#but for now i'm just throwing this out here with zero editing

[zukkaoru]

oooh prompt 28: “It’s okay, you will move on. We will move on.”? with whatever fandom you want lol

ummm it's bungou stray dogs bc this prompt just gave me post-doa arc kunidazai feels fdgfhgjhk also it got a bit longer than intended but it's fine we're fine we're doing great!

tw: dazai-typical suicide mentions/suicidal ideation

-

“It’s okay,” Dazai whispers, his fingers carding through Kunikida’s hair. He isn’t good at this—he has never known how to comfort another person—but he refuses to leave Kunikida to suffer alone. Not when there’s something hanging heavy between them, not when Kunikida is trusting Dazai enough to be this vulnerable around him, not when Dazai is the only one Kunikida will come to for help.

Kunikida sniffs, but he doesn’t respond verbally, so Dazai continues.

“You will move on,” he says, because he knows this to be true. He knows what it is to face the empty void of loss and not see a way forward. He knows what it is to be trapped in the darkness, unsure if you’ll ever make it through to the light. “We will move on.”

Kunikida nods, faintly, which Dazai feels more than he sees. He stares at Kunikida’s glasses, abandoned on the floor nearby, unsure if he should say more. Unsure if there is anything else to say. It’s been months, and no one in the Agency has fully recovered. Kunikida is not the only one losing sleep to nightmares and spiraling anxieties. Dazai would be lying if he said he hadn’t noticed the growing bags under most of his coworkers’ eyes.

“How do you…” Kunikida’s muffled voice trails off. He tightens his grip on Dazai’s shirt, then lets out a shaky breath. “How do you deal with this?”

“The trauma?” Dazai asks, his tone lighter than it should be for such a topic. “Or the insomnia? Or the knowing your body will never work as good as it used to?”

“I don’t know. All of it?”

Dazai snorts. It’s not funny, really, except—

“I don’t.”

Kunikida lifts his head. He offers Dazai a half-hearted glare, made weaker by the wetness of his eyes. “That can’t be true. You’re still here.”

Dazai blinks.

Something in his chest tightens. It’s almost painful, but vaguely pleasant too. He scoffs, looking away.

“I don’t deal with it,” he whispers. “I just ignore it. It’s not healthy, but I’ve never planned on living long enough to deal with the consequences. So.” He shrugs. “It’s not genuine. No part of me is genuine. Not for as long as you’ve known me, at least.”

“I don’t believe that for a moment,” Kunikida argues. He sighs, leaning his head back against Dazai. “And anyway, how can you assure me I’ll move on if you haven’t?”

“Well…” Dazai frowns. Instead of answering, he pinches Kunikida’s arm and mumbles, “You’re mean.”

Kunikida hums. The lack of an argument is enough to tell Dazai that he’s still shaken from whatever nightmare woke him. So Dazai swallows down a joke that wouldn’t have landed and searches for something honest to say. If Kunikida thinks he can be a truthful person, maybe he should give it at least half a shot.

“It takes time,” is what he finally settles on. “Grief, loss, pain—only time can lessen the weight. And even if they never go away, you will learn to live with them as time goes on.” It’s a miserable sentiment, knowing that there is nothing you can do to ease your ailments. Knowing that the only solution is to wait them out and hope death doesn’t come for you first.

(Or, in Dazai’s case, hope death does come for you.)

But it’s the only advice Dazai has that is true. Any other claims he could make would provide Kunikida with nothing but false hope.

“I was afraid you might say that,” Kunikida whispers. “I don’t have time.”

“Nonsense! You’ve got your whole life planned out, and I’m sure you didn’t plan your death before thirty.” Dazai pokes his cheek. “That gives you at least seven years.”

“Not what I meant.”

Dazai ignores that comment. “Me, on the other hand? Well— I’ve only got til about twenty-five before I—”

“No,” Kunikida cuts him off, lifting his head sharply. He reaches for Dazai, then stops himself midway, curling his hand into a fist and dropping it back into his lap. “Don’t…don’t say that. If I have to take all that time to heal and move on, then so do you.”

Dazai grimaces. It sounds nothing short of torturous—living to thirty? Three decades spent walking through such miserable existence? He never even wanted to make it to eighteen.

But he did make it to eighteen—he made it past eighteen. And now he’s twenty-three, still putting in the effort to navigate the new life he’s found himself in. Maybe hanging around for a few extra years wouldn’t be the worst fate he could suffer.

After all, his dream of a completely painless suicide cannot be fulfilled if the people he leaves behind will grieve him.

This isn’t about him, though. This is about Kunikida.

“Fine,” he relents, the lie falling easily from his lips. “But that won’t make it any easier to pass the time.”

“It will,” Kunikida says. And before Dazai can argue, he kisses him softly. “It’s easier, knowing I’m not alone.”

Dazai’s brain short-circuits, for a moment, and then he buries his face in Kunikida’s shoulder to his whatever horrid expression he must be making. “Stupid,” he mumbles, his cheeks burning. Traitorously, his heartbeat won’t slow like he wants it to.

Kunikida chuckles. “You said yourself that we will move on. That means you have to be there too.”

“Shut up.”

“My point still stands whether I continue talking or not.”

Dazai purses his lips. Kunikida doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t need to, because he’s right. He already made his point. Dazai included himself in Kunikida’s healing process, and he can’t quite bring himself to regret it, though he knows he’ll be no good at helping. Even now, when he was trying to offer Kunikida comfort, the conversation got turned onto him instead.

He sighs, allowing his eyes to slip shut. “Kunikida-kun?”

“Hm?”

“You’re too kind to me.”

“I’m not,” Kunikida argues. “But perhaps we can have this conversation when it’s not two in the morning?”

Dazai nods. Then, for good measure, he turns his face so he can press a kiss to Kunikida’s neck. “In the meantime, can we—?”

“No,” Kunikida interrupts. He peels Dazai off of him, and Dazai whines, but he allows it to happen. “We still have work tomorrow. Or…later today.” He shakes his head. “We should try to fall back asleep.”

Dazai pouts, but when Kunikida only glares back, he gives in with a melodramatic sigh, flopping back down on the bed. “Fine.”

He goes completely limp, forcing Kunikida to maneuver him back into a normal sleeping position. He half-expects him to just give up part way through, turn over onto his side, and leave Dazai to sort himself out. But he doesn’t, of course, because Kunikida is too kind and when he’s finally comfortable, his head is lying on Dazai’s chest.

“Goodnight,” he whispers.

Dazai’s response gets stuck in his throat, so he just resumes running his fingers through Kunikida’s hair and listens to his breathing until it evens out and he’s drifted back to sleep.

[dee-the-red-witch]

One more time, with FEELING? (April Pinned)

Now that we're past the first, let's do this. One. More. Time.

I'm Dee. Queer lesbian trans woman. Just she/her for the pronouns. Not your Responsible Adult, and while I'm safe for MY work, I'm self employed, my bitch of a boss gives zero fucks about adult content, and I believe in a healthy education. Kinky. Poly. Separated. Witch-adjacent. Occultist. Possibly cute/hot according to others. Sex and body positive. What do I do? Art- leatherwork, digital art, and these days, tattooing and tattoo flash. (Click that link for the goods. Tattoos, for locals only, by appointment, etc.)

Writing- One book (with accompanying tarot deck), two more in edits, several more in progress. Completely unscheduled film/tv reviews and weekly tarot spreads.

I'm also in the process of dealing with a massive work backlog, a life starting to fall apart in a few ways, a transition surgery I'm desperately trying to fund the expenses for, and, y'know, all the wonders of being transfem in late-stage capitalism in a christofascist country.

Yes, that's a lot. Welcome to my life.

Let's get the usuals out of the way. Tipping should be mandatory. Terfs, fash, bigots, can and should fuck off out of here. No, I will not tag NSFW or mature, because it ends up getting creators targeted half the time. And because if you're on here you can learn to consume media critically and censor your own damn experience without me doing it for you. Plastics suck, including your precious vegan leather. Land back. Do it alone. Do it weird. Do it scared. No I don't know what a jerma is, and do not tell me. Yes I do swear. A lot.

I love fantasy, horror, cassette futurism, cyberpunk, brutalism, and all sorts of stuff with it. You want my discord or server? Ask me for either. Yes, I still take voice recording requests, and yes, it's the only form of 'content' I do, though I absolutely support creators of other types like mad. You want to help out? Scroll back up and hit any of those links, or just throw money at me screen here.

Otherwise, that's it. Yes, my inbox and messages are still open for now.

[in-halingstardust]

Hiiii congrats on your milestone!!! Here's to more in the future!!! may I have a match up? Super spicy edition!!! I am afab pussy boobs and all (I use they/them but they're optional!!) with a preference to guys but girls are great too!! For Kinks I don't like my partner being mean to me (very sensitive person emotionally) but I don't want them being too gentle either!! I can handle rough treatment but they should still be mindful of my limits and stop if things have gone too far since I can't tell my limits either 😅 (which is a discussion I had multiple times with my partner) So basically a service Dom through and through. Im a bit of a tease but not a brat so my partner doesn't have to worry about that LMAO

A very important thing to note is that I also very much enjoy monster fucking JDJEJEJWJW okay that's all!!

I FORGOT TO QUE OMG SORRY ANON!

Also monster fucking is also one of my favorite pastimes *cough* hyperfixations *cOUgh* i mean- stories I enjoy reading hehe. I think I'm going to write a small drabble other than your request one day so be on the look out for that this is just a taste! ₊⊹♡

I'm going to pair you with Aventurine!

Aventurine has always been a high stakes gambler. The smaller the odds the higher the payout. A ride or die type of high that you could never get enough of.

Your relationship to the public dazzles like diamonds under spotlights. The way he buys you imitation flowers handcrafted from gems and blown glass, the way you’re always adorned in gold necklaces and earrings as he holds you close by the waist.

What are you thinking of, my lucky girl? He whispers, hand caressing your thigh underneath the betting table throwing a handful of chips in. He’s not even counting the value but the gasps coming across the table means it must be a hefty amount. You promised if he won big you let him do anything to you tonight. 

Anything. 

It’s a win, red 37, the number of credits keep going up and up. You’ve never seen that many zeros before in your life.

❥ You promised and now it’s time for fun~. Aventurine says behind closed doors, leaving bruised kisses from your jaw down to your collarbone. A sign of possession. He’s not gentle in the least, not that you mind. The way he opens you up with his fingers cooing at the sight of you struggling to take another one. He likes it when you're sucking on your mess after you cum.

❥ Overstimulated, broken a mess on the bed is the state you currently at when he truly starts to appropriately ‘fuck your brains out’.

↪You see the crackling of Preservation run through him through bleary eyes. The way his body grows and become more full, his voice having the tingle of mania behind it as he lines up to thrust fully into you.

↪It’s bigger than ever before, you're almost glad for the amount of times you came before as he stretches you out more than your body should take.

❥ Fucking you is a different story as he grips your wrists before slamming back into you. Your body is in rhythm with his the entire night.

[cherrirui-official]

Friendlocke Violet Gijinkas (Part 3/7)

PART 3 RAAAAGH!!! SO SORRY THIS ONE TOOK SO LONG AAAH!!!! But it's here now, yippee!!! And just in time for Christmas too, wowie!

I plan on posting them in order by groups of three, so there's gonna be seven parts in total, all of which I'll be linking here when done vvv

(Part One) (Part Two) (Part Four) (Part Five) (Part Six) (Part Seven)

!! These will contain personal headcanons I have for the cast, little fun facts, and also spoilers for Friendlocke Violet (for both the edited vids and the streams) !!

@saltydkart-reblogs

Designs under the cut!

GRACE:

The light scars/ cracks on her body were injuries formed while she was accidentally sent through Turo's time machine. Unlike the paradox pokemon/ miraidon, GrAce's body isn't made of iron or metal, so her body wasn't able to withstand the large amount of tera energy used to power the machine as easily as the paradox pokemon were.

Luckily, she was just barely able to hold out against the time machine's energy until she made it to Turo's lab in the present day. Unfortunately, she can't be sent back because she would literally die if she went through the time machine again. Sooooo she's stuck in the modern era.

Very familiar with Area Zero and the various pokemon that reside down there, but moved out in order to continue producing music as well as familiarize herself with current-day Paldea.

She only vaguely know Clavell back when he was a rebellious teenager, though she didn't know his name. Clavell, on the other hand, was one of her biggest fans back in the 50s-60s.

Funny enough, when she sees "Clive" for the first time, she recognizes him! But not as Director Clavell, she just barely recognizes him as the random teenage fan that would occasionally ask her to sign various GrAce posters he had bought. She is also under the belief that he too, was sent from the past into the present, unaware that he simply just grew up.

Likes doing random poses for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

BRAIDY:

Believes that everything can be solved without violence, but can and will throw hands if need be.

Everyone in Braidy's family greet each other by playfully ramming into one another. So when Peppy and his team were getting chased down by Braidy's family during their journey, they weren't trying to attack them, they just wanted to say hi!

Braidy is really good with kids due to his experience with being the eldest sibling, as he'd often have to take care of his younger siblings.

Mykyie and Braidy shop at the same clothing store.

Speaking of Mykyie, the lighter parts of Braidy's fur appeared only after Mykyie passed...

As of now, he's still an apprentice, but he has great potential to become an all powerful wizard... someday.

CHRISTENE'S:

Artist's note: I couldn't fit their children in the bio sorry girls and gays. I'll probably draw them out later on after I'm finished with everyone else.

Their stomachs are basically voids, so every time they eat the food just disappears, which is why they're ALWAYS hungry.

HIGHLY flammable.

It is speculated that they're poppets, but you don't have any proof of that, do you?

If you listen closely, you can hear soft bell noises every time they walk. It is unknown why this happens, but I believe it is best not to ask.

Aaaaand that's it! I plan on taking a short break from these bc I wanna draw some other stuff. Dw, I'll continue to work on these very soon!

[afanofmanyth1ngs]

Yellowjackets/IWTV Fanfic

So, about a week ago I put out a poll about doing a weird IWTV fanfic that's basically set in the Yellowjackets verse... And now I'm doing it... YAY!! but I do just want to come on here to basically throw around some things I'm going to do :P So this is going to be where I update people and just basically talk about how I'm going to do this, what my schedule is going to look like, things I need opinions on. This is more so a motivation thing so IF YOU ARE INTERESTED, please please please comment and follow along. I lose motivation quickly, but this is something I'm pretty dedicated to. but either way THIS IS HAPPENING.

______________________________________________________________

First things first. YES I have started working on it. Im not even close to finished with the first chapter because each chapter is going to be LONG. This is not going to be everything that happens in Yellowjackets happens in here, and not even close. Even as I started it... I will sometimes use direct quotes, but thats only if im stuck and cant figure out what im doing.

NEXT as I said this is not going to be yellowjackets word for word, but I will be using each episode as a starting point. scenes might mirror each other, and I will cut between scenes as they do in the show.

Some things that are automatically going to be different from Yellowjackets:

They will not be on a Sports team of any sorts. The one thing each character has in common, is that they all are passionate about one or more forms of art (ex: Louis: Photography - Lestat: Acting - Madeleine - Sewing and dress making and altering (not the right words sorry lol)) SO im having them go to an art school :P little bit of a long shot but not only is it just convinent for me because of all the art forms they like, but also I think it would be kind of cool for just normal (LMAO) IWTV kids who have never touched a sport in their lives to now have to like hunt and stuff... kind of Lord of the Flies with half of the kids being CHOIR KIDS core.

Theyre all gonna be in High school. i was like well im not aging them up cause what fun would that be, so lets just age them down and keep a whole bunch of that trauma and see what happens... and im not super far into the writing process but its working rn!!

Theyre crashing in the Alps. I have zero knowlege of the Alps whatso ever BUT i know i went over them when i flew to Italy so Im having them go to the Uffizi Galleries!!! and then BAM Alps. so get ready for some major inaccuratcies about that cause im gonna make them how they are in Yellowjackets... just in like Italy. Maybe I'll reasearch a bit more... dw about it its ok :D

As I said before each chapter is going to be LONG. so rn I have around 4ish scenes (ones not finished yet) and by the time I'm finished with those and edit it's going to be close to around 4,000 words I'm estimating... that's 4,000 words for not even a quarter of THE KIDS STORY LINE. on that topic, because each chapter is going to be so incredibly long, I've decided to split each chapter in about half. I was originally planning to do one chapter = one episode of yellowjackets but again it's going to be WAY too long, so kids' storyline, adult story line. I like that a lot too because a big pet peeve of mine is in stories where it keeps switching through times and then i get so lost and have to reread like 10 times to understand... LIKE PLEASE JUST SPLIT IT INTO A FEW CHAPTERS SO IM NOT CONFUSED

Last thing! Most of each character's backstory IS WORKED IN... so for example (A HUGE example) is for at least the first few chapters Armand will be called and referred to as Amadeo. Marius is his adoptive father who rescued him from some sex trafficking scandal or something and renamed him, before he eventually changes his name to Armand while out in the mountains. So, like obviously he's not going to get the name Armand from Santino, but you know... working in what I can :P

OK ACTUALLY LAST LAST THING: I don't know when this will come out... I have a deadline for myself and I'm certain I will get to it, HOWEVER I do not have access to the other Yellowjackets episodes, which is pretty crucial if I want to get into a schedule of posting each week regularly. As of right now I am hoping to get the first chapter out on October 3rd... Yellowjackets will be accessible to me AND then I'll be able to post a chapter on Halloween... YAY!! if that does not work out because the following chapters are taking too long and I release before I can make sure the Schedule is set, it will most likely be one of the Thursdays in October because I REALLY want to get one out on Halloween!!

OK!! hope you guys liked my little rant!! I'll keep everyone who's interested updated on here so if you want to be in the loop follow me (or don't! if you don't you can just check my page!) and again comments motivate me, so if you have any questions or just think it's a cool idea let me know!

[autistic-fandom-trash]

jongerry incorrect quotes

*Jon and Gerry skipping stones on a lake* Jon: It’s such a beautiful evening. Gerry, whispering: Take that you fucking lake. --- Jon: Where are you going? Gerry: To get ice cream or commit a felony, I’ll decide on the way there. --- Gerry: Man, I only ever see you awake, do you ever shut down or stop running? Jon: Oh, I’m always running. The question is from what. --- Gerry: I want to wake up with you every day for the rest of our lives. Jon: I wake up at 4:30 AM. Gerry:...I want to see you at some point every day for the rest of our lives. --- Jon: Gerry and I have the kind of easy chemistry where we finish each other's- Gerry: Sentences. Jon: Don't interrupt me. --- Gerry: You love me, right, Jon? Jon: Normally, I’d say yes without hesitation, but I feel like this is going somewhere and I don’t like it. --- Jon: Heads up if you try to make a candle with food coloring, the food coloring will just sink to the bottom of the glass, and when the flame eventually reaches the bottom all the food coloring will catch fire and become one giant tall flame that you cannot possibly blow out and the glass will start to crack and then you'll throw your tea on it in a panic and then the extremely hot food coloring will boil and sizzle horribly and then the glass will shatter. Please take my word on this. Gerry: What did you do, Jon? Jon: A MISTAKE. --- Jon: *Kicks the door down looking panicked* Gerry: What did you do? Jon: Nobody died. Gerry: WHAT KIND OF ANSWER IS THAT?! --- Jon: WHAT’S YOUR TYPE? Gerry: Anything, honestly, but nerds especially. Jon, desperately, as Gerry bleeds out: YOUR BLOOD TYPE! Gerry: Oh! B positive. Jon: DONT TRY TO CHEER ME UP JUST TELL ME YOUR BLOOD TYPE! --- Gerry: Here's some advice. Jon: I didn't ask for any. Gerry: Too bad. I'm stuck here with my thoughts and you're the only one who talks to me. --- Gerry: You fuckers don’t know about my knife stick. It’s a knife taped to a stick and it’s the ultimate weapon. Jon, not looking up from their book: Spear. Gerry: BLOCKED. --- Jon, about Elias: I prevented a murder today. Gerry: Really? How’d you do that? Jon: Self control. --- Gerry, tending to Jon's wounds: How would you rate your pain? Jon: Zero stars. Would NOT recommend. --- Gerry: Jon, stop! This isn't you, you've gone mad with power! Jon: Well of course I have. Have you ever tried going mad without power? It's boring. --- Gerry: How petty can you get? Jon: I once edited a Wikipedia article to win an argument I was wrong about. --- Gerry: Whaddya call a fish with no eyes? Jon, not looking up: Myxine Circifrons. Gerry:...fsh. --- Gerry, in a beach shirt: So sue me, it's October and I'd like to be on Island Time for a day! Jon: I have Spotify open right now on my computer, do you want me to blast you? Do you want me to put you on blast? Cuz I've got your history right here on the sidebar: Take it Back by Jimmy Buffet, Nautical Wheelers by Jimmy Buffet, Jolly Mon Sing by Jimmy Buffet, Steamer by Jimmy Buffet, trEAT HER LIKE A LADY BY JIMMY BUFFET, MAÑANA BY JIMMY BUFFET, WHEN SALOME PLAYS THE DRUMS BY JAMES BUFFET, HAVANA DAYDREAMIN BY JIMMY BUFFET- What the FUCK happened to you?! Gerry, laughing: I HAD A CASE OF THE MONDAYS! Jon: ARE YOU HAUNTED?! ARE YOU FUCKING POSSESSED?! YOU USED TO BE MY FRIEND! Gerry, cry-laughing: ᴵ ᴴᴬᴰ ᴬ ᶜᴬˢᴱ ᴼᶠ ᵀᴴᴱ ᴹᴼᴺᴰᴬʸˢ --- Jon: This is a mistake. Gerry, enthusiastically: A mistake we're going to laugh about one day! Jon: But not today. Gerry, still enthusiastic: Oh, no. Today's going to be a mess. --- Gerry: If there's going to be a big dramatic scene, wait until I get back. Jon: Of course. I can't flip this table by myself. --- Jon: You often use humor to deflect trauma. Gerry: Thank you. Jon: I didn't say that was a good thing. Gerry: What I'm hearing is, you think I'm funny. --- Jon: Name a more iconic duo than my crippling fear of abandonment and my anxiety. I'll wait. Gerry: You and me. Jon, tearing up: Okay. --- Gerry: So what’s for dinner? Jon, staring at the food they just burnt: Regret.

[whittynovels]

Chapter 62 - Warner POV (incomplete)

reuploading, minorly edited | originally written in 2015

I am standing outside her door. The unfamiliarity of being recently freed from my cell and the threat of being discovered in the women’s wing after curfew has me looking over my shoulder as I hesitate. The length of the hallway that I can see is dark, motionless. Finally I rasp my knuckles on her door, quiet and firm. My heart fights to remain in my chest as I hear her footsteps hasten toward the door.

She throws it open and in the one second I see her face, I can tell I’m not the person she expected to see. I allow myself a single second to feel the rejection, but then the door slams closed and I'm sobered.

“Juliette?” I ask, casting a brief look over my shoulder again to make sure the door’s slam didn’t attract any attention.

“What are you doing here?” she hisses back, her voice muffled through the door between us.

“I need to speak with you.”

“Right now. You need to speak with me right now.”

I almost sigh, but I relieve myself of the time it would take to do so.

“Yes. It’s important.” The door remains closed.

I continue, “I heart Kent telling you that those twin girls would be in the medical wing tonight and I figured it would be a good time for us to speak privately.”

“You heard my conversation with Adam?”

Her voice grows slightly hysterical and I lose my patience, nearly interrupting her to explain, “I have zero interest in your conversation with Kent. I left just as soon as I heard you’d be alone tonight.”

“Oh.” She pauses for a beat, still not opening the door. I almost reach out and do it myself. “How did you even get in here without guards stopping you?”

The mention of the guards sends my gaze over my shoulder again. Restless to see her face, I say, “Maybe you should open the door so I can explain.”

Three seconds pass and neither of us has moved.

“Please, love, I’m not going to do anything to hurt you. You should know that by now.”

And then, miraculously, “I’m giving you five minutes. Then I have to sleep, okay? I’m exhausted.”

I can’t help but crack a grin at the compromise. “Okay. Five minutes.”

It takes her another full second until the door handle jiggles and half her face is visible from the emergency light in the hall. She shakes her head and I realize I’m still grinning, so I duck into her room and sit on the bed across from the door, the one separate from the other two twin beds against the adjacent wall. Her bed. When she closes the door, all of the light in the room is extinguished, yet all of the tension is trapped inside. Her footsteps move to somewhere across from me and then the quietness sets in. Within seconds, it begins to smother me: things said, things unsaid, her uncertainty of me, of this moment.

I organize my thoughts in my head and rotate the ring on my pinky as she shifts near-silently. I can practically see her pulling her legs to her chest or running her hand through her hair, but it’s so dark that I can’t tell what sort of fidgeting she’s up to. Also unwilling to break the silence, my fingers fall to the sheet underneath me. After nearly a week of threadbare and uncleanly blankets, this simple cotton spread feels like luxury. I take a second to imagine what it would be like to have Juliette against me under this blanket and forget the war going on above us. Her voice chases away the fantasy, but my fingers still run over the fabric smoothed over her mattress. “So… what is it? You just left earlier, in the tunnel. Even though I asked you to wait.”

I blink once, and then decide on a different subject. One that half my brain is already devoted to. “Your bed is so much more comfortable than mine. You have an actual pillow. And an actual blanket?” I look up at her and chuckle. “You’re living like a queen in these quarters. They treat you well.”

“Warner.” Just my name, though formal, makes my breath falter. “What’s going on? Why are you here?”

The air in the room shifts again; I realize I can’t keep dancing around my purpose in coming. But even though I can feel the tug of her anticipation and impatience, I find the indecency within me to hesitate. Finally, after a sharp inhale that splits the silence: “I want you to come with me.”

She doesn’t respond immediately, and now that I’ve heard the idea out loud from my own tongue, I’m desperate to defend it. To defend us. To protect her. “When I leave tomorrow, I want you to come with me. I never had a chance to finish talking to you earlier and I thought asking you in the morning would be bad timing all around.”

“You want me to come with you.” It’s not a question.

“Yes.”

“You want me to run away with you.”

This time, I purse my lips for just a moment, praying for her to understand, before repeating, “Yes.”

“I can’t believe it. You really have lost your mind.” I come to realize that I’d expected an answer so like the one she gave, that an actual smile brims to my lips.

“Where’s your face? I feel like I’m talking to a ghost.”

“I’m right here.”

“Where?”

The bed creaks before she responds again, “I’m here.”

I join her on my feet and step forward, continuing, “I still can’t see you. Can you see me?”

“No,” she says, inches from my face, but the word is full of something other than truth. The waver in her voice clogs my throat. Just a girl, is what my father said to me. I remember the gun in my hand as I was told to point it at her. The ache in my chest at that moment was just a flutter of emotion in comparison to the inferno that torches in the realization that she is allowing me closer without trying to get away. Beckoning me closer.

I reach my arms toward her, needing to reaffirm that she’s actually here. My fingers brush her biceps, and I realize for the first time that the shirt she wears exposes her arms all the way up past her shoulder. The unexpected rush of energy that overcomes me makes me bite my tongue. It has only been a few hours since the last time her energy spun down my spine but I have already forgotten how potent it is. Distracted by the invisible flames flickering between our conjoined skin, I don’t realize that my hands have slid down to her waist until I also comprehend that she hasn’t tried to stop me.

We are both silent. Only my hands move. Her breath has ceased and mine is half way there as my fingertips find the skin underneath the hem of her shirt. Just then she sucks in a hasty breath like it hurts to use her lungs.

Suddenly, I don’t want to talk about what I came here to talk about. Another topic plagues my mind. “Is it even possible that you can’t feel this between us?” I whisper instead. My hands return to her wrists and the hum of electricity reignites, singeing my fingertips and causing my eyes to clench shut. I step forward as my fingers trace up the silhouette of her arms before coming to her shoulder. I find the strap of the tank top she’s wearing. My teeth catch my bottom lip as my fingers edge restlessly underneath. Push the material completely aside.

My fingers are still against her shoulders, waiting, waiting

waiting

for any response, but she gives no protest. I can’t make sense of her thoughts. I can’t make sense of my own. I can’t comprehend why I’m leaning down to her ear, past her ear, until my lips find the warmth of her newly-exposed shoulder. The swell of energy against my lips is intoxicating; Juliette takes preceden of all of my thoughts. I don’t want to be gentle anymore, but I can’t help but feel like I’m holding a glass figurine in my hand, fragile and priceless.

So I lean away again.

I still can’t see her face in the darkness, but now that I’m close, it’s easier to guess where the features are. So when I remove one of my hands from her shoulder, my index finger lands directly on her bottom lip, moist like she’d just been worrying it. My finger follows the curve of her lip, my limbs shaking from restraint and caution. And I’m waiting. Waiting for her to end it, waiting for her to shove me away and call me names and throw me out of her room and report me to Kent or whoever else she thinks could save her. But instead, her lips part against my finger and it takes all in me not to throw her onto the bed behind me. Instead, I return my hands slowly to her back, our stomachs nearly touching.

I am buzzing again as I lean down toward her ear, and whether it’s from her or my own feelings, I can’t tell.

Running away is the last thing on my mind now. All I can comprehend is her nearness, that she isn’t trying to end this, that she might have forgiven me. My chest is rising and falling quickly, and I don’t remember being this invigorated from a workout in my entire life. Finally, words find my lips.

“You.” I say it quietly. The word comes from somewhere beyond my voice box; it requires an entire breath to expel the syllable.

I have never found it hard to be direct with her before, but it takes all of my concentration for the next words to surface. Quietly, yet explosive with honesty that I hope she’ll recognize:

“You destroy me.”

I can feel the war within her, I can taste the exhalation running through her veins. I don’t know what she wants me to do, I don’t know what she wants me to say, I don’t know if she’s ever going to speak. She stands in front of me, so small yet so brilliant. I want her to go to bed thinking of me, and I want to be selfish and believe that she does so. I want her to tremble for me as badly as I tremble for her in the nights I wake up with a dream of her still imprinted on the back of my eyelids. I want her to know. And so I say so.

“Juliette,” The name is so familiar on my tongue that I’m not sure if I even said it out loud or not. “I want you. I want all of you. I want you inside and out and catching your breath and aching for me like I ache for you.” My voice strains toward the end, so I swallow haphazardly then continue quickly, desperately, “It’s never been a secret. I’ve never tried to hide that from you. I’ve never pretended I wanted anything less.”

Then finally, her voice. “You—you said you wanted f-friendship—”

“Yes,” I say, swallowing again. “I did. I do. I do want to be your friend.” I nod emphatically, then continue, “I want to be the friend you fall hopelessly in love with. The one you take into your arms and into your bed and into the private world you keep trapped in your head. I want to be that kind of friend. The one who will memorize the things you say as well as the shape of your lips when you say them. I want to know every curve, every freckle, every shiver of your body, Juliette-“

[whysojiminimnida]

WELL I SEE IT'S TIME TO TALK TATTOOS AGAIN

Holy cats, hoes mad:

I just adore Black&White KM, don't you? Honestly, never yells at me no matter how often I steal their pics, they give out freebies at concerts, they're respectful -- if you're gonna make a living off photographing famous people, do it like they do. Honestly. So they're in Qatar doing their whole job and hoes losing their shit all over the internet, apparently, all because a certain JM is darker. STILL.

This is not a brand new development.

Y'ALL HE DID THIS MONTHS AGO WHY ARE WE JUST NOW FREAKING OUT ABOUT IT?

This is at LAST YEAR'S GRAMMYS Y'ALL:

And completely unedited, unretouched, the JM was darker enough then that I did a whole post about it.

I MEAN DAMN have we not gone over this, like, several times? (In case you're new to this house elf situation we have here, yes. YES WE HAVE.) We have talked about Jungkook's tattoos at GREAT LENGTH. Well, I have, as far back as a while ago, most recently along about here but also here and here and here and several other places. There is zero tag organization in this house, I don't know what else to tell you.

Anywho Jungkook's tats do not, as nearly as I can tell, mean this:

Because, like the nice graphic above says that I just edited, THIS IS FAN-MADE BULLSHIT. I dunno who made it but I suspect the addition of the J upset some folk enough to need to make JeiKei's motivation anything OTHER than Jimin. Because, as we know, he started out with his ink like this:

Yes, that is a pic someone ripped off. I don't like using it. But it's what we have, and it's years later, and it's been out there for a long time, don't shoot. But I have expounded more than once on why it makes NO SENSE to GO BACK LATER to add one letter to a near-complete hand piece. It doesn't. And that A is not, never has been, a V. In Korea you can go literally anywhere and see Samsung logos, Shilla hotel logos, and of course Jimin's dad's cafe' all using that stylized A with no crossbar.

And I think it's pretty clear what JK thinks the JM means. It means Jimin. Ji Min. JM. DUH. And just like his "rather be dead than cool / make hay while the sun shines" crossword ON HIS ARM, he has a crossword on his hand. A very obvious crossword. Who he loves is written for all of us to see: ARMY, and JM. And lest I forget about that crown:

It's THE SAME CROWN. Wanna go one better but likely utter fanfiction, you could even go heart-arrow-crown like so: 💜 > 👑... ... and make that story work. It actually makes more sense than one J for four people and four letters for three. But we're not here for that. Occam's Razor tells us that the simplest explanation is usually the correct one, and the simplest explanation is the one that's got bitches tearing their hair out. Because THEY KNOW. They KNOW that JM means Jimin, and they HATE IT. (And so what, to quote JeiKei directly. We're gonna talk about fan hate today, too, just... not in this post).

MEANWHILE JUNGKOOK is always showing us his hand, too, have you noticed? Ever since he got the tattoos, but I think more in the last year. It's gotten really pronounced since the PTD dates.

Jeon Jungkook does what Jeon Jungkook wants, and what he wants is for us to pick up what he's been throwing down since, oh, FOREVER but even more recently. Like, it's NOTICEABLE, the way he gets that tattoo in frame at every opportunity. I'll run out of image space before he runs out of ways to show us his touched-up hand.

Yeah. I think the fanmade bullshit has been exposed for what it is. Some of us have known it all along, but even if you're baby Army and you accidentally got stuck watching a lot of comic sans rainbow font youtube garbage (or got up on the wrong side of stan twt), there's no shame in that. I ain't even mad. I'm just happy you're here. Jeon-Park house elves, how we doin'?

[dearweirdme]

https://x.com/BIGHIT_MUSIC/status/1818112395048595545?t=ZFr9UZMp6rbjV1LKKRzU4g&s=19

(The translation)

🤣🤣🤯That company... is really something. And also there are two things playing with my neurons right now (stream neuron by hobi)

1. Maybe I should watch the entire suchwita interview by myself and not rely on a solo reply, but apparently the company decided to make them shoot something at the last minute. I'm not saying they forced them or anything similar, but I just had this thought : what if in the future, jk and jm don't plan on "feeding" their shippers anymore. And let's say the company kind of knew. About the fanservice so they kind of decided to throw something just like that. Just to fuel. But I can be wrong tho. It can also be something that jk and jm decided to do long ago and the company just brought it back up.

2. I'm a tkkr and honestly if this was in taekook case, I would have yelled out of happiness. But then i would have closed my mouth shut the minute i'll remember they are behind the barracks. 🤣 I saw one jikkr and there are probably plenty others, saying we are mad and that jkk is tgt. 🙈🙈

There are a lot of places I wanna explore. One of them is jkk brain. Seriously. They are really strong believer, because by now, if this was me I would have been convinced two men that I think are each other's husband are nothing more than buddies.

I say it all the time and I will say it again for any jikkr lurking (without hate) : South Korea has a fcked up law where two men who enlist together cannot be more than buddies or family. The moment the opposite is proven, they'll be thrown in prison and whatever career they have kind of end there. Now I don't know about any other kpop group but I do know that in no world BTS will go to a place like that, which we know dang well stress them out and they want it to be over as soon as possible, and make two of them who are supposedly a couple, enlist, while they plan on coming back as a group. This is a risky and stupid move. A big one at that.

And there's no " BUT IF THIS WAS TAEKOO-" because yes jk did want to go in Taehyung division but he didn't. He said he wanted to and he didn't!! That's the real difference right here.

Ps : ( I think that tweet is no big deal. I just wanted to vent a little.)

Hi anon!

We all need to vent a bit at times right 😊?

So... the translation on X says "a page of youth and romance". I did read in the comments that it can be translated as "bromance" though.. which falls in line with what we've seen I think. My Korean is level zero, so I'm always hesitant when it comes to these things.

Your "feeding" actually inspired my former post about Jm and Jk feeding Jkkrs. I think we've all been talking a lot about fanservice, feeding, real connections, company content, etc.. a lot these last couple of months. No wonder with one side of fandom wanting the JmJk travel show to be a romantic private getaway, and the rest of us seeing that this wasn't that. I mean, there's obviously a team with them, plans were made.. there is no way around that.

I think what's most likely, is that Jm thought about what he wanted to do for army. Somehow the idea of doing a travel show with Jk reëntered his thoughts, he got excited, Jk got excited, the company got real excited and made it happen. That's not a bad thing. It does not undermine their friendship if this is what happened. Things can easily be two things at once. So this being for army doesn't mean Jk and Jm aren't also actually close. It being recorded inbetween Jk's promo is perhaps ill timing, but it's also still very possible that Jk really wanted to do it. He loves Jm (platonically.. don't get excited Jkk lurkers), he loves doing stuff for army, he's a hard worker. I think that literally is it.

Now the company involvement is a different thing ofcourse. Because we know they don't shy away from editing stuff a certain way and adding captions that might be suggestive. I think the company definitely plays into shipping and shipping wars.

I mean, as Tkkrs we don't really expect content like this. It's the same way I never expected Jk and Tae to enlist together the way Jm and Jk did. There's just boundaries to what they can do, we know that. Aside from Jkk shenaniganse, I love that Jm and Jk enlisted together. I think they are such a huge source of comfort to each other, and I think knowing they would go together probably soothed some of the unease they were feeling while preparing for this.

[quietbluejay]

Could Shirou Emiya Fix the Primarchs?

I know this has been a burning question for many (read: just me)

Originally wrote this up and then deleted it but I'm bringing it back. Funny answers only.

Lion: this is just Saber on hard mode right? I'm not the only one who calls him a Saberface right???

Fulgrim: This dude was made to be a Fate character who is a horrible enemy in one route and then in the next you discover his Tragic Backstory. Somehow in Ataraxia he is the new art teacher. No one questions this. To answer the original question, no. Is he just Fate Nero Purple Edition???

Perturabo: 100%

Jaghatai: This is kind of "Waver and Iskander: The Next Generation". Actually, now I really want to see Jaghatai crash the Fate/Zero banquet of kings.

Leman Russ: I'm trying to figure out which Fate character he reminds me of and going a little crazy here because I know there's someone and yet my brain keeps going "Mordred" even though i KNOW it's not right, it's because my last Mordred exposure was "gif of Mordred running around in a circle chasing a cat"

Rogal Dorn: The actual Hard Mode Saber

Konrad Curze: He could make Shirou worse. But probably won't.

Sanguinius: this is just Rin on hard mode right and no I'm not just saying that because of Rin being descended from vampires nope actually it's Hard Mode Sakura where you're not childhood friends

Ferrus Manus: [RETURN TO CUCUMBER ERROR STICK HIM IN THE MOON CELL HAKUNO COULD DO IT]

Angron: if Kharn couldn't do it, I don't think Shirou can

Roboute Guilliman: is this another Saber? The colour scheme may point that way, but no. Not fixable by Shirou. Taiga hits on him repeatedly. Throw him at Waver and the Rail Zeppelin gang, I think they could fix him. Does he activate Waver's Saberface trauma, though...

Mortarion: First impulse was to say no, but it depends on- wait I've changed my mind, still no, but I got a wacky fic idea

Magnus: no, but Rin might

Horus: this is the ACTUAL Hard Mode Rin/Sakura combo

Lorgar: I think Kirei could fix him

Vulkan: [RESULTS INCONCLUSIVE]

Corvus Corax: no but I want to see the AU where Kirei summons him in Zero as Assassin

Alpharius: Shirou was actually Alpharius the entire time, so I guess this is just UBW then

[cooliogirl101]

So in Fourth Wing, I actually liked Xaden's character for the most part (minus the sex scenes and the last chapter, which I'm just not gonna talk about. I've never seen an author manage to erase character depth by giving them a chapter in their POV before). What I didn't enjoy was Xaden and Violet's relationship-- how so much of the focus was on establishing the drama and physical attraction between them that it forgot to make it fun.

Like, I could care less about Xaden being the dark, handsome, mysterious, broody guy. Let him be that way with everyone else. Violet and Xaden, I want them to shed their masks around each other and not even notice doing it. I want them to make each other feel safe enough to act like the children they never got to be.

"This is unbecoming behavior of you, Riorson. Please release me." Despite her words, Violet's tone was as professional as ever. The only sign of her annoyance was the miniscule twitch of her left eyebrow-- that, as well as the fact that she'd resorted to using his last name. Again.

"You found her?" Imogen grinned.

"It wasn't difficult." Xaden's tone was unbearably smug. Violet had a sudden, inexplicable urge to lean down and bite his hand where it was still holding onto her wrist in an unshakable grip.

She blinked, startled by the impulse. That was unlike her. She wondered if being bonded to two dragons had a bigger impact on her than she'd thought.

Don't blame this on us, Tairn grumbled in her head. Believe me, this is all you, Silver One.

"Found her slacking off in the Archives," Xaden continued. "She was so absorbed in her book, she didn't even notice me approaching."

(In the privacy of her own mind, Violet could perhaps admit to herself that this one was on her. She'd chosen too obvious a hiding place. Still, she wasn't about to say that to him.)

"Something we're going to have go work on," Xaden added, flicking her on the forehead. "Can't have you getting distracted every time you come across a shiny new volume you haven't read before. Why, imagine the disaster if our enemies discovered all they had to do was throw some rare first-edition volume in the air and they'd have a fifty-fifty chance of you diving off your dragon to catch it," he teased.

This time, she wasn't able to catch her impulse in time to stop it. Before she could analyze the potential consequences, she'd already kicked Xaden in the shin as hard as she could.

He let out a satisfying hiss of pain, releasing her from his grip.

"Now who's the unbecoming one?" Xaden asked, eyes bright with amusement. "Assaulting a superior officer? I could have you reported for that."

"'Take advantage of the opportunities your enemy gives you'," Violet recited. "General Katz, Rules of Combat."

"Are we enemies now?" Xaden wondered, placing a hand on his chest in mock hurt. "And here I was trying so hard to keep you alive."

"Anyone who disrupts my scholarly time that I spend analyzing and learning battle strategies to better prepare for the war effort is my enemy," Violet retorted.

"Please," Xaden scoffed. "The last person who needs any help training their intelligence is you. You're scary enough as it is, Violence."

This time, Violet managed to restrain the automatic urge to elbow him, if only because she didn't want to give him the satisfaction of proving him right.

"Don't call me that," she snapped instead. It wasn't even a proper pun, she thought to herself indignantly. If he was going to bastardize her name, he could at least have the decency of using some clever wordplay. This, on the other hand, was just lazy.

"What? Violence?" Xaden blinked, in a manner that would appear innocent, had it not been for the way the corner of his lips kept twitching. "But it suits you so well--"

Violet lunged at him.

It was, objectively speaking, an absolutely horrible attack. It was wild, impulsive, uncalculated, with zero chance of actually working.

She couldn't remember the last time she'd had so much fun.

Violet had just enough time to catch the way Xaden's smirk morphed into a full-fledged grin before he caught her mid-tackle and twisted her until he had her in a fireman's carry.

"Let me go!" She threatened-- or attempted to. The barely suppressed laughter in her voice rather took all the menace out of it.

"Not a chance," Xaden scoffed, humor softening his features until they seemed younger, boyish almost. His body felt very warm against hers. "Let me remind you, you're the one who leapt into my arms, Violet. You can hardly ask me to let you go now."

(Everyone else in the training studio: *determinedly avoiding eye contact*

Rhiannon: How is it that they engage in the worst PDA of the Wing without actually engaging in any PDA. And how is it that neither of them seems to realize it.)

[brucenorris007]

"Sonic 06: gameplay is shit, story is shit."

Okay, I somewhat disagree but don't see the need to expend energy toward-

*comparison between 06 and Forces is drawn*

My brain: heyguesswhatyou'rehyperfocusednow

I was going to do things today. . . but here we are.

Okay, up top and up front: 06 and Forces are both flawed, yes.

But they are flawed in fundamentally different ways, and Forces flaws are, quite frankly, far more glaring and demeritorious for a franchise like Sonic than 06. Anyone who, years from now, goes on to claim that "Uh, actually, Forces was peak." the way that some people are saying about 06 now will be just as, if not more, wrong. And I'll attribute such claims to declining media literacy.

BEFORE the youngsters in the fandom start throwing things at me, note that I said just as wrong. 06 wasn't ever as good as some of the mainline games prior or even spinoff titles after.

The difference is, most of 06's issues stem from the fact that it reads as pitiably unfinished.

The problems with Forces begin and end with the fact that it reads like self-insert fan fiction that had either zero beta readers or too many beta readers that were all given editing privileges. There's definitely a place in the world for that sort of creativity, but said place is not within a licensed game that people have to pay for; one that drastically affects the canon of the franchise and how the fans old and new perceive it and the characters within.

All right? Okay, let's get into details.

Let's address gameplay first, since I have less to say about that.

On this count, if nothing else, Forces barely edges out by being functional; granted, that's the end of it. I wouldn't go back to play it again, and the 'highlights' I can recall mostly felt like reskins of stages in the style of Colors but shortened, with boss fights reminiscent of daytime Unleashed. I imagine the primary draw for people is watching their customized 'sona jump and fly around whilst listening to dialogue from the main cast.

And this isn't really a substantive point, but the fact that receiving stuff like outfits like loot crates at the end of virtually every stage feels kind of manipulative and annoys me. If there's unlockable features, put some actual challenge between the player and the prize, like how you perform within the stage. Otherwise it's just another example of "shiny, novelty, tickle brain often, get player to play longer."

Setting that brief tangent aside since that's just a trend in games in general and not Sonic specific, moving on to 06's gameplay. And uh, yeah. The USP was, like the adventure games, supposed to be that you got three interconnected stories and three main characters each with unique play styles.

I suppose 06 showed us before anything else that Shadow really isn't as fast as Sonic, and as an idea, Silver's psychokinesis was cool. If the tracking in the Speed Up stages and the hit boxes in a handful of other areas had been ironed out, there's foundation for a fairly solid experience. Project 06 is basically proof that the base of the game had potential that wasn't realized, whether due to time constraints or other reasons.

As far as environs, the concept for Kingdom Valley showed off the most soul, I'd say, with Silver's future coming in close second. Character design for the Iblis fragments (not sure if that's the official name but I'm doing stream-of-consciousness here) and Mephiles I actually like a lot. I don't think there's anything objectively wrong with them and however you rate them will come down to preference.

Also, the model for Sonic is like. . . ridiculously good. He just looks like an older teenager; it fits with the widely accepted idea that he was 15 as of Adventure 2. Polish it a bit and that's just how he appears in my head when I write about him.

That said, there are only about six different environs that serve as stages, discounting the hub areas, and compared to Heroes' twelve stages, it just adds to that incomplete/rushed feeling.

That's about all I can say on the gameplay aspect. Functional yet non-stimulating technically wins out over some creativity yet patchy. They are games, after all.

Now then, the "story is shit" business.

Look, if you're going to criticize Sonic's story—which, yeah, his should be subjected to more scrutiny, being the titular character—then much of what you can say against it also applies to the first Adventure. Eggman wants to collect a thing (emeralds/Princess), Sonic wants him to not collect the thing (emeralds/Princess) because he's obviously planning to do evil stuff with the thing, Sonic manages to get the thing only for Eggman to snatch it out of his hands.

Multiple times.

Meaning Sonic spends most of the games on fetch quests that Eggman keeps one-upping him on until the penultimate fight.

And those are the beats. Of both stories. (For Sonic.)

And then at the end of both games, a monster you've fought in various forms (Chaos/Iblis) reappears to threaten the world on a scale that requires the seven chaos emeralds to combat.

Super Sonic. Rad soundtrack. Credits.

Granted, much like how Gamma's story was the strongest in Adventure, the quality of the three main story lines in 06 also vary in strength, with Shadow's taking first place.

My point is, in a franchise that is about characters, you don't grade every aspect of the story on the same scale. You weigh the grade of various aspects differently; and the point that gets graded most heavily is:

Character moments; which can encapsulate literal moments, arcs, development etc.

And for all its flaws, 06 has character moments, almost immediately, even. Sonic's first spoken line is "My, that's a pretty snazzy performance there!"

Which, after the tension of Eggman interrupting the festival and threatening Elise, cuts through the moment right away and, paired with the next several seconds, shows who Sonic is. He sees Eggman's robots aiming and waits until the last second to jump before going to town bashing up bots. Even as he carts Elise off amidst homing missiles and explosions, he's grinning the whole time.

Sonic does what he does because it's fun.

And his third spoken line, answering Elise's question of why he's helping, is: "No special reason."

Again, that's Sonic. Doesn't matter who it is, he helps people because he Does what's Cool. And as well as being fun, fighting off Eggman and his bots is Cool.

06, as Silver's introduction to the series, also does a decent job establishing his character of Temporal Bulldozer. He can be aimed, but his solution to problems first and foremost is usually smashing, and it's really tricky to change his mind once he's focused. He suffers from myopia arguably as bad or worse than Metal Sonic. Amy's the only one who momentarily gets him to pause and wonder if really does want to kill Sonic.

Which is a character moment for her. As in Adventure 2, Amy will happily break laws and go against who and whatever to help her friends; and as she did with Shadow, she's rather skilled at getting very hurt people to listen.

She's not unlike Silver in her willingness to do whatever it takes, really; since Temporal Bulldozer can and does traverse time on several occasions to make things right. And up until the last moment, it never occurs to him that anyone but he should bear the burden of saving the world. Blaze has to physically shove him aside so she can absorb Iblis herself.

Silver sees himself as a Hero with a responsibility toward the future just as much Sonic sees himself as just Some Guy.

Finally, Shadow. And man, there's a reason a lot of people say 06 was the last time a game featured Shadow written correctly.

It's me. I'm one of a lot of people.

Team Dark in general gets a fair bit of spotlight in 06. Rouge, an anti-heroine with perhaps the greatest self-interest after Eggman, promises Shadow that she'd stand with him even if the very world turned against him. Omega, who loathes taking orders and prioritizes his own freedom nearly as much as Sonic, takes on Rouge's assignment for him without question or complaint to wait out 200 years to help rescue Shadow.

And Shadow, in an in-game line during his first fight with Mephiles, reaffirms all the progress he made in his titular game that was wholly about discovering his identity: "Don't bother trying to deceive me. I know who I am!"

And, in contrast to the Shadow the franchise first introduced us to, the Shadow of Adventure 2 who was thoroughly convinced that his only remaining worth was his ability to keep his promise to Maria, the Shadow who was so resigned that he chose to plummet through the planet's atmosphere to his presumed death. . .

That Shadow is faced squarely with his fate of persecution, asked why he would bother fighting to protect. That Shadow declares that it the world turns on him, "I will fight as I always have."

He's grown such that he's now willing to fight against fate.

And that's pretty fucking cool.

On the other side, applying the same grading method to Forces, we find what I call (as of just now) character fauxments.

Remember how I talked about 06's introduction for Sonic? How he cuts through tensions, finds joy and fun in fighting bullies and bad guys?

The thing about that, which Forces doesn't seem to understand, is that if you lean too hard on the wisecracks and nonchalance, you end up with a character who reads as either obnoxious or totally tone-deaf. Sonic knows when to take things seriously, yet in Forces he's purportedly been tortured as well as locked up for half a year, Infinite's destroyed countless homes and killed who knows how many people, and yet when Sonic interrupts his fight with Silver. . .

I mean, if Sonic was written correct, you'd cut out a bunch of faff and change his line delivery. Show that he's frustrated by his time confined and absolutely raring to throw hands and get to business; because Sonic does understand when things have gotten real, and while rare, he does get angry. Something like:

"Since you like talking so much, mind sharing the source of your power? I can ask the easy way or the hard way. I've been cooped up a long time, so I'm hoping you pick the hard way."

It doesn't need to be the most original lines in the world, but Sonic's banter in the middle of a war shouldn't be long-winded, no matter how pretentious his opponent is (and damn, is Infinite pretentious. Like to the point that it's the most memorable part of the game.) If there's banter, it should be punchy and succinct; quick, like he is.

Instead, Forces Sonic's attitude is just kind of. . . incongruous with the stakes the game claims to have established. But then, since we don't get a truly convincing scene showing the rest of the cast being sad that he reportedly died, that's not too surprising.

Speaking of setting up stakes, here's an idea. Rather than cutting from Sonic laying battered in the middle of the city for a lazy six-month time skip established by text on the screen, make it clear that "Oh shit, things are different" via gameplay.

After Sonic falls, immediately transition into a level. Where you run from right to left to escape Eggman's fleet. Turns everything on its head, you can witness and navigate the destruction as it's happening and if you string together enough environs, you can even have the city burning in the distance or the skyline as you near the end of the stage and escape to relative safety.

Anyway.

And of course, the notorious character fauxment: Tails cowering in front of an offline Omega.

There's nothing I can say about this fauxment that hasn't been said already. It's not the first time in the series that Tails was portrayed as having regressed to a scared child, but it is the most egregious.

And. . . actually, that's about it, at least off the top of my head. Which might speak to how short the game is and how little screen time and action the main cast get aside from Sonic and the player character.

But it's enough to determine that Forces' story, or what stands in for it, is weaker than what 06 offered.

Again, I'm not here to rally a feral defense of 06 as a masterpiece, but its flaws are not on the level of Forces. The reason they're lumped together is the amount of disdain both games got on their release; though in the case of 06, the 2000's were just a weird time when hating things was somehow cooler than liking them, and since 06 wasn't up to par with Adventure 2 or Heroes, people picked an aspect of the game-most often how much the almost final fantasy style model for Elise didn't match up with the Mobian models (and yes, the final cutscene, but there's nothing new I can say about that either, and talking about it here is just an open invitation for someone to blow it out of proportion again) and dogpiled the hate on the game.

Sonic 06 feels unfinished owing to a lot of little and larger details. Knuckles' portrayal and having little to do in the story, poor optimization leading to nearly twenty second loading times, BLAZE BEING A GLOWING NEON MISSED OPPORTUNITY! (SEGA, I know I was literally twelve when the game was released, but my Phoenix headcanon works so well and makes her appearance in both Rush and 06 work! A retroactive fix would be so easy and we could get more adventures in her dimension!)

Even acknowledging all that, though, there were still attempts at creativity that just, for one reason or another, didn't pan out. There's significant potential here.

Forces is just. . . a mess. In every sense. And I understand how a mess can be attractive to a fandom, because a mess means you can take whatever you want from it and organize things however you choose.

But a mess that's sold as a finished game is not the same as a rushed title with visible untapped potential.

[bonesandthebees]

I care about Rose! In fact, we started watching house of dragon (only 2 episode so far though) and it constantly makes me think of Rose because you use it as inspiration. Like obviously there’s the coronation scene which reminds me of stars. And there’s the character Willum is sorta kinda inspired by. And it’s an entirely different world, but every time I’m drawn back to Rose wondering how things will play out. (Which is not pressure to finish writing it if you don’t want to. Writer’s block can be a bitch and I get that the motivation for this project has been sucked out, but I just want you to know that I still care, and I’m not the only one.)

Also, I’ve been meaning to start my Ready, Set, Detonate analysis but I keeps getting away from me. I’m not sure there will be much to analyse, but there’s definitely fun details I want to point out. Oh and I am Looking 👀 at the fit/pac tag and kicking my feet. I don’t actually know if they are already in a relationship (I’m sure we’ll find out, but I just loved Fit’s little “Pac’s here?” That man is gone. Oh and I’m so excited for this Tubbo and to read more Bagi and the lore. Just all of it.

Then the original writing is a mood. I keep getting like a few chapters into my story before deciding it’s not good enough or thinking of something else I could do and throwing it all out. It’s this constant loop that never seems to get anywhere even though the story gets more and more fleshed out in my head every time. I think it’s because the opportunities are endless. Like there’s no characters and personalities and dynamics to stick to like there is in fan fiction. It’s free game but that does mean you have to decide everything yourself.

Anyway, best original writing advice I can give is remember the drafting process. There’s going to be a shit ton of drafts, which feels different for you because you’ve been mostly writing stories and posting them as you go, which means some minor or major editing, but leaves you without a chance to do a once over. It’s a sort of pressure to get everything right the first time. Meanwhile, original writing is something you keep close to your chest. There’s different drafting stages ranging from the zero draft (aka excessive daydreaming about all the possibilities) to the final draft (where you just go through and kill all your darlings and pour over ever single word to find the right one).

I’m struggling a lot with the first draft, which is literally just getting words onto a page. It’s a somewhat coherent mess that just allows you to shape the story and its structure so you can work off of that and edit it later on. I don’t know if this actually helps, but yeah, the first draft sucks and then it mostly gets easier. Just write, is kinda shitty advice, but it’s mainly, just get words onto a page, you will get a million chances to fix it, you don’t need to be happy about what you wrote right now.

-🌲

ohhhh I'm so excited you've started watching hotd!! good timing since the second season is going to come out later this year :D I hope you enjoy!! and I'm so happy to hear you're still excited about rose. I definitely want to finish writing it, like I said it's just me worrying about if anyone will bother to read it but a lot of you have said you would so that helps assuage my worries a bit

feel free to send whatever random thoughts you have about ready set detonate you know idc if it's analysis or not I just love seeing peoples reactions!! fit and pac are not in a relationship (yet) in the fic but theres a lot of flirty pining going on lol

god yeah it's so much harder with original fiction because it feels like there's so much pressure. you have too much freedom to do whatever you want so you're constantly second guessing if it's good enough or not. and ofc I know rough drafts are supposed to be shitty but I've tried to hone my skills so that my first draft is always incredibly solid because I rarely have the patience to do heavy edits, but that's with fanfiction. it has to be different with original fiction I know but it's hard to make my brain okay with that. I keep feeling like it needs to be nearly perfect on the first run :( but yeah I'm mostly trying to get words on a page. but then I think back and realize I forgot to mention this or I need to mention more of that etc etc and it's just stressful arghhh

[idontwikeit]

I'm fascinated with your iwtv haunted house video, what inspired you to put the images in the order that you put them in? What made you choose that poem to set the video to? I just want to know the whole artistic process behind this video, I've watched it like 10 times now, its so good!!!

Thank you!! I’m sorry I reply this late but this is a long answer. The poem is actually not a poem but “tapes” audio tracks lifted from the horror game Anatomy by Kitty Horroshow (itch.io// full gameplay link with no commentary // all tapes // tape transcripts for your reading pleasure) the rue royale one is based around the “final” one towards the ending. It’s one of my favorite horror games and it features one of my fave concepts with the house as a living breathing being

the idea of the amv is based around “louis as a haunted house” which I saw on a tumblr post/tag (i got zero clue where i saw it but it is probably from my trusted mutuals), aside from a few scenes that are based around claudia (since simply there are no ldpdl scenes close to the dialogues) they should all revolve around louis

Pretty easy from there since scenes are chosen based on the monologue, so I first chose the key scenes to feature first, then I usually edit the first and ending first so to get a vibe I want for the amv. You can see from my draft which I posted before when I missed the deadline oops

But to deliver the horror tm, I prefer building up quiet tension and interrupting with action or cut (like my other amv rip selfpromoting here but its less intense), so lots of the cut evolve around the key scenes, with the under layer a long scene preferable steady wide shots which led to this:

you can see the third track is filled with short clips, cut scenes that interrupts the longer scenes which I put underneath, and you can see there are more cuts in the middle part here so to make the amv getting more chaotic before metaphorically dying out, matching the "lie in wait" "hungry". the cuts around the key scene will either be parallel or contrast: like the one with them in the living room(?) sitting but the cuts are all actions: lestat throwing louis across the room, or them in the garden etc? the common themes will be the room they are occupying/ the object in the scene so there is transition but also not? just some discordant added

there are cuts that are like 1-2 frames only (like them dancing around the incinerator/far shot of them burning the evidence/hand) but I put them there for my own fun mostly and to disorient vision so if you are lucky and pause you can actually get those frames lol

This is similar to what I did for Part 1 dubai, I used the scene with louis controlling daniel's hand almost throughout, interspersed with cuts to amplify the panic, but since that one is FILLED with lost temper, there are much MORE cuts i was insane for that 50sec tape

[gaymer-hag-stan]

A Tekken 8 Review That Nobody Asked for From a Longtime Fan Who Has Been Playing for Ages But Is Not a Pro - That Title Is Too Long

Having spent a little over 24 hours playing the game on my PS5, I feel like it's an appropriate amount of time to share my first thoughts on it. I will try to keep spoilers to a minimum so just skip the "Story" section and you should be fine.

General Thoughts

A pretty healthy roster, overall happy with who we got. I do wish Anna and Christie were here, and I also miss Lucky Chloe. With Eddy already announced and Azucena taking over the "cooky dance-y character" I unfortunately don't see Christie or Chloe returning, but Anna better fucking do!

They all look great, even the ugly ones, they look satisfyingly ugly, if that makes any sense. The girls still suffer from the Madame Tussaud's wax figure syndrome that plagued the entirety of Tekken 7's roster, but, maybe I'm gaslighting myself, I do feel like they look a bit less plasticky than some of the initial teasers? Most of the redesigns are great, the hair (Lili's hair has never looked better), water and dirt physics all finally WORK and I love how all the clothing animates with the wind effect, the Fallen Destiny stage is a great one to illustrate all of the above. We can see Yoshimitsu's fingers after three decades! I'd love to know the thought process behind this redesign lmao

I love that they finally, after so many years of other fighting games having it but being inexplicably absent from Tekken, they finally added Player vs CPU matches! FINALLY! Finally I can pick my character and my opponent of choice, pick their costumes and set a stage for them to battle. I'm so happy for this even though it might not make any sense to anyone.

Combo Challenges! We finally have combo challenge in Tekken! Another common fighting game feature inexplicably missing up until now.

Gameplay feels a lot of fun. I wasn't sure about the heat mechanic but it's actually a lot more fun than I initially thought! I tried out all of the cast and am slowly completing both their story episodes and an Arcade run for good measure. I am obviously still maining Nina. They have decided to simplify a lot of her combo throws and I am having fun terrorizing people online with them by breaking their bones! I'm also using Arcade Quest to learn how to play as Lili and Azucena, some basic moves and combos and whatnot. I wanna also do Zafina, Jun, Jin, Hwoarang and Xiaoyu as well eventually. I think these eight will be my main squad for the time being. As a side note, King and Steve feel extremely fun to play, I haven't picked either in ages, but with King I was really close!

The netcode is, surprisingly functional??? We did recently switch to an optic fiber connection type, but I'm still on WiFi and I am having zero problems!

Jukebox is thankfully back again! I literally spent an hour or more before playing the game at all to decide which song goes where lol

Something that scares me regarding upcoming DLC, is that I do not see a season pass being sold anywhere except the Deluxe Edition bundle that costs 40€... I'm sorry but I don't give a fuck about owning 32 identical gold costumes or Tetsujin or whoever the fuck as my Arcade Quest avatar... I only want Eddy and the other three (one of them better be Anna!) thank you very much!

Story

"The Dark Awakens"

Believe it or not I haven't even finished the main story yet as I'm trying to pace myself through all the modes and enjoy them, savouring every moment. At the moment of typing this I am almost halfway through and I must say, even though I am still firmly in the "Drop the cinematic NRS style story modes" camp, and I would much rather have had either arcade mode with proper, canon endings back, or a revival and repurposing of the Tekken Force mode, in an SF6 World Tour mode type of way, out of all of Bandai Namco's attempts at a cinematic story mode, from SCV to Tekken 8, this has been the most satisfying attempt so far. I love that they are fully embracing the overdramatic nature of Tekken along with its campy side and it's present from the very beginning, with Jin throwing his bike at Kazuya's helicopter! "A Fate Decided by Fists" were we actually get to choose which fighters advance through the first round was the biggest highlight so far! I did not expect to fight Azazel again in 2024! I miss his Tekken 6 design though, he no longer glows according to his remaining health or has his limbs crumble away into scarabs according to which parts of him you're hitting. Also, I do understand why they felt the need to overemphasize how "Jin was a good guy all along and he's not like Kazuya" to redeem him and attempt to portray him as a more traditional hero, but I think they went way too far. Literally every single cast member, characters who've never met him before especially, makes a point of how good a person Jin is. Also, I do understand that there were a lot of people complaining that most of the cast were ignored in Tekken 7's story mode and I appreciate that they tried to include more of them this time, but it's so half assed and superficial. Like, Lili, Asuka, Hwoarang, Leo (who finds their missing father, a forgotten plot point from Tekken 6 of screen without a single explanation) Xiaoyu, PANDA offer absolutely nothing to the story so far other than to just be there and tell Jin what a good guy he is. And I say all that as someone who is firmly on Jin's side and despises Kazuya.

Character Episodes

Thank god they have more than one single fight this time! I would have liked it if they found a way to make each of them be canon. Like, I think every single one of the Arcade mode endings of SF6 is canon, if I'm not mistaken, and most of them seem to take place before the events of the main story, as a way to give us a clearer understanding of why each fighter fights. I think Guilty Gear does exactly that too. Nevertheless, I do appreciate that each fighter has fights specifically tailored to them, with specific opponents. It's not clear to me yet if they're completely non-canon or not, as in Nina's she seems to have been hired by Lee to sabotage G Corporation and Kazuya, I pray to God this is true and she's not actually, willingly working for that asshole, like, I'm still in complete denial that they threw her entire character development from Tekken 4 to Tekken 7 to the trash can just to go "NInA WiLl WoRK FoR WhOmEvEr"... She's also suspiciously missing from the actual story like, she simply just appeared in ONE scene so far and then left without doing literally anything. She also seems to only have special interactions with Steve and Lee so far when others get a lot more. Her handling story wise in this installment is insulting, considering she's the most popular female fighter in the series and one of the most popular in the genre...

Offline Modes

Arcade Quest

It's cute... It's certainly a cool way to mask your tutorial and the avatars are kinda cool, but they're nowhere near as good as what Capcom did with SF6 and World Tour. I must say I prefer Tag 2's Tekken Lab over this.

Super Ghost Battle

Ghost battle, after five attempts is finally fun! Tekken 7's was by far the worst attempt as the game would automatically pick opponents for you, matching you with much harder ones if you were winning too much and much lower ones if you were losing too much so that you wouldn't climb the ranks as fast and it would artificially increase playtime. Now that Tekken has actual single player modes other that the story there's no need for that, and they made it work. You simply choose from a list, and the ones that contain unlockable (useless) customisation options for specific characters are actually marked so that you can attempt to get the item you want.

Arcade Battle

I love that they still included a traditional eight battle long Arcade mode, even though they could have just had the character episodes and call it a day. My slight nitpick, again, is that they're still doing this thing that they've been doing since Tekken 5 or 6 where the first few battles are characters in their default costumes and then a horde of Namco's customized monstrosities attack your eyes... This is a huge pet peeve of mine, I understand it in the context of Ghost Battle, and Arcade Quest, but I do not want to see goofy customs in other, "serious" modes. On top of that, the ghosts you get seem to be from the Super Ghost Battle's catalogue of freaks, and are therefore higher difficulty than most, which in turn makes them actively harder than the mode's final boss which I think is kinda hilarious!

Tekken Ball

I will admit, I only played a single match and never touched it again. It is actually challenging, I'll give it that, but I don't see the appeal. I'd much rather have Tekken Bowl again back instead tbh. Also I wish that stage was playable in normal modes too.

Customization

Avatar customization is kinda whatever, but it works well enough for Arcade Quest and I don't really visit the Tekken Fight Lounge.

Character Customization however is where I have an issue. While I've seen lots of cool customs of various characters from other games and IPs, including Shimbori himself dressing up Super Battle ghosts as DOA characters!, I don't really care for the customization options? My only real use for Character Customization in Tekken so far was to recreate past / alternate outfits. Like, in Tekken 6 I would buy the schoolgirl outfit parts for all the teen girlies, in Tekken 7 I recreated Nina's 2P outfit from Tekken 4 using her Blood Vengeance catsuit as a base, stuff like that. In Tekken 8 all I'm getting is a huge catalogue of Zara's apparel... And all the unlockable outfits are either their default look with less clothes on, or weird cosplays of other characters. Why? Tekken Character Customization peaked in Tekken 6, where every single one of the 40 (41 if you count Panda, who I think had some different options from Kuma) characters had his own personal selection of outfits and items, matching their personality and look. I don't want to play as Nina dressed up as Ada Wong or in a business casual for a 9-5 desk job. They made everything way too generic and bland and, on top of that, we don't even have trademark pieces like Nina's purple catsuit, her ponytail, Hwoarang's taekwondo garb, Xiaoyu's Tekken 6 battle costume. The Tekken 5 veterans should have had their Tekken 5/6/TTT2 costumes and hairstyles on top of their Tekken 7 ones.

Overall, I am very very happy with this game! It seemingly does almost everything right and I am glad to see it improving on, literally, every single thing over Tekken 7.

Score: 9 / 10

[carmenized-onions]

SIGH you got me good with this one I fear

Okay so the chap is still fresher in my mind this time since I read yesterday!! Itemized yap sheet incoming below based mostly on the order they happened

1) Yoooooo

That just cracked me up okay. Had to add. But also like. I love them. I love that Tony is so nervous to catch up with Richie bc it means talking abt mikey, but also relieved and excited ish to talk to richie bc it means talking abt mikey does that makes ykwim

2) AAAAAAA listen the way that Carmy thinks about Tony to calm down?? Like hes having a panic attack and he thinks about Tony and is calmed slightly by smelling her shampoo in his hair literally makes me ILL

2b) kinda related but also like not ?? But Anyway Like. Carmy like unsure whether or not he is actually scared/believes Richie when he says he could end his relationship with tony got me like on my knees in my workplace when I read that bc UGH he has absolutely zero confidence and i just want to kiss his face okay. Also him not really wanting to share tony with Richie is so real of him actually. Like he wants Tony to just be his and that's so sweet.

3) if we dont find out the chip storyline ill riot if only for Carmy's sake cause like Carm, im also now very intrigued that Richie didn't immediately blab when prompted but also go richie thats very cute

4)AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

Scream break mb

5) last one but like the painting??? The way that it starts with the beef and has like pictures of before and stuff and the mid point is mikey and then it has pictures from like the building process and ends with the The Bear sign? IM DECEASED YOU KILLED ME THATS SO GOOD WHAT LITERALLY WHAT

6)okay im i liar whatever could i edit the post yes will i no. I digress. Last one fr. So the way both their lil povs end with them saying on friday they'll do right by each other??? Im so gone actually wtf

Anyways as always i adore you and your writing RAAAA

HEHEHEH GOTCHU!!! GOT YOUR ASS!!!

yoooooooo -- The next convos are really some of my favourite to write, i get to amp up the funny and math out what their texting styles would probably be, it's fun!!

Also yes, it's very much that part of grief where it's like a knife to talk about them, but it's also nice, it's weird when in the grief process, everyone around you acts like that person just simply Never Happened in fear of being triggering-- It's nice for Tony and Richie to get to talk raw!! Even if it's anxiety inducing to lead with it!!

2. Hehehhehe, he does it a LOT, When he called her before, trying and failing to get her voicemail, when he was having an episode in the diner and then Tony came back and he became Normal mostly. Grounding Tool but it's a Person

3. listen baby, I don't put a gun in the first act just to not fire it. I've had this backstory since chapter two. And honestly, I was extremely nervous that someone was gonna guess it and I was being too obvious. Thank God, no one has, yet-- But also no one's guessed, so like, feel free to throw in your guesses, love to hear em.

4. AHHHHHHHH!!!! Here let's see, during this scream break what can I give you...

This is what I'm screaming over, personally. This is Chapter 10 alone, LMAO. AND I'M NOT EVEN DONE LMAOOOO. The goal for me is to get it out this Friday, so it's like, timely and on theme. But we'll see how tired I am, this work week. Might've just gotten a commission (that I honestly don't want to take lmaoo) so we'll see. Fingers crossed. It's definitely gonna need me to take my eyes off it for a day and come back to, so keep your fingers crossed, for me.

5. OH GOOD! I was worried I described it poorly; there's always that fear, when you have to make the thing that's like the thing of the story, and if it's not good then what the FUCK WAS IT FOR!!!!!????

I'm vv happy to hear it killed you, is what I'm trying to say. I also thought the idea was very sweet. Hehhehe

6. You're always free to yap on end, never fear such a thing. Yes!! Their POVs start and end the same way, which is just like, a cute lil touch, yknow. Two anxious mfs. In the club tnnnnn, trying to do right by each other if it fuckin' KILLS them

thank you thank you thank u as always i love to hear this and i hope u enjoy Friday whenever the FUCK it comes out.