonna hazard a guess at physical touch.” 

“Yeah, I think that’s a safe bet,” Jaskier giggled, “I haven’t taken the quiz in years, but I was that and gifts.”

“Oh, yeah. Physical touch and words of affirmation. I got like a 0 on acts of service and gifts, but I really like giving gifts.” 

“Mhm, yes you do,” Jaksier wiggled his eyebrows, then turned to the camera, “I also had no idea you could have different giving and receiving languages till I met this one.”

Geralt nodded then turned to him with a slight frown, “you know I really thought your questions were going to be more graphic.”

“Oh, honey I saved the best for last,” Jaskier winked. 

“Fuck me,” Geralt grumbled before reading off his last question, “Cali852 asked what we did for Pride.”

Jaskier’s eyes lit up, “Oh Pride was fun. We watched the parade, of course, then Yen did our makeup and… and where did we go after that?”

Geralt looked like he’d been waiting for this, “We went to a club, where you ordered three kamakazis, knocked them all back, danced for twenty minutes, then I took you home.”

“N-no… we went to the beach, didn’t we?”

“That was the year before. We were going to go to the drag show at our regular bar too, but someone had just finished grading finals and went a little too hard.” 

Jaskier grinned, “Speaking of finals, time for the last question. I had a different one in mind but if the thing I cant say from earlier would get this demonetized then that defintitelyi would. So we’re going with ‘what is the wackest placy y’all banged?’”

Geralt snorted, “Shit who knows anymore?”

“Well there was the boat?”

“Or the train?”

“Nah, too standard. What about the cabin?”

“Heh, no I think your o-”

“I don’t have tenure darling,” It was Jaskier’s turn to slap his hands over Geralt’s mouth, “The answer is a dilapidated structure my parents still try to call a cabin out in the foothills.”

Geralt laughed and pulled his hand away, “Okay, that can be the answer.”

“Is that it? Now we just say bye?” Jaskier looked between Geralt and the camera.

Geralt shrugged, “Yeah. You wanna say the thing?”

Jaskier wiggled with a little pride and excitement, “Don’t forget to like and subscribe! Bye Fuckers!”

They both waved for a couple seconds before Geralt got up and turned the camera off. He popped out the memory card and was going to immediately start loading it onto his computer but Jask hooked his finger through a belt loop as he walked past and tugged him back down. 

“I’m tired. Snuggle with me.” 

Geralt hummed, “We just snuggled that whole time.”

Jaskier heaved a dramatic sigh, “I know and this is exhausting. I don’t know how you talk to a camera all day.”

Geralt stretched to set the chip on top of his laptop before collapsing back on top of Jaskier who had stretched the length of the couch, “Are you making fun of me?” he teased. 

Jaskier cupped his face between his hands and pulled him up for a deep kiss, “Oh never.” 

#geraskier #gamer geralt #streamer geralt #teacher jaskeir #noob jaskeir #geraskier boyfriends #geraskier fluff #soft geraskier #the witcher #the witcher fic #geraskier fic #geraskier modern au #the witcher modern au #look this is so self indulgent i hope yall still like it #lmao

[cloudsrust]

YOU LIEGE !! What are you favs pokemons / dream team ?? Also your Ingo is so UGGGGH BEAUTIFUL !! Like the way you draw noses/mouths, of COURSE it was going to fit him I stimmed so hard when I saw you did art of the them

yOUUU- you have no idea what you have unleashed.. but first! Better answer to the second part first- Aaaaa- thank yOUU!! But I gotta play a "No u" card because the way you draw the twins is just so adorable and I just.. they just- I wanna hold them gently like scrunglies (affectionate),, Now! For the first part :D ...*pulls out their list of dream teams for all generations from 2 to 8 and clears throat*

Gen2 Cyndaquil (I love its final evo but that cute lil' face- m a n.), Mareep (sheep <3), Natu (it just a lil' guy with 'em big eyes, love it for 'em), Smeargle (Painter goat painter goat painter g-), Sneasel (..yeah,,), Glingar (adorable creacher that attaches to your face <3) Gen3 Banette (they got that creepy/cute look to 'em- perfection), Dusknoir (..PMD's fault), Absol (childhood fave that stayed sob), Trapinch (it reminds me of Conductor so it's a must lmao), Sableye (lil' gremlin,,), Mawile (I love how its based off the Two-Mouthed Woman yokai-) Gen4 Luxray (ultimate childhood fave who stayed), Honchcrow (Big bird with fancy hat, hell yeah), Shiny!Roserade (a childhood dream I could only get in PLA </3), Toxicroak (frug), Magmortar (I... I have no idea why I like 'em. They just neat), Empoleon (the design is just cool as heck) Gen5 Garbodoor (trash beloved <3), Volcarona (reminds me of butterfly silkworms ;w;), Reuniclus or Gothitelle (why must you divide my faves like this GameFreak??), Scolipede (yet another cool bug I'd show around), Chandelure (it's just an absolute yes, I love that gothic chandelier), Scrafty (the way it has to keep up its "skin-pants" is just adorable idk,,) Gen6 Delphox (gives me wood sorceress vibes and I live for it), Aegislash (eh oh cool ghost sword go brr), Shiny!Sylveon (them colors just speak for themselves <3), Goodra (goopy dragon- y e a), Noivern (bat dragon?? Sign me up), Pumpkaboo (just a wittle pumpkin- that'se it) Gen7 Decidueye (can't say no to a cloak+hood combo-), Lurantis (mantids appreciator) , Salandit (that face says it all), Mimikyu (I even got a plushie of 'em so of course it's here <3), Alolan!Muk (eh oh multicolored slime), Pyukumuku (it's friend shaped) Gen8 Inteleon (Honestly I'd put its entire evo line, I love all of its awkward phases), Shiny!Obstagoon (yeah. Just yeah.) , Runegrigus (its like a funky rock I'd bring home. That happens to be possessed), Mr.Rime (just a polite looking funky dude), Dracozolt (it looks so happy yet so awkward! 11/10), Appletun (even more friend shaped). Extra!

Complete dream team for PLA ;;w;; (The Zoroark ended up being named Crimson- forgor to screenshot that.)

#the cloud can speak oh boi #I'm sorry for how long it took AND how long it is but- #Aaaa answering this made me so happy!! #I had an excuse to go through the various generation's pokèdex to refresh my memory and oughhhh free serotin all around;; #aa- I'm happy bouncing ;w;

[symphonicspecter]

Which mythical creatures/cryptids are your favorite(s)? Feel free to expand upon your answer of you want!

Me thinking about monsters: fuck yeah fuck yeah fuck yeah

Okay so in no particular order

Mothman my beloved. Theres a few of you following me that know one of the reasons he’s a fave but I’m not disclosing that publically. I think as a cryptid he’s very neat because there is an event associated with his sightings!

And while Mothman is most famous for showing up around Point Pleasant before the Silver Bridge collapse, there have been sightings of a similar creature by different names in Mexico and southern US before a swine flu outbreak, and I don’t remember the location but somewhere else before an earthquake. Would be neat if they’re related, like this creature that tries to warn people of disaster. Although of course from the skeptical side it’s probably been misidentifed birds and coincidences. But it’s fun to think about!

Also the typical design of this vaguely bug-bird-human blob that’s pitch black with big eyes is really cute. It’s also just fun to see all the different ways people draw him. And he’s a little bit of a meme which is fun. Fun fact the first time I read about Mothman was in 4th grade and the book had a creepy drawing of him staring through someone’s window, so some nights I was afraid that if I opened the curtains I’d see him staring at me. .

I like the Jersey Devil too, theres a lot of cool designs of him. Like yesss gross demon horse man lets gooo. I also think it’s really interesting how some of the “sightings” are not actually of the creature but of hoofprints and disembodied voices. Somewhere in New Jersey a beast is tap dancing on roofs at night and I think that’s great. .

Fresno Nightcrawlers! They’re fucking pants. They’re just so funny to me. Just these weird little baggy pants lookin guys walking around in people’s yards at night. .

The Chupacabra is another fave of mine and has been for a while. I personally like doglike interpretations better than the alien ones. Spiky vampire dog is such a neat idea. Horrible for your livestock though. Maybe if Chupacabra is real we could tame it 🤔

.

For non-cryptid creatures:

Dragons!! In case it’s not obvious when I have a dragonsona. I’ve loved dragons since I was little. I ALWAYS was the “why do they have to slay the dragon why can’t they befriend the dragon” kid. I had lots of books of dragons as a kid, from story collections to novels to drawing guides to history and famous dragons collections. And I would read them again and again.

Im not quite sure what drew me to dragons versus other mythical creatures at first. Except that they’re very cool and there’s lots if different kinds. Dragons are really cool because they show up in myths all over the world! So there’s lots of stories and lore.

I love how dragons are so popular and varied that there’s lots of designs for them too, and they still continue to be popular creatures, even a fairly common sona!

I think another thing I’ve liked about dragons over the years is the experience of drawing them. Because there’s not just one dragon design, I used to draw dragons a lot to practice different types of animal bodies and colors. And I didn’t feel as pressured for accuracy as I did drawing animals and people.

.

Slenderman. One of the most modern monsters in terms of creation time. I think it’s VERY cool that he’s borne from the Internet, so the spread of his popularity and trends in the myth are recorded. Like, this is a myth that you can find the origin of and view it yourself (I don’t know if the site is still up actually, but I’ve seen screenshots so I know there’s at least that). I really think Slenderman was done dirty by popular media. He deserves a better movie and to be known for more than just bad incidents. I love the wide range of takes though. I know I keep saying that but I really do think it’s neat how people interpret creatures differently. Slenderman is cool in that some people make him scary, others make him funny, or sympathetic. And while typically he’s made scary, or at least spooky, there’s different ways he’s scary. Some people like him as a violent killer, others like him as a psychological predator. It’s really neat that no two Slendermen scare the same way.

Also he’s just a neat looking monster. 10/10 would get a gangly hug

.

Cerberus/hellhounds. They’re scary looking but they’re just puppies! Good boys and good girls! Houndoom is one of my favorite pokemon too (it’s inspired by hellhounds)

.

On one hand, manticores are not one of the first creatures that come to mind, BUT whenever I see one I always think oh !!! How cool!!! They have a very cool design! While it’s never said explicitly in The Divine Comedy that Geryon is a manticore, his design is clearly based on one. I love that “the beast of fraud” has “the face of an honest man” but when you look beyond that it’s a monstrous body, it’s a symbol of deception! .

W*nd*gos are incredibly controversial bc of their origin and the usual design for them is inaccurate, but I’m using that as a reference point here. The actual myth of these creatures I’m not as much a fan of. However, the “big black furry beast with a skull head” is one of my fave designs. I’ve seen some proposals for calling this design pucca after the black shapeshifting creature instead! Tbh I think we need a new name entirely since this type of monster seems detached from other myths. It’s just a very neat design that I wish we could call something else!

.

Okay ummm that’s it with naming I think. But I like all sorts of weird creatures! I like animalistic looking ones more than humanoid or abstract. Ive probably said it many times before but I love monsters that are actually sweet or friendly.

#anon I’m sorry but #I ended up going off #if I had to pick to three I’d say dragons Mothman and slenderman #god typos #no editing or proofreading we die like sidewalk worms #ouija board #long post #I’m. Pretty sure I know who sent this. I have a second guess also.

[skinks]

hi!!! what are your favourite movies? like actually good ones but also any trashy comfort movies? is IT (2017) one of them?

Hello!! IT (2017) IS ABSOLUTELY ONE OF THEM oh man, thank you for this, I love talking about movies!!!! This is possibly the most difficult question you could have asked me. Apologies for how absolutely off the rails this got, I just... love movies so much lmao

I’ve said this before, but opening night of IT ch1 was the best cinema experience I’ve ever had, I’m so glad I got to see it with a fully packed audience who were all laughing and screaming together the whole way through. I’m a huge fan of... everything ch1 was doing, the 80s nostalgia, the summer-coming-of-age themes, the solid ghost train funhouse JOY of the Pennywise performance and scares, the washed-out cinematography, the tiny background details to make everything that much more eerie, the kids’ ACTING?!

Like, a lot of the time I find child actors can be really awkward and stilted to watch, but I remember leaving the cinema really impressed by JDG and Sophia Lillis in particular. I liked that they were all allowed to be little shitheads with potty mouths, it felt like a callback to 80s movies like The Lost Boys or Stand By Me. The whole thing worked to make me really care about what happened to the kids (even if I do still have issues with how they handled Mike. I understand even ch1 had limitations with juggling so many characters, but still). I saw it another 2 times in the cinema and have rewatched it at least, I dunno, 7-10 more times since then?

Add to all of that the retroactive CANON R+E baby pining subplot? I just love it, as if that wasn’t obvious by now given my Whole Blog. It’s a really special movie to me!

Anyway!! Ok, the main handful of movies I rewatch all the fucking time are:

Back to the Future, The Lost Boys, Pride and Prejudice (2005), Jaws, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Breakfast Club, Ocean’s 11, POTC 1, The Dark Knight, Inception, Die Hard, LOTR trilogy, Snatch, The Nice Guys, Logan Lucky, Mad Max Fury Road, Clueless, 10 Things I Hate About You, Billy Elliot, Dirty Dancing, Tomb Raider (2018)...

Those are the easily consumable ones that I’ve seen so many times I don’t really have to concentrate or think about them, but I really love them and unfortunately often KEEP rewatching them instead of new stuff. It would take too long to go into why I love all these movies so much because I could write the same amount as I already did for ITCH1, and everyone already knows why those movies are good, so, lol.

I think I’m gonna have to subdivide and categorise this whole post because there are too many separate criteria for... goOD MOVIES, AUUHH 😩

Okay so first off, HORROR MOVIES? I’m especially in love with Re-Animator (1985) and its sequel Bride of Re-Animator, they’re such good examples of camp and batshit 80s practical effects, and also EXTREMELY funny. I’m actually just gonna post my list of my fave horror movies that I do actually keep on my phone at all times lmao. These are in no particular order:

Wholeheartedly recommend every one of these. I’ve never been so scared in my life as I was watching Hereditary in the cinema, hoo boy. Mother! by Aronofsky is one of the strangest experiences I’ve ever had (and I actually saw it on the same day I saw IT ch1 for the first time!! That was a fun day)

Psycho (1960) and The Fly from 1986 should also be on there but I couldn’t fit them in the screenshot.

I’m a HUGE fan of a ton of martial arts movies too, like Kung Fu Hustle, Shaolin Soccer, Ip Man, The Raid movies, John Wick 3 is my fave of the trilogy, Drive from 1997 with Mark Dacascos is incredible, SPL 2, Ong-Bak, Operation Condor, Project A, Iron Monkey, and Zatoichi (2003) are some favourites.

My favourite Tarantino is Reservoir Dogs, fave Coen brothers are Raising Arizona, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and O Brother Where Art Thou. Love some old-timey colour correction and weird offbeat dialogue. I also love Goodfellas!!! And Donnie Brasco! And The Firm, I’m so easy for any good crime/law/gangster/heist procedural like that, especially if they’re from the 80s or 90s in a super dated way.

Fave Disney movie is Tarzan, favourite Ghibli movies are Spirited Away and Lupin III. I remember watching Spirited Away during a thunderstorm one time and it being.... god! Transcendent! Favourite Pixar movie is The Incredibles (the first one. ALSO the documentary “The Pixar Story” is great and well worth a watch, it’s very comforting for some reason) and my favourite Dreamworks movies are HTTYD1 and Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron.

I tend to watch more anime movies than tv shows, so stuff like Akira, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Journey to Agartha, and my ultimate fave anime is Sword of the Stranger (2008). The climactic fight in that movie is fucking stunning and should be counted in “bests fights” lists right alongside anything live action

Also if we’re talking animated movies another hearty favourite is Rango, and a Belgian stop-motion (which at one time I considered my favourite movie ever) called Panique Au Village (2009) which is one of the funniest movies ever made imo.

As for TRASHY movies, I’m not sure if that’s the right word for how I feel about these ones but.. dumb/silly/slightly guilty pleasure movies? Ones that I feel need some kind of justification lmfao

Troy - something u must know about me is that I’m a giant slut for the Assassin’s Creed franchise, so if a movie smashes historical and mythological nonsense together with fun costumes and sword fights, I’m gonna enjoy myself. Even if they should have made Achilles and Patroclus gay. Other movies in this vein are King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, and Immortals (2011)

Gods of Egypt - I know all the reasons this movie is whitewashed bullshit. But it was already bullshit with giant Anubis mecha and giant snakes and bad acting and ridiculous CGI and frankly I had a blast at the cinema (my friend who I forced to come with me did not have a blast. Sorry H***)

Avatar - yes, the one with the big blue people. This movie gets a lot of flack nowadays but I really do enjoy it just for the spectacle. The full CGI world technology was so new at the time and I love to wallow in the visuals and daydream about riding a cool dragon around in the jungle

George of the Jungle - I’ll defend this movie to the death ok this movie shaped me as a person, it is fucking hilarious and Brendan Fraser is the himbo to end all himbos. It’s perfect. The song Dela is perfect. I still want to write a reddie AU about it. It’s one of the best movies ever made and I’m not being ironic

Set It Up - I KNOW this is a dumb Netflix original romcom but consider this; it was funny and the leads had great chemistry. I got butterflies. I once watched it and then literally immediately set it back to the start so I could watch it again

The Brady Bunch Movie - when people talk about great satires or parodies you will see them bring up the same movies over and over again, Blazing Saddles, This Is Spinal Tap etc, but they never talk about The Brady Bunch Movie from 1995 for some reason, which they should. It is one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen and every time i watch it somehow it gets funnier

Some more general favourites that I do still love but don’t rewatch as often, and don’t wanna go into more detail about are:

Moon (2009), Crna Mačka Beli Mačor, The Sixth Sense, Parasite, The Handmaiden, Tremors, Wet Hot American Summer, Tucker and Dale vs Evil, What We Do In The Shadows, Hunt For the Wilderpeople, The Secret of My Success (I love kitschy 80s movies, is that obvious by now), The Green Mile, When Harry Met Sally, Rear Window, The Odd Couple, Breaking Away, Pan’s Labyrinth, To Kill A Mockingbird, The Eagle, Gladiator, The Artist, The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec, Call Me By Your Name, Master and Commander, Pacific Rim, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Legend (1985), Emma. (2020), Flash Gordon, Trolljegeren, Hross í Oss, Beverly Hills Cop, Coming to America, WarGames, District 9, Ajeossi (2010), Tracks (2013), Sightseers, Mud (2012), Pitch Black, Four Lions, Shaun of the Dead, Starship Troopers, The Truman Show, Withnail & I....... Jesus Christ ok I need to stop

NOTABLE EXTREME FAVOURITES that I didn’t include in the regular rewatch list because they’re too heavy/not as well known/require more attention.:

Thin Red Line (1998), Badlands (1973) both dir. Terrence Malick

Malick’s brand of dreamy impressionistic filmmaking is something I find really appealing, both of these movies are gorgeous and unusual and poignant and, in the case of Thin Red Line at least, have a lot of things to say about a lot of rough subjects. I don’t totally understand all those things sometimes, but a theme with a lot of my favourite movies is that I’ll be more likely to love something long-term if it raises unanswered questions, or is surreal/esoteric etc. Plus the cinematography is incredible, and I wish there was a way to get Jim Caviezel’s narration from The Thin Red Line as an audiobook because it’s very poetic and soothing.

Let the Bullets Fly (2010) dir. Jiang Wen

This movie is WILD, it’s so much fun. It’s sprawling and intricate and epic and smart and really fucking funny, it! Has! Everything! A gang of very tolerant outlaws!! Jiang Wen’s beautiful broad chest!!! Chow Yun Fat absolutely DECIMATING the scenery, and the two of them outsmarting each other in order to gain control of a small Chinese town!!! Plus it’s long, but it packs so much nonsense and intrigue that it goes by really fast. Wow what a flick

A Field in England (2013) dir. Ben Wheatley

I know I included this in my horror list but aaaaahhh ahhhh Wheatley is one of my favourite directors (he also made Sightseers, and is directing the Tomb Raider sequel which makes me absolutely rabid.) This is a surreal black-and-white psychological horror black comedy set in the English Civil War about some deserters who may or may not meet the Devil in a field. People eat mushrooms. It’s bonkers. I love being blasted in the face with imagery that I don’t understand

Mandy (2018) dir. Panos Cosmatos

Speaking of being blasted in the face!!!!! This movie... I saw it in the cinema and I can’t even begin to explain the experience, but I’ll try. My favourite review site described it like this:

“...somewhere between a prog album cover come to life and a metal album cover come to life, and subscribes to both genre's artistic tendency towards maximalism: what it ends up being is basically naught else but two glorious hours of being pounded by bold colors...”

So, prog and metal are my two favourite genres of music. This movie opens with the quote “When I die, bury me deep, lay two speakers at my feet, put some headphones on my head and rock and roll me when I'm dead.” and then a King Crimson song, it is SURREAL to the nth degree, it’s violent and bizarre and Nic Cage forges a giant silver axe to destroy demonic bikers and there is a CHAINSAW DUEL. A galaxy swirls above a quarry. Multiple animated horror nightmare sequences. At one point a man says “you exude a cosmic darkness” and releases a live tiger. At another point Cage says, in a digitally deepened voice, “The psychotic drowns where the mystic swims. You’re drowning. I’m swimming.” and I haven’t stopped thinking about it for two years

Paper Moon (1973) dir. Peter Bogdanovich

Really fantastic movie set in the Great Depression (and also in black & white) about a conman and a little kid who may or may not be his daughter, running cons across the Midwest. It’s beautifully shot, so sharp and sweet and the progression of their dynamic is really well done because they’re played by an IRL father and daughter. Tatum O’Neal was NINE YEARS OLD and she’s so amazing in this movie she’s actually the youngest person to win a competitive category Oscar. I keep trying to get people to watch this fbdjfjdbf it’s wonderful

Alpha (2018) dir. Albert Hughes

THIS MOVIE IS A VICTIM OF BAD MARKETING ok, the trailers made it look like some twee crappy sentimental Boy And His Dog Adventure, plus it had voiceovers in American-accented english? That’s a total disservice to one of the coolest things about this film; the fact that they got a linguist to construct an entirely original Neolithic language that all the characters speak for the entire runtime. And yes, it is eventually a Boy And His Wolf adventure, but it’s COOL and fairly brutal, and it has some really incredible cinematography. The landscapes are so strange and barren and alien, you really get the sense that this is an ancient world we no longer have any connection to. And it’s also about like, the birth of dog & human companionship sooo it’s perfect.

Free Solo (2018) dir. Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin

The Free Climbing Documentary. I loved climbing as a kid, I love outdoor sports, and I love movies that elicit a physical reaction in me, whether that’s horny, scared, real laughter, overwhelming shivers, or in the case of Free Solo - HORRIBLE SWEATING TENSION. Like, I knew about Alex Honnold beforehand because of this adventure film festival I go to every year and I followed him on IG so obviously I knew he lived, but the actual climb itself was torture. My hands sweat every time I see it!! It’s incredible, such a cool look into generally what the human body can do, and more specifically, why Honnold’s psychology and life means he’s so well suited to free soloing. It’s such an exercise in getting to know an individual and get invested in them, before they attempt something very potentially fatal.

Brokeback Mountain (2005) dir. Ang Lee

I can’t even talk about this. When I was around 13 I snuck downstairs to watch this on TV at 11pm in secret, and my life was forever changed. I wouldn’t be who I am if I hadn’t seen Brokeback at the age I did. I seriously can’t talk about this or I’ll write an even longer essay than this already is

God’s Own Country (2017) dir. Francis Lee

The antidote to Brokeback Mountain, I’m so glad I managed to see this one in the cinema too. It makes me cry every time, as someone who’s spent years working on a cold British farm with sheep it was very realistic, which is expected since Lee grew up on a farm in Yorkshire. I love that this movie isn’t really about being closeted, but about being so emotionally repressed and self-loathing that the main character finds it so hard to accept love. Or that he deserves to be loved. The cinnamontographies.... lordt... but also the intimacy and sex scenes are fucking searing wow who hasn’t seen this movie by now. 10 stars. 20 stars!!!

Tomboy (2011) dir. Céline Sciamma

I saw this years ago but I’ve never forgotten it, it cut so deep. It’s from the director of Portrait of a Lady on Fire and it’s about a gnc kid struggling with gender and misogyny and homophobia in a really raw, scrappy way, it reminded me very much of my own... childhood... ahh the central performance is amazing for such a young age. I haven’t seen Portrait yet but I feel like if you went nuts for that, you should definitely check this out, it’s lovely.

Donnie Darko (2001) dir. Richard Kelly

EVERY TIME I WATCH THIS MOVIE I UNDERSTAND LESS AND LESS and that’s what I love so much about it. I love surreal movies, I love time-fuckery and stuff about altered perception etc etc and Donnie Darko scratches all my itches. I wish I could find a way to figure out an IT AU for it, because I know it would work! Somehow! Plus it’s got the subdued 80s nostalgia and I found it at an age when I was really starting to explore movies and music and the soundtrack FUCKS.

Offside (2006) dir. Jafar Panahi

I wish more people knew about this!!! It’s an Iranian film about a disparate group of women and girls who are football fans and want to watch Iran’s qualifying match for the World Cup, but women aren’t allowed into the stadium, so they all get thrown into the Stadium Jail together? They don’t know each other beforehand, but it’s about their changing relationships with each other and the guards and just, their defiance alongside hearing the match from the outside and WOW it’s so lively. Great dialogue and very funny, and such a different kind of story from anything you usually see from Hollywood.

The Fall (2006) dir. Tarsem Singh

This movie... I guess it’s the ideal. This is the platonic ideal of a film for me, it has fantasy, magical realism, glorious visuals, amazing score and costumes and production design and a really interesting, heartbreaking relationship at the core of it. I don’t know why so many of my favourite films feature incredibly raw performances by child actors but this is another one, Catinca Untaru barely knew any English and improvised so much because of that, and it’s fascinating to watch! Also the dynamic with Lee Pace is one of my favourites, where a kid forms a friendship with a guardian figure who isn’t their parent, but the guardian grows to really care for them by the end. It’s like Paper Moon in that sense. What is there to even say about this movie, it’s pure magic joy tempered and countered by genuine gutwrenching emotional conflict in the real world, it’s also ABOUT old moviemaking, in a way, and it’s stunning to look at!

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) dir. George Miller

I know I included this in my “most rewatched” section but it deserves its own thing. We all know why this movie is fucking incredible. I remember clutching my armrests in the cinema and feeling like my skeleton was being blasted back into the seat behind me and tbh that is the high I’m constantly chasing when I go to see any movie. What a fucking gift this film is

Théo et Hugo dans le Même Bateau (2016) dir. Olivier Ducastel, Jacques Martineau

I only found this movie last year and it became an instant favourite. Initially I was just curious because I’d never seen a movie with unsimulated sex before, but it’s so much more than the 18 minute gay sex club orgy it opens with. No, not more than, AS WELL AS. The orgy is important because this movie is so candid and frank about sex and HIV treatment in the modern day, it was eye-opening. Another thing that really got me is that I’d never seen a real-time film before. It’s literally an hour and a half in the lives of these two men, their intense connection and conversation and conflict in the middle of the night in Paris, with some really nice night photography and just!!! Wow!!! AMAZING CHEMISTRY between the actors. This is such a gem if you’re comfortable with explicit sexual content.

Ok. This is already over 3k but film is obviously one of my ridiculous passions and I can and do talk about it for hours. I’ve been reading magazines about it for years, listening to podcasts and reading review blogs and recently, watching video essays on YouTube because the whole process is so interesting to me and I want to learn more!!

Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of valuing form over narrative. The idea that story can often come second to the deeper physical experience and emotional reaction that’s created by using ALL the elements of filmmaking and not just The Story, y’know? Whether that’s editing, shot composition, colour, the sound mix, the actors, how it should all be used to heighten the emotional state the script wants you to feel. And so, I think for a few years now this approach has been influencing the types of films I really, really love.

I think I love surreality and mind-bending magical realism in films specifically because the filmmakers have to use all those different tools to convey things that can be way too metaphysical for just... a script? I’m always chasing that physical response; if a movie can make me stop thinking “I wonder what it was like to set up that shot” and instead overwhelm that suspension of disbelief, if I can be terrified or woozy or crying for whatever reason, that’s what I’m looking for. That’s why I watch so many fuckin movies, and why I’ll always remember nights like seeing IT (2017) for giving me another favourite.

Thank you again for this question, I didn’t mean to go so overboard. Also there’s no way to do a readmore on tumblr mobile so apologies to anyone’s dashboard 😬

#long post #films #this is like bill hader being asked to pick his fave comedies and he gives a 4 page list #he has such good taste though ahhahbfhfhfhh lemme talk with him nonstop about movies while i ride him. thank you

[greygayghost]

CHARITY COMMISSIONS ARE OPEN!

Hello everyone! Hope you’re all staying safe. I’ve ascended from my desk job as an entry level demon to tell you all that I am opening fic commissions for a cause. That is correct! I’ve been hesitant to do something like this in the past, but I think it’d be a great challenge for me and I want to use my skills for activism in any way I can. 

More info under the cut! 

How Do These Comms Work? 

It’s easy as pie! Basically, all you need to do is send me a screenshot of a receipt showing that you donated five dollars or more to one (or more!) of the organizations I’ve selected below: 

The Okra Project 

The Marsha P. Johnson Institute 

ACLU 

The Bail Project 

You can send me your receipts via my political/business email: [email protected] . Along with the receipt, you can give me details on what you want me to write! I want to stay in touch with patrons as much as possible during the writing process. 

On Fic Requests

Like most creators, I have limits as to what I can create. Here is a basic list on what I’m willing/not willing to write: 

WILL Write: 

Romance/Ship Content (SFW and NSFW) 

Want me to write your ace/aro queer platonic fave ship? I gotcha 

Fantasy/Sci Fi 

Alternate Universes! Hit me with em! 

Angst

Hurt/Comfort 

General 

Want me to write your faves in quarantine? I gotchu

Short episodes within canon where they probably could’ve happened? yes 

WON’T Write: 

Anything involving the current situation. No protest AUs, PERIODT. I think it’s incredibly disrespectful. 

Cop AUs, because you know why 

Extreme Gore/Hardcore violence 

Furries (And as much as I like Legoshi and Louis, I’m including Beastars) 

Explicit descriptions of abuse 

R*pe/non-con

Suicide, even for angst purposes 

Incest, pedophilic ships. Use common sense people. 

x Reader or OC fics 

Case By Case: 

Light Fantasy/Sci Fi Violence

Horror 

Death/Grieving 

Fandoms I am Willing to Work In: 

Houseki no Kuni/Land of the Lustrous 

Boku no Hero Academia/My Hero Academia 

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power 

Avatar: The Last Airbender (Never seen Korra tho, bear that in mind) 

The Dragon Prince 

Steven Universe 

Adventure Time 

Miraculous Ladybug 

Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts 

Infinity Train

Concepts that Especially Interest Me Right Now: 

Zukka (Zuko x Sokka (ATLA)) 

Cairnphos (Cairngorm x Phos (HnK)) 

Cinnabortz (Bortz x Cinnabar (HnK))

General fics with the Kipo and the Age of the Wonderbeasts characters

Todoroki Shouto, as a character (if searching for ships tho, tododeku, todobaku, and todobakudeku are my jams) 

Human/Modern AUs 

Coffee shop or tattoo parlor AUs, also college AUs 

if one of you fuckers makes me write a straight ship without a good fucking reason i’m

On Selected Charities

Below are some links with information about the organizations I selected for these commissions. 

https://www.theokraproject.com/

https://marshap.org/about-mpji/

https://www.aclu.org/faqs#1_1

https://bailproject.org/mission/

#commissions #fanfiction #blacklivesmatter #charity commissions #greygayghost #housekinokuni #avatar the last airbender #kipo and the age of wonderbeasts #infinity train #she ra and the princesses of power #spop #atla #boku no hero academia

[0ffgun]

The whole point of valentines day is to yell about how much you love someone (at least that’s how I see it) so that’s exactly what I intend to do! I haven’t had this blog for very long but already I’ve met so many incredible people who have all made this place a home for me! I spend a lot of (too much) time on the internet so honestly?? You guys are basically a huge chunk of my life and this is just my way of saying thank you. So here goes -- beware! Lots of messily written and emotional love notes under the cut!

In alphabetical order:

@1akorn​: TOP QUALITY TOP QUALITY EVERYWHERE!! Your blog is one of my all-time favourites and I love the fact that we watch a lot of the same shows! Your gifs are amazing and I also love reading through your text posts or your replies on your blog to see your opinions on things. I know we’ve never talked much but I basically just wanted to say I think you’re super cool sghdjs

@akingyouniverse​: Hi hi hi! Okay so we’ve never talked but I think you’re fun and I love reading the tags on your posts (I also love seeing Trinity posts on your blog bc there isn’t much content of them around and it makes me so happy!!!!) Anyway yes hi I LOVE YOU hope you have a great day *throws roses through all your windows*

@bldramagalore​: Cindy!! Wow can’t believe that if we both weren’t so damn gay we’d already be married by now! Seriously thank you though, we talk most days and you’re always there when I want to talk to you (usually it’s just to scream about Mark or uwma but still!) Ngl I can’t really remember how we first became friends because it just feels like I’ve known you FOREVER and that’s so comfy and wholesome. My favourite part of my week is when we yell about shows together - even better when we watch them together ofc! - and I just KNOW that we’ll be friends for the longest time so knowing I’ll get to do that a lot in the future too makes me so happy. YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW MUCH I APPRECIATE YOU!!!! I’m so in love with you and your gorgeous face and beautiful hair and your stellar makeup skills *KISS KISS*

@blueskycafe​: Hey there!! Sorry if this is super random but you’re a blog that I see in my notes and on my dashboard a lot, and it’s always so nice when I do! Your blog is definitely one of my favourites I adore you fdjgdf I hope you have the best valentines day!

@chaeunwoo​: Your gifs are so pretty 😭😭😭 I love the content you post and seeing you enjoying the shows that you’re watching! We’ve never talked but damn maybe we should - I should send you a random friendly message sometime (if you don’t mind of course dhsjghs) but yes happy valentines day, I hope you have a good one!

@chaoticallytate​: HELLO!!! You randomly message me sometimes and it always puts a smile on my face when your little notification pops up. I don’t know you all that well but I already feel super protective over you (I’m adopting you as my little brother OKAY) and idk you just seem really down to earth and it’s so pleasant. I hope you have the absolute loveliest valentines day!

@doctorbeam​: Hello hello hello you’re lovely just LOVELY omg did I tell you that you’re lovely?? We’ve only talked a little (I’m still so happy about the time you sent me those Mark pics!!) You’re ridiculously cute and I really can’t wait to watch Ossan’s Love so that I can tell you what I think about it! Have the best valentines day you amazing person!

@dollopheadsandclotpoles​: Yeah okay maybe following you has made me get one step closer to drowning in the Merlin fandom as each day goes by I CAN’T DENY IT I’ve barely ever watched the show and yet I somehow already love it just because you do hdkjgd. Also your love for Jaylerr?? That’s my fave! You’re just a really cool person and I just... ugh I super duper appreciate you 💖 Also?? Hope this doesn’t sound weird but you post a bunch of stuff about being aro/ace and seriously I never really knew much on the subject so it’s really nice to see stuff on your blog and get a little more educated every time. Please always keep throwing Merlin onto my dashboard, it feels weird now when you’re not online and there’s no Merlin dhgdskjg 

@earthpodd​: Hey Vic!! I know you’ve probably been crazy busy these days and haven’t been online much, but I really hope you’re doing well! It’s always nice to see you when you’re around and your opinions on stuff are always interesting to see 👀 happy valentines day to my favourite tumblr crush, hope you have a great day!

@gmmtvmother​: jfghjgdhfd no idea what to say because you messaged me today and I near enough burst into flames with joy but hi! I think your blog is one of the first few that I followed, and I’m still shook by the quality. Your content is GREAT and I love it when you make funny posts like your incorrect quotes gifsets, they’re the best! We watch a lot of similar shows so it’s always nice when I get a notification that you’ve posted something and I know in advance that I’m going to absolutely LOVE it!

@idontevenwatchbl​: Hey Millie!! I love seeing you post stuff as you’re watching shows, it’s always so fun and entertaining to see hdsjghjks I’m always excited when you start watching a new show because I know I have those screenshots and funny comments to look forward to! I hope you’re having the very BEST day and I can’t wait to see what you’ll watch next!

@iplann​: sdjghjs hi hello hi!!! First of all thank you so much for always blessing my dashboard with that quality content of Plan - I love him but I can’t always keep up with his activities so heck you’re brilliant for helping me know what’s going on! And second of all I love your blog and your content, it’s fun seeing what videogames you’re into, especially when it’s ones I like too (I’m a TOTAL sucker for Dragon Age ngl.) SO yeah I just wanted to say have a nice day and always stay amazing!

@inkorns​: Oh daaaaamn if it isn’t the creator of the prettiest gifs I HAVE EVER SEEN. You’re super talented at editing okay (don’t even t r y and deny it Ada pls) and I love your blog so much. You’re fun to talk to and I’ve decided that we’re good friends and you are extremely stuck with me forever 😈 I’m gonna spend the rest of my days complimenting your gifs and you can’t stop me!!! Seriously though, talking to you is so nice and honestly?? You’re really cool and funny what the heck. You better have the best valentines day ever or else I’m gonna come over and throw heart shaped stuff at you until you have a good time 😈

@loveisactivated​: Your blog is so extreme super quality I don’t even feel worthy of just LOOKING at your gifsets because damn they look so good. You seem like a really chill person and it’s always nice when we’re watching the same shows and I get to see your amazing content! But yeah hi I think you’re really cool, happy valentines day jfdhdhfdh

@mingskit​: FRIEND FRIEND FRIEEENNDDDD!!!! (I love this “friend” thing we have going on can we do this forever please - I can’t believe we’ve never really directly talked much but we already have a cute friendship thing BLESS) Your gifs? Incredible. You? Even more incredible!! I adore the content you post, especially when you focus on the underrated girls in bl shows. You seem like such a sweet person and I like to think that maybe someday we’ll become good pals! Happy valentines day you wonderful angel 💙 

@nazaaqat​: Faiza!! Okay so yeah we’ve never talked (apart from occasional yelling in tags) but I just wanted to say hi!! You’re one of the absolute most friendliest people I’ve seen on tumblr and it’s always such a pleasure to see you replying to asks in the softest way and your gifs... ugh YES that top quality I’m pretty much addicted to your content at this point. You have so many friends and this is probably really random but I low key (high key okay it’s totally high key) adore you and hope you have a nice valentines day!

@ohbabycupcakes​: Damn you’re one of the first blogs I ever followed and you’ve always been someone who I’ve admired from afar - you’re so good at keeping your followers up to date with stuff that’s happening and you put so much time and energy into your blog and that’s just straight-up awesome. Your language skills are also so good! It’s so exciting to see how much you love learning Thai and honestly you’re so ridiculously talented, I really hope that someday I could be on your level, you’re such an inspiration really. Anyway before I gush for like 6 more paragraphs... I think you’re great and I hope you’re having a good day!!

@perthtanapon​: Pretty edits!! Pretty edits EVERYWHERE!!!! Honestly I really love your content and you post a lot of my faves which just makes me love it even more wow. Your Mark edits literally have me on the floor in a sobbing mess I hope you know that jkghjfkdgfd. I think you’re really chill and it’s nice to message you from time to time, I know we haven’t talked very much but it already feels like we’re good friends! Happy valentines day buddy 💕

@piningbisexuals​: A X E L L E 💕 You’re the first friend I made on here, I remember how excited I was when you first started following me! Your enthusiasm for the things you love is so contagious, half the time I watch new stuff just because I see you enjoy it so much. We have the loveliest most wholesome friendship where we just compliment and hype each other up all the time and I live for it. Can’t wait until the day we both achieve our dreams and can meet up in Thailand to drink some pink milk together!

@priceofwarmclothes​: Erm alright so seriously?? Your gifs are so nice please don’t ever stop gifting my dashboard with your glorious creations. We’ve never talked but you seem like a really fun and talkative person so hopefully someday we’ll have the chance to talk and become buddies! Can’t wait to see more of the gorgeous content you’ll post in the future 💚  

@purnotas​: Hello!!! I see you in my notes a lot and you send me helpful asks from time to time.. thank you so much for that!! You seem so lovely and your blog is full of great content! Please have an absolutely WONDERFUL valentines day! 💛

@rosa-leche​: Hello friend, hope you’re still doing well and that things are much less exhausting for you now that you’re done with your midterms! You always have the nicest things to say and when you leave nice comments in the tags it makes my heart so warm! Wow can’t believe you’re the sweetest person ever 💛💙💜 happy valentines day!

@rosiedaes​: One of the coolest blogs I follow okay.. you’re so chill and I always love your edits so much 😭😭😭 Ngl I’ve been following you for as long as I can remember - when I used to run a kpop blog your main was one of my faves so I was so excited when I made my new blog and I realised that you also have a drama blog!! Always stay amazing and I’ll always be looking forward to seeing what you’ll post next! 

@seoinsguk​: Okay so Alexa... we’re both seriously so BAD at replying to messages (I literally just checked and it’s been forever since I replied oh my god shsk) but really?? I love that! There’s no pressure or stress to our cute little friendship that we have like we can reply to messages weeks apart but it’ll still just feel like a normal conversation 🤣 Also THANK YOU for fuelling my kdrama needs, I don’t follow many blogs that post Korean content so it’s the best when I see you getting excited over a kdrama you’re watching because then I instantly know what to start watching next. Also can I just say... you’re so lovely thank you for being so lovely.

@thaitheseries​: One of the first thai-based blogs I followed and seriously one of the best tbh. You’re so active and I see you on my dashboard all the time and it’s so NICE (probably 90% of the things I reblog are from your blog whoops.) I love reading your tags when you reblog my content and we have similar tastes in shows which is always great! I remember when I was having a rough day and you reblogged some Mark content for me to see... and that was seriously so nice of you and it made me so happy! You’re one of my favourite people and you probably don’t even know about it djsgsfhd happy valentines day!

Wow can’t believe I’m so madly in love with all of you!! And if we’ve never talked... my inbox is always open, let’s be best friends 💕 Hope you all have a great valentines day!

#I literally threw together the most awkward last minute edit oh man djgdskg #but yes!! #I love you guys sO much I hope you know that #ff #I'm working all day but I hope you all have such a good day!