#yes i WILL cast Effects on my art

[galedekarios]

gale & curing the orb - early access

writing my current series of cut content from early access made me think a lot, especially about how curing gale of the orb might have originally worked out if larian had kept to what had been set up in early access. it's no secret that a lot of things were changed or cut entirely, big and small, like for instance halsin's involvement with ketheric's fall, isobel and the shadow curse.

gale's condition, too, seemed different then.

what exactly was different in early access?

while only a few body models were unique in early access, gale's key art showed his left arm in bandages.

in early access, auntie ethel had vicious mockery lines, which hinted what might be beneath those bandages:

Auntie Ethel: I can smell what's under those bandages, wizard. You're all rot and ruin. Come to greet death early? You'll be a lovely spectacle.

we also had information from gale directly as to what happened to karsus in the aftermath of casting his spell:

Player: I was wondering about that “mighty lord” you told me about in your story. Gale: Ah, yes. Karsus Karsus was perhaps the most powerful wizard that ever lived. The child-who-would-be-a-god, the elves called him. And he tried. With a spell of his own devising he endeavoured to usurp in one fell swoop the power of the goddess of magic.  Mystryl, she was called then. Imagine what it must have felt like. To be a god. To know yourself to be untouchable. To be mistaken. As Karsus aimed his spell at her she began to unravel, and with her, the entire Weave. Too late did he realize what he had unleashed. It would have been the end of everything had not Mystryl sacrificed herself.  Gale: The goddess of magic is all magic. By dying, the entire weave was lost, and the spell that challenged a god failed. It was the end of Mystryl, the end of Karsus, and the end of an entire civilization. As the child-who-would-be-a-god was turned to stone, his empire came crashing down around him. The floating cities of Netheril were no more. An event that came to be known as Karsus’ folly.

which is in accordance with the lore:

Unfortunately, his choice was a terrible mistake, for one of the responsibilities of the deity of magic was to regulate the flow of magic to and from all beings, spells, and magic items in the world. Lacking the ability to do so properly, magic surged and fluctuated. With her last remaining bit of power, Mystryl sacrificed herself to block Karsus's access to the Weave, causing all magic to fail. The flying cities of Netheril plummeted to the earth. The severing of the link also killed Karsus and transformed him into stone, and the last thing he saw was his entire civilization being destroyed because of his actions. This was to be known as Karsus's Folly. The stone form of Karsus eventually landed in a part of the High Forest, now called the Dire Wood. The city of Karse was built around its base. Karsus was never accepted as a petitioner by any god, nor did he go to the Fugue Plane when he died. Instead, his soul was bound to the Material Plane. Those with experience in pact magic could call up his vestige, where he appeared as a giant blood-red boulder, like the one found in the High Forest where his petrified form landed. Blood burbles up from the top of the stone, trickling down the side facing the summoner, pooling at the base. When he spoke, the pool fountained upwards, its height varying on the volume of his voice.

the netherese orb then seemed to have a immediate visible physical effect on gale, in addition to the ones that carried to the full release version of the game.

so putting these clues together, i think it's safe to say that the orb caused gale in early access to be afflicted with some form of corrupted petrification, which makes sense given that it's a piece of magic unleashed during karsus's folly.

at that point, this corruption seemed to be affecting his left arm the most, perhaps either from opening the book containing the netherese magic with it, or trying to shield himself with it - but that's just speculation on my part.

so what did the early access set up in terms of curing gale from his affliction?

gale in early access showed a great interest in the astral plane, especially in the absence of time there. he has several banters with lae'zel, which are still in the game now and showing his vested interest in the astral plane as well as any knowledge or insight lae'zel might offer on it:

Gale asks Lae'zel about the Astral Plane. Has she been there? Gale: Tell me, Lae'zel, what is it like on the Astral Plane? Your home realm intrigues me. Lae'zel: Githyanki lay their eggs on other planes. They cannot mature in the Astral. Lae'zel: I will only be welcomed once I obtain a mind flayer's head.

lae'zel notices gale's interest and initiates a banter of her own:

Lae'zel asks Gale what his interest is in the Astral plane, and he equivocates Lae'zel: Tell me, Gale: what is your interest in the Astral Plane? Gale: Time. Or rather: the absence of it. In the Astral Plane, everything is eternal. Lae'zel: It will be my home soon enough, should Vlaakith will it.

in addition to these banters, which clearly show gale's interest in the astral plane - which now in the full release seems merely academic - hinted at another solution to ridding himself of the orb.

what points to that quite conclusively is gale's dialogue when he reveals the truth about the orb to the protagonist.

this reveal differs quite significantly from the full release version. most notably, the protagonist was able to ask him about his own ideas for a what might be able to cure him from the orb.

gale had something very interesting to say to that question:

Player: What would permanently rid you of the orb? Gale: The orb was kept safe and inert in a pocket of Astral Plane, suspended in time. If I can somehow manage to expel it from my body while in the Astral Plane, it will be rendered inert again. Alternatively, I could learn to control it’s chaotic magic, that is; to succeed where I failed before. But without Mystra’s favour, I don’t see how that may come to pass. Of course there could be different answers as well. Faerun brims with more magic than any one wizard could fathom, let alone comprehend. Who knows what outlandish solutions may yet present themselves?

so what does this all mean?

in conclusion, i believe originally there were either more ways to cure gale from the orb - or maybe even in a different manner entirely - than there are in the full release version of the game (begging mystra to remove it, ascension, or accepting/keeping the orb).

perhaps even one that would circumvent having to beg mystra for forgiveness entirely, without gale having to sacrifice his mortality to do so.

i think these banters and lines of dialogue show that the astral plane, which would have rendered the orb inert and stopped the corrupted petrification of his body, would have played a bigger role in gale's quest.

#gale dekarios #gale of waterdeep #karsus #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 #baldurs gate 3 #bg3 meta #bg3 early access #ch: gale dekarios #vg: baldur's gate 3 #series: baldur's gate #meta: mybg3

[lilacthebooklover]

yes, the lords in black are very silly. but can we just take a moment to appreciate how freaking terrifying they can be?? the interaction between hannah and the wiggly doll in black friday still creeps me out, the childish intonation and unsettling laugh and jolty pauses between wiggly's words are very effective. he says that he wants to eat hannah, he plans on ripping the president open and taking out his guts, he causes hundreds of deaths through the aggression caused by his toys. tinky controls time and uses it to play with people like they're toys, all the art of his goat form is so disturbing, his obsession with the spankoffskis is a big thing. "i'm gonna have the whole set in my toy box", anyone? nibby has an insatiable hunger, uses the melted flesh of pig corpses to go around hatchetfield swallowing people (like linda). he cares about nothing but his all-consuming need to eat. pokey succeeded in starting the apocolypse, using hatchetfield like a set in which to perform a musical of his own design, possessing people and using them as his stars. he wants everyone to be dead but him, controlling a hivemind of human puppets that tear each other apart and spread his infection further. blinky sees everything, refusing to let his workers blink and knowing what anyone and everyone is doing. he's the watcher with a thousand eyes, and takes enjoyment in watching bill and alice nearly kill each other.

they're honestly so unnerving, from their lack of care for human lives and bloodlust to their playful manner and habit of getting a little too invested in people. they see the citizens of hatchetfield as toys, and aren't afraid to break them. they're sadistic, violent, powerful gods.

and that's partly why i find it so funny that they choose to dress up in bright neon looking like an unhinged version of a kids' show's cast.

#they're so silly #and also horrifying #the lords in black #wiggly #tinky #nibbly #pokey #blinky #wiggog y'wrath #t'noy karaxis #nibblenephim #pokotho #blinklotep #npmd spoilers #nightmare time spoilers #tgwdlm spoilers #black friday spoilers #bill woodward #alice woodward #ted spankoffski #hannah foster #team starkid #starkid #nerdy prudes must die #black friday starkid #the guy who didn't like musicals #nightmare time #hatchetfield #hatchetverse #hatchetverse lore is insane

[shadamyheadcanons]

For me, Shadow and Amy's dynamic is basically two different types of touch starved in a person

((If any of the gifs on this post aren’t loading for you on mobile--like they aren’t for me--you can download them or check the sources listed. As for desktop, they play just fine, but they won’t line up next to each other like they do on mobile. Tumblr is a comedy of errors.))

Yes! Absolutely. I’ve seen tons of fans say Shadow is prickly and would respond badly to hugs, but canon says otherwise. This is a bad reaction:

[Sonic 06]

Whenever I feel like being sad, I wonder if Bad-Future-06 Silver has ever been hugged.

This is a bad reaction:

[Sonic Unleashed, gif source.]

And I shouldn’t have to say this, but...yeah. These are very bad reactions:

[Sonic X]

[Sonic Generations]

Yikes. I feel bad for both of them.

But this?

[Sonic Adventure 2, gif source.]

This is Shadow’s only canonical hug in the games, and aside from jumping slightly from being snuck up on, he seems to like it just fine.

Just look at that smile! He’s happy. He finds it endearing.

It was a hug from a complete stranger meant for someone else, but he still drank it in--and, given that he’d effectively just lost Maria, he really did need it. It’s the combination of Amy’s gentleness AND her speech that changed his mind. After all, if someone as sweet as her sees something in the humans, maybe they’re not so bad.

My buddy who runs @shadowxamyweek recently reblogged a post about this hug, and their tags sum it up perfectly:

[ID: A screenshot of tags on a post. The tags read:

#official art #4kids #shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #YEAH 😭 #listen I read nothing that has happened with them in SA2 as shippy - and i ship them #THIS HUG? THR SPEECH ON THE ARK? #those are two lonely kids #those are two left behind kids #those are two kids so desperate for affection #for two vastly different reasons #Amy loves with her whole chest and will never stop doing so- no matter what happens #and Shadow does too- that is key to remember- Shadow loves... so fucking much... that it hurts #you are RIGHT op when you say this is probably the first time someone has been gentle with him in a long long time #he doesn't even run away #in the game- when Amy flees- he takes a step after her- a moment's hesitation- a 'wait' #this kid NEEDED a hug #and i firmly believe part of the reason Shadow listens to Amy in the end is BECAUSE she is the only person who showed him gentleness #softness and kindness and affection #if only for a moment #fjdodhdofjgor THIS is what i mean when i say 'be gentle- be kind' #it MATTERS #it FUCKING MATTERS

End ID]

Shadow doesn’t hate hugs inherently; it’s just that no one hugs him in the first place...

...aside from one person.

Amy’s easily the most affectionate character in the cast. It’s cute at first glance, but there’s a common thread to every instance that puts a damper on it.

She’s always, ALWAYS the initiator.

She puts more into each hug than anyone else does.

She’s always the last to pull away.

The most reciprocated Amy hug I know of in canon is this one:

[IDW Sonic issue #22]

Which is absolutely adorable...but Amy still initiated. Because it’s always her job. Even the characters who like affection don’t need it the way she does...with one exception.

And this tiny detail just killed me. The little, “wait, come back 😟”

It’s the only time I know of when someone has actually stepped after her like this. In a game where everyone left Amy behind, he wanted to follow her. Mister so-called-prickly didn’t want the hug to end.

Because he’s the only one who needs it as much as she does.

He wants to be held as much as she wants to hold someone else, and no one else is warm and sincere enough for it. Compare these instances:

[IDW issue #6]

Sonic thinks Shadow is wrong about something, so he grabs Shadow’s arm to stop him, and Shadow aggressively wrenches it away and leaves.

[Archie Sonic Universe #23]

But when Amy thinks Shadow is wrong about something and grabs his arm to stop him, he gently removes her hand and thinks about what she has to say.

Even when he doesn’t want to be touched, he makes the distinction between “don’t touch me” and “not right now, please.” These are from two different continuities, of course, but I think the point stands. Amy’s special. He’s gentler with her than he is with other people, and that’s consistent across all canons.

Side note: how often does Amy get to feel special like that? I actually really like that Sonic doesn’t place others in a hierarchy of importance, and I wouldn’t change that about him even if I could...

[IDW issue #2]

...but Amy does play favorites. I want her to feel like she’s someone else’s favorite, too. I want her to have someone who puts her first and likes her best. I think Shadow’s more than capable of that. I believe he craves clinginess like hers deep down, even if he hasn’t consciously figured that out yet.

I have an entire tag for these two being affectionate. My favorite is probably this one.

Of course, there may be those who say I’m reading too much into one (1) hug. And you know what? Maybe they’re right! We need a bigger sample size. Sega, make more characters hug Shadow, please. Let Rouge comfort him after he confides in her about something. Have Omega give him an awkward metal embrace because he read on the internet that organic beings like that kind of thing. Make Shadow himself pull Silver into a hug when he’s breaking down crying from the stress of always having to be a hero. Show Tails accidentally grab onto him out of fear when they’re trapped in a lightning storm, and when he gets embarrassed and pulls away, have Shadow hold him for the rest of the storm and admit he’s not fond of bright lights, either.

[Sonic Boom]

That scene where Shadow and Amy rescue Cream and Cheese from Cryptic Castle? That easily could’ve turned into a cute group hug.

[Shadow the Hedgehog (2005)]

And I have seen some absolutely adorable fanart where he holds Cream’s hand while he and Amy lead her through Cryptic Castle to make sure she doesn’t get lost 🥺

Have Knuckles give him an empathetic bro-pat on the shoulder when he finds out Shadow’s the last one of his race, too.

[Archie Sonic Universe #89]

Have Sonic try to hug him, and then when Shadow inevitably pushes him away and says he doesn’t do hugs, have Amy arrive and latch onto Shadow instead while he tries to stutter out an excuse as to why she’s allowed to and Sonic isn’t.

The most affection Shadow has in recent history is stuff like this...

[Sonic Prime season 2 episode 1]

...where Sonic tries to hug him and Shadow immediately pushes him away, knocks him over, and tries to punch him in the face. Kind of says it all. Amy stands out as the only one with a good track record here.

[IDW issue #36]

Especially when you have him look at her like this when someone else is on the receiving end of that affection.

So in the absence of further evidence, I have no choice but to interpret this in the most Shadamy way possible. Your move, Sega.

#shadamy #amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #not a headcanon #ask #anonymous #what is it with touch starved hedgehogs? #not the first time i've used the previous tag. says a lot about these characters

[katiexpunk]

The Invited | Pairing Lucien Flores X Fem!Reader

Summary: Lucien Flores is invited back into your life in a very unexpected way, at a very bad time – what are you going to do about it? 

Warnings: Borderline abusive, controlling relationship (not with Lucien). Like literally, we hate the reader’s fiancé. No, I’m serious, read this one with caution, there are heavy undertones of the reader’s fiancé being controlling and generally not a nice guy, no matter how much he tries to play the part. Implied infidelity. Heavy flirting, heavy tension. Religious undertones. Alcohol. References to Lucien being a playboy. References to wealth, art, and money. General Hollywood/California vibes. This one will have a happy ending. No use of daddy, no use of Y/N. This is gonna have some filthy fucking smut, hand to my heart. 

Part 1 W/C: ~3.5K 

A/N: Just, yeah…yep. I am as horny for him as you all are (like what the actual fuck). This story will continue as I learn more about Lucien and his character. P.S. Sorry if you got double-tagged, I accidentally deleted the whole fic so I had to repost.

Masterlist | Read on AO3 | Notifications

It started with one look, as many things do.

Initially, it was all just innocent glances across a crowded room, perfunctory nods, and polite whispered hellos in shared spaces. It didn’t take long for it to turn into more than that; that’s just who he is and the effect he has. You can’t say you didn’t hear the rumors, heed the warnings through the grapevines of the limitless supply of women who came before you, but listening never was your strongest skill.

The only girls you know who listen are strapped to a church pew, on their knees, and for what? Salvation? At least you know the pleasure of worshiping at the altar of a man who promises he’ll make you see god, a man who follows through on his word, no questions or fuck-all commandments required.

Or at least you did.

Maroon 5 said it best, even the sun sets in paradise.

++++

As you stand by your bedroom window, the last rays of sunlight paint the room in a warm, golden hue, casting elongated shadows across the minimalist decor. The gentle breeze from the Santa Ana winds whispers through the trees outside, carrying with it a sense of anticipation – dread – for the night ahead. You hate these things, but schmoozing is part of the role you have to play, just one of the many rules he’s slowly but surely made sure you follow. The good girl he’s made you become.

Focusing on fastening the back of your earrings, you watch the sun dip below the horizon, a silent witness to the transition from day to night – light to dark – although things don’t feel that light these days.

"There she is," comes a familiar voice from behind you, causing you to turn and find him leaning casually against the door frame. His presence brings a sense of unease, a reminder of the doubts that linger beneath the surface.

A forced smile plays on his lips as his eyes trail over you, his gaze filled with a familiarity that feels suffocating rather than comforting. "You look beautiful," he murmurs, you wonder if he believes it or if he’s just saying it to say it.

Most of the time, his admiration feels hollow, a facade that fails to mask the cracks in your relationship. In his eyes, you see reflections of expectations and obligations, a reminder of the compromises you've made at the expense of your happiness. It wasn’t always this way, especially in not while you were just dating, but things quickly shifted once you said yes.

You turn your attention back to the vanity in front of you and slip one final detail – your engagement ring.

“Thanks. Ready?” You ask, feigning excitement as you glide across the room, wrapping your arm around his. You can tell from the way he looks at you that he has something to say, something to critique, but he remains silent.

You descend the steps in the grand foyer as it welcomes guests with its opulent charm, bathed in the soft, flickering light of countless candles. The air carries the delicate fragrance of freshly cut flowers, mingling with the subtle scent of expensive perfumes and cigars. The walls boast exquisite paintings and sculptures, each hand-picked, and sourced from all corners of the globe – a deliberate show of wealth.

As you step into the room, conversations swirl around you, punctuated by the clinking of champagne glasses and bursts of laughter. You observe the guests, their designer attire and dazzling jewelry all but scream like me, I’m rich.  Among them, art connoisseurs and collectors engage in lively discussions about the latest exhibitions and acquisitions. Directors, models, and Hollywood elites mingle effortlessly, their conversations flowing freely.

You're well aware that in L.A., half of the business dealings often occur in the shadowy corners of closed-door meetings, or in the expanse of lavish parties like this. It’s a city where nepotism runs rampant and connections are king. It's a city where who you know can often be more important than what you know, and navigating the intricate web of relationships is a skill in itself.

Dressed in an elegant gown, silky and yellow, your neck frosted in diamonds that shimmer like the stars above, you glide through the crowd with a grace that contradicts your inner turmoil. You’re good at this part, faking it, blending in. You might have grown up with this, but you never really felt like you belonged. It’s sort of strange to be surrounded by a sea of people, all while feeling like you’re stranded alone on a remote island.

As you exchange polite pleasantries and forced smiles, a nagging doubt creeps into your mind. Are you even meant to fit in with this crowd? Lord knows you wouldn’t be if you had anything to say about it, but being the daughter of a politician is a special kind of hell. We all have to make sacrifices. And you have – a lifetime of them. Sometimes, you can't help but long for simpler pleasures – a quiet Saturday night with frozen pizza, a bottle of wine, and a comforting movie. Fuck, you can’t even remember the last time you went out with friends, drank too much tequila, and flirted in innocent fun, or the last time you dipped your hand below the waistband of your panties without the fear of being caught.

Sipping your champagne, you endure a rather tedious conversation between the CEO of a tech startup and a broker. It doesn’t take long for the sensation of boredom to settle in, mingling with a growing sense of disillusionment. A dull pain throbs in your feet from the pressure of your heels. Their voices start to fade into the distance as you zone out, feeling increasingly disconnected from the authenticity you crave.

You decide you need a break, some fresh air. They’re not even listening to you; you're not even sure if they notice you're here or not. But still, forever polite, you excuse yourself anyway and make your way across the room, weaving through the crowd of suits and couture. You’re not thinking about anything except getting the hell out of here until you hear your name called behind you.

It’s a voice you’d recognize anywhere, in any lifetime, in any place. You stop in your tracks and look over your shoulder.

“Hi,” he says.

What the fuck? You’re sure you must actually be drunk now, or so bored that you’re delusional brain is conjuring him up. You don’t say anything in return, you just stand there. The room slows around you, bodies pause mid-motion, and your world goes silent.

“Been a long time,” he casually says, lifting the glass to his lips, eyes intent on yours.

His words, the low rasp of them, snap you back to reality.

“Lucien – wha, what are you doing here?”

“I was invited.”

You barely hear his response. Fuck, he looks so good. Handsome as you remember him, all salt and pepper curls, dark facial hair, and broad shoulders. He’s clad in dark jeans, and a colorful silk shirt, the buttons at the top undone, giving just the slightest glimpse of his sun-kissed skin and the chains that rest there.

Arousal pools in your belly, thick and heavy, a feeling that you haven’t felt in years. Not since him.

"Invited, by who?" you ask, your voice laced with challenge. He takes a deliberate step closer, his presence enveloping you in a heady mix of desire and tension. The air around him is thick with the sticky-sweet smell of cigarettes and the woody notes of his cologne. He smells good.

He's close now, close enough to send a shiver down your spine. You tilt your head back to meet his gaze, feeling the heat of his breath against your skin. Shit, those brown eyes. Your pulse quickens as his large palm closes around the back of your left arm, the touch sending electric sparks through your body. It's a soft but firm grip, possessive and confident.

As he trails his palm down the length of your arm, you hold your breath. He stops once your hand is gently balanced in his, and you feel his fingers brush against the cool metal of your engagement ring. Glancing around the room for a brief moment to make sure nobody’s watching, he dunks his head, and whispers in your ear, his lips so close that you think he might kiss your neck.

“I think you already know the answer to that, sweetheart.”

What.

He places a soft, innocent kiss on your cheek as he retreats and takes a step back. You don’t miss the way his eyes trail over your body, lingering for a moment too long on your collarbones. The muscles in his jaw tighten, and he gives you a polite nod, before stepping away, slipping into the crowd, leaving you woozy and confused.

What the fuck does that even mean?

As you internally grapple with what the hell just happened, your fiancé finds you in the crowd, possessively trails his hand along your waistline, and plants a wet, rather drunk, kiss on your lips.

“What did he want?” he asks, harshly.

“Nothing, just saying thanks for the invite,” you respond, hoping he can’t sense your lie. Hoping he falls for your trap.

“If you’re lying to me sweet pea, that’s gonna be a real problem.”

“I’m not.”

Shit. Shit. Shit.

“So why do you look so flustered, huh?”

“You know how I get when I drink champagne,” you retort, playing up your innocence.

“Right, well you better pull it together, can’t have my girl sloppy,” he warns, his voice a little slurry himself, his balance unsteady as he takes another sip. He’s moved on from champagne to whiskey. A bad combination, a dangerous one.

“You know the only reason I invited him tonight was that I think it’s an important lesson for you –”

You interrupt, “YOU invited him?”, your voice clear and stark. The truth hits you like a freight train. You want to cry, throw up and scream all at the same time.

“Of course. Listen, baby, I know you went through your slutty phase, but look how far you’ve come.. look how much I’ve helped you grow,” he slurs, “men like that, don’t deserve women like you.”

And there it is – the truth.

Your blood hits a boiling point. You give him a death glare, but he doesn’t seem to notice before he’s quickly moving on.

“Come on, baby.” I’m not your baby, not anymore, haven’t been for a long time.

“I’d like to introduce you to some people,” he says, grabbing a fresh glass off of the passed tray, and handing it to you with a little too much thrust, enough for a few drops of it to spill over onto the silk of your dress. Your fingers grip around it and you follow his lead, despite the bitterness you feel. Ugh. Why is it so easy for you to fall into line now? Secretly, you hope the dull burn of the alcohol will distract you – calm you – make you forget.

You’re drunk, aroused, mad, and confused, and on top of it all, you’re fading in and out of the dull conversation your fiancé has you engaged in, or rather than listening to. Not like he lets you get a word in, anyway. You scan the room looking for him whenever you get the chance, trying not to be too obvious. You finally spot him in the corner and try to ignore the magnetic pull that lassos around you once you do. He’s talking to a model, because of course he is. Is he intentionally trying to make you jealous? Or is he just being his usual fuck boy self?

You chug what must be your sixth glass of champagne to forget the bitter memory of the last time you saw him – when he told you that you should just keep things casual, that he couldn’t handle the pressure of being with the daughter of a politician, that he would never measure up, and that this was just temporary, just sex.

It wasn’t, and you know it. You know he knows it.

But fuck it –

If he wants to play games, you can play games. You’re the one who’s engaged, this is your house, your space. You’ll show him what he’s missing.

With that in mind, your personality shifts a bit, part in courtesy of the alcohol, part because of your rage. You do your best to intentionally play up your happiness in a room full of strangers, show him that he doesn’t affect you. Show him that he doesn’t matter, that he never did. You cling tight to the arm of your fiancé, being sure to pull out your best doe eyes, your innocent fuck me eyes that you know men can hardly resist. The eyes you know that drive him wild.

But there’s no point, he sees right through it.

Shit.

He knows you too well, better than all the rest. You let your guard down with him, trusted him, and now he knows all the signs – all the tells – he knows where your heart and mind truly rest, probably before you even do.

Shove it down. Shove it down. He doesn’t matter. You are engaged. This is the life you want.

It’s not.

You watch through the corner of your eye as he excuses himself from the conversation with the model and walks through the crowd, intentionally finding your eyes as he does. He slips up the stairs, away from public view.

Ignore him. Ignore him. Ignore him.

You can’t. You know you can’t.

Before you can even register what’s happening, you’re stepping out of the conversation you were never really in, letting your instincts guide you. You lift the hem of your dress, your heels teetering slightly as you make your way through the bustling, suffocating room.

Each step up the stairs is a battle between your mind and your heart, your brain screaming warnings while your emotions, your arousal, tug you forward. It’s always been this way – a magnetic pull, an invisible force drawing you in to him like a moth to a flame.

This is a mistake.

Don't do this.

Do this.

You want this.

You're engaged.

Stop thinking.

Climbing the final stairs, your heart pounding in your chest, you surrender to the emotions swirling inside you. Your brain protests, but your heart has already made its decision.

"Luci—" you timidly call out, but before you can finish, he reaches out in the darkness and pulls you into his chest. You let out a little oof of surprise, but soon find yourself settling into the embrace, his warmth enveloping you as his hips press tightly against yours.

He doesn't utter a word, simply holding you close, his body a comforting anchor in the dimly lit hallway. His hand rests at your waist, the other gently cradling the swell of your cheek as he gazes down at you. Despite the darkness obscuring your features, you can sense him drinking in every detail, every curve, the small details you’re not sure anyone notices anymore. He’s looking at you like he always has, like you’re the main character in every story he’s ever cared to read.

With a tighter grip, he guides you further down the hallway, away from the prying eyes at the top of the staircase. Your back eventually meets the cool surface of the wall, and he pauses there, his presence dominating the space, sucking up the air around you. His grip on your waist remains firm, as if he knows exactly what he wants and how to get it.

Under his touch, you feel yourself melting, surrendering to the intensity that is the two of you. There's a confidence in his demeanor, a certainty that courses through you. A live wire of energy that you’ve never felt with anyone but him. He knows exactly how to read you, how to anticipate your every desire, and you find yourself powerless to resist.

You’re suddenly acutely aware of the ring on your finger, and before you can protest, he’s already speaking.

“He’s not the man you think he is, sweetheart.” His words pierce you like a knife.

You don’t respond. What can you even say? He can already see your truth, your reality, written plainly across your face. He searches your face for hesitation, any sign that he’s crossed a line.

“Can I kiss you?” he asks, and you can only nod. Yes, please.

This isn’t normal, this isn’t a thing that people frequently experience – it’s wrong, you’re engaged. Even if your fiancé is a grade-A asshole, you can still maintain your morals.

But the thing is – there’s something so electric about the two of you together, an undeniable force, a promise written into stone long before you even realized it.

The combination of your bodies, two halves of a whole, is the only excuse you can muster for why you’ve found yourself in your current predicament – pressed up against a wall, his broad frame pinning you into place, the weight of his gaze like a flame threatening to swallow you whole, turn you into ashes.

Even though it’s been years since he’s pressed his lips against yours, the weight of the pretty little rock on your left finger fades into distant memory, and he pulls you back to a different reality.

A reality where nothing else exists, a reality where your timelines converge, a reality hand-sculpted just for the two of you. One where he didn’t fuck up, the one with the happily ever after.

With your lips connected, it’s easy to let your mind fall silent.

And when he breaks for a bit of breath, your eyes connect once more and you can’t help the thought that crosses your mind.

What a pleasure it is to burn.

His hand finds its way to your thigh, and his fingers make their way to where you so desperately need them to be. Nipping at your neck, he whispers sweet praises into your ear, each word sending sparks of arousal that dance along your skin. It's carnal, primal, an undeniable biological reaction that leaves you practically dripping for him.

"You know me, better than anybody," he rasps against your skin, his words a seductive promise of something more. Planting a soft kiss on your collarbone, he leaves you reeling with need.

But just as you're about to respond, the telltale sound of creaking wood and heavy footsteps echo up the stairs, accompanied by the call of your name. Panic floods your senses as you realize who it is.

Fuck, shit – no, god damn it.

Lucien quickly steps away from you, and sneaks off into the bedroom adjacent to the hall.

Your fiancé appears at the top of the steps, his gaze sharp and knowing, as if he can sense the tension in the air. In that moment, you know you can't keep hiding, can't keep pretending that everything is fine.

“What are you doing up here?”

Fuck it, be bold.

“We need to talk.”

TO BE CONTINUED

If you like this, please consider a reblog (dm me if you want to be removed): @endlessthxxghts @theoasisofthings @pedrostories @bastardmandennis @milly-louise @ghostwritesthings @josephquinnswhore @drunk-and-capable @syd-djarin @survivingandenduring @hotgirlbedtimescenarios @ohheypedrito @joeldjarin @nerdieforpedro @amyispxnk @paleidiot @ghostwritesthings @kulekehe @darkheartgatita @goldenhxurs @javiscigarette @morallyinept @ro-nahime-things @gwendibleywrites @missladym1981 @auteurdelabre @morgaussy @yxtkiwiyxt ily.

#lucien flores #lucien flores smut #lucien flores fic #the uninvited #lucien flores x reader #lucien flores x you #pedrohub #pedro stories #pedro pascal characters #lucien x reader

[amalthiaph]

✨ EDMON RAMPART (Amalthia's Version) ✨ You know I once swore to never draw him, well that was of course before he got the James Norrington treatment so it's the Alexsandr Kallus Effect for me again. Talk about from fuck this man to I wanna fuck this man.

Teeny weeny fandom salt and salt in general coming up so if you don't like that, you can go scroll down. There used to be a cut here but I removed it. I will always be polite, but I know WHEN to talk.

From now on, I will be calling my fanart "Amalthia's version". I hope I don't come across as tone deaf or insensitive about this, but I wish I was good at art.

I've seen posts that say "I wish artists would stop drawing [character name] with [this] or [that]" or "stop drawing [character] with [this]". While it's great to hear about your preferences, please bear in mind that at the end of the day, fanart CAN BE an artist's take on a character. For me, THIS is how I draw Edmon Rampart. This is with regard to the art style I developed and the color palette that I constantly use to keep up with my blog's theme.

Another ick is an ongoing issue in the TBB fandom. In my Hunter and Omega art, I did something I don't usually do, which is add a secondary light source. A few minutes after posting, I got an anon telling me to unwhitewash the characters. I immediately messaged one of my friends for their honest opinion and they said I don't whitewash the characters. I went on to the drawing file and tried to study my own drawing and see if I really did whitewashed the characters. Edit: There really are some artists who whitewash the characters and I was trying to do a SELF-CHECK bec maybe I'm one of them.

I found out that the thing that made the difference is the secondary light source that I added. This secondary light source is lighter in color than their skin, and it created the Contrast Effect. Due to the nature of the human eye and visual processing by the brain, there's an optical illusion that the same color will look different depending on the color beside it and/or the background. It's in psychology class, paying attention would help.

In addition to the secondary light, it could also be the brown background color that caused this effect. And before anyone goes, "are you sure?" Yes, I am. I sat with a Psychology major to discuss about this whole Contract Effect thing.

This does not only apply in colors, it could also be to objects, that why they say all things are relative. One thing could appear bigger or smaller depending upon the object beside it. One of the things they 'check' to see if a certain artist whitewashed a character is the size of the nose. Once again, please do apply Contrast Effect. Some artist really draw their characters stick-like so try to compare all the noses they had drawn in their entire lifetimes and maybe, just maybe they did draw the noses wide in comparison to their other artworks, it just looks like that because it's part of their art style.

Edit: Please do try to analyze things first before casting down your judgement.

It's so difficult to be an artist AND IN THIS FANDOM. We never seem to be enough. If we do the character with artistic freedom, you'll say "stop drawing them like that bec they don't have that in the show" and when we try to draw them as close to the show, you'll say "unwhitewash the characters". We are never good enough for you.

So yeah, I wish I was good at this.

Link to the rest of this series:

1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 || 11 || 12 || 13 || 14 || 15

#i'm gonna add this tag: AMALTHIA IS ANGRY #the bad batch #the bad batch season 3 #the bad batch s3 #tbb s3 spoilers #tbb rampart #edmon rampart #yeah i'm not tagging vice admiral rampart #HE'S BEEN DEMOTED #tbb #star wars #small artist #artists on tumblr #amalthiaph #the bad batch actors au

[doumadono]

It's 3:30 AM on Sinful Sunday and I'm up thinking about how I need to request you write a DOM as FUCK Shinsou with his rope bunny, that he refers to as kitten. Possible mind break? MAYBE quirk play involved (:

Props if he calls them Good Boy and cuddles them at the end <3

Warnings: aged-up Shinso, dom!Shinso, slight degradation

SINFUL SUNDAY

In the obscure recesses of an exclusive underground club, the atmosphere thickens with an electric tension as Shinsou takes center stage.

The flickering candlelight casts shadows on the dimly lit room, setting the stage for an intimate performance where he will unravel both your body and mind.

"Kitten," he addresses you, his voice a velvety command that resonates through the clandestine space. The air is charged with anticipation as he approaches, a predatory aura surrounding him. "Tonight, you're mine to mold, my canvas for a masterpiece of pleasure."

His quirk, an enigmatic force, dances around the edges of your consciousness, a subtle whisper weaving into the fabric of your thoughts. "Relinquish control, my dear," he suggests, his fingers trailing along your jawline with a tantalizing touch. "Let me guide you through the corridors of ecstasy."

Each knot adorning your body is deliberate, a testament to his expertise in the art of restraint. "You'll find freedom in submission, kitten," he purrs, his eyes locking onto yours, the intensity of his gaze further enhancing the effect of his quirk.

As the ropes tighten, he leans in, lips brushing against your ear. "Feel the power of surrender," he whispers, his words both an invitation and a command. "I'll make you crave the sweet surrender of your will."

You're on a leather sofa, totally bare and open for him. You can't move because of the restraints, and he commanded you to obey. Your instinct kicks in, thanks to his quirk that sown submission in your mind.

His mouth quickly finds its way to your cunny, tirelessly teasing your sensitive clit. He laps, and laps, and laps, his tongue moving skillfully up and down your slit.

Your moans fill the air as you shiver, and two of his fingers begin to sink within your pussy.

Hitoshi gazes up at your face, contorted in pleasure - eyes rolled back, lips parted, and tongue hanging out. You're on the verge of passing out already.

Shinsou gives your wet pussy a few firm slaps. "No," he states sternly, his tone icy. "I want you to watch as I eat your pussy out. If you look away, there will be consequences."

"Y-yes, master," you whimper, your voice barely recognizable, and you're unsure if the words escaped your lips or if they lingered only in your mind.

He resumes nibbling and sucking on your folds, gently nibbling your lips, eliciting moans from you.

In an instant, you go from lying on the sofa to kneeling, hands tied behind your back. Shinso takes you forcefully from behind, your head pressed against the leather cushion.

He gives your ass a firm spanks, occasionally gripping the soft flesh, pulling you closer to his groins by it. His dick reaches deep inside you, and he praises, "That's it, little kitten, you're doing so well, obeying me perfectly."

Suddenly, all you hear in your head is Hitoshi's sweet, sultry voice softly saying, "moan louder," and you comply, sounding somewhat like a distressed bitch in heat. "Shinso! Master! Yes! You're making me feel so divine! Yes, please! Please, degrade me!"

"If you ask so nicely, kitten," he says, giving your ass a firm spank. He thrusts more intensely, his hips pistoning into you as he's reaching under you to slap your clit. "You're my little bitch, a cheap whore, just good in spreading your legs for me, yeah?"

"Yes, master!" you whine through clenched teeth. Your shoulders ache from the uncomfortable position, and you're pretty certain there will be bruises on your wrists from the tight ropes.

Shinsou's dick throbs within you, and he withdraws, his cock adorned with droplets of your runny, white juices. "On your knees, kitten," he commands, and you obediently follow his directive.

The violet-haired man jerks his dick fast, grunting and gasping while spreading your essence all over his lengthy shaft. He slaps your face with his free hand. "Open your fucking mouth."

Once more, you follow his command, finding yourself completely unable to refuse.

With a deep, throaty grunt, he reaches climax, releasing on your face. His semen sprays all over your nose, lips, chin, and forehead, painting your face white. Shinsou hissed, softly tracing the outlines of your lips with his thumb. "What does a good girl say, hmm?"

Softly licking his cum from your lips, you meet his gaze and whisper, "Thank you, master."

#doumadonos sinful sunday 🔥 #sinful sunday #anime smut #shinso x reader #shinso smut #shinso hitoshi smut #shinsou x reader #shinsou hitoshi smut #mha smut #bnha smut #aged up characters #shinso scenario #hitoshi shinso imagine #shinso imagine

[mostlysignssomeportents]

1900s futurism

I'm on tour with my new, nationally bestselling novel The Bezzle! Catch me in TUCSON (Mar 9-10), then SAN FRANCISCO (Mar 13), Anaheim, and more!

I'm profoundly skeptical of the idea that the future can be predicted, and doubly skeptical that sf writers are any kind of prophet. The former grotesque fatalism (if the future can be predicted, then what we do doesn't matter); the latter is tragicomic hubris.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/07/the-gernsback-continuum/#wheres-my-jetpack

That said, few people have been more consistently useful in understanding and anticipating (and yes, building) the future than my friend and colleague Karl Schroeder, whom I've known since I was 16 years old. Karl was the first person I heard say the world "internet." Also: "fractal," "World Wide Web," "ftp," and numerous other touchstones of the future just over the horizon.

Karl is, in fact, a futurist ("foresight consultant") who approaches the work with the same shrewd insight, wild imagination and humility that he brings to his fiction. In a new essay written with both his futurist and sf writer hats on, he nails down the toxic shadow cast by the 20th century sf, or, as he calls it, "The Science Fiction of the 1900s":

https://kschroeder.substack.com/p/the-science-fiction-of-the-1900s

Karl starts by describing the odd "double vision" of the future of the 1900s. On the one hand, many of us (myself included) were convinced that nuclear armageddon was inevitable. Unlike the unhinged architects of the nuclear arms-race, realists understood that a nuclear war would effectively end the future. As Einstein put it, "I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones."

But the flipside of that certainty that the future would end with the first nuclear strike was the belief that if we could just somehow walk the tightrope over the chasm of nuclear holocaust, we'd emerge in a future worth looking forward to: "a new era of peace and prosperity for all."

Contrast that with the existential dread of today's polycrisis: environmental collapse and political decay up to and including fascism. These aren't the binary proposition of nuclear annihilation vs Utopia – rather, they're a continuum of worse-and-better outcomes of every description. As Karl writes: "It’s not that simple. Our future now is an exhausting spectrum of scenarios, each with its own promise, and its own problems."

For Karl, we have entered a new epoch, but we've dragged in the long-expired way of imagining (and hence creating and navigating) the future with us. What makes this a new epoch? For Karl, it's the kind of future on our horizon. He cites Charles C Mann’s 1491, a superb history of the Americas before Columbus:

https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/107178/1491-second-edition-by-charles-c-mann/9781400032051/readers-guide/

1491 radically reframes "the patchwork of propaganda and inference" that makes up the received narrative of the so-called "New World." It describes a land of flourishing cities, art, science and culture "in the Americas while Rome was just getting its act together." Contact with colonizing Europeans was a disaster for First Nations people, who call this period "The Invasion." It was an epochal break.

Futurism is an inextricably historical discipline. The willingness of some settler-colonialists states to consider this epochal break forces us to reframe our literal place in history, the story of the land under our feet. At its best, this futuro-historical work can begin the long work of reconciliation, as with the Canadian government's promise of $23b in reparations for the First Nations people who were kidnapped as children and sent to murderous "residential schools" before, during and after the Sixties Scoop.

The sf of the 1900s is no longer fit for purpose, if it ever was. It's a literature that was steered by open fascists like John W Campbell, who explicitly saw the literature as a means of inculcating a societal narrative of the triumph of white, corporate technocracy over all other forms of government:

https://locusmag.com/2019/11/cory-doctorow-jeannette-ng-was-right-john-w-campbell-was-a-fascist/

Karl isn't the first sf writer to try to overturn this orthodoxy – indeed, it was continuously challenged by radicals within the field, as with the New Wave, personified by the likes of Samuel Delany and Judith Merril (who both mentored and introduced Karl and me):

https://pluralistic.net/2020/08/13/better-to-have-loved/#neofuturians

The cyberpunks took a good hard run at it, too. For plenty of writers (including me), Bruce Sterling and William Gibson's 1981 story "The Gernsback Continuum" was a wake-up call:

http://writing2.richmond.edu/jessid/eng216/gernsback.pdf

Not for nothing, William Gibson has long insisted that his 1984 classic Neuromancer should be read as utopian: after all, it depicts a future in which the inevitable nuclear war only reduces a few cities to radioactive ash, sparing the rest of the planet.

Bruce Sterling once paid me the supreme compliment of describing a 2003 story I wrote about the ways that algorithms will enshittify self-driving cars as "making everybody else in the business look like they live in a dark basement growing on the mulch from old STAR TREK scripts":

https://craphound.com/stories/2005/10/12/human-readable/

Schroeder – along with today's new radical sf writer cohort – wants to fashion a fictional futurism that is fit for this world and its crisis: "in our modern technological society, science fiction tells us what to spend our time and money on." The fact that our mediocre billionaires are mired in the sf of the 1900s means that we're getting some decidedly old-fashioned futures.

For Karl, Musk is a poster-child for this profoundly conservative, backwards-looking vision: "He’s fighting the intellectual battles of the last century, a 1900s hero dropped into the 2000s with an unlimited budget to reshape the future to fit the era he’s from." Musk's obsessions – "Space flight. Settling Mars. Cyberpunk-style brain-computer interfaces. Artificial Intelligence. Self-driving electric cars. Humanoid robots." – are 1900s science fiction.

Ironically, much of this fiction labels itself "hard sf," despite the fact that interstellar travel is utter fantasy – as is mass-scale, near-term interplanetary civilization:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/01/09/astrobezzle/#send-robots-instead

Karl wants "a future for the 2000s." He points to some efforts to make this happen, like Neal Stephenson's Hieroglyph anthology, edited by Ed Finn and Kathryn Cramer:

https://www.harpercollins.com/products/hieroglyph-ed-finnkathryn-cramer

The "Hieroglyph" is Stephenson's shorthand for a recognizable, tangible, meme-able gizmo or other touchstone for a 2000s-era vision of the future – a replacement for jetpacks and flying cars. Karl's story for the anthology, "Degrees of Freedom," focuses on an abstraction (governance: "the single most important thing humanity can focus its creative energies on right now"), and by Karl's own admission, it's not quite the hieroglyph Stephenson was looking for.

But Karl did come up with a hieroglyph in a later work, the "deodands" of 2019's Stealing Worlds – a software agent "that believes it is some natural system, such as a river or forest, and acts in its own self-interest, that being the preservation and thriving of that natural system":

https://memex.craphound.com/2019/06/18/karl-schroeders-stealing-worlds-visionary-science-fiction-of-a-way-through-the-climate-and-inequality-crises/

(My own contribution to Hieroglyph was very gadget heavy – "The Man Who Sold the Moon," about autonomous lunar 3D printers. It won the Sturgeon Award):

https://memex.craphound.com/2015/05/22/the-man-who-sold-the-moon/

I've been impressed with Karl since the day I met him in 1987. There's no one whose thoughts on the future I'm more interested in hearing. I don't think that's a coincidence, either: Karl is an autodidact who was raised by a Mennonite TV repairman – the first TV repair shop in the Canadian prairies. If you want to understand the future, try being raised by someone who takes that kind of deliberate approach to which technology to adopt, and how.

Name your price for 18 of my DRM-free ebooks and support the Electronic Frontier Foundation with the Humble Cory Doctorow Bundle.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/03/07/the-gernsback-continuum/#wheres-my-jetpack

#pluralistic #science fiction #futurism #the future #reactionaries #tescreal #retrofuturism #scientifiction #karl schroeder #1491 #genocide

[sisididis]

I still can’t get over the fact that the only time Sebastian expressed doubt (and later remorse) about his actions was after we had cast Imperio at Ominis to allow Sebastian to leave the catacomb without fighting and effectively losing his best friend. [36:57]

Almost as if to say: Yes, I’ll dabble with Dark Magic. Yes, I’ll Crucio my friend and then resume the quest like nothing had happened. Yes, I’ll lie to everyone including my sister for her “own good”. But, oh, I’m drawing the line at having Imperio cast at my best friend. 

“Are you willing to sacrifice your friendship over this?” we ask Ominis, to which he replies: “I might be. How could I choose to stand by and watch him do this?” And when he’s offered to be put in thrall, Ominis reluctantly agrees to it because “it may just save what is left of [his] friendship with Sebastian.” 

I like to believe that, throughout their quest to save Anne, Sebastian comes to see Ominis as his last reminder of his morality. Even though Ominis holds little sway over Sebastian’s decision-making, I believe that the temporary loss of Ominis' opposition comes as a blow to Sebastian, because it is only then that he realizes that he’s lost the last person who’s tugging him back from his free fall into the Dark Arts.

“You need the relic,” we reassure Sebastian as we exit the catacomb. “I know, but not like this,” he says. “We’ve always looked out for each other - Ominis and I. I hope he knows that hasn’t changed.” His confession proves that he's aware that something profound had shifted in their friendship. Sebastian is past the point of no return.

“When we get to Feldcroft, I’d rather Anne not know what had to be done to get this relic. She thinks like Ominis. It’d only upset her.”

This almost begs the question: “Shouldn’t you ask Anne, the victim of the curse, if your sacrifice is worth the risk?” 

#sebastian sallow #ominis gaunt #hogwarts legacy #whoever said that ominis is a fair weather friend did not know what they’re talking about #this boy yeeted his moral compass out the window to salvage his friendship #can you even call yourself ride or die if you're not willing to be imperio-ed for your bestie? #this is a joke please don't take it seriously #what ominis did was pure insanity and a lack of backbone but they're two 15 year olds what did you expect #my entries

[sexhaver]

ive been playing Cassette Beasts for a minute and it never stops being funny to me how flagrant they are about making this "Pokemon but with features you didn't know Pokemon has always needed". off the top of my head:

super effective/NVE hits have added benefits/debuffs beyond just doubling/halving the damage (hitting Electric types with Ground reduces their evasion and speed, hitting Steel types with Poison gives them poison-coated spikes that do contact damage, etc)

legally-distinct-Pokemon will learn new moves while in your party without having to battle, and you can then straight up steal these moves from them and put them on a not-Pokemon you actually care about using, which gives an actual incentive to hunt down and raise otherwise fringe not-mons beyond completing the not-Pokedex

we all played the Pokemon Infinite Fusion fangame right? we know how fusions work? okay so this game has them as temporary per-battle things instead of permanent ones, which is only marginally less cool while being infinitely easier to balance around

attempting to catch something shows you the percentage chance of success so you know whether you just got unlucky or if you should save your Pokeballs-i-mean-blank-cassette-tapes

leveling up is tied to your not-trainer instead of your not-pokemon, so you don't end up in the classic trap where your starter is way overleveled and everything else is underleveled and then you hit a fight your starter can't solo and have to spend an hour grinding to get the weaker not-mons up to par (funnily enough most Pokemon Nuzlocke romhacks have already figured this out and give you infinite rare candies with the only restriction being that you can't level past the next gym leader's ace pokemon, because Pokemon fans have realized that grinding is the worst part of the game way before Game Freak has)

moves, not-Pokeballs, not-PokeCenter visits, and healing items are all bought using entirely separate currencies which stops you from trivially breaking the economy in half

the soundtrack, fittingly, is pretty good! the vocals were a bit much for my taste but there's an option in the settings menu to straight up turn them off (letting the BGM play on its own), which i've never seen in any other game and really appreciate

downsides:

on a game design level, i understand why can i only carry a max of 5 not-Potions and 1 not-Revive at a time - it's to put a limit on how far away from fast travel points i can get by just running away from everything and healing off damage. on a gameplay level, however, this feels pretty bad

the pixel art style is trying to look as much like Pokemon as possible without actually being Pokemon so the overworld sprites look more like beta stuff from Pokemon that they cut for looking too weird. i have yet to find a haircut that doesn't look bad

this is super petty of me but something about the bloom and lighting of the 3d environments combined with pixelated 2d sprites that still cast shadows makes me painfully aware im playing a video game. it's like they were going for the same aesthetic as Octopath Traveler but fell just barely short. i can't think of a better way to articulate this feeling but if you know you know

it does that really obnoxious half-assed style of voice acting where plot-relevant characters will sometimes (maybe every third or fourth textbox) speak the first two or three words of dialogue before trailing off. mashing through textboxes (as one does) means constantly getting jumpscared by "hmm"s and "haha!"s "okay then!"s

i get that they wanted to make the player feel involved in the story, and it has a pretty decent hook so far, but oh my god. the amount of dialogue "choices" that just transparently do not matter. you know how people memed on Fallout 3 and 4's dialogue choices all leading to the same outcome, to the extent that you were basically choosing between "yes" and "yes (rude)"? and you know how Bethesda would at least attempt to justify how both options led to you accepting the quest anyways, even if it was really dumb? Cassette Beasts has streamlined this process even further by making the options in most of their binary decisions so identical that they don't even require different followup dailogue before rejoining into the main conversation thread. a solid 2/3rds of the dialogue options in this game so far feel like checks that you're still awake. i know this is a minor issue because people aren't playing Pokemon-likes for the engaging "choices matter" approach to storytelling, and i did ignore it at first, but it's so pervasive that you really can't ignore it

#cassette beasts

[cerastes]

What are some of the greatest/most impressive feats of strength in Arknights’s story?

Taking the overall narrative and worldbuilding into account, I believe the most effective aspect of Arknights' narrative is that they managed to make Terra feel like a breathing, living world and setting instead of a vehicle for the point-of-view character to exist in and act upon. This is specially remarkable for a mobile gacha game, as settings in these tend to be exactly that sort of vehicle instead of world that give any hints of existing when outside the player's immediately vision. The way I like to think about it is, "if a tree fell somewhere in this setting while my intended point-of-view or self-insert character isn't there to see it, did it make a sound?”. In Arknights, Girls' Frontline and SIGH Epic Seven (credit where it's due), the answer feels like a yes to me, whereas in every other game of this kind, it feels like a no, if you know what I mean.

This is intrinsically tied to the cast of characters: It is an inevitability that games where a guiding principle is to release an immense number of characters throughout its lifetime will have characters that will never have any relevance whatsoever besides existing as a minor piece in the world, and Arknights is not immune to this. Even other works of a different base nature and with a much smaller casts will be victims to this: In Trails of Cold Steel, for example, you have a pretty big cast of playable characters, some of which are very well developed and have a lot of screentime and development, and others who are Gaius Worzel. However, this leads to two aspects of Arknights as a narrative and as a game telling a story and fleshing out a world that I appreciate:

The first is that those characters that do get used, are for the overwhelming majority fun and interesting to see and accompany throughout their narrative, and rarely for me, I include the usual point-of-view character in this, Doctor. I tend to have a pretty big dislike, if not disdain, for characters you're meant to self-insert into, I sincerely cannot stand them. Doctor definitely has a big of a self-insert nature to them, but there's also a lot of the Doctor that is actually pre-established, such as them being a weirdo, tending to be very effective but also causing troublesome aftermaths that others then have to clean up, and being particularly good at bonding with assassins and underworld types, among other things. More importantly, Doctor is not present in most side-stories. This is fantastic and leads to the second aspect I appreciate.

This second aspect is that the cast has legs to stand on without needing the protagonist or POV character. You'd think this is a problem mostly limited to gacha games due to their usually flimsy narratives and structures, right? Except, this is actually a huge problem in pretty much every corner of narrative art! I can think of countless comics, manga, cartoons, anime, light novels, novels, and much more, eastern and western, that just tend to have worlds and casts that center entirely around the protagonist, for the protagonist. Whether it be a US author writing out their post-apocalyptic hoarder fantasy or a Japanese author detailing the trials and tribulations of a relatable nobody that a myriad of girls want to have sex with, and even some other pieces of art perhaps not so comically easy to make fun of, it's a consistent aspect of them that the protagonist is the center of the universe, both in terms of events and what the rest of cast thinks about, talks about, and takes action upon. Obviously, this results, in my opinion, in weak worlds and weak casts that have no legs to stand on. I appreciate that even without Doctor around, Arknights does a good job of having protagonists of their own little stories in the side stories: Olivia Silence is a joy to follow when she takes the lead in a Rhine Lab story, Kroos has been one of my favorite characters to be able to experience events through with the Sui stories, Skadi and the Abyssal Hunters are exciting to watch in Abyssal Hunter stories, and the latest event as of the writing of this post filled me inspiration, seeing Reed star in a character piece that tells us more about someone so immensely reticent to open up. It's by having interesting world events occurring throughout Terra that don't have the input of Doctor, and thus lets us see more and more of this huge cast of characters taking the lead that I think is a fascinating experience for me as a reader that keeps things fresh. It's even allowed me to come to appreciate characters I initially didn't care about, such as Bagpipe and Magallan, and see, in most games of this nature, if I don't care about a character frame one, it's probably going to stay that way because, well, if I didn't care about what their limited assortment of pre-cooked lines had to sell me on, then I'm likely not going to care about that character likely not showing me a new aspect of themselves impactful enough to change my mind in an event they'll likely just be an accessory to.

It's upon this base that I think Arknights stays interesting and fresh: A solid foundation that I can agree with and that keeps things dynamic and interesting. Specific events and story beats that I think are interesting are a natural result of these baseline aspects, but it all traces back to the cradle, to these baseline aspects that facilitate those cool narratives in the first place.

#arknights #sanspapyrus683

[yaynotgaybutbi]

(Ok, I swear this will be my last post about the pjo show, I will shut the fuck up after this.)

Yes, adaptation is a process, in which some things must be lost and some things must be added. It's remaking a material from one media to another, so OF COURSE there will be changes.

BUT the media must be utilized! What use is it to me that they made a tv show if that tv show is SO FUCKING BLAND. Visually, sound-wise, director-wise.

The more I think about it, the more it pisses me off. The character growth, not even that, the learning moments the gang goes through are gone. They just know bc they are smart and read the myths.

The tension of making it till the deadline is gone AND the relization of it has no impact. The pacing is so fucking weird and fast. Both within the episodes (yes, the jokes are funny, BUT JESUS WHERE DID THE QUICK WIT GO??? SPEED IT UUUPP) and in the overall season.

The visual side of it is, like, nicely done, but this is Disney's attempt for their new flag show and it look like another shitty MCU movie. Wouldn't it be cool if the underworld scenes were high contrast black and white? If we got more lively colors, maybe make the BLUE pop way more? If we got more detail shots in that dead people line so it would feel crowded and uncomfy? More practical effects? If the dream sequences were so confusing to Percy AND TO VIEWERS by not being just straight up CGI landscape? THE COSTUMES, PLEASE SOMEONE SAVE THE COSTUME DEPARTMENT, GIVE THEM SOME MONEY AND FREEDOM, PLEEAAASSEEE!!

JESUS, like a little bit of spice, little bit of art direction, SET THIS SHOW APART, MAKE IT SPECIAL. The whole reason the books are ao special is bc of their first person narration, which you cannot do with the show, SO MAKE THE CINEMATIC NARRATION INTERESTING THEN.

I do not want to be the party pooper, I want this show to last, to go BEYOND the source material and EXPAND it. And they are doing a good job with some things! Like Sally being just... more. And Annabeth probably being a engineer instead of an architect. I LOVE the cast. Maybe I would circle out that writing room and directors, but they can get better, I believe. And hell, LIN DID A GREAT JOB BEING HARMES

Like I said, there must be changes. It does work like that, I know that, EVERYONE knows that. But the 'least objectable' route is just not the answer anymore. Big fan base will not save this show from losing money and getting canceled. I just hope season 1 will be one day viewed as a 'beloved but unfortunate start'. I really do.

#percy jackson show #pjo tv show #pjo #percy jackson #pjo show crit #pjo show #pjo disney+ #pjo series #pjo season 1

[nuninho2000]

Did someone said on Tumblr that Ginny was more powerful than Harry? Like? Are they crazy?

Ginny is really talented and powerful on her own but saying she's more than Harry the guy who taught her and the rest of the DA dark arts and duels is really off on their minds.

Why Harry is more powerful and better at dueling

1 - at eleven, was described by his teachers as ‘bright’

2 - at the same age, according to the Sorting Hat: “Not a bad mind, either. There’s talent, oh my goodness, yes” and “You could be great, you know, it’s all here in your head”

3 - mastered the challenging Patronus Charm at thirteen and proceeded to teach it at fifteen resisted the Imperius Curse at fourteen and soon learned to throw it off completely, even when cast by the incredibly powerful Voldemort also at fourteen, learned to cast a powerful Accio Charm

5 - at fifteen, was training other students at the same age, under extreme stress, tested as 'exceeds expectations’ or 'outstanding’ in evein every subject that required actual magic (including the dreaded Potions) same age, cast a briefly effective Cruciatus Curse

6- at sixteen, became a star Potions student simply by following superior instructions

at seventeen, successfully cast the Imperius Curse on his first try, and used it repeatedly at the same age, cast a successful Cruciatus Curse

7 - at 17 became auror and later leader of that department in 2007

8 - Harry was possessed by Voldemort in full power and got rid of Voldemort

9 - survived and kick out of the 3 forbidden curses.

I like Ginny a lot and she's powerful but please people don't be fully blind when was proven in the books that Harry is more powerful.

When the argument is because of their signature spells it's nonsensical because we know how much Harry doesn't like to hurt or even the chance of getting people killed.

" because Harry is just expelliarmus" people read the wrong books.

#harry potter #ginny weasley #hinny #hp #harry james potter #ron weasley #hermione granger #harry potter books #ginny potter #harry is more powerful #harry x ginny #better duelist #hogwarts #defense against the dark arts #dumbledore army #george weasley #fred weasley #the weasleys #james & peter & remus & sirius #james potter #lily evens #auror potter #skills #harry potter series #harry potter fandom

[elminx]

Elminx's Guide to Augmenting Your Spellwork

This guide is intended to be allied to the type of spellwork that draws something towards you or is desirous of change within yourself. The goal here is to create actions throughout our day or week that bring our thoughts back to the magic that we have performed. From my way of thinking, this keeps the stream of magic flowing in the right direction through your returned focus. It can have the added benefit of reminding you to take the actions in the world that are necessary for the success of your spellwork.

There will be a number of examples following but they all have the same theme: doing something during your initial spellwork that you will return to after the spell has been cast to keep your attention focused in the direct on what you want. Some of these things will be very obvious and you will have seen them before - others may be less so and better suited to a person in the broom closet. Some of these are standalone spell techniques on their own; here I am trying to convey that when combined together, multiple types of spellwork can have a greater effect than individually.

The idea is to continue to do the things listed below until your spell has manifested. Yes, there are obviously too many to do all at once. You are, as always, free to pick the ones that fit the spell best or the ones that fit your own lifestyle. Or to disregard all of them altogether.

Create an altar for your spell Say that I was going to create a spell for money to make sure that I could pay my rent on August 1st. I would create a money altar for my spell, do my spell on the altar, and keep all of the spell ingredients (including candle remains and any nonperishable offerings) up for the month of July. If I was going to create a spell to combat the upcoming Venus retrograde, I would keep the altar up all the way through the end of the retrograde. The visual reminder of the altar helps to realign your thoughts toward that spell.

Feed your spell This one goes along with the first nicely. This can look like a lot of different things - it could be adding coins to a money bowl or a spoonful of sugar to a sweetening jar. It could be burning incense on your altar for success on your exams every Sunday. It could be successively lighting small candles to charge your spell for a set number of days, weeks, or on every full moon. If you work with spirits of deities, it could be making repeated offerings while you ask for help with your spellwork. If you are the type of person who sticks to schedules well, make it a scheduled thing. You could align it with the days of the week if you're into that or with the moon cycles. If you're not a scheduler, do it when you remember.

Mantras (and other Spoken representations of your spell) If you are a verbal person, word magic may work very well for you. This can be anything from one phrase to a rhyming couplet - the idea here is that it is something that you remember to repeat to yourself. I think that this type of magic work especially well when doing work on changing something about yourself, but you may find a use for it in other areas that I have not. Ideas for using mantras: say them when you wake up or before you fall asleep at night, say them while looking in the mirror while getting ready in the morning. Or, simply say them when it would be appropriate for the magic that you have worked.

Sigils (and other Visual Representations of your Spell) If you are a visual person, sigils and other types of art magic can help you to augment your magic. The idea is to charge or create your symbol during the casting of your magic and then return to it throughout your days. Depending on your situation, you may able to hang your artwork or sigil on your mirror in your bathroom or even on your fridge. If you cast a spell to get better tips, carry the sigil or wear it when you are working. You can draw sigils on your skin with lotion or other skincare. This can be at once the most obvious forms of magic (think the Bluetooth symbol) and the most discreet. You can incorporate your sigil onto something you handmake like clothing (inside your clothes or out), jewelry, or any number of other charms.

Put it in a Jar (and other Physical representations of your magic) Yes, jar spells and other container magic are a topic all onto themselves. But have you thought about putting the remains of a spell into a jar? This is a very sympathetic view of magic, but it makes no sense to me to cast a spell to bring something toward you and then immediately get rid of the objects used in the spell. It's counterintuitive to throw something away that you want. N'est pas? Instead, put the items you used in the casting of the spell into a jar or bag and keep it somewhere safe until the spell comes to pass. This is where an altar to your spell comes in handy - it's a place to house this object. Bonus: this makes it harder for sneaky people or inquisitive animals to find their way into your spell components. Other versions of this include putting your intentions for the spell into an object such as a stone or a piece of jewelry and carrying it with you every day.

Invoke Your Senses Again, this is strictly my opinion, but magic involves both the unconscious and the conscious mind. The best way to hijack your unconscious mind and keep it aligned with your consciousness is through the base senses like smell and taste. They tap right the fuck in as they are deeply connected to our memory centers. Here I suggest picking a scent or flavor from your spell and incorporating it into your life for the duration afterward. If you use rose petals, buy yourself a rose-scented soap or rose perfume. If you use basil, make yourself pesto once a week or work to otherwise incorporate basil into your meals. As far as food goes, items like jams and simple syrups are perfect for this purpose if applicable. This involves a bit more planning than some of the other suggestions but can be very rewarding (and tasty!). Alternatively, if sound is important to you, you could use a piece of music during your spell and then play it repeatedly to reactivate the feeling of the spell. Or, if you're very musically inclined, you could write your own song or simply set your mantra/words to music in some fashion.

This is a very non-exhaustive list of some of the techniques that I have used to keep the energy of my spells flowing when I am working on a longer manifestation. Mostly, as stated above, these techniques are best used for magic designed to bring something towards you or to change something about yourself but they can be adapted for use with other types of magic as well.

Again, the goal here is to create moments throughout your day or week where your attention is turned back to your magic through repetitive actions such as showering with rose soap or donning a necklace you made with your sigil every morning.

Do you like my work? You can support me by tipping me on Kofi or purchasing an astrology report written by me just for you.

#witchblr #words #mine #spellwork #spellcrafting #witch tips

[minecraftbookshelf]

Marriage of State AU Character Designs: The Mad King of Mezalea

Joel actually has three major looks through the course of the AU; Prince of Mezalea, Trophy Husband, and King Joel, with the subcategories of "armor" for each.

They all have the same base design of "human", differing by (apparent) age and general sense of style.

Some Joel Skins to start us off and provide the base we're working off of, and also the Mezalean banner because color pallet

And also, because it is actually relevant, (bear with me here) some samples of Mezalean architecture.

The Matral Palace and the Villager area.

Based off of Joel's final skin, the vibe is kind of "Victorian military dress uniform" however there is something very, very important to take into consideration from a worldbuilding perspective.

The Mesa is a warm weather biome. Its a colorful desert. Which means high temperatures during the day and cold at night. So tight-fitting, thick fabrics in a Victorian style would be incredibly impractical.

So we turn to the second possible source for fashion inspiration: The architecture, which gives mostly Byzantine vibes.

So what would Byzantine clothing look like, especially for nobility?

First off, taking into account that the Byzantine Empire lasted for approximately a thousand years and, naturally, underwent some dramatic changes in clothing style during that time, we'll pick a specific vibe out of the options. I settled on a bit of a mix between Early Byzantine (think the Theodora Mosaic shown below) and Middle Byzantine (see the mosaic of Emperor Constantine IX below)

And here are just some screenshots from my pintrest board for Mezalea and Mezalean!Joel, because if I put all these on here separately I'll hit the image limit too soon.

(General disclaimer: yes, Pintrest has an art theft problem, yes Pintrest is much harder to effectively use now due to the pervasiveness of ads on everything, no I don't use it for like, formal things. It remains one of the best ways to collect visual references and figuring out The Vibes)

(Yes, we get to go full Material Gworl vibes for the Mezalean King, as is only right and proper.)

General characteristics I'm adopting here for Mezalean clothing:

Brocade (and bejeweled) kaftan/kaftan-esque outer layer. This is a formal wear thing, and is absolutely a "showing off the wealth" power move.

Lots of Big Chunky Colorful Jewelry

I don't know what it's actual name is, but that general style of having jeweled tassel-like things hanging from the front sides of the crown/headdress.

Light-weight and loose fitting under-layers.

And of course, bright colors.

Prince Joel: Before he became part of the main cast in an epic fantasy adventure spanning several hundreds of years and an entire continent (and the adjacent ocean) Joel was the youngest of three princes with two older brothers who were both married and had kids.

Which is to say, it did not look like he would ever be the king.

His role in the kingdom was very much that of an ambassador to and direct connection to their people. He spent a lot of time working on fishing boats and in the mines and quarries. While he did receive a standard royal education on things like diplomacy and combat, international interactions were not his focus at all, much more involved in the day to day operations of his own home. (And yes, that is a very vital aspect of the idea of "royalty" in general, supposedly, and that being a particular point of Joel's upbringing will make more sense when I get around to writing and posting the post about how royalty functions in the Empires. tldr; its related to the whole thing where Pixlriffs accidentally redefined "war")

Basically, Prince Joel = the first skin, the simple green one. He's wearing more lightweight, practical clothes that allow him to engage in physically demanding dirty work without costing a fortune every day. He still dresses up for formal events, but he doesn't even attend all of those and he is far from a daily sight in court.

Trophy Husband: For a couple hundred years, Joel didn't live in Mezalea. Instead, he was one half of the chronological first arranged marriage in the "au in which all the marriages are arranged" situation. And this one was the one that most resembles the set-up of a generic "period" bodice-ripper novel (though that is not how it played out ultimately, for the parties involved, despite the romance that does happen.)

Basically, this is his War Prize Era. In which Lizzie won a husband in combat and then didn't really know what to do with him.

During this time period, Joel mostly wore ocean styled clothing, though during formal occasions he would wear a notable amount of Mezalean accessories, that were part and parcel of the treaty with him. (I'm trying so hard not to derail this into just a breakdown of the events of the Joel & Lizzie arc of the au im trying so hard)

He did tend to mix Oceanic and Mezalean clothing, due in part to Oceanic clothing being primarily designed for underwater wear, while he lived above the surface, finding the balance of practicality and appearances demanded by the political nature of his existence at the time. (Also a personal comfort thing as Mezalean clothing tended to afford more skin coverage and also had shoes) Once he and Lizzie were more comfortable both in the world and with each other he had more opportunities for personalization and tended towards Mezalean styles in oceanic colors. He did develop a significant appreciation for the Oceanic idea of skin-tight under-layers for water travel.

King Joel: He did end up back in Mezalea as king, which is when we hit the style closest to the second skin, which mostly for this is really an indicator of color scheme. Formally, he is now wearing the full Kaftan and Jewelry look, day to day its more of "colorful, simple, and lightweight" because he still is very active in the day to day commerce of his empire. He does usually wear significantly more jewelry than he did as a prince, he grew a taste for it during his trophy husband era XD. The details of his day-to-day wear are also fancier. finer fabrics, more embroidery, brocade hems, etc.

Most of his earrings are gifts from Lizzie, some in Oceanic colors, some in Mezalean, but all with little chips of prismarine to remind him of her even when she can't be there.

Armor: Joel's armor preferences are simple netherite plate. He also does have a ceremonial trident, as a member of the Oceanic royal family. His is gold-plated.

-

art

Lizzie || Jimmy ||

AU Masterpost

#empires smp #empires s1 #smallishbeans #the mad king of mezalea #rain rambles #marriage of state au #mos: worldbuilding #mos: joel

[hanavesinauttija]

Inspired by @txttletale 's post, I decided to try my hand at making a custom V1 magic card.

Card Transcription

V1, Marksmachine 2UBR Legendary Artifact Creature - Construct Coin Toss - Whenever V1 attacks, defending player creates four tapped Treasure tokens. Untap them at end of combat. Marksman - You may choose Treasures as targets as though they were creatures or players. Ricoshot - Whenever you cast a spell that targets a single Treasure, destroy all Treasures, then change the target of that spell. Copy that spell for each Treasure destroyed this way. You may choose new targets for the copies. 3/3

End Transcription

Art Link

Here are some design notes:

This is a top-down design meant to translate the Marksman weapon from Ultrakill. It allows you to toss up to four coins, which ricochet bullets shot at them.

This is meant as a combat-trick focused commander, allowing you to clear the way for V1 by copying removal spells. That said, there is an alternate approach in making your own Treasure tokens and copying more powerful spells at sorcery speed.

Yes, you can use this to take extra turns.

The flavor words match with in-game terms and are meant to help in parsing which parts of the card do what.

Coin Toss: V1 can toss up to four coins at a time in-game and they deactivate upon hitting the ground, which is translated as untapping them. The opponent can use the Treasures as they wish after that.

Marksman: I'm somewhat unhappy with this flavor word, but I couldn't find an in-game term that fit this better. The wording and effect of this ability is novel, and I had to extrapolate the wording from [[Know Evil]] (fantastic card, that)

Ricoshot: This is the in-game term for ricocheted bullets. I had to refer to a whole bunch of different cards to make this ability parse well, but I'm happy with it.

Overall this card is very wordy, but has one less word than [[Tom Bombadil]] so I'm in the clear :)

#custom mtg #mtg #ultrakill #v1 ultrakill

[tunabesimpin]

🐟 TWST SONA INFO 🐟

Did I rush this a lil cause i was struggling to focus? maybe- BUT HERE IS NEW TUNA REF! (no major changes but a few minor lore tweaks, I just felt a new one would be nice to do ^v^)

BASIC INFO

TAG : #twst tuna

Name : Tuna Class : 3-A (Student no. 28) Birthday : September 8th Age: 18 Height : 160 cm Dominant Hand : right Best Subject : PE Hobby : art Dislikes : Being told what to do! Favorite Food: Potato dishes and Cheesecake! Least Favorite Food : Eggplant! Talents : Fast Learner

Quick Summary: Curious and a constant day dreamer at heart. Despite their quietness, Tuna is happy to jump in to help, especially so if the it seems like something interesting. Often off doing their own thing, they aren't fond of crowds and try hard to avoid group speaking. However they'd speak up or take leadership if truly necessary.

APPEARANCE

Hair is natural gray with blue dyed tips, styled short in length. Overall body type is rectangular and flat, they have a slightly lean build with strong thighs and forearms. Kinda short, but height isn't anything they care for on themselves. Prescription glasses that only come off if Tuna is exercising or have lost them LOL. Has a few piercings; belly button piercing, dimple piercings, 0g Gauges, helix on right ear, and extra lobe piercing above gauges. Overall Fashion tends to be comfy/ baggy clothes with no design on them OR color coded outfits. Has an interest in big/ chunky shoes and mary janes.

PERSONALITY + BACKGROUND

Tuna is originally a non-magical human from the Shaftlands. Unfortunately curiosity got the best of them and while watching a big magic fight they got caught in the middle of things. This ended in them getting cursed! What's the curse? They turn into a catfish if strong magic is used near or at them. (Did they turn into one while overblots were happening? yes. Were they confused? absolutely) On the bright side for some reason they can use a magic now!

With the new discovery of magic their family sent Tuna off to NRC to hopefully let them learn how to make the most of things! They end up in Octavinelle dorm. Sexuality and identity wise, Tuna is asexual and nonbinary, they/them are preferred pronouns!

Personality wise Tuna is often seen aloof, but don't let that scare you off! They actually just are really bad at talking and opt to listen rather than talk. This also leads to them having few close friends and tending to go off and do things on their own. They can be a bit stubborn, but are easy to coax into doing things if you have the right reasoning or reward for them.

Academically, they've got good grades. However harder subjects like math tend to drop as they refuse to do work outside of class. If they can't finish the homework in class they're doing it at lunch or in between classes to avoid doing it during their free time.

In their free time Tuna likes to go adventuring, seeing animals in nature, hopping around trails, or just wandering the school grounds accompanied by their fav tunes. At night though they like to practice tumbling and flips. Outside of these they do art or listen to music.

ABILITIES

UM- Curiosity Killed the Cat! "I simply can't help myself! It's a matter of need, a matter of greed! Fulfil my Curiosity! Curiosity killed the cat!" -This unique magic allows Tuna to cast a veil over themselves and others within their touch to become undetectable! -It provides a stealth buff and hearing buff, allowing the users sounds to be muted and for other surrounding people to be easier to hone in and listen to. -This spell is hefty and excessive use (from using for too long or just too often) can cause major blot and other side effects. -side effects include: other senses become slightly weaker, ears may ring or be sensitive to loud noises, phantom noises/ lingering noises -Strong magic users with high spatial awareness may be able to see through this UM if they happen to look directly at the caster. Fishy Beginnings - Insight into just how Tuna received their curse and how they figured out the details into how to activate the curse as well as their own unique magic!

Fast Learner- They're quick to adapt and learn new things. A sort of jack of all trades, but never really excelling above and beyond in anything.

Strength + Flexiblity + Tolerance- Not super strong, but not exactly weak. They can get to a stand-off with Floyd (as long as he isn't out for blood) and lift most their classmates.

Extremely flexible and double jointed. They also have a high pain tolerance and tend not to realize when they get injured or are sick.

RELATIONSHIPS

Full Relationship & character Sprite chart -> here!

Notable relationships! :

Rook & Tuna: They sometimes share the same brain cell. They are classmates and Rook is one of Tunas fav people. Tuna loves hearing Rooks rambles and follows him around sometimes when he is stalking looking out for other students. Tuna is very curious and Rooks habits only fuels their curiosity.

Kalim & Tuna: Best friends. Their hyper happy go lucky natures bounce off of each other to create the ultra sunshine pair. This duo can be very irresponsible and can get caught up in their excitement. At the end of the day though, Tuna will make sure to protect Kalim from harm!

Floyd & Tuna: Tuna has a big fat platonic crush. They're tend to let themself be lax and free when with Floyd. They hangout a lot and will cause a commotion more often then not, whether it be from playing around or from butting heads. Floyd hasn't realized Tunas feelings... or has he?

Thanks for reading and taking interest in Tuna! ^V^ I greatly appreciate your support and time <3 !!!

#tuna be talkin #twst tuna #twisted wonderland #twst #twst oc #twst fanart #twisted wonderland oc