#anyway I just really wish I could've had the original post and not gone through all this xdd

[after-nine-at-the-oasis]

AAH okay promo time 😭😭 I can do this xd

Out here wiping my eyes and stopping screaming to watch the promo (neither of those are true - the first ain't even literal lol)

AAAAHHHHHH CARLOS YOU ARE NOT LOOKING GOOD MY GUY

A A A H

I didnt even RECOGNIZE THAT as TK's VOICE for a second 😯😯😬😭😭😭😭

But y'all the ANGST <3333 ❤️❤️❤️❤️👀👀😍😍❤️

Anyway back to being DISTRAUGHT and IN FEAR

O P E

Oh my gosh

"No one's gonna find you though"yeah that's because you didn't FREAKING TELL ANYONE WHERE YOU WERE GOING!!!!

THE K I T?????

C o n C E R N . jpg ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

Oh no

"Looks like a pattern"?????

A SERIAL KILLER????!!?!?!!!?? 😭😭😭😭😭😭😳😳😳

AAAAHHHHH WHAT THE HECK

AAAAHHHHHH AWW CARLOS 😭😭😭

BRO LOOKS LIKE HE IS GOING T H R O U G H IT

AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH "We're not gonna find him alive, are we?" SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP S T O P P P P P EVERYBODY SHUT UP YES WE ARRRRE TK 😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔

AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I am actually losing my mind

Y'all I just. I swear

Okay, that's the last of my last thoughts. Now it's time for the. . .

REVIEW

*Ahem* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

If you'll begrudge me a very long scream again 😌.

ANYWAY!

I absolutely LOVED this episode!! I thought it was amazing :DD. It had so much DRAMA an ANGST and it was also HILARIOUS at parts xD. I promise that's just emphasis not me highlighting the words lol. Anyway, I loved Owen's storyline, even I'm frustrated over it xD, and I LOVED Iris's :D. Plus the call was amazing xD. The one with he cliff lol. Anyway, I loved it all 🥰🥰. Now, I'm gonna try to keep this short, but we'll see what happens lol - time for the individual parts xD.

First of all - Judd, Mateo, Marjan, Paul, and Nancy. My 126 lovelies 🥰🥰🥰. I was about to just do them four but then I was like nah Nancy gotta join them. I decided to leave Tommy on her own though lol. Anyway!!! As always I loved them :DDD. I missed seeing them much he episode but it makes sense with everything else going on :/ :). Still, the all was great XD (the all did great jobs of course), and the scene at the endddd 😭😭😭😭😭💔💔💔. Oh my gosh I'm still not over that - I know it's only been like an hour and 20 minutes but still xD. I don't think I'll ever get over it lol. Also, for a second I nearly said just 20 minutes and then I remembered: oh yeah, it's 9:08 (big emphasis on the 9 but I can't capitalize a 9 unless I spell it out lol). Anyway! Gotta shout-out Nancy's acting on the cliff call XDD wonderful lol. "Live!! Live!!!!" XDDD Iconic lol. Also Judd calling Owen out was *chefs kiss* as always. Plus, he's definitely sus, so if we need anyone for anything involving that, Judd's our guy. Kind of like TELLING SOMEONE WHERE YOU'RE GOING- sorry XD. Anyway, I loved them all <33 hope to see them more soon :))). ❤️❤️❤️.

Tommy! I really liked her scene with TK :DD. It was amazing <333. Her being there for him, comforting him :')). Work mom for real <333. And we love her for it (and many other things lol) 🥰🥰. Also, she did amazing with her job as well :DD 🥰🥰. And I just have to mention her acting in the first call XD. Not that she even did much, more just what she was actually doing lol. Girl was just sitting there XD. Like barely blanker than 😌 XDDDD. Icon, lol, amazing xDD. I love her ❤️❤️❤️🥰.

Grace time :). We LOVE OUR GIRL GRACE for being so amazing working out the call :DD. And also she was just so good in that scene in general 😭 - the shock on her face, the near desperation in how fast she was talking to Carlos- MMH, wonderful <33. Anyway, she was an icon all around this episode :DDD, and of course did her job wonderfully <33 ❤️❤️❤️🥰. Amazing, love her so much :'D.

Owennnn! My man. He was wild this episode XD. Like. SIR. WHAT ARE YOU THINKING?? XDD. I mean, hey, I wasn't really, genuinely suspicious of O'Brien either - as an overall, at any time in the process sort of thing, Owen was more suspicious of him than I was XD. That was at the beginning lol. But like. STILL. SIR. You can't just go around telling FBI business XD. I just KNOW this I gonna have consequences (obviously), and bad ones xd. Not just in the case but for us, our family/characters. It's gonna be rough lol. You gotta admit though, Owen, and a lot of his scenes, were hilarious this episode XDD. It was a nice contrast to the other plot, the Iris plot, just like last week. Which is wild considering it's a nazi domestic terrorism plot xDD. Anyway lol, I'm excited to see where it's going 🥰. If more stressed, now, lol. Also despite all this I'm wondering, who did he get to play his niece in law XDD. O'Brien, lol - not that that description fits anyone else xd. But like, seriously, who? Is it just another one of the honor dogs' wife or something? Or his (O'Brien's) daughter? Or maybe he's even lying to her, and she really does think he's in there to try to get her husband/boyfriend back. Ah, idk though! Wild lol. Anyway, loved the plot, and yeah, sure, loved Owen lol. Still frustrated with him though xdd.

Now

The moment we've all been waiting for XD

TK and Carlos <3! An also Iris :). So! First let's kinda go over individual stuff. TK first!

My poor booyyyyyy 😭😭. He clearly felt so guilty for like, 80% of the episode xd. All except the call where they found Iris, pretty much, since that was the only time he was under the impression she was kidnapped (which she was but, yk xD). Just- agh 😭😭 xdd. Quick lighter note, amazing acting from TK on the cliff call XDD. Wonderful just as the other two lol, an icon <333. Anyway XDD (gosh that scene was so hilarious lol), TK having to confess going to see Iris in that first scene :((. I wish he got a chance to explain, but he and Carlos were both thinking that could've been the cause, so I don't even think he would've in that short a time. I mean, he just apologized instead of trying :'((. But also, I don't think Carlos would have cared. I don't blame him, but he was emotional and it was something they'd planned not to do, and could've caused Iris's disappearance. It sucks but it makes sense :'(. Also when TK said he wasn't hungry in he last scene I literally wasn't either 😭 xD. I was eating dinner throughout the episode and I'd just finished a bit when I set my food down to watch more intently lol. But I also felt literally a bit nauseous XDD I don't think I was full, I think it was just the drama lol - and THAT is impressive. Especially considering this has to work out lol. Anyway, TK in the last scene was absolutely heartbreaking 😭😭❤️. I really hope he didn't think Carlos's main reason for not coming home was him still being upset :'(((. But I think he probably did <33 💔. Anyway, I love him, he was great this episode xd <3333.

Now, a bit on Iris :D. AAAHHHHHHH I'm so glad she's okay :'DDD. I thought it would take a lot longer to rescue her, but this does make the most sense lol :'). Or t least, a lot of it. In hindsight, I see it XD. Anyway, it makes sense, and I didn't think she'd die or anything, but I'm so glad she's okay :'DD. But my poor girl :((((. Also, the thing about mental health is so sad 😭😭😭. Because yeah, seriously, just as I figured (I assume most of us did), they were discrediting things because of her illness. And it was making her doubt everything :'(((. She didn't deserve that 💔💔💔💔. Doesn't, is probably better <33. And I mean, given that there was no one seen coming out of that house, I cnt really blame the detective, but still :/. I mean, I can partially blame her because of the whole in the trunk, and also head injury hing, but still XD. Most people don't automatically jump to secret passages (like me - or, unlike me I suppose) lol. Anyway, I'm glad Iris is alive and physically (mentally too besides the doubting herself and no doubt the trauma from this :'((( ) okay :'DD. Besides that concussion lol. Carlos still needs that annoying little sister :'). That is not the only reason I'm glad she's alive btw XD, I'm just kinda joking. And annoying bc she teases him lol. Anyway <333. I love her :)) ❤️🥰🥰.

Now, Carlos. AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!! XDD now, anyway lol. Honestly I'm more distraught than shocked xD. We all knew this was coming lol. And I know, I KNOW, that Carlos is gonna be okay (and I also know it just sounds like I'm trying to convince myself of that but like. we literally know lol xD), but it's still scary 😭😭😭. I'm still nervous as heck lol xDD. Just for how everything's gonna work out! Anyways, more organized stuff time XD. More organized as in more than just now. Anyway, poor Carlos 😭😭😭. His heartbreak in that first scene, and then like almost betrayal when TK revealed that he visited Iris - MMH, AAH 😭😭 xd. I was really hoping tarlos would actually make up, especially quickly, but no such luck 😭. I mean, they're no totally arguing, not yk xD. And there's gonna be so much going on (and much more important stuff at that) when we get Carlos back that I doubt we're gonna talk about it then either. Pro tip: get kidnapped to avoid talking to your fiance. XDD Sorry, I know, I'm evil. But it's not thaaat bad lol. I was just thinking about what I was just talking about earlier while I was a few minutes behind/late catching up on the last of the liveblogging lol, and that thought entered my head XD. Anyway lol. Side now, pretty sure this is about as long as Iris's now and I've barely gotten into the plot xD. Anyway! Let's actually talk about this episode, not the next one lol xD.

I loved seeing protective Carlos, and slightly detective Carlos (lol rhymes) this episode. Him going into shift early - we know it wasn't just anger -, going to the cliff, immediately joining Iris's rescue, carrying her out, holding her hand, standing up for her to the detective, hugging her and kissing her head when she talked about how awful it was and the mental illness side of things. Amazing <33. And then he went and did a dumb thing xdd. Whyyyy would he do that without backup 😭😭. I do remember thinking for a split second "he doesn't want the trail to go any colder" and then passing that as good and forgetting about it in the moment, but I think it was mostly just emotions, even if he did try to justify it lol xD. Also, I'm frustrated but not too mad at him for being mad at TK - he was emotional, it was gonna happen. And UGH I'm rushing this bc I worked on half of this and the end of this post for like 20 minutes and I was gonna be able to do it before midnight and then it didn't save even though my wifi was fine when I clicked save to go post it :'(((. And I am really upset about that bc I had to start from halfway through Carlos's section and I tried but I had three minutes and now it's past midnight xd. So I'mma try to get past how upset I am bc it's arbitrary, and just hurry this up. Besides I don't wanna retype all that anyway xd. This is most of it, I can't remember all of it >://. Ugh I'm really upset xd. Whatever. I'mma just pretend it doesn't bother me. OH MY FREAKING GOSH IT DID IT AGAIN. ALL OF THAT. FREAKING AGAIN. I WANT TO SCREAM TUMBLR COULD YOU PLEASE JUST W O R K!!!! U G H H H H H H H H. I want to SLEEP this has taken me an extra 40 minutes and is making me literally cry just WHY. WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME TUMBLR??? I'm literally gonna be saving every two seconds this time and then I'm going to resist chucking my phone across the room. I am going to try and act enthusiastic about this since the entire point of this is so I know what I was feeling instead of just my current rage. This is so stupid I know but whatever.

Anyway, I am so scared for the next episode 😭😭😭. Like VOEUNZUGAKSPB. I don't deserve this :'(((. But like I am so ready XDD. And also not at all lol xdd. It's gonna hurt but I will be LOVING the angst. And dying XD. I don't know how I'm gonna make it through it lol. Because it is going to be ROUGH, Carlos is gonna be going through it xdd. Also, at least they both said I love you at the end <333. That'll make it a tiny bit easier xddd. I will however still be screaming the entire time XDD. Anyway, I am SO EXCITED :DDD. And very scared XDD. Like, I know Carlos will be fine. I'm SURE (literally xD), unless the wedding promo bits (the planning) are with a ghost xD. But I can still be nervous lol. Oh, also! If I don't get to see TK hearing the news, or at LEAST TK telling the others, it is a crime <3. And homophobic <3. Jsyk <3. XDDD But honestly I need it. Anyway, back to Carlos lol! I loved him this episode, he was amazing 🥰🥰🥰. And I am so scared for him next episode xdd. I love him <333.

Overall, I loved loved loved this episode. I am looking forward to regular calls again, though. I love the drama and everything right now and I know it doesn't always leave room for regular calls, but I hope we have them again soon. Though the calm today was great lol. The CPR on the sex doll whole thing was just- amazing XD. Top notch call lol, and amazing performances xDD. Anyway, I loved the storylines this episode! Obviously the whole Iris situation, but Owen's too! Even if I am frustrated with him xD. But, still, I think it's gonna be really interesting, and I wanna see where it goes from here! Also it's hilarious XD. Like it's weird that it has but it has some really funny scenes lol. They've gotta fit it in somewhere xD. I'm cool with it this way lol. And, of course, I loved the Iris storyline :). It was awesome, and I'm so excited to see more. Anyway, I'm terrified of next week, but I'm also so excited :DD. I'm not at all ready, and I am so ready xD. I'll probably just be screaming the entire time. Anyway, I love all of them 🥰🥰❤️ <33.

So yeah! I loved this episode. I really enjoyed the storylines! I'm nervous for the next one. This has been my review of. . .

9-1-1: Lone Star, Season 4, Episode 3: Cry Wolf

What a great episode! I am so excited and also so, so scared for the next one. I'll be back next week with my review of. . .

9-1-1: Lone Star, Season 4, Episode 4: Abandoned

See you next week!

[roseworth]

As one of the most Rose Wilson blogs (excellent taste) what r ur thoughts on the first issue of her Knight Terrors ?

my biggest thoughts on it are just that its not very interesting </3 there are a few things i dont like about it (the lack of lili 😔 but ill circle back to that in a sec) but overall ?? it just didnt really do a lot. theres not a lot to dislike but theres also not a lot to like

but i can excuse the fact that theres not a lot in it given that this is the first time rose is getting the spotlight in like 15 years so not a lot of people are gonna know anything about her backstory so they had to make it accessible to people that dont know her. and i get that

like batman's knight terrors tie-in could delve a lot deeper into his backstory and feelings bc. its batman. everyone knows batman. he has arguably the most famous backstory in western media. but not everyone knows ravager so they had to make it very new reader friendly and i understand that, especially since her biggest trauma (getting drugged by slade) isnt even canon right now (😔) and her other big trauma (her mom dying) is a little more complicated than the story they wanted to tell (mostly because. wade.)

but i wish they had gone a little deeper into like. her feelings. being trapped in a nightmare that you have to escape from is one of my favorite tropes ever so i was soooooooo excited when this book was announced, but it just,, didnt really do anything. there was so much that could've been done with rose protecting and subsequently being betrayed by her younger self, not to mention the whole idea of slade hunting her down. but they didnt really use it? i was hoping for more like,,,, character exploration. but it didnt really deliver

on the other hand though. this one was def trying to do more of a plot than some of the others. like for example the jason & tim one has the basic plot of "theyre in a nightmare" but other than that its really just being used as a way to make them go through their fears n give them some character exploration (side note i wish they had been given two separate ones but thats a whole other post) whereas the ravager one is talking about murder man using rose as a conduit and trying to get into the waking world and making it like. a story instead of just introspection. so it definitely felt like the first issue was setting a lot up for more that will (hopefully) happen in issue two.

anyways back to her mom. again part of the reason that it would be so hard to incorporate lili into the story is that the circumstances surrounding her death would mean reintroducing the story from 30 years ago where she died, which slade wasnt there for so they couldnt wring out her daddy issues, and the fact that its only brought up like. 3 times ever again after that make it hard to reference her. not to mention deathstroke 2016 sort of retconned it that slade murdered her ????? then that was also never brought up again. so once again i understand that it would be very complicated to bring her into the story, not to mention if she showed up she would show up just to die 3 seconds later so i cant be.. too mad.

HOWEVER. they taunted me by mentioning her one (1) time then bringing up the foster parents instead. it seems like it's sort of working toward bringing her pre-52 origin back. but the foster parents were the worst part of her pre 52 origin. and also as my roommate (who hasnt read a lot of rose) pointed out, the foster parents are a deep cut. they showed up for like 3 pages 20 years ago then died and were literally never brought up again (not even a passing mention) until now. and while the story doesnt hinge on knowing who they are, i feel like theres definitely a feeling that youre missing something when you dont know the parents. so the fact that they were there at all seems really weird to me given the fact that im trying to excuse the fact that lili wasnt there. idk. its just hard to understand why brisson chose to put them there instead of lili, who had a major impact on rose's life and her death is the whole reason rose even joined slade at all. at least to me, the fact that lili wasnt there was extremely noticeable and felt wrong (not to mention the "i grew up in a brothel not a foster home" line is kinda iffy to me but maybe im reading too much into it). im still hoping she'll show up in the second issue, especially since they did specifically mention her in the first issue so maybe thats setting her up to show up in nightmare form later (<-delusional)

ok i think thats all my thoughts for now. tldr: its fine, it doesnt have a lot necessarily with it given the fact that rose isnt a well known character so they couldnt dive too deep into her character, but i felt like it wasnt really trying to do anything and it wasnt interesting. the only real problem was the fact that her mom wasnt there. but mostly im willing to wait until the second half before im too harsh on the book

[thefinalwitness]

15 + 20 for atlas :3c

THANK U KIMMMMM FOR MY LIFE

15. What places hold significant meaning or memories for your OC? Do they have a positive or negative association with those places?

in a way, atlas considers all of etheirys sentimental and precious! it was the home of her original creator and best friend, and even though she's gone and the world is so different, atlas knows venat loved it then and would love it now. she was a force of change in a world that wanted to stagnate, movement where all else paused.

upon finding out they can traverse the reflections of the source though, and finding out an intact ruin of an ancient academy still exists, atlas does hold a special place in their heart for it. it's the only true fossil of what was, what they left so suddenly on their mission to save meteion. they didn't even think much of the school originally, but now that it's all that's left as it was 12k years ago, it's unfathomably precious to them.

they also, in a weird sort of way, feel sentimental about ultima thule. it was at the edge of the universe, more than lifetimes from etheirys, yet they spent 12k years there, and all 12k were in the effort of saving a friend they hadn't had for more than 48 hours previously. the place was lonely, hopeless and frankly it's the stuff of atlas's nightmares.

but it was also the destination of their last instruction from venat; the stage where her last wish to atlas would play out. and, for better or worse, it was their and meteion's home, and it was where meteion finally came back to them. they are permanently, intrinsically tied to ultima thule, and it'd be hard for them to feel only negatively or only positively for such a complicated place.

20. Has your OC ever done something terrible and lied about it? Did they run away or blame someone else for it? How long did they maintain the lie and did the truth ever come out?

post-ultima thule, i think they initially didn't LIKE minfilia very much? and minfilia didn't really like them either. but atlas sort of blamed her for venat's demise, even though minfilia was such a teeny, inconsequential part of it—like, whether or not minfilia had asked to return to life, venat was going to be no more that day. what she gave to save minfilia wouldn't have been enough to save herself.

but atlas struggles with that for a while, looking for a cause, a reason; it's easier to face loss when you believe there was anything you could have done differently, that there WAS a chance, that you DID have a say in the matter. but the reality is atlas didn't. venat was going to die that day no matter what they could've or couldn't've done. minfilia asking for life had no impact on that outcome whatsoever.

atlas, more than anything, lied to themself about it. that they didn't hate minfilia, not for that reason anyway, that they just didn't like her, even though they couldn't name one single other thing about her that made them angry. over the six months between 6.0 and 6.1, i think atlas is able to move through more of their grief and accept minfilia as herself, not as some kind of catalyst through which venat died. they're able to bond over their shared mourning. they both would've done anything to save venat, and they both have to accept that there was never anything they could've done.

they did admit they used to hate minfilia, and minfilia isn't surprised they felt that way. likewise, minfilia didn't like THEM much—venat often mourned their loss, even though she had ordered it, and minfilia found herself wondering, "how could you never come back?" even though she knew the answer was that meteion's song of oblivion would destroy everything, even though minfilia once had to make the very same choice herself, and had chosen the same as atlas. minfilia and atlas each felt as if the other had wronged venat, but really just saw a lot of themselves IN each other in how they'd "failed" venat, even though they'd done everything she asked, even though in her eyes they had beyond succeeded. minfilia and atlas never run away from each other, but they do have a wall between them that takes a long time to break down before they can admit to the truth of it all.

atlas isn't designed nor inclined to act outwardly cruel—as a creation of venat, they were designed to be a guiding star for the lost, in whatever way that person was lost (physically, mentally, etc). but on the topic of lying, they will lie if the truth brings little to no purpose or solace to someone else, and they will do so with ease. it's their purpose to help others find their way, not hinder them, and so long as the truth doesn't hold a crucial piece of the puzzle, they'll lie about it for the sake of the objective: helping that person find their way.

they don't always FEEL good about it though. even as a creation, a "concept" that was not born and does not necessarily hold a personality or "soul" the way a man does, they recognize that there is something to mourn in depriving another of the truth. that even if without the truth they are happier, even able to find hope they otherwise couldn't have, atlas recognizes that the sadness or anger remains, sitting between them and the recipient, never to be grasped, yet always touching both of them.

i think the one and only lie atlas has ever told, and it was to themself, that they'd never be able to face is that, every so often in ultima thule, they'd wished they had the power to kill meteion. that they hated her. that they wanted to go home. that meteion's belief that all hope dies, that all life is meaningless and death is the only answer, was further proven in atlas's weakest moments, when they almost wanted to give up, when the fight didn't feel worth it anymore.

they can't admit it because meteion believes atlas was one of the only people that never stopped believing in her, that never gave up hope for her. the fact atlas did eats at them, but to admit it—to confess that meteion was, at least sometimes, right about them—would be to obstruct her way. the truth would hinder meteion, possibly irreversibly, and so not only can atlas not tell her because they are not designed to obstruct someone's hope, they wouldn't even if they could. they don't think they could live with it being more than a ghost in their head, especially if anything happened to meteion as a result of it.

[doomed-jester]

Alright so I just finished Spider-Man Shattered Dimensions (for like the 8th time, definition of a comfort game)

For anyone curious, it runs nearly flawlessly on the steam deck. I ran into two or three crashes and got nearly 100% completion which is pretty good for PS3 emulation imo. Some minor audio issues but only in the pre-rendered cutscenes, and could probably be fixed by tweaking the settings on the emulator a little but I never touched that. Anything actually running in the engine worked fine, no glitches or bugs I hadn't experienced playing it on actual hardware.

Anyway, I love love love this game. It was what introduced me to Spider-Man Noir and 2099 and I have very fond memories of reading and rereading the Wikipedia page, falling down a rabbit hole and learning all the stuff about the comics I (at the time) couldn't access. Playing the game again as an adult with a more developed, critical eye, I can see a lot of flaws with the game, but also really get to the meat of what made me love it so much.

Wayyy too much to say but I'll drop some thoughts under the cut

Noir's sections would have been better if there was more variety and different ways to deal with the situations (Spider-Man PS4 has very similar stealth mechanics but they're much better refined, usually give you the option to just go in guns blazing outside of specific challenges and story moments, and give you ways of distracting enemies so you have more control over the situation and room for strategy. That's what this game needed.)

2099 was probably my favorite, Miguel is probably my favorite Spider-Man outside of 616 Peter and maybe Noir depending on how he's written. It's interesting that they chose such a mature voice for Miguel but reused a lot of stuff from the Timestorm storyline, which implies a way younger version of 2099. This probably had the best bosses, Hobgoblin 2099, Scorpion 2099 and Doc Ock 2099. 2/3 are original characters created for this game specifically. I wouldn't mind seeing this version of Hobgoblin come back in some capacity, maybe in the comics. I do wish they brought in more 2099 classic stuff though.

Ultimate is probably the most satisfying in terms of moment to moment gameplay, and I love that the cell shaded art style makes it feel like a graphically enhanced version of Ultimate Spider-Man (PS2). Almost makes me wish that game got a remake, but this was a very satisfying alternative. A lot of continuity nods to the comics, it can seem a lot like Ultimate Peter and Amazing are so similar that they didn't need both, but I really think the worlds they exist in are different enough to be worthwhile.

Amazing is where the game falls flat for me, unfortunately. The art style isn't as fun or unique as the others, the choices of bosses aren't as interesting (aside from Sandman, that level is perfect). He's really the all-rounder, no real gimmick to make him stand out. I think this version could've benefitted from some retooling. Maybe if his combat had been based more on speed and chaining hits rather than just being Ultimate without the crowd control capabilities. I also think they could've gone with a better choice than Juggernaut, and I'd maybe shift the order so Sandman was the first boss and make Kraven a little more difficult. I think I'd swap Juggy for The Lizard and make the level focus on chasing him through the sewers while the tablet lets him turn other people into lizards. Something like that

Overall, I love this game. I think it's a big part of why Mysterio is one of my favorite villains, and it was a big contributor to my love of multiverse stories.

I'll play Edge of Time next when I get a minute and probably have a more detailed post about my thoughts on both games then.

[worldsover]

Judgement to the Desiccated ft. Karina

length ✦ 5573

genres ✧ sm type future; asphyxiation; blackmail; virtual_servant!Karina;

✦✧✦✧✦✧

Air did a poor job of not being polluted so Lee Soo Man flooded the world instead. The man himself certainly must be long gone and could not have been in charge of that decision but the legacy of his company far exceeds the legacy of any other human collective in history. Once on this planet, gas was the fluid of choice for respiration and breathing was an unconscious reflex. Now there’s Aether by SM. How very on-brand of them to have the liquid air you breathe follow perfume naming conventions.

Open your eyes and exit the sleeping chamber. Aether has you work for each inhalation, it desaturates the color of the bedroom—maybe there’s a subtle but uncomfortable tinge of yellow—and it makes your nose itch. Your muscles wield much less force than they used to because of the lack of resistance the fluid provides. Moreover, it smells like hairspray as though the ozone layer is taking sardonic revenge.

Screens impersonating windows track your eyes to ensure realistic parallax, playing the scene of divine blue heavens that could not exist. An azure sky is a reward for those planets that have an atmosphere and a sun for light to scatter. Your walls are either chrome or drywall white and your whole bedroom is plainly decorated just like the day you moved in.

“Etymology of bedroom,” you think out loud, though it falls on no ears.

“Bedroom is a compound noun consisting of bed and room. Bed goes back to Old English bedd ‘sleeping place, plot of ground prepared for plants,’ which goes back to the Germanic-”

Plants and sleep are both strong words to use nowadays. The former doesn’t exist in nature and it seems you’re the only one who bothers with the latter. Faint buzzing distracts you from the AI’s response and signals you to the nano drones that swim throughout the liquid to process carbon dioxide from your lungs. This whole ordeal could’ve been much worse if you didn’t have brain interfaces doing the hard part of controlling your diaphragm. The most you need is a purposeful thought. Still, it gets tiring having to think the same thought every three seconds. In. Out.

Was the metaphorical Soo Man teaching a lesson in perseverance? You love K-pop and imagine it’s how trainees used to practice dancing, singing, being charismatic. Being an idol had to be as natural as breathing air. Inhale and exhale. Right now with any antiquated programming language you clung on to, you could write a single for loop that did the same job. For every three seconds: breathe in, breathe out.

“What’s for breakfast today?” Not loud enough. “What’s for breakfast?” you think it louder.

“Welcome, master. Ae-Karina is ready for service.” It’s quite a kindness for SM to blur the bland dystopia you live in by augmenting reality through your neural device. A bosomy woman in a gold-lined but otherwise modest maid outfit appears from the corner of your eye and she bows. Ae-Karina is bewitching and almost becoming of her basis as its graphics have gradually upgraded over the rotations but you wouldn’t misconstrue the avatar as human.

“I said, what’s for breakfast!” It feels impolite to scream in your head, there’s other residents there, but finally the fridge lights up.

“Of course master. May I remind you eating is unnecessary?”

In. Out. Every day, she does remind you, yes. How kind of the company to put all your nutritional requirements in the new air. Aether goes in then Aether goes out. You wish the thoughts of breathing could fade into the background but they’re just like your cravings for food. Always hungry but never starving, whole though not once satisfied. Your eyes pause at her gorgeous face and she tells you there’s bacon. Take it from your fridge. Bacon goes in. Well, the drones take care of the out.

Your assigned living space is the entire 207th floor of a tower. Two hundred and seven floors below the surface. The neighbor a few floors upstairs says that he thinks living deeper is a sign of status. What a luxury. That guy should check the status of his facial muscles, maybe improve his code that lets him tell lies while he’s at it. A couple hundred flights of stairs to swim up is a useless skeuomorphism of skyscrapers in the days of the sun. In fact they were more than useless, you would've preferred a single vertical hallway as it would have let you propel upwards unimpeded. Each floor is the exact same, a glass door that affords no privacy for its residence, a false tree on each side. At the upper levels, malls, convenience stores and other gaudy retail, but it’s the gyms that mock you that you mock in return. They’re always empty.

Finally reaching the top is no true break even if it is a change in scenery. Inhale. Aether tastes a little different up here. Exhale. Can’t say you like it.

Countless satellites form a parody of the star from which the planet flew away, the false image refracted by the upper boundary of Aether. They can’t take away your memories of this star. Looking up at the sky once blinded you with ultraviolet radiation, burning your cornea. It was beautiful. Now everyone’s decided that if they’re playing the part of corporate dystopia, they might as well fit the aesthetic. In a way, it’s self-fulfilling. They wouldn’t have chosen a neon pink sun to compliment the blue and metallic gloom of the cityscape if it weren’t so ingrained in popular media already.

Still, you would’ve expected Google or Walmart to become the megacorp responsible for the state of the world, not a Korean entertainment company. Must’ve been quite the red paperclip scenario. Instead of material design or utilitarian architecture, tacky artistic structures line the streets. The same advertisements for albums that they’ve been selling for the past however long. It's all so obvious, the city could've been designed from scratch to accommodate new forms of travel and goddamn liquid air but instead they went with futuristic Tokyo.

Dubstep permeates your inner ear implants. A notification informs your thoughts that it’s “Hip-hop EDM dance pop with a strong jungle house groove and urban influences.” It’s dubstep. Liquid carries barely any sound so SM affords the option for implants if you're nostalgic for one of the senses. Even though it’s a slower form of communication than direct neural transfer, the noise comforts you. Of course the company would choose dubstep as their background music, but maybe they make money off refunds somehow. It switches to Ice Cream Cake. Much better.

You walk the not so busy roads towards a short brick warehouse in the distance and heavy rain soaks your clothes. No such thing as weather without the sun and water but it’s all simulated anyway.

A warm Seulgi adlib and you know it’s Psycho that starts playing. No, none of your senses are real. The most you could trust is your vision but even that’s being lied to. You could be living in a vat and fed all these thoughts, but then why make it so mediocre? Not paradise, nor torture but a lukewarm in-between. Guess that's what happens when SM Entertainment manages the post-apocalypse. Good on them for trying. The alternative would be a frozen hellscape without solar radiation. Can’t deny their work with geothermal and nuclear energy to keep the Aether warm so that you didn’t have to live underground for the rest of human history. It’s quite great PR to save humanity.

“Hey now, we’ll be okay,” repeats a few more times than you remember.

The Idea Factory Alpha White Delta Green says the neon tubes lighting the front of the brick and mortar building. Your ID card bears a name but it’s not yours, not until they approve your name change. Those usually get processed faster with how often people liked changing their names.

Sit at a desk with a sterile white keyboard and slick new monitor. Type and empty words appear on the screen: “Think for the many, not for the one. We need to think ahead.” A thumbs up. The company appreciates the input. That’s probably enough work for one day. Some SNSD live stages help the time pass, SM certainly appreciated the streaming numbers and it would net you some social points.

It’s hard to say what comes to mind when they ask you to envision a world without the sun and air, especially since it’s what you’ve known for... Two hundred years? There’s no frame of reference, that much you can tell from when you counted seconds to see how often the satellites completed their orbit. SM really took time to have them propel at random speeds, they love withholding sensitive information like that from citizens. To be fair, time is sensitive. Guess the meaning of that phrase changes like all parts of language.

Look around. Dozens of employees at identical workspaces all try to answer the same questions. Naturally, there’s no need for manual labor anymore but there will never be a replacement for human ingenuity. Nice slogan but you know you’re only here for data. Can’t see a need for customer retention though—what’s the alternative, skip Earth? See you on another planet?

“Hey bro, you come up with anything new?” Dave says. Two desks away, you see the enthusiastic, surprisingly spry man play around with a Newton’s cradle. The balls at each end bounce back and forth, not slowing down their rhythm any time soon.

“I think I got something,” you say, “Earth is not the answer. It can’t be, long term.”

“Ooh, I like that. Actually, I really like that.”

“What are you gonna do, copy me?”

“Of course not. You know how much SM hates plagiarism.” Click. Clack.

“Ha. As if there’s a single original thought left in the world.” Click. Clack. The imaginary sounds of metal spheres bouncing play in your mind. They got the volume wrong, no way it’d sound that loud from that distance. “You’d think with all their resources, they’d have figured out space travel by now.”

“I don’t think they want to leave, bro. Wouldn’t be great for profits.”

Your mouth opens to laugh and causes laugh8942.mp3 to play in Dave’s head. “I love it. SM probably hates that sass too,” you say.

“Oh no, they’re gonna arrest me for thoughtcrimes. Nah, they love creativity, just when it suits them. Also, if they actually did bust you for wrongthink like rumors say, I wouldn’t have this on me.” Dave twirls a finger and points at you and you thank his absurd flair for the histrionic that keeps you amused with such drab work.

“NewDrug.mp6. Would you like to play it?” the dry system voice notifies you.

“Woah woah there tiger, hold on.” Dave must’ve noticed your intrigued eyes and holds his hands up. “You might wanna experience that at home. But if you’re interested in more, ask for chicken parm at the vegan place. You know the one.”

Dave leaves his desk. He doesn’t return. You finish your work. Inspire. Expire. You’d rather not.

In contrast to your commute to work, the roads fill with others on your way home. You have to know. Take solace in the comfort of a bench where a huge McDonald’s arch bathes the surroundings and its people with a yellow glow. Really shouldn’t watch it now, especially if Dave says it’s a home type of watch but you have to know. A family of five watches you pass out. They, along with every other passerby, ignore your still body draped over the chrome outdoor seating as you look like yet another junkie. The title is correct after a fashion, the simulation is some sort of new drug. The details of the exploits that happen in the immersive replay wash over you but you don’t need them to know that it’s the sort of lewd that SM would not allow—at least not publicly and not without the right exorbitant payment.

Suit pants and underwear go straight to the laundry. That must’ve been an embarrassing sight but no one bothered to stop you, so it doesn’t matter. Look up where this vegan place was that Dave so presumptuously assumed you knew about and you find that it’s about four Avengers’ stores down from work. He must’ve eaten there before.

“Yo Dave, just wanna make sure, what’s the name of the vegan place called?”

“What are you talking about, man? You telling me there’s some secret underground farms that SM wouldn’t know about?”

You can’t tell when you got to work, a lack of standardized timing would help as well the haze of living in a monotonous dark. “Nah, I mean, for the-”

“I have no idea,” Dave emphasizes each word, “what you’re talking about.”

“I see.”

Work flies by, unusually.

“Hey, can I get a chicken-”

“Uh, this is Maron’s Veggies Only, it clearly says on the sign.”

Clear your throat. “Parm.”

The shifty part-time worker looks around and rubs his fingers gesturing for money. “No digital.”

Over the counter, you pass him a gold coin stamped with a holographic 1 and he hands you a USB stick and a laptop in return. How old-fashioned.

“It’ll sync with whoever you have set as your avatar experience aspect,” the worker says.

“Thanks.”

Ever vigilant as the patrol is, the alleys are the last place you want to go to hide with the obvious criminal element within them all but you head to one anyway. Dump the anachronistic technology in your storage pocket dimensions. Looking at its contents, you’d have to clean that mess up later, but the more you look like an average slob the better. The biggest problem with the inventories is all the people squatting in them. Inspectors wouldn’t care about the archaic ruins you left in yours.

“Welcome, master. Ae-Karina is ready to service.”

“I’d like to go on a date. A special date.” You highlight the key word special and sit on your living room couch. No one’s going to look in your glass door and regardless, you wouldn’t be the pervert for glimpsing into someone’s home.

“Ah yes, master. Ae-Karina is ready to fully service,” she says with a provocative tint in her tone, her sclera disperses to black to match. A pole drops from the ceiling while parts of her maid outfit dissolve which reveals more of the silky skin of her thighs, her lissom arms and most importantly her overflowing breasts. Ae-Karina wraps her legs around the pole and spins around, teasing fingers trace curves on her body to harden you. Her dance is precise but sultry regardless. She pulls up her short skirt to flaunt more of her ass beneath white panties and then pulls down to flourish her cleavage, not trapped by a bra. “Are you enjoying your maid’s show?”

“Very much so, yes,” you say.

Half of a smile forms before a glitch occurs and she teleports next to you, fully nude. It doesn’t pull you out of the illusion however. You just stare and drink in the splendor of her created body.

“You’re not going to touch?” Ae-Karina says.

A feel of her tits and you find it softer than pillows you used to rest on. Soft isn’t much of a character that exists anymore when the whole world is engulfed in liquid. No one has beds, especially with the rarity of sleep. Therefore, her mounds are a consummate dedication to the texture as you squeeze and pinch at her cute nipples.

Her maid outfit rematerializes as she straddles you. It provides more friction to your pants as she begins her lap dance. The weight of her body dragging across your legs and clothed erection induces your carnal impulses further. If only you could fuck the virtual idol. You have to make do with the imprint of her pussy lips on your bulge sliding up and down. Breath in. Breath out.

Ae-Karina pulls down your boxers and spits on your erection. It's not real but her hands so slick on your cock and you let reality slip. Real is for the past, you have desires gratified in the present. There is no real person nibbling at your neck but your nerves activate in sexual desire without discernment for truth. No, she doesn't love you, but when the voracious mass of ones and zeroes says it loves its master, you say it back.

"I love you."

ILOVEYOU infected ten million computers in 2000. An explosion. Calibration engaging. It’s 1:21 PM, Sunday, July 18, 2286 and hypothetically the sun would be out in its full rage. At this latitude and longitude, you’re at what was once the epicenter of all—Seoul, where a fountain caused a chain reaction allowing the hopeful remnant of a world to exist. It lasted a surprisingly long time without the sun and without Aether but the dying planet would succumb inevitably to the ever-increasing contamination so SM of all corporations took charge. A different kind of chain reaction occurred when they acquired a restaurant chain that discovered the recipe for liquid air. The law is on its way and prepared to punish you to its full extent.

You reel while your ears ring. An even sexier version of the woman you already fantasized about appears from your peripheral vision in the crater of your floor. A skimpy cop outfit, striated with reflective material that seems to wane black at different angles, outlines Karina’s curves. She has a tool belt with absurd gadgets, such as a knife baton hybrid, a taser combined with a spray bottle and a Tamagotchi. None of this is necessary. They could just immediately arrest you, impose limitations on your devices. Sure, SM cloned people to deal with underpopulation, but why Karina would be the enforcer is a whole nother issue. Maybe the entertainment company loves their irony?

“Halt. You’re under arrest. Any resistance will be penalized according to the combined Terms of Service of all SM and SM associated products.”

Fucked anyway, you figure you might as well go for it. Escape into your inventory and only seconds later you’re forced out. You manage to get what you need regardless.

“Violation of access rights will be charged to your account.”

It’s so obvious but there’s a reason you kept so much gold in physical storage. As you swim away, the sides of your apartment start to bubble. Bubbles? Already, your limbs feel unsteady. Something’s wrong in the Aether.

“This is standard procedure for escaping suspects that are indoors. Again, this is all agreed to under the Terms of Service.”

“When the fuck did I ever click accept to that shit?”

“When you were born in this world and decided you want to stay in it,” Karina says out loud. You hear her say it. Your physical ears process the vibrations in the air that come from her mouth. Gravity thwarts your desperate escape as your limp body floats on the limit between liquid and air. The atrophy of your muscles becomes apparent within the gaseous atmosphere. She watches you sink down as the room drains of all the false air though her eyebrows crease when she inspects you closer. Your breaths are involuntary. Despite your muscles shorting out, the force of gravity and the pressure of the gas bearing down on you, you’re breathing and you don’t mean to. Her eyes wander farther down. On your pants, a concrete rod stamps the fabric.

“Oh, you like what you see?”

“Shut up, criminal. Anything you say can and will be used against you.”

“Your pussy,” you say and she scoffs.

“Original.” Karina bites her lip as your erection continues to grow behind its prison. You use all effort to put your hands up.

“Please, miss Karina. I’ve been bad.”

“I could punish you even more for sexual assault.”

“Then do it.”

Heat radiates the room in a way you haven’t felt in a while and droplets of sweat form on each of your bodies, especially on the thighs that her revealing outfit parades. Her facial features contort in deliberation and the wait kills you. You bat your eyes at her before Karina takes off her tight shorts and drops herself into your anticipatory face. This makes no sense but none of this life made any sense so you decide to go with the tides.

Centuries of training your respiration has led to this moment, but when you finally have real air to breathe, you spit at the opportunity and choose to suffocate. Then you spit at her pussy and lap it up. Karina’s nectar transfixes your olfactory glands, for once a smell that isn’t the sterile Aether. Your eyes are mesmerized in parallel because of the perfect design of her pussy, a single crease that leads into her hole that your tongue emphatically explores. Karina spreads her thighs wide to reveal a small nub that craves attention. So give it. Suck and swirl and flick your tongue, and the woman provides you the tight clench of her legs as a gift. And the sounds, rediscovered glorious noise. Loud, almost too loud, and clear is how they assault your ears, even surrounded by the flesh of her thighs. Muffled by the weight of her legs, you hear Karina moan in approval but she’s still clearly in charge with how she chokes you with her legs. This is not about your pleasure but hers, and any satisfaction that you derive is not only incidental but probably punishable by SM copyright law.

Karina squirms her hips subtly on your mouth. Her eyes are sharp and she’s just about to stop your hands from moving but she notices them clasp together.

“I’ll do anything to make you cum, please.” you say sloppily as her pussy juices fill your cheeks and drip down your chin.

“God. I can’t.” She takes deep, contemplative breaths. ”That’s more time added on for inappropriate behavior.” Her groaning and brief squeals make her words sound incogent.

You give her a concluding lick and a kiss on her slit. “So what have you been doing right now then?”

Point to a corner of the room and a subtle red light indicates a recording camera. At once, she pulls out a hose from a pocket that could not fit it and the vacuum submerges the room with noise. Her expression shifts quickly to serious.

“We don’t play games here in SMTOWN unless it’s SuperStar so don’t fuck with me.”

“Look who's trying to be a comedian. How about you fuck with me any further and the video gets released.”

“That’s funny, you think you have any sort of power-”

“Yoo Jimin, I suggest you don’t push me more.”

“Where do you know that name from? Right now.” She weighs herself down on your neck.

“You think I don’t have contingencies for if I die too? Karina, we can make this a  win-win scenario. We both get to cum, we both get to walk away unscathed.”

“Fuck you.”

Your weak arms wander between her thighs. At any moment, a feeble punch towards your face or another ten seconds of asphyxiation and she could call your bluff. Even if you did have the ability to expose her perversions in any way, there would be no permanent recourse, not as long SM was in charge. So it surprises you when Karina takes off her shorts. 

“Goddammit. Your cock just looks too good. And your mouth, how are you so good with it?” Put up five fingers when she motions to remove her top as well, and instead she opts to take off your clothes, seizing your pants and throwing them to join the rubble in the room.

A finger slips in, then two and a third dares. Her flawlessly architected pussy lips clings to your digits and Karina shudders in reply. You explore her wetness and find it’s smooth to the point of having no faults, but her juice inside is gloppy and causes your fingers to stick more than the liquids she spills from her slit.

“Who said you’re allowed to have more?”

You lap up the nectar on your fingers. “Then why’d they make you taste so good?”

Your thumb teases her sweet tight asshole and puts just the slightest amount of pressure on it while you finger her with more intensity. The mass of her butt burdens your torso the closer she gets to orgasm. Her eyelids squeeze close and you see her body ripple in anxious pleasure. Karina shows off her pearly whites, teetering on the cliff of hysteria.

“Yes, yes! I’m so close,” she screams.

"Not yet."

“Fuck." Karina sobs, "God. Damn, fuck I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Just fuck me.”

“My pleasure,” you say. There’s no need for you to grab her since she brings herself down to your groin, which you’re thankful for as your arms are as good as jelly now. Fortunately, your cock throbs as hard as ever while Karina’s slit rests on it.

“Say you’ll delete it all, all the evidence, promise me.”

“You’re gonna fuck me first or what?” Your breath hitches while she makes a strangled noise as her velvety walls swallow your cock whole to leave no room for comfort. Her tightness is stifling and you have to start counting just to breathe again.

“One two-”

“Be quiet.”

But there is no quiet when pleas for your cooperation intersperse her excessive profanities when she seats herself into your cock and ricochets up and down. Sweat emanates from her creamy skin while her legs widen to find a better angle for her supporting knees in her cowgirl position. Grapefruit and other citrus mingle with the scent of the sweat, fruits you haven’t seen except on billboards in music videos. As much as your mind crackles and your blood roars for every atmosphere of pressure Karina’s walls provide on each thrust in and out, you can’t help but reminisce on sweeter, more innocent times.

The white fluorescent lights in your apartment sputter. For all the advancements in technology, some among many things never change. Light refracts differently in air, less bright, but you can see the pure enjoyment on Karina’s face no matter the luminescence. Karina slows her ride to pull her hips down harder instead and she jolts when your cock finds the most tender spots inside her pussy and it interrupts her babbling.

Karina almost hyperventilates when she gets up to spit on your cock. She pulls out some kind of meter from her tool belt and sighs when there’s no beeping and you recognize it having to do with carbon dioxide. She gets back to dribbling saliva and the filament trailing down to your shaft mesmerizes you. This spit is real, not simulated, and it wettens your erection in a mix with her pussy juices to paralyze you further in your already listless state. Her bare thighs jiggle and you can’t exert much force with your hands but her buttcheeks are firm with just a bit of give.

“Thank you for this cock, thank you for being bad,” Karina says as you watch her ass sink deeper while her pussy holds your dick taut. She’s frenetic when bounces up and down to play an unadulterated orchestra of slick noises between your groins.

“You’re welcome,” you accomplish getting out the words between planned breaths. Your hands cup her buttcheeks but you fear they may break with how she strikes her ass into you.

Karina turns around once more to give you the spectacle of her facial expressions as she fucks herself into you. Knead her calves laying on your torso and they take no energy to spread them though she brings them back together, compressing your hard shaft within her pussy. A new game you play with her, a separate rhythm of loosening and tightening. Her feet press on your chest to help her bounce, but the way they bear down on your lungs against the timing of your breathing causes you to fumble. Your cock bends straight forward as she plunges herself into you and it sends prickles to your entire skin, making the new angle difficult but worth it. Karina takes your hand and starts sucking on your fingers.

“You want my promise that bad?” you say.

“Yes, as bad as I want your cum. I swear, I need it.”

She draws her knees up to her torso and hugs her legs to keep thighs as tight together as possible. Karina couldn’t keep her word, she was trying to kill your cock with constriction.

“Fuck, your pussy is so fucking tight. God, Karina, fuck. You’re so good.” Even if good isn’t the word you want to use to describe her.

“Do it, please, please. I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, baby. Karina can be a good girl, a good maid, a good cop, whatever you want. Just don’t get me in trouble, please.”

Karina’s mouth stops saying words though her lips writhe, drunk in increasing lust. Her cheeks flush, before the rest of her skin joins in redness while she grapples your chest and whatever spare limb she can find. You still struggle wresting control of your body but nature seems to take over when you drive yourself into her and match her needy cadence. The air in the room is replaced by a new air but it isn’t Aether. Passion, sweat, heat and all fluids that you both exude join squelching sounds, slaps and moans in harmonic bliss when her body tenses and she screams. As her body tightens, her pussy especially holds your cock for dear life and endeavours to wring out all your semen as her wetness throbs and spills. Karina starts counting to three repeatedly and you laugh though your amusement quickly subsides when you feel her juices become more viscous and she continues her ride, even in the dying pulses of her climax.

“Was I good?” Karina asks.

Just a moment goes by before you mentally send her a screenshot of all the recordings being deleted. Karina hasn’t stopped fucking you yet so at least it wasn’t a ploy.

“Thank you, thank you, I love you.” The flexion of her pliant legs brings them all the way back to rest on top of your legs. Karina lays prone above you and finally give you a kiss. The citrusy flavor may be closer to lime than grapefruit but it’s been so long that you can’t remember which scent is which. Lips crash and her tongue lashes out at yours trying to establish dominance. Keep still to let her investigate your mouth while her pussy does the same to your shaft.

You savor the way Karina’s top emphasizes the bouncing of her tits synchronous with the rebounding of her waist on your cock, but your mouth waters when she frees them. Take the shortest moment to relish in the sight before Karina smothers you with her plump globes. You wriggle your face to try to breathe. Inhale, up and exhale, down, but all you inhale is the scent of her orbs’ sweat. Her hips undulate with a pace at least double yours breathing and the echoes of slapping flesh resonate throughout the air-filled chamber. The loudness is unlike any you’ve experienced in a long time. It’s almost a flashbang every time her ass slams into your lap, especially as you start to see white when orgasm threatens to overload you with preludial pulses.

The last words you hear infected ten million computers in 2000. Fade to black. Cut. You’re slammed out of existence back into existence as a sun rebirths both within you, heating your core to a dangerous high, and from your eyes, dazzling you in an unforgiving white light. In the throes of unconsciousness relapsing to consciousness back to tenebrosity, your streaks of semen suspend in the Aether like a dead tree resting from the wind. What flashes your mind in its orgasmic state are two things only you would remember, plants and weather. Your hyperventilation is unconscious but not unwelcome, as it’s the first time in a while your breaths were reflexive even in the liquid air. However, basking in your newfound power, you start to choke. Right. You breathe in and out again. In and out. In. Out. In. Out. Back in.

“Replaying KarinaArrestsYou.mp6.” A hint of vexatious glee in the system’s otherwise dry voice. You don’t stop for it.

✦✧✦✧✦✧ 

AFF, AO3

It’s pretty silly but the idea danced around in my head ever since I saw the absolute Black Mirror concept that SM had for aespa and I concur that Karina is insanely hot.

As I’m writing this, this Kurzgesagt video on the idea of a rogue Earth comes out and now I have to rewrite stuff to make it at least a little consistent. I’m obviously already going nuts with all these ridiculous sci-fi concepts but this video almost feels too targeted to me writing this for me to ignore it.

[shadowflash]

i already posted this on twitter and am basically crossposting + bolstering the original thread’s contents since this is a journal account for things of text like it.

general 3hopes spoiler warning

...

You know the idea of killing Sothis = The Fire Emblem herself is so cool, and I really hope they expand on what it really means in the context of the 3Houses universe to walk this kind of path. The concept of humans fighting against their alleged progenitor / a corrupted god / something of the nature is already fun. I personally enjoy the spirit of "we decide what world we want for ourselves!" very much. And I think it's good for this game that we have this option.

Like, for a spin-off game to have a plot point revolve around the possible destruction of its franchise's / world's very foundation... It's honestly so cool. And it's such a fun move! I really think this element of 3Hopes' story adds excitement to an already loaded yet very familiar scenario. Like 3Houses, 3Hopes encourages its players to explore every possible scenario and, ideally, its players will be able to walk out of the experience comparing + contrasting each routes and evaluating their individual pros and cons as part of the fun to be had with its branching story. But we never sincerely reach the ends of these branches...

And this is why I can't really take people who automatically assume ‘killing Sothis = an act of evil because she’s god therefore this is a bad end’ seriously?

I think by playing through Shez and Arval's scenario, even with what little definitive information we have, we can definitely understand that something really important hinges on the player's decision to either honor Arval and Shez's (initial) wishes or not. But as the game currently exists, we don't even understand the potentially greater outcomes of choosing to kill GOD or not, it's pretty much left at the level of "fulfilling personal grudges". It's only by doing things in a particular order that you can access the Arval paralogue which gives you a good idea of what the greater objectives are. But it's not as substantial as, well, just plainly saying what this is all about. Like, Epimenides wants to kill Sothis because she’s a false goddess, among other reasons, but what does that seriously mean here? What happens to Fodlan if she’s gone for good? If you don’t want to kill Byleth/Sothis, well what happens to Shez now that their dear friend Arval is ‘gone’ and they’re left to cope with that loss? With being alone in their thoughts after ~3 years of Arval’s consistent companionship and support? And what about the rest of the war that we don’t get to play?

It’s kind of jumping the gun to look at things as ‘good outcome’ vs. ‘bad outcome’ when we lack the information that would allow us to make the legitimately informed distinction. I feel like designating things as 'Path A’ and ‘Path B’ would be more.. truthful with regard to what we do currently have.

Also: designating the no kill / kill paths as “Good End” versus “Bad End” implies that a conclusive ending exists in 3Hopes to begin with? That the current state of the game and it’s story is somehow an acceptably complete product? Which, given popular reception as of late, it clearly isn’t. And it ignores how this is obviously deliberate on the dev’s part as well..?

Anyway, I struggle to understand how the secret chapters result in an outcome that is plainly ‘good’ given the lack of follow-up events and what Shez has to deal with through walking that path.

Doing the Shez + Jeralt C-Support, the player witnesses Shez admitting to believing that:

"[They] don't think [they] could've beat the Ashen Demon anyway."

And, in how I can recall it as I’m writing, Shez comes to reluctantly bury-but-not-bury the hatchet regarding Bergliez’s company getting blown up in part because of this admittance of weakness / inferiority. Which is so. Where do I even begin with this. Shez “Interests: Getting stronger; Dislikes: Losing” Lastname admitting that they don’t think they could ever defeat the Ashen Demon. Um. Erm. What is this supposed to tell me? Shez and Byleth could make good friends but what worth is it For The Story As A Whole when that friendship is born out of Shez, The Protagonist This Time, saying something equivalent to “I can train with you all I like but I think I’ll always be at least slightly behind you, [Previous Entry’s Protagonist]!”

It also brings to mind when Shez wonders just how long it could take for them to catch up to the Ashen Demon / they might as well just hire them. Arval’s comments on how Shez is kind of pussying out of the challenge due to their lack of self-confidence whilst facing loss after loss and, in an effort to encourage them and refocus their attention, that they “-Shouldn’t relinquish their prey just yet”.

Digression: People have argued that Arval/Epimenides is trying to manipulate Shez into doing what they want but we don’t even know if it’s such a bad thing to rid Fodlan of the ‘goddess’ in the first place? Arval doesn’t even seem to understand the whys of their own motivations beyond feeling like they’re being led by fate unless you do the secret chapters, and by that point they basically go back to being Epimenides / a complete self. I’m not really concerned with the idea of manipulation happening here if it.. doesn’t even result in anything happening in particular. The way the situation is being framed, it really seems like keeping Shez and Arval in the dark works out better for them personally..? And again, we don’t even have information on whether or not killing Sothis results in a net-positive or net-loss for this world.

A mutual of mine on twitter also pointed out that, post-secret chapters, Shez gets no legitimate closure with Arval. I mean the first thing you see them do when they get back to base after that chapter is frown and declare that:

“[They] can’t hear Arval anymore”.

They do have talk it out a little bit with Byleth during their A-Support but at most I feel like that only offers something that loosely resembles closure. Shez can also talk to their respective lord at the base camp about whether or not Arval’s still around, with Shez responding with “No they’re not but they kind of are..? I still have their powers so I think it’ll be okay..”. Like, Shez has to walk away from That Whole Thing wondering what it was all for and unable to do much else but "live out the destiny [they] both once shared". They have to live with the fact that they were the only person who had the means to communicate with and understand Arval, that theirs is the hand that cut Arval/Epimenides down, and that they were sole witness to their last words:

A: “It’s incredible.. Just how strong you’ve become.”

[Shez reaches out to Arval] “Arval...”

A: “You’ve grown more than I ever thought possible. And yet..”

A: “I’ve never felt more alone.”

The whole ‘Why Arval is suddenly trying to kill Byleth’ and ‘Shez and Co Are Teleported Into The Nightmare Dimension’ situation also gets put into perspective if you run into Azure Gleame Ch. 11 campsite dialogue with Arval:

“I can sympathize with the sadness that comes with losing one’s place in the world.”

And, again in Azure Gleam, while everyone is facing off against Thales and declaring what it is they’re fighting for, Shez’s line is:

“With this power... I’m gonna beat him. You’ve got my back, right Arval?”

It’s sad for them. And for what. Yes, Shez and Arval/Epimenides are basically soul-melded as a result of the events in the secret chapter, if we are following the logic 3Houses did for their own escape from Zahras bit, but Shez doesn’t know that.

Recruiting Byleth and by extension Sothis results in very personal losses for Shez, The Protagonist, and Arval, Basically The Other Protagonist, and for what exactly? What does this do for the story? What does it do for Fodlan?

Sothis is still around, but inferring that "Sothis being around = Good" really depends on The Player (not Shez) to like Sothis and/or Byleth from information and experiences based on their previous runs with 3Houses. For most of 3Hopes on the other hand, they’ve been an obstacle that Shez and Arval have to put in the work to overcome. And the game doesn't tell you what was gained, what was protected, what anything about what comes of keeping Sothis alive. At the meta level, we the players understand that killing Sothis = Destroying the Fire Emblem but we are not given any definitive answer for what happens next. By Arval/Epimenides’ account of things, we know that doing so basically saves the humanity / the world. But how?

Should it be the case that Fodlan can only know peace should Sothis’ existence persist in one way or another (ie: through Byleth): How does that work? Why??

To leave it at “Well they’re the real protagonists of the “CANON” game so of course we can only get a happy ending through playing their story” is such a nonsense answer. It doesn’t mean anything beyond “I want a peace that is necessitated by my previous self-inserting.” It’s such a worthless answer to these questions that does absolutely nothing but enable bad creative decisions meant to appease whatever these people call themselves at the expense of everyone else who wants this, 3Hopes, to mean anything.

Besides, I thought a lot of us (using this word loosely) were into killing god. What happened. When did it go out of style. Did I miss some memo that declared that everyone is only down for god killing if it isn’t their flimsy self-insert character. Okay.

Inversely, walking down the ‘Kill Byleth/Sothis’ path results in some comparatively lighter consequences for Shez (and Arval) personally? Like, a unit from their side of things dies but they’re arguably... Irrelevant. Randolph? Who cares. Like. Seriously who cares about Randolph. Judith? She's cool but it’s not like she’s around for very long nor can Shez and the player interact with her in enough meaningful ways, if any at all, to make that loss hurt more personally unless you were already invested in her relationship with Claude. But again: she has no supports. Rodrigue is the ‘ideal’ character to kill off as a consequence of one’s actions since he’s playable and deeply involved with the Faerghus characters and events so it’s like: Ouch--if you like him at least! And the stories just move on normally after this so it’s not like anything really, really changes? I would say that these losses are like watching ripples scatter across the water’s surface before it returns to stillness. And in Azure Gleam, Shez and Arval can figure out that Arval = Epimenides without going through the drama and hassle of the secret chapter’s way of going about things, and the two of them have a heart to heart. It shows Arval experiencing some insecurity over definitely being linked with the bad guys and Shez confirming that the whole partners in destiny thing goes both ways between them, and that they’ll always be partners no matter what. It’s so cute it makes me sick.

And what happens to Shez and Arval once you kill Byleth/Sothis? Well, Arval starts crying because they’re experiencing like 2138921 emotions at once, namely those of happiness, emptiness, regret, and of being relieved of a giant burden, a mission they thought would never come to an end. And Shez is.. sad. Now that the revenge plot has been completed, they feel empty and regretful as well. Nothing was really gained.. but arguably nothing of great personal importance was lost? They kind of just move on after this, so them being regretful over not ‘solving’ things in another way with Byleth is just contained to this one episode. Welp.

Should the information regarding what was going on between Sothis and Epimenides / The Grand Problem one day be revealed in full, I do hope they leave the situation at The Right Level of Ambiguous to allow players some agency in how they believe the Three Hopes world should turn out AND that those endings are good.

I hope players have the option to choose sides for humanity: defend the goddess or side with your partner in destiny! That way it won't invalidate people who like the professor and it WILL validate people who like the new characters. It’s wishful thinking that seriously depends on the development team to make good decisions which is. Well. Yeah.

Currently, the game kind of does allow for this expression of player agency but it's so... It's hard to understand what Fodlan gains that has a DIRECT correlation to Sothis should you allow her to live. Killing her reveals almost nothing about WHY exactly, at most we know why Epimenides wants to but it's still hard to parse out the bigger picture. Shez and the player don't know what's truly at stake, so whatever say we have in how to deal with Sothis has no bearing on anything substantial save Shez and Arval’s character arc and minor route details.

..

yadda yadda theyre baiting for DLC blah blah and im going to be mad about it for a good while etc etc. i can bitch and moan about how shitty of a move it is to put out the story in its current state with the intention of making us pay for an actual complete experience, but:

im still going to buy it (HUGE FAIL) this is my life. i live here. (CRINGE)

doing so in proper would require getting into research about. uh. shifts in video game selling models or something. which isnt a topic i can commit to going over and researching in proper myself.