#anyways this is also to do with the interpol post

[vampsvitae]

chick hicks would've went through a huge creed, stone temple pilots, rhcp, and most definitely undone by weezer phase between when his racing career flopped and when he started his show and every time without fail when something happens he just reverts back to his depressing dad music and sits in his garage on some musty couch head in hands and shitty beer

[the-compressor]

can i ask what tool you use to compress?

also could you perhaps compress this image :)

Compressed!

116KB -> 8KB ( 6.9% )

Sure. I'm going to be answering @slugcat-in-gundam's ask too because they sent it at a similar time with a similar question:

I use GIMP for all image editing, besides occasional Lunapic.com usage. I did an FAQ on this on another gimmick blog a while back but I do different things here sometimes so I'll redo it anyways.

I got a higher quality version of your picture so the compression will be more noticable:

All the compression done on this blog favors aesthetics over functions, which is why there's extreme dithering on everything: dithering isn't really something that's used at all anymore but I like how it looks.

The main process is really just scaling the image down with linear interpolation to something between 64-256 pixels on the short side, and using Gimp's feature of letting you clamp an image to indexed colors, specifically with Floyd-Steinberg dithering on. If there isn't dithering, the picture will look like this:

Then I just check the sizes they export at and post the image and that's it.

If I want to make the image comically small and impossible to discern, I'll keep it as a jpeg and turn the quality way down at a tiny size:

Which will end up looking like this.

There are other techniques used sometimes, mainly on the #win98 pictures and #gba pictures.

With the win98 pictures, I scale them down to 320x240 or 160x120 every time and clamp the colors to the windows base palette, usually saturating the image before since the dithering doesn't look great otherwise. Look how this picture looks without vs with extra saturated colors:

I forgot to mention before so I'm just jamming it here, but I'll also replace text in the font 3x3 mono if it's too small to be readable to keep the image legible sometimes. You'll notice this being done with fine print and watermarks sometimes:

Here's the runthrough of that:

Lastly, with the GBA pictures, it's about the same process but I just clamp the colors down to a number that the dithering is noticeable while the image is at the gba resolution. I never noticed until making this tutorial, but there's a positioned option for dithering too which I'll probably start using for these gba posts.

That's about it. Here's the big version of the image you sent by the way:

[thegradus2]

The whole thing about OG Ericcale: I’m sure this wont end up being longer than my college essays 😊

Hello everybody I would like to explain briefly why I like these characters so much together, the different ways to interpret them and why they need to fuck nowww

As some of you may know I have been going insane for a long time now and I have been unable to even THINK about any other ship. It’s even become hard to focus on any other character without this two being involved in the background. Let us not mention the last time when I truly cared about another fandom other than this novel. Maybe Deltarune and Swatches big hot boobs will fix me.

Shout out and a cry for help to abralhugres on Ao3 for writing “mistakes were made”. Some may remember I used to love OG Cale x Alver Crossman, but when my fave writer disappeared like the avatar I decided to try random other couples and abralhugres writing Eric Whilsman at his most toxic with a more dependant OG Cale like that changed my brain chemistry. Will get more into the type of dynamic that is the toxic version of them in the section “different interpretations”, as we haven’t seen that much of either of them and you can do a lot of things with them because of it.

This will be my first post where I attempt to add a “read more” 😊. Anyway, let’s dive into

Who are these guys to me

I’m starting off with Eric Whilsman, as we actually see him for a bit in the manhwa (and I’m a very visual person who needs visual cues to see what someone is like (Also yes I will be using the official translation for his name)).

Eric is a stubborn guy who is determined to achieve his goals. What this ends up meaning for him and OG Cale is that he never gives up on OG Cale and is pretty loyal to him and their friendship – but also that he nags him. We know from canon that Eric would send letters to OG Cale with advise and trying to get him to be less (self)destructive. The moment he thinks he succeeded he was overjoyed, the moment he thought Cale was hurt he freaked out and he tried to protect him and get him to safety the entire time during the terrorist attack. Clearly, he cares, and he cares a lot!

He also got rid of Neo Stolz which. Yay. <3

Eric is stated to be an anxious person who prefers to think through every possible thing that could go wrong so he can plan through it and avoid failing. This makes him a lovable relatable overthinking guy and I love him so much. He is very prim and proper especially in public and overall just has the look of a smart, above average noble (as most nobles in this world are freaks he is above average instead of just average). Just a normal guy!! We love a normal guy!!

“He is the type of person who gives respect where respect is due and does not judge others based on rumors but on how they treat him.” <- VERY INTERESTING PIECE OF INFORMATION FROM THE ERIC WHILSMAN WIKIPAGE.

OG Cale Henituse:

There are infinite ways to interpret this character. Most depictions in fanworks of OG Cale are when he is 18, as that is his body’s age at the beginning of the story. The only canon interaction we directly experience with OG Cale is when he is 40 years old, has just experienced 20 years of war, and lost all the people we have seen in the story. We also have speculation by KRS!Cale and small comments from others on the OG Cale but that’s it! So! We are interpolating and extrapolating here to get any sense of it all. Some key points for my interpretations:

I think it’s safe to say OG Cale lacks care towards himself or where or what he ends up being.

He decided to do this to protect his step family. His plan is to be alcoholic trash forever until he is disowned, though he knows when to tone it down so his family’s name isn’t sullied.

Eric is one of the only people he canonically lets

Headcanons I have:

I think the trash act is also subconsciously perchance a way of punishing himself, because there were a million other ways this could’ve been handled but instead he decided to go the most self destructive route possible.

I don’t think he is regularly shown affection so like. Touch starvation isn’t out of left field here.

Reasons I want them together

Eric Whilsman is one of the only people who canonically was close to OG Cale!! They were hyung and dongsaeng and those terms aren’t really used lightly!! (Especially not by people with OG Cale and Erics personalities and history). The way their relationship was prior to the transmigration, at least the parts we can read between the lines, could easily be developed into any type of romantic or queerplatonic relationship. CAN YOU IMAGINE GUYS? AN OG CALE SHIP WITH CANONICAL SUBSTANCE? THAT HAPPENS VERY RARELY YOU PEOPLE KNOW THIS.

Some people who are STUPID may think childhood friends to lovers is boring and they are WRONG AND STUPID AND HERE IS WHY. No matter how their relationship developes they have shitton of baggage they need to work through together which makes for an interesting plot! To get OG Cale to even stop lying about his feelings to Eric for a moment would be a colossal moment. Eric has seen OG Cale at his best, his worst and has in some sense been there for almost every little bit of trauma OG Cale has experienced (Aka dead mom mostly) EXCEPT for the one part that becomes the reason why OG Cale is the way he is. Can you imagine Eric just wondering why he isn’t getting through to his dongsaeng? Trying interventions, just being patient and waiting it out, sending letters and nothing working because he doesn’t really know? Imagine the various plots that could lead to Eric finding out, or maybe never finding out, or OG Cale wants to tell him or maybe he doesn’t want to tell him at all. He could either eventually push him away entirely and they could meet again years later or try to somehow juggle keeping Eric close while getting worse and worse. The possibilities for angst are fucking endless here and I haven’t even touched on the fact that canonically, for the fourty year old OG Cale we see as Heniroksoo, his Eric is fucking dead.

A couple of ways to interpret them

Eric can be a nagging person who tries to look out for OG Cale, while he secretly enjoys watching OG Cales antics. OG Cale of course pretends like Eric bothers him while liking the attention as it is one of Erics showing OG Cale he cares. You can imagine Eric gently talking to OG Cale after one of his public “outbursts”, with OG Cale having to act like he meant it while enjoying Eric being gentle with him at the same time. Eric can be more desperate to keep OG Cale under control in public while OG Cale intentionally riles Eric up, acting extra bratty, until Eric has had enough for the night and drags him away. SEXUAL TENSION. OG Cale is really eager to get to the final straw without overdoing the act.

Best friends dynamic where OG Cale is less bad when it’s just the two of them, more noticeably soft, and Eric is just generally worried about him and wants to kiss it all better. They do dumb teenager stuff at one point where they practice kissing and afterwards every time they see eachother it’s just stuck in the back of their minds.

You ever wonder how Deruth ended up with Jour Thames? How about freaky attracts shockingly normal guy who is secretly into the freakiness. Anyway Eric and OG Cale being freaky x shockingly normal guy part 2 and everyone who knew Jour and Deruth as a couple are just like “oh fuck it’s genetic”.

Eric being really horny for OG Cale (for obvious reasons, have you seen him the first chapters without clothes?) and OG Cale in demisexual fashion let’s Eric hit because he really likes him. This grows into genuine confessions during sex.

The toxic version of them where Eric is a little bit possessive of OG Cale and a bit controlling and an OG Cale who kind of craves any type of stability subconsciously (because Deruth is literally the opposite of any kind of authoritarian parent to OG Cale to the point of being a little neglectful) so he kind of likes it when Eric orders him around a little. OG Cale is dependant on Eric but due to his persona doesn’t let it show in the slightest and is afraid of Eric having enough of him one day (but don’t worry, they’re both mentally ill freaks who have latched onto eachother so this would never happen <3) In my personal mental catastrophe, aka the fic by abralhugres, they are sort of like this except worse because Eric has this internalized homophobia going on where he doesn't realize he actually loves Cale and is being a slutty frat bro to impress him, and Cale thinks Eric is using him as a sex toy but let's him because "it's okay if he uses me because I really love and care about him <3 yay <3"

OG Cale liking Eric since they were kids because he’s a good judge of character and Eric slowly falling in love with Cale over the years because feelings of being supposed to take care of Cale as his hyung grow into wanting to really just keep him safe (also from his own behaviour) and one day he realizes it would be really easy to do that if they were always together.

And of course. Most importantly. Eric calls OG Cale a good boy in all of these. Thank you for coming to my Essay.

[isagrimorie]

[initial reactions] Leverage Redemption 3x05 - The Grand Complication Job

VINDICATED!

I suspected Tara Cole would be back this season when I saw Jeri Ryan post about flying to an acting gig! Since Paramount still hasn't greenlit Star Trek Legacy, I suspected it had to be for Leverage Redemption.

There's always been a connection between Dean Devlin and John Rogers' productions and Star Trek, ever since Dean Devlin saved Jonathan Frakes from, as he called it, 'director jail'. And it was Frakes who brought Jeri Ryan into the Leverage world.

(This is when a director's film bombs so bad, they're blacklisted from directing another Hollywood movie again).

I love the energy of this episode!

Another version of Girl's Night Out, I bet next episode is a Boy's Night Out, or maybe that was last season.

I love, love seeing Parker as the Mastermind. There's a lot more precision to Parker as the Mastermind, a Nate Ford flavoring to it with Parker's own spin to it.

So, Sophie and Tara were on a date, right? 'Cause that read like they were on a date, after Sophie announced she was going to start dating again?

Breanna crushing on Tara is really amusing.

ALSO, I love that they brought back Alexandra Bligh because she was a great antagonist for the first season. But, of course, she's diminished.

Sophie had complete trust in her team.

I do love that they're brining Astrid into the fold, their Interpol person on the inside. And they're slowly winning her over via Family.

I'm sad Tara didn't get to meet Harry. BUT she finally got the 'Let's Steal' catchphrase, and her catchphrase was 'Let's go steal a Sophie.'

If there's one tiny nitpick (but also I think it's kind of its own reference), I had a bit of a hard time not seeing Seven of Nine in the Tara performance, but I think that was on purpose. It's just now Seven and Tara weirdly share the same vocal cadence.

And Tara's bravado is a little Seven flavored.

(Tara wasn’t a legend either on Leverage, I love how genuinely frustrated Tara was with Nate and his shenanigans. But as I’ve mentioned. There’s always been a relationship between Trek and Leverage, so Seven becoming Captain Seven was a bleed over. Hell even her swagger and clothes were more reminiscent of Fenris!Seven. Also, I can’t shake the feeling Tara’s red car is a nod to both Seven’s favorite color and Seven achieving Command Red on Trek.)

But other than that I had such a great time with Tara on the show. I love that Tara and Parker have a mutual badass respect going, and that even without Eliot, the girls could handle themselves.

I love consistently this season they keep mentioning how the one to really fear was Parker. In the original Leverage, that was Sophie. Sophie is still scary because of how easily she can manipulate and gaslight someone.

But Parker with her clockwork precision and thinking steps ahead? And, her willingness to hard and ruthless. Parker keeps herself in check, but also her love for her family keeps herself in check too.

Anyway, what a fun and fantastic episode!

[crumblinggothicarchitecture]

I was so impressed with your toe-to-toe comment on the French philosophy anon. So happy to have found you, omg! I heard Taylor called her ttpd set as the "female rage musical." I take it she knows the impact of the song Labour by Paris Paloma which has been dubbed as the female rage anthem. So naturally, here is the 34 year old culture vulture, can't-have-any-ideas-of-her-own that is Taylor Swift hopping there wanting to get the attention away from it when that song is quite phenomenal. One song compared to her 31 diss tracks that's nothing to me, at least, but the excessive sentimentality of an infantile woman in her 30s. It's gross the confessions she's put on that album. And even her own fans are comparing her to Olivia Rodrigo. That's she's copying everything about her - song, outfits, the "female rage" theme just to mock her. Somehow, Swift thinks it would do her a world of good. People are catching on to her antics which are absolutely disgusting, btw. I'm hoping one day you write about all these completely ridiculous gross things she's done using her own lyrics. You know what I mean? I hope someone write about her nasty lyrics and that it completely destroys her.

Thank you ha, I'm glad you found something meaningful in that post. I will not lie, that Anon actually hurt my feelings for a second (I got over it by writing my response), but I was upset at being so misunderstood. I'm not out here levying unreasonable criticism at Taylor Swift. All will be based on reality, or interpretation of her own lyrics.  I’m defs out to get her though- in the most legitimate way possible- and maybe someday I will publish for real on her. I have a couple of criticisms that I will not be putting on my blog- because I want to say it on a bigger platform. : )  

I do see a lot of harmful things in her music that I have been resisting the urge to write about for YEARS! Even back in 2009, listening to "Love Story" I remember thinking to myself, oh this is nothing like what Shakespeare meant and it's also a weird appeal to the patriarchy through the "I talked to your Dad/ Go Pick out a white dress." It's so clear that she's just reduplicating mainstream attitudes on romantic relationships by using Christian Conservative social standards of needing the father's permission to ask the girl's hand in marriage. She obviously wanted to attract the Christian- Conservative fan- base with that song, and that's exactly what happened. Her marketing is tied to the phrases she places inside her songs in a way that is extremely calculating. She, Afterall, learned from the best at attracting mainstream, Christian, conservative fans, Toby Keith (hate that fascist, white nationalist freak). (WHoops, that was mean- oh well, he’s dead anyway). (and if he wanted me to be nice- he shouldn't have been a fascist).  

It's so obvious, and I really figured everyone else was also aware of the ways in which Swift interpolates patriarchal standards in her music. I have many more examples- I could write a whole essay on it.  

Apparently, everyone thought she was a feminist? Bro, she became a "feminist" if only to evade criticism and capitalize on mainstream pop-feminist trends. She's not a real feminist. Her use of “feminism” to evade critique ties directly into her other marketing strategy of telling the world “I’m so innocent and young” all the time. 

Also, her co-opting of the phrase Female Rage has made me angry, exceptionally angry. I saw that she's trying to trademark the phrase. I am incensed. I will post about it soon. 

I wish Swift would stop co-opting legitimate terms and pulling only the most shallow- self-centered conception of the term out to use in her mediocre music. She’s like if Pinterest was a person- and I’m tired of it.  

Paris Paloma’s “Labour” is amazing, because guess what- it actually speaks about the experience of women under patriarchal standards in a way that respects the seriousness of the topic. I absolutely believe that Swift saw how viral that song went and decided she needed to cash in on that too.  

And she is totally copying Olivia Rodrigo. Can you imagine being 34 and trying to act 20? I would die of embarrassment. But it's so obvious that it's getting weird.

I have much more to say on this topic- sincerely I could write a book on the conceptual point of “Female Rage” in media. I have thousands of examples, and I’ve been studying this stuff for years. I will, however, ramble on no longer. Thank you for your kind words- and I hope you enjoy my upcoming writings.

[shads-shipposts]

I love how 2025 decided to welcome me by smacking me with the first case of the flu I've ever had. But that ain't gonna stop me (even if it's annoying the piss outta me).

We're back with Allan and co, who are also gifted a headache in the form of Shadow. This will be the last "slow" chapter for a few, as things get very chaotic very quick in chapter 3.

Thanks again for reading! As always, comments and reblogs are much appreciated. Also, woe to me for forgetting, but a big thanks to @showtimeatfreddys for being the beta reader for this fic. Y'all can thank them for act 1 going from 10 to 20 chapters, as they pointed out problem areas and plot holes so I could fix them before posting <3

Beginning: Here Previous: Here Next: Here Ao3 Version: Here

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Allan groaned, dragging a hand down his face.

He already had enough to deal with that morning, then the boss just��had to come by and talk to him as if he were a child. Telling him things he already knew and warning him about the consequences for failure... which he also already knew.

How stupid did he really think Allan to be?

Did he really believe that Allan managed to gain control of the ship and crew by being an idiot?

He knew that damn FBI agent was trouble, and he knew not to give him any reason to come snooping aboard the ship. As for the warnings about keeping an eye on his crew lest one get cold feet, nearly all were too loyal to Allan to betray him and those who weren't as steadfast knew what fate awaited them if they stepped out of line and tried to play hero.

Tom slipped back inside the dayroom, sympathy knitting his brow. "You alright?"

"Don't know who that peacock thinks I am," Allan grumbled.

"What'd he say?"

"Oh, the usual." Allan leaned back on the couch, letting his head rest against the wall as he closed his eyes. "Keep an eye out for the agent, keep an eye on the crew, and don't forget I'm owned body and soul and should I think about double crossin' him he'll see to it I spend the rest of my miserable days rottin' in a cell."

Tom groaned. "Ugh, I really hate that man."

Allan pinched the bridge of his nose. "I really hope he finds that wretched model ship he's goin' on about so we can get the hell out of here tonight."

"What's a model ship got to do with treasure anyway?"

"He thinks it will have a scroll, just like his does, and he can match them together."

"If he's wrong?"

"Either way, we're gettin' paid. One just has a bigger payday at the end." Allan shook his head. "For once, I'd like whoever takes over this rust-bucket to be normal. Is that too much to ask?"

"Might be."

Allan looked at the door as a new voice sounded. John Bailey stood just outside, a weird look on his face.

Allan groaned. "What is it now, Johnny?"

"May want to come see this," Johnny said, gesturing down the hall with a thumb. "We have a visitor. An American."

"Fuck me," Allan snapped, rolling his eyes. "That agent's back?"

"Not... exactly."

Allan exchanged a glance with Tom, curiosity creeping over the anger. "Interpol?"

"I honestly have no idea. He's a pretty lousy undercover agent if so."

Interest piqued, Allan pushed himself to his feet and settled his cap back on his head. "Show me."

The moment he stepped into the doorway of the lower gangplank, the hair caught Allan's eye. A dark reddish-purple, falling just to the top of broad shoulders on an otherwise fairly small frame. At least, small compared to the men moving around on the docks. He, or she, looked so out of place it was almost hilarious, sitting cross legged atop a crate scribbling furiously in a sketchbook.

"That's 'im," Johnny said. "Told 'im to sit there to sketch."

"He's certainly focused on it," Allan replied, keeping his eyes on the kid. He could see them, but they couldn't easily see him unless they looked hard. Considering how fervently they focused on sketching, he doubted they even knew they were being watched.

The odd sight of someone sketching wasn't exactly concerning, but the fact they frequently looked at the Karaboudjan was.

Surely, they couldn't be a reporter or journalist. Even from this distance, Allan wouldn't put them over twenty. Maybe over eighteen. Softer features didn't exactly help discern their age, or even their gender.

Then again, that ginger nuisance Allan and his men ran across near Egypt also didn't look like a journalist but had caused a world of hurt for Allan's operations. Looks could be incredibly deceiving.

"He say why he was around?"

"Apparently likes cargo ships and wanted to sketch one."

"That's it?"

"I came to get you soon as I could, so didn't really chat too long."

Allan grunted in acknowledgment, studying the kid's face as they looked up to get another reference of the ship. Just androgynous enough to fool someone at a first glance, Allan found himself leaning towards a woman. Late teens, not super exposed to hard labor outdoors judging by the lighter skin. But no stranger to physical activity, as while her arms weren't overly muscular they still had a definition to them found not through time in the gym but through a physically demanding sport. Coupled with her brazen trip to the docks by herself, signaling self assurance in her ability to defend herself, Allan would wager she had some form of martial arts under her belt.

Someone not to overestimate...

Wait.

Allan squinted, risking a step closer.

He couldn't be sure from this distance, but the kid almost looked... familiar? The features, the build, the length of the hair...

Maybe...

No.

Surely not.

His dream that morning was making him paranoid, that was all. It was embarrassing really, that a simple nightmare had him so rattled he saw Scarlett's face everywhere now.

Yet his eyes remained trained on the kid.

Now that he'd realized the similarities, Allan felt like he stared at Scarlett's doppelgänger minus the less than human attributes.

Whoever this kid was, he couldn't let her walk away without a few... harmless questions.

It was because of her clear fascination and focus on the ship, nothing more. He just needed... needed to keep an eye out. The FBI and Interpol could have spies everywhere.

It was purely business.

It wasn't personal.

It wasn't dire.

It wasn't Scarlett.

"Good work, Johnny," Allan murmured. "I'll handle it. As you were."

Johnny dipped his head to Allan and headed back inside, only to be replaced by another member of Allan's crew.

Brawny with broad shoulders and a long torso, Neil Irwin wiped some sweat off his forehead with the back of his hand. "Mornin', boss."

Allan didn't look away from the American. "Mornin'."

"See somethin'?"

Allan dipped his head towards the kid. "We got a watcher."

"Yeah, she's been there since I started unloadin'."

Allan glanced at him. "Talk to 'er?"

Neil shook his head. "Didn't see a need to. She's outta the way, and is mindin' 'er business. Ain't botherin' no one."

Allan turned his attention back to the kid. "Right."

"Should I have?" Neil asked.

"Not sure yet," Allan replied slowly.

And he hated that he wasn't. Uncertainty could put you at risk to be blindsided, and blindsides were a death sentence in Allan's line of work. Especially right now.

"Nice hair, though," Neil commented with a small laugh. "Reminds me of my sister, she always liked dyein' 'er hair fancy colors."

Tom tilted his head as he watched her scribble. "Purple, though? Bit anachronistic, don't ya think?"

Neil glanced at Tom and elbowed him with a sly grin. "Didn't think you could manage big words like that, Tommy."

Tom glared at him, clearly fighting down a smile of his own. "Piss off," he growled, shoving Neil.

"Stow it," Allan snapped as the pair started going for headlocks and rib shots.

"What's wrong?" Tom asked, smacking Neil's hat off in one last blow.

Tom, you well-meaning but unobservant idiot.

"Look at 'er face."

Tom gave him an odd look, but peered across the docks. "Is there... somethin' I'm lookin' for?"

Fuck's sake.

"She doesn't remind you of Scarlett?"

Tom's eyes widened. "Oh... shit, yeah. I see it now," he murmured.

"Wait," Neil exclaimed. "Scarlett was real?!"

Allan smacked his arm. "Keep your voice down!"

Neil winced. "Sorry. Just... I thought she was just a drunken ramblin'."

"How'd you hear of her?"

Neil rubbed the back of his neck. "Er, Harry. Got pissed one night and went on and on about this alien sheila with a bloody tail of all things."

"Oh, she had more than a tail," Allan muttered, not at all surprised that Harry Hobbs was the one to tell Neil.

Allan only allowed him to drink on the ship, away from outsiders, because it was a very risky gamble what would come out of his mouth. Could be professions of love to the crew, could be a challenge to the mermaid figurehead in the card room, or it could be details about his rather adventurous port endeavors that no one wanted to hear.

"He mentioned shapeshiftin' and ice powers, too, but I didn't believe 'im since he's said crazier things." Neil shook his head in disbelief. "But you're sayin' she's real? Not some drunken hallucination Harry saw?"

"Either she was real, or the entire ship had mass psychosis."

Neil looked over at the kid again. "Damn... aliens are real," he rasped, then looked up. "She come from space? How the hell she end up on the ship?"

Allan wished he knew the answer to the first question. At one time, he felt like he did. He was fairly certain Alphians weren't on Earth through technological means, what little information he could recall about their history pointing to migration through magical portals.

But at least he could answer the second.

"We were taken over by a group of mercs, who first employed our help to hunt down one of their fugitives. Turns out they didn't play fair, and ordered us to stop at a small-town pier in the middle of nowhere near the coast of Virginia in the states. More and more mercs joined them, and it really looked like they planned to off us."

"Sounds bleak."

"It was. Then Scarlett showed up. She had two allies with 'er, but one joined the mercs and the other was killed by 'em to try and threaten Scarlett. She didn't take kindly to it, and came to me to ask permission to kill the merc who killed her friend."

"An alien with supernatural powers asked permission?"

"She feared me, apparently." Allan then snorted. "Not enough to not knock me out and go after the merc when I said no."

"What happened after that?"

"That's just it," Allan grumbled. "Everything goes fuzzy after that. Only one man has any more memory of Scarlett after me."

"Who?"

"Me," Tom said. "I saw 'er leave the ship and went after 'er, but one of the mercs found me." He ran his fingers over the jagged scar on his cheek. "Almost did me in, but Scarlett saved me. She got 'urt in the process, though. Tried gettin' 'er back to the ship, but... it all goes fuzzy for me too."

"Let me... get this straight," Neil said slowly. "The ship was taken over by mercs, you had the luck of comin' across a supernatural alien who initially helped but turned against you, then the memory of 'er just... ends. No leads, nothin'?"

"She didn't betray us!" Tom protested. "She just... went against Allan's orders. She was pretty bent on revenge for her friend's death."

"But you haven't been able to track 'er down since then?"

"I haven't been able to track down information on her damn species, let alone Scarlett herself," Allan grumbled.

"She kinda just vanished without a trace," Tom added. "We're still not exactly sure what all happened those few days she was 'round 'ere."

"And you think the sketcher is her?"

Allan shook his head. "Not a chance. Scarlett had some... unmistakable traits. But this kid looks very similar otherwise."

"No offense, boss," Neil said slowly. "But is that the only reason you're so fixated on this kid? A similar appearance?"

"Don't talk to me like I'm an idiot," Allan growled.

"I'm not," Neil said, unshaken by the anger in Allan's tone. "But it still sounds like some fever dream."

"I'm not the only one who remembers 'er, Neil."

"It's strange, I won't lie," Neil said. "And I'm certainly not sayin' it didn't happen." He looked towards the kid again. "But I draw the line at goin' after people who are mindin' their business."

He had a point, Allan had to admit. While Allan didn't look down on collateral damage for the same reason Neil did, he still didn't care for it. Collateral damage could get the wrong people involved, people who otherwise would have been content to look the other way until they were personally affected.

This kid, whoever she was, most likely wasn't any sort of undercover rat. Undercover agents sought to blend in, lay low, and stay on the outskirts. The big guns would be brazen and demand to inspect the ship, bringing a large force with them. She was... somewhere in the middle. Not challenging anyone, but not hiding either.

She clearly didn't know anything of the illegal dealings carried out on the ship.

Getting this kid involved could horribly backfire on Allan and his men, and the last thing they needed at the moment was more heat.

Maybe it was better to just leave her be. He should be focusing on the current job, not living in the past chasing ghosts.

Making a scene would only land him in hot water with more entities than he cared to take on at once.

"Oh, almost forgot," Johnny said, joining them again. "Got a name from 'im."

"Her," Tom corrected.

"Her?" Johnny echoed. "You sure?"

"No," Allan said before Tom could reply. "What was the name?"

"Shadow."

Allan's heart damn near stopped, his eyes flying wide as he looked at Tom.

No way. There was absolutely no way this was just a coincidence.

The dream, the Alphian on the docks, the kid's appearance, her interest in the Karaboudjan, her fucking name even...

This kid had a connection to Scarlett. Allan wouldn't even entertain the idea she did not any more.

The only question was how.

"What?" Neil said. "Why's that matter?"

"Shadow... was the name Scarlett first used," Tom croaked. "When she was tryin' to conceal 'er identity."

"That does it," Allan said. "I'm havin' a talk with that kid."

Tom looked at him, somewhat alarmed. "What if she bolts?" He gestured to the both of them. "We're not exactly the most friendly lookin'. Al, we can't risk that."

"Good point," Allan muttered, then turned to Neil. "Go try and talk to 'er."

Neil wasn't exactly any less physically imposing than Allan or Tom, but him alone may not be as threatening.

Neil looked less than thrilled with the order. "Just talkin', right?"

"Not gettin' cold feet, are you?" Allan asked, tone low.

Neil stood his ground. "No. I know what I signed up for, though, and one of the rules was no women or kids."

Allan knew damn well what the rules were; he implemented them himself.

"Bloody hell, we're not hurtin' 'er," Allan retorted. "All I need you to do is keep 'er distracted so we can get close. If she likes cargo ships like she said, she shouldn't mind talkin' to a man who works on one. No threats, just talk to 'er."

"And if she runs?"

It pained Allan, but he said, "Let 'er. Do not make a scene."

"Not... gonna do anythin' to 'er, right boss?" Neil asked, a new hardness to his tone.

"No, she's not in any danger. How many times do I need to say that?" Allan demanded, straining to keep his volume low so he didn't alert Shadow. "I just have questions for 'er."

Neil still didn't seem convinced.

"Just go," Allan ordered.

Neil hesitated, then headed for Shadow.

As Neil left, Allan turned to Tom. "Alert the boys. Get 'em to block the exits, but discreetly. Wait for my word, this could be nothin'."

"Thought we weren't makin' a scene?"

"That's why we block the kid's escape. Once she's surrounded, I can control the situation better."

"What if she notices and runs before they can close in?"

"If there's a gap, let 'er through. But once the circle closes, don't let 'er out.

Tom nodded and left to carry out the order.

Allan turned back to watch the kid, eyes narrowed.

Nothing personal.

I need answers.

And you're not goin' anywhere until I get them.

[animentality]

Sorry people are being a bunch of weenies. I do not have the same interpolations of Whoretash however I do very much like yours and I think your incorrect quotes are immaculate

But I do think that if people are being rude then you don't need to feed them, so I don't blame you for putting BG3 in the corner.

You know what really annoys me, anon?

For MONTHS. these people have been reblogging my posts. chattering to me about Gortash and Durgetash.

And all this time... I have CAREFULLY. gone out of my way. painstakingly. meticulously.

referred to the dark urge as they/them. why???

because I never wanted people with female Durges to feel like my dark urge head canons didn't include them. I didn't want people with male Durges to feel like I wasn't including them.

I wanted enby and trans and g/n durges to be included in my silly ramblings.

and I might've joked about Gortash being gay or bi or whatever, but mostly I have been the most pro, whatever your Durge is, he is into that specifically. he could even be ace and he's still into Durge.

that's the beauty of the queer label. I never said he had to fuck men to be queer. he could be with a female Durge and still be queer.

and even though my durges are trans male or nonbinary, and gay as hell, I still liked anyone who liked Durge as an origin, AND who saw the beauty of durgetash.

but NOW.

these same people are bitching at me because... I said Gortash is bisexual. they're insisting I AM PROJECTING my sexuality on him and acting like I'm the non-inclusive one.

and it makes me really feel like...

your brain couldn't power a potato clock.

Gortash being bisexual is literally the MORE inclusive option. it's NOT saying he's gay, he's not into women, or he's straight, he's not into men.

it's saying no matter what your Durge is, he'd be into them. no matter who your tav is, he's into them.

and the fact that I'm bi- it's such a fucking joke that they're using that against me.

I say I'm bi because I don't care to explain that I'm asexual, but biromantic.

I hate extra labels, and bisexual is way easier for most people to understand.

so these people accusing me of forcing my sexuality on a character are baffling because if I was doing that, I would NOT be talking about the dark urge and gortash fucking nasty every night. I'd be talking about how they sit at home reading books together. I'd be talking about how they hug at night and don't let go, and don't even play grab ass once.

It's also further obnoxious because these fucking people.

They have... every single... video game, movie, TV show, goddamn cereal ad... dedicated to straight people.

Baldur's Gate... is like the most bisexual game in all of existence.

the tavs can be trans, they can be cis, they can be gay, bi, straight, ace. whatever you want.

there are gay gnomes and lesbian aasimars and all the companions are bisexual.

it's the most queer friendly game of this century.

but they can't let this one character go. they get confirmation that this one character "might be straight" and now they're using that same fucking language of "ew why does everyone have to be gay with you people?"

and it's a joke.

Anyway, though. Thanks for sticking around.

I'm glad someone's enjoying my nonsense.

[public-perv3rt]

I forgot about this blog because I didn't know what to post. So, I wrote what is basically an essay about Interfur (working title). Anyways, I'm not a furry, I just really like animals and Interpol.

I guess I should get into the meat as to why I picked these specific animals to be their fursonas, lol. Paul is self explanatory, he is speckled like a leopard, but even if he didn't write that lyric, I probably would've still chose a leopard. I could've picked any yellow spotted cat honestly, but I picked an African Leopard because I honestly like him being African Savanah animals à la Our Love to Admire album cover. I was debating whether to make Paul a jaguar instead sense they're found in Latin America and he seems very connected with Latin American culture, but I picked leopard because I kinda just like them a bit more, personally lol. I was also thinking about African lions, mountain lions, and Servals, lots of cats, but Servals are too lanky and skinny, and lions don't have spots!

I made Sam a spotted hyena literally just because I like hyenas alot, I couldn't really give you a real reason honestly. I mean hyenas are also in Africa (remember OLTA). Also Sam was asked what his favorite still image from OLTA was and he said his favorite was the hyenas sooo. (Daniel and Carlos said theirs was the Otter and I don't even think that was an Otter, I think it was a Weasel of sorts, but this isn't my album so what do I know.) (And Paul said his favorite was the Lesser Kudu, but he didn't even know what they were called, these guys know their animals!)

Daniel is a European Fallow Deer for the same self indulgent reason I made Sam a hyena, I really like deer. I mean Daniel has that look in his eyes like he's about to get hit by a car. And deers are herbivores and Daniel's a vegetarian. I've wracked my brain thinking about an anthropomorphic deer playing guitar with either it's hooves, don't know how that would work, or with human fingers, which just made me uncomfortable. I made him specifically a Fallow deer cause they keep their spots into adulthood and I'm sucker for spotted animals, if that's not obvious.

Carlos is a Borzoi Dobermann Mix because I NEEDED to make him a mixed breed dog okay. At first, I had him as just a dobermann because to me, Carlos is a very angular guy, he's shaped like a rectangle, and dobermanns are very angular dogs, with their pointy ears and their rectangular bodies. Their fur is dark like carlos’ hair too. But then I remembered he's half Columbian and half German, and I'm half south American too, so it just tickled my fancy to make him a mixed breed dog as a homage to him being mixed, like me, this is a projection on my part. Contemplated making him half of a Columbian dog breed but those are just not him. So he's a borzoi, half because I love sighthounds especially borzois, and half because of Gaius, a sighthound. Also borzois have slightly curly fur, and Carlos has naturally curly hair. I put alot of thought into this one. It's like half hedonistic because I love sighthounds, but it also makes alot of sense.

Also if I could make them all African animals, (like OLTA lest I remind you, this was all I was thinking about!) Daniel would be a lesser kudu, and Carlos would be a Melanistic Serval. I literally had an essay this length due on Thursday, and yeah, I didn't get any of it done. Instead, I wrote this, a decadent excuse for me to yap about Interpol and animals, the only things I care about.

[simplyghosting]

If you’re Christian why would you not reblog donation posts? Genuine question.

Hi Anon! That's a good question! Thank you for asking!

*crack knuckles* Get ready for a long post.

It's not that I don't reblog any donation posts at all, but only from people I know well or accredited organizations. Not from strangers, like my blog description says.

In person I don't have as much of an issue giving to a stranger, but the issue with a lot of donation posts I see online is that a lot of them have red flags as being scams.

I've been on this site for years and I get a LOT of donation requests in my inbox (despite not being a popular blog) and I suspect recently a lot of people have gotten a lot of requests as well because they tend to rise in times of unrest (such as the current war in Gaza). I genuinely believe that most, if not all, of them are from scammers.

As for the red flags I've seen from these requests I've gotten from strangers, I'll focus on the ones I've seen from GoFundMe for now.

Repeated images/images that don't make sense with the explanation given

Pages that raised their donation goal with no explanation.

Donation goals with no explanation for the amount requested

Similar sets of emojis and writing style from all of them

Pages being run from countries unrelated to the person asking for donations with no explanation of a middleman/discrepancy

AI art/photos

If you're interested, good reddit threads to look at are r/scams and some threads for specific scam themes, which is where I found some good discussions about it

One redditor left a good note on part of how GoFundMe functions that people can use as more ways to look for red flags

"But Ghostie," You might ask. "Isn't it better just to give anyway just in case it isn't a scam? People should give recklessly."

Which is a very compassionate thing to say! If it was a risk of a single individual lying I would say then that is between you and God for the decision you make (though be careful of identity theft and your bank info, too) however there is a link between cyberscams and the human trafficking industry.

Human Trafficking’s Newest Abuse: Forcing Victims Into Cyberscamming

INTERPOL issues global warning on human trafficking-fueled fraud

Bluntly put: scams you encounter could very well be funding human trafficking.

Links on my blog to other tumblr scam discussion threads that touch on these topics (that also have links to charities for Gaza) :

Thread One

Thread Two

Scammers prey on emotions and people's goodwill. Emotionally charged words about sympathetic issues. Things that tug at and rend the heart. Pets. Children. Illness. Devastating loss. People naturally react to these things. If you fall for a scam, it doesn't make you a bad person, some of them are really good at lying, but do your best to be wise, ask questions, and think through it first.

Corinthians 9:7 says

7 Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver.

While I think this verse applies to more than just financial giving, finances are definitely applied. Christians are to use discernment, be cheerful, not just give under guilt, compulsion, or intense emotion, though I won't say God doesn't use the latter conditions for good. When giving, do some research and, if you're a Christian, above all, pray about it. Be well and God bless.

[oviraptoridae]

steel towers grow like corals at the edge of the end of the world

detailed process breakdown under the cut:

this is a location from silversea, the (inhales) work-in-progress troika-compatible post-apocalyptic science-fantasy TTRPG slash worldbuilding project i'm developing + running for a few of my friends. i've posted a drawing of this landscape before! someone asked for me to go into my process for digital collage in gimp, so i made sure to document the creation of this piece.

usually i start by gathering a bunch of images from wikimedia commons and by searching on duckduckgo images & filtering for creative commons licensed images. i wanted to start with a surreal landscape that looked more wrong the longer you inspected it, so this time i started by generating a background with commoncanvas (the stable diffusion model trained entirely on creative commons images, more on that here)

this was the final result. i didn't tweak it too much because i wanted the geometry to look unrealistic and warped. through the upscaling process it lost some of the early cgi look, which was sad, so i'll have to work more on trying to retain that.

interesting tangent: at 20% desert and 80% coral reef, a smooth cone briefly turns into a pyramid.

anyway, i decided i wanted it to look like you were on the edge of this environment, not in the middle, so i made some terrain in blender:

this was just a plane that i subdivided a bunch, pulled some vertices around with proportional editing to make dune shapes, and then decimated the faces to get back to a low poly look. i prefer that method to staying low poly the whole time, i feel as though i have more control over the shape.

the texture is a free tiling sand texture i found online, recolored and scaled down to make it pixelated, and then blended with vertex colors to add a little variation. it's very simple and took me maybe 30 minutes of actual work (the rest of the time spent trying to remember how to use material nodes).

this is the point where i took it into gimp and flipped & scaled the terrain until i liked the composition. i'm not bothered about the shadows not matching up, it just adds to how out of place the surreal terrain looks.

next is color correction, but i forgot to take a screenshot of that before adding the next part. gimp has a little fractal generator hidden in the filters tab, and i used that to make a swirling pattern that i overlaid over the sky, masking it selectively so it looked like it was getting thicker with distance. going for an "annihilation" look to the whole thing.

at this point i'm happy with the image and i go on to post processing. this is the part where tumblr's image compression is not doing me any favors, but oh well. when i make glitch art, there are a bunch of filters that are my favorite, but i don't usually use all of them on an image.

first off, i scale the image to 50%, add dithering (3-4 colors per channel looks nicest to me), then scale back up to the original resolution with no interpolation.

then i add "wind" (under the "distorts" option). it makes a cool pixel-sorted effect. at high levels it looks super cool...

but i keep it pretty subtle for this one.

the "video degradation" effect makes the image either too bright or too dark. i like the lcd screen look though. so i use a mask to turn it into a vignette.

i also added bloom at some point during the process, but i don't remember when. i also took the original image before all the glitch effects and overlaid it with the "chroma" blending mode to bring back some of the color that had been lost.

this was a pretty simple collage, but i didn't want to make the post too long. most of my collages involve a lot of moving things around, testing different compositions and images before i decide on a final product.

this image took like 8 hours to make, for example. most of it was spent perfecting the grainy filter.

other gimp effects i didn't use here but i like include deinterlace (which you can use on a non-interlaced image to add deinterlacing artifacts), sample colorize (lets you use another image as a color source to gradient map onto an image), alien map (can't explain. just use it. move the sliders very slowly if you are sensitive to strobing lights), and value propagation (like a very small radius blur that you can tweak in interesting ways to soften an image without losing graininess or pixelated-ness)

i hope this was helpful/informative!

[juststeveandtonythings]

Okay, it took two months, but now that I'm done with my foray into Uncanny Avengers, it's back to Invincible Iron Man. There's a LOT that happens in this issue and I want to screenshot so much so this will have to be multiple posts! Anyway, we last left off with Tony helping Emma escape using his suit - the Mark 70 armor as mentioned by Feilong here - and Tony daring Feilong to kill him in public, knowing that Thor and Steve (<3) are on their way. (They must have had a long night too - this is still just hours after the Hellfire Gala and the Avengers/Steve/Rogue responding to the DC attack in the FCBD issue.) Feilong ends up not taking the bait and retreats.

After Feilong disappears, Steve arrives!! Sadly not for long, because Tony pushes him away, saying that he doesn't want to be seen with his friends. Noooooo. He tells Steve that he has a new suit that'll let him continue to be an Avenger (the Mark Nil, which we do see in Avengers #3 and onward), but otherwise he's going dark and will be in touch. With that, he hobbles away, heading for the lowest point in Manhattan, the Morlock tunnels (where there is no signal reception).

He finds the suit, with Emma still in it, and opens it up so she can come out. She is peeved but notices he's injured, aww. Tony asks B.O.S.S. (his current A.I.) to engage "disco protocol", which makes his suit light up lol. Anyway, they discuss some things, including the fact that Vision apparently confirmed that some mutant-made drugs killed a bunch of humans (first brought up in X-Men #22), so yeah, mutants are looking real bad right now. (This is, of course, Orchis' doing, but obviously the public doesn't know that.)

As Emma despairs over the state of mutants right now (most of them exiled after the Hellfire Gala, and now them being framed for stuff) and Tony despairs over Rhodey, currently in jail for murder (also framed), they kind of Share a Moment. Then Tony leaves with the Mark 70 armor, telling her he needs to check on some stuff, and will then come back with a way to help her hide since she's now wanted by Interpol.

- Invincible Iron Man Vol 5 #9 (2023)

[inspector-montoya-fox]

this post was initially gonna be like a lazy rant about how the Klaww Gang's team dynamics suck ass but the more i wrote the more i realised there's so much to discuss. so today let's discuss how the Klaww Gang's team dynamics suck ass but not on like surface-level y'know?

i'm not even sure if the Klaww Gang qualifies as an actual gang because they barely even acknowledge each other? their interactions are very scarce. off the top of my head we get Rajan's party which they all attend apart from Dimitri (Dimitri attending Rajan's party would be so bizarre btw) and Jean Bison's phone call with Arpeggio. these are things friends do so maybe they should be the Klaww Friends ? i mean they have the sinister-looking conference room but we never see them hold a meeting there. moreover, they all act out of pure self-interest. they each got a Clockwerk part and just went on to do their own thing like counterfeit, drug production, etc. i mean what's even the point of forming a gang if their goal was to just split Clockwerk parts and then disband? did they have any other operations in the works? Arpeggio was planning on double-crossing the rest of the members anyway and he needed them to actually have the parts for his plan to come to fruition but still seems a bit pointless.

interesting question: how exactly did the Cairo Museum heist go down? was it like a group activity or pulled off by a single member? or did Arpeggio have Neyla break in and take them? because i can't imagine the Klaww Gang members coming together like an Ocean's movie to steal a bunch of robot owl parts? in fact, i can't imagine any of them stealing in the traditional like robber kinda way. with the exception of Bison and maybe Arpeggio, they're all shown to have some sort of prestige in their own part of the world: Dimitri was an established artist and nightclub owner and as shown in the comics hanged out with elitist socialites; the Contessa was a high-ranking Interpol officer; Rajan threw a lavish ball with hundreds of guests. like i wouldn't be surprised if the Klaww Gang members had institutional power. maybe they just bribed the museum to give them the parts?

and then there's the fact that they were a complete failure. i can't help but compare them to the Fiendish Five, who, let's admit it, won. they "won" in the sense that they achieved their goal. it's not like anyone stopped them. sure, Sly whooped their ass years later but they still killed ConnEr and split the Thievius Raccoonus. they went on with their lives until Sly grew up. like the first game is very much a revenge story. the Klaww Gang? not so much. the game takes place right after the Cairo Museum heist so all their scheming and plans could only take place for like maybe a couple of months max. and let's not forget they were also tricked by Neyla. flops.

i'm not sure why but i also think the Fiendish Five can evade the criticisms highlighted above even though they were also a bunch of strangers? Clockwerk was a much more menacing boss than Arpeggio (if Arpeggio can even be considered a boss. more like a final member), like i don't think anyone from the Fiendish Five would dare question his plan or motivations. but also, i think there was an underlining sense of camaraderie when each of them warned us about the next one post-bossfight, like at least some respect. i can't say the same for the Klaww Gang, like i can't even imagine the Contessa, Jean Bison and Dimitri interacting with each other (and now i suddenly can't think of anything i need more in my life). Clockwerk feels like the Fiendish Five's employer and he brought them together to pull off something kinda sacred like continuing the cycle of raccoon murders. basically they got together and did a thing and that was it like they just casually went on with their lives after that. Clockwerk was immortal, for all we know and as i have previously theorised there could have been previous iterations of the Fiendish Five throughout history. just baddies recruited by Clockwerk to help him take down the Coopers.

so yea. the Klaww Gang very much sucked ass but !!! i think it was for the better. even if i compared them to the Fiendish Five, i feel like SP wanted to set the expectations by making it seem like we were going to receive something similar just to then have things go down very differently. the Klaww Gang is different because its members (were under the illusion that they) were autonomous. they weren't let in on the big picture (What is this with clocks, bro? Have you no vision?) and they all thought they were the gang's top dog. this made for something very different, especially when you throw Neyla and outlawed Carmelita into the mix. but their team dynamics still sucked ass.

[midnight1nk]

okay so I might having a moment with this prosecutor oc in my head. like yeah I can pretty much call her an oc, I just need to draw her. also the attorney is also slowly forming in my mind, their stories. would it be cool if I uh. Showed them w art when I drew them? Idk it feels weird posting on main cuz no one really looks at it there anyways (not a lot of traffic on my main) Art reminds me, the Gramarye troupe really inspired me because like. I've changed 2 character designs I've had to be more magician like cuz I realised how much more it fit them (a 3rd one also pending that I've yet to draw but I need to get myself to do that first)

As a non oc aside, I've been thinking about the Klavier investigations game. Where like, basically Edgeworth would be looking over finds of cases to see how fair they are but since he's so busy, he would send out trusted prosecutors (Klavier being one of them) to reinvestigate scenes and talk to witnesses to see if the initial investigation was actually correct. And like, Klavier being like, Idk I see the idea of him not wanting to investigate alone and inviting only Apollo at first but then later on Athena would join too, maybe with Apollo being sometimes absent for whatever reasons, many possibilities. Like I'd love to see Athena and Klavier working together too I think it would make for interesting stuff. Maybe Simon could make some appearances too, being another trusted prosecutor Edgeworth would trust to thoroughly investigate. Also Franziska if she feels like it..... we haven't seen her in a long while.

ace attorney OCs? HELL YEAH It's absolutely cool of you to show your art, and honestly highly encouraged!! And y'know me, I would love to see it. Hell, if you ever post it, I'll repost it on my main :) Well, not only a reminder for you but for everyone else too: do art for yourself first, for your own enjoyment!!

also magician-based? 👀 (<- really loves magic stuff)

anyway KLAV INVESIGATIONS YIPPEE!! It would make so much sense for Miles to go back in old cases and see if any corruption was involved. *sips tea* ah yes, the Dark Age of the Law (TM). And yes, let Miles do another "That Man" line smh /aff. I'm sure Klavier would love an investigation partner (bc Ema would usually be there) and wouldn't y'know it, there's Apollo :) Some small cameos of Trucy and Simon would be so dope to have!! WE COULD HAVE GUMSHOE CAMEO. But dude, Klavier and Athena team-up? I want to see that frfr! Like I already know some bonding/emotional moments between Apollo and Klavier but there could also be some with Athena bc y'know the therapy thing. But also family related stuff.

also FRANNY BRING MY GIRL BACK 😭 "what for?" uh. interpol stuff yeah yeah totally :) I'll take a cameo if I have to. But if Klav and Franziska interact, I would die happy

thanks for the ask, nicc!

[dykelectric]

1, 2, 4, 12, 15, and 23 for the music asks! :)

first of all thank you so much for all the questions !!!!!!!

1. What’s a song you enjoy from a genre you don’t usually listen to?

go go - BTS. i am not a regular k-pop listener in any way and i don’t really know much about the genre at all outside of the most popular bands but BTS is nostalgic for me because i was a huge fan when i was 10. and to be honest a lot of their songs are still really really good.

2. What’s a song you don’t enjoy from one of your favourite bands? What doesn’t work for you?

does on/off - daft punk count? it’s just 20 seconds of agony to me. sorry. i guess it’s more of an interlude though :p hmm also why don’t we do it in the road? - the beatles. i just don’t like it. i feel like it’s one of the weakest songs on the white album, especially when it’s on the same tracklist as absolutely beautiful songs like while my guitar gently weeps.

4. What’s a song that you think deserves more love?

better now - sebastiAn. i think this is my favourite song from thirst, which i think is a very underrated album anyway - i can see why, because it’s very different from total, but still great…!!! i feel like i haven’t really seen people talking about this song at all. i just find it really relaxing and pleasing to listen to.

12. Do you own any band merch? If so, what is it?

farrrr too much… maybe i’ll attach some pics to this post eventually, but off the top of my head i own 2 justice shirts (one diy, the other from their 11th feb show), 2 interpol shirts (an antics 20th anni tour & totbl 15th anni tour shirt!), lots of band posters (and cds and magazines if they count…), in the way of the band ghost i own a shirt, earrings, necklace, doc marten boot charms, a patch. SO MANY pin badges of many artists (including a sebastiAn total one which i cherish), a the smiths tote bag, a beatles shirt, a kate bush shirt, a hozier shirt (from a show in july 2023), a the cure disintegration shirt, etc etc. and probably a lot more that i’ve forgotten.

15. What’s a song in a different language (that you don’t speak) that you enjoy?

sexy boy - air. this is one of my favourite songs of all time, and the whole album is absolutely beautiful too ^_^

23. What's the last song you liked/added to your general playlist?

no comment - serge gainsbourg. xavier de rosnay was asked in an interview i listened to recently, “what is the horniest song ever?”, and this song was his answer… so of COURSE i had to save it for later.

[quixot1sm]

can you. talk about nate hilbertverse

yes GOD this poor guy.

first off: nate is hilbert's little brother- 6 years his junior. he'd always looked up to hilbert as a role model, idolizing him especially after his ascension to hero of ideals. keep in mind that nate was only 10 when bw happened, so his understanding of the situation was surface-level and admittedly naïve. even when hilbert had been hospitalized for his injuries, he'd put on a brave face for nate, so the latter didn't grasp the severity of what happened/was happening.... it wouldn't be until later that the reality of how scary this was would sink in.

freshly 11 yrs old when hilbert left unova, nate was then sent off to aspertia to live with the other half of the family (hilda, rosa, and their mom) so he could enroll in cheren's trainer's school with rosa and earn his permit. the idea was also a way to provide him with a distraction from hilbert's absence since nate was a lonely kid... but anyway, this permit allowed them to participate in the junior division of the pokemon league challenge, meaning if either of them won, they'd be a champion in name only. that didnt happen but i'll get to why in a second.

when he was 12, despite setting out with the intention of collecting gym badges, hugh and nate quickly veered off course when team neo-plasma began showing its face around the region, urging the two of them to give chase in a bid to get some answers out of them. in the process, nate came across and befriended keldeo, and then, upon meeting colress, was dubbed something akin to his protégé.

this of course all came to a head in giant chasm. there... something happened that left nate almost a completely different person. not only had he been told, to his face, that his big brother was gone for good, but his right arm was caught in the line of kyurem's glaciate.

like his brother before him, nate was then hospitalized for a considerable amount of time, and like theyd done for his brother before him, interpol came swooping in make use of nate at his lowest. because, technically, hilbert had been working with them when he disappeared, so they had to take some accountability in his case... and what better way that to employ his little brother, i guess.

before his journey, nate was a sweet, excitable kid, although he struggled with tone. afterwards... it's like he struggles to recognize any emotion at all. he's blunt, does not have time for distractions, he gets unreal tunnel vision and dedicates years working on tying up loose ends regarding hilbert- such as the whereabouts of the dark stone and anything he might have left behind that nate can bring back home... rosa thinks its a pointless obsession and would rather forget about it all, and this resulted in a fight that drove a wedge between the two of them. :(

this was supposed to be a brief summary and its already gotten this long LOL... i had to skip over some details that i'll revisit in other posts later. like n's zorua. theres a lot going on with a lot of the hilbertverse cast and nate is no exception.

some more trivia, though:

reshiram would have accepted him as a hero of truth if he'd agreed to it... but hes very different from n. his pursuit of truth is one devoid of idealism- he has no hope, no optimism, he only wants to get the facts to provide some sense of closure.

his full name is nathaniel tobias black. do not ever call him this

his birthday is may 4

he has two shinies, those being his emboar and his galvantula. lucky bastard

we really dont know what gender his emboar is? most just assume its a male, but it responds to whatever. really it does what it wants. its name is samson and its parents are bianca and hilda's emboars.

his prosthetic arm was designed and built by colress. the guy likes to think of himself as nate's mentor, even though he's one of the main factors behind why nate's even going through what he is in the first place...

and finally, although it's currently only 3 songs long, heres his playlist!

[sammywolfgirl]

Well shit this ace attorney au case whatever thing has a rough outline.

Frick.

Well I’ll get down what I got now before I forget when I get back into the persona zone:tm:

This is beyond just like playing with giving Bobby a niece this turned into a future fic sort of situation so uh yeah imma ramble

There will be spoilers for AA5 below soooo

So this would be another time skip game which takes place roughly 8 years post duel destinies (spirit of justice is acknowledged I just haven’t played/watched the game in a while so all that matters is Apollo is off doing his own cool spinoff game adventures)

Our protagonists are Athena Cykes who’s mentoring the newest attorney to join the wright anything agency!… currently unnamed guy who I’ve been calling Pathos because I kinda want that to be his last name.

I’ll list down themes and the general vibe I want this ‘game’ to have since uh at most it might be a future fic.

‘Gameplay’

For all intense and purposes this is the closest we’re getting to Athena cyckes ace attorney, depending on how the writing goes it might actually just be my pitch for the game but some ocs are here because I’m normal about them. The pov would swap between Athena who’s come into her own as a lawyer (it’s been 8 years) and is mostly trying to do her best to mentor the young attorney who sought her out specifically because of her psychology specialty.

And then there’s Pathos, who since Apollo isn’t here is the new punching bag straight man! I’m still developing him but he’s a more serious/level headed attorney, who’s biggest flaw is he can’t be as unbiased as he wants to. Like it or not he’s swayed by his own emotions more than he wants. Pathos’s ability is that he can read peoples expressions and tell if they’re hiding how they truly feel/if their expressed emotions don’t line up with their words/can pick up if someone is trying to smother theirs emotions. Idk the specifics might change but my idea is it’s like an investigation version of apollos lie detection and Athena’s mood matrix, but instead the contradiction you point out is if their emotional response doesn’t line up with their words.

Pathos grew up in a situation where learning to read if someone was about to snap was how he survived, he learned this skill as a means of survival, it’s not something he was born with.

Aaand that ties into the overall theme.

Emotions.

How they’re expressed, how they’re smothered, and how they drive someone.

Listen if the main mentor is Athena there’s gonna be a lot of emotion talk, I’m thinking her mood matrix is primarily for the court room while Pathos’ thing is for investigations primarily, but they can cross over.

Uh anyways what’s the big case:tm: for this ‘game.’

That fucking spy orginization duel destinies can’t just drop that and NOT ELABORATE so I will and am. The past case is that a few years ago a deal was made with the phantom that got interpol names and locations of the phantom’s handler and others who worked for the unnamed spy orginization. A raid was done and many criminals and spy agents (assets??) arrested, however not all were captured and importantly in this story, the phantoms main handler (and trainer??) wasn’t caught. And the background story is that Simon is working with Interpol to track down those stragglers.

Notably, Poppy Fulbright (who’s a detective now that’s she’s grown) has also been helping but she’s uh… kinda been doing her own investigation. She wants Justice for her uncle and isn’t afraid to get involved in stuff she shouldn’t to that end. Sure hope that doesn’t get her in trouble haha!

Uh anyways other notable things I’m turning over in my head-

The main prosecutor is Eustace Winner/Sebastian Debest. Because I love him and I’m biased. I think at this point he’s come into his own as a prosecutor but he very much isn’t the best around. He still gets hung up on his words or how to say what he means, but he searches for the truth and always aims to do his best on every case he works. I just think the prosecution team being goofballs who genuinely want to find the truth would be a fun contrast (plus with Pathos being more serious the side characters get to be more goofy as a treat)

The assistant to pathos is a school friend who I think is studying to be a judge? Idk she’s planning to go into law at least, she’s also only a little younger than pathos (lawyer oc is 20 while assistant is like 19) I’m still figuring out her personality dynamic but leaning towards she’s the middle ground between the serious Pathos and energetic and bubbly Athena.

I love the judge but I don’t think he can survive another time skip, he can retire, therefore Juniper Woods is the new judge in this essay I will- (I’m not against judge Courtney who I’m forgetting the new offical localized name of being the judge either but listen listen lesbians. Gay people if you will. Plus it’d be funny for pathos to witnes his mentor and the judge lady flirting outside of court he’s just ????? It’s great)

Pheonix is around but at this point is very much letting Athena handle things, wt most he gets a few camios, this is Athena’s ‘game’ he’s off with his husband edgeworth or something. Trucy is also around and I think is doing well. If she doesn’t show up say she’s on tour for a magic show or something and pheonix is so proud.

Apollo is mentioned only at the start and it’s a framing device for the introduction as Athena is writing him to tell him about the newest rookie she’s going to be mentoring. Again, he can be off doing his own spin-off adventures.

Honestly it’s a running gag that pathos keeps getting thrown off by how many people poppy has claimed in her weird found family thing, she calls his mentor auntie, prosecutor winner uncle (playing with the idea Eustace and Bobby are half siblings for my au stuff so bringing that in here), the scary samurai lawyer uncle, some dead detective is her uncle, and it keeps getting weirder and pathos just is so lost. (And a little jealous she’s got such a connected support network)

Also. The fate of the Phantom is kept vague until it’s revealed for certain towards the end of case 4 leading into 5. Because it was a bit of a touchy case internationally a lot of things were kept tight lipped about the phantom and wether they were executed or not. Officially, the phantom was executed for their crimes after giving all the information they could.

Unofficially, they cut a deal to work with Interpol to take down the spy organization they came from, and any future ones (though they are essentially working off their sentence)

Honestly idk if the phantom would have a ‘true face’ at this point or has claimed one that looks suspiciously like Bobby Fulbrights idk this would tie into some investigation game thing with Simon and also au stuff and I have not thought about that too much just yet. This is all vaugly thought out and subject to change.

If it wasn’t clear the lead detective is Poppy Fulbright. Though Emma could show up for forensics idk I’d need to double check what she’s up to post spirit of justice

There’s either a new youngest Payne brother or the first case prosecutor is the son/nephew of one of the Payne brothers. I’m undecided if it’s funnier if there’s just more brothers that keep spawning and becoming prosecutors or if this has become a family occupation the next generation of Payne’s are continuing. Dealers choice.

Uh… ok final note

I’m still really vague on the cases of this game but I want an underlining theme to be emotions being surpreased/hidden causing harm.

Like a disgruntled wife finally snapping, or secrets being held for the sake of feelings causing a bigger blowout than if things were communicated, someone hiding their true feelings under a mask of indifference that sort of thing.

Ties into the theme and means I can justify mood matrix scenes because fuck you I love that gimic a lot and I’d this is ‘Athena’s game’ the fic then I get to shove in all the court therapy!!!! Nobody can stop me!!!!

Uh anyways yeah that’s what I got so far, any comments or questions are appreciated.

Like I said I won’t be working on this seriously for a while I got other writing projects I wanna finish/plan out before sitting down to work on a fic that has at least 5 to 6 mysteries in it when I’ve only written like TWO at this point.

So yeah ramble over hope you enjoyed ^_^