#also i managed to get all my horses to at least level five lol

[amira-darkhall]

i found out that the lusitanos look a little angry when you back them up so i did a mini photoshoot of royal getting into a spat with the dundull ponies because he’s flighty like that

[anestheticrage]

Be me: Japanese honor student🎓, 15, with half a brain and even less of a plan. Hunting bitches by day and witches by night. Livin that dank only child✌️ life while mom n dad yeet all over the globe, leavin me plenty of time to forget not to make 2 lunches for myself #quirky 😜

no time for socialization or basic electronics skills ???📱??? when your best friends are an alien demon rabbit🐰👽 and the inexplicable Hole ™ in your brain. lmao, btw did i mention im ✨M✨A✨G✨I✨C✨A✨L✨

dreamin bout my 2D waifus again when familiar pink haired cancer patient dances through my brain passin out fliers: Kamihama Meguca Dating Service: Sponsored by Cult of the Magius. 250 stones per session 🤔

seems legit, Mr. Moneybags. wasn't spending my unwieldy sack of gemstones on anything else anyway. lets pull 💎💎💎

first up we have Redhead Radagast and her plethora of plants. 🌿☺️🦎

anndd, nearly dies immediately. 

well not off to a great start but i guess shes pretty cute at lea- oh FUCK its her girlfriend, Tsundere Poseidon😒🔱💦, and their exasperated, straight and single Sword Mom 😔🗡️🔥. fml gonna have to save up for the next pull. might as well play a few rounds with what i got tho. 

get in some good girl talk about things like school, color coded hair styles, body count, permanent soul damage, and our personal demon pacts. ya know, the usual 😚 . realize my dark backstory seems to be missing, so the girls take me to Ketchup Queen Sappho 🍅🥧 (wtf?) to molest my glowy egg stone. whatevs, more action than ive had since Kuroe 🖤 got added to the story anyway

the gang agrees it's time to hunt down the cutest rabbit pimp 🕶️🐇💵 in the city. >> say 🎵mukyuuu🎵 one more time and ill hug you so hard my backstory will pop right out, you adorable fluffy bastard. plz be my new best friend 💕

Form brand new friendship pact with Kyubae, and remember that my lil Sis 🐥 was always the best wingman for pickin up magic chicks, and kept her side of the room so spotless i forgot she existed. whoops 乁༼☯‿☯✿༽ㄏ Maybe if I find her i can stop paying these exorbitant pull fees.📵💎

speaking of which: hot damn this week's featured bachelorette is a 19 year old model and magical detective🔎 with massive levels of PTSD and self loathing 🥵💙💦 more likely to stab you or dramatically jump off a rooftoop than utter a single positive comment. wow, maybe i really COULD find true love…

... if i had MORE THAN A 1% FUCKING DRAW CHANCE. 😡 smh

hard to make much progress finding sis or winning the broken heart of a hard boiled detective amidst the never ending lover's quarrel of the Trident Vine Lesbians. 💔 Sword Mom tells them if they don't behave a monster will take them away. LOL classic mom 🤣

>>>HOLY FUCK IT DID

declare all-out war on urban legends, starting with staircases ⚔️ to reunite the dysfunctional trio, and hope that I net a way better lineup with the next 10x pull. at least sad sleuth lady came to help out. they say combat is the best way to bond wi-   and there she goes off the rooftop again 🙄 fml

alright that got way off track, we need a fresh start, away from all the loli drama. how bout a little B&E🔓🔨🤷🏻‍♀️ at the local house of worship to clear my head. ahh nothing like the unanswered prayers of the masses to get you in the mood for another wasted pull, and the 🔥 MIGHTIEST 🔥 headache you could ask for with a side of Double Cooked Pork 🐖🍜 (meh 5/10🧾)

venture forth into the spiritual unknown with your new human flamethrower🔥🌻🧡 and ask your favorite private eye to please, for the love of Eve, trade Meguca accounts with me~~~ Head through the eastern spirit portal to meet up with hologram propaganda sis and detective crush's evil ex, who joined a dating-app cult (#fuck) and also turned into the moon?🌕?(that's rough buddy)

get ambushed by Acid Horse on Wheels 🌈🐴 and vomit up my soul so hard that its time for a crossover episode. T U R F F F   W A R R R *que operatic harmonies* 💛 Blondie with the hair drills and enough attitude and guns to fill up a noble phantasm tries to ban my account permanently, but PI heartthrob denies her admin privileges. aww babe i didn't know you cared. 😭♥️

get kidnapped by my new true love and go back to her place 😏  defs enough empty rooms to house five emotionally traumatized girls and at least two ghosts hehehe👻 XD 💚🃏💜🎸 decide to form the anti-gossip brigade and recruit my blazing sunflower after getting ambushed by the witch living in my fruit loops🥣

❌outvoted 2:1 that cults are bad. mf. fiinneee one last pull to round out the team and then I'll delete the app. cmonnn Karin 🎃~

OH HELL YEAH TWO FOR ONE.

Always wanted a daughter 💜🔨🐄 with a penchant for pissing off the local Martial Arts & Books Club and drinking suspicious liquids offered by total strangers. Well if it's good enough for her AND the sexy mayadere with enough game to seduce a mermaid, might as well get in on that myself. 

#curseddrank 🤢 0/24 would not recommend to a friend, 'cept maybe Ria

win alot of cash 🤑, blow up a fountain, meet the pied piper²🎶🖕, moon cult, monochrome feathers, something about liberation✊🏻; adopt temper tantrum cow girl. aces 💜🥩

Next up!!! skydiving with DJ Hammer! Jump to apparently-not-certain death after suicidal A.I. 💚💾🗼 tells you to rescue her hostage before they run out of Radiohead albums and have to move on to Thom Yorke's solo discography. save the invisible shield kitten 💚👑😿 from happiness and get chased through the internet by the sexiest homicidal Paint Pallette 💚🎨😈 since Caravaggio. (apparently green is the color of the digital apocalypse. i’m deleting Kako from my friend's list)

that’s it, fuck this app. 250 stones 💎 per-life-threatening-experience is more than i’m willing to deal with 😓 don’t wanna mess with the perfect nuclear family anyway. we've already got: 

✔️the two emotionally traumatized moms with memory and commitment issues

✔️the adhd daughter with anger management problems and a giant hammer

✔️the psychologically abused scizophrenic cat

✔️and the eccentric aunt with crippling anxiety

#squadgoals

now that were done hoarding bitches, its time to hunt the witches. and the bitches makin the witches. btw did i mention the witches ARE the bitches! AND WERE ALL GOING TO DIE!? 📽️⁉️💀 wait fuck lets back up a second

This is Nemo📕 and Token🧪 and they have all the answers but prefer if you only ask vague questions in exchange for vague responses so they can fill in the rest by discussing their superior intellect 🧠 at length. not to mention they built that dating app, so of course everyone in my harem decides to be a FUCKING. TRAITOR.🤬

cept waifu prime ofc 🥰💙. [PTSD > brainwashing] 'yOu CaN bE tHe LeAdEr NoW'. i have been from the very beginning you traumatized Hinedere nightmare. maybe if you weren't so caught up collecting surrogate daughters you would've noticed IM👏THE👏ONLY👏 ONE👏PROGRESSING👏THE FUCKING👏PLOT✨

rescue the rest of dysfunctional found-family™ from selves before my adorable firebender burns down Disnihama🎡🔥😱 during her weekly anxiety attack. (love the makeover T B H) 

CHAPTER 8: Magical Girl Massacre🩸🗡️

   - everyone has like, the shittiest day ever

   - the new Pope really needs to be extradited from the church

   - make friends with a really pretty tree 🌺🌲✨

i swear, if i don't finish this god damn story in time to get that free pull im gonna beat the shit out of every mirror i find in that giant mansion that i haven't even had any time to even mention yet. 🖕🏚️ let alone EVERYTHING happening with the prequel [fuck you, I'm the star] girls 💗💜💙💛❤️️ and their multidimensional melodrama. We don't need that many repetitive af episodes to emphasize that Homo-ra is a shitty person. we've all seen Rebellion. 🙄

NO, I DONT CARE IF YOU WANT SAPPHO'S BACKSTORY, I ONLY HAVE 79 STONES LEFT AND IF YACHAN FINDS OUT I HAVEN'T DELETED THE APP YET IM GONNA HAVE TO GO SLEEP IN WITH SANA 😭💎💸😠

uhhhggggg where were we… Topple a cult and burn down Hotel Denoument only to realize that Sis was fused with the dating app servers this entire madokafuckin time (told ya she was the best wingman 😊). 

Dilemma: Sis =🥚, Triumvirate of Trouble want 🐣. What do? vote now:

Help Hatch - IIIIIII

Not Do That - IIIII

What The Actual Fuck Is Going On - IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Lets just fight everyone until something good happens.

🔥🔫🔥🗡️🔥😱🔥🌆🔥😱🔥🛡️🔥💣🔥

Kill (???) the artist-in-chief of the italian reindeer murder police after teaching her the true meaning of Christmas 🎄 hatch 🐣lil Sis and realize she WAS your wingman all along🐰 MUKYUUUU! we're just gonna ignore how much trouble it would have saved if you'd just mentioned that. "yOu DiDnT aSk..." 

FUCK YOU SPACE BITCH. ONCE AN INCUBATOR ALWAYS AN INCUBATOR 🖕🐇🔪

anywho, somewhere along the lines we of course summoned the Antichrist ⚙️ because why not raise the stakes to max and still not kill off a single character. Madofuckinkami, can we PLEASE wrap this up. 😩💤

feathers (not the culty kind, tfm) rain from the sky, and the power of friendship and not having the Urobutcher 🔪🩸as a lead writer saves our peacefully sectioned off alternate reality 😇

TL:DR fuck cults, real life waifus DO exist, don't sell your soul to space rabbits, or your stones to megacorporations. Enjoy arc 2 on the JP server with your shitty translation patch you filthy fuckin weebs 

Yours Truly, 

- Thirsty Weeb Eroha 💗💎😘 

[thatmultifandomhoe]

The Extremely Large Tag Game

ATagged By: @dreamystuffers​ thank you sweet pea and HOLY SHIT THIS REALLY IS THE ULTIMATE TAG GAME BUT I AM READY.

SECTION ONE: First and last tag: post the first line of a wip as well as the last line you’ve written so far!

So I have several Wips at the moment and whelp, I’m gonna do them all lol.

The Size of a Heart: Wonho and Reader (Drabble)

First Line Written: The sky was burning as the sun set for the night, cloaking the city in its familiar darkness.

Last Line Written: “I tell myself that it’s better if it hurts, but I…I can’t anymore…I can’t.”

Tentatively Falling: Vampire Jongdae and Reader (Series)

First Line Written: Strobe lights flashed around the dark bar, drawing your attention every now and then when they went wild as the bass dropped.

Last Line Written: It was more than you ever thought, but it was exactly what you dreamt about hearing him say.

Heavenly Father: Boyfriend Yoongi, Priest Jimin, Alter boy Jungkook, and Reader (Smut Crack Drabble - Title May Change)

First Line Written: The stain glass windows in the Church were a sight to see during the day, the sunlight streaming through and bringing life to the images during the service, and brought a sense of comforting to those during times of trouble.

Last Line Written: Jimin groaned and your eyes watered when your nose was pressed against the base, his dick down your throat.

Knitting You a Home: Wolf Hybrid Namjoon and Reader (Series)

First Line Written: The wind howled while rain pelted your house as the storm refused to let up.

Last Line Written: For the moment, his thoughts were cleared, allowing him to fall asleep with you safely in his arms.

SECTION TWO. Enter 15 of your biases and put them in this order to discover the story of your life

Parent: Hongjoong

well I mean he is pretty daddy at times

Sibling: Jongdae

Grandparent: Sammy

Haunts you: Vernon

Significant other: Jooheon

HELL YEAH BITCHES

Ex: Yuta

damn that’s...that’s a change

Best friend: Chanyeol

Proposed to you: Yoongi

Was this before Jooheon or after Jooheon? Who’s my ass with?

Your boss: Taeyong

Random person you meet a the bar: Seonghwa

Rival: Bang Chan

BUT HE’S THE SWEETEST HUMAN BEING THO

First kiss: Namjoon

Drunk and singing karaoke with: Wonho

Played seven minutes in heaven with: Felix

Gave you your favorite dessert: Jackson

I...I can see this one. He’s sweet to do that

SECTION THREE. Describe your bias by their vibes as if they were someone in your life. (I’m doing my Ults, 1 from each group.)

Jongdae (EXO): The guy that everyone knows because he’s the one with that distinguishable laugh. The class clown that knows the limits and only crosses them on rare occasions. You think you know him but then he’ll say something that you never knew about him. Craves his independence but is the quiet one when in a large group, smiling as he watches the more energetic ones run about. An old soul trapped in a young body.

Yoongi (BTS): The one who devotes himself to his work and rarely sees the light of day. His room is littered with empty to go cups of coffee mixed with his own assortment of coffee mugs Coffee ring stains on furniture. You think he’s not listening or paying attention but when you least expect it, he’ll quietly do something or hand you a gift that he knows you treasure. He’ll never ask for cuddles, but he’ll always give them to you and refuse to let you go when you try to get up. Wise beyond his years because he’s suffered and doesn’t wish it on anyone else.

Yuta (NCT): The popular guy that at first everyone warns you about, but once you get to know him yourself, you don’t know why they warned you in the first place because he’s a total sweetheart. The guy who flirts with everyone and anyone, but remains loyal to his girl. He’s never without his iced coffee, and he’s dyeing his hair in the bathtub with a friend to help make sure it doesn’t go too wrong. Will entertain your drunk texts. He’s the one to text at 2 am when you’re feeling alone and down and he’ll do what he can to lift you back up with nothing but the truth.

Hongjoong (Ateez): He’s the guy who doesn’t give a shit about trends or styles, he creates his own. The guy who does the piercings at the local tattoo shop knows him by name because he’s gotten so many of his piercings done there. He is the Fashion DIY King. Will roast his friends the hardest  because he loves them the most and takes it when they dish it back. Somehow manages to rock hairstyles - long live the mullet - that no one thought should have ever existed. Don’t let him cook though. If he cooks you’ll end up with food poisoning. He’s the one who will let you try makeup tricks and new products on him. Secretly amazing at painting nails.

Wonho (Monsta X): He’s the guy friend that you never expected to be friends with. Him? You? Total opposites on a physical scale. On completely different levels. Once you get to know him, he’s a total teddy bear. Doesn’t question it when you suddenly appear and hug him without saying a word, he’ll simply hug you back while maintaining the conversation he had going. Or he’ll simply surprise you with a hug because he likes them.

Bang Chan (Stray Kids): He’s the one that always has his earbuds in even during class. Like he’s the guy that has the earbud going through the sleeve of his hoodie and is pressing his palm against his ear to listen to the music. Listens to everyone, even if he doesn’t know them that well and gives really good advice if they ask for it.

Jackson (Got7): The guy that you can hear a mile away. Hyper. Can’t sit still to save his life. He was the guy that you’d see doing laps in the hallway with his friends when he should have been in class, but he was the nice one. Passionate and when you ask him about what he’s working on, he’ll talk about it for hours. Will also apologize multiple times for going on but then continue to go on.

SECTION FOUR. Search your name + “core aesthetic” on Pinterest and make yourself a moodboard

SECTION FIVE. Make a normal and fantasy version of yourself using this !

SECTION SIX. Writing tag game!

What is your ideal setting for focusing on your writing?

A quiet office where I can play music softly in the background and be at a desk with a comfortable chair.

 What Genre do you prefer to write?

Slice of Life, Young Adult, College Age.

Do you prefer to write on paper or digitally?

Both.

It’s the middle of the night and you suddenly wake up with an idea. What do you do?

Make a note of it in either my notebook or in the notes section on my phone.

Who is your favorite person to write about?

Jimin and Hoseok

Do you like making your own characters, or do you usually write about real people?

I like to do both. Honestly, it’s kinda like a mix of both. With some of my fics, the only thing that makes them fanfics are that I’m using the real person’s name, and I’ll pin point on certain aspects of their physical features. In Brotið Hjarta, the only thing that connects to it being Namjoon is his name, and maybe his hair style/color and ear piercings, everything else was what I imagined it to be.

Have you ever written a book/story with more than 15 chapters (100K words)?

Yes. Strawberry Cream and BBQ

How often do you get ideas?

From everyday life, sometimes I’ll be daydreaming and it kinda morphs into a story or a fanfic and so I’ll make notes so that I don’t forget it.

Do you ever get an idea that you really like, but just can’t seem to finish?

Yessss, all the time.

What is your least favorite plot?

I don’t know about least favorite plots, but I do hate it when fics dive straight into a story without any background or anything. Wait, so maybe that’s pwp fics????? I don’t want to be a hypocrite, but even with my fics that primarily focus on smut, I still add in those background details and give them a teeny tiny plot.

SECTION SEVEN. Put your music on shuffle and reveal the first ten songs that come on.

The Kids Aren’t Alright - Fall out Boy

In the Dark - Bring Me the Horizon

Teeth - 5 Seconds of Summer

All In - Monsta X

To the Beat - Ateez

Shot - Lil’ Jon

Daechwita - Agust D

Treasure - Ateez

Adore You - Harry Styles

Guys My Age - Hey Violet

SECTION EIGHT. Questions tag:

Relationships: 2

Break-ups: 2

Kids: Right now? 0

Brothers and Sisters: 1 older brother.

Pets: 0

Surgeries: 0

Tattoos: 0

Countries you’ve been to: 0

Been in an airplane: yes

Been in an ambulance: yes

I sing karaoke: hell no.

Ice skating: I like it but I suck at it and have only been able to go during school events in the past.

Been on a cruise: hell no

Driven a motorcycle: nope

Ridden a horse: yes

Stayed in a hospital: nope

Favorite fruit or berry: Raspberries

Favorite color: Magenta

Last text: “Perfect! I’ll let you know when I am able to send yours out!” - I do pen palling and was letting someone know when I could send them a post card in exchange for the one I’m getting.

Cat or dog: Cat

Favorite pizza: White sauce pizza with chicken and feta cheese

Met a star: nope

Flown a helicopter: nada

Been on TV: nope

Broken my leg: nope

Seen a ghost: don’t believe in them.

Been sick in a taxi: nope

Seen someone die: no

SECTION NINE: Fifteen questions tag:

One ; it’s your birthday! what did you ask for?

Gift cards, um...(this is bad because my birthday is actually coming up) maybe some things from my Amazon list?

Two ; what was the last song / album you listened to?

WAP by Cardi B

Three ; what is your go to snack when you’re hungry?

Chocolate, cookies or cookies dipped in peanut butter

Four ; what is your morning routine?

Wake up, check messages on my phone while still in bed, get up, make coffee, maybe eat breakfast, drink coffee in bed, listen to music/watch videos or read on phone while drinking coffee, get dressed, brush teeth and skincare routine, make bed.

Five ; what mythical creature would you be?

An Elf? Or a Forest Witch. Something that has to do with the Earth and nature.

Six ; how do you interact with someone you don’t like?

I give short and straight to the point answers, if I’m working on something and they come up to me I’ll pointedly focus on that task instead of them.

Seven ; how do you define a toxic person?

Someone who lies, who makes you feel bad about the things that you do, that puts you done while lifting themselves, who is constantly bragging about their own things, who puts down others, who acts like they’re better, who acts like they’re way of life should be the only way of life.

Eight ; have you ever been to a concert or a fan-meet? if not, would you want to?

I have not, but I would like to one day because they seem fun and it would be nice to see a performance in person.

Nine ; do you believe in astrology? why or why not?

I do, mostly because it’s fun and interesting and I tend to find that I do a lot of the things and act like my zodiac sign without realizing it (aka I’m a Virgo).

Ten ; if you could have only one sense (hearing, touch, sight, etc.), which would you keep?

Hearing.

Eleven ; who is your favorite celebrity or idol?

At the moment, BM from Kard.

Twelve ; if you could talk to your favorite celebrity for a limited time, what would you tell them?

How do you keep going when it gets hard?

Thirteen ; I’m taking you out on a date. where are we going?

Maybe an art museum, or somewhere with flowers?

Fourteen ; do you prefer sweet or savory?

Sweet.

Fifteen ; do you have any Merch from any of your favorite artists?

I have several BTS albums and an EXO album.

I AM Tagging: @mygsii @myforeverforlife  @peonybane  @hobicomeholla29  @loser-dot-com @jeonsdear @namsjoon  @kpopcinnamonswirlroll @eashmo201 @1997jk @soulofatiny @cherryeoo​ @minniepetals​ @minniesmarshmallow​ @yoongi-sugaglider​  @crystaljins​ @taestfully​  @hyyunjins​ @i-am-delaney​ @worldwidebt7​ @flurrys-creativity​  @apurpledheart​ @holyfluffly​ @yunception​ @boymeetsweevil​ @chans-chair​ @brokecollegenerd​ @jinyoungsir​ @writersrealmbts​ @kpophoneybunny​ @actuallythatwaspromise​  @ladyartemesia​ @haylo4ever​ @ggukcangetit​ @kpopfanfictrash​ @wwilloww​ @jingabitch​ @kigurumu​ @jamaiskook​ @thatlongspringnight​ @ot7always-main​  @hauntedlilies​ @koophoriia​ @lorealchanelll​ @sweetheart--sannie​  @sweetae-tae​ @iniquitouspoppy​  

[unrestedjade]

fic writing meme: 1, 12, 17, 18, 21

Oh dang, that’s a lot! Think I’ll put this behind a cut to spare everyone’s dash.

1. The first fandom I wrote and posted for was Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. But! Somewhere in a landfill is a notebook with a very overwrought Animorphs fic about Ax falling in love with my very cool, original-character-donut-steel alien bat-centaur who can tell the future. Every day I thank the universe for not letting my family have internet access until I was 14. Actually, maybe the universe should have held out longer, but you can peep the cringe for yourself over here: https://www.fanfiction.net/u/173909/Fortuna

Yes, that is my old ff.net profile. My only regret is that I didn’t get a chance to back up my ask fics before the site suddenly decided to make a rule banning them and deleted them all. (Me, still salty over that 15 years later? Why, yes actually.)

12. A trope I haven’t tried yet but really want to? It’s hard to narrow it down; there’s a lot of “cliche” fanfic tropes I never let myself write that I want to indulge in this year. I’m thinking about finding one of those bingo cards to use or something. But since I grew up sneaking my mom’s romance novels, I think an arranged marriage would be fun to try if I have to pick just one.

17. The fic I’m most proud of should come as no surprise, lol. I still can’t believe I finished something as long and plotty as finaglc. Would love to manage it again someday. :’)

18. Line/scene dvd commentary: okay okay okay! So there’s this more-or-less abandoned DaphGan Legend of Zelda fic I was writing back in the day, that was just a loose serious of vignettes in chronological order. I had ideas for like 20 chapters and fizzled out because it turns out only about three people on the whole earth give a shit about DaphGan and I can’t write in a complete void of feedback. Anyway, I researched medieval boar hunting techniques because I desperately wanted an action scene culminating in a ~bad omen~ and here it is, so scroll by if you just want to see the last question in the batch:

Within minutes, they were deep enough that the forest canopy closed above them, far above Ganondorf’s head.  In the cool and the dim, and with the rustling of leaves in the breeze overhead sounding almost like waves, Ganondorf felt as though he were at the bottom of a great, ancient lake.  Mist lay in a thick blanket on the ground as high as the smaller horses’ barrels, and a carpet of dead leaves and needles deadened the sounds of their movement.  The hunters had fallen silent.   About that, he had no complaints.

(I recall being inordinately fond of the underwater imagery, because I’d been struggling for how to conceptualize a thick forest for a person who’s spent most of his life in the open desert.)

Save for ferns and scattered herbs, there was little in the way of troublesome plants or low branches beyond the border of the forest, and Ganondorf realized that King Daphnes’ suggestion the day before had, in truth, been polite censure of his clothing rather than any practical concern.  He frowned, and put the thought aside.  It did not matter.

(I was not at all subtle about the Hylians picking at the Gerudo envoy’s appearances, which I think I could handle a little better now, but alas...)

He thought instead on the many sounds surrounding them, his ears straining to hear every one.   There was birdsong, in patterns and notes he had never heard.  Small creatures rustled in the trees.  Water gurgled somewhere out of view.   The woods were full of life in every direction, and Ganondorf quietly marvelled at its richness.

All of this, for the sport of one family?

(This piece of writing is old enough that I was still using the now-defunct “two spaces after a period” rule, wow. Also, hello there, years-old misspelling. :/)

They kept to a walking pace for an hour or two, hushed but alert.  The dogs picked up a scent, the party wheeling around to follow after them.   Ganondorf rode alongside King Daphnes.  The man’s eyes were alight as he looked down the deer trail ahead of the dogs; a small smile of anticipation grew on his face.  "They have something, eh?” he said, in a whisper.  “What did I tell you!”

The lead dog threw its head back, baying.  It launched itself forward and the rest of the pack followed suit, tails held high like flags.

An enormous boar, all sinewy muscle and bristled hide, burst from a nearby thicket and was driven ahead of them.

“Aha!" The king spurred his horse to a gallop, the rest of the party just behind.  Ganondorf quickly found himself bringing up the rear.

The stallion seemed to find this as unacceptable as he did, for without his urging it picked up speed, long strides eating up the ground until the pair were level with the king once more.

(This bit started with the rest of the hunting party giving G-dawg mad shit for insisting on riding his stallion instead of a more appropriate horse, so I had to vindicate him, of course.)

Ganondorf’s eyes were now fixed on the boar.  He crouched low over the stallion’s neck, free hand fisted in the tangles of its mane.  They pulled ahead to run with the dogs, until even the dogs were falling behind them.

"Stay with it!"  The king’s bellow carried over the thunder of the stallion’s hooves.  "Keep running it!”

They ran.  The boar was fast and nimble, leading a chase through dense copses and over fast-flowing streams.  The world fell away until all that remained was the path they weaved through the trees, the rolling strength of the horse beneath him, the forest rushing by in a blur of green and loamy brown, and the boar.

Ganondorf laughed like a child, his heart light for first time since he’d come to this impossibly green land.

The chase ended when the boar made to leap over a fallen log and could not clear it, tumbling end over end.  The beast scrambled to its hooves, brandishing its long tusks.  It had reached the point of exhaustion, steam rising from its hide, muscles quivering with exertion.  It could run no longer.

Ganondorf held it at bay, keeping the point of his spear trained on it.  He did not wish to incite it to charge and risk his horse.  He simply looked at it, watching the boar watch him with wide, red eyes.  Foam gathered at its mouth, and he wondered whether it would die where it stood, if its heart had burst in its chest.

The baying of the dogs was not far off.  The hunters were closing in.

(Still a little puffed up over the juxtaposition of hunting being legitimately thrilling but cruel. Catch my bro getting swept up in the excitement.)

“Excellent work!"  Daphnes was at the head of the party, as he had been to start.  "Oh, well done, man!”

As the dogs circled, barking and snapping, the boar stood its ground, head lowered.  It made a few feints at the dogs foolish enough to attack, but as the hunters closed in it had less and less room to manoeuvre.   Ganondorf could see it rallying for a final effort, weariness flowing into terror and rage.

It roared, lunging, scattering the dogs.   Blood streaked its tusks.  A horse reared when its leg was cut by sharp hooves.  For a moment, it looked to Ganondorf as though it might break away again and escape.

In one practiced motion, Daphnes leapt from his horse and sunk his spear deep into the boar’s side.

Ganondorf’s racing heart froze.  Pain keener than any he had ever felt lanced through him, choking him on a silent cry.  He clutched at his chest, groping for the spear-head that wasn’t there.  His own spear fell from numb fingers to the forest floor.  Terror and agony, all-encompassing, swept over him in a crushing wave.

None of the other hunters noticed his distress.  All eyes were locked on their king’s struggle with the beast.  The boar screamed, running against the spear as if it would happily run the length of it to reach Daphnes with its final breath.  The cross-tree of the spear and the strength of the man wielding it kept the boar’s tusks far from its target, however, and for every drop of blood that spilled from its side a portion of its strength bled away with it.

After what felt far too long, the boar collapsed.  It’s screams had faded to rattling breaths, and when Daphnes stepped forward, knife drawn, it did not resist.

It was on Ganondorf that its red eyes rested when its throat was cut, in some mute accusation or seeking solace, he could not say.  The pain in his chest receded when the final gout of blood ran out onto the dark earth.  By the time Daphnes stood from his task, wiping his hands and blade clean on a rag, Ganondorf might have believed that the pain had been a trick of his imagination.

(This thing with the dead boar was meant to keep coming up in small ways throughout the rest of the vignettes as a harbinger of G-dawg’s ultimate failure and doom along with being an illustration of how he twists and suppresses himself for the sake of pleasing Daphnes, but of course it’ll probably never happen now since I’m five years out. I really did like this idea, though, and this scene was super fun to write. Except for now I’ve noticed another old typo. T_T)

21. The fic that got away? Lots; I actually have a horrible track record for finishing long fics. The one I’m most bummed out by, that I still think of from time to time, was actually a fill for the old Transformers Anonymous Kink Meme on LJ. It was Animated-verse pre-war Ratchet/Ultra Magnus with a detour into Ratchet/Megatron. I was about two thirds of the way done when something happened in the community that I can’t recall anymore derailed me, and I never ended up finishing it. Sometimes I think about scraping it off the meme to at least archive what I had done on Ao3 or something, but I probably won’t lol. It would take forever to track it down since this was back in like, 2012.

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Mary!

You have been accepted for the role of MARLENE MCKINNON with the faceclaim change of Zoe Kravitz! We really enjoyed how you incorporated Marlene’s background with her large family and the farm into her personality, her strengths, and her weaknesses. We are so excited to have you as part of this roleplay!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME: Mary

AGE: 26

TIMEZONE: EST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: The most fortunate thing about the world’s given circumstances right now is that I’m working from home as self-quarantine, which opens up A LOT of time for me. This is my reality for the next month and a half or so, and even if (God-willing) we return back, I’ll still have at least a couple hours every other day to spare for replies and such.

ANYTHING ELSE: Triggers: self-harm, eating disorders, suicide.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Marlene McKinnon

AGE: 24

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: Female, She/Her, Bisexual

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Ravenclaw

ANY CHANGES: FC change to Zoe Kravitz! Also not sure if she should be younger like 21 to match Lily’s age? If not, I don’t mind keeping her at 24.

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY: 

Marlene is always the first to volunteer to help. She’s fearless, loyal, and holds so much integrity in doing the right, fair thing for all - even if it’s not exactly her first choice. She might not have the friendliest face, but she’s incredibly compassionate to the lives’ of others. She holds a balance of head and heart, just as any true Ravenclaw would. Speaking of her head, Marlene is one of the most resourceful witches in the Order. She has a great mind to come up with a creative solution, in order to quickly problem solve. She’s also a natural leader. Growing up as one of the older siblings in her family, she had to manage many personalities working together. So she naturally excels in having to facilitate teamwork, which made her an obvious contender as both Quidditch Team Captain and Order of the Phoenix member. Marlene has a deep hero complex - so naturally, she struggles when something goes unexpected. It isn’t like she’s surprised and made to look foolish if she fails. Marlene is smart enough to deduct the possible outcomes within a situation, but her pride gets the best of her. In these moments, she is the perfectionist, competing with herself to always perform at her best. So when she slips, it’s truly personal. Marlene is also quite impatient. Over the years, she’s been able to control herself so she doesn’t come off as hotheaded or anything. However, there are those moments where you might question if Marlene is being sarcastic or if she’s perfected the dry delivery of her inner aggression.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY: 

Marlene loved growing up on the McKinnon Farm. Her family was huge - not only did she have five siblings (three brothers and two sisters), but having her vast number of relatives visit the farm on a weekly basis for Sunday dinner was the norm. Everyone was close and dependent to another for companionship, growth, and love. She learned the most from her family - the kind of witch you should be, the definition of success, what love truly meant - and she knew how lucky she was to have this great sense of home to fall back on. Her favorite memories were after dinner on a family holiday, where her siblings, cousins, and herself would run through the meadows and play Marco Polo. Life on the farm always felt so easy. Up until the age of eleven, she had known nothing else, and yet knew that the farm was her own little oasis in the world. As much as she loved Hogwarts, living there only proved her ideology of her childhood home even more so.

OCCUPATION: 

Well, if you are to ask Marlene, she will tell you her first job is being part of the Dissendium Task Force. It’s a role she takes very seriously and puts every ounce of passion in. Her hero complex really compliments this position, since she has this sense of duty to save people from the evils of the war and help them find some peace in their given circumstances. However, her job to the public eye is Head Ranch Handler of the McKinnon Farm. Marlene is not the only hired hand on the farm, but she is the one who manages those that work for the McKinnon family business. She oversees herding of the winged horses, supervises financial planning, and continuously looks for new opportunities to expand the business on the farm, such as harvesting or humane breeding of magical creatures. The farm is a beloved part of the McKinnon family name and Marlene takes her job very seriously, feeling the heaviness of this important job on her shoulders.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER: 

Her purpose is to be the central point of the Dissendium Task Force. Even though she isn’t the only witch and wizard assigned to this team, she understands that her position and connection to the farm is fundamental to the Task Force, therefore, integral to the Order. With Marlene’s balance between emotion and logic, she understands that technically the actions of the Order are illegal. However, Marlene has a greater sense of justice, the greater good, and understands that in the world there are shades of grey - including this. And she will be honest and say she doesn’t agree with the Order’s decisions half the time. Something she will never admit it is the way she feels about the “inner circle”. Some people would find her thoughts as jealousy, but truly, Marlene feels that this idea of a select group of people making the decisions for a whole organization is equal to the same cause we are trying to fight against. There are few witches and wizards she questions to being in the inner circle in the first place, and wants to challenge if it’s really even fair for someone who has no knowledge of her life to make the decisions for her.

SURVIVAL: 

On the outside, Marlene would suggest that she has thrived this long because of her great wit. In passing, she has had to interact with a handful of dark wizards and keep a cool composure, so they weren’t to suspect her involvement and just simply choose to ignore the McKinnon family and their home. But on the inside, the probable main reason she has survived this long has been the family’s assets. Even with being considered “new money”, Marlene is still part of a large, wealthy Pureblood family, with a significant, ever-growing business that effects both sides of the war in some benefit. The farm is just secluded enough in the English countryside that it hasn’t peaked the Death Eaters interest, so living there and continuing to centralize the Task Force refugee efforts has remained to be safe during these times. Whether that has been brought by ignorance or by a bribe, that we currently don’t know - at least not yet.

RELATIONSHIPS: 

For Marlene, seeing as she grew up in a family that has given her everything, it’s hard for her to not set these high expectations when it comes to her friends. She would consider her two closest friends at the moment as Remus Lupin and Lily Evans. However, things lately have been tense between her and Lily. Marlene is trying to be the better person and be patient with Lily insisting to save every Muggleborn. However, Marlene knows that even her farm’s resources have their limits - and to save everyone simply because they might be targeted could crash their resources, blow their cover, and create mass hysteria. They have had a couple discussions back and forth on the subject, and anytime Marlene has felt herself about to blow over, she’s chosen to walk away. Marlene isn’t the type of person to do that, but Lily has been one of her closest friends since she can remember. This makes her friendship with Remus only more important when it comes to keeping her head cool. The more she talks to other members of the Order, such as Edgar Bones, the more she has begun to open up. However, there are equal amount of Order members Marlene has still found difficulty in trusting, such as Alice Longbottom or Mary MacDonald.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: 

Wow, difficult. VERY difficult. I’m not sure what ships are currently sailing so I’m truly going blind here. Off the bat, I would say Remus Lupin since there’s already a current connection there and foundation of trust. It would be definitely interesting to see something happen between Lily and Marlene maybe - they might have been good friends for a long time. So now, with Marlene being really disappointed at the way Lily is acting in regards to the Task Force, maybe it’s a deeper issue than just ‘focusing too much on muggleborns’. I could also see some kind of hookup between her and Dorcas. Also, Sirius Black. But that’s purely because I’ve seen the ship before and any chance to love down any version of a Sirius Black, I would be 1000% down for. Fabian Prewett might be a cool option too if the character is really into getting himself into danger. I don’t know, Mary ships all things so this is hard!!! lol

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE? 

She’s DEFINITELY got blood/financial privilege. She’s Pureblood and her family is new money. Some Pureblood families probably wouldn’t thrive in the farm setting, but even as rural as her upbringing was, it wasn’t simple, nor was it common. The farm could get confused with a plantation with how much land there was and how grand the main house is. It was luxurious without being goudy and despite the war around them, they have never experienced a hit in their business. Marlene has definitely lived comfortably, and that’s possibly part of the reason why she’s probably so fearless when jumping into situations - because she’s never felt true hardship on a fundamental level. She basically grew up with the perfect life. As for her biases, I don’t think she would cast out anyone for being a werewolf or Muggleborn or half-breed, but I think she would have a harder time in understanding their extraordinary circumstances. It could be done - but it would just be more difficult, as she would at first try to use logic from her own life - when clearly that wouldn’t work because she has never lived in that person’s shoes.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? 

Harry Potter role-plays have always been home for me. Since the very beginning of my rp time here on Tumblr. The circumstances going on in the world right now somehow guided me back here, as I was yearning to do something again that I really enjoyed - and as I was searching for a new Harry Potter role-play to apply to, I stumbled onto yours. It had everything I searched for in a good HP RPG, including really warm and patient admins who dealed with all my constant messages! It really got me excited to write up this application and it brought back the magic that I had missed so so much. I’m looking forward to being able to fangirl over relationships I can plot and create for my character, but mostly looking forward to the relationships I might possibly make OOC. I have found family in past HP RPG’s and in the end, that’s what I always yearn for in the end.

PLOT DROP IDEAS:

Well, who would I be if I didn’t recommend at some point to go canon and kill off Marlene and her whole family??? Maybe loosing her family’s farm beforehand?? I mean half of me is like how can I say that my poor bb I haven’t gotten the CHANCE, but also, I love conflict and I feel like that would be such a gut-wrencher. However, OUTSIDE of that, something maybe a little more plausible and in the immediate future, would be a raid of the Potter Estate. It could even get tricky and messy, because Marlene could offer up the McKinnon Farm to use as HQ for the time being and maybe some members are on her side - like Dorcas or Remus - and others are not - like Lily or James - and the creates a rift of tension. Idk?? lol

ANYTHING ELSE? Not really!! I’m ready to go chief if you’ll have me :’)

[simnovels-blog]

EA RANT

Ok so I was reading reblogs and comments under a post that someone created in appreciation for the new Cats and Dogs expansion and calling out people who are crying they aren’t getting what they want. First of all I want to say that I agree that simple hate for something will never get you very far. EA won’t listen to you if you scream in capital letters that you want a different expansion or if you want horses in your game. They will just laugh at you as they cash in their millions in november.

BUT, I do agree with the core of what these people are trying to say. I think it’s better though to form a well thought, well written opinion which explains exactly why Cats & Dogs and the Sims 4 in general is such a disappointment so that everyone, even the die hard Sims 4 fans, understands what these ‘hating’ players are going through. So I decided to post a rant about EA and the direction they took with Sims 4, which will forever make me sad and disappointed and this is why (I’ll add a read more button but please do read more):

First of all: I am 25 years old now. When The Sims was released I was eight and I can still remember very well the first time I played the game at my friend’s house. She was so kind to lend me her disk set so that my dad could copy it (yes, very oldskool, back in the day copying disks wasn’t a crime yet lol). And so i had my very first Sims game and I fell in love with it immediately. From then on, I patiently waited for every christmas, birthday and the Dutch holiday Sinterklaas to ask for new expansions and I played them more than any other game we had. All the way up to Sims 3 Into the Future. Sims was and is my childhood, my teenhood and now even my tweenhood (are those real words? lol). So you can imagine how excited I was when Sims 4 was announced!

Sims 4 looked amazing in the first trailers. I didn’t care for the change in art style. Cartoony would be fine with me because this was going to be a new Sims and it was going to give us even more than what Sims 3 already offered. EA’s campaign focused greatly on the new improved CAS and their emotion system. The way they presented it made it look really cool. It actually seemed like you could knead your sim in any way possible and those emotions felt like a true enrichment to storytellers. As a storyteller, these teasers and trailers and gameplay trailers made me incredibly excited!

I was lucky enough to be asked to review The Sims 4 by my current employer back then a gaming website called XGN.nl (right now it’s just a clickbait SEO mania there but when I worked there back in 2014 they did produce some quality). This meant I received a copy of The Sims 4 for free. This is when I was first encountered with how EA deceived us with their trailers. Every company does this of course, but I had to say it was a great disappointment to try out the new CAS and bump into very strict limits when it came to kneading your sim. The sliders were basically still there, just hidden behind a different mechanic that also didn’t work very well yet (they patched it later). Second of all, the emotion system was completely dominating the game, meaning that sims were ALWAYS feeling a certain emotion. They were never ‘neutral’. Another ridiculous element they added was the sudden change of moods whenever your sim walked into a room with a sculpture or painting that was created in a certain mood. Did your sim’s father die 5 minutes ago? No worries, just take a look at a playful painting and you’re all good again. This was not the emotional system they promoted. This was a mechanic that was way too flexible and not realistic at all even on a cartoony level. It completely destroyed the possibility to make beautiful screenshots and stories of your sims without having to use posepacks and this was exactly what I loved doing.

Of course there were also the other restrictions like the lack of toddlers, swimming pools, dishwashers, pregnancy leave… the super tiny neighborhoods with fixed lots and those horrible loading screens… It was definitely a step back from Sims 3. They did announce they would prioritize performance over content this time, but it seemed to me that they weren’t given the appropriate budget for this game. Even back in 2014 it should’ve been possible to create at least an open neighborhood with lots you could move around to your desire and still imrpove performance compared to Sims 3. Of course that would mean the development cost would be higher so this is where I start my actual rant. I’m pretty sure EA didn’t give them the money they needed to create a proper sequel. EA is notorious for being a cashgrab company and they saw more profit in a low cost model that would attract the new generation who grew up with mobile games and NOT with the older Sims games. They saw money in those teens and younger kids who weren’t in the possession of an up-to-date gaming pc and therefore were used to playing stuff like candy crush on their phone. And of course, they were right. This was a huge group of people it turned out and they considered Sims 4 a success.

But what about their old player base? What about me? What about everyone else that was like me? We had been looking forward to a sequel for five years already. This was no sequel. This was a different game made for different players who never experienced the enormous and free worlds of Sims 3. On top of that, this wasn’t a game for creative people either. They took away create a style, they took away toddlers (thank god they fixed that one though), they made the baby stuck to a crib, they added loading screens, sims would look vastly out of place now if CC’d, everything a creative person loves to do, to direct their game and have all the freedom to create any kind of picture they desire was taken away.

In the beginning I still had hope. I thought: expansions are going to turn this game into something great just like they did with the other series. But even here EA decided to take the cash-grab route instead. Instead of releasing expansions with a decent amount of content they went for the modern way of DLC: add only one or two extra things per DLC. Comparing expansions of The Sims 4 to expansions of The Sims 3 and simply calculating the amount of hours of gameplay each expansion gives if you try out everything once showed how TS4 expansions are only a fraction of what TS3 had to offer. Again: their arguments were about keeping the performance good enough for even low-end laptops. But seriously my phone could probably run TS4 without any lag. This day and age it IS possible to create way more than what they do with the TS4 and still have a decent performance even on an outdated PC. So this had to be a matter of budget. I don’t blame the developers. They get their money from EA. I blame EA for not giving the developers enough money to make a worthy sequel or to make worthy expansion packs. And it’s not just with Sims 4 btw. They completely ruined the Mass Effect series as well with that monstrosity they call Mass Effect Andromeda. If you google a bit about what happened there, you can see how bad management, a low budget and a deadline pushed way too early by EA messed up the entire development of that game. I wouldn’t be surprised if the same thing is happening behind the screens of the Sims 4, but we just don’t know about it.

The worst thing is, at least here in Europe, Sims 4 isn’t any cheaper than Sims 3. Even though the development cost was clearly a lot lower and even though they give us a lot less content, the base game and its expansion packs still cost the same amount as a Sims 3 expansion. You pay 40 euros for Get to Work, which gives you only 3 new careers. This is the same amount you pay for Ambition, which adds so much more. I don’t even want to speak about the Vampires game pack which is the prominent example of how EA decided to cut previous expansions into thousands of little pieces and then sell them for a high price each to get more money.

This finally brings me to the newly announced Cats & Dogs expansion. Again, at least half was cut off the content we had previously gotten in pets expansions and the only new thing they added was a vet career. To make it even worse, cats and dogs won’t be controllable so when the crappy AI abandons you and fucks one of them up, you are basically screwed since you can’t control them to fix the issue. We will have to see about this when it is actually released, but it’s perfectly possible your pet will get stuck in your house somewhere and die of starvation simply because you can’t get to it in any way. Besides this possible issue, it’s another restraint for creators. A lot of stories including pets can’t be made now since the pets can’t be directed into a desirable action or position. I can’t imagine every storyteller is patient enough to wait until the pet performs the desired action by themselves. Back in Sims 2 pet’s weren’t controllable either, but at least they had a cheat so you had the option of you really wanted to. Now they announced they won’t even give us that cheat. This isn’t because they don’t want to give us a cheat, it’s most probably because they never developed the possibility of controlling a pet to begin with. Again, I suspect this was a budget issue. If they wanted to make pets controllable, with their given budget they probably had to cut down on other stuff like autonomous AI. Again, EA decided to go cash grab instead of giving us more options and more freedom to create whatever we want with this game.

They have derailed from a sandbox game into a more RPG/mobile game kind of feel. I just can’t understand why they did that. Did they underestimate the size of their creative playerbase? Did they underestimate how restrictive some of their choices would be? I don’t think so. I think they simply didn’t care. They care about money, that’s what EA is famous for. They have been given ‘awards’ for being the worst gaming company  plenty of times already. Sims 4 is one of the shining bright examples as to why they deserve those awards.

One can only hope that one day a different developer with a less money greedy publisher will pick up Sims where the third series left off and make their own version of The Sims. This already happened with for example Cities Skylines and Planet Coaster, who are succesors of Sim City and Rollercoaster Tycoon created by different companies. But as long as there’s no announcement about such a thing, all I can really do is be sad about what Sims 4 never was and never will be.

[rumikothefox]

Favorite Monster Hunter Monsters, Elder Dragon Edition

Alright, so here is the list of my favorite Elder Dragons. Once again, this is in no particular order. 

Please keep in mind that Elder Dragons are usually hidden or story-based monsters. There are bound to be spoilers for these games due to the nature of these monsters. If that concerns you, best to skip this list.

Let’s get this show on the road!

Ceadeus

As far as Elder Dragons go, let’s start with my first love. Ceadeus was my first Elder Dragon, before I even really understood the classification in reference to the series. He was epicly huge, really powerful, and honestly didn’t give a crap about me until I started being more than a mild annoyance to him and broke his beard. Fighting him was surprisingly fun for an underwater fight, albeit a bit frustrating at times, but I think it was the story aspect that really sold me on him. The beautiful music, the lead up to his fight (including the Lagiacrus fakeout), and the fact that this village’s future is riding on you at least driving this Ceadeus off, if not slaying it outright. It just made it feel ridiculously grand. The Goldbeard Ceadeus was kind of awesome too, but it didn’t have the same impact as fighting Ceadeus in the village quests did.

Oroshi Kirin

When I try to figure out if I like a monster or not, it usually comes down to the fact that monsters both frustrate me and enthrall me. So in which ones does the second happen more than the first? Kirin and Oroshi Kirin ride that fine line where it was hard to say. Both are frustrating as all hell, but they are such amazing monsters that it’s hard to stay mad at them. Oroshi in particular has an awesome-looking coat and I’ve always been partial to ice elements in RPGs. 

Kirin and Oroshi are fast and have really tough hides. They were the type of fights that made me glad I was a gunner mostly in MH4U, because bouncing is never a fun time. I sat back and let loose the pew pew right on that horn of his. To be honest, I initially kind of thought of Kirin as a joke. What is this tiny little horse monster gonna do to me, right? Theeen the carting began and I realized this horse got the title Elder Dragon for a reason. Despite the frustration though, I just felt more compelled to take him down.

Plus... I mean... you know... the armor?

Yeah... >.>

Gogmazios

Gog was our hidden Elder in MH4U. There wasn’t really a lot to him lore-wise, just a balls-hard fight. This is a monster covered in a very sticky, very flammable oil. So sticky, in fact, that this monster starts with a portable dragonator stuck in its back. If you can manage to dislodge it, you can use it against him in addition to the dragonator already in the arena.

Gog is surprisingly mobile for his size. Some of his movements remind me a little of Fatalis and he shares that annoyingly long tail trait. Gog fires explosive fire beams from his mouth that will burn you if you’re too close to the initial fire and, if you hang around the contact point too long, it will explode and send you flying with a ton of damage. He is also capable of flight, despite his size, and he occasionally goes into an enrage phase that involves him flying around the area firing his beam of death indiscriminately in every direction. If you can’t use the binders to bring him to the ground, you generally have to leave the battleground until he’s done rampaging.

My favorite part of him was mounting. I spent half my time in MH4U gunning and the other half with an insect glaive in my hand. And this guy was super easy to mount. It wasn’t uncommon to get a multiplayer room with at least two glaive users in the fight because most people knew that was his weak point. Mount him, bring him down, everyone does damage. Rinse and repeat. It turned a monster that was almost too hard to consider farming despite his amazing-looking weapons into a monster that was tough but fun. 

Lunastra/Teostra

Okay, so, I’ve only fought a Teostra, but I just love how the Lunastra looks and I had to include her with her hubby at least for that and the fact that in their original game, they fought almost the same way.

I love this lion-like, chimera look to them. Lunastra’s coloration speaks to me more, but I do love Teostra’s firey appearance. They look very regal in how they hold themselves.

In fourth gen, they added blast to Teostra and it is both awesome and sucks. In combat, you can get blasted around a ton and you practically have to have an enrage timer handy in a browser to time when he’s going to do his supernova move, because if you’re in melee range when that goes off, it’s gonna hurt. His blast weapons are some of the best in the game though, so I got used to fighting him pretty quick since we farmed him for weapons a lot. They tend to have less top-end than, say, Brachy’s weapons, but they have such an obscene amount of blast on them that with a quick enough weapon and enough hunters, you can just kind of chain explode a monster and cause them to flinch their ass off.

Edit: As of Monster Hunter World, I have now fought a Lunastra. I still love her, but that first unlock quest... well... I could have gone without that entire experience. lol

Hallowed Jhen Mohran

Jhen is yet another Elder that I fought early on and got that special sort of place in my heart. Monsters had always, until that point, been a toe-to-toe fight with the monster in question. Toe-to-claw? Anyway, it hadn’t even occurred to me that a monster this large could exist in this game. So when the villagers were like, “Hey, we wanna take on this monster, but we need to ready a ship to fight it with, can you get us some mats?” I was kind of perplexed but went with it anyway. The result was a ridiculously epic fight that involved firing cannons and ballista at a giant sand whale, climbing on his back to break parts of his spines, and a showdown with the monster creeping ever closer to the boat with only me between them. Having the MH main theme kick in when you use the dragonator on him during the showdown was also an amazing touch. It makes you feel like “omg yes!! I can do this!! LET’S GO GENTS!!!” I didn’t always get all my carves, but it was a fun ride.

Hallowed Jhen was definitely tougher, but god he’s pretty. Jhen has just this sandy, rocky look to him that is cool, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not all that fancy either. Then out struts Hallowed Jhen in G Rank, looking like some swaggering geode that says “Yeah, just try it.” I didn’t fight him often other than when I specifically needed mats, mostly due to his difficulty and also due to the fact that the epicness of the fight sort of starts to wear on you when you have to do it over and over for certain parts, but it was definitely amazing when we did fight him.

Akantor

Okay, first thing is first. Akantor is a Flying Wyvern. Yes, technically this monster isn’t an Elder Dragon. He USED to be classified as one, according to lore. You fight him alone in a volcano arena. He’s ridiculously powerful. His weapons are Elder Dragon levels of powerful. He’s an Elder Dragon, I don’t care what classifications say. :P

Akantor is like if you took a Tigrex and made him spiky and fire-based. He has most of Tigrex’s basic moveset when he moves and attacks. He has the added ability, though, to burrow into the ground and pop up elsewhere. Thankfully this is usually done rather slowly, so you aren’t likely to get too caught off guard unless you are just not paying attention. Which is bad news because if you’re not watching, you can end up with Akantor pulling himself out of the ground behind you and firing a beam that will absolutely devastate you. I guess I just have a thing sometimes for these big, slow, but intensely powerful monsters. He just looks like something you definitely don’t wanna mess with and, really, he isn’t. But he’s a fun fight. Certainly a lot more fun, imo, than his rival, Ukanlos. Shovelface can take a hike.

Alatreon

Ugh, okay, it pains me to break combo like this. I’ve been using the backgroundless renders of all the monsters so far, but I couldn’t do it this time.  I couldn’t find a proper render of him that didn’t either make him look much darker than he actually is, or make him look like he came straight out of a “brown game”. So you get this screenshot from the wiki instead.

Alatreon is a headache to fight. I hate fighting him. But he has some cool lore and his weapons look amazing. Sadly, I didn’t fight enough of him to be able to make his weapons in MH3U. They all have this theme of being black with glowy purple accents with some pretty cool shapes.

The idea behind this Elder is that he can use FOUR of the five elements. That’s Dragon, Ice, Thunder, and Fire. The only one missing is water. The problem is this makes him highly unstable. Monsters aren’t meant to have that many affinities, I guess. He uses all four against you in some capacity, though he can only use one at a time. The arena has a ballista binder, which is good because sometimes he will go into a flying phase where bringing him down is the better option to letting him fly around and have his way with you. In some ways he resembles the body shape of Kushala Daora and even has some of his moveset if I recall.

Chameleos

Okay, so you have that endgame set you really like, right? Got it all nice and gemmed up the way you like it with optimal dps skills? Yeah? Okay, cool. Now open five of those slots up, shove some anti-theft decorations in those slots, and suck it up. No, I said suck it up. Stop crying, you can have your skills back later.

Your enjoyment of Chameleos can be inversely proportional to how many of your items he’s stolen with that long tongue of his, as well as how rare those items are. The more he’s stolen, the more you want to cry and possibly throw something. You will not be getting those items back. R.I.P.

That being said, as a whole, I highly enjoy Cham. Maybe it has to do with the fact that I had to farm him excessively, both for my status blademaster set and for several of his top tier poison weapons. But I got pretty used to his antics. A dedicated anti-theft set specifically made for fighting him helped. I still had to contend with his poison stupidity, but it’s a small price to pay.

I think Cham may be one of the only goofy-looking Elder Dragons. He just has this expression that makes you wanna laugh. Like Kirin, he’s one of those monsters that if you don’t take him seriously from the outset, he will surprise you with the amount of ass kicking he gives you.

My favorite part of fighting him was his mist. He creates mist in the area that he can vanish into unless you’ve broken his horn (at which point he’s very visible when he THINKS he’s invisible). When the mist kicks in, it does this awesome effect where his battle music become muffled, like the mist is blocking your hearing somewhat.  I liked the effect a lot and it kind of added to that immersion, like you were surrounded rather than your hunter character. His music is also ridiculously awesome imo. 

Dalamadur

I’m not sure if I’d put Dally as my absolute favorite, but he’s very much up high on the list for me. Dalamadur is the largest monster in the series so far. As far as I’m aware, anyway. He sits at 44039.7cm (1444.8 feet) long and is fought with his body wrapped around a mountain. At any given time, you can only reach a couple of his claws, his tail, and his chest. You can hit his head if you’re ranged or an insect glaive user. He occasionally will move in such a way that you can hit his body for a minute or two.

This guy is so big and powerful that his movements can shape the landscape. When you find him, he’s covered in this layer of stone, just kind of sleeping wrapped around a mountain peak. He wakes up, cracks the layer off himself, and comes down after you. I love his roar in particular, it just adds to this whole idea of his monster so much bigger than you. It reverbs around the whole area.

Initially, I hated this guy.  There is a lot to remember when fighting him and if you’re unfamiliar with the fight, expect wipes. Our group watched videos about how to fight him before we took him on (WoW raiding habit) and we still got toasted a lot early on.  Once you learn his phases and tells, though, he becomes manageable and kind of fun.  You definitely want to be working on different things than other people. Have someone break his tail while someone else goes after a claw. A third person can be breaking his chest, while someone else could be trying to get on his head and set bombs up there. Learning to Superman dive through his beam of death helps as well.

He’s a difficult one to carve because his body takes a long time to settle during its death throes and you could end up somewhere where his body isn’t actually landing.  That takes practice as well.  Still, taking him out is extremely satisfying.

Honorable Mentions

There are some Elder Dragons that didn’t make it on this list, but I feel like deserve a special mention, or at least an explanation as to why they didn’t make my list.

Fatalis: Fatty just never appealed to me much. I mean, he’s a large dragon and kinda cool looking, but he doesn’t stand out to me. It might be partially because I never played the original game and don’t have that nostalgia for him. I also played MH3U first and so Fatalis feels more like a more plain clone of Dire Miralis, even though I know Fatalis is the one that came first. Crim and White are too frustrating to even consider.  I don’t really have fun fighting any of these three and only really fight them when one of my friends (or myself) needs his parts.

Dire Miralis: Speaking of this guy, he almost made the list, purely based off him being the first hidden Elder I ever came across, but... he was just too aggravating for me to actually like him. There were underwater parts for no real reason other than I guess he needed to cool off his body? He also seemed to home in on you with his projectiles, even when you were doing your best to avoid them. I don’t know, I guess he just leaned too heavily on the frustrating part of things for me to love him all that much. Still, he looks pretty awesome.

Kushala Daora: This was an odd one. I juggled the idea of adding him to the list, especially with his rival Teostra making the list. But I guess rather than anything being bad about him, it was just that he didn’t stand out for me quite enough. I love Daora, don’t get me wrong, but he is a metallic, regular-ass dragon model. He uses ice and wind and his methods of using them are pretty awesome. I also like that he’s one of the Elders that has part of his mechanic crippled by poison. But in the end, I felt like I didn’t want this to be a mile-long list like the normal monsters were and in a lineup of standouts, he just didn’t stand out as much for me? Sorry Daora, I still love you. Rusted can go to hell though.

Amatsumagatsuchi: Amatsu looks fantastic and I love how his armor looks. But... while I’ve played Portable 3rd, I never actually finished it.  I never even got far enough to actually fight an Amatsu myself. So, as much as I would have liked to include him, the fact is that I haven’t fought him and also know very little about him as a monster.

Nergigante: Very similar to Amatsu.  I’ve tangled with Nergy a few times, but it’s only really been in the beta or in a few quests I don’t want to speak of where he invades for a short time and you drive him off. I have yet to get a quest to actually take him out, nor do I know anything about his lore. I feel like Nergy might become a monster I truly love once I get to know him, but for now, he’s just too much of an unknown factor to include on this list.

And that’s the end of my posts on my favorite monsters. If any of the Monster Hunter World monsters really stand out to me, I may make separate posts for them later to gush about them a bit. 

I am still considering a favorite music post, but there’s a lot I need to consider and re-listen to before I make a decision on that. Thanks for reading!

[oscarlovesthesea]

11 facts meme taggity thing + 16 facts about me or whatever these things are called

the amazing @gay-trash-cats always tags me in things and then I forget which is how I ended up owing them 27 facts about me. Let’s see! (This thing was so long I needed to make a cut :O)

1.I love my friends, online and real friends alike. They’re amazing people and there is almost nothing I wouldn’t do for them (almost because I’m excluding stuff like genocide or killing a kitten? sorry friends I love you but cats are the best)

2. my favourite sport has always been horse riding and I’ve done it for 9 years, even doing competitions at national level. between studying a lot and not really having the money for it I haven’t been riding in like 8 months now which is probably the longest I’ve been without it in years and I am actually feeling like I’m going through withdrawal. 

3. speaking of riding, the first horse I ever really got attached to was this tiny and full of rage Shetland called Caramella (Candy). The two horses who taught me the most were called Perla (Pearl) and Daimon. When I started competitions I first had a crazy pony I loved very much called Asterix, then moved on to this super sweet mare called Ghira, then to a black cutiepie (who was probably the best one in terms of technical abilities) called Kibor. The only actual horse (meaning, not pony) I’ve had for long was a beautiful mare called Actionmaid Z, but since her name was too long I called her Arwen.

4. in 9 years of riding, I’ve only had one bad fall, from this huge horse called Amadeus - it was before I got Arwen and he was scared of everything and definitely too big and strong for my tiny arms, so when a car passed in front of us (the car, funnily enough, contained my best friend’s boyfriend) and he got scared I just splattered to the ground, cracking a few ribs. I’m an idiot and I just got back up and completed the jumping routine I was doing ignoring the fact that I could barely breathe, which probably made it worse, but at least I didn’t go through “fall induced trauma” or whatever. i swear i’m done with the riding facts

5. my friends Clelia and Ionita are horrible people who got me into anime and then told me all the characters who died in Death Note when I was only three episodes in. I’m still not over it.

6. I’m Italian even though my skin is like a ghost’s . I was born in Rome but I moved into the countryside when I was about four, which was possibly the best decision my parents ever made. I still live really close to Rome though so I still go at least once a week.

7. I am currently living in Scotland, near Edinburgh, where I’m staying with a host family. I arrived about four months ago and I’m going to stay at least until June and I’m loving every second of it.

8. I have a dangerous addiction for brownies, crisps, parmesan and ham. I’m serious, I need help.

9. In theory, I speak Italian, English, French and Spanish, but even though I can understand and make myself understood I’m not really confident about my Spanish and my French.

10. To be honest I’m not really confident about my English either especially because when I’m tired I tend to mess up the grammar and mispronounce things

11. which reminds me, I find it incredibly hard to say the word ‘references’. I don’t know why.

12. I love acting and I’m a huge theatre nerd. I’m going to apply for an acting academy this year even though I’m definitely not gonna get in but one at least makes a nice experience right?  but it took like five different people to convince me to do it.

13. my musical taste is the weirdest shit because it goes from Italian folk music from the ‘60s/’70s, which is what my parents made me listen to as a child all hail Fabrizio de Andrè to musical theatre with little to nothing in between.

14. my favourite musical is Les Mis (as pretty much everyone who has opened this blog even just once knows), followed by Next to Normal and Jesus Christ Superstar. I do love Hamilton but I can’t manage to choose where to rank it.

15. I can’t stand love stories. Meaning, I can’t read a book where if you take away the love story you have nothing, but I do enjoy them if they are of some addition to the plot. At the same time, pointless romanitc subplots are the least interesting thing in the world (I’m looking at Sharon Carter in Civil War and pretty much every James Bond movie ever made).

16. Shinya Hiiragi is my actual son and I’m going to protect him.

17. I actually have a full battalion of fictional sons and daughters that I adopted because I just have mum instincts with anyone and  anything. I think the latest addiction was Ciel Phantomhive.

18. Every year I take part in a Harry Potter themed camp which is a lot of fun because we’re all friends and huge nerds and we just love each other. I went for the first time at the first edition of it when I was 14 or 15 and it probably changed my life.

19. there I met my friend Franz who is like a big brother to me and looks A LOT like Shang from Mulan.

20. I am the actual definition of mum friend which is pretty fun but also a bit stressful lol

21. my favourite character from Les Mis is Enjolras because I see a lot of myself in him. There is also a bit of Jehan Prouvaire in me and I guess some Combeferre as well.

22. throwback to those good old times when the SuperWhoLock fandom seemed to rule Tumblr, I actually wrote a SuperLock fanfiction on an Italian website. I only need to publish the last chapter which is already half written, but the thing hasn’t been updated in two years.

23. I don’t really play videogames but I bought Life is Strange about a week ago and even though I’ve only had time to get to the beginning of episode 2, I’m really enjoying it.

24. I am currently reading Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett and I’m loving it. Aziraphale is the cutest thing, I swear but sometimes I feel like I’m reading a Castiel/Crowley crack fic. The book is amazing though!

25. I’m definitely a cat person and my biggest aspiration in life is living on my own, on an island, with infinite amounts of tea and cats everywhere.

26. My grandmother was a quite renowned writer in Italy (at her time), and her books won quite a lot of awards. My mum is a writer as well but she doesn’t really feel confident about it and has never published anything but i’m determined to get her books published because they’re great and she deserves it.

27. I am a huge nerd and I can’t choose a favourite between sci-fi and fantasy. I love space facts but I also LOVE dragons and unicorns (dragons especially. I have a collection.)

Ugh, I didn’t think I was going to manage to come up with enough stuff... whoever has read everything will be given a virtual toast, I swear. I’m tagging @unicorn-gureshin, @gureshin-trash, @sjexokm and @sparkleofstardust. Enjoy!