#*finally things can stop feeling samey*

[ambitions-of-an-eccedentesiast]

...soooooo was that like- part of the plan orrrrr??

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[olderthannetfic]

You've encountered site changes over time as a fan elder, what do you make of Tumblr potentially being put out to pasture? Tumblr was my coming of age fan site, and im looking for advice to transition to the next thing with grace and less bitterness than I feel now.

--

Ahaha. God, you should have heard the howling about LJ. "Fandom is over!" "Never again shall we dwell in fandom's True Home!" etc.

Hell, this endless "only LJ was good" crap turns up in replies here on posts where I as OP have very clearly laid out why that's rose colored glasses nonsense and you can so make friends on tumblr, have a conversation on tumblr, etc.

I had my crabby phase about this during the transition from Yahoo Groups to LJ. A lot of the real olds had it over paper zines and the transition to the internet.

I don't know if reading these hilariously samey old posts would help. It does give perspective, I think.

--

As for what you should do, do what I did with Tumblr:

1.

Look around to identify the Next Thing fandom is going to camp out on.

It may take a few guesses and some time to figure this out. You will likely not be an early adopter. Fandom was well established here by the time I joined at the end of 2010. Of course, by now, all those 2009 and before accounts are long gone, but at the time, I was a n00b joining other people's space despite having been in fandom for ages.

2.

Don't expect to enjoy it

I didn't join tumblr because I liked it. In fact, I despised it. I kept right on despising it until a brief stint in Sherlock fandom, a fandom that was so active here at the time that I was able to finally see the good aspects of the site's structure and features.

This is the mistake a lot of people make. They give things a cursory try, don't enjoy them, and go "not for me", forgetting that the last site also had a steep learning curve that was either difficult or that they didn't notice because they were in a different phase of their life.

Bitterness and grief are, frankly, an inherent part of the process. You can try not to be a debbie downer in your public comments, but you can't just not feel those things during the awkward part of the transition. Sometimes, acting positive and cutting off excessively negative thoughts can make you feel less negative overall, but it doesn't happen immediately.

3.

Accept that feeling cranky and old is both a you problem and a state of mind, not a property of the new site

Relatedly, the way we remember fandom platform X feeling usually has more to do with us being in college with fandom friends down the hall or having discovered Our People for the first time or some other time when we had a lot of energy and positive emotions. Often, we were in the throes of a first or new fandom love too, probably for some megafandom that other people also cared about at the same time.

When fandom is leaving some site, there's a grieving process anyway, but we're also often in a worse part of our lives for starting new things. We're busy. We're tired. We're between fandoms. We feel like we already paid our dues to build up our community. Why should we have to start again?

But let me tell you, you always need to start again eventually. I go to a weekly vidders' zoom chat, and a lot of the people in there are old as balls, including Kandy, the person who invented vidding back in the 70s. She's a lot of decades and a few cancers in, and she had to relearn how to vid on a computer after transitioning from slideshows to VCR vidding back in the day. If bad health, platform changes, and dead friends were going to stop her, she'd be long gone.

It's like sharks: you stop swimming, you die.

This isn't just about fandom, obviously. It's about avoiding a midlife crisis and, later, about avoiding feeling emotionally geriatric even when your body is falling apart.

Change gets us all, but being mentally old is a choice. The real reason I gave tumblr such a try was that I had been so resistant to getting on LJ. I was 20. Even a year later, it was fucking embarrassing to have been a crotchety old hag as a college student. I promised myself I'd soldier through the next change instead of dragging my feet about it. And it totally worked in the end! But boy did it not make the transition any less unpleasant emotionally!

4.

Find your joy

As is obvious from the above, the vast majority of the problem is just emotions. Fandom has been on a million broken sites with shitty features. We go where the people are, regardless of whether it has the technological aspects we liked at the last place. The actual shape of that platform is largely irrelevant.

What does matter is whether we as an individual fan are still excited and happy about something. I was between fandoms recently and went looking around for BL series I hadn't watched yet. People kept suggesting things set in the present day with too-cheesy production values and too many banal schoolboys in modern day settings without even anything spicy going on. I realized that the BL/danmei scene wasn't really cutting it for me and I should go for production values and genre and non-canon ships. You probably scrolled annoyedly past the picspams that resulted.

(Of course, hilariously, someone has now shown me the trailer of Red Peafowl, so someone may be making BL that feels like it's for me after all. Look at all that badwrong and very dark color grading.)

When you're in a good place emotionally, it's a hell of a lot easier to weather any change, and when you have a new fandom, it's a lot easier to connect with other fans.

A lot of people wait around for lightning to strike twice. They found their first fandom by accident, and they expect it to happen seamlessly again. For me, it's far more productive to brute force it: collect up a big list of what's popular or what's new and go through it till you find things you might like, then try them all.

And part of this, obviously, is not waiting for other fans to make the party happen. The more you need to join something other people are already doing, the less choice you'll have in fandoms or in platforms. If you aren't picky and just go where the tropey longfic is, that can work, but even then, favorite authors disappear or go to fandoms you hate and former megafandoms dry up. If you're the one bringing the party, it's a lot easier to find a new fandom or platform or community to have fun in.

[thegreatyin]

Elaborate on your beef with Typhon

it is Extremely Petty and Extremely Personal

tldr, it's a combination of a bunch of factors:

i do not enjoy what ive seen of her kit and think it's actively boring. we do not need a 27th bosskiller. we peaked with ebenholz. we can be more creative than that. why does she need to deal so much damage and track things across the map. who let her do that

i do not enjoy her design, like, from a personal standpoint. this is just extremely messy and cluttered and bad and does not feel at all like an arknights character. this feels like if you described how ak characters dressed to a blind man and told him to go off designing one. why are her thighs out. why does she have a giant incomprehensible bow. why do her horns look like headbands instead of actual horns which exist in this world completely normally and without issue. she's just a visual mess and i cannot tell apart any part of her aside from blurring together in my mind as visual garbage. she feels like she's trying too hard to appeal to a crowd i am very much neither a part of nor member of

especially extremely pettily: i do not like lm7's arknights stuff in general. they're clearly very talented and this isn't meant to be a jab at them as a person but i really don't think they make any of their operators work. they all have the exact same moe blushing squinted face and it's both extremely jarring and extremely hard to take seriously. why is ceobe giving me bedroom eyes when she's basically an escaped looney toons character. i, personally, Do Not Enjoy It and it's an entirely subjective opinion that stops me from liking typhon even more than i already kinda didn't

arguably equally as petty, i don't like that she's basically the star of is4 in the same vein as phantom and mizuki are for their own modes? there's tons of already existing characters you could make a sami arc around. mallagan is literally right there. why do we have to get a new purple girl just for this when there's tons of operators with stories just waiting to be expanded on. im expecting some kind of explanation for this in her event when it hits global but for now it's just really bothersome to me

finally, most petty of all: her skin fucking sucks im sorry

this is mid as hell. worse than mid. this just sucks. this is the exact same visual noise i feel when i look at her base art but in full force. it's bad and very samey palette-wise when you compare it to her og form and i don't like it and i already don't like typhon so that bias certainly doesn't help. i don't like a perfectly good opportunity for mallagan to get some much-needed love with an l2d upset by some big breasted purple girl who released like yesterday comparative to is4 going live

TLDR; i think typhon is badly designed and boring and i do not like her or her weirdly emphasized tits and moe eyes. that's not to say either are strictly bad, they just do not appeal to me whatsoever and i will be skipping her banner unless her event story COMPLETELY wows me with her lore

[7grandmel]

Todays rip: 15/02/2024

Corridors of Vine

Season 6 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume FF

Ripped by Heboyi

Right, okay, we've had a good streak recently of covering more "traditionally good" rips for the blog - arrangements and remixes like NIGHTMARESCAPE 〜Unrestrained HyperCam 2〜 (Final Boss Phase 2), genuinely good arrangements like mlp racism anthem (comix zone arrange), even the premiere of a new Season with the Joke-Explainer™ 7000 Fusion Collab. I think its about high time we change the clock to something "stupider" - the kind of rip that reminds you just how much SiIva is driven by the wild imagination, skill, and commitment-to-the-bit of its contributors. Only within a community like SiIvaGunner's will you get something like Corridors of Vine.

With memes as a whole, there seems to exist some sort of...invisible hierarchy that defines their public perception, that I've always found really fascinating. It's not impossible to understand why this hierarchy exists: Memes like the Hampsterdance in Wario's Hampster Mine, the Sparta Remix in THIS. IS. SOLEANNA. and more call back to a different, more innocent time in internet history, wheras memes like Despacito in Plains of Des-passing-to and It's Everyday Bro in It's Everyday Lake are oft met with comments like "I hate that I love this", or other similar sentiments. Memes generally follow a trend where, once one has worn out its period of inferred relevance - typically once it stops being a niche internet activity and spreads to marketing teams and unfunny people in general - its labeled as "dead" and unwanted, left as a relic of a smaller period of internet activity. That is, of course, unless it gets brought back into fashion by virtue of nostalgia and given some sort of new spin, as we've seen happen with Doge as of late - until that then too becomes co-opted by unfunny people (this time crypto-grifters) and the cycle begins anew. Yet part of what makes SiIvaGunner as a channel so great, is that very few of the memes it uses ever reach that state of abandonment: the team is so good at finding new, inventive ways to use memes as old as from Season 1, to where they rarely feel stale. And if they do feel stale - well, then that can ironically become part of the joke, playing into just how samey and played-out the joke is for a sort of ironic appeal.

All of this is to say, that I always find it immensely funny whenever the team decides - seemingly at the drop of a hat - to begin using memes that have been thoroughly labeled as dead for years by that point. A meme like the Harlem Shake didn't have so much as a pulse by the time Season 6 rolled around even past its sole revival to relevancy a few years back from being attached to Ajit Pai - yet The Harlem Shakeover of that very season was one containing over THREE HUNDRED rips utilizing the joke, next to none of which were made with the intention of sounding bad. Funny enough, then, that one of the first events we'd see during that same Season would be doing the exact same thing to a meme that's likely far more loathed than the Harlem Shake ever was - Damn Daniel, the core joke to Corridors of Vine.

Damn Daniel is perhaps the closest we've ever gotten to having a meme that felt like a social experiment - a complete non-sequitor of a joke starring an average, marketable teen and his immaculate footwear. At the peak of Vine's age of randomness humor, the series of various videos on Daniel's Vans absolutely blew up - and immediately, there were cynics from outside of Vine, older internet dwellers mainly, who made a big point about how lacking-in-funny the videos were. Yet the guy, Daniel, made it onto the damn Ellen Show of all things within mere weeks after his debut, and in a way it kind of made Damn Daniel a symbol for everything considered wrong about Vine: its mainstream appeal and focus on short, memeable videos had created a form of shitposting that...no longer felt like they were part of a community.

That is, of course, just my summary of the opinions I gathered from all the way back in 2016 - back when SiIvaGunner itself was first revving up into gear. And I find it so incredibly befitting that it was during Season 6 that the Damn Daniel event occurred on SiIvaGunner - the Season all about letting go of the past. To have it begin with SiIvaGunner, itself a 2016 meme, acknowledging its near polar opposite made around the same time: A meme that was, for a solid while, one of the most wanted-dead memes of all, one that the internet as a whole frankly felt a kind of hatred toward during what would come to be a rather cynical, hateful year in general.

There's definitely an overarching aura of irony applied to the anniversary celebration's rips regardless, of course - part of the joke with Corridors of Vine is that its using a song otherwise so closely enveloped in emotion and vulnerability (one SiIva itself used to similar effect with 時の回廊 ＜ver. CCC＞), alongside a joke that's so bitterly remembered that its mere inclusion makes it difficult to take seriously. Yet Corridors of Vine takes itself as seriously as the concept could be, it is a genuinely fantastic YTPMV using several of the famous Damn Daniel Vines in conjunction with one another, resulting in an infectiously catchy combination of lead- and backing melody instrumentation. I do think the commitment to the bit worked excellently, and the comments of the video itself appear to agree with me - despite how beloathed Damn Daniel itself was, the time to properly acknowledge and accept it had arrived, and we were for once actually...enjoying the meme?

To circle back to the point made in the second paragraph here - the truth is, there are very few memes that wind up actually full-on dead for long. Dead memes as a concept are a label we put upon jokes we feel have ran their course, yet especially in the world of YTPMV there will always be people out there able to prove the naysayers wrong, even if the intentions are purely ironic. Ironic or affectionate, the end result is the same, isn't it? You've got a smile out of your audience through your work in adapting the meme! And through all the comments expressing their concerns over returning to the hellscape that was 2016s meme culture, those smiles - even through the barrier of the internet, felt as if they were shared by all of us. The entire event - and Corridors of Vine in particular - showed Damn Daniel a sense of affection it likely hasn't had since the days when the SiIvaGunner channel's name began with a G.

Here's to 8 years, Daniel.

...Stussy man, Damn.

[alienssstufff]

If you get the time and inclination pls do share with us your beef with the existing zombie apocalypse genre, I have my own feelings about it (I think it overshadows other types of fictional apocalypses a bit too much in most ppl's heads) but I'd love hearing someone else's take on it (and also how you would improve the genre if you like :3 )

oh ABSOLUTELY it does! One way its probably the easiest type of apocalypses to write abt just cuz there’s already so many and such an established I guess wwww scenario and tropes to it (?) In consequence bc of how ‘easy’ it is, it becomes so damn samey and the zombie apocalypse genre (and apocalypses genres as a whole) gets such bad rep for that reason. [The rest atp is me ranting abt zombie apocalypses specifically those are the ones I have beef with]

When I ask ppl why they don’t like apocalyptic stories most answers is just the amount of carnage that’s in them it’s horrible— to put it better: unnecessary violence in an already terrible world is what they think abt. When people think of apocalypse stories they think of the movies made in Hollywood. Muscular, American white man whos good at everything who kicks ass and saves the world singlehandedly. And the rep for zombie-driven games aren’t any better either… Not saying that stories of kicking ass taking names are ALL bad but most of it is very surface level reasoning as to why . That being said I wish there was more focus on mental health in zombie stories, realisations that the world ended and they’ll never go back to how it was before, instances of the struggles of learning how to adapt to this new way of living. There’s many topics that could be discussed and so many themes that haven’t been fully developed (or done poorly) in zombie apocalypses but seldom media’s deliver u_u

I think the zombie stories that stand out to me the most are the ones that revolve around normal people. There’s an vid essay somewhere that talks abt the success of Train to Busan as a movie, it’s still just as action packed as the ones above but it’s also rly freaking emotional as the characters and cultural themes they represent can hit p close to home for the target demographic. Also I cannot recommend enough Gakkou Gurashi (School Live)! It’s almost never talked about solely cuz of Episode 1 and even now I’m trying to be as vague as I can Please watch that anime/manga you will not regret it.

And finally worldbuilding always a sucker for worldbuilding I need more of it. Not how to stop it but more of How The Hell we fucked up that badly to ended up in this situation. Give me zombie stories of patient 0s, pov scientists fumbling in the lab etc I want THAT. I freaking love the worldbuilding in The Last of Us , such a unique way in designing zombies inspirations from real life (I believe funghi that controls dead ants). That freaking hospital part in TLOU2 will always have a lasting impression on me the environmental storytelling of the flooded hospital and the whole backstory of how the Rat King came to be an amalgamation of all the victims of Seattle’s Patient 0 zone forced to fuse because of the such claustrophobic and wet conditions of the basement OHMYFUCKINGVGG its so well thought out.

Overall my frustrations with apocalypses is just - the amount of untouched potential and themes that SHOULD be addressed but aren’t - to get creative with it. And even without mention of the worldbuilding stories of the average joe like u and I trying to do smth as ‘simple’ as going to the store but there are mental and physical struggles along the way would be fine too - u don’t need to fly a jet and shoot a rocket launcher to make things interesting. Relatability and/or creativity is what I wish.

[this was so fun to think abt anon if u have things u wanna share feel free to shoot another ask I’m all ears!]

[yeats-infection]

hey I just wanted to tell you I’m obsessed with you and everything you write. I found your r/s works (seven simple machines….. that is staying w me for a LONG time) and now I’m reading your into the garden series (JACK!! GRAEME!! I love them!!) and I think I need to start it again as soon as I finish it, also basically reread everything you’ve written like it’ll somehow push it physically into my system. seriously amazing. do you have a way to support your writing? don’t know how seperate you keep these things but I’d love to know.

I’m absolutely loving the into the garden series, the way you depict the north west US has such a specific distinct beauty (like all your works honestly) are you still writing it? and how do you even come up with these ideas ! I feel like sometimes I want to write but it comes out so samey as other things I’ve written, I get directionless and self-indulgent without purpose. even when you’re winding and describing things it always feels so necessary for the piece. sorry for the endless message but I’ve been sitting on your works for a few weeks now and can’t stop thinking about them. thank you for sharing your stuff!!

thank you so so much for this very thoughtful message and apologies that it's taken me forever to reply! i get shy about posting asks with many compliments but since you asked some questions too i will try to answer them!

the #1 way to support my writing is to please leave me comments on ao3. i really like hearing what parts stood out to you and what moved you. there is no such thing as a comment that is bad or a story that is too old to comment on! there's really nothing that i'm doing this for at the end of the day besides myself and for the appreciation that people share!

i do hope to write one final big long piece of the series. i know most of what has to happen... i just need to execute it. it's hard to wrap everybody up in a way that feels true to who they are. demonstrating that people have grown is very hard, lol. i have faith in myself that i will be able to do it someday.

in terms of coming up with ideas. i too can be prone to feeling like i'm writing the same stuff over and over... there are a lot of 12-13 year gaps in my stories, lol. my advice is to be open to every possible experience and when you have a prose idea just start writing it no matter how ridiculous it seems

[skelekin]

Sonic Prime Season 2/Season 1 part 2 thoughts and critiques

Nobody asked but I'm gonna share em anyway, minor spoilers ahead

Stuff I liked:

Shadow. Good god how refreshing it is to see a portrayal of Shadow that isn't one-note and sucks ass. his voice is closer to his original SA2 depiction, him beating the snot out of Sonic isn't entirely unprompted and random, and honestly his scenes may have carried this entire season. The interactions he has with Sonic are also fantastic and oooogghh gay

Sonic!! I'll be honest I really have a hard time understanding ppl's issues with his characterization here; he's a naive, impulsive, rebellious teenager that wants to see the good in the world. I like that I actually get to see him make mistakes, jump to conclusions, and be scared or sad. This is the kind of thing I feel like ppl have been ASKING for from him so I don't quite get the pushback

Nine is great as ever, definitely a highlight of this entire series and he could possibly end up having one of the best character arcs in the franchise

Chaos Sonic!!!!! Wowie what a fun dude, his segments made me smile the most

Animation is once again super bouncy and fluid with dynamic shots, you can tell action is this team's bread and butter (to a fault at times, but I'll get to that later)

Stuff I didn't like:

Good GOD is the pacing bad. Honestly I think it might be worse than season 1, there were so many times where I thought to myself "nothing is happening", and desperately wished they used the little time they had per episode to flesh characters out or have some more world building.

On that, as great as the action animation is, these scenes easily take up two thirds of each episode and it gets very, very boring after a while. It becomes difficult to appreciate them when they seem to just never end. There were so many times when I would become relieved when they finally took a pause, only for that relief to vanish a minute later when the egg council throws out more of the same exact cannon fodder for yet another battle scene

And speaking of the egg council, oooh boy did they get grating. I get this is a kids show, I'm not even expecting like ATLA levels of villains here, but they feel straight from Disney Junior. The concept of eggman cloning himself and having each one represent a different aspect of his psyche is fantastic, but it's completely squandered on one-dimensional tropes that tell literally the same exact jokes word for word, there is nothing intimidating about them

Like I said I desperately kept begging for SOME level of adequate screentime to flesh out the characters and other worlds, but as is, aside from Nine, the other versions of these guys just have One Bit and their worlds again feel ripped from Disney Junior. I was holding out hope that since season 1 had to introduce all of them that season 2 would get to show more, but no. Pirate world where they all go yar har and that's it. Jungle world where they do battle cries and that's it. Despite being the crux of the entire premise of this show they're painfully uninteresting

Where is Shadow!!!!!! What little we see of him is fantastic, too bad he's barely present! They hyped up his elevated appearance so much and seeing him hardly get to do anything was such a let down.

Chaos Sonic, as fun as he was, was only present for one episode. Why

It's very saddening to see this show fall into the recent trap plaguing media aimed at younger audiences where everything is dialed up to 11 nearly All the Time. The samey stock background action music hardly ever stops, once again these guys can't seem to go one minute without punching swarms of copy paste goons, we must keep jingling the keys because how else will we keep kids' attention. I think back to how 4Kids added unecessary music queues to every single action when adapting Sonic X and how much worse it was for it

Overall Prime has been really frustrating because there's so many glimmers of potential on display that get bogged down by the fact that they're just not willing to fully commit to and take any risk on. Idk how much of that is the team's fault, I don't doubt the possibility that higher up the chain some suits are holding their vision back. It just sucks bc I really, REALLY want to like this show more, but I can't really say it's more than just. Okay

I hope season 3 is able to reel it back in

[tobiasdrake]

Having completed Sonic Frontiers, I now feel confident saying that this is the best Sonic game I've played in years and it leaves me very hopeful about the future of the franchise.

I've heard it said that Sonic games typically aim for a 7 and consistently manage to hit their mark, while Frontiers aimed for a 10 and landed at an 8. That sounds about right to me.

Spoilers to follow.

First of all, the PLOT is back. Do you remember when Sonic used to have, like, characters? And continuity? After the failure of '06, Sonic Team basically had a panic attack and fired the ENTIRE CAST. Even Tails barely managed to hang on as a minor character.

That always felt like an overreaction. Yeah, the cast was getting really bloated. Like, we didn't need Shadow and Rouge shoehorned into every game. But you don't fire Tails, Knuckles, and Amy. Those characters are the mainstays.

And we picked up Orbot and Cubot. But. Like. Does anyone really care about Orbot and Cubot? They're really more of a recurring joke than characters. I was honestly surprised by their staying power, especially during a time when all the interesting characters were banned from ever appearing again.

Frontiers welcomes back Tails, Knuckles, and Amy with open arms. And that feels right. Other characters should be able to come and go, but Sonic needs some regulars to have his back.

But it wasn't just a return to form. It honestly feels like moving forward. The characters feel like they're maturing. Sonic and Amy are able to have honest, open conversations about their respective needs, wants, and goals. Knuckles is ready to leave his solitude behind and experience the world. Tails wants to take some time to find himself and his identity outside of being Sonic's pal.

It feels like everyone's growing up. And that's. Amazing.

(Yes, I know Tails already did the "I can be more than Sonic's sidekick" thing back in Sonic Adventure. But that's kinda the point. Whether he's Sonic's sidekick or Sonic's equal partner, he's still defining himself by Sonic. He wants to find out who he is without Sonic.)

Despite his age, even Eggman isn't immune to the "Everyone's growing up" thing, coming out of this with a child that he dearly loves and a new sense of responsibility. And can I just say, Sage is awesome and I hope we keep her.

I mean. Shadow got to die tragically at the end of his game and then abruptly resurrect himself and become a series staple, so there's a precedent for it. And the seed's already been planted in the post-credits scene for Sage to do the same. I look forward to seeing her again.

Speaking of things coming back, I'm pleased to see Super Sonic boss fights set to empowering fight music for maximum catharsis finally make their return. And we got four of them to make up for lost time.

That said, there are places where the gameplay needs improvement. The Portal Levels could use more aesthetic variety rather than reusing the same 3 or 4 zones, and I'm pretty sure I caught them just reusing entire pieces of levels from Sonic Generations a few times. The story tries to cover for this by explaining that the levels are pulled from Sonic's memory, but I dunno. Seems lazy.

But the Portal Levels are short and fast-paced enough that I rarely stopped to notice. Aesthetically samey and occasionally copy/pasted as they were, I had fun with them nonetheless.

What I really didn't like was the Starfall mechanic. After a while, I stopped bothering to fight the big scary boss monsters that spawned on the map because what's the point? If they're just going to respawn in a few minutes then there's not really any point in fighting them.

Would have been better to let you permanently kill them, but have the option to respawn them if you wanted to fight them again. That way the sense of progression is preserved while still making them available for rematches.

In Breath of the Wild, the game they shamelessly stole this mechanic from, the entire game was built from the ground up around a theme of entropy. That's why this mechanic was there: Because even your accomplishments are destined to decay with the passage of time. Nothing is eternal. Nothing truly lasts. All things inevitably decay.

Sonic Frontiers feels like they're just doing it because BOTW did. But Frontiers isn't about entropy. It's about... Well, Frontiers. Exploring and discovering your way through this new place, building shortcuts and paving new paths as you go. Resetting your progress with the minibosses every now and then feels antithetical to the flow of the game.

All in all, it feels like there's a lot to build or improve upon. But it nonetheless feels like the Sonic franchise has finally recovered from the trauma of '06 and is moving in the right direction. I'm excited to see where they go from here.

[spikeinthepunch]

spierverse 2 spoilers. but also a long post diving into Villains in recent (animated) movies

i dont rly plan to make any super long posts about all of this movie bc theres just SO much to think abt and a lot of people are saying what i would say. but i have thought a lot about the villain, The Spot. mostly in relation to my last fave animated movie's villains- Puss in Boots 2

PIB got a lot compliments for its villain(s). You had Goldilocks who was an antag but a character you can see some reason to sympathize with, but she isnt the big bad. You have Death who is a conflict to hinder Puss' progress, and then you Jack Horner who is a villain that you have no reason to feel bad for, as its shown many times how he is just a privileged ass. It was a movie that finally really had a bad villain you werent gonna see redeemed, and had no reason to see redeemed. Goldilocks was an antag as she was Puss' enemy but we had no reason to hate her, and her siding with them eventually made sense. Death's conclusion with Puss was less so any end for the Villain's arc but for a personal Arc Puss was facing that drove the main plot.

Many people saw this movie and were pointing out how bad Disney/Pixar's movies have been with villains. I cant even think of any villain in their last movies, theyre all so samey. and a lot are trying to be the same "oh well now you can feel a little bad for them because we showed some sad backstory!". its nice to have some times where theres a complicated grey antagonist that explores the divide in interests and pushes boundaries but thats not what Disney is doing.

Often times, Superhero movies have cut and dried villains. Not bad- its just that there is a formula. You have a guy with a name and a gimmick and they bad, they must be defeated. Even in comics where things get expanded on for backstories, sometimes with troubled pasts etc, it still doesnt change it? They don't get reformed and stop being the villain.

So lets look at the first Spiderverse before 2. Kingpin was the first (major) villain (along with some on the side) and they were established villains. The thing thats important with Kingpin is that while we were given information about why he is doing what hes doing, no one ever finds it as "okay". no one thinks they should just deal with it by fixing him or feeling bad for him, because Kingpin wouldnt take that. He IS awful, hes selfish and terrible. and Nothing he does outside of those personal feelings actually reflects that. Nothing else he normally does as a criminal is related to his family that he lost. These kinds of superhero villains are often already criminals with an intense violent history, and theyll keep being a criminal.

Going to Spiderverse 2, we get a villain thats a bit different, The Spot. Its interesting because he starts goofy- he actually is trying to be a criminal too actually. He decides because of his circumstances, he needs to rob and do things like that and its makes sense, he has no where to go. But hes so confident and normal about it, cocky etc, that you dont feel bad for him. hes not desperate or sad or begging with the weight of his sad backstory. Hes annoying, goofy, and no ones will take him as a serious criminal at first. And then he starts to explain more seriously what happened. And it STILL doesnt come across like a "woe is me" kind of story. He *still* annoying and cocky. he wants to be bad. he wants to destroy everything. Does it suck what happened to him? Yeah. Does it suck that it ruined his life?" of course. Do you want to redeem him? i mean no, i wouldnt. hes still a jerk. and thats the key thing.

you can have a villain who is relatable and grey but its not The Spot. Its not Kingpin. They had some kind of "tragedy" but they arent ever going to be good and you shouldnt use them as aan example and soften them up to be easily digested and garner sympathy with. thats just not the kind of story you can have all the time. you NEED to remind people, mostly kids, who the bad guys are. and the samey bland villains of disney havent stuck in my heads at all in recent years. its not to say their movies were all bad- i liked a lot of them (Encanto, Turning Red). But i can hardly recall any clear "villain" plot lines. Theres a time and place for those vague instances, and many times they just dont work because it makes the whole story so vague and directionless. It makes it hard to remember the key points when its not strong enough from its other elements.

I just feel like we are losing classic villains because people for some reason started to think it was boring and we needed more "nuance" but this "nuance" isnt.....that. its bland written media by big studios that cant actually have morally grey characters because it would actually be too sensitive for people.

[ladyaj-13]

I want to hear about Ten Steps to Wooing Liam Payne and Untitled Document 2 for the WIP titles!

Ta muchly for the ask! Sorry I've sat on it for several days :D

Ten Steps to Wooing Liam Payne (an actual proper title and everything!) is a canon, band-era Ziam fic with - whoda thunk it - Zayn trying to woo Liam with "help" from Louis, so plenty of Zouis friendship in there too. It's probably about half done, will be about 12k, but I haven't even looked at it since July... I should pick it up again. A snippet, from step three of the plan, which is buying Liam a gift - Louis has called a clandestine progress meeting:

He counts the doors, and when he opens the right one he’s yanked into a broom closet, one foot catching on a bucket. The only reason he doesn’t go arse over tit is that there’s not really room to fall, not with the industrial floor polisher and shelves of paint cans and Louis.

“Subtle,” Louis says dryly. “I’m revoking your double 0 status.”

“Your fault,” he mutters.

“So, progress! What delights does Liam have to look forward to?”

He thinks of the pages of jewellery; the bracelet he finally gave in to and clicked ‘buy’. He’ll tuck it in a drawer back home, where it can wait for the right time. If the right time ever comes. He thinks of the jacket wending its way to Detroit, ready for when he catches up to it - the one he’ll have to wear himself. 

“I bought him a Snickers.”

He should have had his phone ready, because Louis’ face is priceless. 

“A Snickers.”

“He liked it!” he argues. Liam had. He’d looked at him all soft when he found it in the morning, and tucked it away to be eaten at a more chocolate-appropriate time, because Liam is all about the delayed gratification. It meant Zayn got another soft look three hours later when he finally unwrapped it and insisted on sharing, the chocolate melting sticky and sweet on their fingers. Best eighty cents he ever spent.

Lous crosses his arms and taps his foot. Because of their proximity, it means he’s basically drumming his toes on top of Zayn’s.

“He doesn't need anything,” Zayn says quietly. “Anything he needs, he’s already got.”

Untitled document two is much less developed; more an idea than a draft. It's an AU, and Liam - who has been dumped, and who's best friend has just moved away, so he's becoming one with his sofa in a dreary routine of work and telly - is taught how to have fun and live life again thanks to Niall (or possibly Zayn, haven't decided yet) advertising for a companion for him. Not like a companion wink wink but someone who will push him out of his comfort zone and make him do things. That person, naturally, is Louis. And it might all get a bit wink wink at the end there but probably more in a cute fluffy way.

Liam thinks, secretly, everyone’s life must be as boring as his.

No one really lives a non-stop adventure, and if they did, wouldn’t they get tired? Wouldn’t it all start to feel samey, day after day, wouldn’t they get the same rush of fear and adrenaline over a telly marathon that he does being asked to step outside of his own comfort zone?

So what if he sometimes looks up and wonders if this is all there is. So what if every now and then his mother traps him into a conversation about wasting his life away. He’s got a life. He’s got his own flat, and a steady job, and it’s not his fault his girlfriend dumped him a little over four months ago and he hasn’t felt ready to get back out there. You don’t just get over something like that. He’d been looking at rings.

This is what being an adult is. It’s routine and responsibilities and sometimes it’s disappointing and a lot of the time it’s boring. That’s just how it is.

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 46: Anteka

Ladies and gentlemen, we’ve finally made it to the Second Generation of Monster Hunter! We’ve got all sorts of crazy monsters to talk about, but before we get to the heavy hitters, we’ve gotta give the little guys some time in the spotlight. It’s been a while since I’ve talked about a Small Monster--or a monster that wasn’t based off another, for that matter--but there’s nothing to do but try. Let’s begin our foray into new territory with the Anteka!

(How it appears in the Second Generation)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter Rise)

Appearance: Anteka may look plain on the surface, but they’re actually not so simple; they’re meant to be like reindeer, but have antlers that are similar to that of the musk ox in how close the bases are to each other. The shape and size, however, are completely different from just about anything I’ve ever seen, and might be too heavy for a real animal of the Anteka’s size to manage. I can tell you what their eyes are from, though: thems’ goat eyes. It’s kinda hard to tell since they’re so small on the Rise render, but I can see horizontal pupils. Basically, Anteka are a conglomerate ungulate, which is A) a phrase I don’t think anyone’s ever said before, and B) rather interesting, but not anything extraordinary. 5/10.

Behavior/Lore: As decently-sized herbivores, Anteka serve as a valuable source of food for the predators of their frigid habitats, such as Giaprey and several larger monsters. Perhaps it’s this pressure that makes them rather high-strung; unlike Kelbi, which prefer to flee at the first sign of trouble, Anteka prefer to retaliate against attackers by ramming them with their antlers, which are present on both sexes.

Unfortunately, that’s all that can be said about Anteka behavior. It seems to be the herbivores’ lot in life to be prey and nothing else (well, for the Small Monsters; not a lot will try to eat a Diablos, and probably fewer succeed). Part of me feels like it’s unfair to expect more from Anteka, given that they’re not meant to be as exciting as other monsters, but the other part is telling me to rate these things on how I feel rather than worry all the time about my opinions being wrong. To save myself some stress, I’ll just give Anteka a 3/10.

Abilities: All they can do is charge you. Again, I feel kinda bad about judging them for how little they do, but I need to stop acting like I’ll be judged for what I say here. Since Bullfango does the same thing Anteka do, I’ll give the latter what the former got in this department. 2/10.

Equipment: Like most other Small Monsters, Anteka have no armor based off them. They do, however, have several weapons. Here’s a Long Sword simply called the Anteka Blade:

Sorry for the small image, but hopefully it’s easy enough to see the details here. Basing the sword’s blade off of the shape of Anteka antlers is a neat idea, though I question the Generations Ultimate description claiming that the weapon “trades flashiness for top-tier ease of use.” I can’t see this thing being any easier to use than the standard design for Long Swords, but then again, I’m no swordsman or martial artist. Next is a Heavy Bowgun as it appears in Frontier G Genuine:

If you’re wondering why I don’t show Heavy Bowguns very often, it’s because most of them tend to look pretty samey, only really differing in what monster parts are slapped onto the main body of the gun. That being said, this looks fine, though I question the logistics of putting heavy antlers on the barrel

Now, if you’re thinking these weapons look kinda bland, then I have good news for you: despite the monster being more moose-like than reindeer-like, several Anteka weapons in Frontier G Genuine are Christmas themed, adding a touch of whimsy that I didn’t see coming when I went to grab weapon images. It was tough to choose which one to show here, but I think I wanna go with the Lance:

Sorry that it’s so big, but I shrunk down the image a lot and the website doesn’t think I did, for some reason. Still, there’s a lot to love here: obviously you’ve got a Christmas tree being used as a lance, but the tree has a star on top for extra-thematic stabbing action, and the shield is a wreath with a plush Anteka head (at least, it looks like plush). I also like the bow on the lance’s handle, and the ornaments near its tip. Speaking of the tip, that seems to be where most of the “tree” part is; everything below it looks scaly, as if it were from a dragon.

Funnily enough, it seems that the majority of Anteka weapons are Christmas themed, making the first two I showed outliers. Because of this and the fact that the Christmas weapons don’t seem to be in any mainline games, it’s hard for me to grade this category. I think I feel safest calling this a 6/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: Honestly, it’s not surprising to me that I feel so lukewarm about Anteka, because they weren’t exactly designed to impress. Obviously the Large Monsters are meant to steal the show in terms of lasting impressions, so it makes sense that the Small Monsters wouldn’t be made to compete with them. They earn brownie points for the Christmas weapons, but otherwise, Anteka are just kinda...there. And that’s all they need, I guess. 4/10.

[linked-blog]

Linked - Chapter 3, Part 1

Ina didn’t expect this mission to be particularly difficult. Of course, none of their missions were particularly easy either. Ina was a Soulhunter, an individual who takes contracts to hunt down and contain rogue spirits named Mali, whose misdeeds and evil acts throughout their lives cause their souls to be reduced to violent and feral husks after death.

This building was an old facility that originally served as an outpost for a defunct tech company, which made sense to house a Malice in it. Despite their hostile nature, Mali tend to dwell in places that not a lot of others would realistically visit. Although, there were a lot more signs of life here than there should’ve been. Crudely constructed barricades were set up all over the halls of the facility, some adorning ominous messages like “TURN BACK NOW” or “ENEMY TERRITORY”, clearly showing that somebody was occupying the place. Somebody who, unfortunately, didn't sound friendly. Ina wasn’t worried. They had encountered much more threatening presences in the form of Mali.

Despite that, in their time as a Soulhunter, Ina had become desensitized to the whole business of it. Risking their life hunting down these dangerous entities loses its sense of danger once you’ve been doing it long enough, and Ina had been doing it a very, VERY long time. They felt as if they had seen everything that their supernatural pest control line of work had to offer.

Ina navigated through the cold, monochrome halls. They noticed that they felt nothing like the nearby Synshiza, which was probably one of the flashiest and most colorful cities they had ever seen. Reyse was like that, very glamorous and focused on its looks, while its counterpart, Phaara was more practical. Ina traveled a lot between the two worlds for their job so they had had a lot of time to pick up on differences like this.

After all their time as a Soulhunter, Ina had developed the skill of being able to sense a paranormal presence, but it was challenging to do so here. The thick steel walls of the facility combined with the supposed presence of at least one other individual made it difficult to parse out the Mali’s aura, but Ina could feel it faintly.

Passing through many samey-feeling metallic rooms and corridors, Ina took particular notice of a room adorned in blueprints and bulletin boards, appearing to be a creative workshop of some kind. Just like all the others, it was abandoned and broken down, but very orderly. However, whoever was working here seemed to be struggling with whatever project they had been taking on. Ina stopped to read a printed out progress log lying on one of the tables:

“Progress Report: None. There’s been no progress. We’re still trying to improve the prototype’s absorption abilities but no matter how many Synthegems we pour into this thing we just can’t seem to stabilize it. I’ve been thinking about telling the higher ups that we should just probably scratch the idea when making our final design draft so that we can focus on it’s raw strength instead but something tells me they wouldn’t be too happy with that. They wanted the ULTIMATE combat machine after all. On a side note, the others in the department came up with a name for the project. Too bad the name that they chose is horrible. Someone suggested naming it “Roko”, an ancient Phaaran word for “agony”. I tried to go against it, but I was somehow outvoted by everyone in the department. A bunch of edgelords, those people.”

Ina moved on. They began to dwell on the so-called Project Roko mentioned in the document. Whatever this “absorption technique” was was kept vague, but the mention of Synthegems rubbed Ina the wrong way. There were no limits to the things those mysterious minerals could do. Ina was forced out of their thoughts when they eventually reached the heart of the facility, arriving at a door marked “Testing Chamber 2”. There was also giant red painted text next to the door that said “WELCOME TO OUR LAIR. YOU WERE WARNED…”

Ina wasn’t too happy about the Mali hiding out around the same place as these occupiers, but they had no choice but to enter and see what was going on. The room was very large as well as open, presumably in order to provide ample space for whatever they were testing in here.

At the end of the room, Ina could make out some sort of machine adorned in an surrounded by monitors atop a higher ledge. It appeared to be a sort of capsule, but there was no way to clearly see through the glass on the front and tell if anything was inside.

The Mali was nearby, Ina knew that for a fact. They continued to search the room for any sort of paranormal presence. Maybe some sort of hidden alcove? A broken passage through a wall? Or-

A metal stake flew by Ina’s head and stuck itself into the wall next to them.

“Who’s there??” They shouted out.

“Well, well, well.” An unknown voice called out. Three figures emerged on top of a pile of rubble.

Chapter Select

[xmystophalesx]

Best New Heavy Metal Releases Week of May 27th, 2022

Got a bit overloaded this week. There was a LOT of new releases this week and if you add some releases from previous weeks that I could finally find streams of, it was more than I could actually get through. I stopped this week after 127 albums and still had about 40 to go. If I didn’t stop when I did, this blog post would have been late and the key to doing anything like this is consistency. The albums I did not get to from last week will just bleed over into next weeks.

Being overloaded was not just the amount of new releases, but also the amount of fantastic new releases. If there are a lot of albums with terrible production or terrible vocals, I can just listen to about 10 minutes and then move on. There weren’t a lot of those this week so there were a lot of albums that got full listens even if they ultimately did not make the cut for the list. Add to all of this that there were more than a few that could have gotten the 2 star designation as best of the week regardless of genre and things got way past my normal cutoff time of early Sunday evening. Sounds a bit like I am whining but in all reality I view all of this as an excellent thing. It shows how strong the Heavy Metal scene is which will always put a smile on my face. I once again will not do a full write up on each of the 2 star albums to avoid this from becoming a wall of text, but if the album has 2 stars, it is DEFINITELY one of the best releases of the week. So let’s get to it.

Madvice-Under the Burning Sky (Melodic Death)**

Really catchy Melodic Death Metal out of Italy. I love how they incorporate moments of groove in the riffing that you normally find in Thrash Metal bands with the more polished sound. Adds that extra dimension that makes this stand out from the pack.

Iatt-Magnum Opus (Melodic Death/Black)**

This is labeled as Melodic Death/Black but I could also add Avant Garde, Progressive, Technical, and even Jazz and Classical as descriptors. This album is all over the place and yet it works incredibly well at mixing all of these parts together that REALLY should not work and yet it does. I had to look up who the drummer is on this and it is a guy named Paul Cole. Never heard of him before as the band itself is new to me, but wow, just wow! I could go on and on gushing about his work on the kit, but let’s just say this is an absolute master class of drumming. Cheers, Paul! Excellent work!

Lord Belial-Rapture (Black)**

Lord Belial has been around since the 1990s and if you enjoy violent yet still melodic Black Metal played at a VERY high level, this is the band for you. To me, this one is possibly the best of their career. Lots of variety in the songwriting that does a great job of breaking up the album and keep it from sounding like a wall of sound. Something that earlier in their career was a bit of a problem. Fantastic production on this one as well.

Desert Near the End-The Dawning of the Son (Melodic Death/Power)**

Melodic Death Metal with moments of Power Metal? In any case, it’s what it sounds like to me. I guess you could say it is a lighter form of Melodic Death or Power Metal with harsher vocals but it doesn’t really come across that way. There are parts that are straight up Power Metal riffing and vocals that sound like Hansi from Blind Guardian with a cold. Whatever it is, the result is an absolutely fantastic album.

Decapitated-Cancer Culture (Death/Progressive)**

Another band with a rich history. I have to admit I wasnt a big fan of their last album in 2017 so I went into this one with a bit of trepidation. Well, after the first listen, I was like Harry talking to Lloyd in Dumb and Dumber. Decapitated has TOTALLY REDEEMED THEMSELVES. This album is great all the way through. Riffs for days, drumming that you feel in your chest, shredding guitar solos, and songs that are aggressive but with just enough melody to keep them from feeling kind of “samey”. Great guest vocals from Jinjer and Machine head don’t hurt either. Fantastic album and one that is currently on the way to me on vinyl.

Qvintessence-Qvintessence (Hard Rock)**

There have been quite a few Hard Rock albums that have caught my attention over the last month or so and here is yet another one. Just like last week and Crossbones’ Creed, this is catchy as hell and incredibly well done. A little more aggressive than most Hard Rock but that little bit of edge is what really makes it stand out. A band from Italy that sounds like they would be right at home at the Whiskey in Los Angeles.

Now you see why I had to cut this back a little. The post is already longer than I really want it to be but hey, good music is good music and deserves to be talked about. If I would have done writeups on the other bands that were deserving (Obscene, Ribspreader, Urkraft, Bloodhunter, Elusive God and Tempest) this post would have easily been the longest one I have ever done. Don’t let those pass you by just because I didn’t write about them. To more than a few people, those could very well be their album of the year.

Until next week and, as always,

BANG THY HEAD!!!

Black Seal-We Must Make Them Fall (Heavy Power)*

Madvice-Under the Burning Sky (Black/Thrash)**

Blood Storm-Cursedness of the Cinder Witch (Black/Thrash)

Evergrey-A Heartless Portrait The Orphean Testament (Heavy/Progressive)

Michael Schenker Group-Universal (Heavy/Hard Rock)*

Heruka-Memorie (Melodic Black/Death)*

Obscene-From Dead Horizon to Dead Horizon (Death)**

Circle of Silence-Walk Through Hell (Heavy Power)*

Urkraft-The True Protagonist (Melodic Death)**

Sarayasign-Throne of Gold (Hard Rock/Progressive)

Shed the Skin-Thaumogenesis (Death)*

Haserot-Throne of Malice*

Lord Belial-Rapture (Black)**

Iatt-Magnum Opus (Melodic Death/Black)**

Sandness-Play Your Part (Hard Rock)

Sacrifizer-Le Diamant De Lucifer (Thrash/Speed)*

Crematory-Inglorious Darkness (Industrial)*

The Heretic Order-III (Heavy)*

Belushi Speed Ball-What Us, Worry? (Crossover /Thrash)

Desert Near the End-The Dawning of the Son (Melodic Death/Power)**

Ribspreader-Crypt World (Death/Thrash)**

Decapitated-Cancer Culture (Death/Progressive)**

Sensory Amusia-Breed Death (Progressive Death)*

Electric Mountain -Valley Giant (Stoner/Desert)*

Bloodhunter-Knowledge Was The Price (Melodic Death)**

Trolldom-I Nattens Sken (Black)

Trolldom-Av Gudars Att… (Black)

Heaving Earth-Darkness of God (Death)

Black Lung-Dark Waves (Stone/Desert)*

The Path of Dark Salvation-Contritum Animarum (Heavy/Symphonic)

Evil-Book of Evil (Heavy)*

Church of Disgust-Weakest is the Flesh (Death)

Ophidian Memory-The Stag (Melodic Death)

The Chasm-The Scars of a Lost Reflective Shadow (Death)*

Rising Regime-The False Path (Death/Thrash)

Dewok-Arminia Gris (Heavy Power)*

OrangeClub-We Play Rackenrool (Hard Rock)*

Qvintessence-Qvintessence (Hard Rock)**

Tempest-Point of No Return (Thrash)**

In Twilights Embrace-Lifeblood (Black)

Dark Ages-Between Us (Progressive)

A Sound of Thunder-Rise of the Krimson Kult (Heavy)*

Aparthiva Raktadhara-Adyepeeth Maranasamhita (Death/Black)*

Elusive God-Trapped in a Future Unknown (Doom)**

Rottenness-Violentopia (Death/Grind)*

The Dark Alamorte-Lunacrium Thepsis (Black/Death/Progressive)

All worthy of a listen if you like the genre

*= standout in that genre

**=best of the week regardless of genre

Pick of the week is the return to form of Decapitated with 5 judgy bulldog looks out of 5!

[fizzyxcustard]

“we're going to be family!” Thorin

Fandom: The Hobbit

Pairing: Thorin Oakenshield x Fem!Reader

Warnings: None. Just pure happiness and fluffy goodness.

Summary: You and Thorin are both dying to be parents. And finally you get that good news.

Comments/Notes: If you want to be added or removed from any tags, please let me know. I'm starting to become more aware that a lot of my fics and prompts sound samey, so I do apologise. I do feel like I'm finding it difficult to come up with new material. :( It's also a little bit short, but I do hope you like it.

It had become a regular schedule now: see Oin every couple of months, and each time the blow of bad news chipped more away from your happiness. Ever since you were a child and you knew that one day you wanted little ones of your own; your maternal instinct had always been strong. And now that you were married to Thorin, everything was aligned. He was the perfect person to be a father, with you as the mother. The main two puzzle pieces fit perfectly.

This time, however, Oin's face gave a different expression to what it normally did. "Hmmm," he mused, his hands pressing into your abdomen. "And when did you say you last bled?"

"Six weeks ago. I even try and track my most fertile time, but my times of bleeding can be a little erratic," you said, no longer feeling that embarrassment which you used to. "And now..." Tears welled in your eyes at the very thought of having to live without your one dream having never come to fruition.

It had even come to it where you now stopped Thorin coming with you, because you saw the disappointment in his face, so you met with Oin at regular intervals without Thorin's knowledge.

"Congratulations," Oin said, smiling.

"W...what?" Your hands were shaking and you looked down at your stomach. "I'm....pregnant?"

Oin just let the smile grow, an affirming sign.

Your hands brushed your stomach and you closed your eyes tight, thanking Mahal. You had prayed time and time again, as you lay looking up at the bed chamber ceiling after each time you were intimate with your husband.

"I'm sure that I don't have to tell you: no drinking, smoking...."

Oil's words drifted away into some other area of your consciousness, as you reeled in excitement at the news.

***

Everything was prepared, so you stood back and felt proud of your accomplishment. Candles, flowers, the best cutlery. A fine meal would be delivered to your room in the next hour, and then a relaxing bath. You were dressed in one of your best gowns and matching slippers. Both were of purple satin. And around your shoulders was a black shawl, embroidered with roses.

Thorin would soon be back. The fluttering of anticipation had been in your stomach all afternoon since getting back from Oin's healing chambers. All you could think of was the preparations that could now begin: crib, baby clothing, toys. There would no longer be a frustration and hidden sadness between you both; this would make things better, make things happy again like they were in the first days of your marriage.

Soon Thorin came back into the room. "Good evening, my love," he whispered, approaching you. He raised his hand to your cheek and kissed you gently upon the lips. Both of you sank into the kiss as you opened your lips, and his tongue delved in.

Drawing away, Thorin smiled. "Something is different." He chuckled. "You have prepared a special dinner, I see? But it is no anniversary or day of festivity."

"Come and sit with me."

Thorin by now was growing a little impatient and excited. He could see a sparkle in your eyes and a contentment that had been missing for a couple of years now. In his heart, he already knew what the news was, and smiled along with you. He watched you as you sat down, that child-like smile filling your face. It was the same smile he remembered upon your first dance after your wedding. It was the same smile you gave him when you consummated your marriage that very night.

"You're with child, aren't you?" Thorin asked.

You brushed a piece of hair behind your ear and exhaled, then giggled. Your gaze met his. "Oh, Thorin. We're going to be a family."

***

Follow Forever tag list: @i-did-not-mean-to @lathalea @middleearthpixie @xxbyimm @meganlpie @linasofia @knitastically @clumsy-wonderland @sketch-and-write-lover @msjava1972 @guardianofrivendell @lilacpulse @spidergirla5

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Thorin Oakenshield tag list: @crazytxgradstudent

[emmys-grimoire]

Lesson 56 analysis + 57 predictions

I was right and wrong! Nothing unusual.

The Belphie-Diavolo arc continues and we go to meet up with Diavolo, only to discover it wasn't him who paged us, but his captor. We go to confront the captor who threatens us with a gun and Diavolo seems pretty carefree and oblivious about the man's true intent until he freaks out and attempts to shoot Belphie. MC can use their magic to protect him, but he informs us that bullet don't harm him anyway. A lightbulb seems to finally go off in Diavolo's head and he realizes what is happening, and he transforms and seems adamant about punishing the assailant. Belphie learns how much Diavolo cares about him and goes all tsundere-y throughout the rest of the lesson.

The big thing that happens is the Diavolo background bits and his confession + kiss. I anticipate there was much squeeing, but it was pretty standard confession fare. I have a harder time getting into it because we didn't really have any big bonding moment with him prior to him apparently falling for us.

But whatever. There are some interesting bits to comb through!

Raphael: Misunderstood?

We find out in the beginning of this lesson that Belphegor has a much higher opinion of Raphael than the rest of the brothers, that seems to have stemmed from Raphael once saving him when he got lost in the forest back in the Celestial Realm.

Up until this point, all associations with Raphael have been negative. This gives us some background on why he might be irritable and snide all the time, because Michael is also noted to be a sadist by Simeon, who enjoys making harsh demands of his underlings. He might be a hint resentful and taking it out on the brothers? That might be multiplied if Michael clearly goes easier on them due to favoritism in spite of all their troublemaking. I think that'd kind of make sense.

They like to put emphasis on how secretly malevolent the Seraphim are -- that they're duplicitously evil. Not sure how much they're actually trying to hide it, though? It sounds like Raphael was pretty upfront about how he felt about everything.

Diavolo's Flaws

We find out that Diavolo is actually aware of his penchant for using his royal status to get those around him to do what he wants. We also find out that his mother died giving birth to him, and his father was very strict in raising him. He was sheltered, and not allowed to speak with anyone outside of the castle.

Getting Tywin Lannister vibes. Diavolo isn't sure whether or not his father hates him for being responsible for his beloved wife's death.

In spite of being sheltered from the outside world, Diavolo still manages to meet Barbatos, which I think confirms that Barbatos was not always in their service. I was wrong that Barbatos's employment was connected to his father's machinations, though: it was Diavolo who twisted his arm into it, because Diavolo desperately wanted a friend and became enamored with the stories of the outside world that Barbatos told him.

Diavolo threatened to abdicate his throne if Barbatos didn't stay. Which is actually... kind of an asshole move? I imagine he refused for a reason, and Diavolo taking the throne was apparently very important to his father (and probably the Devildom as a whole if the succession would be muddled).

I don't think at this point Barbatos minds, but I wouldn't blame him if he initially did resent Diavolo.

Diavolo has demonstrated he has the ability to sense lies and he's a good judge of character, so him being unable to ascertain whether or not his father or Barbatos really likes him seems noteworthy. I think Barbatos is the best fake smiler among them, but he's been at Diavolo's side the longest.

He has a surprising amount of insecurities when it comes to his closest relationships, but I'm afraid a lot of it is his own fault: if he hadn't extorted Barbatos and instead Barbatos entered his service of his own free will, he probably wouldn't need to second guess the butler's intentions. Additionally, if he didn't demand Lucifer make a vow in exchange for his sister's life, there's a chance that maybe it'd be easier for Lucifer to open up and get closer to him like a friend naturally would.

And then maybe he wouldn't have spent most of season 2 worrying over how Lucifer may respond to bad news!

But he's growing out of it. Sort of. I'd be wary of him trying to strongarm MC into a decision they may not necessarily want to make, though, even now. Maybe especially now given his apparent attachment to them.

Barbatos scheming

Barbatos is being schemey!

I have a feeling this involves the information Luke relayed to him about a potential rift growing between Michael and Simeon. I would not be surprised if Barbatos has actually peered into the future and knows what Michael might be planning, and he's positioning himself to counter it.

I was hoping hard mode or the subnode would shed more light on what this conversation entailed, but nope, it was just more fluff. I doubt they were just discussing dinner, though.

Predictions

This lesson was more Diavolo-centric than I expected but that's hardly unwelcome. Like expected, it was a good fluffy lesson in spite of the, uh, grim background.

The brothers behaved for once and didn't intrude upon our bonding experience with Diavolo and Belphegor.

We didn't actually receive a star for this trial, which is... odd. Maybe we'll receive it in the beginning of the following lesson, or perhaps this romp wasn't a trial? It'd be the first one that wasn't. I'll be really surprised if they go for another twofer and don't give Lucifer his own special arc.

I was expecting to be rewarded our star and having the lesson end on a cliffhanger but it feels like the next lesson will be the beginning of the final arc. Outside of Barbatos's potential maneuvering, we weren't given any further information on what Michael may be planning.

If Season 2's format is any indicator, the next lesson is when everything suddenly hits the fan. I sense another sudden exposition dump on the horizon.

They did mention going to yet another space-themed park but that sounds like it'd be too... samey. Also not a place that sounds like it'd be Lucifer's cup of tea.

I'd be willing to bet Barbatos will play a part in the finale and by extension so will time travel (again), but other than that I got nothing. If Michael is aware of Barbatos's powers -- and he may very well be -- maybe he'll be the one who manages one hell of a Xanatos Gambit and try to turn it to his advantage. I'd be surprised if he wasn't similarly prepared, particularly if he's plotted and meddled with Devildom affairs in the past.

But I'm not even entirely sure what he really wants yet, and that drives everything.

The most straightforward motivation would be getting the brothers back, but he must know they would never willingly go back presently and we're not even entirely sure daddy would want them back. I theorized that he might be trying to get MC to turn the demon brothers back to their angel selves but there really hasn't been much progress shown in that regard.

I do expect our meddling in the flashbacks will have some unforeseen consequences which Michael alluded to, but I still don't know exactly what and I'm not entirely convinced that they will actually be to his benefit.

He might want to change the past, prevent whatever triggered Lucifer to start hating their father and/or stop him from meeting Diavolo and growing more and more doubtful about the Celestial Realm's intent... but he already had that opportunity when MC went back in time, and he would have to find a way to manipulate Barbatos into getting him to that specific point in time. If he's in league with Solomon, he could feasibly do that via the pact but...

Are we really betting on a villainous Michael-Solomon tag team? idk man

And Barbatos can just eliminate that timeline fork with a snap of his fingers, like he did before.

I guess I'm finding out along with you guys. Again!

[thr-333]

Drastic Measures- Part 11

@daminette-december2019-2020

~Snow globe~

Gabriel: Nathalie why haven't you canceled my card?! Nathalie: oh were you going to use that to pay my pay rise for moving to a different continent or to pay my last 6 years of overtime? Gabriel: Nathalie- Nathalie: You’re welcome to do it yourself sir. Gabriel:....... I can’t do anything without you can I? Nathalie: No you cant and make sure to remember that next pay day.

Ao3

First < Previous  > Next

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“So why are we here?” Damian asks getting dragged around the mall by the two.

“Because if we’re decorating the pet stores we need inspiration,” Marinette holds him by his elbow in case he tries to escape again, “And Adrien's having fun,”

“Why don’t we just hire someone for that?”

“I haven't found a good babysitter yet,” Marinette smiles as she knows Damian glares at her, “The style of the store is the most important thing, it’s what people interact with the most and a representation of our company,”

“Tt,” Marinette smiles knowing she won. 

They follow Adrien into an incredibly overpriced knick-knacks store, exactly what they’re looking for. She jots down notes in her book looking at the glasswork on the figurines or the beautifully painted porcelain.

“I think every store should have the same color coordination for each section,” Marinette suggests writing down a potential palette based on the plates she was looking at, “So people always know where to find something no matter the store,”

“How many people do you think are going to multiple stores?” Damian scoffs.

“We will be, besides its a decorative thing, a bit of paint on the wall or shelf, hm maybe each section should have a range of shades to keep it from being too samey,”

“I take it you’re in charge of this part now?”

“Guess so,” Marinette hums looking over the shelves for more inspiration, Adrien looking over a large glass sculpture that she may have to talk him out of buying, “So did you talk to Adrien?”

“Oh no,” Damian catches her attention, “He talked I was expected to listen,”

“So you make any decisions?” She spots a little china doll on a high shelf.

“I’m not going to run away if that’s what you’re asking,” Damian reaches over her grabbing the doll before she knocks over shelves trying to jump up and reach it.

“But If you were-”

“I’m not,” Damian hands the doll over.

“But if you were,” He gives her a withered glare, “Where would you go?”

“… Somewhere I can paint I suppose,” He says after some consideration.

“That's a start!” Marinette exclaims, almost dropping the doll.

“I can paint anywhere,” Damian catches it before she can.

“Ah,” They go back to pursuing the shelves, Damian taking it upon himself to hold the delicate decorations for some reason.

“... Where would you go?” He asks eventually, Marinette tries to keep the smile to herself as to not scare him off.

“I used to think I’d like to go somewhere with lots of snow,”

“Is that so?” Damian hums consideringly.

“Yeah but then I came here and realized the cold sucks,” Marinette's jaw actually drops as Damian laughs, not a snort or a scoff and actual chuckle! ���Hollll- did you just laugh?! Did I just get you to laugh!? Are there cameras around?! Do you think they’ll let me keep the footage?!”

“Calm down,” Damian places a hand on her head to stop her bouncing,  “Besides I think your friend is about to make a ludicrous purchase,”

“Adrien!” Marinette snaps as he tries to pay for a glass sculpture twice his size, “Can it fit on the back of a motorcycle?!”

“.... no,” Adrien hangs his head like a toddler being told off.

“Then put it down!” Marinette chides dragging him away from the sculpture and out of the store. She already had to fit three on them on hers. Damian is lagging behind, Marinette resigns herself to having to drag them both through the mall like children when he finally catches up.

“Here take this,” She startles a snow globe in a clear box being pressed into her hands, “Now you can look at the snow without getting cold,”

“That's so nice,” She bites down on the follow-up question of where the hell is Damian and what did you do with him.

“No, it’s bribery,” Ah there he is, “Don’t tell anyone I laughed,”

“So you admit you laughed,” Marinette smirks, letting Adrien go look at different stores.

“Besides,” Damian sharply changes the topic, “If you want to see the snow so badly just stay inside a cabin or something,”

“Well maybe you can come with me,” Marinette hums looking at the snowflakes fall over a winter forest, two little people by a campfire, “I bet it would be beautiful to paint,”

“Maybe so,” Damian agrees before giving her a side look, “Also you’re a horrible influence,”

“Who me? It’s not like I gave you the idea to run away,” He had come to her with that all on his own.

“No you didn’t,” Damian easily agrees, walking along with Marinette.

“Well if you’re still in the rebellion mood why don’t you join the pink hair squad?”

“I am not dying my hair pink,” Damian rolls his eyes.

“Just a little bit?” Marinette steps in front of him walking backward.

“No,” Damian brushes past her, Marinette lets him go ahead.

“Adrien I just had the best idea,” Marinette turns to her side where Adrien is not. Marinette looks behind her spotting Adrien in the crowd- getting picked up and carried away by a stranger! “ADRIEN!”

Damian hears her shout bolting forward. Grabbing a baton he apparently had the whole time. 

“Damian, watch out! They might have feelings!” Damian actually stops in his tracks, turning back to glare at her.

“...”

“...”

“Hey guys,” Adrien speaks up, “I’m kind of being kidnapped,”

“Right!” Marinette wipes the grin off her face, punching the kidnapper right on the jaw. He drops Adrien who lands on his feet, “Do I need a child leash for you young man?”

“Please don’t my Father had one of those for me,” Adrien brushes himself off as the kidnapped stumbles to the ground.

“Weren’t you never allowed out of the house?” Marinette asks as Damian steps forward to pull the kidnapper's arms behind their back.

“Exactly,”

“Not that this isn't riveting,” Damian says in the most bored tone, turning to the kidnapped, “Who hired you?”

“Garbeil Agreste sent me to fetch his son,”

“Yeah, here we call that kidnapping,” Adrien snarks back, “Great can’t the guy just leave me alone? What's his problem it’s like-”

“Nope!” Damian drops the kidnapper walking away, “Not today! Not again!”

“... well that's just rude,” Adrien huffs as someone calls the police.

“Don’t worry,” Marinette smiles, “As I was trying to tell you I have a plan,”

 ---

 “MARINETTE!”

“Hm wonder what that could be about,” Marinette flips the page, continuing to read peacefully while seated for breakfast with the rest of the Waynes.

“Dupain-Cheng I know you are responsible for this,” Damian leans over her, still in a towel and dripping wet, oh and with pink hair that bits kinda important.

“You did this to him?” Jason laughs, not so subtly taking pictures with glee.

“Relax it’s temporary dye,” Marinette grabs Damain’s shoulder before he can jump over the table and dismember Jason.

“How temporary?” Damian demands, Marinette just turns to a new page with no drips of water on it.

“Just wash it a few more times and it will come right out,” Damian huffs again stalking out of the room, all eyes on her.

“... I can’t believe you survived that,” Tim says with awe, “Actually even Damians not stupid enough to risk that,”

She’ll ask what he means later.

 ---

 “Temporary Dupain-cheng?” Damian glares at her, still very much pink and still very much angry.

“Alright maybe not,” Marinette tries to suppress a giggle, “It looks good tho,”

“Dupain-cheng you will fix this and you will fix this now,” She’s not lying he does look good and she does blush.

“Well, we could go to the hairdresser-”

“No,” Damian snaps, crossing his arms like it's final.

“Do you trust me to dye your hair myself?”

“Absolutely not,” at least not after this.

“Then you’re stuck like that,” Marinette shrugs, Damian groans sinking into the seat behind him.

“This is all your fault Dupain-cheng,”

“Ha, how long are you going to call me that?” Damian leans forward fixing her with a venomous glare.

“Forever,”

 ---

 “Hey Robin- are you wearing a swimming cap under your hood?” Ladybug cuts herself off trying to take off his hood.

“It’s a lightweight head protector,” Robin grabs her wrist, but Ladybug is stronger.

“Yeah no,” Ladybug pushes his hood off, “It’s a swimming cap, what is killer croc up to something?”

“You’re hilarious,” Robin scoffs looking away as if there isn’t a real smile tugging at his mouth.

“Well I can’t let Chat take all the glory,” Ladybug shrugs coming to sit next to him in what has become their usual spot, “So what's the deal? Gasp did you lose a dare?”

“Did you just say gasp?” Robin asks incredulously, “And no it’s not a dare it’s a rather unfortunate prank,”

“Oh please please tell me they did the same to Batman, Please,” Ladybug his holding both his shoulders, Robin completely turned towards her as she looks at him desperately.

“........ yes,”

 ---

 “Marinette,”

“Yes Bruc-” Marinette chokes then tries to choke down her laugh.

“I feel you may have gotten carried away, I would like to remind you-” 

“So sorry to interrupt,” Marinette interrupts, “But that wasn't me,”

“Are you sure?” Bruce is studying her.

“Yeah I only messed with Damian's  bathroom,” Marinette turns completely towards him, “Were you using Damian's bathroom?”

“No,”

“Then it wasn't me,” Marinette shrugs turning away.

“Then who did it?”

“A true mystery,”

 ---

 “So you’re sure you want me to do this,” Marinette asks again, the dye in one hand Damian sitting in front of her.

“Dupain-Cheng I swear-”

“Ah, if I help you, you have to stop calling me that,” She tells him, pulling the black dye away for extra effect.

“I only call you that because of what you did,” Damian glares at her reflection in the mirror, “If you want to get back in my good graces then do this,”

“Alright, you’re sure you don’t want to keep a little pink?”

“Marinette,”

“Alright, alright,” Marinette ruffles his hair while she can get away with it, “I did like your pink hair,”

“It got in the way of...” He trails off.

“Way of what?”

“Nothing,” Marinette drops it, the topic not the dye.

“Well Damian,” She spreads the dye through his hair, “Welcome to your first step of rebellion,”

Little did either realize how true that was.

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no tag list :P