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[sesamestreep]

i always try to make @firstelevens a little present in honor of our friendship anniversary, which was yesterday, so here's a few more book cover designs for her amazing sambucky fics that she's been so kind as to write for us all (and one that she co-wrote with me!) with a special appearance by @sambambucky with the pull quote of the century❣️

the bells stand still and hollow [22K words, 5/10 chapters, in progress] - Fantasy AU using the Dungeons & Dragons spells and classes as its guide to imagine Bucky suffering under a terrible curse and Steve, Natasha, and Sam (and animal familiar Redwing!) as the party of adventurers intent on helping him break it. ⚔️🐦‍🔥 summer came like cinnamon, so sweet [44K words, 5 chapters, complete, part 2 of a series] - part of the illustrious bakeoff AU, this is a prequel fic all about the romantic shenanigans that happened (or almost happened) over the course of Steve and Peggy's wedding weekend. told entirely in tweets, instagram captions, and text messages, of course! 💒💐

[sexylinoleum]

Based off that one Ralsei valentine. He is such a weirdo.

[unopenablebox]

the georgia o'keefe + henry moore exhibit at the mfa is in fact really well curated to give the viewer a couple of really intense RESONATING FORMS moments due to juxtaposed painting and sculpture. also i think it made me understand and therefore like georgia o'keefe more

[bigcats-birds-and-books]

ngl, i think the single most brilliant packing idea i've ever had is USING YARN AS FILLER IN THE BOOK BOXES

[rindomness]

hello hi tell us about mementos and the security level

OH HELLO. Welcome to my personal hill to die on. This post is long. It's one of my out-loud rants in text form. Sorry in advance. There's a cut down there somewhere.

Thesis statement of whatever's about to come next is that Mementos fucks actually as a concept its execution was just horrible and also Yaldabaoth is a terrible final boss. OKAY LET'S GET INTO IT

First things first I really do think Mementos should have gotten a security level. The game plays "Mementos is the public's Palace" very straight, all the way to the end, insisting that Yaldabaoth is created by the public's desire for a status quo yadda yadda yadda. So like. Here's the screenshots actually

I didn't get the whole conversation mostly because I think I was streaming at the time and complaining out loud but like. He just straight-up says this? And then they do nothing with it???

Imagine this with me. Enter the imagisphere or whatever.

It's October. You've just defeated Okumura, and you just watched the mysterious black-masked figure you've been told cryptically about for a while now kill his Shadow. You watch Okumura have a mental shutdown live. It's horrific! It's worrying! What happened? What's going to happen to you? The Phan-Site meter starts dropping rapidly. You go to Mementos to prepare for the next Palace.

There's a security level.

NOT ONLY did this act make the public lose faith in you, but now you're enemy #1, and it's reflected in the collective unconscious. This Chekov's gun that they set up back in May goes off. You have to be much more careful in Mementos because if you aren't, you could get kicked out. The stakes are higher. Mementos, the public view of you, has changed. It's not just doors opening for you anymore.

THAT WOULD BE SO COOL. RIGHT? RIGHT??? BUT NO! No we don't get a security level until the depths, which contradicts itself, actually, because once you get to the depths, the whole POINT is that the public ISN'T reacting to you or your actions! Why the hell would they care that you're In There!

The obvious answer is that it's because the security level belongs to the Holy Grail/Yaldabaoth/the fuckass cup/whatever you personally call him. And okay, whatever, but the game goes out of its way to establish that the Grail isn't really a separate entity from "public desire," he IS "public desire," the status quo incarnate, so once again, I ask, why is this the only time you have a security level! (I know it's because this is the home-stretch to the final boss and mechanically it has to act like a proper Palace. I still think it's stupid.)

And now that I'm talking about the Grail. Hi. Hello. If you've talked to me on Discord you already know this but I fucking hate the Grail. I think it's stupid. I think it's thematically inconsistent. I think its only purpose is to be the "Let's fight God!" final boss. I truly believe that if I hadn't gotten into Persona 5 through Royal, I would not still be into Persona 5, because I would have gotten so frustrated with Yaldabaoth that I would have dropped the game. I regularly complain for half an hour straight about this thing in voice calls. One person once told me the only thing they knew about Persona 5 was that this cup sucked because I wouldn't shut up about it.

I've somehow managed to not do this on Tumblr but I can't really talk about Mementos without talking about it so I guess we're talking about the cup

Narratively: Yaldabaoth just sort of comes out of nowhere??? The whole game is building up to Shido. The whole game. And you do it! You defeat him! And then... there's this other thing??? Apparently??? I was genuinely really confused when I got to this part of the game the first time because I was going ok we beat the final boss complete with eight hundred phases! Hooray! And now there's this other fucker. Going back through the game there's some foreshadowing for him? But it's kind of all concentrated in the start of the game, around Madarame's Palace, when you're just getting used to Mementos, and then it all sorta just disappears.

YOU KNOW WHAT IS FORESHADOWED, THOUGH? MORGANA.

Imagine with me x2 because this is where I thought the game was taking us when it went "btw we need to tackle the depths now"

Morgana has no memories. Morgana knows there's something in the depths that explains who he is. Morgana assumes it's because he's human, and will become human again if he finds out what it is. The WHOLE POINT of exploring Mementos was for Morgana's memories! And then he starts getting these really unsettling dreams, right, where he's a Shadow, or has a Shadow, or whatever. And then you get to the depths.

What I thought was about to happen was that we were going to find out that Morgana was more or less what the Grail claims to be(a being created by the wishes of the masses) and that Mementos was going to be Morgana's Palace. "Oh but Morgana has a Persona-" Morgana's already a weird case I could easily see him having a Shadow or being a Shadow himself while also having a Persona. I'm ignoring Maruki because we're talking about vanilla and Maruki didn't exist yet.

I thought our final boss was going to be Mona's Shadow and that by defeating him(the part of Morgana(as a Shadow/Metaverse being/etc) representative of what they were trying to make Yaldabaoth: wanting to let the status quo handle everything, more or less, the desire to let the system do what it's designed to even if that thing is "crush everything in its path") we would reaffirm that change is possible as long as we all work together. Morgana getting to be this very physical symbol of rebellion and force of will and getting to go NO I want to try even if it hurts me.

What actually happened was... a lot more underwhelming.

What we got was, in a game where one of the primary themes is "rebellion against systemic injustice, you can't just get rid of the One Guy and fix Everything," a final boss who was... one guy who if you got rid of him you'd fix everything?

And I get it Atlus doesn't want to actually shake the boat that much but at the same time Yaldabaoth comes out of nowhere and says absolutely nothing of substance in a game that, over and over again, gets SO CLOSE to saying something really powerful and then sinking back into what's comfortable. It's the aesthetic of rebellion without the teeth of it.

Anyway now that I've complained for an essay's worth here's some positive stuff

I really do like Mementos. It gets a lot of shit for being repetitive and boring and like I sort of get that but on the other hand it is a JRPG. I'm not sure what you expected from the area that is, mechanically, "Here's where you go to grind." I don't see a problem with having this area. I think the special floor events manage to spice it up enough that it's not all that boring. I like Jose being there in Royal, I think he adds a lot, actually. The implications of everything Jose says are fascinating to me. The fact it's impacted by the weather! Like, as a world component, Mementos is so so cool actually guys. I know it's a Persona game so "world impacted by cognition" is sort of the bare minimum but it's really cool!!! The aesthetics fuck! The only layer I really don't like is.. fuck, I think it's Kaitul? Whichever one gets unlocked after Kaneshiro's Palace, I haven't gotten there in my current playthrough yet. It's just... too dark to see, all the time, imo. Mementos feels(except for... 90% sure it's Chemdah) very oppressive and spooky and I honestly think that's great. It's a depressing place to be! For a game about how corruption and systemic violence hurts everybody, it's really good!

In conclusion... don't ask me about Mementos unless you want an essay LMAO in seriousness I understand why Mementos gets shit but I think it should get less of it. And also that I could have fixed it(the cup. The cup is the big bad part of Mementos. Not the grinding you're going to get that with a JRPG no matter what you do you signed up for it when you launched the game.)

[permanentbottombunk]

I go through a ton of vaseline(i have eczema) and i keep the old containers to hold various things like pills or trinkets

So pro tip- do that i guess

[mxdotpng]

time for eden posting. nope, not that one. not that one either. yes, the other one. the final fantasied one. the one that split his soul into halves and then survived the sundering because he got locked in a box. and then the box got eaten by a space whale. that eden

[victorluvsalice]

Happy Valicertine's Day, everyone! :D Time to celebrate my OT3 once again as if we're not always doing that around here. Once again, I raided the archives of the sadly-defunct Chill Valicer Save for fun screenshots I could turn into my required three Valicertine's -- but this year, I somehow ended up making three "sequels" to previous Valicetines and Valicertine's I've made. Allow me to explain further in the traditionally-mandated descriptions below (though all the images are alt-texted as well):

(a screenshot from the Spooky Day date the trio took at the Haunted Museum, with Smiler in their dark form watching Space Ranger!Victor massage Pizza Deliverer!Alice's shoulders with a smile) "COMPERSION! It remains pretty awesome. Happy Valicertine's Day!" -- This one is obviously a sequel to the first Valicertine in the 2024 Collection! I wanted to do a follow-up with Smiler looking lovingly at Victor and Alice being cute/romantic together, and of the shots I got of such a thing, I like this one from their Spooky Day date the best. Just that little smile! It's so cute. :)

(a screenshot of the trio dancing together in the Gnome's Arms of Henford-On-Bagley, with Victor looking lovingly at his partners while they smile back at him) "Yup -- two years on, and you two still give me...ideas. ;) Happy Valicertine's Day!" -- And this one is a sequel to the first Valicertine in the 2023 Collection! I stumbled across this shot while looking for other good potential Valicertine images, thought it was cute -- and then remembered "hey, I did something similar for my very first Valicertine! And the other one I've made so far this year is already a follow-up to an older Valicertine...why not go ahead and make this one a sequel too?" So I did. :) I do love them dancing together -- always gives me the fuzzies. <3

(a screenshot of Smiler at the Copperdale Weenie Roast, playing their guitar as Victor and Alice watch on and the rest of the guests do their thing at the campfire behind them) "Love Is...supporting your partner/metamour when they break out 'Wonderwall' at the party. Happy Valicertine's Day!" -- And finally, we have a sequel to, of all things, the 2017 Collection of Valicetines! You know, the one I had to repost because, for reasons I will never understand, the original post was flagged for adult content. *shakehead* Anyway, what happened is, I was doing another trawl of the Chill Valicer Save screenshots, saw this shot, and was like "Oh hey, what if I made a joke about 'love is being supportive when your partner breaks out Wonderwall' or something like that?" ...and then was like "hang on, didn't I do some Valicetines like that one year?" Leading to me looking them up, and deciding to ape the style of them just for the hell of it. XD Took a little fiddling to make it look good, but I'm pretty happy with the end result!

And there we have it! Enjoy these sort-of-blasts from the past! XD

[missinglaterals]

Between school work I've been slowly chipping away at my straw page and happy to say it's finished!!! (for the known future well... except for updating maybe the music and the art gallery).

Check it out! Make a doodle!

[spellmage]

i bought an xbox 360 copy of skyrim for £1.50 today because it had a full map of skyrim included with it. games used to have things in the box. i miss when games had things in the box

[kudamono94]

OOOH are you getting into Avery?!? what a wonderful choice, i adore that arrogant asshole 🙈💖💖💖

I agree, he really is - something lol

I originally came across this dude not too long ago via YouTube shorts in my recs, and although I have yet to play Sword and Shield (or really ANY Pokemon game tbh, I'm an anime only fan I'm so sorry orz), I think he's pretty neat✨

That said, since I have yet to play the game or see any of the eps of the web anime he may have appeared in (as far as I know, he's only in a few eps of an web only anime, is that right?), I don't know too much about him, but I have seen videos detailing battles against him and - this guy has some top tier facial expressions :3

Man looks like his whole life got decimated all bc he lost to us :( I feel bad for laughing given what little I know about his backstory via word of mouth (his family sucks btw), but his facial expressions combined with him shouting 'Avery Teleport' every time he flees are too much for me XD

Lastly, his character design and personality are very much up my alley - lots of things like him almost being covered in purple, wearing round coke bottle glasses that go opaque sometimes when he's trying to be serious, or even him flipping his hair when getting ready to battle are all very nice~ He reminds me of James from Team Rocket mixed with a little bit of The Warden from Superjail! and Rouxls Kaard from Deltarune thrown in for good measure - sure he can be an asshole or even a brat, but have you seen how pretty his face and hair are🥺? I love his eye liner too :3

As such, I was happy to come across fan art of him via your blog, @starleska! Let's continue showing this guy the appreciation he deserves✨!

[lavender-temult]

Boxitos :)

[sonicattos]

soda tastes so much better in that thang

[questersrest]

kamiharmui and the land of eltona are safe from a giant spider and that's the last key emblem baby! on my way to the demon world to find nelgel the netherfiend next (once i'm done with my side quests)

[killjoy-prince]

I had some screenshots saved from when I played this game back when this route came out and I realized the small changes they made since then (Left: taken in 2018 Right: taken a few minutes ago)

[lycanr0t]

Tumblr doesnt let me reply to things on mobile bc i have really good opinions and am right all the time and the world is scared