#more people on that team that I was familiar with (3 vs 2). So the plan was: Ranboo pre-show (but I woke up kinda late and it wasn't as | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

merlucide · 2 months

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Crossdresser x BLLK (2nd) pt2

Notes: SHIDOOOUUU (I’m so sorry if he’s ooc)

warnings: reader is female, cursing, cringe lol

pt1pt2pt3pt4 pt5

ISAGI’S VER KARASU’S VER

2ND SELECTION(SHIDOU’S VER)

Y/N entered the room and looked around for any familiar faces.

Suddenly, a large arm draped over Y/N shoulders. ‘Aye your not ranked to low- join our team!’ A tall, tanned boy with fuchsia eyes asked.

Y/N was rather put out of by his lack of understanding of personal space.

Another trailed behind him, he was beefy, big, dark skinned dude and stared into Y/Ns soul.

‘Is thata yes?’ The fuchsia eyed boy peered.

Apparently she took to long to answer so he did for her ‘perfect, perfect- ‘ her mouth agape, looking at him with pure confusion.

‘ m’ Shidou, he’s Shiguma-Chan and yer’? Shidou asked, sliding himself off of her.

She told him her name and they looked for their first opponent.

Shidou walked over and pretty much demanded they play against them.

They agreed and everyone headed to the field.

The opponents were Hiragi, Tanaka, and Haiji.

No one knew anything about each other or their weapons.

Shidou wouldn’t shut up and Shiguma wouldn’t talk, so there’s that.

‘You better not get in my way’ Shidou warned as he held to ball, ready to kick off.

‘That was cocky’ Y/N thought, she rolled her eyes and took position.

Shidou kicked off the ball rather high, Tanaka charged towards it and passed to Haiji.

They were at halfway mark when Y/N intercepted it and ran down the field. She passed to Shiguma and he shot the ball towards the goal.

Hiragi dashed to the goal and saved it with a head butt.

The ball was headed towards Haiji, Shidou was trailing behind him and was about to steal it. Haiji quickly passed to Tanaka, who was by the goal. Tanaka shot into the goal.

1-0, the game had just start so Y/N tried not to stress to much.

Shidou grabbed onto Shiguma’s jersey. ‘Why’d the hell ya didn’t pass to me?? Hah?? I was fuckin’ open!’ Shidou yanked on him.

Y/N trotted over towards them trying to pull them apart. Shiguma wasn’t doing anything about it, he just justified his actions by saying Shidou wouldn’t have been able to catch it- which added fire to the pot.

She was ‘successfully’ able to pull Shidou off of him by reminding him it was just one point and the games not over.

….

The game finished at 2-3

Shidou scored a goal and Shiguma scored some crazy long distance goal.

Y/Ns team lost, and Shiguma was picked. She was frustrated, this wasn’t how she planned this to go.

Shidou was pissed. Pissed that he lost, pissed that he didn’t get picked, just overall pissed.

Shidou snapped at Y/N saying she was ‘fuckin useless’ and ‘coulda passed to me more’.

She was not gonna deal with his bitching.

The both dragged their feet to the losers gate.

Shidou demanded they have another match this instant.

The door opened and revealed someone Y/N would never expect to find here.

Kunigami was sitting down rolling his thumb back and forth. His eyes darted to so who was entering the losers section.

He was also surprised to see Y/N. Shidou peered down at Kunigami, with his hands shoved in his shorts. ‘Play against us’ Shidou demanded, rather boredly.

Kunigami agreed.

It was Kunigami and Reo vs Shidou and Y/N.

‘No hard feelings yeah?’ Y/N asked holding out her hand

‘None’ Kunigami responded and bro-fived her.

Reo kicked off the game and and Kunigami was headed towards it- Shidou cut him off and kicked it straight into the goal.

no one was expecting that.

Y/N scored a goal and Shidou scored 2 more.

Kunigami and Reo barely reacted to Shidous plays, he was insane.

It came time to pick to was to join them. Y/N was set on Kunigami, Shidou then spoke up saying he scored more goals so he decides.

He chose Reo- ignoring Y/Ns objections

‘I’d rather have purple topknot…than a puny, naïve hero like you. People who can’t destroy themselves.. can never create explosions. Let’s go Y/N-chan.’ Shidou stated as he shuffled back to the winners gate.

Y/N didn’t know what to say, she felt awful. Kunigami’s soccer career was over, and she part took in the ending of it.

She whispered a sorry and followed behind shidou with Reo trailing her.

They headed to their new room and Shidou claimed the top bunk bed.

Reo offered to take the bottom bunk, Shidou and Reo headed to the bathroom to shower. Y/N showered when they finished.

Shidou apparently snooped around and got another team to play against them tomorrow, so that was settled.

Shidou got bored rather easily so he just asked Y/N a bunch of dumb questions, or tried to get her to spar against him- she declined.

Reo just moped around, like a wet noodle.

She just went to bed and got good sleep.

Next game they won with the score of 3-1, Y/N chose the player Kurona Ranze, he was pretty fast and scored a goal so he seemed pretty solid.

Kurona was low maintenance unlike Shidou and not in a depression like Reo, it was nice to have a normal guy around. It was really cute how he repeated his words.

Another match and they won again with the score of 3-0, Reo chose the player Sokura Testu, he’s chill.

Y/Ns team had all 5 players and were headed to go against the world 5. No one was able to score any goals. Shidou and Y/N got pretty close to scoring but it got blocked or it missed.

They had finished all stages.

Y/Ns team was the last team to finish.

They walked through the sliding doors and Y/N spotted her former teammates in Team Z (Isagi, Bachira, Chigiri, Gigamaru, Igaguri, Raichi)

She waved and smiled at them, happy to see that they made it.

ISAGI’S VER KARASU’S VER

NEXT PART ISNT OUT YET :>

made March 8th 2024

#blue lock x reader #bllk x reader #blue lock #blue lock x you #blue lock imagines #blue lock kunigami #blue lock scenarios #blue lock shidou #shidou x reader

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kaeyachi · 9 months

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KAEYA LORE FROM THE KAEYA HANGOUT with some theories

Spoilers below!

It's a long one so get ready!

First of, let me mention the fact that the EN team surprisingly changed the dialogue post release of the Caribert quest.

The original dialogue (still the one in the genshin wiki) merely implies that the main goal of his father was to give him a happier life.

In my recent playthrough of the quest, however, they have now changed the dialogue into something more concerning. The way this was phrased, the happier life is not the main concern, but is instead to keep Kaeya alive. Was there a threat to his life? How unsafe must it have been to have his father leave him in a distant nation?

Ok, but then so what right?

They then hit us with the Kaeya hangout, and 2 certain routes that are very telling. The play ending and the Venti ending.

For the one with the play, we are introduced to a certain play called The Tale of Prince Qubad. It is a story about a war-hungry father doubting his son and putting him to trial by having his son walk thru raging fire. The prince is unscathed, proving his innocence, however, his father is still doubtful. He sends his son to the battlefield.

A quick search to the name Qubad will lead you to a book of poems called "Shahnameh", a pre-Islamic Persian book that translates to "Epic of Persian Kings".

What are the contents, you may ask? Fascinatingly enough, certain topics of the book includes talks of royal lineage, how their choices affect their people, and primarily, fathers and sons with fathers making mistakes.

I skimmed thru some summaries and found out that Prince Qubad is actually a King in the book. One who surprisingly trusted his son when the prince mentioned of a betrayal and coup against him. His reign continued.

(The book of poems also has a character named Rostam who arguably has the most popular story from the book)

Like the play we see in the game, the Shahnameh also pits fathers and sons against each other, most of the time ending in tragedy. It seems like its a cycle that plans on repeating.

Must it be so?

Prince Qubad decides to go against his fate. He decides to live in a distant land to maintain peace. His tutor, the one who he truly thinks of as a father, wishes him well.

This choice of the prince is what maintains peace, preventing unnecessary bloodshed and suffering, including a full eradication of their supposed enemies.

This brings several questions and theories?

Who is who in this story? Who is the enemy faction? Is this about Celestia vs. Khaenri'ah? This specific dialogue is for sure talking about the effects of it (with both the Fatui and Abyss Order gunning for a fight with Celestia)

Was this about Kaeya? Left in a foreign land by his tutor rather than his biological father? Is Kaeya's biological father perhaps the true threat to his own life then? (Damn, imagine losing 3 fathers. Spiderman-core). Is this why he mentions that Kaeya is their only hope? To prevent another devastating war?

Was him being left in Mondstadt a means to continue the peace in Teyvat? So should Kaeya return to Khaenri'ah...

Or perhaps this is this his father's story in a sense that it was King Qubad in the book who for once changed fate and trusted his own son? Was he on the run from the clan, fully against their choices and opinions, to save Kaeya from said fate? This could also explain why Kaeya is cut off from certain things and how Dainsleif is not familiar with him.

All in all, I can at least be certain that Kaeya wishes to challenge his fate. It's as if he knows how things will end and is repeatedly lamenting on the idea of "is this really his fate?" " can he change it?" and "can he leave the narrative?". He is literally wondering if there is a way to escape a horrid fate and maintain the peace. That is his true wish in all of this, because at the end of the day, Kaeya wants everyone to make it to the end.

Before moving on, this part is curious to me... is he implying that Celestia is making the people of Teyvat play a role into things? Criticizing the script everyone has been given and wanting everyone to go against it? He is asking people to wake up... and when the traveller questions his thoughts, he immediately backtracks.

Now to connect this with the Venti ending

I think we can all agree that both Kaeya and Venti know of each other. It was absolutely hilarious to see the way they talk to each other like "I know that you know that I know that you know-" (reminiscent of the time Venti went to Liyue and just started the very same type of dialogue with Zhongli lmao)

Kaeya seems to want to remove himself from the narrative, "leave the stage" you could say, once his role to things is done. He does the same thing after the play, running off once the people who wished to talk to him put their eyes off of him. He chooses to move away to the background and simply watch the seeds of his efforts bloom from a distance. Does he think he does not deserve to be part of it then? ( Did he not do the same for when he prepared for Jean's party? Sitting alone in the tavern rather than mingle with others by the end? And how he nearly left Dawn Winery after being invited for dinner? He keeps wanting to leave...) Venti criticizes him on this. Venti wants both Kaeya and the traveler to see the ending.

And then Venti proceeds to gift Kaeya with a poem (the same way Kaeya and Venti seem to converse with each other for most of the time... more poems huh? It seems we have a perchance for poetry when it comes to Kaeya)

What an interesting poem. If i were to interpret this, I would say that he is talking about how Kaeya was left with a cruel fate and given a life full of trials and hardships, and yet Kaeya strives forward despite it all. Kaeya's troubles are unheard to many, but Kaeya also has his eyes facing forward, onwards to a brighter future that he strives for.

Clearly Kaeya wants to see the ending too, whether he thinks he deserves it or not. Kaeya keeps deciding to bring himself out of endings every single time, but the people around him thankfully bring him back and want him there.

Venti will want Kaeya to come back home by the end of everything. How's that for a poetic ending, hmm??

#kaeya #kaeya alberich #genshin impact #gi kaeya #genshin spoilers #kaeya hangout spoilers #THE KAEYA LORE POST I PROMISED #ONCE AGAIN THE PHOTO LIMIT ATTACKING ME #gosh i had a lot of thoughts for it my mind was going everywhere #kaeya lore #ONCE AGAIN WE ARE ASKING KAEYA TO GO HOME #GO HOME KAEYA #WE WANT YOU TO HAVE A HOMR #YOU ARE LOVED AND YOU ARE WANTED

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tubchunk · 6 months

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why do i think the overseer is still tied to the federation? or if that there is something that is still controlling the islanders?

WELL ! LET ME GET INTO MY THEORY (involving insanity, social psychology (what im doing my masters in), and my never ending imagination)

but firstly: let me introduce you all to the robber's cave experiment!

the robber's cave experiment is a very popular psychology field experiment conducted by muzafer sherif in the 1950s. essentially, at a summer camp in Oklahoma, they divided 22 boys into 2 groups of 11 each and at camp, the groups were kept separate from each other for the first few days so that they all bonded with their team. they even were told to choose team names.

then, they were made to compete on several tasks, as well as individual tasks, where only winning mattered. there were even situations designed for one team to win at the other team's expense (such as, one team arrived late to a picnic so the other had eaten their food). through this, the teams started to make remarks about the other and what they'd do if they crossed them. the competition started with just name-calling, until it got to one team burning the other's flag, then them retaliating by looting and trashing their stuff. you get the picture.

in the cooldown days, they were asked to write characteristics of the other team and their own. it's not surprising to hear that they described their team members favourably but the other team's as unfavorable.

then, the next phase was trying to reduce this animosity, where it was seen that tasks that forced them to work together towards a greater common goal helped in reducing hostility. particularly, these were conducted in a different place to robber's cave, to leave those grievances behind. by the end of it, seating was mixed and people were mingling again.

(there are ethical issues with this experiment that im not getting into rn but)

why is this all important?

well, did any of that experiment, i don't know, sound familiar to what has been happening?

the random division into arbitrary teams, choosing a name and leader, quests that rely on scarcity of resources, situations where one team benefits at the expense of another?

i think, purgatory is nothing but the qsmp's version of the robber's cave experiment.

it's clear that the past few months have been, chaotic, with the islanders. the federation have had to deal with more and more direct attempts at fighting them from the islanders' ends, with the workers being kidnapped and killed, and just more overall chaos. and even though there are interpersonal disagreements, everyone seems to be by each other's sides against the federation.

they don't understand it at all. and they need to understand it, AND tear them apart to make it easier for them.

two birds with one stone.

they ship all of them off to a new island, where they have suddenly been divided into 3 teams, forced to compete in order to survive, win, and save the eggs. the biggest point scorers are when they actively hunt and kill each other. they're looting, fighting, falling apart and sticking close to their teams to the point of codependency. tight-knit friendships are disregarded, not to mention how almost all relationships have been separated. everyone is for their team, and no one else.

fascinating information, and discord amongst members.

what else could they ask for?

probably events will be outright competitions where they compete to win, and there will be no consolation prizes, making winning the only thing that matters. further driving the ingroup vs outgroup language and dynamics that have already formed.

but then after the two weeks are up, what then?

well they have two options. either let them back onto quesadilla island with these new scars and vendettas, everyone having completely shaken up their dynamics, forced to live together again.

or...

a new island, where there are no teams. no competition. and all of them have to work together for a bigger goal (probably, getting the eggs back for real). something that would make the group dynamics melt away, and help everyone become friendly again.

which would be in their better interest? and what happens if someone, halfway through the experiment, figures out whats going on and whats behind it all?

so they give them a "mystery" to be preoccupied on.

one of the teams is "cursed" and if they lose, everyone loses.

you would think that would make them all work together to figure it out but, judging by how days 1 and 2 went, thats clearly not people's priority. the ingroup vs outgroup dynamics, scarcity, and competition are strong enough to shadow this one crucial instruction.

that's exactly what they wanted. for everyone to be too busy fighting each other for victory, that the odd person being curious would only investigate this claim, and not go further into the purpose of this whole game. maybe there really is a cursed team, whose loss dooms all maybe it was just something said to throw people off the trail. maybe the cursed team is the same throughout, or changes every day. if there are rules, the islanders don't know them. and they seemingly don't care, yet.

so i truly think the only way to make it out is for people to start questioning who is the cursed team, and who is making them do all this and why. it's for them to push aside the arbitrary teams that they have been put in and actually work like they used to back home. because playing the game as it has been laid out to them is just playing into the hands of whoever has put them here. the question is whether they will realise this with time to spare, or when it's already too late for them, their friendships, their relationships, and the eggs.

well that was just me waffling on about psychology and what i think the purgatory event may really mean, cuz nothing makes sense. here are my rapid beliefs: blue team are cursed red team are red herrings green team are a ticking time bomb of fed vs anti fed

thanks for coming to my ted talk

#qsmp #qsmp purgatory #qsmp theory #qsmp lore #I COOKED HERE I THINK #MAYBE #IDK #I JUST NEED LORE AND REASONS FOR ALL THIS #AND FOR EVERYONE TO STOP FOR A MOMENT AND LOOK AROUND AT THE FRIENDSHIPS AND RELATIONSHIPS THEY'RE TEARING APART

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chocolatemilksmoothie · 2 years

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Labyrinth Runners

Omg I loved this one!! buckle up, there's a lot of little details and a lot to point out

I suspected we might not get an update on Luz and the rest of the owl house members and the suspense there is killing me ngl...

I can already see it, both groups meet and both are like "we have SO much to tell you you're not gonna believe this-"

anyways, baby Willow and baby Gus my beloveds

I love their relationship. they were there for each other before anyone else was, and you can see how deeply they care for one another

Gus is a scary good illusionist, it must be frightening to have that happen

ahh good ol' breathing exercises, always worth a shot

I ADORE that Bump allows more kids to try multi track magic, and Matt got into illusion magic! aww

Among Luz's messages was "don't scare him(them?) away" I think she was referring to Hunter. it's sweet she took the time to write that, but god I hope she's safe

the hearts they are adorable <3

I enjoyed Willow and Amity's plot as well! Amity trying to protect her because he values having her back vs Willow wanting her to see that she is strong and can fight alongside her!

he's been reading about Grimwalkers... oh buddy what have you learned?

it's both sweet and heartbreaking that 1) he thought of hexside as a safe place to hide and 2) he's wearing the Flyer Derby outfit. he really had a good time being a normal kid for a day :')

Adrian. I like his style but I did NOT buy his act. How horrifying that he was tricking students into getting sigils by pretending he was helping them not get sigils. messed up

they really made him a pretentious director. I love it. both he and Terra are scary and full of personality, very fun antagonists to see

Love his design also. Everything about it

Severine... is voiced by Dana right? she was hilarious, go back to the tiny cat coven girl they don't deserve u here

Loved the concept of a trippy labyrinth of familiar places too

throw yourself down the steps to see if they're real, flawless technique

once again Hunter parallels another character. Gus is trusting by nature, which has led to him getting hurt, while Hunter grew up in a competitive, hostile environment where the only person he trusted blindly ended up being a monster. He is being extra cautious. But Gus won't hurt him

God, Belos sent a search party and is pretending like he's all worried. he hasn't told anyone he ran away. but we know what'll happen if he goes back to the castle *shudders*

the acting and animation for the panic attack, the breathing and the hesitation were done with a lot of care. I also like that it's in "Gus' room"

I love Gus I love him lots ok

the banned posters I love my children lmao

HIGH FIVE

I'm so happy Hunter still calls Willow "captain" he respects her a ton

and again, it makes sense he noticed she wasn't the real one. Gus is trusting, and Willow has never taken advantage of his trust, while Hunter is super on edge atm

"put him-" "out of his misery? got it" jesus dude he just kicked you

HIS TEAMMATES SAVED HIM

"dude looks sickly" yeah he's been sleep deprived and mentally abused and probably not eating much it'll do that to ya

oh I love this little ragtag team of rebel witches (+ Gus of course)

Adrien wants to find the Galderstones for Belos. Funny, pretty sure that's an ingredient for a certain thing hmmm ever heard of Grimwalkers?

"in the name of the moon we will kick your ass!"

Gus' ability to make you see traumatic memories is messed up. Dana stop traumatizing the children challenge

Hunter and Gus bonding about how they've been deceived and used. and awww the breathing with whistling ahaha is this because of the tooth gap because same

GUS KEPT THE MIRROR THINGY YES

"what... is... this??" "just go with it" my heart

friends will hug you even if you haven't showered

the Illusion coven head got MESSED UP oh my god

Barcus cracks me up he's so well spoken

and we end with Hunter having a LOT to talk about, but also having a large group of people to support and watch out for him

I suspect they're all gonna start preparing to find Luz and the others and to stop Belos in the Day of Unity ohhhohoho I feel DREAD BABEYYY

this was a dense one, and the first episode without Luz in it. I expect next week we'll catch up with them, especially King, and hopefully by the end of next ep both teams meet up to prepare together...

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leviiackrman · 2 years

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OC Song Associations;

I was tagged by the wonderful @florbelles + @confidentandgood, thank you m’loves!🤍 I’m gonna be extra like Stella cus I can tehe

Tagging: @chuckhansen @dihardys @queennymeria @simonxriley @risingsh0t @blackreaches @arklay @indorilnerevarine @multiverse-of-themind @shellibisshe @duffmckagans @saintsilver @denerims @jackiesarch @arthrmorgann + @liurnia

Rules: pick one (or all) of your ocs from any fandom and post the song you think would play when they are introduced to the audience and why.

Introduction:

I am not a Woman, I’m a God by Halsey (instrumental) mixed with the MHA soundtrack

Reasoning: at the end of season 2 when the League of Villains begins to grow and introduce characters such as Dabi, Toga + Spinner; Rin would also be featured in this line up. I envision her first appearance being a shot from behind in a dark alleyway so she’s silhouetted, with her left hand in her pocket and her right reaching up as it drains light energy from a neon sign just in the top right of the frame (providing a purple glow over her for a moment). There would be a quick close up of the lower half of her face showing a smirk, before a familiar silhouette of Dabi is seen entering the frame and then it cuts away. This song just suits her general presence, so introducing her with that powerful low thud of a beat would be epicccccc

Introduction as Whiplash:

RAVE by Dxrk mixed specially with 暴走する悪意 by Yuki Hayashi from the MHA soundtrack

Reasoning: during season 3 at the training camp, Rin (not revealed to be Rin yet) appears as Whiplash (with mask and all) in front of Iida and basically tries to stop him from helping the other students (yknow, fast vs fast). There’s then a quick flashback to a couple minutes before where Dabi is talking to Twice after his fight with Aizawa and Rin appears using her quirk and takes off her mask - revealing her face, saying she had scouted the area and made sure none of the students or staff had left the area to get help (Dabi had isolated them with a forest fire around the base, while Rin ran around the perimeter to gather the situation while also preventing anyone from leaving if they attempted to - but she got bored and went back to talk with Dabi). Again - just an epic bit of music for an epic gal

While in Combat:

Something by Martin Garrix ft. Breathe Carolina

Reasoning: during some of her more aggressive moments or where we see her quirk fully in action, this song works perfectly to match her fast paced movements! Just picture a neon purple blur (or fetch from Infamous: Second Son) darting around a battle field and only appearing clearly for a split second to show her skull mask to her enemy before smashing her chained mace into their head hehe. It also has an electric buzz sound to it which works perfectly for her quirk! She and Dabi team up for double up attacks as well so she can run through his flames (when in her villain costume) and he uses himself as a platform for her to get some height above people before plummeting down with her mace for a slam attack, and yes - it tends to break the ground beneath them… (imagine her running up his back when he calls her to and just emerging through a wall of flame !!!! EPICCCCC !!!)

#tagged*#confidentandgood #florbelles #thank you!!!#oc: rin kyutoku #legit wanna draw some of these frames now…#like I can see some shots clearly in my head

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vro0m · 2 years

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2013 season summary

Alright sorry it took me so long but here it is. So what happened in 2013?

Well it was Lewis' first year with Mercedes. They're actually not doing much better than Mclaren was in 2012, HOWEVER. I feel like overall the team’s energy is more hopeful because Mercedes is doing better than in 2012, when McLaren was spiraling downwards or stagnating at best.

Lewis is not really joyful though. He has his moments, especially at the beginning of the season and when he won, but you can tell he's still frustrated with his results. The last race leaves us with a last interview in which he struggles to find positives to his season, apart from the fact, as we said, that Mercedes did better in 2013 than in 2012 which was the goal. So what’s up with the results? What’s the issue?

Apart from the fact that Seb in his RedBull is still fucking flying, well, it’s the tyres. It's a whole scandal throughout the season : the tyres are absolute shit (see also : British GP). Also the whole Pirelli testing issue, with Mercedes taking part in a tyre test after Barcelona (as asked by Pirelli) that turns out to be illegal and leads them to being shut out of the young driver testing with the new tyres that Pirelli had to put together hastily in the middle of the season because it was so very bad. And the Mercedes seem to be especially hard on them too, which doesn't help. So the boys do pretty well on quali day (5 poles for Lewis) but they go backwards during the races, which is frustrating for them and about just as frustrating to watch.

But despite Lewis struggling to see them, there are positives. He won a race, which wasn't necessarily expected given that the 2012 Mercedes was very much a midfielder (and is not quite out of it yet) and that he’s new to the team. His points average is barely lower than in 2012 (9.5 VS. 9.95). I mean sure, he’s not winning a lot, but in 2012 he DNFd more than he won so... Yeah.

Also enters Bono and you can hear them figure out how to communicate throughout the season which is interesting (they aren't quite there yet either, Lewis gets a bit frustrated at times trying to explain what he needs to hear and what he doesn't need to hear and when). And we got our first “get in there”!

It’s something people from the inside (Brawn) notice just as much as people from the outside (journalists) : he gets more and more familiar with his team, more and more at ease, at home. And god knows it seems to be a very important element to Lewis' balance. And Niki only has good things to say about him.

Also the tyre issue is pretty straightforward as far as engineering goes. When it comes to the car, it seems to be one, specific, well delimited issue. And when it comes to the tyres themselves, Pirelli pretty much fixed them during that season and they’ll have new ones in 2014, that were tested with RedBull at some point (yeah, apparently they were allowed to do that because they used the 2011 car or some shit like that...).

So yep. Lewis might not see it (and in his defense it’s very easy to say from 2022), but everything seems to be falling into place quite nicely...

Let’s talk numbers : so far, I’ve completed 42.2% of my rewatch. In total, I’ve made 870 GIFs to illustrate it.

Here’s a list of the 2013 GPs with a roughly two-sentence summary and the link to the actual recap if you wanna read it or take a look at the GIFs I made :

1. Australian GP : tense racing with Alonso, it starts raining mid-way through. Lewis P5. No gifs.

2. Malaysian GP : wet track. Lewis pulls a Jenson in the pits. RedBull racing. Mercedes racing. Multi 21. Not too happy Lewis, but P3.

3. Chinese GP : Lewis pole! A lost wheel! Very close racing to the end. Lewis P3 again.

4. Bahrain GP : grid-penalty for Lewis. Tyre talks. Lewis interview. Low expectations. The Mercedes go backwards. McLaren racing. Satisfied P5 Lewis.

5. Spanish GP : Mercedes 1-2. The Mercedes go backwards. P12.

6. Monaco GP : Mercedes 1-2 again. Baby Roscoe. Brocedes chapter 1. Extremely boring race, even for Monaco. Red flag. P4.

7. Canadian GP : Close racing with Alonso at the end. P3. A marshal died.

8. British GP : Lewis pole! British quiz and lollipop eating. Delamination puncture. Delamination puncture. Delamination puncture. Delamination puncture. Lewis remontada. P4. Not too happy.

9. German GP : Lewis pole! Another lost wheel and an unlucky cameraman. Mercedes team orders. The Mercedes go backwards. Bad faith Lewis is back. Fire, empty car on track?! P5. Titty holding.

10. Hungarian GP : Lewis 30th pole! Long race but action packed. First Mercedes win for Lewis!

11. Belgian GP : Lewis pole again! Greenpeace protest. Absolutely mind-numbingly boring race. P3. Flirting with Seb.

12. Italian GP : RedBull Pirelli BS. Lewis starts P12... Radio issues and slow puncture. Bad race but loads of overtakes. P9. A bit defeated.

13. Singapore GP : long race. P5. Hitchhiking. Niki interview.

14. Korean GP : a bit of chaos, fire, delamination. Amazing Alonso battle. P5.

15. Japanese GP : delamination puncture. DNF.

16. Indian GP : frustrating race. P6. Seb is WDC for the fourth time.

17. Abu Dhabi GP : no gifs. Lewis goes backwards. Boring. P7.

18. American GP : no gifs. Boring. P4.

19. Brazilian GP : controversial contact, missing wheels, drive-through penalty. P9. Overall not too happy Lewis.

#f1 #lewis hamilton #2013 #2013 season summary #vro0m's race reviews

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auxiliarydetective · 1 year

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I posted 8,240 times in 2022

That's 6,732 more posts than 2021!

689 posts created (8%)

7,551 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@badassbiburgerbob

@daughterofhecata

@darth-rhiannon

@mondfahrt

@literary-squagon

I tagged 3,552 of my posts in 2022

#hogan's heroes - 656 posts

#peter newkirk - 360 posts

#incorrect quotes - 317 posts

#the a team - 294 posts

#the orville - 264 posts

#die drei fragezeichen - 228 posts

#die drei ??? - 221 posts

#star trek - 193 posts

#quotes - 192 posts

#louis lebeau - 186 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#aka vickey gets upset and says something that you can't really translate that well so newkirk translates her posh saying into cockney slang

My Top Posts in 2022:

@florida-irl Clara/Balloracore! Definitely shows more of the Ballora side, but a possessed Ballora, so...

See the full post

48 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

I made another animation. Or I extended this one. Psst... It has sound... Not really well-timed sound, but it has sound!

I now declare the Jelena purple vs yellow debate settled once and for all: Our queen gets both!

58 notes - Posted February 6, 2022

Tada! Finally!!! Please click on the image for better quality.

This is my fanart for @sketchinarkomana's Toxic Boy AU! Sanji meeting Inari!

This took me so long, you have no clue... I can't figure out anatomy, not any day, so I have to rely on bases. I had to think a few days on how to get this done because I couldn't find just one base that would work. Finally, I settled for a little comic and edited three bases to fit it.

The little story behind this is: We're sometime after WCI timeline-wise. Inari is just relaxing, waiting for her crewmates and... Well, this isn't the Sanji she expected. Sanji meanwhile halfway panics because he mistakes Inari for her twin sister Pudding. A little bonding time over their similar childhoods later and they're besties now.

Now, for the colors. I originally planned for this to be directly after the timeskip, which is why Inari's hair is pink - she's bound to Big Mom. But this would also be the case after WCI. I've always loved those three-eyed sunglasses and this base just screamed for me to finally draw one! You might think Inari's outfit is familiar - that's because it's heavily inspired by Pudding's outfit during her first appearance in the Fishman Island Arc. As for Sanji's outfit, I realized there was sort of an old version (dress shirt, keychain, high-waisted pants) and a new version (t-shirt, no chain, low-waisted pants), so... I fused them! I was too in love with the chain not to

For Sanji, I had a bit of creative freedom because all the references I had were in black and white. I asked about what color scheme to use and went from there. His outfit colors were set but I took liberties with the rest. I intentionally used different color palettes for Regular!Sanji and Toxic!Sanji, with Regular!Sanji looking more like a normal human and being more tanned and Toxic!Sanji being paler. That just felt right. Yellow is a warning color so, even though I usually don't like it when people make his hair lemon-colored, I made it a bit more vibrant. The jump to the purple eyeshadow came pretty quickly then because yellow and purple have a great contrast.

Finally, there was lots of dead space in the bottom panel, so I filled it up with the names of Inari and Sanji's devil fruits and their names. This is my third color scheme for the Kami Kami no Mi, oops... Again, there were no colors for the Duku Duku no Mi, but I always associate poison with purple and then I went for purple and yellow again.

Bases by Louane-Knight and Asta9 on DeviantArt

66 notes - Posted April 20, 2022

Has anyone done this before?

192 notes - Posted May 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Dear Hogan’s Heroes fandom, there is a scene in "Is There a Traitor In The House" where Klink says "Schultz, turn on the speaker." It has MAJOR vibes of "Pull the lever, Kronk!" Please, I beg you, tell me I'm not the only one who hears that and someone make this a thing. I do not have the skill

192 notes - Posted February 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #not gonna lie i kinda thought the hochstetter meme would be number one #but considering the drawing my 'schultz turn on the speaker' post inspired #i'm not surprised anymore #that's a great drawing #also i was wondering what hyperfixation would take the crown #turns out my hogan's heroes obsession was the strongest #but the a team made it up so far on the list too!#and that hyperfixation came pretty late in the year #and of course the eternal obsessions are there #as for newkirk being up there i'm not surprised #with lebeau i am surprised #also i'm so so so so happy that the d3f intro and my inari drawing made the list #i'm still so proud of those

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whentherewerebicycles · 2 years

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good morning i already did my daily processing post but i also wanted to do some reflective writing and set some GOALS for this week.

what was hard / frustrating / challenging about last week?

general moving stress

general new job stress, especially info-whelm stress (too much info at once, presented in a disorganized/confusing way, without much guidance about how to engage with it effectively or make sense of it)

feeling disconnected from new colleagues and unsure about how to forge relationships at work (and just worried in general about whether remote work will meet my human contact needs)

feeling a lot of uncertainty and anxiety about lack of structure and direction/oversight

feeling a general sense of dread/existential panic about whether this job will push me in any way or whether i’ll get stuck in a rut here doing work that is a lot less interesting to me than the previous rut i was stuck in

some of these will maybe resolve themselves in time! for instance moving will be over soon-ish and i will also eventually begin working on projects that will hopefully help me organize some of the new information and get a clearer sense of purpose. HOWEVER, i can also bolster my sense of agency/autonomy by taking action and building structures for myself to help anchor me in a period where i feel very adrift! i have decided that in the first six weeks of the job, i want to begin each week by setting 3-5 specific goals for myself on monday. these might be semi-related to actual work projects or responsibilities, but i really want them to feel more like big picture meta-level goals that are focused on making this job feel healthy, meaningful, and manageable for me, and that are also pushing me to develop specific skills i want to learn or improve at. i will set the goals each monday morning and then set aside time on fridays to assess whether i made progress towards those goals or not. if i did, then i will choose to consider the week a Success, even if there were other things i feel frustrated or unfulfilled or whatever about.

here are my goals for this week:

(1) I want to practice clearly communicating my needs and/or areas of confusion to my team lead instead of wallowing in what might be easily resolved stress. This week, I want to specifically bring at least ONE meta question to each of our daily tag-up meetings, and if the initial answer she gives is unclear, I want to keep asking questions or reframing the question until I get the answer I need. I might even practice sending her the question in the morning when we check in briefly on teams at the start of the day, in case giving her time to think about it gets me a better answer. Today’s question: I have been given hundreds of pages of dense information about agency structures, processes, etc. to read independently as part of my onboarding, but I do not have a clear sense of what I am reading this information for or how I will use it or how deeply I need to learn it (as opposed to a more surface-level “familiarizing myself with the content” kind of read). So my meta question for today is: Can we come up with some specific strategies for working through these materials in a way that is efficient and will set me up for project success? What I am really trying to understand here is the hierarchy of importance (which things I need to know urgently and/or need to know very deeply in order to complete project tasks... vs. the things that I should be loosely familiar with but can consult as resources if I’m working on a project that specifically involves training people in those processes.)

(2) I want to continue taking detailed notes on points of confusion & feelings I am experiencing throughout the onboarding and orientation process. Keeping a careful record of how info was introduced to me, how I tried to navigate it or make sense of it, and what feelings that experience stirred up in me will help me eventually propose a redesign of our onboarding process that better supports people in their first weeks.

(3) One of the confusing things about this job is that there are four million different offices and subdivisions within the larger agency i work for and the specific office I work within, and each has its own responsibilities and processes and chains of command. I’ve read a bunch of scattered information over the last week but am still really confused about what we actually do and where we fit into the larger organizational structure. Not having a clear organizational schema in my mind is also making it much harder for me to make sense of these dense onboarding materials, because I don’t have a framework to fit all of these disconnected pieces of information into. So, at some point this week, I want to sit down and use a big piece of paper to create a detailed, annotated organizational map by hand. Creating this map will help me practice recalling/reviewing all this new information, and it’ll also give me a physical resource I can tape up by my desk so that my eyes are passing over it multiple times a day (which I think will help me learn it more quickly).

(4) I want to make a point to make at least one personal connection with my team lead (or other people I meet with) this week. That might be asking them a question about their lives or sharing a small piece of information when we’re small talking at the beginning of the meeting or saying something funny or just, like, trying to convey that I am a human with a personality, and trying to get from the other person some sense of them as a human with a personality. Everyone seems to favor very terse, impersonal email exchanges here but I think meetings might be a chance to do a tiny bit of HELLO I AM A PERSON work with other people. (I also feel like studying the culture of communication in this organization could be a fascinating longer-term project... both interesting in its own sake and potentially a place where L&D could intervene to build a more collegial culture? But I don’t have enough info yet and haven’t met enough people to know if my initial impression of the place is correct or not.)

those are my goals! now back to reading one million insanely dense pages about federal budgeting!

#me grimly: if I cannot find meaning and purpose I must create it #new job #long post #month 1 goals

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toadeyes-miqote · 6 months

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Of overworked lady and other Sharlayan through MSQ

On one hand I want to mess with the Sharalyan eggheads for being obsessed with their research by delaying their quest as long as possible... and then overworked lady mention Ragnarok ....and it became difficult to be mean to that batch at least... there are still some decent folks on this island I guess.

the interaction with Sharlayans over time

ARR (Can't remember if they mentioned being from there) Papalymo - strangely not very familiar and not interact with Recruiter no.2 much. Typical older coworker vibes Yda - Is she considered a Sharlayan? She has on-off days Y'shtola - aloof, lacks empathy, too bossy (unwillingness to help with physical stuff during Feast of Titans to blame. Tis a test for WoL as well as the people who WoL works for). Rude awakening when the Archer Guild and Alpa's Miqo'te team have better chemistry than MSQ Miqo'te. tsunderes are difficult to work with especially when one does not wish to become the next pair of Matoya and Y'shtola Thancred - the babysitter turned mentor turned brother-in-arms. Does he spend enough time in Sharlayan to count? His social butterfly empathy(Wol vs Hoary) shines bright when in a bunch of aloof scholars. Urianger - distant, weird guy that is involved in too many plots to trust him. Difficult to like Moenbryda - Hardly know her, some party gal

Alphinaud - Pompous little ass who needs his ass kicked. comes a long way to become a decent guy but still has much to learn. G'raha - weird babysitting job. annoying young male miqo'te energy(see M'zhet Tia) is burning bright (wait till EW for it to stabliise)

Heavensward Krile - You guys are big on this aloof arm's length thing Matoya - I see why Y'shtola turns out the way she did. But how is it that you're more likable than Y'shtola?

Stormblood Alisaie - Are you sure you grew up with Alphinaud? Which parent did your empathy comes from or did Grandpa Lou's good genes skip a generation? Dangit girl stop hiding behind Alphi you done much good(Shb) if not more.

Shadowbringer Fourchenault - I see where Alphi gets his attitude from

Endwalker Ameliance - So that's where Alisaie's good influence comes from. Claudien - As long as you don't Heart of Sabik round 3 by accident. You're weird but ok. Still have to check on you since you're like Gaia in a sense. Folks with this type of extra "lives" needs a support group of sorts (Hylnyan made one and remains contactable for anything Claudien wish to know about Erich or folks like themselves)

I'm missing some folks for now

-----

Okay Minfilia did mention Sharlayan during Orientation

#custom deliveries #book 6 - endwalker #overworked lady #Sharlayan interactions #custom deliveries - Margrat #Tracking Hylnyan

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shoaibgujjar · 2 years

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Leadership Style Jobs vs Bill (Shoaib Ahmed)

1. I think my leadership style is similar to Bill Gates' leadership style which is characterized as subdued, hospitable, and conducive to productivity. Similar to Bill Gates I am more of a motivating speaker who moves slowly and values the contributions of my team members to the success of the business as a whole. I try to make use of the suggestions and ideas from my team providing them an environment to search, develop new techniques to solve problem and grow as professional. I apply a functional organizational structure where a management system is set up to control and motivate staff for the company’s success and growth.

2. I would see myself on top tier of Leadership grid; I try to do my work with diligence and people who worked with me call me workaholic. I try to present myself as an example and complete the task with efficiency and true hard work. I try to motivate my team members to be like me and contribute freely to improve and get better with respect to completeness and efficiency.

3. Advantage: My leadership style is more towards the Bill Gates style of leadership which invites and gives opportunities to their staff to contribute and grow within a company. I could bring the same stuff to the table and familiarity with leadership styles give me advantage to settle down in the company environment quickly and easily, Tasks on hand would be completed on time with no rush or change in working style.

Disadvantage: Steve jobs leadership style is more of centralized and he try to take all the important decision by him and have a harsh and authoritarian kind of leadership outlook. It doesn’t give you opportunity to grow professionally and make innovations whereas my style is more of democratic in nature where try to give room to everyone so that they can express themselves. I think my style of leadership will be directly in conflict with Apple culture and goals and might prove an obstacle in completing the tasks and assignments on time.

4. After learning about the leadership styles of two leaders, I personally think that both leadership styles can bring you success. It depends on the type of industry and people you are working and what culture and goals you want to achieve. Most important thing to learn here is that you can always improve your leadership skills while working with different group of people, on different tasks/assignments and modify the style in a way to achieve the set targets and goals. I also think that you must stick to the basic and give space to other people within your team to express themselves and contribute effectively towards the betterment of company and working culture.

5. This exercise gives me opportunity to learn about these two great business leaders and give me more insight about my leadership traits. I think I can use both leadership styles to improve the areas where I lack as sometimes you should be hard and fixed on your goals and you can’t show empathy and compassion towards your team’s members. You should develop their skills and professionalism but also focus on the tasks completion and efficiency of work force. I think no leadership is successful and perfect until you achieve the set goals.

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gentrychild · 3 years

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Do you have any advice for writing a fight scene that was also present in canon?

I really love your take on the Midoriya vs. Todoroki fight in Anyone and how you managed to use the expectations set by canon and twist and use them to your advantage!

I have trouble writing the fight from the first hero training inside my fic (I swapped Ochako with Shinsou to spice it up a bit more and for changed friendship dynamics). I know the direction I want it to go and I know how I want it to end but for the life of me I don't know how to make it interesting... every time I sit down and write it I think it's boring writing it. And if I think it's boring while I am writing it I don't even want to imagine how boring it is to read.

🙏

Okay, first rule about rewriting a fight that was already in canon: if you're not changing anything and if you're not interesting in writing it just for writing it, just skip them.

Instead of writing ten pages you're simply not vibing with, a "X was still thinking about Y and Z fight. The way X had just hit Z with that fire extinguisher had been a sight to behold. [Insert how he feels for one or the two participants". He breathed in, then out. It was now time to focus." will be much simpler for everyone involved.

Only writing the consequences is also a valid approach.

That way, you and your readers directly get to the juicy part.

But that's if you're not interested in writing the fight in itself. If you really want to write a fight scene, think about two things: 1. What changed in your AU and how does that affect the characters? What's the differences? 2. Who needs to win?

Once you know that, you can focus on the fight. Do you want a character to almost lose but to win because they simply refuse to stay down? Do you want them to win because they are smarter? Do you want they to win because they are an enraged gremlin that has no chill?

I have four tricks when it comes to writing fight scenes.

1. Focus on emotions.

People are made of different motivations. Why do they need to win? Do they respect their opponent? Do they hate them? Do they look for their respect? Are they friends?

For example: Bakugou and Iida vs Midoriya and Uraraka

Bakugou doesn't respect anyone and is focused on Deku. He wants to prove that he doesn't belong in UA and he wants to know what Deku really thinks of him (since he thought he had lied about not having a quirk and he is completely unhinged at the time because nothing makes sense.)

Izuku wants to prove that he belongs in UA, wants to stop being afraid of Kacchan, and wants him to know that he isn't his punching ball anymore.

Ochako wants to win with Midoriya but she doesn't have an emotional stake in this.

Tenya wants to win but also shows that he understands all the rules of the exercise (since he failed to notice that there were rescue points in the entrance exam), hence why he is completely in character as a villain. He also has to win despite Bakugou.

2. Remember that the reader doesn't live in your head

I won't ask you to keep things simple when you write a fight scene but please, always keep in mind that your reader has to understand what is going on. They have to follow what you're saying, and preferably, they don't have to hurt their brains while doing so.

So, if you reread an action and have to pause to remember what it was about, rewrite it.

3. POV switches, my beloved

That's a me thing. Maybe it won't agree with you. But oh boy, I do love my POV switches. That way, you can surprise the reader since A doesn't know what B is about to do. You can also explore the psyche of both characters in the same fight.

Another thing that is fun to do is the Outsider POV. You're writing about the Sport Festival, an event that is on TV and that your readers are already familiar with. Introducing some novelty by having outsiders react to the fight will bring some spice and is good for your story.

For example: Bakugou vs Uraraka in the Sport Festival.

Tomura noticing that Bakugou has a powerful quirk, real instinct when it comes to fighting, and how the public is quick to turn on him because he isn't winning like a hero should, even though winning is the whole point of the fight. Society is hypocritical! He is ostracized because of his quirk! It might be fun to recruit him!

Other example in the first Hero lesson this time: All Might, a new teacher, noticing what the students lacks and what their strengths are.

4. Write what you would have wanted to see in the fight

We're fanfic writers! Being self indulgent is the whole point!

For the First Hero Lesson, I always have Izuku dominating the fight by being OP.

I could also have him winning by booby trapping the entire building and playing Katsuki like a fiddle.

For the Sport Festival, Todoroki vs Midoriya, I focus more on Todoroki actually harming himself (not to Izuku's extent but he flirts with hypothermia to prove a point) and I researched the side effects of hypothermia to show how he kept weakening himself, and I focus on Izuku being angry because he, a boy defined by his past powerlessness, is fighting someone extremely powerful who is limiting himself, which is simply disrespectful.

For the Sport Festival again, if I ever write Bakugou vs Uraraka, I would love to use Uraraka trash talking Bakugou to get inside his head.

So, to conclude this, things about what interests you in a Shinsou and Midoriya team up, then work from that.

Good luck.

#writing advice

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celepeace · 3 years

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A monster-taming game recommendation list for fans of Pokemon

Whether you're a pokemon fanatic obsessed with all things pokemon past and present, or a veteran fan disillusioned with GameFreak's recent adoption of monetary philosophies and strategies reminiscent of other major game publishers, or looking for a monster-taming fix as you await new Pokemon content...

I'm compiling here a post of little-known games in the genre that Pokemon fans are likely to enjoy!

Under readmore cause long, but some of these games really don’t get the attention they deserve, so if you have the time, please read!

(I am also likely to keep updating and editing this post)

First up is Temtem!

Temtem is a game made by and for Pokemon fans, from the spanish indie developer Crema. Temtem is currently in early access on Steam and PS5, and is likely to remain in early access until sometime late next year. Full launch will include a Nintendo Switch release, too. Despite this, it has plenty of content to explore before full release. The developers are active, release new content on a semi-regular basis, and are responsive to the community as a whole and individuals if you happen to come across a bug you want to report.

Temtem boasts a wide variety of monsters to collect and train. It takes place in the Airborne Archipelago, a system of floating islands that orbit their star, the Pansun. The monsters inhabiting the archipelago are called Temtem, or tem(s), for short.

As far as game mechanics go, it has many similarities to Pokemon, but also many important distinctions. The biggest one, in my opinion, is that the element of chance has been removed from battle entirely. Moves cannot miss, have the same power constantly, and status afflictions have an obviously displayed countdown to when they will wear off (for instance, sleep lasts as long as it says it will last. Not 2-4 turns). PP does not exist, either. Your tems can battle for as long as their HP holds out. In place of PP, a new system called Stamina exists. Stamina is an individual stat, like HP and Attack. Each move costs a certain amount of stamina. If you go over the amount of stamina your tem has, the deficit is detracted from your health instead, and that tem cannot move next turn. Stamina passively regenerates a certain amount each turn, and items and moves exist that can heal stamina. All battles are also double-battles, you and your opponent will typically have two tems on the field at a time. This is just a few of the differences Temtem has from Pokemon, but they're some of the biggest ones.

Temtem is also a massively multiplayer game. You complete the storyline independently (or with a friend through co-op!), but in the overworld you can see other, real players moving around and interacting with the world. There is also public and area-specific chat you can talk to other players through. Despite this, all multiplayer functions are (currently) completely optional. You do not need to interact with others to complete the game.

Overall, Temtem is suitable for the Pokemon fan who is looking for a more challenging experience. Temtem is not a walk in the park you can blaze through with a single super-strong monster. For one, individual tem strength is more well-balanced than it is in Pokemon. There are very few (if any!) completely useless tems. Even some unevolved tems have their niche in the competitive scene! Aside from that, enemy tamers are scaled quite high, and you typically cannot beat them just from the exp you get from other enemy tamers. You have to do some wild-encounter grinding if you want to progress.

Temtem is a very fun game and I've already gotten over 100 hours out of it, despite only 3/5-ish of the planned content being released!

However, I do feel obligated to warn any prospective players of one thing: the current endgame is quite inaccessible. After you complete what is currently implemented of the main storyline, there is still quite a lot left to explore and do, but much of it is locked behind putting a lot of hours into the game. You kind of have to get perfect temtem to do the current PVE (and this is also somewhat true for the PVP too). By perfect I mean you have to breed a good tem and then train it to get the preferable EVs (called TVs in temtem). This takes... well, for a whole team... tens of hours. Of boring grinding. Some people enjoy it! But I don't. Regardless, the game was still worth buying because the non-endgame content is expansive and fun.

So overall, pros & cons:

Pros

Battle system is more friendly towards a competitive scene

Cute monsters

Lots of gay characters, also you can choose pronouns (including they/them) independently from body type and voice

Less difference between the objectively bad tems and good tems than there is in Pokemon

Lots of stuff to do even in early access

Most conversations with dialog choices have the option to be a complete ass for no reason other than it’s fun

Having less type variety in your team is less punishing than in Pokemon due to the synergy system and types overall having less weaknesses and resistances

At least one major character is nonbinary

Cons

Falls prey to the issue of MMOs having in-game economies that are only accessible to diehard no-life players

Related to the above point, cosmetics are prohibitively expensive

Endgame CURRENTLY is inaccessible to most players unless you buy good monsters from other players or spend tens of hours making your own. However I must add that the grind is great if you like that kind of thing and is quite easy and painless to do while watching a show or something.

Here is their Steam page and here is their official website.

Next is Monster Hunter: Stories!

This is a spinoff game of the Monster Hunter franchise released for the 3DS in 2018. If you're anything like me, and you've played the core Monster Hunter games, you've often thought "Man, I wish I could befriend and ride these cool dragon creatures instead of killing or maiming them!"

Well now you can! In Stories, as I will be calling it, you play as a rider rather than a hunter. Riders steal monster eggs from wild nests to raise them among humans as companions and guardians. And yes, egg stealing is a whole mechanic in of itself in this game.

This game works pretty differently from most monster-collecting games. You do battle (usually) against one or two wild monsters using your own, except you fight alongside your monsters too. With swords and stuff. There's armor and weapons you can smelt to make yourself stronger. Type match-ups also kind of don't exist in this game? Except they do? But not in a way you'd expect?

The vast majority of attacking moves you and your monster use fall into categories reminiscent of rock-paper-scissors. Moves can be categorized as power, speed, or technical. Speed beats power, technical beats speed, and power beats technical. The matchup of your move vs your opponent's determines how a turn will go down. If one move beats the other in matchup, then the winner's move will get to go and the loser doesn't get to do anything. If you tie, you both get hit, but for reduced damage. There's also abilities and basic attacks, with abilities basically being the same as pokemon moves, and basic attacks just being "I hit you for normal damage within this category". Also, you don't control what your monster does all the time in battle. You can tell it to use abilities, but what kind basic attacks it carries out is determined by its species' preference. Velicidrome, for instance, prefers speed attacks, but Yian Garuga prefers technical. Stamina also exists in this game in a very similar manner to Temtem.

Overall this game carries over a lot of mechanics Monster Hunter fans will find familiar (how items and statuses work for instance). You don't have to have played a core Monster Hunter game to enjoy Stories though! It's fine and is easy to understand as a stand-alone.

The story has some likable characters and is rather long (it was actually adapted into an anime!), for those of you who enjoy a good story.

I'd really recommend this one especially. If it sounds fun to you and you can drop $30, just do it. I bought it on a whim and I got a few weeks' worth of playing almost nonstop out of it, and I didn't even get to do everything! (I got distracted by Hades, oops)

Stories is also getting a sequel later next year on the nintendo switch! How exciting!

And yes, you do ride the monsters.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Large variety of cool monsters to befriend and raise

Pretty lengthy story

Every tamable monster is also rideable

Deceptively simple combat mechanics, easy to be okay at, hard to master

Incorporates some mechanics from early turn-based party rpgs like Final Fantasy for a nice twist on the monster collecting genre

Cons

Many monsters are objectively outclassed by other ones, making what can be in an actually good team more limited than you’d expect

3DS graphics inherently means the game looks like it was made 7 years before its time

Here is the Monster Hunter Stories official 3DS product page.

And here is Monster Sanctuary!

Monster sanctuary is a game that just had its 1.0 launch- meaning it was in early access and no longer is! Although the devs say they still plan to implement a few more things into the game in future updates. It is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PS4.

Monster sanctuary is a metroidvania twist on the typical monster collecting game, meaning it is also a sidescrolling platformer in which you use abilities you gain throughout the game to explore the world around you. The abilities in this case are the monsters you get! Every monster has an ability that helps you traverse the sanctuary.

Speaking of the sanctuary, the game is set in one. The monster sanctuary is a magically shielded area, cut off from the rest of the world, created by an order of monster keepers, people who befriend and protect the mystical monsters inhabiting the world. Humankind encroached too far on the natural habitat of monsters and were hostile to the native wildlife, so the keepers created an area of varied environments to safely protect and preserve the remaining monsters of the world.

Unlike many other monster collecting games, this game only has 5 types: fire, water, earth, air, and neutral. However, the types themselves do not possess resistances and weaknesses. Instead, each monster has its own assigned weaknesses and resistances. And yes, this can include things like debuffs, physical vs special attacks, and the typical elemental types.

All battles are also 3 vs 3! And unlike in pokemon, where you can only hit the enemies nearest, all monsters have the ability to hit any opponent they want. Turns also work a little differently in that speed doesn't exist, you just use 1 move per monster in your turn and then it goes to your opponent's turn. Your monsters hit in whatever order you want them to.

There is also a quite important combo system in this game, where every hit builds a damage multiplier for the next. Moves often hit multiple times per turn. Healing and buffing actions also build this combo counter. So what monsters you have move in what order really counts!

But the main mechanical difference between this and other games in the genre is how it handles levels and skills. Instead of learning a set move at a certain level, this game incorporates a skill tree, and you get to allocate points into different skills as you grow stronger. And jeez, these skill trees are really extensive. Monster sanctuary is a theorycrafter's dream. Each monster has a unique, specially tailored skill tree, making every monster truly able to have its own niche. You can make use of whatever monster you want if you just put thought into it!

And like Temtem, this game is not made to be beatable by children. I'm sure a child could beat it, but it's not made to be inherently child-friendly like pokemon. It's honestly quite difficult.

On top of that, you are actively encouraged to not just be scraping by each battle. Your performance in battle is rated by an automated system that scores your usage of various mechanics like buffs and debuffs applied, type matchups, and effective usage of combos. The rating system directly influences the rewards you get from each battle, including your likelihood of obtaining an egg from one of the wild monsters you battled (no, you don't catch wild monsters in this game, you get eggs and hatch them). If you're not paying attention to how the game works and making good, effective use of your monsters, you'll have a hard time expanding your team!

The music is also really good, it's made by nature to be able to play over and over and not get old as you explore each area, and the composer(s) really did a good job with this. Some area songs, namely the beach one, I especially enjoy, so much so I've actually played it in the background while I do work.

This is a game I would really recommend. If I made it sound intimidating, it is by no means unbeatable, you're just gonna have to put some thought into how you play. At no point did I actually feel frustrated or like something was impossible. When I hit a wall, I was able to recognize what I did wrong and how I could improve, or I could at least realize something wasn't working and experiment until I found a solution. It's challenging in a genuinely fun, rewarding way.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Extremely in-depth combat system

I genuinely don’t know if there’s an objectively bad monster in this game

Evolution exists but is completely optional, as even un-evolved monsters can be great

Entire soundtrack is full of bangers

Large and diverse variety of monsters to tame

Cons

Story is a little lackluster, but passable

That’s the only con I can think of

Here’s a link to their Steam page and the game’s website.

A kind of unorthodox recommendation is the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series!

Likelihood is that everyone reading this has heard of this series already, but just in case anyone hasn't, I thought I'd include it! I would categorize this as a hybrid between the mystery dungeon genre and the monster collecting genre, because you recruit pokemon as you play and can use those pokemon on your team!

If you're unaware, the mystery dungeon genre is a small subset of dungeon crawler games where you progress through randomly generated levels called mystery dungeons. Throughout the dungeons, there will be enemies to fight and items to collect. The challenge of these games is mostly due to the stamina aspect of them, in that you have to manage your resources as you progress through the level. If you go all out in each fight, you will inevitably lose quite quickly. You have to learn to win against enemies while balancing your use of items and PP, so you have enough for the next fight, and the fight after that.

Pokemon mystery dungeon in particular is famous for its stories, the likes of which isn't seen often in Pokemon games. They are hugely story-driven games and are notable for the emotional depth they possess. It's pretty normal for the average player to cry at least once in the span of the game. There's lots of memes about that specifically.

This entry in my list is also unique for being a series. So, which one should you play first? It actually doesn't matter! Each storyline is entirely self-contained and requires no knowledge of prior entries. The quality of each entry varies and is a point of contention among fans. I say you should play all of them, because they all have their merits (though some more than others.... coughgatestoinfinitycough). They're mostly distinct for the generation of Pokemon they take place in. Rescue team is gen 3, Explorers is gen 4, Gates to Infinity is gen 5, Super Mystery Dungeon is gen 6, and Rescue Team DX is a remake of a gen 3 game but has the mechanics and moves of a gen 8 game.

My only real caution is that you play Explorers of Sky, not Darkness or Time. Sky is basically a combination of the two games with added items and content. It's an objective upgrade over its predecessors, and I honestly wouldn't waste money on the other two.

I’m not going to include a pros and cons list for the PMD series because I’m incredibly biased and it wouldn’t be an honest review.

Next is Monster Crown!

Monster Crown is a monster collecting game that seems to take heavy inspiration from early-gen Pokemon games in particular. It is currently in early access on Steam and is not expensive. I learned about it through the developers of Monster Sanctuary, when they recommended it on their official Discord.

The game has lots of charm and interesting creature designs, and an entirely new take on monster typings as well. Instead of monster types being based off of natural elements like fire, water, electricity, etc. Monster Crown uses typings that seem to be influenced by the personalities of the monsters. For instance, Brutal, Relentless, and Will are all monster types!

It also captures a lot of the charm many of us look fondly upon in early GameBoy-era games. The music is mostly chiptune, with some more modern backing instruments at times, and the visuals are very reminiscent of games like Pokemon Crystal in particular. Monster Crown is definitely the monster collecting game for fans of the 8-bit era!

The thing that stands out the most to me about this game is the breeding system. Instead of one parent monster passing down its species to its offspring, you can create true hybrids in this game.

However, it is very early access. I would consider the current build as an alpha, not even a beta yet! So temper your expectations here. I have not encountered any major bugs, but visual glitches here and there are quite common. The game also could definitely use some polish and streamlining, and is quite limited in content currently. But the dev(s) seem quite active, so I fully expect these kinks to be worked out in time!

The reviews are rather positive, especially for being in early access. I'm all for expanding the monster collecting genre, so if you're looking to expand your horizons in that sense, I would recommend you at least give this one a look! I personally had quite a bit of fun playing Monster Crown and am going to keep an eye out for updates.

Pros & cons:

Pros

Charming artstyle, appealing monster designs

Faithful callback to a bygone era of gaming

Controls are fairly simple and easy to get the hang of (and are completely customizable!)

Cool breeding and hybridization mechanics

There's a starter for each monster type!

You can choose your pronouns, including they/them!

Cons

Inherent nature of being very early access means can be clunky and unpolished at times

Also not much content as of right now, see above

User interface could use some redesign in places

Here’s their Steam page and the official website!

Here’s an oldie but a goodie, Azure Dreams!

This is one I actually haven’t played, mostly because it’s really old and therefore only practically accessible if you play it on an emulator, unless you're one of those old game collectors. Azure Dreams was developed by Konami and released for the PS1 in 1997. My impression of it was that it either didn’t sell well or only took off in Japan, because it’s actually really hard to find any comprehensive information about it on the internet.

Azure Dreams is a monster collecting - dating sim hybrid. You can build relationships with various characters and can pursue some of them romantically, although that isn’t the main draw of the game. There is also a stripped-down version that exists for the GameBoy Color, which forgoes the dating portion of the game entirely.

Azure Dreams is kind of like a mystery dungeon game in that you progress through a randomly generated, ever-changing tower using the help of the familiars you have accrued throughout your adventure. Similarly to Monster Hunter: Stories, you yourself also take part in the fighting alongside your monsters. Each time you enter the tower, your character’s level is lowered to 1, but your familiars keep their experience. Thus, progression is made through strengthening your monsters. To obtain monsters, you collect their eggs, just like in Monster Sanctuary (which, turns out, was at least partially inspired by this game!)

Due to this game being very old and on the PS1, the visuals leave a lot to be desired... but if you can get past that, Azure Dreams has lots of replayability and customization to how you play the game. To this day, it appears it has a somewhat active speedrunning community!

If you don’t mind the effort of using an emulator, and like old games, Azure Dreams just might be that timesink you were looking for in quarantine.

Honorable mentions:

Pokemon Insurgence (or any Pokemon fangame/ROMhack, really!) is a Pokemon fangame that introduces Delta Pokemon, which are really cool type-swapped versions of existing Pokemon. It’s sufficiently challenging and has a lot of variety in what you can catch in the wild, so you can pretty much add whatever you want to your team! The story is quite good, and the main campaign is multiple times longer than a typical Pokemon game’s campaign. Download it here!

ARK: Survival Evolved is NOT a monster collecting game BUT you do get to tame and fight alongside a lot of really cool extinct species, including but not limited to the dinosaurs we all know and love. This game is genuinely fun as hell, especially with friends, but I must warn you: never play on official servers. I highly recommend singleplayer, playing on a casual private server, or making your own server. Here’s the Steam page.

#pokemon #temtem #monster sanctuary #monster hunter stories #monster crown #azure dreams #pokemon mystery dungeon #pokemon alternatives

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suna-reversed · 3 years

Text

HQ boys as Taylor Swift songs-folklore

characters- Oikawa (exile), Atsumu (my tears ricochet), Meian (illicit affairs)

tags/warnings- ANGST, breakup, heartbreak, cheating, mentions of alcohol, manipulative behaviour, fluff in Meian’s if you squint

suggestions for pt2 would be appreciated (currently thinking of cardigan with Bokuto and hoax with Tsukishima)

Oikawa

“I can see you standin', honey

With his arms around your body

Laughin' but the joke's not funny at all”

He had told himself over and over again to not look; in the flight, in the ride to the hotel, even as he passed the entrance gates of the exquisite banquet hall where the reunion was being held. All he had to do was keep his eyes away.

But you were here, and he had never been good at withstanding the cosmic pull you always held. Even if you were in the arms of another, laughing like you always used to, with him.

I think I've seen this film before

And I didn't like the ending

“What changed, Tooru?” Your eyes were red and puffy, you had exhausted all your tears while he simply stood in the corner and watched.

“This isn’t going to work out y/n. We’re both miles away, with different lives, in different time zones, around different people; we can’t have a relationship built on nothi-” He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose, “...I’m saving both of us from the pain that would come with splitting a few years down the line.”

“Do you still love me?”

Oikawa was familiar with the grief that came with loss; the grief of giving something every single bit of your soul, only to come out empty-handed and wounded.

“Go back home, y/n.”

You're not my homeland anymore

So what am I defendin' now?

You were my town

Now I'm in exile seein' you out

Perhaps he had damned himself to ruination. Given up without a fight. But that didn’t matter now.

You look ethereal, with stars in your eyes and glee in your smile. It doesn’t matter if he’s not the one behind it. You would have been a shell of who you are right now if you had stayed with him anyways.

He turns around, heading for exit.

Just one last time. He promises himself. His lips curve upwards into a bittersweet smile as he turns around to get his last look. Instead, he finds himself staring into the expanse of an entire galaxy. A cosmic explosion coming his way as the floor shifts from beneath him.

No, you definitely don’t sound the same.

How long has it been since he heard that voice?

“Not even gonna say goodbye before you leave Oikawa?”

What happened to your precious “Tooru”?

Atsumu

Even on my worst day, did I deserve, babe

All the hell you gave me?

The clock reads 01:27 am. You’ve been sitting on the couch for the past 3 hours, the untouched dinner on the table gone cold long ago. You hear the sound of a door slamming shut, hushed footsteps making their way towards the center of the apartment, coming to a halt at the sight of you.

“Why are you still awake?”

“You promised we’d have dinner together tonight.”

“Listen, it got late at practice, you could’ve just eaten without me.”

“You could’ve at least dropped a text.” You murmur, trying to keep your voice from breaking. This wasn’t the first time he had stood you up.

“It’s not that big of a deal y/n. You realise how important the upcoming match is to me, don’t you?” He sighs, shaking his head in disappointment, “Let’s just go to bed okay, I’m tired.”

“Okay.” You mutter, loosening your grip on the 2 year anniversary gift hidden below the couch cushion. A platinum ring with yours and Atsumu’s initials carved on the inside.

You wear the same jewels that I gave you

As you bury me

Atsumu’s vision is blurry, shirt drenched in sweat, his head pounding as he’s pushed against the wall. He doesn’t know whether it’s from the screaming match he just had with you, or from the two bottles he chugged at a shady bar right after he walked out.

All that matters right now is the feeling of the hands of the girl that’s kissing his jaw. The same spot where you had pressed a chaste kiss not too long ago as you told him that you were going to leave-

No, he’s not going to think about it. All that matters is the touch of skin against skin, filling in the void you caused as he kneads the supple flesh of her thigh with his hand. The same hand that bore a platinum ring, the letters engraved inside of it now fatuous and futile.

You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same

Cursing my name, wishing I stayed

You turned into your worst fears

No, no, no.

Why are you here?

Why are you back?

“I had hoped we could talk-” You take a deep breath, feet stuck in place as you lay your eyes upon the marks littering his jaw, his neck, going much farther down-

A sob comes out from deep inside your chest.

No, no, no.

He’s looking at you, your crestfallen face, tears falling off of it like british showers.

He’s acting before he can think, falling to his knees, grabbing onto your waist as you try to walk out.

“No! Angel, please just let me explain. I thought you were never coming back- I would've never-”

“Never what Atsumu?!” Your voice is louder than you expected it to be.

“Never what? A single fight is all it takes for you to discard everything we ever had? For you to step over everything I put into a relationship that has barely even existed for so long!”

He’s never heard you shout before. But it's okay, it’s okay if you shout at him, if you break a few things, hell you can wreck his whole apartment if it means that you’re staying for even just a moment longer.

But you’re not. You’re pushing him away, movements stern, as you try to make your way to the door. All he can do is cling onto you, crying your name over and over again as he racks his brain for a way to make you stay.

Why was it always you who knew what to say when it came to fixing things?

Meian

Make sure nobody sees you leave

Hood over your head

Keep your eyes down

Tell your friends you're out for a run

You'll be flushed when you return

You knew there were aspects of his life he had no control over. After all, he was watched by thousands of eyes everyday; the star player, the golden boy; the captain of MSBY. So how does it matter if you had to go a mile extra to hide what you had?

You loved who he was as a person and how he made you feel. Good-morning and goodnight texts, warm cuddles after matches, dancing in the kitchen to songs you don’t know the name of, late night drives to get takeout or go stargazing, laughing till you were on the floor crying. You loved him so much.

And that's the thing about illicit affairs

And clandestine meetings

And stolen stares

They show their truth one single time

But they lie, and they lie, and they lie

A billion little times

“Volleyball player Meian Shugo spotted with a blonde beauty at the MSBY vs Adlers afterparty. Could she be his rumoured girlfriend that we’ve been kept in the dark about all along? Read more for exclusive deta-”

You can’t shed a single tear staring at the cover of the magazine. Not because your heart hasn't just been ripped out of your chest, but because you’re in public, standing in line at the grocery store picking up snacks for you and...Meian.

Why did you not see this coming? What hurt more was that you knew the girl. Meian had introduced you to her as a friend, and her as his social media manager. So this was clearly a misunderstanding right? It had to be. Despite telling yourself that over and over again, you still couldn’t get the picture of his arm wrapped around her waist and the smile etched onto his face out of your mind as you drove home, tears blurring your vision.

Don't call me kid

Don't call me baby

Look at this godforsaken mess that you made me

“Baby please listen to me-”

You’re sitting on the edge of the couch. You don’t know how long ago you stopped screaming, how long ago the anger dissipated and the rage turned into silent sobs, leaving behind a gaping hollow feeling in your chest.

You feel him shift closer to you but you don’t at him, still sniffing, your head buried in your arms.

“She was at the party because she’s our manager, you know Jessi-”

“Don’t say her name.” you hiss out.

“I wish I never met you, I wish I never got into this stupid arrangement. I wish-” You’re rambling now, sobs escaping between every few words as you try to comprehend the situation, “I hate this. I hate you.”

Heavy silence hangs in the room.

And you know damn well

For you I would ruin myself

A million little times

You find arms being wrapped around you and your head being pulled into a warm chest. You try to fight at first, but you’re tired; your throat hurts, your eyes burn and everything feels so cold, so you let yourself guiltily fall into his comfort, pathetically sobbing into his neck.

He patiently waits for your sobs to quiet down, one hand rubbing gentle circles onto your back while the other cradles the back of your head.

“She was at the party with the whole team and the publicist used it as a way to create gossip. That’s all there is to it. I had not given my consent for them to go ahead with this, but they refused to make our relationship public. Apparently, they didn’t think that the age gap between us would reflect well on my reputation.”

Meian’s heart breaks at the sound that leaves you as he says that, your hand gripping onto the fabric of his shirt as you start sniffing once more.

“I don’t care about what they say princess, you know that.” He kisses the top of your head, pulling you even closer to himself as if he could absorb the pain from you.

“I’m so sorry, give me another chance please. I didn’t tell you because I knew it’d hurt you. I promise I’ll make it up to you, please?”

You look up at him. His eyes are filled with tender love and pure adoration, it makes your heart melt. You nod, burying your face into the crook of his neck. Of course you would, he's your precious Meian, you’d always forgive him. Why did you ever think he’d do anything to hurt you?

Meian smiles into your hair, ignoring the sound of the notification popping up on the phone kept on the table,

Jessica: hey, we're still on for tonight right ? ;)

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therabine · 3 years

Text

In case you were wondering why wordbuilding for Ravka feels so random

After going down the rabbit hole in my search for answers I've stumbled across this conversation on goodreads dated back to the November of 2013, where Leigh Bardugo replied to some reasonable criticism about her 'cultural inspiration"- https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/1533856-has-bardugo-talked-about-the-russian-inconsistencies This conversation is quite long and miss Leigh gave about three replies to various questions from people that were deeply bothered by the very surface level research she did on the Russian cilture. Here are the major highlights, plus the other things I've found while goodling: 1) As far as I've understood - neither she nor her publishers expected the first book to blow up like this. So even though there was obvoiusy a lack of proper research and some mistakes variying from minor to insulting, now that she's an esteemed author Leigh claims all of it to be deliberate choices adding that "deliberate choices aren't necessarily good ones". She also tries to lift the responsibility off her shoulders, mentioning that her work "was reviewed not just by my editor, but by copy editors, proofreaders, multiple foreign editors, and foreign copy editors". Not a single word about actual Russian-speaking person/expert reviweing the text or helping her out with creating the Ravkan language though. The only person she's ever credited as the one who helped her out with creating Ravkan is Erdene Ukhaasai from Mongolia that she's been friends on Facebook at the time (source on this one - https://ageofsteam.wordpress.com/2012/04/25/genre-friction-what-is-tsarpunk-by-leigh-bardugo/ ). The Facebook page under this name currently doesn't exist and the only results that Google shows on this person are the mentions that Leigh Bardugo gave in her interview, so unfortunately I couldn't reach out for clarification on this topic. Still, it's highly unlikey that someone with zero publications under their name would be a proffesional linguist and therefore qualified for such a task. 2) Within your secondary world, unless you are writing satire, things should make internal sense. That world could not arize independently of its context. The problem with the Bardugo's Ravka is that it's based on Russian Empire alone, yet she claims that "it's only Russian inspired" without acknowledging that most people that are not familiar with the culture will take it in as authentic. She takes the words and objects out of the context, misgenders names and last names and creates new 'russian-sounding" words without understanding how the grammar works. Which is a shame, given how flexible Russian language is - the possibility for the word-building is endless and with the right guidance she truly could make some unique and meaningful terms specifically for the Ravka. Also on the alcoholic kvas issue - Leigh proudly claims this as a solution to be a vodka "substitute", because vodka would be too on the nose and too common (more on the matter here -https://www.leighbardugo.com/grishaverse/the-archives/tongue-twister/). What didn't cross her mind is that instead of turning a non-alcoholic drink into strong booze for "wordbuilding" it would be much better to use less known drinks whic do contain alcohol - braga, samogon, nalivka - just to name a few.

3) To elaborate on some of the specific issues with names and last names: Leigh doesn't seem to understand how gendered surnames work in Russian. That's why we get stuff like Alina Starkov (when it's supposed to be Starkova, because she's a woman) and Alexander Morozova (Morozov would be a correct form) etc. This system is never consistent - Mal Oretsev gets to have a male surname, but so does Genya Safin and Zoya Nazyalensky has a weird non-gendered kind of in between last name (very much in fashion of Natasha Romanoff, who would be called Natalia Romanova in Russian). Also must mention Ana Kuya - poor woman's name literally sounds like "why the f*ck" in Russian, that's about just as bad as naming your Asian character Whata Phuck. Again - none of this nonsense would happen if someone bothered to find a Russian-speaking person to read the text. Other Russian words she tries to throw in seem to be the result of a bad Google Translate, rather than a conscious choice: for example the word otkazats'ya that she uses to describe non-grishas is actually a verb that translates as "to refuse". The noun with the meaning of "the refused one" would be otkaznik or otkazniki for a plural form. Same with sobachka ("small dog") - the context from the book suggests this nickname to be an insulting one, so the word we're really looking for would be shchenok ("puppy") or shavka ("mongrel", "cur"). The list of those examples, honestly, goes on and on.

4) Leigh does mention that she "can acknowledge that the choices I made in building the language and culture of Ravka came from a place of insularity and a type of privilege". However she's more keen to talk about how she has "certainly encountered critics, but I've also had Russian fans"...Which to me sounds about just as bad as stating "I do have *insert a minority racial group* friends and they say that me doing *insert a dubious act* is fine". The problem is that Russian culture has been demonized and overlooked for so long that most people (myself included) tend to praise content creators for including even the most sterytypical "insprations". Just because some people are willing to excuse her voluntary ignorance, doesn't mean that it's okay.

5) No books on Russian culture that she's mentioned as part of the resarch were written by Russian authors. And while reading the SaB it becomes crystal clear that that the major 'cultural inspiration' Leigh got was not from those books, but from the monstrosity that is her tsapunk pinterest board - https://www.pinterest.ru/lbardugo/tsarpunk-inspiration/ . About 80% of the stuff there doesn't even relate to Russian culture and the rest is a mash of modern knockoffs.

To summorize it: Leigh very much knew about the concerns surrounding her "Russian-inspired" Ravka which were respectfully brought to her consideration by her Russian speaking fans back in 2012-2013. She said "I've taken it to heart and it's something that I've tried to be conscious of as I move forward in the series and my other work", apologized and then she did nothing to do better. She marketed Shadow and Bone as "Tsarpunk", fetishisizing Russian culture and using it as a unique setting to uplift a generic "light vs. dark" fantasy plot supported by the bland narrative of the Chosen One. There was an effort and will to make a change for the better, not a single letter has been changed for us. When I think about, I can't really remember anything that would ring as a thoughtful and clever element adapted into the story from Russian culture. If everything is always altered or twisted, if there is nothing true or authentic then should you really call it Russian-inspired? Should you really make profit off it and call this aesthetic tsarpunk?

Leigh Bardugo could have fixed the most jarring problems with the material while doing the adaptation from book to screen, but she chose not to. There was no effort made to include more people of slavic descent as a major part of production team or as background actors. Almost nothing of the production design or clothing was inspired by Russian culture. To elaborate: I'm not even mad. I'm just deeply sad and hurt by the indifference.

Some might argue that this book series was not written for Russians, that it was written for the western audience. But don't they deserve respectfully researched and authentic stories too?

#leigh berdugo #shadow and bone #sab #six of crows #grishaverse #alina starkov #bookblr #tsarpunk #mal oretsev #genya safin #zoya nazyalensky

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ya-pucking-nerd · 3 years

Text

"Come home" - m.barzal

A/N: here it is!! the part 2 to déjà vu!! (also credit to the gif maker ily <3)

i debated for a while whether or not to even write it because the point of the song is that she is angsty and angry and hurt, but the hopeless romantic part of me was screaming to write a part 2 so here she is :)

tagging the people who seemed to really like the first part (in case they’re interested in the second part?) : @ollywahlygator @2manytabsopen @matwith1t @barzysreputation @tessisawriter @calgarycanuck @fallinallincurls

It had been over a year since you and Mat broke up. After discovering Kathryn’s Instagram, and your show being canceled by ABC, it seemed like all signs pointed towards you moving back to LA. You were offered a position as a regular on James Cordon’s Late Late Show. You told yourself that you were moving back to LA to further your career and definitely not because you want to avoid Mat at all costs.

Right now, you were driving with some of your coworkers to the Staples Center to help him shoot another episode of dodgeball “Brits vs. Americans” for his show. You were excited; it was supposed to feature Tom Holland, Olivia Rodrigo, Chase Stokes, Dua Lipa, and loads of more guests.

What you didn’t realize was that the New York Islanders were in town to play the LA Kings tonight. When you got there, the Staples Center crew hadn’t started putting in the floor where you would be playing dodgeball. They invited you all to just lounge around in the stands until the hockey practice ended. It still didn’t hit you yet that the New York Islanders could be the ones practicing on the ice; you assumed it was the Kings.

Your coworkers were chatting and pointing excitedly at the “hot ones” on the ice. You rolled your eyes and opened your phone until you saw a flash of blue pass you.

“Well, those certainly aren’t the colors of the Kings,” you thought as you groaned internally. The rational part of your brain tried to reason “Maybe it’s the Oilers or the Leafs. Their team colors are blue,” but when you saw the familiar logo of a team who you supported wholeheartedly, you groaned loudly.

“What’s up, Y/N?” your coworker, Molly, and probably closest friend in LA asked.

“Oh, nothing,” you lied. “I think I’ll just need to take an Advil when I get home. I’m feeling a headache coming on.”

“I got you,” she says as she starts digging in her purse. She pulls out a bottle of Advil, and you slowly take them. You don’t want to get caught in your lie, so you grab your water and take a pill. You thank her quietly while you wait for the Staples Center staff to start to build the floor so that you can play dodgeball with James and get out of there.

And as fate would have it, none other than Anders Lee himself would stop right where you were sitting and turn around. The recognition in his eyes was uncanny, and he gave you a small wave before throwing himself back into whatever drill Barry was running. Molly looked at you in shock but didn’t say anything. You hadn’t told anyone about Mat and the New York Islanders, because you never thought that the ghosts of your past would follow you back home. Or at least you were hoping they wouldn’t, but they always find a way.

Barry ended practice a couple of minutes after the Anders sighting, and you didn’t think much of it when your production crew started taking over as soon as the Staples Center crew was done. Someone came over to where you were left seated and guided you through the halls of the Staples Center to get you to a changing room so you could put on a red tracksuit and play dodgeball with James. You finished and started to go back out to the court. On your way, you walked past the guest locker room, so you did the most reasonable thing you could think of and averted your eyes to the floor. The last thing you needed was to make eye contact with any member of the New York Islanders and invite them to come over to you.

You ended up walking into a pole.

“Shit, Y/N, are you ok?” asked the voice of the one person you really didn’t want to see.

“Yeah, Mat, I’m fine. I’m good,” you said back as you still refused to make eye contact.

“I’m gonna go get some ice from the trainer. Wait right here!” He ran back into the locker room and emerged with an ice pack in 30 seconds. He held your head steady and gently laid the ice on your throbbing head. You had to admit, it did feel nice.

Molly came around the corner and saw you on the ground with a hot hockey player sitting next to you looking super worried, and she started laughing hysterically. She helped you up, and in between laughs, said, “Only you would manage to walk into a pole.”

She was ready to bring you out to the court when Mat shouted, “Y/N, can we talk later today?”

You looked back in shock, but nodded your head, nonetheless. You shouted back to use Instagram DMs.

What you didn’t know is that the rest of the guys were eavesdropping on your entire interaction. After you were dragged away by Molly, the guys all looked at Mat and shook their heads. See, they knew that Mat wasn’t with Kathryn anymore. They also knew why Mat was ever with Kathryn in the first place. And they also knew that Mat still had feelings for you.

You lost the game of dodgeball. But, at this point, you didn’t care. You knew that James would get some good moments to air on the show later that night; especially when James got out the huge yoga balls and started kicking them at the Americans.

Ultimately, you just wanted to get back to your apartment and sleep until the show later tonight. You forgot about promising Mat an Instagram DM conversation until you looked at your phone.

When you got home, you immediately crashed into bed, not even bothering to change out of the tracksuit. You had set your phone on your small kitchenette table and never thought to look at incoming notifications.

Waking up thirsty, you dragged yourself out to your kitchen to get water. Grabbing your phone was something you did absent-mindedly, but your eyes bulged at the 10 Instagram DMs you missed.

“Hey Y/N! I don’t know when u will be done with the James Corden stuff, but text me when ur out” 11:53 am

“By the way, congrats on getting a job with James Corden. I always knew u would make it in LA” 11:54 am

“I was thinking, since we have an entire afternoon before either of us has to be anywhere, we could meet up at that ice cream parlour we visited that one time?” 11:57 am

“Am I being annoying?” 12:07 pm

“Hey, just checking to see if ur done with the thing” 12:33 pm

“Y/N???” 12:59 pm

“The guys are all telling me that I’m stupid for continuing to try, but I just wanted to talk.” 1:32 pm

“Y/N, I know this seems like I’m obsessive, but I truly just want to talk. Like catch up maybe? Please don’t ignore me.” 1:50 pm

“If u don’t want ice cream, that’s totally cool too. We can get whatever u want.” 2:24 pm

“The guys are taking my phone now :(” 2:38 pm

You let a little stream of air out of your nostrils as you read all his messages, but also feeling a little bad that you missed all these messages.

“Hey Mat. Sorry, I came home and took a quick power nap. Where did you want to go to talk?” 2:49 pm

You now understood the anxiety Mat was feeling when you didn’t respond for over two hours, but you did have a little more self-control than he had. Luckily, you didn’t have to wait near as long as he did.

“Did u want to go to that ice cream parlour we went to?” 2:50 pm

“The one in Malibu? Yea, I can pick you up if you want.” 2:51 pm

Mat sent you the address of the hotel. You changed and grabbed some cash and got ready to pick him up to drive 30 minutes just for a symbolic ice cream parlour.

On your drive over to the hotel, you told yourself that the reason you were doing this was for closure on your part. You most certainly did not miss him and would absolutely say no to giving him a second chance.

You presumed the rest of the team was in the hotel or maybe sightseeing, but Mat was waiting for you on a normal-sized chair, but Mat made it look tiny. After the exchange of hellos, he was uncharacteristically quiet. It made you a little uncomfortable because the Mat you left in New York was able to start up a conversation with just about anyone as long as they were willing to listen (and sometimes when they weren’t). This Mat was sitting with his knees together like a puppy with his tail between his legs because he knows he did something.

Parking the car was a little difficult because the parlour was full. You finally pulled into a spot and Mat bounced out of the car.

The parlour had changed a bit since the last time you came here with Mat. For one, they covered up the cute mural. Instead, it was a plain grey wall. The comfortable booths you once sat in were replaced by cold, metallic chairs. Outside, the picnic benches that were once adorned with rainbow-colored umbrellas were now covered with simple grey ones.

“Hey, go pick a bench. I’ll get it for you.” Mat offered, already reaching for his wallet.

“Mat, no. I can’t let –” you started.

He interrupted you, saying, “I basically begged on my knees for you to come out here with me, and then I even made you drive. It’s the least I can do.” A small laugh left his lips at the end, letting you know he genuinely felt bad about it.

You conceded and reminded him, “Strawberry, please!” At that, Mat smirked and said, “I remember.”

He exited the parlour five minutes later holding two cups. Ironically, both were filled with strawberry ice cream. He was sheepish as he gave you a cup and a spoon.

“They were out of bubblegum, but I figured you didn’t want to share with me anymore.” He was beating around the bush, which was funny considering he was the one who asked you to come with him.

You, however, were not the type to beat around the bush. The words “Why did you bring me here, Mat?” were tumbling out of your mouth faster than you thought. See, you weren’t the type to beat around the bush, but you generally weren’t that blunt.

Mat was taken aback by your bluntness but answered in stride.

“I missed you, Y/N.” He abandoned his spoon in his cup. He started lifting his hands to hold yours, but he probably saw the fear in your eyes and immediately retracted them back into his lap.

“What?” You were confused. You thought Mat was still with Kathryn. Was he cheating on her with you? Oh, no. You were not about to become “the other woman” no matter how much your petty side wanted to hate Kathryn. Deep down, you knew she did nothing wrong. She was just a lucky girl who got to experience being loved by Mat Barzal. “Mat, you have a girlfriend.” That was your only defense, and you knew it.

“No, not anymore. She um… She left me. She was using me because she wanted more followers. She was one of those beauty youtubers and she thought that if she got more attention from different groups, she would get more subscribers. It worked actually, but eventually, she wasn’t gaining as many from me and my fanbase, so she moved on to some other group.”

You could see the pain in Mat’s eyes. When you were in a relationship with him, he wasn’t always the best with words, but you could always tell his emotions by his body language and his eyes. Both were very telling – maybe even more so than any actual words could convey.

You realized you were quiet for a little too long. Mat’s eyes now shifted from dejected to curious. He was waiting for a reply on your part.

You decided on “Mat, I’m so sorry. You didn’t deserve that.” You were trying your best to not get emotional right now. You knew that when you were emotional, you made bad decisions.

And then, out of nowhere, you said, “I saw all those dates you took her on.” You were once again shocked by the bluntness of your choice of words but decided to continue. “Mat, those were the exact same dates we used to go on. I mean, this was our ice cream parlour, and you took her here like you’ve never been here before. Did you even tell her that I found it first? And playing her our songs? Did she ask you who taught you Billy Joel?”

You felt yourself beginning to lose it, which you didn’t want to do, so you chose to end with “Why?” It left the ball in his court. He had a choice, to either answer with a simple “I don’t know” or he could be honest.

He chose the latter. “Because I missed you, Y/N. And I’m not just saying that. I think, subconsciously, I was trying to make her you. I thought that if I took her on the same dates and did the things we did, it would make me feel for her the way I felt – shit I mean feel, still feel – for you.”

He left you a minute to let those words simmer. He did gain enough courage to grab your hands in his. His thumbs were rubbing yours in soothing circles as you worked through all that he had to say.

“What do you mean still feel?” You weren’t sure if you wanted to know the answer.

“Y/N, of course, I still have feelings. I don’t think I ever stopped. You know, we broke up because we always agreed ‘right person, wrong time’, right?” He looked hesitant about saying the next part. “What if now is the right time?”

His hazel eyes were webbed with worry. This was probably the most vulnerable you’ve ever seen Mat. Ever. The question plagued your mind, and the longer you thought about it, the more the answer became clear.

Mat left the ice cream parlour with one more phone number in his pocket. You left the ice cream parlour with a weight lifted off your shoulders. You had been granted that closure your heart yearned for. But now, you yearned to be loved by Mat Barzal again. No one had ever made you feel so seen like he had. No one had made you feel so important. But, in the back of your mind, your insecurities about Mat’s insecurities were eating you from the inside out. If Mat’s insecurities lead him to break your healing heart again, you didn’t know if you could survive. You eventually decided that you wanted to take it painfully slow. You didn’t want to let him back into your life all in one day. That would set a precedent that he could break your heart whenever he wanted and then walk right back in whenever he felt like it, which is not what you wanted. You needed him to know he had to earn his way back into your life.

Throughout the rest of the regular season and into the post-season, you and Mat kept in touch. Nothing noteworthy, really. Mostly filled with memes on Mat’s part and “good luck!” texts on yours. Sometimes, there were hints of playful flirting, too.

Mat, however; was playing noticeably better. You didn’t want to attribute that to your grand reentrance into his life, but the rest of his team did. You got “thank you” texts from the whole team for weeks until they were ultimately eliminated from the playoffs.

When the Isles got eliminated, Mat surprised you and booked a flight out to LA. The season finale of The Late Late Show was airing that night and then, you were done. Mat even came to watch the live show. He brought you flowers and complimented you endlessly.

Instead of going straight back to your apartment or to a club, you took a walk along Hollywood Boulevard. You held your flowers in one hand and your other was dangling beside you because you wanted Mat to hold your hand. Soon enough, you found an excuse to grab it without him thinking it was weird. You were coming up on the Walk of Fame, one of the biggest attractions in Hollywood. It was so crowded, and you didn’t want to be separated from Mat, so you grabbed his hand, and together you faced the chaos. He confidently guided you through and he did not let go of your hand when you were through.

You found your way to the lobby of your apartment building. Mat had yet to let go of your hand, but you didn’t mind.

“Can I walk you up? For safety purposes, of course.” He smiled through the question. You didn’t mind; you wanted the excuse to spend a little more time, even if it was just an elevator ride.

Ever the gentleman, Mat walked you to your door. He was trying, and you wanted to acknowledge that. You knew that he didn’t have to make this trip. He didn’t even see his family yet, and you knew how much they meant to him. He pushed it off for fourteen whole days to spend time with you. In the back of your mind, you thought maybe he might make a move on the fourteenth day, but you didn’t want to get your hopes up.

Those fourteen days came and went quicker than you expected. You gave Mat a true tour of Los Angeles. The last time he was here, you mostly spent time at your apartment. This time, you didn’t want to allow yourself to fall into that trap. You took him to your favorite places, the biggest tourist attractions, but you did eventually allow him into your apartment.

Your suspicions were correct. On the fourteenth day, Mat came to your door with a bouquet of roses. “Y/N, let’s try this again. Once the summer ends, move back to New York with me. Come home”

#emma writes #mat barzal #mat barzal fic #mathew barzal #mathew barzal fic #nhl fic

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