#man so hype for the expansion

[gay-dorito-dust]

Bi-Han so yk going to get Johnny instead of Bi-Han setting Kenshi free it’s ofc reader, Bi-Han snapping like he does but when he says Johnny lay his hand on reader? Please may I request this?

I can’t write endings for shit apparently 🤣 🦦

Upon meeting the washed up movie star Johnny Cage, all you wanted was for someone to shut him up, even if it meant allowing yourself a brief few seconds of silence because those few seconds of utter silence would be nothing short of paradise; especially considering how much the man loved to run his mouth in the presence of very powerful people.

Men like Johnny were Bi-Han’s biggest pet peeve and you didn’t even feel the need to look over at him to feel his annoyance permeate the air, whereas his patience with the actor grew ever thinner with every passing comment made; Now normally you wouldn’t have questioned or gone against Liu Kang’s wisdom but Johnny Cage was possibly the last person you suspected he’d choose, but then again Lord Liu Kang wasn’t the kind who’d blindly choose people at random.

‘y/n,’ Liu Kang gestured towards a tied up Kenshi. ‘if you please.’

‘Of course Lord Liu Kang.’ You replied as you swiftly brushed past Johnny in the process, aware of the fact that his eyes were lingering on you longer then deemed appropriate; which earned him a murderous glare from Bi-Han as he grunted out a warning at Johnny’s lack of decorum, but that didn’t seem to stop anything that would come afterward.

‘Alright, alright. I’ll play my part in this martial arts LARP. The missus ought to get what she paid for.’ Johnny uttered to himself, as if he was waiting for someone to call for action, because not before long he was done hyping himself up and was already making long strides towards you whilst you were undoing a particularly tight knot. ‘Hey you! Get your damn hands off him.’ You looked over at him to scoff indignantly as you dismissed his theatrics that no one had the time nor patience for.

Upon seeing your unwillingness to participate in the scene he had created within his own head, Johnny furrowed his brows as his hand grabbed onto your bicep, causing you to flinch and halt all movement. ‘I said get your hands off-‘ but before Johnny could finish his line, Bi-Han interjected the scene by forcefully ripped him away from you; only to then send him flying across the room and into the stand that was holding up an hichuli, which shattered into a million pieces.

After seeing to it that Johnny was no longer going to be a problem going forward, Bi-Han was quick to be at your side, his voice already muffled behind his mask was low and hushed to that of a gentle whisper. ‘The idiot didn’t harm you did he?’ He asked as he assessed your bicep for anything out of the ordinary, in hopes to justify his need to knock the washed up actor down another peg or two from thinking he was within any right as to touch you. You smiled as you placed your hand down atop of his, your thumb caressing his cool skin softly, before raising his hand up to your lips to demonstrate your gratitude towards him by pressing a kiss there.

‘I’m fine Bi-Han.’ You reassured as your eyes then wandered over to glance at Johnny’s state when he groaned in pain, wipe the remnants of his hichuli off of his person as he stood back up but you were already looking back at Bi-Han when Johnny stared daggers into his back, angrily muttering under his breath. ‘You just stole me of my opportunity to hand being the one to hand his ass to him.’ You added and by the way his brows rose in curiosity, you knew that Bi-Han was smirking with pride beneath the mask at your comment.

‘Had I let you do away with him as you please,’ Bi-Han began, taking back his hand from you to then brush his fingertips down the expanse of your arm. ‘It wouldn’t have been much of a fair fight on his end.’ He finished and you couldn’t help but beam brightly at his words, feeling warm within your chest knowing how much faith and confidence he had placed in your capabilities to handle things on your own. To have him trust that you can hold your own was all you ever needed to hear from him to know that despite knowing this, Bi-Han wasn’t above his tendencies in keeping his beloved safe.

It was sweet in a way, seeing as he was often a little awkward and stiff when it came to the romantic aspects of your relationship but that didn’t mean that his attempts in showing that he cared were any less valid. He was somewhat of a secret sweetheart once you’ve saw past the walls he’s built and learnt how to recognise his affection through his every action.

‘Was that necessary brother?’ Kuai Liang’s voice interrupted your moment as he stood next to Bi-Han, casting you a concerned look to which you waved off with a hand. ‘To put him in his place.’ Bi-Han responded as he looked at Johnny in avid disgust, making sure to stand almost entirely in front of you, as though shielding you from the actor, whilst staring him down in silent challenge when he chose to look over at the three of you; Like hell Bi-Han would ever let someone like Cage get that close to you again and he would be best to keep that in mind because if he were to tear his luck, Bi-Han wouldn’t be held responsible for fighting him at full force.

#mk x you #mk x y/n #mk imagines #mk imagine #mk x reader #mortal kombat 1 x reader #mortal kombat x y/n #mortal kombat x you #mortal kombat x reader #mortal kombat imagine #mortal kombat imagines #bi han imagines #bi han x you #bi han imagine #bi han x reader #sub zero x reader

[fantastic-nonsense]

I wouldn't mind the heavy focus on warrior Amazons so much if they were allowed to be competent instead of just being used as red shirt cannon fodder. But it seems DC only hypes up the Amazons as deadly fighters so other characters can look more impressive when they take them down.

Oh and Happy New Year.

Happy New Year! Forgive me if I use your ask to talk about a piece of the Wonder Woman mythos I've wanted to discuss for some time, because your complaints offered me the perfect segue to write a nice, in-depth meta on it and I couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Honestly, I think a lot of people (both creatives and readers) either don't know, forget, or fundamentally misunderstand the nature of the Amazons' warrior status. So they often get reduced to "deadly warriors who strike first," "supposedly deadly but generally incompetent warriors when outside of their own books," or "militant man-haters" by a lot of people. None of which are true.

The Amazons are incredibly competent warriors and have been since Marston's first portrayal of them in the 1940s, so I don't inherently mind them being shown as such. However, where people get bogged down is insisting that they be shown as deadly and trigger-happy offensive fighters who are happy to strike first and hard, which fundamentally goes against the philosophy and thematic messaging built into Amazonian lore.

DC's Amazonia, lore-wise, is traditionally framed as an Aphrodite vs. Ares "peace and love vs. violence and war" story. In Marston's original rendition of the Amazon's backstory Aphrodite is not only their patron goddess but also their sole creator; it was only after Crisis on Infinite Earths and George Perez's long-overdue lore expansions that the rest of the goddesses became co-creators and co-patrons of the Amazons. Regardless, Ares and his domain are consistently invoked as what the Amazons don't want to be like or engage in. That behavior is the antithesis of what Amazons are supposed to be. This lore informs literally everything about how the Amazons view both their combat abilities and their duty to the goddesses.

The contemporary Amazons are, for the most part, women who died in terrible and traumatic ways at the hands of men (usually through domestic violence, murder, or as conquests of war). When the goddesses created the Amazons by reincarnating these women via the Well of Souls, they specifically charged them to become their champions. And what did these goddesses want? They explicitly wanted justice and protection for women in a violently patriarchial world. The Amazons being warriors is thus specifically tied to an understanding of necessary self-defense and protection (both of themselves and other women), not offense.

Which of course is what lands the Amazons on Themyscira in the first place: invoking the goddesses' ire by not obeying these commands after their rebellion against their enslavement by Heracles and his men crosses the line from the necessary battle to achieve their liberation into wanton violence and revenge:

"The battered Hippolyta prayed to her goddesses and found the courage and inspiration to free herself. Athena had reminded Hippolyta of the Amazons' purpose and mission—but not all of the Amazons remembered. Or cared. They yearned for vengeance. For retribution against those who violated them...and under Antiope, many found it." -Wonder Woman: Our Worlds at War (2001)

And as Hippolyta and Menalippe tell Antiope:

"No, Antiope. Never vengeance; never again!" /// "That is Ares' way, Antiope. We achieve no glory by embracing the Dark God's power!" -Wonder Woman (1987) #1

The Amazon way is promoting a society based on love, equality, truth, and peaceful conflict resolution, not vengeance and violent combat. It's a philosophy that defines Diana's mission in Man's World as an ambassador, teacher, and living example of her peoples' way of life:

Enraptured, they listen to her dissertation on equality between the sexes, tolerance, peaceful coexistence. Social Philosophy 101, Amazon Style. -Wonder Woman (1987) #170

Diana's gods-given mission was to spread the Amazonian ideals of conciliation—to give those living in the World of Man the proper tools to peacefully coexist with each other. It was her life's purpose to teach the possibilities of respect and love by being a living example of an upbringing founded in those ideals.

Truth-seeking, diplomacy, and peace are the Amazonian way of dealing with conflict, not violence. And when you are forced to engage in combat (and you should be prepared for that eventuality because sometimes it will happen), your goal should be self-defense and de-escalation, not offense and prolonging the conflict longer than necessary.

This is also, as an aside, why Diana (and specifically Diana in her capacity as Wonder Woman) does not usually carry offensive weapons like a sword and why her primary "weapons" are the Lasso of Truth and protective bracelets. She's the official representative of her peoples' culture and personally deeply believes in that cultural philosophy. Other Amazons have different views on the matter, including her mother, but Diana grew up completely separated from the World of Man and fully immersed in that belief system, which deeply informs how she views her mission as Wonder Woman.

Personally, I think many (but not all) of the problems re: depicting the Amazons in the modern era come from various writers attempting to solve contradictions that don't exist. They see "kickass trained warriors living peacefully on an island" and see that as a contradiction they have to solve: why do they train if they're pacifists? Why do they fight if they're peaceful? In reality, it's not a contradiction: their status as warriors and champions is specifically tied to self-defense and protection (both of themselves and others), but given the choice they don't want to have to take up arms to protect people because that goes against their fundamental cultural philosophy. Outsiders and meddlesome gods are the ones who force them to do that! What they want is for everyone to be treated with love, respect, and understanding so they don't have to!

And there's a lot of problematic elements built into the concept's execution, but this is the core thesis behind the split between Hippolyta's Themyscirans and Antiope's Bana-Mighdall. The Themysciran Amazons have had their fill of violence and war; they just want to live in peace. But a) they were specifically tasked with guarding Doom's Doorway when they were taken to the island, a duty which necessitates perfect combat readiness, and b) their history is littered with examples of people refusing to leave them alone. So they train, in case someone decides to take shots at them, but otherwise live in peaceful isolation. Meanwhile, the Banas looked at that same shared history and went "we need to take the fight to the outside world. Offense is the best defense, and the only way to protect ourselves and the other women of the world is to actively seek vengeance for the violence women face." So they chose to actively intervene in Man's World, fighting constant battles and exacting revenge for any women mistreated at the hands of men.

...which is also why Artemis was such a necessary and interesting addition to the Wonder Woman mythos (even if she's often handled...poorly), because she and Diana represent two diametrically opposed views of how to protect and represent both their cultures and the women of Man's World, but that's a rant for a different time.

Anyway, the Themysciran Amazons' martial pacifism as a cultural value isn't a contradiction; it's one way of looking at a history filled with violence and victimization and saying "no more." And it's a pretty subversive way of doing so, which (well-written) comics tend to note!

So yes, the "Amazons are warriors" mentality has always been there and has been solidly emphasized at various points throughout Wonder Woman's history, and it should be acknowledged and shown that they're all incredibly competent in battle when they're forced to engage in it. But the way in which it gets emphasized is what defines whether a writer has a solid understanding of the history and baggage that comes with depicting the Amazonian struggle and the socio-political issues embedded in their lore. And unfortunately...many writers just don't seem to get it.

#sorry for just ranting about this but I HAVE to correct the narrative every time this comes up. it's not a want. it's a need. #someone hire me to write a political history of Amazonia #I could do SO MUCH with the recurring themes of isolationism vs. interventionalism as a method of self-defense #dc comics #wonder woman #wonder woman meta #diana of themiscyra #artemis of bana mighdall #queen hippolyta #dc amazons #dc meta #long post #asks

[that-ikea-alien-plush]

i feel scared because here I'm literally so cool and people ask me for advice and I'm commenting and posting and being funny and it's like man this is not the me i know

me in real life has no friends, lays around on the couch for the whole day and looks at memes

here I'm cool, I'm quite popular i think? I'm funny, I'm liked

i like this version of me more

but i also don't know if it's the real me or if it's just a version of me im trying to be

like irl im a loser but here im a funny cool loser

and so i was thinking about it and i saw 333 angel number which goes

"three encourages you to put energy into your own growth and expansion and your own jouney, where you want to be, where you'd like to be and encourages you to dream big"

and its like oh thank you my deities whoever sent me that message

"with those 3 easy steps you will be able to become the person you want to be! just remember to leave a like and subscribe for more content!"

i joked and you know they think im hilarious

so i might have a chance to be a cool funny loser someday in real life too

as for now imma just walk my dog and sing to hype boy in honor of the gods

#pagan #paganism #witchcraft #deity work #greek gods #aphrodite #aphrodite devotee #bastet #bastet devotee #apollo #apollo devotee #dionysus #dionysus devotee #morana #morana devotee #marzanna #slavic goddess #rodzimowiercza wiara #rodzimowierstwo #kemetism #kemetic #egyptian goddess #hellenic goddesses #hellenic pagan #hellenic gods #hellenic deities #hellenic polytheism #hellenism #its kinda a vent? more like a confession? anyway

[cellarspider]

Since I’ve been thinking about it all morning: here. A partial introduction to my favorite villain.

In the days of yore, when I was a teenager and video game hype was almost exclusively magazine-based, I saw a kid reading a copy of Game Informer.

“Hey,” said I, “could I see that for a second?”

The kid, not knowing what they were about to unleash, handed me the magazine.

I had seen this on the cover:

I had no idea what this was, but I knew that I wanted whatever it was selling.

I found out that this was an advertisement for City of Villains, an expansion to the previously-released MMO City of Heroes. I’d never played WoW with its Alliance and Horde split, so the idea was new to me. WoW also failed to present me with anything like the vibes of the newly-introduced lead villain, Lord Recluse.

Yes, they liked this art so much they did it twice, and I’m glad they did. More below the fold on why he was so appealing for a young queer kid, for those who are intrigued.

I’ll keep this focused on a single topic for now: The intensely queer vibes that Recluse acquired over the course of the game’s plot. Keep in mind that this game came out in 2004, so the actual amount of openly queer content was very minimal. However, CoH/CoV developed a reputation as an extremely queer-friendly space, with a community Pride event becoming a semi-official yearly celebration, complete with the devs showing up as major NPCs, custom assets, and spawning in unique raids that tanked everybody’s framerate. Equivalents of this have carried over past the game's tragic shutdown in 2012, with community-run servers still staging their own Pride events.

If the art above doesn’t make it clear, Recluse had a much-beloathèd archnemesis, Statesman. If the art above doesn’t make it abundantly clear, this was always an extremely fraught relationship, with a complicated backstory that became more and more tragic the deeper you got into the game lore, eventually bordering on cosmic horror. But one thing was for certain, this was Hark A Vagrant levels of obsession over a nemesis.

The game at first seemed to backstep on that: oh, it turned out, Recluse had once been villainous life partners with a woman who went by the villain name Red Widow. She died decades ago in the collateral damage of one of Recluse’s nigh apocalyptic confrontations with Statesman, and her death left him with nothing but his obsession. So sad.

And then when Statesman died in the course of the game’s plot, Recluse spiraled into depression and nihilism that was only halted when someone managed to dig Red Widow’s soul out of storage and resurrected her.

It was always deniably presented, but the implication was very much that the two were functionally equivalent emotional anchors to his psyche, and losing both of them was something he couldn’t survive.

Also, there was that one time that the game’s Valentine’s Day event was advertised with a heart split down the middle, half Statesman’s iconography and half Recluse’s, topped with a banner that read “AMOR OMNIA VINCIT”, meaning “LOVE CONQUERS ALL”.

And that’s without getting into the first tie-in book. A prequel starting at the end of the 1920s, it was a delightfully and deliberately pulpy book, which… centered around a complicated man slowly dying of lingering health problems after his exposure to mustard gas in WWI, and his very good friend, estranged from his family for unknown reasons, who’d devoted the last ten years to caring for the protagonist, and helping him seek a cure. This has carried on year after year, even though the man’s illness has made him unresponsive to the emotional needs of others, something they both know is going to culminate one day in the two parting ways.

…And then they get superpowers, and their relationship does not get any healthier from there. But what it does gain is a surprising trans metaphor as our now-antagonist slowly metamorphoses into the spidery villain I know and love.

I completely missed this back in the day. I have no idea if it was intentional. But there’s a scene where this man looks in the mirror and sees the first signs of his oncoming physical transformation, and he likes what he sees. He has no idea where he’s going, but he’s excited for it.

…And he’s started killing people who refer to him by his former name, in the most literal case of “dead naming” I’ve ever seen.

Throughout the rest of the series, Recluse is unapologetically who he is, putting him in that category of queercoded villain that doubles as a power fantasy. He’s grown physically monstrous and loves it. He has respect from everyone around him, either legitimately for his capabilities or out of fear of what he can do to those who don’t give him his due. A new demigod who is only matched by the man he’s never stopped obsessing over. He wins just as often as he loses, and often salvages something from his defeats in ways that nobody expected.

He is terrible. And he is wonderful.

#city of villains #lord recluse #I have so many more thoughts #and the canon is so wild and engages on metatextual themes so thoroughly that it really deserves more analysis #just in general #but for now #this will do

[leclerced]

omg I have been in such a Charles mood lately and he is SO friends to lovers coded pls!! like he’s so sweet and soft that you can’t help falling for him even though you think there’s no way he feels the same?

but he’s so protective over you and everyone else can definitely see it even when you can’t. like he always has his arm around you, always touching your hair, always holding your hands, but you’re just like … yeah we’re friends!

And maybe it takes you going on a date and him being all moody about it for it all to finally fall into place? you’re getting ready and he’s pouting and whining about this guy he’s never even met and you’re like ‘okay wtf is going on?’ and he’s just heart eyes and begging you not to go

ok sorry this was in my drafts i hope it feels cohesive idk where i was going with it but i think it turned out okay <3

reader is insanely oblivious but charles is practically all over her, ever since they met she never picked up on his flirting or lingering touches. charles has resigned himself to loving someone who will never love him back the way he wants, and surrounds himself with her to make up for it. he lives off the tastes of her love that he gets, like when she sleeps over because she stays too late and they wake up cuddled up together. or when she comes to his races and is with his team when he finishes and she's the first person he goes to for a hug. or how every time they casually say bye, love you! charles lets himself pretend she’s as in love with him as he is her. then he sees her again and is reminded of it when she doesn’t react when he tries to flirt with her or gets a little handsy when he's drunk. she’s so convinced that he’s just her best friend and that’s all he’ll ever be that when he flirts and puts his hands on her, she tells herself that’s how he acts with everyone.

she’s getting ready for a date while he lounges on her bed. he was cuddled into her pillows while she pulled out dresses and held them up asking his opinion, and he keeps giving unenthusiastic answers, or flat out saying she should cancel the date and stay in with him. then she pulls out a little black dress and says, “oh, i forgot i had this one!” and charles feels his mind spin at the thought of her in the slinky black dress of someone else seeing her in it. her wearing it for someone else. all he can muster up is, “i didn’t know you had that one.” she misses the strange lilt to his voice and teases him, “well i haven’t worn it yet, silly. i’m gonna try it on.” she disappears into the bathroom and returns a moment later, holding the top to her chest as the straps hang loosely down her shoulders “charlie, would you mind?”

yes, i would mind. he thinks. he very much doesn’t want to zip up the dress so another man could take it off her in a few hours. but then she’s turning around and exposing the smooth expanse of her back, the zipper cutting off just above her ass and he can see a bit of red lace peeking out right where it ends. the lack of matching bra makes him clench his jaw as he moves towards her. he trails his finger down her spine until he reaches the zipper and he makes his way back up. as soon as he finishes and she turns around, she sees the look on his face and is immediately asking if she looks okay and he tells her she looks fine. she huffs and reaches behind her to tug it off, “thanks for the enthusiasm, you’re a great hype man! not like i’m freaking out or anything.”

his jaw clenches at hype man, and he groans. “mon dieu, what do you want me to say?”

she whines and bats at his chest, “you always tell me i look pretty even when i’m in sweats, and i’m wearing a dress i’ve been saving for something special, and you’re not even reacting. i can’t even return it anymore and you’ll hate me when you hear how much i spent, so just tell me i look pretty and i’ll have fun on my date tonight.” her hands spread across his chest as she speaks, her eyes locked on them.

his hands find her wrists and he wants to push her away and leave, ask her why she keeps doing this to him. her fingers dig into his skin, sensing he’s going to remove her touch, but he leans into it. “don’t go on the date. i’ll tell you whatever you want… i’ll take you out if you wanna go out, just don’t go out with him, please.” her eyes flick up to his and she’s doesn’t recognize the pleading look in his eyes. his grip tightens on her wrists as she pulls her hands back from his chest and she sees panic set into his features before she presses her hands to his cheeks.

his eyes flutter shut and she breathes, “okay, i won’t go. we can stay in, yeah? we can talk.” he breathes a sigh of relief and nods, “talk, sure.” a moment later his hands leave her wrists and he’s dipping to clasp his hands under her thighs to lift her into the air. her hands stay on his cheeks as he guides her legs around his waist and walks her back to her bed, telling her, “you look incredible, honestly, you do. i’m so glad you aren’t going, if you left me looking like that, god it would break my fucking heart.” she whimpers and her heart stutters at the admission. she doesn’t know what to say, speechless from the sudden realization, so she pulls him in for a kiss to tell him how she feels.

#ask #anon #cl16

[a-single-slice-of-toast]

Imma talk about Side Order

Now, I've only got 7 hours of playtime so far so take what I say with a grain of salt, but I've completed 3 palettes in around 7 or 8 total runs.

As someone who loves roguelikes and has played a ton of games in that genre, I do have to note to other roguelike fans that Side Order does very much lean towards being a rougelite. Each time you die, you get Prlz to spend on hacks to improve your base stats, add new features like rerolls, guarantee shops on certain floors, etc.. You don't unlock a whole lot to throw into the color chip pool sadly, which is something I would have have liked to see more of. You can unlock extra ability chips for the Pearl drone, but that's about it. You do unlock new palettes using keys that you get by progressing through the tower with other palettes, which is similar to unlocking weapons in Hades. One neat thing is that each palette has a bias towards certain classes of color chips, but you need a hack to improve this bias.

In terms of gameplay overall, I would describe Side Order as "What if you made Octo Expansion a rougelite and a hoard-shooter." Each floor is a randomly-selected map with one of a handful of objectives. Hoards of enemies will quickly start spawning, and they'll spawn more frequently depending on the floor's difficulty. At times, it did feel like playing singleplayer Salmon Run on Octo Expansion stages. Some floors come with bonus objectives that give you extra Membucks the better you do at them. My issue comes in that there isn't much initially to spend your Membucks on. You have to spend a ton of Prlz to unlock floor rerolls, shop rerolls, continues, and shop price reduction, not to mention reducing the initial cost of rerolls and continues after you unlock them. There are bosses every 10 floors, but for floor 10 and 20, the game only picks from 3 bosses. The bosses do get slightly different movesets depending on which floor they appear on, but again... 3 BOSSES. AND ONE OF THEM IS JUST AN EASIER VERSION OF GIRL POWER STATION FROM OCTO EXPANSION. For my first three runs in a row, the ball boss was on floor 10 so I just thought that it was the dedicated boss for floor 10 and for some reason they only decided to randomize floor 20 or that Parallel Canon would like a boss that could randomly invade on boss floors, but no. It's because the game ONLY HAD 3 BOSSES TO CHOOSE FROM.

In terms of story... Man, I'm sorry, but you guys hyped this thing up for yourselves waaayyyy too much. (I did too, to be honest.) Acht sadly doesn't contribute a lot to the story, other than giving little snippets of backstory for them and Marina. Agent 4 doesn't really show up other than their palette. (I heard the center Inkling in the Parallel Canon cutscene is based on your Agent 4 if you have Splatoon 2 save data but I couldn't tell.) Most of that lore is dumped in Marina's diary that you unlock with keys.

I haven't completed Side Order yet, still got a lot of palettes to reconfigure, but when I do I'll probably do another post talking about my thoughts afterward.

#splatoon #splatoon 3 #splatoon 3 spoilers #side order #side order spoilers #just me talking

[pleasant10000years]

//Side order spoilers//

I finished the dlc and got the "true" ending i guess, tbf this dlc was hyped up to hell and back but man did this feel so small for what it was expected to be.

the gameplay is great and it's very fun to make builds and play with the mechanics of each weapon, but before I was halfway finished with all the weapons I felt like I played more of the game than I ever needed to in my life.

the story was nonexistent, all intrigue was kinda lost once you realised that they aren't going to do anything with any concepts and characters. of which half the cast gets sidelined or given a miniscule role in the story.

as a short little side mode it does the job well if not outstays it's welcome a bit, but as the octo expansion 2 it was expected to be i can't help but be disappointed.

I really had a lot of fun with the gameplay until it told me to beat it 12 times, I curse the story for 10 generations, Im tired and going to bed, 2 ink damage chips out of 5 firing speed chips. Goodnight 😘😘😘😘

#splatoon3 #side order #side order spoilers #splatoon 3

[aokozaki]

So like the final boss theme of Splatoon 2: Octo Expansion is one of Off The Hook's most famous songs, (in-universe, anyway) but then for the live concerts IRL they played a version of it with a longer lead-in, as concerts are wont to do.

(Adorably, it's basically a slow build to get the audience hyped, Pearl going full Hype Man mode while Marina vocalizes).

Splatoon 3: Side Order uses this long lead in. There's a lot of youtube comments really confused by how different it sounds ("what? this basically isn't Ebb and Flow anymore!") but as a fangirl who's been keeping up with Off the Hook, the dawning realization of what exactly we were listening to in that moment?

Priceless.

#spoilers #splatoon 3 spoilers #side order spoilers

[fanta2y]

SPOILERSSS FOR THE NEWEST JJK CHAPTER

YOUVE BEEN WARNED

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YUUTAS DOMAIN EXPANSION ANYONEEEE

of course it would be about true love i mean CMONNNN ofccc it woullddd like it makes so much sense for his character especially with everything in jjk0 like DUHHH he’s about to show sukuna what it’s like to be a MARRIED MAN !!! i know that’s rigghhttt

and him completely DOGGINGGG kenjaku like idk if it’s 100% clear that he’s dead dead but it looks pretty clear that man got walked like a fucking DOGGG like yuuta wasn’t playing NOO GAMESS

and him completely blocking sukuna tryna block his domain, him and yuuji are gonna go crazy and ofc sukuna still gotta be a hater “yOuVe FoUnD yOuRsElF a RoLe” oh boo hoo don’t be mad that things are about to get serious for you sir

UGHH and idk where tf MAKI is at, my benevolent queen, but if she shows up or imagine if yuuta and yuki are just COOKINGGG and sukunas just about to throw up his domain and here comes MAKIII and she just sneaks him

OMGMGMGM it would be so fire now listen to manga almost lost me, i feel like if this fight didn’t get this hype and this crazy and actually felt like there was a chance i wouldn’t be so happy but this feels like we gonna get something

AND MEGUMI MENTION ?!?!?!?!?!? RIPPING MEGUMIS SOUL FROM SUKUNA?????! They better revive my boy or i stg im gonna jump through the pages and kill sukuna my self get this anti-cursed technique from the heian era bitch

okayyy rant over so sorryy i just had to get my feelings out there this new chapter is wild and i can’t wait for next week and i really hope they don’t get absolutely slammed by sukuna like HES BEEN WINNING THIS WHOLE TIME LET MY BABIES GET SOMETHING PLS

#jjk manga #jjk 249 #YUUTA MY KING #NEVER DOUBTED YOU FOR A SECOND #THE TWO MCS BOUT TO OULL THRU #better let nothing happen to them #or i’m killing everyone and then myself #i’m not playing bro #THIS IS SO SERIOUS FOR ME GUYS #HOLY SHIT ITS GETTING REALLL #are we getting to the end on the manga ?!?!?? #THE FINAL SHOWDOWNNN ?!?!? #literalllyyy loosing my mind #my thoughts are so all over the place #sorry this makes absolutely no sense #just me word vommitting onto a page #LOLLLL #excuse me yall #fanta talks too damn much

[alyniaffxiv]

I wanted to make a post kinda compiling all my thoughts on what was announced today! First off feeling super hyped. I'm excited that we're adventuring off again after the events of endwalker, it'll be a much needed breath of fresh air. That trailer omg it was so good. Never seen one piece, but got such one piece vibes from it. The cgi for the scions and wol looked fantastic and the new areas look amazing. Very excited to see it's based of south america and hope they do it well.

Can we just look at HOW GOOD HE LOOKS ♡♡♡

A little bummed it is next summer, thought it would be beginning of next year but think it'll be worth the wait. Fingers crossed for early June/July.

Now this scares me don't let me fight the twins or g'raha please ;-; but honestly looking forward to some kinda of conflict with the scions and what it'll be about exactly. And will this have long term effects?

The new areas look freaking STUNNING with the new graphical update. It was cute seeing how excited yoshi p was talking about the shadows and plants being updated xD

SPEAKING OF THIS MAN WAS A TEASE ;-;-;-; But we all know yoshi doesn't wear a shirt without it having some kind of purpose so seen a few different theories. Based on the trailer we did see either the wol or somebody with a similar cloak holding a new weapon. Some people are thinking a corsair class which would be cool. And it could be a dual wielder with a pistol and a sword. If true that'll be a fun class. The two new classes were confirmed to be a melee and a caster (hell yes finally) But going back to the shirt it could be going many different directions. All the TMNT turtles are named after artists. So maybe some kind of Inkmage is what I seen most talked about. Or they are holding duel wielding weapons which could further confirm the corsair class. Whatever it is might see one of them at the EU fanfest in october.

Taking a break to admire the boys Erenville and G'raha Tia cause LOOK AT THEM ♡♡♡

Now probably the biggest thing this update is the graphical update and WOWW it seriously looks great so far.

Left is updated right is current ingame The way it just looks so much brighter and colorful fdjhfv seriously can't wait. It's a much needed update and so far they still aren't done but next time we see it will be even better.

Updated example of aura their horns look great so far not just a blob. There are some videos on youtube showing off just the updated graphical updates and it all looks stunning especially a certain flower field we're all quite familiar with. Now with this of course does come with updated system requirements not as bad as I thought I barley just meet the recommended but keep this in mind for Dawntrail. It makes me wonder if by 8.0 support for ps4 will stop entirely or they will just have a lower quality version for ps4. We'll have to see.

NOW THIS THANK YOU FOR ALL THIS This is all stuff I know myself and so many players have been begging to be added into 14 and it's finally happening.

Really hoping for at least 100 slots for housing inside and maybe 20 for outside. It seriously will just give so much more freedom for housing peeps. Now of course we have standard stuff we come to expect -Level cap -New Dungeons -New Trials -8 Player Raids -Ultimate Raids -Alliance Raids -New Gear and Recipes -Fates -Hunts -Treasure Hunts -Side quests -PVP Updates

P.S just love this little guy <3

But we also have what yoshi p said Expansive New Lifestyle Content so something like island but not. Super curious what they have in mind for that or what it even possibly could be? Now...the two things I would have NEVER and I mean NEVER guessed is this...

FALL GUYS?!?! Not just a collab in fall guys as a full pass but a probably perma game mode in the gold saucer! I could not stop screaming crying laughing in vc with a friend. I'm still in shock this is even happening. Much less skins being in fall guys but a fall guys game mode in 14! Ngl tho it looks like a ton of fun and I hope it brings some more people to the gold saucer. Now they said in 7.0 gold saucer is getting an update which they said in 6.x that was gonna happen. Please let it be a bigger update this time.

This is the second thing that surprised me was 14 is coming to xbox! Which is great bringing in new people to the game and honestly about time it's on xbox. Phil spencer also great to see him as awkward as ever :)

Nothing needs to be said about this picture lol this was so funny to watch live Overall though extremally hyped for what this expansion is going to bring. I think it's going to bring such a fresh air from the doom and gloom endwalker brought and what I am hoping is just more content. Endwalker does feel a little lacking in content and I just want more and hopefully they can deliver.

I know and can understand people not super vibing with the more relax vacation this is showing off so far. But we still don't fully know what mysterious or problems we'll have so I'm quite optimistic of what they will bring here. Anyone reading this I'm curious what other people think and if you want leave a comment I wanna know :D

#ffxiv dawntrail #ffxiv

[katieskarlette]

I watched the trailers and read the Blizzcon '23 stuff on WoWhead.

Meh. Not the spark I was looking for to rekindle my passion for the game.

(Morose lack of enthusiasm for 11.0, and Shadowlands postmortem below.)

Instead of getting hyped for upcoming content, it just makes me feel bad about how little I care anymore.

I used to be on the edge of my seat, palms sweating, happily freaking out about new cinematics and new expansion releases. I would plan ahead and take time off to watch the Blizzcon livestream, and stock up on food I could eat while glued to the screen. Today I got home from work and turned on my computer...and only then remembered that Blizzcon was today. After seeing the trailers and stuff I'm like, "Okay. I guess that's fine. Whatever." [Garrosh voice] Times change. [/Garrosh voice]

I didn't expect the news about upcoming expansions to knock my socks off, though. If Dragonflight, an expansion that was practically custom-made to focus on my favorite lore, didn't rekindle my love for WoW, nothing was going to.

That said, I'm still underwhelmed. I can't say that Alleria, Thrall, and Magni are characters I'd be super excited to hang out with. (It was a nice touch to have Thrall going gray, though.)

Xal'atath (sp?) is pretty cool but forgive me for being wary considering the track record for female villains in this franchise.

Anduin...very mixed feelings there. I'm glad he's back, and it was nice to hear Josh Keaton's voice again. I don't recognize him physically anymore, except those baby blue eyes, which is probably why the cinematic spent so much time zoomed in uncomfortably close on his face. I get that that's the point, that he's grown up and gotten grizzled, but he looks and feels like a completely different person.

I think part of the problem is that we didn't get to see him changing. He went from dropping his sword to resurrect an army and being stubbornly optimistic in BFA, to weary but still full of the Light in the cutscenes with Sylvanas in Torghast, to completely blank (save one glimmer) while under Zovaal's domination, to this broken, unstable, self-loathing shell of a man in the 11.0 cinematic. Even if we're generous and count the tiny conversation with Sylvanas at the end of her novel, we have to just imagine what happened to him in between then and now. It's okay to ask the audience to fill in some implied developments, but this is jarring. (I suppose it's possible we'll see more characterization in-game between now and then. I'm not optimistic, though.)

I imagine Anduin will go through an arc where the Light comes back to him, or he finds some kind of peace again and reclaims his throne, but I don't have the patience to wait around for it to happen, or the confidence that it would be done well.

I also can't separate the character's angst with the real-world consequences of Shadowlands sucking as hard as it did. Yeah, Anduin, you've been through absolute hell--so have we. You haven't recovered--and neither have I.

When they had him do the "Arthas pointing Frostmourne just left of the camera lens" pose, instead of going "Ooh, I recognize that! That was cool!" it just reminded me of all the times they did fanservice callbacks to the Lich King in Shadowlands, only to shit all over that part of lore. That's the last thing I want to be reminded of.

It was a bold move to reveal the names and story hooks of the next two expansions, but rather than whet my appetite it just removed the hope that "maybe the next expansion will be better." Nope, it'll be more of the cosmic bullshit that I don't care about: Light, Void, Titans, etc. It's okay in small doses, but it's not the kind of story that pulled me in and made me fall in love with the world.

I hate to say it, but this might be the nail in the coffin for me. I definitely miss the glory days of WoW when it was a huge part of my life and I got so much enjoyment out of it, but I'm beginning to realize that those days aren't coming back. When I think of all the hours and dollars I invested in the franchise it makes me want to cry--not that I regret any of it. I just wish the spark hadn't gone out for me.

I had been so immersed for so many years that maybe it was just time for it to run its course. The social climate has also changed a lot for me, from a thriving guild during MoP, to sporadic bursts of people logging on in Legion and early BFA, to a ghost town in mid-to-late BFA and SL. Strangers can be rude and elitist, making pugging more stressful than fun. I've also been concentrating a lot on my own original writing in the last year.

Those are factors, to be sure, but I do have to lay a lot of the blame on Shadowlands. I had gotten past so-so expansions before. Cataclysm wasn't the best, but all the Firelands stuff was fun, and some of my favorite dragons got screen time. MOP was freaking fantastic. WoD was a dud expansion for me, but there was enough to keep me busy and playing right up to the end. Legion was awesome. BFA wasn't great, and the loss of Teldrassil left a very sour taste, but it had good leveling content, some fun characters, and generally enough stuff going on to tide me over. It was going in a pattern of great expansion, not-so-good expansion, great expansion, not-so-good expansion, and that was okay.

Then Shadowlands came, and it was grimdark, overly serious, cosmic-scale stuff, headed by the most aggressively boring villain the series had ever had. There were a ton of new characters, and, except for Denathrius, Renathal, and Theotar (and Merileth and his slimes, in small doses), none of them interested me. The game systems somehow became even more fiddly, complicated and confusing time sinks than they were in BFA. The afterlife setup barely made sense, conflicted with past lore, complicated future lore, and was ultimately depressing as hell--you probably won't spend eternity with your loved ones, and even if you do, you'll probably end up as a blip of red energy that gets consumed and then cease to exist at all. That's just how I want to imagine all my favorite Warcraft characters ending up! (We probably didn't see Tirion Fordring because some blue guy in a toga needed his anima to grow better grapes. FFS.)

But the worst aspect of Shadowlands, IMO, was the way the pre-existing characters were done dirty--every single one of them.

I don't know you manage to take one of the greatest paladins of all time, then turn him into fiery overlord of the undead, and have him be boring, but there's Bolvar. Get that man a throat lozenge and some personality. Taelia got cameos in which they mentioned their relationship, but nothing ever came of it. He was a father figure to Anduin in the king's youth, but you wouldn't know it by what they did/said in SL. Going by BFA and SL, freaking Saurfang was more of a father figure to Anduin than Bolvar, who literally raised him for several years of his childhood.

Nathanos got an epic sendoff courtesy of Tyrande in the prepatch, then got teased a few times without ever appearing or mattering again.

Sylvanas was a mess. I don't need to get into details; we all know the trainwreck of a story. The concept of making her soul complete again so she had to come to terms with what she had done was a promising one, but it was handled so clumsily and briefly that it was ultimately frustrating.

The less said about the Jailer, the better. I wanted so badly to like Zovaal, but he was the most flat, boring, paint-by-numbers Saturday morning cartoon villain in the franchise's history. Not interesting, not sympathetic, not fleshed out, not funny, not charismatic, not sexy, not scary--none of the things past Blizzard villains had going for them.

Uther's story was one of the better ones, but because of how closely tied it was to Arthas' story, and the unforgivably bad way that was handled, it ultimately fizzled.

Thrall was...fine? The bits with his mom were neat, but I couldn't stop thinking about what a crappy afterlife it would be to constantly fight, spy, scheme, and play politics, all while the supposed love of her life is nowhere to be seen. Poor Durotan.

Baine famously, frustratingly, amusingly in an if-you-don't-laugh-you'll-cry kind of way, did jack squat in the entire expansion. I know his arc got cut for time, but regardless of the reason he was yet another character whose involvement in SL was disappointing.

Jaina was wasted. Her history with Arthas (and, to a lesser extent, Anduin) could have made for some memorable, heart-wrenching story, but instead she was just a generic sorceress. That was especially disappointing given the respectful, deep treatment her character got in BFA. I know not every character can have the spotlight in every story arc, but the complete lack of personality she had in SL was especially jarring in contrast.

Anduin's arc should have been interesting, but we never got into his head enough to really feel what he was feeling. We had that glimpse of his horror after stabbing the Archon, and he left his father's compass as a clue, but those were fleeting moments open to interpretation and not enough to offset the blank slate we got the rest of the time. Even that would have been forgivable, given the limits of storytelling in a game, but the thing that sticks in my craw the most is that constant, blatant Arthas parallels led to...nothing. Anduin would have been just as devastated to be mind-controlled into doing evil stuff even if Arthas had never existed. Arthas meant nothing to Anduin. The only time he met the man was as an infant. They weren't related. Nobody in-universe was comparing them. Garrosh compared himself to Arthas in the War Crimes novel, and Anduin fleetingly thought about Arthas when he befriended Calia in Before the Storm, but that's it. Even as hokey as it would have been to make Anduin secretly Jaina and Arthas' son, at least that would have explained two expansions' worth of in-your-face parallels between the two characters. But no. It all came across as fanservice--or fan teasing--and had no payoff.

Speaking of Arthas, arguably the most famous and recognizable character in the franchise (competing with Illidan and Scantily-Clad Female Night Elf #17 for the top spot)...

After being teased about his possible involvement or whereabouts all expansion long, after they milked every possible drop of nostalgia out of his story in an attempt to make SL palatable, after all the flashing red arrows calling our attention to parallels between him and Anduin, despite his importance to three prominent characters (Uther, Sylvanas, and Jaina), Arthas never did anything (boss mechanics don't count), never had a line of dialogue, never appeared in a form we recognized, got insulted and belittled by Sylvanas one last time, and disappeared in a flicker of blue plasma that was less impressive than a drunk frat boy lighting his farts with a match.

So yeah. Toss Shadowlands in the trash heap (except Sire Denathrius). It was so bad it tainted the entire franchise for me, so that I couldn't even enjoy the long-awaited dragonpalooza that followed.

Phew, that was a long rant, and the first time I've written about WoW in ages. I guess it just goes to show that I have deep roots in the franchise that come along with strong feelings--which makes it all the harder to accept that I may not even buy the next expansion. I suppose I'll weaken when the time comes, but I'm certainly not shelling out for the collector's edition or other bells and whistles.

But then the Li'l Wrathion in-game pet stares at me from another browser tab, and I think about the new Wrathion plushie, and I'm like...DAMN IT, why couldn't you have done this years ago? :(

Anyway, sorry to be a downer, but I'm kind of in mourning, in a weird way, as I come to terms with the way I feel--or more importantly, don't feel--about Warcraft now.

#negativity ahoy #rambling about wow

[skeletonsweatshirt]

Can you do Silco with a s/o who is like always crying for the tiniest things?

I absolutely can.

Silco with a frequent crier s/o

Silco x gn!reader

Tags: Emotionally Constipated Silco, sfw, comfort

A/N: I am super unmotivated as of late so I'm about to force myself to write all of my requests because I need to kick myself into high gear. Enjoy (:

He's not used to strong emotions. Especially not emotions that involve...crying.

Silco is honestly not even sure how to start comforting someone. And that is so apparent when you two start dating.

Before you started seeing each other romantically, you usually held back your tears or excused yourself as a way to avoid being seen as weak by someone so powerful. You thought if Silco or his crew saw you crying, you'd be dealt with in one way or another.

Because you usually kept your weeping discreet or saved it up until later, Silco didn't entirely know what he was signing up for when you got together.

Even though he isn't sure what to do, he loves you, so he's gonna try his best.

And he has a daughter so he has some practice, even if comforting your child and comforting your partner are two very different situations.

He would most likely give you a key to his office or some other private room where you could go let your emotions out without everyone seeing you.

He'd try to be hands-off unless you asked for it because he doesn't know how you act when you're upset and he doesn't want to risk getting hurt or hurting you.

This is a secret between you, but there's a stuffed animal in one of his locked desk drawers that he sprays with his cologne so you can have it if he isn't around. Or if he is and you just want it anyway.

If you start to break down in public, depending on who all's around, he won't shy away from carrying you up to his office so he can just hold you for a bit until you calm down.

He's very hesitant with his touches. So even if he's already holding you, he'll mentally hype himself up before putting a hand in your hair or something because he isn't sure what you're cool with and he doesn't want to do anything you aren't okay with when you're already upset.

If anyone comments about your frequent waterworks, Silco will stare at them with a face that could probably kill if you gave it enough time.

Or he might just straight-up kill them if they have that much of a problem with it.

THE WAY THIS MAN WOULD WHISPER IN YOUR EAR WHILE CALMING YOU DOWN HOLY SHIT

If you fell asleep after crying, he'd just let you be, no matter where you are. In his lap or in his desk chair? No problem.

The only time he'll move you is if you fall asleep on the floor or something.

He gave you a key. A key to his office, if it ever got like this.

You raced up the wooden steps and down the darkened corridor towards your boyfriend's office. Your eyes stung. Stung with the salty mixture threatening to pour down your cheeks faster than the rain you heard hitting the large window on the other side of the door.

Your hands shook as you fumbled through the keys on your keyring, trying to find the golden key that fit the gap in the metal in front of you.

Once you produced the correct key, you swiftly unlocked the door and opened it. You stepped in, closed the door behind you, locked it, and ambled over to the throne that awaited you behind Silco's desk.

Tears began to cascade down your skin once you sat. Your sobs filled the expanse of the office. You picked out another key from the ring still white-knuckled in your palm and unlocked a deep drawer at the bottom left of Silco's desk.

A plush of a panther started up at you with plastic eyes. A quick motion withdrew the plush from the chamber and pressed it against your chest. The delicate fabric still smelled like your partner. You kicked the drawer closed and tucked your knees up under your chin.

As if planned, a pair of heavy footsteps creaked down the hall outside. A set of keys probably twice as extensive as your own jingled, and the large wooden door opened to reveal your partner, looking disheveled.

His eyes floated to your curled-up form as the door shut behind him, and his expression shifted to worry. He locked the door and rushed to you, stooping down to your eye level. You looked up at him with misted eyes.

He reached for your forearm, guiding you out of the armchair. He replaced you in the seat and pulled you into his lap, wrapping his arms around you securely.

"What's wrong, love?" He spoke in a low tone.

When answered with nothing but sniffles and shaky sobs, he hugged you tighter. His lips met your cheekbone three times before his cheek rested against your temple.

"It's okay, love. It's okay." He whispered reassuringly.

#🦴writes #arcane #arcane fanfic #silco x you #silco x reader #silco arcane #arcane silco #beginner #beginner writer #writer #queer #queer writer #idk what tags to use #fanfics #fanfic #fanfiction #anon ask

[daxbox360]

man, im so hyped that in order to try to take the edge off i am just watching every single side order theory, reaction, analysis, even some octo expansion stuff because like, same thing p much

#side order #splatoon 3 side order #splatoon 3 #i am considering taking off school for this but it releases after school so i dont NEED to but :) #probably wont tho

[merryfortune]

natural wonder

Prompt: Man Made Technology | Natural Wonder

Title: natural wonder

Ship: Respectfulshipping | Ryoken/Spectre

Fandom: Yu-Gi-Oh! Vrains 

Word Count: 1,457

Rating: T

Tags: Alternate Universe - Bunnyverse, Pre-Canon, Bittersweet, Affection, Flirting

   As Ryoken removed the head apparatus, his hair bounced with the movement as straps came undone. He sighed contentedly and smacked his lips together.

   Not all missions were going to be that mundane and easy so he enjoyed the novelty whilst it lasted.

   Ryoken turned his head to check on his companion from across the room. Spectre wasn't quite as happy-go-lucky returning from the Link VRAINS as Ryoken was as there was a crease of discontentment diagonal through his brow. He undid the goggles which were nowhere near as high tech as the machine - with all its gizmo's and gadgets and high end luxury - that Ryoken lounged in. It simply was not made for folk like Spectre in mind.

   “So,” Ryoken said, perhaps louder than he needed to be to get Spectre’s attention, “what do you think of the Link VRAINS?”

   “I can understand the hype.” Spectre said, deliberately in an understatement.

   After all, Ryoken had seen with his own two eyes the pure, elevated Wonder that Spectre had enjoyed mere moments ago. The vast expanse of territory and variety of domains, the way his monsters came to life as they were played, the hacked hidey-hole which would become the Knights of Hanoi's base, and yes, of course, the avatar creation menu. Speaking of…

   “I couldn't help but notice that your avatar… it is quite impractical. Wish fulfilment, yes, but aren't you worried that it lacks the ability to conceal your identity?” Ryoken said.

   “Only time will tell, I might actually look like that in several years’ time.” Spectre said.

   Ryoken laughed a barky laugh, “Several?” he echoed, sceptical.

   “Yes, several. I added five years.” Spectre defended himself with a frown.

   “Looks like at least ten to me.” Ryoken teased him.

   “Well, it gets the point across.” Spectre huffed.

   Ryoken smiled and eased up on ribbing his second-in-command. Though, it still felt weird to regard Spectre as such. It had been mere months ago when they had been just friends. But a major reshuffle of organisation and secrets had led to this. It left a bittersweet taste in Ryoken’s mouth but he hoped all would go well when he cornered the Ignis and obliterated them. Then, afterwards, everything would be normal. But for now. He worried about things like secret identities and if he could wield the power that he had inherited.

   Ryoken dislodged himself from the comfortable recline of where he had laid to enter the Link VRAINS. Spectre did the same. He set aside the pair of goggles and got up to stretch, though he had been sitting down normally on the sofa, it was a lot like sleeping upright and so, dulled his senses.

   It was here that more than an age difference of wish fulfilment became apparent between Spectre’s flesh and blood self and his digital self. He always looked so incidentally cute when he stretched, his shirt reached up and his fingers curled in and his long, rabbit ears bobbed up and down. With enough thought, Spectre could move them the same as any other appendage but not right now.

   Aside from looking like a bizarro mirror of five (or ten) years later, his Link VRAINS avatar removed Spectre’s bunny traits. It was weird to see a portrait of him as a stereotypical human, Ryoken thought but he could see why Spectre had elected to remove such highly identifiable traits from his avatar.

   Truly it was a shame. Albeit an understandable one. Rabbits were not known for their ability to intimidate, after all. But it was still a shame to Ryoken who thought Spectre’s rare genetics made him even more unique. Though they were an unwanted spectacle. 

   The Rabbit Condition was exceedingly rare: a natural wonder which was an unerring peculiarity it was bizarre to exist at all let alone. 

   It was a genetic trait found in all humans’ DNA but the chance of it occurring to affect was a less than one percent chance. Redheads and people with green eyes far outnumbered those with the Rabbit condition. They didn't have any associated health conditions and was just a benign variation of how people could look but tradition and superstition would disagree. Those with the Rabbit Condition were predisposed to bad luck and misfortune, or so stories went.

  Thus, Spectre was blisteringly certain that his cotton ball tail and grey rabbit ears were contributing factors as to why he was abandoned. He couldn’t think of any other reason as he was male and otherwise healthy. 

   They were also definitely among the reasons why he had been bullied at the orphanage, too. Kids didn't take kindly to outliers and especially ones with extra needs as Spectre’s clothes did have to be tailored special to him. He was pampered in that regard yet it was a dual punishment as it made him hyper aware that he was a tall poppy, rarely dealt hand-me-downs and taken on expeditions to have his tail accounted for in pants and underwear. Not to mention the “vet” visits as he called them.

   Even now, in the lap of luxury, Spectre was still not in a world which catered to him. Ryoken got the latest and greatest of technology and Spectre had to make do with extra tight goggles so he could sit on the lounge with a gap between the cushions and backing. It was uncomfortable to cramp his tail, after all. It was such a small yet painful thing.

   He never complained, of course. He had a chip on his shoulder about being weak. A trait exacerbated by his bunny rabbit traits but despite Spectre’s best efforts to cover his tracks, Ryoken found Spectre pitiable all the same for being so unexpectedly and excessively cute. It was a cause of ire and concern and yet…

   Ryoken couldn’t help himself.

   “What are you doing, sir?” Spectre asked through gritted teeth, annoyed but keeping himself tempered.

   “Petting you.” Ryoken replied and with a wink in his voice, he chuckled a small chuckle. “It's weird to hear you call me “sir”. No more Ryo-chan and Spe-chan, no…” His melancholy was lowkey and covered by a mask of mirth.

  “No more Ryo-chan and Spe-chan…” Spectre agreed in lamentation.

   Ryoken half-smiled as he looked up and admired Spectre’s rabbit ears. The patch of skin to the side of his head, so inconspicuous of what he lacked and the absurdity of what he did have. It was velvet soft and warm beneath Ryoken’s fingertips. 

   Spectre’s lips were a mangled smile. He didn’t want to but he enjoyed Ryoken’s touch despite being abrasive. He suppressed a chitter as Ryoken’s hand groped him so kindly.

   Meanwhile, in his mind, Ryoken couldn’t help but compare the flesh and blood to the human made of pixels. They were the same person, the same Spectre but the difference was immense.

   “Despite my previous comments,” Ryoken said, “I do like your avatar. It's handsome in its own ways…”

   Spectre laughed, insulted. “Well, I think your avatar is handsome, too, in his own, terrifying and striking way.” 

   “Good.” Ryoken said and he removed his hand.

   Spectre hated having his rabbit ears touched and fondled. By doctors and nurses especially. Anyone and everyone except Ryoken. He maintained a faux glare and Ryoken could see through the friction to realise that Spectre inhaled slightly: an unspoken wish for Ryoken not to stop.

   “It is a good idea though,” Ryoken said, “to at least conceal what is probably the most eye-catching element of your real life appearance.”

   “Yes, I think so, too.” Spectre agreed and maybe it was because he pined to be touched with love and affection just that little bit more, his eyes naturally fell to Ryoken’s hands. 

   Specifically to that odd triangle on the skin between the base of his thumb the knuckle of his index finger. It was too small to be the most eye-catching thing and yet… Spectre was reminded of a small detail.

   His avatar - Revolver - wore gloves. Spectre’s ear twitched as he made that connection which very well may not have been there at all. His face began to mire in these deep thoughts. Ryoken sighed, causing them to prick and bounce involuntarily. 

   “Let’s dismiss ourselves, yeah?” Ryoken suggested, upbeat. “It's almost dinner time.”

   Spectre bowed his head, he liked the sound of that. Ryoken smiled, even though it was he who had prevented them from leaving this room at all as he had gotten caught up in dissecting the flight of fancy which was the hidden desires buried in the selections they had made for their avatars. But at least, over the dinner table, to their former carers and current lieutenants, they could share that their first expedition to the Link VRAINS had been a success.

#respectfulshippingweek2024 #respectfulshipping #yugioh vrains #vrains #yugioh #ryoken kogami #spectre (vrains) #writing tag #natural wonder

[mmorpg-escapism]

OK! We're into Mt. Gulg now, and boy this is gonna be a doozy. I'm doing the dungeon and subsequent trial all in one go, so bear with me for the longer breakdown. In fact, I'm gonna cut here just because it's *that* long, and it's also late night ramble flavored. You've been warned.

The music for Mt Gulg is this fanfare-y thing that really hypes up that this is the end of the long battle we've been fighting, while still leaning into that "holy" theme that sin eaters are associated with. It's got hints of the other themes we've heard throughout the expansion, too.

For NPC commentary... I took Thancred and the twins again. Thancred comments on the first boss - if you watch the ShB trailer, they've fought before. I'm sure if had brought Ryne in, she'd have something to say too. Mechanics are decent and mildly annoying for melee dps, but not much to write home about.

Box- I mean, Boss #2 is much more... abstract. Thancred is still the only one with anything to say. Might come back through these later with the others... I enjoy the gimmick for this one the most, having to watch the faces on the evil Rubik's Cube to know where safety is.

The final boss is also Vauthry's last line of defense, and, according to Alphinaud, his "favorite". As we've delved deeper into this dungeon, the landscape has shifted from brown mountain rock to gold and white Light-built finery, a mental image of what Vauthry wants the world to become made manifest. The boss itself is lots of echoed attacks, and it gets a "oh god" out of 10 for how much I have to move around to avoid stuff. Very fitting for where it's at in the story.

So we've beaten Vauthry's defenses, and now we get to stab the man himself... right after we get very proud of some character growth expressions. Alphinaud has recognized that at some point, there is no use trying to talk your way out of a fight. Ryne has accepted Minfilia's legacy completely and is determined to take care of it and the people of the First with all her power, and as a result now has the confidence to speak not only for herself, but for the people. She's come a LONG way from when we first met the quiet, scared girl in Lakeland.

Unfortunately, we can't take the NPCs with us to beat up Vauthry. Not enough for a full party, and they have to watch my back. So... PCs it is!

I don't mind this fight, but honestly Titania was significantly more interesting. There's a couple of add phases, a "find the gap" moving danger puddle, and lots of self-righteous voice lines that I'm going to be hearing in my dreams tonight. I did not, however, get *any* time to listen to the music to see if it felt right for the fight, because it wasn't an NPC party.

The mid fight transformation from blob to "why is he this pretty" is not the most horrifying thing that ShB has done (that's reserved for Tesleen, dammit), but it's close. It's easy to miss how it starts if you're zeroed in on your rotation, but his back literally splits open to kick the change off. I hate it. He gets very bright and stabby after that, but is still no match for the full WoL party that we brought against him.

And then... I'm going to bed. We'll deal with all of the impending emotional trauma tomorrow.

#ffxiv escapism: shadowbringers #could I have split this up and queued it? #maybe #but then it would've felt choppy to my brain #so all in one go it is!

[lesser-mook]

Dune: Part Two - Some of the best pieces of Anti-Christ Propaganda I've ever seen. And by itself? A well produced, well made film. Though it is heavy-handed aka long as shit (Movie Recommendation )

Holy Wars, Chosen One rising from the Desert, Third Eye's and shit, Free people/"Fremen" fighting for their desert land, Fall of The House of Atreidas/Collapse of Empires *cough America cough cough*, seeing timelines, Nukes n shit.

The powers that be really, REALLY want nuclear war. If it ain’t a Civil War, us killing each other, they want nukes flying. 

The Eternal's had good cinematography, so did The Ritual but those can't even touch this.

This movie, in IMAX? Was/IS a must see experience, religious experience even. If you haven't seen it in IMAX, Do it. Please. Don’t miss out.

But outside the realm of conspiracy, they're just well made movies on their own. The sequel had way better pacing, Part 1 was just 2 hour setup and it was worth it. So so worth it.

This movie is 2 films in one package, if you paid to see this? You're not wasting your money if you went to see this experience.

My biggest complaint besides the hefty runtime, expansive lore being somewhat crammed & rapid fired at the audience (hence a LOT of exposition), would be the fact that we never get to see exactly how the worm riders dismount or how a caravan riding the worms back- then get OFF the worm in the first place.

Jessica was pregnant, how did she get on the worm?! And how did they get her off the worm? 

See we’re shown how dangerous it is to get on a worm, every step involves mounting it while it’s in motion, it doesn’t stop to let you onboard. So how they transport crowds looks cool, but it in the movie specifically (fuck the books) the movie didn’t show that detail. 

Now, let’s put credit where it’s due: These two movies by themselves are a serious feat, especially in this nauseating cinematic universe era of film-making.

This isn’t Star Wars, this isn’t Marvel or DC. 

This is custom lore from a lesser known title, and a sequel with the magnitude of Avengers Infinity War in just 2 movies, coming off of one film with 2 hours of setup (which is basically what Part One was). All in just 4 years, not enough people are addressing how impressive that these two movies exist & executed in the way they were.

This isn’t DUNE II, but “Part Two”. The same narrative, same story, effortless momentum. Way better filmmaking than Endgame, better story, and better music (Hans Zimmer annihilated this OST, as usual).

This easily could’ve been a storytelling disaster, a contrived, over-ambitious mess with yet another messy Messiah overtone that falls on it's face, but it did well.

And while Paul isn't the most engaging main character (he has some gary stu-ish traits, which was ironically written to be part of the narrative) but he is no boyscout.

He cries, he will train, he is taught, he outbursts, he gets emotional, and when he's serious, it's serious. Not perfect, and is a man of vengeance, not Talk no Jutsu, not punching away the darkness of someone's heart to free their inner child or some bullshit:

Paul is here to handle business. Period. And you slowly see him developing emotional calluses to the point where you see him becoming something else entirely.

And that's ALL imma say, for now. Go watch the movie.

It could've been mess, but it works.

It ain’t no masterpiece, don’t mistake my compliments for hype, the movies are not perfect- but I didn’t expect this to impress, at all.

The music is just the movie's voice. The DNA.

Hans Zimmer's vision for music, coding the DNA for all the films he composes for is: Otherwordly.

Especially post- 2010, it’s like composing Interstellar was a period of transcendence for him.

Ever since that movie, his style entered a whole new realm, it’s almost intimidating how good he is.

Woke culture be damned, Films like this (while propaganda) still demonstrates in a good way, exactly what Hollywood's true potential is capable of.

#lisan al gaib #dune #dune part two #coming of the prince #keep your eyes on israel #propaganda #good filmmaking #movie recommendation #anti christ #Youtube #lessermook #the one