#I joined the fandom soon after the game released

[bubblybloob]

I can't help now but imagine that when Cold finally falls prey to the hibernation scheme (as they all will, eventually 👁👁) Hunted will take the opportunity to put him in the washing machine until the mange crust is all gone.

First of all, who’s to say they fall to the hibernation? 👁️👁️

Secondly, NO DON’T WASHING MACHINE MY BOY I’VE BEEN THERE IT IS HELL HE WON’T SURVIVE-

[ikemenlibrary]

Now announcing.... 'My Ikémen Valentine' Gift Exchange!

A sweet and spicy holiday to celebrate with your true love

The fifth installment in the Ikémen Gift Exchanges hosted by @ikemenlibrary. This one’s a bit different, as it’s not for a specific fandom, but instead, a romantic holiday! 

This is open to all of the current Ikémen games released in English servers!

Main Info:

Event: Gift Exchange

Fandom(s): Ikemen Vampire, Ikemen Sengoku, Ikemen Prince, Ikemen Revolution

Creation time: January 19 - February 16 Gift sharing: February 17-18

You can sign up for the exchange here

The deadline to submit your submission to join the exchange will be due on January 12.

You will have a month to create a Valentine’s gift for your recipient and an Ikémen character that they have given to you out of their list. 

If you're interested in joining, please make sure to get your answers completed and sent in before January 12. You can edit your sign up form after it’s been submitted, but please make sure to let me (the host)  know if you’ve done that, as I do not get notified when that happens and I want to make sure everyone’s happy with up to date information. Once the deadline passes, I will turn off the link to edit or submit so if you have any problems after then, please contact me directly.

Once I get everyone’s information organized and sorted, I will be reaching out to everyone individually on January 19 to let you know who you’ve been assigned to create for, as well as any extra information to share at that point in time.

When your application has been accepted for the gift exchange, I will reach out with a link to join the Discord server (if you aren’t already in it from previous exchanges).**

Please let me know if you have any questions! I can be reached via Tumblr DM or if you have my Discord from previous exchanges, you may find me there as well <3

Disclaimer: **Please note before signing up that I do have a Discord server that I encourage everyone to join. We’d love for all the participants (myself included!) to get to know one another, work together, and potentially help each other out within the event. We also have some fun bots to play with!

If using Discord is something you are absolutely not comfortable with, please message me before you send in an application so I am aware that you will not be joining and can mark it down on my end for organization purposes. (If I’ve spoken to you about this before, just specify in the sign up sheet, there’s no reason to need to reach out again!)

Below the cut, there is a new update to the rules I’ve previously had in place. This is also reflected in the sign up sheet. Please let me know if you have any questions!**

Can’t wait to see you all soon!

**I just wanted to give a quick update on the rules, as I have changed a few things slightly this time around.

The minimum word requirement for fanfiction updated from 800 to 850 words

The fan art requirement has been updated from being lined with a colored drawing, to also require a background as well (this can be a solid color, or scenery, or whatever you decide. The background just cannot be white (of course, special cases may occur and I will leave it up to the artists stylistic choice))

This time around, you cannot select specific characters from a list who you aren’t interested in creating for. That would be too messy with 4 fandoms. Instead, you will get more options of characters to create based on your choices you fill out on the sign up form

You must be ready to share progress during the halfway check in point via Google Drive/Docs if you are a fanfiction creator. If you do not have access to using one of these, please send me whatever you have during the check in, and I will copy it into my Google Drive. This is so if there becomes a time where you lose your progress on something other than Google, there will still be a copy existing, even if it doesn’t completely reflect your current progress. 

This will all be reiterated in the information key you will be given at the time assignments go out, so don’t worry about remembering this for the time being

[littleacebee]

Hello audio drama community! I would love to interest you in little podcast appreciation-recommendation game. Please reblog/comment and share with me:

One podcast that you think person interested in audio drama should listen to (either because of the influence on the medium, a cool way of using audio format, general amazing sound, performance etc, whatever you think falls in this category)

One podcast that has community around it you love interacting with (fandom, artists, discord server, official accounts, etc)

One podcast that inspired you to create something (fanart, fanfic, something handmade, cosplay, headcanons, something completely original, etc)

One podcast that have music you could listen on repeat (theme, musical episodes, any songs included)

One podcast that’s new and you need more people to join in appreciation (like max one season, even better if not complete)

One podcast you can’t wait for (is not yet released)

RULES: One podcast per category, you can put the same podcasts in few if you want but I encourage trying to pick six different. I know that probably you have more than one that can fit every category but still I ask for one – I don’t want you to treat it as the one you put is your favourite or the best one, just the one you thought about now, is lately on your mind. If you can’t think about one for certain category you can leave it empty. If you want you can add explanations why this one, the description of the podcast or generally show some love but that’s completely voluntary. And if you are official podcast account and want to join the fun, came and join! Put your own podcast in any category and share your other choices.

And of course just have fun with it and share some positivity!

I’ll start:

One podcast that you think person loving audio drama should listen to: The Orphans - extremely interesting way of telling the story with amazing cast and quality

One podcast that has community around it you love interacting with: The Amelia Project - Soon after I listened to TAP the cocoa collars took place and it was so nice to see so many people show love to this podcast. Love you my besties <3

One podcast that inspired you to create something: Stellar Firma - I embroidered one of the quotes and plan on making it into a pillow, it will be an amazing extremely confusing pillow

One podcast that have music you could listen on repeat: Night Shift: An Urban Fantasy Audio Drama - “Give it all up” is stuck in my brain and I already added it to my playlist to listen on repeat

One podcast that’s new and you need more people to join in appreciation: The Kingmaker Histories - Listened to latest episode today and I just love the number of cool dangerous women that are introduced, you would love them tumblr

One podcast you can’t wait for: Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later - Every bit of info I get about this podcast just make me more and more excited

[abybweisse]

Hi there! I recently finished reading the Black Butler manga for the first time and I’m completely blown away!!! One thing I’m curious about and would like to know from a long-time manga reader: When did people start to seriously theorize that Ciel had a brother? I binge read the manga in less than a week and all of the foreshadowing/clues went completely over my head, so I would love to find out what made people start to get suspicious and what kind of theories started to pour in! 👀

Wow, that's a lot of reading in less than a week! I would have missed a bunch of little details, too, if I had tried that! 😯

When did 2CT start?

Well, I didn't join the fandom until sometime in 2015, and some people were already talking about various hints that there was probably a twin brother. @kurotwins and @akumadeenglish who are both not active here anymore (at least not on those blogs) we're talking about it, as well as some others I'm not as sure about. Apparently, the Japanese chunk of the fandom didn't really debate there being a twin; it was sort of accepted very early-on. It might be a matter of translation issues, like "sons" translated to "son", etc.

Anyway, I recall reading a bunch of their posts, and then I started paying more attention to a scene in ch1. Chlaus shows up with the packaging for a game called "Mouse3" by "Ninkyodo". Well, that's a parody of Mother3 by Nintendo, which was released in Japan on April 20, 2006. Unlike the previous two versions of the game, Mother3 never got localized as part of the EarthBound series. Which is why Chlaus tells our earl the "game" was so difficult to find in Italy. Of course, that packaging contains the drug evidence that our earl needed to show Scotland Yard. To put Azzurro Vanel (and potentially the Ferro family) away.

The irises are used in both Victorian flower language and Japanese flower language to mean a few different things, but one meaning they share in common is something along the lines of "I have a message for you." Well, that message is the game packaging shown on the very next page.

Mother3 is about mirror twin boys who deal with tragedy soon after their birthday (9th or 10th). Their mother is killed by a monster, and their father is so distraught about her death that he goes into a rage and end up in jail for a while. Soon after the dad gets out of (escapes from) jail, he finds out the older mirror twin had gone off by himself to kill the monster, but now he has gone missing. Everyone is searching, but no body has been found. However, the player of the game can see Claus' broken body at the bottom of a cliff. It's understood that he's dead. The main characters still don't know, though. Not for another three, almost four, years. After losing his wife and being unable to find his older son, the father becomes kind of useless. Notice that the guy in Kuroshitsuji is Chlaus, and the older twin in Mother3 is Claus.

Three years later, Lucas (younger mirror twin) is about 13 years old, and he sets off on his own quest for revenge, along with the loyal family dog, Boney. The rest of the game takes place during this one year, then it ends just before his next birthday. The last thing Lucas has to do before he can "win" is defeat his own older twin brother, who had died, been turned into a Fascinating Chimera, and had been pitted against him.

So, I started coming up with my Mother3 theory for Kuroshitsuji back in December 2015. Back then, I was already theorizing that not only is there a twin brother, but he's a mirror twin. The missing twin is older, dead, reanimated, and will pop up again as an adversary.

Soooo, idk how long some version or other of 2CT has been around, but a very specific version of it came to me (and became very serious to me) in December 2015. And it's canon now: mirror twin brothers; one lives while the other dies; the dead one is reanimated; they end up having to confront each other.

Even Sebastian gets to parallel the roles of both the loyal family dog, Boney (under contract) and the Dark Dragon who must be given your "heart" to follow your will (as the demon who demands a soul as payment).

That's why I'm so into my Mother3 theory, which started out kind of small and grew and grew... because the similarities don't stop there. Not even close. Numerous characters and plot lines have strong parallels to Mother3 characters and plot lines, while a few are better paralleled in Mother and Mother2. The timelines are essentially the same between Kuroshitsuji and Mother3, too.

Maybe check out my "Why I theorize" post and my "Masterpost 1" for more on that, to get more into it. There are several masterposts and addendums, plus a few more masterposts on the way... eventually. When I first started posting about it, I didn't expect it to be such a big finding, but here I am, still talking about it! 😆

[queenlua]

TUMBLR MARCH MADNESS CHALLENGE 2K24

It is presently the Most Exciting Month Of The Year for my people (Kentuckians and/or college basketball addicts), and you're all invited to partake in the festivities:

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE TUMBLR MARCH MADNESS BRACKET CHALLENGE

(that link allows you to join the group; the password is "thenewpdf")

I promise it is very fun to play even if you know 0 things about basketball :) Full FAQ under the cut.

Cutoff time for entries is 9:15am PST on Thursday, March 21st, so get those picks in!

(also: feel free to reblog this widely! the more who join in, the merrier!)

What is this?

The NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament is a single-elimination tournament played between 64 different college basketball teams in the US every March (hence the colloquial name "March Madness").

To "play along," you can fill out your own bracket, where you guess who the winner of each of those 63 games is going to be, and then submit it to the group (that little link at the top of the post). As the tournament proceeds, you'll get updates on how well (or poorly) your bracket is doing compared to everyone else's, and if you guessed more games* correctly than anyone else, YOU WIN!

(* technically you get 1 point per game guessed correctly in round one, 2 in the next round, 4 for the next round, doubling until the end of the tournament... but yeah just try to guess More Games Correctly, and know that it's weighted to give more points if you pick the champion, the final four, etc)

I don't know anything about basketball!

That's totally fine. There's literally a button on the tool that auto-generates a plausible-looking bracket if you want to put in 0 effort at all. (Bonus: if your bracket ends up winning, you get to gloat about how your little button-press outperformed all the stats nerds and tryhards. And if your bracket loses, you can just blame The Algorithm.)

I also HIGHLY encourage filling out your bracket on the basis of: which team has cooler colors, which team has better mascots, vibes, etc

What do I get if I win?

Glory! Bragging rights! Fake internet points!

(if we happen to share a fandom or something i guess i could write a fic for the winner—this is tumblr, after all—but i'll note my primary fandom is a 17-year-old video game that sold exceptionally poorly, so uhhh, hope you're the exact same kind of weirdo as me if you're angling for that)

Can I invite people outside of Tumblr?

nothing would delight me more than a full assortment of oddballs from every corner of the earth coming to join in my little bracket pool. please invite everyone you know

Thursday is soon!!! Can I get an extension???

Not up to me, alas. The brackets are released every year on Sunday, and the tournament starts Thursday, and once it's started, you can't enter anymore!

But my pseudonymity!

I signed up with a fake name and a throwaway email and it seemed to work fine.

[radcowboylad]

I think that actors being super involved in the fandoms for franchises they’re in is truly the ULTIMATE marketing tactic that I don’t think the actual creators really take notice of.

As someone who reeallly only gets deep into franchises based on the fandom, these actors are like the fucking backbone of them. Not even exaggerating on that. They unintentionally bring more content for fans to thrive on and keep them involved with the community a lot longer than usual which is absolutely fantastic for people like me who are tired of fandoms dying so quickly because of how short our attention spans have become (thank you tikTok and thank you Streaming services for releasing content all at once instead of one episode per week, totally didn’t completely backfire on your longevity)

For example, let me talk about Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2022) Ghost, Soap, König and Horangi:

Initially, Ghost had started appearing on tik tok when the game released sometime around October or November, and because this character was sexy as fuck, he brought in a HUGE AMOUNT of fans from an entirely different demographic (more women, more lgbt people, more mask kink people too lmao) which is so vastly different from its stereotypical community (being males who are often insufferable, sexist, homophobic and transphobic)

But the interesting thing is, once Neil Ellice (Soap’s actor) started showing up and involving himself within TikTok after That One Interview, his character’s popularity BOOMED, while Ghost kind of just remained the same level, despite both Neil and Samuel being present in that interview. I think this is because Ghost’s actor (Samuel Roukin) never really took too much interest in social media’s or the newer cod fandom, and his reactions and responses to questions in the interview never seemed (to me at least) that he cared too much or that he didn’t want to be there. (I don’t think it was intentional though, but it’s hard to know for sure)

After a week or so of the game release, König started to win the hearts of the new cod fans as soon as players started to unlock him in DMZ/multiplayer; people were obsessing over him, despite not being a story mode character (all we had was his character backstory written in his bio)…. And then his Voice actor (Jim Boeven) suddenly made an instagram story reply to someone and either unintentionally or intentionally made a remark in regards to König that came off as homophobic. This actually kind of killed the König fans temporarily; it felt awkward and uncomfortable to express liking König for a while because a lot of the homophobic fans or even just other regular fans would reply to fan art and comments and edits saying “but he’s straight/but his VA is homophobic and calls himself an alpha male unironically” etc. it was also interesting to see how the lgbt fans would actually start rejecting Jim and fully separating him from König in attempt to “reclaim” him and say “Jim isn’t technically his creator/writer, therefore the things he says in regards to König is irrelevant and not canon”, but when Neil would say something about Soap, those same fans would treat it as canon despite it being just as true as the heterosexual König remark Jim made.

I wrote an extra paragraph for Horangi but I accidentally deleted it all ugh I didn’t know adding a link would replace the entire paragraph with the preview and disappear let me do a tldr I don’t know much about Horangi because his character popularity increase is extremely recent OR because I kinda fell out of the fandom briefly until a week ago but essentially I think that Nick Martineau (horangi VA) interacting with the fandom on Neil levels is definitely reviving some cod fans and making player’s interest in COD last just a bit longer.

Anyway the tweet I was gonna link was him talking about joining AO3, the fanfic writers were FREAKING OUT and scared him out of it

I think this really shows how much effect these voice actors & actors have over these characters outside of professional work. Fandoms are a slippery slope so of course, if an actor puts a negative input on ‘their’ character, it’s going to have a negative response or effect from some of the fandom, and vice versa. It needs to be treated with respect and open mindedness.

I guess also the beauty of not having actors involved is that you can avoid this issue all together. You can’t really stop actors from “tainting” characters outside of official media because their words outside of it doesn’t make it official or canon at all

But anyways, Old fashion interviews can be nice too. but it’s different. Interviews can easily seem too professional and insincere, that the actor doesn’t actually have to have any passion for the franchise/character, can only be there for the money or because they have to be there, etc even if that’s not always the case… so it’s truly on another level when an actor has a lot of passion and love for their community and interacts with fans outside of interviews. The casual-ness, it feels more personal, and there’s a lack of need for censoring for company image or whatever and those factors name it so easy to become more attached to the character AND the actor themself.

It feels so special when the art, memes, projects, edits, and even fanfics you make can have an unprompted response from an actor involved. i think it’s normal when you see their reactions and it put you on a small high + silly bragging rights even if they comment on a lot of things.

Even if the actor is not like their character (let’s be real, actors are very rarely anything like the characters they play) it still sort of feels like that character is still alive in them, even if the character has died and the show has ended… it fills me with so much happiness especially when these actors react like their characters or answer questions on behalf of the character, or give their opinions on silly discourse, headcanon’s, theories and ships. The fandoms FEAST on this shit for a good while and it becomes the talk of the week!

Oh boy and let me tell you more instances where actors have completely amplified my emotional attachment to franchises!!! (Warning: irrelevant rambles you don’t need to read)

I was hyperfixating HARD on rdr2 a few years ago and obviously it’s just so easy to fall in love with the world and the characters in that amazing game on its own, but when I discovered Roger Clark (Arthur Morgan), Robert Wiethoff (John Marston) and Peter Blomquist’s (Micah Bell) instagram accounts, I had so much fun seeing their involvement in the fandom (despite it being little in comparison to mw2), seeing how Peter would make his instagram captions allude to not being human and kind of just acting as a Micah parody, seeing Peter make (hilarious) dad jokes (that I steal to this day) and build a fucking chicken coop on live it just makes it SOO SPECIAL!

One moment that was super special to me was when Roger Clark voiced a western audiobook and gave out some copies for free on twitter and I was a winner. I was able to have a chat with him, and after a while I made some doodles of the book characters and he saw them and ended up following me back 🥹🥹🥹 (STILL SAD THOUGH BECAUSE I NO LONGER HAVE ACCESS TO THE ACCOUNT)

Oh oh oh and TF2, those voice actors are quite literally carrying TF2 more than the actual fucking devs GENUINELY! It’s actually kind of upsetting how these actors really openly want to do more official things with the game but valve is sadly dead as fuck these days… Medic’s voice actor especially (who I think streams occasionally? I’ve never made it to one before) makes the fandom much more livelier and so fun, doing lines in medic’s voice and the fans creating funny sfm’s and comics from them!

Actually, one of the hugest impacts an actor has made on me definitely has to be Bill Moseley. I’m sure most of you probably have no fucking clue who this dude is so let me tell you all about him

I first discovered Bill Moseley in the movie Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 (still my #1 favourite film) and he plays Chop Top, the brother of Leatherface. Sadly that character is only in that film though but oh my god, Bill Moseley did what no other actor could ever do…

I fell into a rabbit hole and discovered that Bill Moseley formed a band called Cornbugs where he essentially roleplays/sings AS CHOP TOP and it also had fucking BUCKETHEAD in it (I believe he’s one of the musicians who has made the most albums (435) in the world) and he is an absolute guitar legend and genuinely amazing music despite his silly iconic look (you guessed it he wears a bucket on his head)

Although it sounds…. Extremely unique, to say the least, I am lucky enough to be one of those people who actually enjoys all kinds of music (yes, even country, before you roll your eyes. Don’t underestimate my tastes) because most of the songs are extremely silly and fun but would probably sound… too interesting to the average person. Most of the appeal to me initially was how in some of the songs it was pretty explicitly about chop top, bubba and Drayton and my hyperfixation thrived for so so so so much longer than it should have purely because of that music career.

It also doesn’t end there though, he has an even Niche’r band that is active currently (unlike Cornbugs bc it got dispanded after buckethead got bored and left I think) called Spider Mountain that has music that genuinely surprised me. These songs are actually so good and underrated even though they are also silly (and definitely would be more appealing to Normal listeners in comparison to Cornbugs) but even though it’s about completely disconnected to chop top, I’ve noticed that the lyrics in a few of these songs seem to be about some family members and himself, like Maple Men which is an extremely silly but catchy song, and they just fill me with so much glee. Like this dude is just a dad having fun in the studio!! Making songs about silly and random topics like Goose Steppin’ Down Broadway, incredible shrinking man, and stupid life of a mom eater LIKE THEYRE JUST SO SILLY AND FUN AND CHARMINGGG these types of passionate actors increase my lifespan and when they go far and wide for the franchises they’re in its so magical.

I have to stop here now but im just about done talking about this anyway, my phone is starting to lag from my hyperfixation rambles. I’ve been writing this for 3 hours.

I’d also love to hear about whatever experiences that any of you have with actors amplifying your experiences, or just general thoughts about this recent trend that’s happening with them!

[felassan]

BioWare Blog Post: N7 Day 2022

"Greetings from across the stars!

Today marks our annual celebration of you—the Commanders and Pathfinders who’ve made such a celebration possible. Happy N7 Day!

Since we last spoke about the next Mass Effect™ game, pre-production development has been proceeding very well. The team, comprised of Mass Effect franchise veterans as well as some amazing new additions to BioWare™, has grown steadily! They’ve been hard at work crafting new characters and locations that you’ll love, as well as revisiting many that you’ll remember.

This year, we wanted you to meet some of the people leading that work, so we’re putting a spotlight on four of the team’s leads for you to get to know a little better. With every game we make, pairing new talent with veteran developers has provided us with fresh perspectives and ideas, not to mention skills and experiences built from across the industry. Allow us to introduce to you Mike, Danielle, Mary, and Parrish!

One day, when we’re ready, we’ll have more to share on the next Mass Effect, so thank you for being a part of this journey with us. It’s exceptionally exciting for the team and we’d love to continue sharing glimpses of what we’re working on with you in the future. And, on today of all days, we also want to honor the legacy that got us here. Millions of you have now experienced Mass Effect Legendary Edition, as returning players or for the first time. It means the world to us to see you enjoy our games and become part of this story.

Whether you’ve donned the N7 since the beginning, are planning to someday soon, or anything in between, it’s a privilege to see you wear it.

A few folks at BioWare and Maxis came together with their mutual love for Mass Effect and The Sims 4™ to make a little something they wanted to give to fans of both franchises. We’re excited to share that we’ll be releasing N7 Day-themed wearable items in The Sims 4 on the 17th of November. These items are free to anyone with The Sims 4. Don’t have it yet, but want these exclusive crossover items? The Sims 4 is now free to play across all platforms! 

We can’t wait to see you all rocking your Mass Effect fandom while doing incredible things in The Sims 4. Be sure to show us your Sims after the update goes live!

Sul sul!

Our friends beyond our studios have been busy, too! From the BioWare Gear store to Dark Horse and more, we’ve got some cool stuff coming your way for fans who want to add something new to their collections or wardrobes. Full details and lineups can be found on each retailer’s website, so be sure to check out what they have in store for this N7 Day!

BioWare Gear Store

Sanshee

Dark Horse

Volante Design

And for those of you looking to jump into Mass Effect Legendary Edition on PC, we’re also having a sale on the remaster on the EA App and Steam! Be sure to check it out if you’re interested.

Every N7 Day is special to us—every single one. It’s a day made for all of you and exists because of your passion. As our team on the next Mass Effect game celebrates today with you, they wanted to leave you with one final message from the Project Director of the next Mass Effect game, Mike Gamble.

In the nearly 15 years since the release of the first Mass Effect, the biggest reason we still love working on it is the warmth, dedication, and passion of this community. There are some of you who have been with us through everything. We’ve grown together, sacrificed Ashley together, (Editor’s Note: Or Kaidan, Mike! We all make different choices.) faced difficulties together…and laughed until our Faces Were Tired…together! And for those of you who are new to Mass Effect (thanks, Legendary Edition!), welcome! I can promise that many years of fun, adventures, and characters you’ll fall in love with are still ahead.

Regardless of when you joined us, through four games and more expansions, I can say with certainty that we’re in this because of you, and every N7 Day is a wonderful reminder of that. As we look forward, each week is a fun and exciting challenge for the team. We love bringing this universe to life, and although there’s much more we want to share with you, that’ll have to be for another time.

For now, there is something we want you to have a look at. We’ve intercepted some strange footage from one of the monitoring stations in known space. It could be nothing, but…

Download Video

Happy N7 Day, everyone!

—The Mass Effect team"

[source]

[yarnlegend]

Hello beloved mutual Sheep I am sending you an ask :D with the new life series coming up, what do you think you are most excited for? Oh and what was the first life series did you watch as it was coming out ? :0

OH also did you see this one limited life fanart? :3

https://www.tumblr.com/applestruda/730676774597427200/hermittober-day-9-betrayal

Haiiiiiii Lee ^-^

With the new life series set to release in a few days I am, as always, excited to see who pairs with whom, id really actually like it if impulse and Grian team up :) or grian and etho? I've been wanting to see that for a WHILE, I just think the crimes they'd commit together would be so beautiful :') but I'm an open minded sheep, I'm just happy to be getting fed! I also am curious to see how Grian plays this one, if he keeps being destructively self-centered and focused on winning or if he's gotten bored of that approach and wants to branch out and change it up (be a good ally please? 🥺). Seems unlikely but it's always fun to analyze my guy :)

Also the first series I watched when it came out was double life! I think I joined the fandom shortly after the end Hermitcraft 8, and I watched 3rd Life first and had watched LL also before DL aired.

People making beautiful art of Grian killing Scar in LimLife for the trafficzine and October art challenges are. My favorite. We as a fandom have not talked enough about that :) but I've seen a few lately :) He killed him he killed him he killed him :) it was normal :) he has permakilled scar in 3/4 games i want him to make it 4/5 soon :)

[queered-into-oblivion]

🎥💎💕 for both? :o

took a while because both me and moon wanted to answer for our respective fixations - demifiend

persona 3:

scenes- how you get everyone together and go to the park, how fuuka gets trapped in the apparatus. how you know its all going to end soon and it feels painfully melancholic but happy. you get to have everyone together for once. it means a lot to me and makes me cry every time i get to it; its so final but so loving

how he specifically asks to go with everyone too. and how not all players will even see it, i hope everyone does though because its magical

trivia/etc- obvious things like how you can revive shinjiro/chidori. even though chidoris is pretty damn hidden and not even we knew about it until the 3rd or something play-through

{you have to talk to junpei every day after chidoris death and she revives but with no memories. theres debates on it in the fandom but i like that junpei gets something nice; he deserves it}

something thats not really a fact but been thinking about it is the limited merch they released for the movies. the aigis headphones for winter of rebirth were really fucking good specifically and us and our friend actually found them in almost mint condition in a mandarake and managed to buy them just a week ago

character- akihiko sanada is the most amazing fucking character and people need to love him more

hes so autistic, loves fighting and fitness so much its his special interest and he uses it to navigate how he sees everything. caring, one track minded but in the best way

intelligent in his own way, as much as arena wants to deny it. he was the one to figure out the full moon link and everything; he’s consistently known for good marks in school even if its with mitsurus help. hes *smart* really damn smart

also his drive to protect everyone and keep honouring miki and shinjiro after their deaths is fucking beautiful; dont care what anyone says the scream at shinjis picture was heartbreaking and i hope they manage to capture it in reload. god i love akihiko

im not biased dont look at me /lh {it said to do one otherwise id do one for aigis and ryoji too. could do all of sees and bebe and akinari and the old couple and everyone, i love them all}

smt nocturne:

scenes- thats a hard one… hell biker/mara summoning is really funny but the conception/raidou joining your party/manikin slaughter make me emotional still

raidou joining just because im really gay and it was kind of sweet. the other two because they’re sad. especially the manikins, they all deserved so much better

trivia- basic things that i like: smtv being a sequel to nocturne is really cool especially with how the nahobino plot plays out but i wish the story of smtv was… better in canon/took longer than 3 days

also the demifiends english va was the director for the english dub which is interesting

character- does raidou count? im making raidou count

but if not, futomimi easily no contest hands down. i love him, i love the manikins, they had the best reason, fuck you chiaki

also i don’t know if its me being biased or what the game does but assuming its the second i like how the game makes you feel kinship with them for being not able to make a real reason. and i like how they tried anyway

[daisyneptune]

Hi daisy! I’m your Secret Santa! Sorry I didn’t message you yesterday. I was busy. But I’m here now! I saw the post that announced this game and I thought it sounded fun. I don’t speak to other people on Tumblr very often so the chance to make a new friend appealed to me. Why did you join if I may ask? Same reasons as me? So you got your Spotify Wrapped I see and The Beatles came in third in your top 5 I think? For me they were the 4th. I much prefer the bands The Zombies (#1), The Kinks (#2), and The Turtles (#3). Odessey and Oracle is easily my favorite album ever. Did you know they actually mispelled Odessey and it wasn’t an artistic choice? I found that out on their twitter page. They still perform! I really got into 60s music after listening to a playlist Spotify made. I made an entire playlist full of it and I listen to it pretty much every day. How did you get into 60s music? I know a lot of people are either introduced to it by someone else like a parent or they found it on their own. For me, it was just a playlist I randomly listened to one day and then I was hooked. By the way, did you listen to Now and Then? It’s amazing that a Beatles song can be so popular in 2023 decades after the band broke up and two members have passed away, isn’t it?. That shows you just how much they’re loved. I listened to the song and I thought it was good but not amazing. I thought it sounded a little off honestly but I guess that’s to be expected since the original recording is so old. Do you have a favorite Beatle lol? I especially like George myself but I also really Ringo and John. Anyways I think that will be it for now. Have a great day! Until you know my true name, you may call me Sunny☀️:) Bye!

Hi Sunny! I think I got into Secret Rocker Santa for a similar reason to yours - I wanted to meet more classic rock/oldies fans on Tumblr, and I thought it was a great idea. I helped a little bit with it last year as I'd done secret Santas in other fandoms before, but this year I was a little burnt out to do official stuff.

My Spotify Wrapped was messed up this year by all the sleep music, haha. But yes! I did listen to a lot of Beatles and George's solo music. I really like the Kinks, too, but I haven't heard much outside of their most famous songs. Which albums would you recommend?

I got into 60s music from my parents. Since I'm a bit older, my parents were alive back then and had a lot of stories to tell. I used to have a bunch of my mom's old teen magazines from those days, but I don't know where they went ...

I really like Now and Then. It made me so emotional, especially when they released the music video. I understand how it sounds off, though. There's a difference in how the parts of it were produced, so they could only do so much when they put it all together.

My favorite Beatle is George, too! I decided that when I was in middle school, when I saw the movie Help! for the first time. He's been my favorite ever since.

See you soon, Sunny!

[evasivaardilosa]

Trying to think of how I am going to find out the stuff about the game that I want to find out after it comes out before buying it and at the same time avoid what I don’t want to know

Like, because of the beta (I think), a lot of the intros are out, and those are something I absolutely just want to see when I actually play the game

But I need to know all the game modes and how the reward system, if there is one, works as soon as possible!

I also want to watch the story mode as soon as there is a good video, but I don’t want to know small (and big) pieces of it as soon as people start posting about it, I want to see it all at once and form my opinions with as minimal influence as possible

I really shouldn’t have started reconnecting with the fandom at this point. I knew this would happen. I still let it happen

I wish this was as simple as my usual fandoms (movies, shows, comics) in which I just manage to not come to tumblr or pinterest for a couple of days until I watch or read the stuff and then I can join the hype

(Even if the game was for ps4 or I had the ps5, it would take a while for me to even beat the story mode so it wouldn’t be much easier. The video game format is just harder when you are, like me, ~*~bad at games~*~)

It’s sad that I will probably have to wait until I get the game (and play for a while) to read new fic or even start looking at posts again, even after I watch the story mode. Specially because, for good or for bad I will want to talk about it after watching the story mode

It will be a new experience for me. Last time I was into a game series the only game release I saw was a non-canon mini game that came as a bonus for the bluray of the movie. Coincidentally it was a fighting game despite that not being the series’ genre. Anyway. It was different

I will see as I go. Maybe I will at some point just say “fuck it”. I would just avoid everything if I knew for sure when I could get the game. Since I don’t, my curiosity may still win

[lovestruckay]

Tamaki has incredible character development, the fandom just isn’t paying attention.

To celebrate Fire Force soon coming to a close and Tamaki's appearance on the covers of both the new English and Japanese manga releases, I decided to make a comprehensive guide for Tamaki's character development from the beginning of the series to the end! After all, seeing Company 8's underdog undercat go from a survivor to a fighter is inspiring and too many people tend to overlook her dramatic evolution as a character.

As a child, Tamaki attended school and studied to become a nun. It’s revealed in later chapters that she followed this path because it was what her parents wanted and because it was what the other girls were doing. Rather than being what she wanted, it was what was expected of her. When her powers revealed themselves - manifesting hand in hand with her Lucky Lecher Lure and directly showing how both of these traits are integral to who she is - this awakening ruined the path society had set out for her. She was tormented by her peers for who she was as she was slowly ostracized from all the people she once relied on for comfort and guidance.

She was ashamed of who she was so she began suppressing these aspects of herself, even isolating herself from others to avoid being hurt. This is shown specifically during the scene when she first joined Company 8 where she sits apart from everyone during a meal because she didn’t want to disturb anyone. When Shinra shows acceptance for who she is and invites her to be a part of the group, it is a big part of her early character development as she begins to accept herself.

Even with her being viciously harassed and alienated by her peers, however, Tamaki still graduated and went on to join the most prestigious Fire Force company in the organization: Company 1.

During the Rookie Games when she made her first appearance, she was presented as confident and competitive. She was now comfortable standing up for herself - like when she told off Shinra for staring, indicating she had already had some significant development behind the scenes.

She readily stood between Shinra and Burns, showing how devoted she is to the people she cares about (even with her LLL making its appearance). She rose to the challenge of the games when Shinra flew to the roof of the building, activating her ignition ability and rushing in. She even fearlessly confronted Joker, even if she was under the mistaken impression that he was a member of the games. When the real danger set in and the building was about to detonate, she remained cool under pressure and saved the group by using Nekomata to blow a hole in the ceiling.

Even at the beginning, Tamaki is shown to be a capable and talented fire soldier - albeit one who secretly struggled to accept herself due to ridicule from her peers. From this point on, her character only continued to grow and develop into an even more complex and vital member of the cast.

Her first major on screen character development scene is during the fight with Rekka. She was manipulated by someone she admired and thought she could trust, something that lead to her becoming complicit in several murders and almost resulted in her death. Her push towards her own evolution as a character was when she challenged Rekka, not only her superior officer and someone far more trained in combat than her but the first person who befriended her and treated her well after the awakening of her ignition ability and LLL.

Even after being so ruthlessly attacked and even knocked unconscious by her lieutenant, Tamaki still had the strength needed to briefly fight Rekka before creating a flare to call for help. Even through her fear and even though her alert would enrage Rekka even more, she still signaled for help. She overcame her terror and her feelings of betrayal to protect innocents.

This is major, especially looking at it from the perspective of women who have faced abuse and violence at the hands of men, most notably from men who they thought they could trust. This is an incredible display of bravery. Like Shinra told Scop, there’s nothing shameful about asking for help.

Even following Shinra’s arrival and during his fight with Rekka, she still protected the children and even inspired Shinra after he was distressed and discouraged by the difference in skill between him and Rekka.

Following this battle, Tamaki showed a new determination that is even reflected visually during the fourth opening; Tamaki is shown holding onto Shinra’s back before turning and facing the sky as her ignition ability activates. She had redefined her goals, declaring to Shinra after she volunteered to go with Company 8 into the Nether that she was a fire soldier too and that it’s her job to protect and not be protected.

This mission to the Nether is where she experienced the next major event that influenced her character development: the battle with Assault. Despite fighting against such an absurdly powerful foe, she does anything she can to protect Iris. While this battle had a comedic end with Tamaki’s LLL distracting Assault and allowing Iris to sneak attack him, this was still a major step for Tamaki and showed her strength of character. She once again chose to stand against a much stronger foe to protect others, proving her commitment to her goal and her dedication to those she cares about.

Following the Nether arc and moving into the appearance of the Fifth Pillar, Tamaki had completed her training and took her vows as a nun. This began her work as the Fire Force’s only dual Fire Soldier/Nun. Her choosing to complete her training as a sister was indicative of further development of her character, proving her commitment to her goals to help Company 8 and to be the type of fire soldier who saved people.

Afterwards, during the Chinese Peninsula arc, Tamaki further displayed her growth and fortitude. She was the only person to stay calm when the Hell Hounds attacked and she was the first to act, giving the extinguishing prayer before Arthur defeated the hounds attacking Juggernaut. Furthermore, she protected Juggernaut from Tempe’s infernal followers while he panicked, too afraid to fight. While Juggernaut himself had a single scene where he protected Tamaki from Tempe, she was a continuous guardian for him. In the anime, she even helped Ogun during his fight with Tempe, distracting the demon infernal by leaping onto his scythe and launching him with an attack.

During the second battle against the White Clad in the Nether, Tamaki experienced another life changing situation which dramatically influenced her character growth: the battle with Orochi. After the Knight of the Purple Haze beheaded Hajiki, Juggernaut went into shock. Once again, Tamaki stepped up and defended her friend against a wildly dangerous foe. It was only because of her bravery that Juggernaut found the courage to fight himself, nearly losing his life to defeat Orochi. Despite Tamaki being overwhelmed by undead and even confronted with two more members of the Knights of the Purple Haze, she refused to leave Juggernaut behind. While he may have delivered the finishing blow to Orochi, he would have died two times over if Tamaki hadn’t saved him during this confrontation.

After the second Nether arc, Tamaki accompanied Shinra and Arther to Asakusa to train. It’s here that she showed how resolute she had become when she asked Benimaru to train her and admited to her regrets and her goals. It’s during her training with Hinata and Hikage that Tamaki thought about how she had always followed everyone else’s lead - whether it be her parents, her peers, or her friends - but how she wanted to change, no matter how difficult it may be. She made a vow to follow her own goals and to do everything she could to be herself, a mental epiphany that finally allowed her to begin to awaken Nekomata's true power. Even Benimaru stated that she had a habit of suppressing her powers (relating to her prior ostracization and ridicule), a habit she had begun to shed.

It is at this point where many people assert Tamaki had “finally” shown some character development when, in actuality, this is simply the point where she began to unlock the full extent of her ignition ability. 

While she continued to work on her habit of going along with the crowd (like when she followed Company 8 into becoming traitors during the Obi Rescue Arc simply because everyone else was going, leading to her near immediate regret) she still stuck to her vow to follow her own goals and protect the people she had grown to love. She displayed this resolve when they breached Fuchu Prison and she readily offered to stand on the front line against the White Clad, even if she was scared.

It’s during this battle that her new skills are put on display: she showcased her increased agility and evasion, she rescued Hinawa from one of Gold’s attacks, and she incapacitated Gold with the ball of molten iron created by her, Vulcan, and Maki at Viktor's direction.

Following the Obi Rescue arc into the beginning of the Cataclysm arc, Tamaki continued to display her resolve by determinedly joining Company 8 in challenging the White Clad at Amaterasu. Driven by her goal to rescue Iris and Shinra, two people she cared about, she no longer showed any hesitation. As the only dually trained member of the Fire Force, she was critical during the fight, not just as the only one who could offer extinguishing prayers but as a skilled third generation fighter.

Finally, in the heart of the Cataclysm arc, Tamaki had her battle against Assault's Doppelganger - a fight where she had another dramatic display of character development. The battle began with Doppelganger Assault easily defeating Obi, Maki, Hinawa, Arrow, and Juggernaut before facing down Tamaki herself, proving how dangerous Assault was when not paralyzed by his crush. Following a barrage of vicious ridicule from the crowd around her for her LLL, the real Assault makes an appearance to stand up for her and the value of lewdness.

Spurred on by her anger at the crowd and her determination to defeat Doppelganger Assault, Tamaki removed her turnout gear, symbolically abandoning the shame she felt for who she was and finally accepting every aspect of herself so she could proudly fight to save the world.

From the beginning of the series to the end, Tamaki showed an incredible amount of character development that often goes under the radar. Her confidence grew from the shame she once felt to pride as she readily stood side by side with the rest of Company 8. Even more notably, she redefined her goals into things she actually wanted to achieve and she garnered the inner strength she needed to attain them. While her ignition ability had the single major power up during her training in Asakusa, her abilities had a steady increase over the course of the story.

On one final note, it’s okay to not like or to have mixed feelings about her fanservice. Just because Tamaki has more lewd scenes than the other characters, however, doesn’t equate to her having no character development or not being integral to the plot.

So, in summary, I'll repeat: anyone who says Tamaki has no character development just wasn’t paying attention.

[meadow-dusk]

I've been wanting for a while to write up a post of my favorite connections between CSNY & Led Zeppelin, because there are quite a few, and more of us seem to have traversed this pipeline or are about to (plus of course, I would just love to see these fandoms converge!). Every time members come together to play benefits or tributes, you get a very strong sense of their mutual respect for one another, and this is something that's existed throughout their shared history in transforming from struggling or fairly successful musicians of the 1960s to absolute giants of their respective genres in the early '70s. So, in no order of their actual significance, here's my personal top five! Add more if you've got em!

5. The Band of Joy covers "For What It's Worth" (1968)

Even before they found their ways into the 1970's iterations of their respective bands, Zeppelin and CSNY were already crossing each others' wavelengths. Robert Plant was famously enamored with the west coast rock sound and the psychedelic / roots blend of California bands like the Buffalo Springfield. The Springfield's singular top-ten hit was the Stephen Stills composition "For What It's Worth," penned in response to police violence breaking out after teenagers violated and protested a new curfew imposed on the streets of LA. Plant, along with bandmate John Bonham and the rest of the Band of Joy, recorded their own interpretation of the song, loud, gritty, and, while only occasionally featuring the correct lyrics, charming all the same. Zeppelin, when fully formed, would go on to weave the song seamlessly into their epic medleys during live performances of classics like "Communication Breakdown" and "Whole Lotta Love."

4. Musical Influences Slip In

In 1970, Led Zeppelin were reaching new heights in their creative game, aided by their excursions to secluded locales to write and record. Here, they created much of Led Zeppelin III and IV, and influences were pouring in from everywhere. The old blues standards were, of course, still fair game, but LZ III opened a door to experimentation with folk. While the lead-in track “Immigrant Song” is as “Hammer of the Gods” as it gets (is this the first time we hear this phrase?), by the time it relaxes into “Friends” you might think you’d somehow mistakenly set the needle down on CSNY’s Deja Vu, which opens with a nearly identical driving guitar, and had been released only 8 months prior. But my personal favorite connection is the languid "Down by the Seaside," written in this period but shelved until 1975's Physical Graffiti. Many have noted that the title is similar to Neil Young’s “Down by the River” (which, by the way, would be my Led Zeppelin “dream cover” 😍), but the entire work sounds like an homage to Neil. The lyrics are full of natural imagery and hippie counterculture sentiments, Robert’s vocal stylings mirror Neil’s so closely, and even the underwater guitar effects sound like something you’d hear on Neil’s 1974 record On the Beach. Which brings us to...

3. Led Zeppelin at CSNY's performance at Wembley Stadium (14 September 1974)

To cap off their three-month international summer tour, CSNY played to a crowd of ~70,000 in London's Wembley Stadium, a venue Zep had played a few years prior. CSNY famously disbanded again soon after the event, but the group were in congenial spirits immediately after and clearly pleased to wrap up what was a very successful, if not necessarily financially lucrative, tour. Stories from this show are easy to stumble upon, and thankfully we have photographic evidence some of the best parts. Not only did Robert attend the performance with wife Maureen, but afterwards, when CSNY retired to a party at a local restaurant, they were joined onstage by Jimmy Page and John Bonham for a short jam session featuring some of the bluesier tunes from Neil Young's On the Beach album. Their reactions say it all.

2. Neil Young performs with Led Zeppelin during their mutual induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (12 January 1995)

The evening could have been totally uncomfortable for Zeppelin (mostly due to John Paul Jones' absolutely perfect but ballsy acceptance speech remark following his exclusion from the earlier Page & Plant reunion), but the drama was pushed aside for the nine minutes that the group shared the stage with Neil Young, a member of the same class of inductees. The performance isn't without flaw, but that's not really important. (On what other occasion do we get to see Robert play a guitar solo?) While Jimmy holds down the powerful, rhythmic riff, Neil gets a chance to try to match wits with a guitarist compared to whom he considered himself merely "a hack." In his biography, Neil admitted that he walked away from the experience so inspired that he wanted to convince Zeppelin to reform just to make an album with them...oh, what might have been! Instead, he wrote the song "Downtown" to capture the experience of attending one of their shows, featuring the lyrics "Led Zeppelin on stage / there's a mirror ball twirling and a note from Page / like a water-washed diamond in a river of sin."

1. Robert Plant quotes CSNY classics during their "How Many More Times" medley at the Albert Hall (09 January 1970)

This is probably not the biggest literal connection, but it's still my favorite just because of how cool it is. Just days before this show (on 06 January), CSNY had played at the same venue, and (according to some sources) at least a few members of Zeppelin were attendees. The famous acoustic sets Zep later wove into their shows are rumored to have been partially inspired by what they witnessed at this event: a moment to slow down, pull out the stools and have a seat, encourage quiet consideration, refocus the attention to a simplified delivery of music. Prior to this restructuring, Led Zeppelin were always experimenting with the dynamics of "light and shade," almost like a jam band on a tight leash. The band were closely attuned to what one another were doing and ready to shift gears instantly in response to one another's cues, but everyone had freedom within that structure, and it's what made their live performances so fascinating.

Not uncommonly, couplets from old blues tunes or new music found their way into the lyrical ramblings that floated above the glorious Hammer of the Gods sound. On this occasion, the lyrics from the earlier CSNY show must have been floating around in Robert's mind. In the evening's absolutely epic 20-minute version of "How Many More Times," he quotes not only Neil's "Down by the River" but also the lesser-known Buffalo Springfield tune "On the Way Home," regularly performed by CSNY with stripped down instrumentation and glistening harmonies. Both songs are mandatory listening, as far as I'm concerned, but this medley is the gift that keeps on giving!

Bonus! Here's some random images I found while writing this post. They're mostly of Neil but...you know what you're getting with me.

[blade-liger-4ever]

The Bad Batch - Sneezing

So @paperback-rascal and I were talking the other day, and we wound up discussing sneezes, and me, who wonders the oddest things at the strangest of times, thought, "What would it be like if the Bad Batch sneezed?"

Well, Rascal and I had a blast envisioning how it would go, and I decided to curse share a more detailed version with the Fandom.

Hunter

This man doesn't stop at one sneeze; once he starts, it'll be a good ten minutes before he can regain his self-control. It begins with a slow buildup of inhalations, including a few odd expressions as he tries to keep from going off. Despite his attempts, Hunter (whether because of his enhancement or not, up to you) always loses his restraint and cuts loose with dozens of sneezes. Naturally, he gets no end of grief from the others over this, as their fearless, always-on-the-top-of-his-game leader is reduced to "a snorting bantha" when something tickles his nostrils. Crosshair keeps track of ALL his sneezes, and absolutely refuses to let him forget about the time he sneezed twenty-five times in a row.

2. Echo

Echo is the most normal with his sneezes, though he tends to be more sensitive to dust than anyone else on the team. It's quick and easy to identify his impending explosion, but the weird thing is how exaggerated his sneeze is. Echo swears he doesn't know why his sneezes sound like an ancient speeder coughing to life - it just happens that way. Oddly enough, Hardcase had similar troubles...

3. Wrecker

Now, you would think that a hulking giant like Wrecker would have a sneeze like a Z-7 Rotary Blaster. However, despite his size, Wrecker's sneezes are actually the quietest of the Batch. He'll sniff a few times as his olfactory senses begin begging for release, but as soon as he obliges, Wrecker lets out a tiny little squeak. It threw everyone in their youth, so much so that Crosshair dubbed it his "tooka mew"; Wrecker has held that close to his heart ever since, and Crosshair refuses to coin any other term for the sake of maintaining his brother's joy.

4. Crosshair

This man moves like a cat, acts like a cat, and has the stealth of a cat. Because of his role as the resident sniper, Crosshair has had plenty of practice muffling or otherwise smothering his sneezes. That said, when he lets his guard down between missions, he allows himself a reprieve to cut a decently loud sneeze. This also provides him with a good source of entertainment when the others jump and pull out their blasters, searching wide-eyed for some kind of danger before the sniper's tell-tale chuckle reaches their ears.

(Basically picture the below for the group's reaction)

5. Tech

Ah yes, the eloquent and ever-so factual Tech. The calmest, most rational, and least likely to start a fight of the Batch. Also has the highest record of scaring the KRIFF out of both the Batchers and regs with his thunderous sneezes. It was discovered early on that Tech sported the loudest sneeze of any clone, normally reducing those nearby to a jittery mess after hearing his bomb-like explosions. Echo nearly suffered a heart attack when he first joined after hearing Tech sneeze for the first time, leading to many jokes about his anxiety towards Tech's sneezes from the others.

BONUS ROUND

Echo, hand over his heart: Kriff, Tech, why didn't you tell me you sneezed like an ion cannon?!

Tech, sniffing: I do not "sneeze like an ion cannon".

Crosshair, smirking as he holds up a datapad: No, he sneezes like this.

The datapad:

Tech: -_-

Echo: ....You're not helping him, but you're right.

[archived-kin]

three names

note from kin: apparently that domestic diluc piece really did wonders for my writers block because i managed to churn this entire thing out within one night

anyway i know little to nothing about childe’s backstory so do be warned that i am only very loosely following the information we get from his story quest/voice lines/etc!

(also as a heads up childe is referred to as ajax throughout this piece! for those who don't know, ajax is his birth name)

fandom: genshin impact

character(s): gn!reader, childe, zhongli

pairing(s): childe/reader

warning(s): death (brief and not descriptive), mentions of blood

genre: angst i guess?? it isn’t SUPER heavy but this is very much Not A Happy Piece

You’ve known Ajax for what feels like forever.

The two of you grow up together on the streets of Morepesok, spending the short hours of daylight chasing each other down icy streets and pelting each other with snowballs until your fingers are frozen solid under their mittens and you’re both lying exhausted under the trees. He’s still a somewhat skittish and shy young boy, always hiding behind you while you ask the local farmers for permission to play in their fields and leaving all of the decisions to you when it comes to your childish games.

You know exactly how to get those blue eyes of his to light up like no other, though. Ever since the two of you were tiny tots, Ajax has always been enchanted by stories of adventures, of heroes who journey far from home to conquer evils beyond his childish comprehension, fighting with both sword and mind to quell any hardships or troubles that come their way. He listens to his father tell him these stories with a sparkle in his eye like no other, and begs for a new chapter as soon as one is finished.

You take advantage of this love of adventure to coax him into playing with you - him, the hero and you, his trusty sidekick, braving fight after fight together until the great sea monster is defeated, or until the brainwashed former friend was released - until the world bows down at your feet. You stand beside him and smile as he cackles, foot set atop a stone and brandishing a stick to the sky like a sword.

While Ajax longs for battle and glory, however, you secretly prefer the stories about the fisherman who wins the favour of the sea gods by saving a seal from a net, about the fae who collects the treasures of the land in an attempt to preserve the remains of a race she has loved and lost, about the dragon who follows the rainbow far into the east to find a companion who has fallen under the control of an evil sorcerer. Where he finds interest in tales of clashing blades and rumbling cannons, you find interest in the warmth of a campfire, surrounded by laughing companions that have shared a long journey together. You don’t love these games for the fights and the victories like he does - you love the games because it means you can be with him.

You suppose that this difference of interests is the reason you stay behind when he leaves on his own ‘heroic journey’.

The two of you are only fourteen - still children, for Archons’ sake - and Ajax has long since lost interest in the mundanity of his daily life.

“All we do is eat and play,” He mutters with a pout, poking at the snow with a stick. “It’s boring.”

You tilt your head in confusion and trot up to stand beside him, face half-hidden behind a scarf wrapped like a vice around your neck. “What do you mean?”

He scoffs a little then, and offers you a boyish grin. “Don’t worry, [Name]. You’re an exception.”

You still don’t understand what he means, not exactly, but it still sends butterflies fluttering in your stomach.

The next day, he knocks on your door, dressed in an over-large coat and his favourite hat, a backpack strapped firmly to his back and a rusty shortsword in his hand. He beams at you as you open the door, and announces that he’s running away to find an adventure, and that he was wondering if you wanted to come with him.

You ask if this is another game he wants to play. He shakes his head and tells you that this is for real - that he’s going to explore far and wide, to seek out the quests that he’s heard so many stories about. He’s going to be a hero, and he wants you to be his sidekick, just like always.

But you have always been a little too timid, too afraid of going so far out into the snow, too aware of the dangers of a reckless jaunt like this. And so, bowing your head in shame, you answer that you can’t

He freezes for a moment then, disappointment clear on his face, but he replaces it with a a grin almost immediately. You don’t know it at the time, but this is the last time you’ll ever see him smile like this again.

“Don’t worry about it!” He reassures you. “I’ll bring back lots of souvenirs for you when I come back! Like a dragon head!”

“I don’t like heads.” You mumble. “Too much blood.”

He doesn’t falter. “A dragon claw, then!”

The two of you exchange brief goodbyes, neither of you aware of the magnitude of what Ajax is choosing to do, nor the consequences it will bring, and then he leaves. And you let him, watching his little figure disappear and melt into the blinding white of the snow.

It’s a mistake that continues to haunt you for the rest of your life.

He turns up again, two days later, lying unconscious on the outskirts of the forest by the village. A mere two days - but somehow, you’ve always felt as if he’d been away for much, much longer.

Ajax is never the same after that. He’s more distracted, more absent - he never wants to go out for walks in the fields with you anymore, nor does he have any interest in playing games or hearing stories. He still lets you follow him around and sit beside him, but he speaks less and less, and spends more and more time thinking.

You don’t give up on him, though. It doesn’t matter how much his blank gaze scares you sometimes, nor how unsettling the look on his face is after he shreds yet another hay training dummy to pieces. You hang around him anyway, talking about every little thing that comes to mind, and sometimes, he replies with the same silliness that he did when the two of you were younger.

It bothers you, the way that he swings so abruptly between the old him and the new him. Sometimes he’s just the boy you’d spent your childhood playing with, chasing you down the street only to stuff snow down the back of your jacket, then making you a hot drink afterwards as an apology when you declare that you hate him. But sometimes he isn’t.

His face stills, and his eyes go cold. He stares emptily at the snow beneath his feet, not responding when you call his name, and he returns to his garden sooner or later, to slaughter another line of training dummies. The way he gazes down at the wreckage, the way his hand clenches around the shaft of an arrow or the hilt of a blade, the way that he seems to hunger for more - it scares you.

Perhaps it is unsurprising that he joins the Fatui as soon as he turns seventeen.

He doesn’t tell you - he doesn’t tell anyone, not at first. He simply slips away and leaves, sometimes for days on end, and returns without a word as to his absence. You believe him when he tells you that it’s a series of job interviews in a different town, even congratulate him on the opportunity. You believe a lot of the lies he tells you.

It isn’t until you come upon him in the middle of one of his assignments that the wool is finally pulled away from your eyes.

You’re out in the city on a shopping trip by your mother’s request, carrying several baskets of fresh produce that just don’t grow quickly enough in your little seaside town, when you spot his auburn hair disappearing into a secluded alleyway. You follow quickly, opening your mouth to call out to him, only to snap it shut when you see what he’s doing.

A woman is lying beneath his foot, and he is crushing the breath out of her with the heel of his boot. There is a blade in his hand, glinting softly in the darkness of the alleyway.

The woman sobs breathlessly, begs for her life to be spared, her face contorted with fear and despair. But Ajax doesn’t flinch. In one, smooth movement, he points the blade to her neck and slashes.

You don’t know if the scream that echoes around the alleyway is yours or hers.

It’s only then that he finally turns around and sees you, and the mask covering the upper half of his face is all too familiar.

Your eyes fall upon the dead woman, her mouth still open in her final plea for mercy.

“Ajax,” You whisper, your voice trembling. “What have you done?”

The bloodstained blade in his hand clatters to the ground. “[Name]... what are you doing here?”

You don’t answer him. Your entire body feels numb. “You’re… you’re one of the Fatui.”

It isn’t a question.

He’s silent for a long time. Finally, he lets out a frustrated sigh, tearing the mask from his face and throwing it to the ground carelessly, and approaches you, hands held out as if comforting a frightened child.

“I didn’t want you to find out like this,” He says quietly.

“Were you ever going to let me find out?” You ask. Your eyes move back to the woman’s corpse despite everything in your brain screaming at you to look away, and your hands start shaking.

Ajax notices. He steps in front of the body, as if trying to shield it from your view. “Of course. I was just waiting for the right time to tell you, that’s all.”

“Why… why would you…?”

He meets your gaze. He shrugs. “I wanted to fight.”

There is blood staining the left side of his face. Your eyes are drawn to it in the same way they were to the corpse, and you feel a sudden burst of anger on her behalf. “How was this a fight? You trapped her in an alleyway - you didn’t even give her a chance to struggle!”

“This is different.” He states, as if it’s obvious, and his eyes go cold. “The woman was defying the will of the Tsaritsa. She needed to be disposed of.”

“Is that all you are now? A puppet of the Tsaritsa?!” You’re practically shouting now, tears threatening to start streaming down your face. You want to punch him, slap him, anything to make him realise what path he’s rapidly beginning to go down, but there isn’t any strength left in you. Not after what you just saw. “What happened to you?!”

“I changed,” He says simply, and his sea-blue eyes are frozen over completely. This isn’t the boy that you grew up and loved - and it occurs to you that he might not have been for a long, long time. “I grew up and I changed.”

“Ajax—” You begin, but he places a finger to your lips.

“It’s Tartaglia now.”

Perhaps if you look close enough, hope hard enough, you’ll be able to fool yourself into thinking there was some kind of emotion on his face - something, anything that proves that he still cares - but there is nothing but emptiness in his gaze.

You don’t sleep that night. You don’t sleep for a long, long time, unable to put a stop to the unrelenting march of thoughts streaming through your head like a gushing river, like the endless depths of the ocean, like the deep blue of his eyes...

You distract yourself as best you can. You move out of town while he’s out on another mission and take your parents with you, settling down in a small village at the base of a mountain. There, you busy yourself every hour of the day, taking solace in the ache of your muscles and the fatigue that weighs heavily on your limbs. The people of the village come to know you as the helping hand, the eager assistant, always raring to go when asked for a favour.

And yet, even as you sit around a table in the local bar, surrounded by warmth and chatter and familiar faces, you can’t help but feel an emptiness opening in your chest. Old Dmitri, manning the bar as usual, slides a tankard over to you with a sympathetic smile, and asks, “What’s wrong?”

You ask yourself that question more times than you can count, digging it deep into your skin, carving it into your mind, unable to help wondering, and yet... you never find an answer. What is wrong with you? Why does Ajax’s absence cut into you like a knife, keeping you awake deep into the night, plagued by dreams of cold, dead eyes and red blood pooling in the white snow? Why is it that, no matter how many times you remind yourself of the man in that alleyway and the body of the woman he’d just slaughtered, of the man that was not Ajax, of Tartaglia - you can only remember the grinning boy of your childhood?

Your parents don’t know why your eyes are always red-rimmed when you come down for breakfast in the morning, nor why you refuse to look at your surroundings when you go out into town, keeping your eyes focused determinedly on your dragging feet.  They don’t know how many hours you spend staring out into the deep sky, wondering if Ajax is watching the same stars as you are, whether he even thinks of you at all.

Everything around you seems to taunt you, and you realise something.

You have to leave. You have to run away, to find a home in a place where the streets don’t stir up memories of days long gone, where the crunch of the snow beneath your feet doesn’t remind you of the sound of tearing flesh, where you can just be without Ajax haunting you around every corner you turn.

And so you set off for Liyue. You journey to the land amidst monoliths, seeking golden soil warmed by the sun to escape the cold snow and icy rain. You do not stop moving until you reach the land where the mountains stretch high and the streets of the harbour are painted with red and yellow, where the people are unfamiliar, the buildings are unfamiliar - where everything is unfamiliar. You’re tired of dwelling on past memories, tired of putting yourself through the same pain.

You settle in quickly, taking up a job at Wanmin Restaurant and eventually saving up enough to afford more than the little hotel box room you first are resigned to stay in. You move in with a new friend of yours, an apparently refined gentleman who seems to have no shortage of money but still always forgets to bring it when he needs it, and you start to remember what living in peace feels like again.

You take a deep breath as you watch the bustle of the city from the open window of your bedroom. The cool evening breeze in Liyue Harbour is soothing, unlike the biting nightly winds of Snezhnaya. Perhaps you can finally let go of Ajax now, you think.

Somewhere in the heavens, Fate mocks your hopefulness.

Two years later, your friend, who has only become even worse at managing his money despite your constant nagging, invites you to a dinner with him and a new acquaintance he’d like to introduce you to. You agree, unsuspecting of the true identity of his so-called ‘friend’.

You take one step into the private room that Zhongli had booked and realise what a terrible mistake you’ve made when you see a familiar figure sitting at the table.

He doesn’t turn around at first, too occupied with trying to take a sip of his tea without burning his mouth. Zhongli smiles at you, painfully unaware of the amount of old trauma he’s inadvertently stirred up.

“I’m glad that you made it,” He says pleasantly, and gestures to the man sitting across from him. “This is the acquaintance I was telling you about. His name is Childe.”

There is a long silence. The initial shock of the moment wears off, only to be replaced by something resembling anger.

“So it’s Childe now, is it?” Ajax stiffens as he hears your voice come from behind him. “How many names does one man need?”

He turns around agonisingly slowly, failing to register the dangerous tilt of the teacup in his hands as it comes close to tipping its contents all over the table. You stare blankly back at him from the doorway.

How long has it been since he last saw you? He doesn’t know. Ever since the two of you had parted ways in that alleyway, you’d all but disappeared. The window to your bedroom had always been dark and empty when he stopped by your home, and neither you nor your parents were anywhere to be seen, no matter how thoroughly he’d searched the town. It had only been when Tonia had mentioned your absence in one of his letters that he’d realised that you weren’t just avoiding him. You’d left. Left the town where the two of you had grown up, left the home you’d lived in for so long, left behind all the friends you’d made over the years - just to run away from him.

There are new scars on your face, a new poise in the way you hold yourself. A sheathed dagger glitters at your belt, and even now you toy with its hilt in a way that tells him that you are familiar with it. You’ve changed so much, and he aches to think that he had been unable to see any of it.

He hadn’t wanted you to go, he never had. You’d always been his best friend, someone he looked up to, someone he enjoyed the company of, someone he cherished - someone he loved. But he’d had a duty to attend to, a new mistress to serve, a new title, a new responsibility. He couldn’t keep fooling himself into thinking he could keep the relationship he had with you forever.

That day in the alleyway - he’s never been able to forget the look on your face when you realised who he had become. It’s been burnt into his memory ever since then, flashing before his eyes just before he strikes, and even now, five years later, he still gets reprimanded by his fellow Harbingers for faltering just before he makes the kill. They always ask - how can Tartaglia, who takes pleasure in watching the life drain out of his opponent’s eyes after a battle well fought, hesitate like that?

He never has an answer for them.

Zhongli looks back and forth between the two of you, his brows knitting together slightly. “Do the two of you know each other already?”

“You could say that,” You reply, though your eyes don’t move even an inch from your old friend’s face. His expression is crumpled, almost vulnerable, a far cry from the stone-cold indifference he wore the last time you saw him.

“[Name],” He says finally, his voice barely above a whisper. “What… what are you doing here?”

You raise your eyebrows at him. “I’ve lived in Liyue Harbour for two years. Why wouldn’t I be here?”

Several seconds pass by with no response.

“It seems the two of you have much to talk about,” Zhongli observes, and gets to his feet. “I’ll leave you for now.”

He’s out of the room before either of you can object. Damn him and his perception.

You don’t sit down at the table. Instead, you move to the window, looking out over the city that you have come to love.

Ajax joins you. He hesitates as he approaches, as if debating whether or not to settle right beside you as he would have in the past. Eventually, though, he decides to keep his distance.

“Liyue is beautiful at night.” He says quietly. “Language is a nightmare to learn, though.”

That earns him a short laugh from you, and he can’t help the way his heart skips a beat as he hears it. “You can say that again. I don’t think I even have a proper grasp of it now.”

“You’re speaking pretty fluently,” He replies. “I’d say that’s a proper enough grasp.”

“It’s all just conversational, really.” You don’t look at him, instead choosing to look down at Xiangling, Xingqiu and Chongyun as they walk through the street below you together, exchanging jokes and nudges. “What about you?”

“I’d like to think I know it pretty well. I had to learn for—”

He cuts himself off, but you already know what he’d been about to say.

“For your Fatui duties here,” You finish for him, and though you don’t move, somehow he feels as if the gap between you has widened. “There’s no need for pretences, Childe.”

He freezes at the way you address him. It’s become familiar to him after using it as an alias for so long, but it sounds so wrong coming from you. It feels as if you’re distancing yourself from him, from the childhood you shared together. As if Ajax, your childhood friend, never existed - only Childe, the Fatui Harbinger.

“Don’t…” His voice breaks, and he forces himself to take a deep breath before continuing. “Don’t call me that.”

“Why not?” You sound so detached, so distant - and he hates it. “Would you prefer Tartaglia? That’s what you told me to call you last time we met.”

He feels as if you’ve stabbed him in the chest. It probably would’ve hurt less if you did, actually, but he knows he deserves it. “...no. I don’t want you to call me Tartaglia, either.”

You don’t respond, but he continues anyway. “I want… I want you to call me Ajax.”

Silence.

You finally turn to look at him, surprise painted on your features. “...what?”

Your eyes are just as he remembers them. He never wants to see them as they were on that day five years ago, filled with despair and tears that threatened to brim over.

He takes a deep breath and repeats, “I want you to call me Ajax.”

You stare at him for a long moment. Your face shifts, as if you can’t decide whether you want to be angry or sad or something else entirely. You open your mouth to say something, but at that moment the door opens again, and Zhongli pokes his head in.

“My apologies,” He says a little sheepishly, “But the attendant informed me that we should start ordering our dishes now if we don’t want to accidentally go over our time slot. That is - if you two are alright with having dinner with each other?”

You don’t respond immediately. Your eyes stay on the man gazing almost wistfully at you, your expression becoming thoughtful.

It’s been five years since you’ve last seen him. Five years of sleepless, tormented nights spent tossing and turning, of days spend exhausting yourself just so that you don’t think of him, of a journey filled with obstacles and monsters just to find a place to be at peace in, and just as you finally think you might be moving on, he shows up again.

Maybe you should be angry. Maybe you should be drawing your dagger and threatening him to stay the fuck away from your city and to take his Fatui agents with him. Maybe you should punch him right where it hurts most for all the pain he’s caused you.

But… you’re tired. You’re tired of hurting, tired of remembering. And maybe there’s a little part of you that hopes - a little part of you that still clings to the boy you played with on the streets of Morepesok, the boy that you lost the moment you let him leave on that journey.

And so you come to a conclusion.

“I’ll stay for dinner. What about you, Ajax?”

[levok]

YR S2 Watch plan by @youngroyalsrewatch

It’s been quite some time since I've joined a tagging game! I feel like we did it daily at some point lol... So thanks for tagging @greenspectacle

I have been thinking about this a lot and want to hear what everyone is planning. Copy the questions and share your watch plan and pass it around. Tag them (#yr s2 watch plan) because I really wanna know.’

I don’t know who has been tagged or not, but consider this as your official tag, if you want to join.

Will you..

1. Watch a teaser if released? Of course! 

2. Watch the trailer? Again, of course!! I might as well quit Tumblr if I didn’t.

3. Read the descriptions of the episodes? There will not be any description of the eps before I’m done watching... Also, never do.

4. Are you going to start it midnight PST as soon as it’s available? YES. I will set my alarm and feel blessed I live in Europe so I don’t have to spend half the night watching it.

5. Take a day off work/school? Unfortunately I am sick that day.

6. What device? On my laptop.

7. Watch it alone? Yes. While crying on main with my hornies.

8. Sub, cc or dub? (there is a right answer, if you are not Swedish) Swedish with danish subs.

9. Watch all episodes in a single sitting? obv.

10. Wear your purple hoodie? Lol no.

11. Snacks? Iced coffee.

12. Record your reactions? (Text, audio, video)? I will send live the entire time /j

13. What are you most excited for? To see if any of my predictions come true and for Lisa to fuck me up.

14. What are you scared of? The fandom.

15. How long before rewatch? After therapy