#but i did have fun(?) i guess so that’s smthn

[daeyumi]

made a fake boxart for my zelda au 🌟💫

[sundial-bee-scribbles]

Could I ask 9 and/or 4?

got two people asking for 4 so i'll get to it lol but first:

9. What are your file name conventions

well it depends, usually now they're p straightforward (often for organizational purposes)

sometimes tho they're kinda funny

4. Fav character/subject that's a bitch to draw

oh there's probably a LOT honestly that i'm just forgetting abt but for one i'll say a certain bitch: FUKASE

ohhhhh my god. love that bastard but also wtf dude. aside from wildly inconsistent characterization in my stuff (b/c honestly he's a really interesting character who has a lot of potential for different interpretations, imo) I KEEP FUCKING UP HOW I DRAW HIM 😭😭 i'll forget some detail or another (like on his outfit or the fucking x thing near his mouth or the little flag on his head), colors aren't always consistent cause i keep changing them (sorry my guy your current red is kinda too high contrast and i got color theory shit going on in my things), I CAN NEVER FUCKING DRAW HIS HAIR RIGHT EVEN THO ITS NOT EVEN THEORETICALLY THAT HARD OF A HAIRSTYLE, not even his height's fucking consistent either he's a goddamn mess. award goes to him for sure in being THE most inconsistent variable vocaloid bitch in my shit, not just hc/portrayal-wise but also drawing wise because FUCK even if i draw him somewhat often HE LITERALLY LOOKS DIFFERENT EVERY FUCKING TIME

len's hair is also a bitch sometimes but for some reason i (usually) have less trouble w/ his hairstyle compared to fukase's WHICH IS SOME FUCKING BACKWARDS ASS LOGIC BRUH THE HELL

weirdly specific artist asks

[marishoodie7]

Hey! Don’t know if requesting is open but could i request a smut with Ethan Landry where the reader is super innocent and Ethan is her best friend. The reader accidentally slips how she is attracted to ghost face during one of their late night phone calls. Ethan is ghostface in this still btw. Then he calls her as ghostface one night and does a guided masturbation with her, like telling her what to do. But then accidentally turns his voice modulator off and she finds out he is ghostface?

a/n: this is SUCH a good request! Sorry it took me a while to answer :( I’ve been pretty busy lmao. Phone sex is smthn I’ve been wanting to write for a while 🤍 Ghostface!ethan holds a special place in my heart tbh

Ghostface!Ethan x Innocent!Reader

Warnings: phone sex, masturbation, dubcon!

╰┈➤here we go!

“So if he’s not your type, then who is?” Ethan asked with a smirk.

You had been paired up with some guy in your Econ class, who had been hitting on you. Ethan, your best friend, flanked you outside to question you about him.

You laughed, “Well, I guess I like guys will low voices. Oh, and I want them to like horror movies just as much as I do,”

Ethan raised an eyebrow, “Oh? Sounds like your describing that Ghostface guy to me,” he joked, and you playfully hit his shoulder as you two sat down on the grass under a tree.

“Come on Eth, don’t joke like that. That Ghostface freak already killed my film professor,” You deadpanned, Ethan’s face was still wearing a sly smile.

“You never answered my question,” he smirked, and laid down under the sun, crossing his legs and folding his arms under his head.

“Well,” you sighed, unsure whether or not to confess to him. You two were best friends, so you did trust him. Ultimately you gave in, “I guess so,”

“I knew it!” Ethan gasped.

“Wait, wait a second!” You cut in, “I always thought Ghostfaces voice in the movie was kinda hot…sexy, you know?”

“Alright,” Ethan shrugged, still not buying your cover up. You stayed under the tree with Ethan for a few more minutes, talking about anything, until you saw Anika run up. You two were going to eat lunch together, so you waved bye to Ethan and went the rest of the day without seeing him, which was strange, but you didn’t think much of it.

~ Anika had left to go on a date with Mindy, leaving you alone in your dorm to finish up homework. A few moments later your phone began to vibrate on your desk next to you. You checked the screen. No caller ID. You hesitated a second before answering, remembering Tara’s motto of living in the wild side. It would be funny if you pranked a scammer and told the story to your friends the next day.

“Hello?” You asked when you were met with silence from the other end. You heard what you thought sounded like heavy breathing before a high squeal echoed in the background. It sounded like a machine being turned on.

“Hello, y/n,” An unmistakable voice said from the other end. You scoffed. Of course Ethan would disappear for the rest of the day only to mess with her later. Him and Chad were probably laughed at you over your confession from earlier.

“Hey Ethan, I know you think your funny, but I’m really not laughing,” You said dryly.

“Oh, I assure you no one’s going to be laughing,” The voice said dangerously from the other end, as if he was hinting at a big surprise.

“I know you and Chad are having fun over your little joke,” You were a little hurt over Ethan exploiting what you said in private.

“I know what you think of me y/n, I’m very flattered,” The voice said sarcastically.

“Cut the shit Ethan!” You exclaimed. You were getting a little sick of this. It was a calm night until he called, the last thing on your mind was finishing your homework, but at this point you really just wanted to get back to it.

“This isn’t Ethan!” The voice snapped at her, outraged. Your lips parted and you struggled to form words. The voice wasn’t just a nameless prankster, it was cold blooded murderer and for all you knew, you could be next on the victim list.

“Well then who is this?” You managed, a pit growing in your stomach.

“If you're lucky you’ll find out,” he answered ambiguously.

“Are- Are you going to kill me?” It took your all of your courage to ask, and you were immediately regretting the answer.

“Maybe. I’ll just have to see how willing you are to do what I ask,” He replied menacingly.

“And what do you want me to do?”

“Strip,” He said plainly.

You sat in your chair, dumbfounded at the request. There was no way you had heard correctly.

“Tell me y/n, have you ever seen Stab?” Ghostface asked.

“I don’t see what that has to do with anything,” Your voice waivers.

“If you’ll remember correctly, in the opening scene Casey Becker finds her boyfriend split open on her front porch. You’ll do what I ask if you don’t want your roommate to find you gutted like a fish,” His voice crescendoed from a conversational tone to a threatening one, and it terrified you.

“Now move your hands down to your pants, and stand up, face the window so I can see you,” Ghostface continued. You silently stood up and took your jeans off, slipping your hands down your panties.

You could hear what sounded like rustling clothes from the other end, “Is this good?” Your voice cracked.

“Perfect,” Ghostface purred in a raspy voice. You could feel yourself getting wet, “You can touch yourself now,” He permitted.

You slid a finger through your wetness, and let a shallow gasp escape. You moved your thumb towards your clit and rubbed your heat.

“That’s it,” He gasped, “Slip a finger in now,” His voice shook, and you could assume he was teasing himself while watching you.

You hesitated, it was a small movement, but he caught on.

“What’s the matter?” The voice asked, “I told you what to do,”

“It’s just-“ you began, “I’ve never really done anything like that before,” You confessed.

“If you value your life you’ll do it,” The voice pushed, and fear bubbles inside you again, but in some strange way it also fueled your movements. Your finger slid through your wet folds and slowly started moving.

You couldn’t help but let a few soft moans slip loose.

“That’s right, touching yourself for me,” Ghostface gasped, voice strained.

“Are you- are you doing it too?” You dared, testing the waters of this strange encounter.

“Fuck- yes,” He groaned huskily.

You dipped your finger in farther and sped your motions up, adding another when you heard his praise. You crooked your finger and continued until you felt a hot feeling travel into you.

Ghostafaces moans continued, fueled by your own sounds of pleasure. You felt yourself nearing your orgasm, if you weren’t busy paying attention to Ghostface, you would have missed a soft click.

“You look so good coming undone for me,” Ghostface said, although it didn’t sound like him. Your eyes rolled up in your head as you recognized the source, which was none other than Ethan. With that realization you immediately tipped over the edge and felt yourself come all over your hand.

Ethan let out a last groan, then a few more breathy whines, indicating that he had probably mimicked your actions.

“Ethan?” You murmured as you gasped for breath. You heard a startled sound, then silence. He had hung up. Your head spun as you tried to rationalize what had just happened. It could be Ethan, could it? There was no way he was capable of something like that

You heard a knock at your door, and jumped back. You frantically grabbed your jeans and pulled them up, peeking through the peep hole. From the other side you could see none other than Ethan Landrys nervous face, waiting at your doorstep.

fine

a/n: I did not expect this to turn into a series, but with that said, STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!! 🤍

[oh-no-its-bird]

Chasing Shadows inspired time travel au where Fugaku and Kakashi get zapped to the warring states, but things become tricky when they keep looking to Hikaku as their shared "figure of respect/responsibility" (bc hes the Uchiha head in future Konoha, having lasted long enough to make Fugaku his heir) when at this time he's just barley third in command and Madara is like. RIGHT there.

That's not even mentioning the ticking time bomb of "Kakashi looks like Tobirama did as a child" that's already been established, that's gonna cause problems (half-Hatake Tobirama who's Kakashi's blood uncle agenda goes brrr)

(For those who don't know what Chasing Shadows is, all u really need to know for this is that Kakashi is 6, Fugaku is 19, and Hikaku is the acting Uchiha clan head at 76. A week after his fathers suicide, Kakashi found out he's related to Tobirama via his grandmother, projects on him really fucking hard, and eventually ends up with Hikaku acting as one of multiple mentor figures to him.)

Fugaku, aware that the Uchiha compound of this era isn't uhh. The best place for a Hatake kid who resembles one of their greatest enemies to a suspicious degree: "maybe u should leave actually. Go shack up with the Senju or smthn"

Kakashi, now heavily biased towards the Uchiha bc of Hikaku and Fugaku: "ok but why."

Izuna, standing directly behind him holding a giant mallet:

The Uchiha are arguing ab what they should do w Kakashi and if they should like. Take him as political hostage (assuming, not entirely incorrectly, that he's related to Tobirama and Hashirama) but also like. The Hatake are an isolated clan that famously react very fucking badly when their kids are threatened. So is this a potential political tool for them to use or a ticking time bomb to when they accidentally potentially get a new clan (who's already allied to the Senju) involved in their feud.

The Uchiha writing to Tobirama and Hashirama like "we have ur secret little brother/cousin(?) come talk to us now or he gets it"

"You have our what."

Hashirama is going "ahaha oh nooo my secret little brother,, who I love very much and also know exactly who ur talking about but would love it if u could send a portrait or chakra signature or smthn just to make sure its the right kid,,, u know how it is <3"

I feel like I've used that beat before actually. Which one of my like 20 Kakashi to warring states time travel aus have I pulled this in?? Possibly multiple tbh

Anyways Hashirama also going "oh nooo u have my baby brother,, I guess we have no choice but to talk andmaybedopeace"

Anyways. I need a Hikaku focused character study sooo badd,, the pipe he uses in Chasing Shadows is Madara's, have I mentioned that yet? Bc it totally is and no one really knows that and like. Hikaku sure as fuck won't mention it bc it'd really only bring bad things

Kakashi and Fugaku are making surprised Pikachu faces at Hikaku like every time they see him, neither can get over seeing him this young and not blind and also not in charge. It's unnatural.

Even logically knowing that they can't just place their full trust in him bc hes not their Hikaku, they still can't stop themselves from doing it accidentally— Fugaku is his ward, he was raised by the guy. And Kakashi is a moody 6 year old who only has like 5 actually trusted adult figures in his life and only 3 of those he gives actual respect and Hikaku is one of those 3.

That's totally gonna fuck them over in the future bc, again, Hikaku doesn't know them!!! His clan and his loyalty to Madara + Izuna will always come first over these odd strangers, sorry

Maybe throw Mikoto in too, who's Izuna's granddaughter (that resemblance is gonna cause issues) and Fugaku's begrudging fiance (Hikaku said Fugaku could become clan head on ONE condition— marrying Izuna's granddaughter back into the main line), could be fun

Maybe I'll try to write smthn like this once I'm more into the meat of chasing shadows and have set up the Hikaku-Fugaku-Kakashi dynamic enough that people are invested in it

[mintaikk]

Analyzing the Circus & Biblical Elements in Hellaverse: Asmodeus

And other things, I guess

The embodiment of Lust, one of the most dangerous sins in Mythology, your demon hoste, Asmodeus!

Something I absolutely love about the sins designs is the fact that they're all animals, with Lucifer being the only human one. It really adds to the whole circus element. But, while Ozzie is a chicken, I really also want to talk about the demonic aspects as well and why his design works for him!

Why Asmodeus is a Rooster

The first reason is because another word for Rooster is cock, so the Ruler of the Lust Ring is a giant cock. And, in this world, all the Goetia Demons are birds.

ANYWAYS, there's also other reasons why he's a cock (Im not calling them roosters anymore). In general, cocks symbolize masculinity, pride, enthusiasm, strength, honesty, and most importantly for Big O, sexuality. Makes sense, though. For farming, the entire point of roosters is to protect and mate with the females. And while Ozzie is most likely pan, and he's dating a dude, his entire thing is still sex.

The masculinity and pride element is there as well. Stereotypically, masculinity is being really buff and dominant. Ozzie is literally a king and is buff as hell (I still wonder why his arms shrink sm when he's in his regular outfit. Maybe Fizz is right about him being really good at "squeezing things in."

But, it also doesn't just mean physical strength, it can also refer to mental strength as well. And, let's be real here, Ozzie is one of the most mentally healthy characters in this show.

Strength can also be used for protection, and since roosters protect hens, it could also be seen with how Ozzie is very protective of Fizz and is also one of the few sins we've seen who seems to somewhat care about his citizens. From what we've seen of Lust, it's one of the safer and healthier rings to live in. Ozzie is shown to be very prideful of his sin as well, so it makes sense that he'd want to protect the people who feel lust and live in the Lust Ring, which is why he also despises noncon stuff. (I've heard some people say him not liking noncon stuff doesn't make sense bcuz that's the prime of lust, but SA is more wrath and greed than lust.)

But, his pride for his sin is the next thing. Roosters are prideful, and Ozzie is very prideful of his Ring and his work, and his club. Also, this is probably just a coincidence, but did you know that Lust & Pride were some of the most dangerous sins in mythology? I think it's bcuz they both alienate from God or smthn like that. I Kinda like these 2 overlapping for that reason.

Another thing: did you know that he's also a moth, which is why he has the fluff an antenna? Kolkocat on YouTube said that Vaggie is a moth bcuz of "women if the night referring to prostitution" (she was theorizing about her death, btw), and I think that fits. Val's a moth for the same reason. I also think the fluff could be lion related since they're also symbolized as kings.

Demon Elements

Asmodeus & Mammon are one of the two characters I've seen that look the most like their biblical counterparts, so talking about their designs is the most fun.

We've all noticed that Ozzie has three heads, right? That's actually from his biblical design!

This is from The Lesser Key of Solomon Book!

Honestly, I have no idea why he looks so fucking ugly. My Christian friend theorizes that it's because it's supposed to show that Lust is an ugly sin, and while I absolutely love that explanation, it probably means nothing, considering it was the 1500s and they just wanted to make demons look as ugly as possible so people wouldn't fall into sin.

But, I love how semlesy they incorporated the horse head and goat head into his design. Though, in the show, I think it's a gost head instead of a horse head. God, I need to talk about Bull and Goat symbolism now, don't I?

Bulls are interesting. They symbolize strength, but they also symbolize fertility. And, like cocks, they're also primarily used by farmers to mate with the females (his design really just fucking screams "HEY LOOK! HES THE EMBODIMENT OF LUST! HE FUCKS A LOT! DO YOU UNDERSTAND???")

Goats are easy. They symbolize the devil so much. Hell, the demon Baphomet is litterally just a winged goat. They're also commonly associated with demons bcuz of their eyes and horns. But they also symbolize another thing which is, you guessed it! FERTILITY.

Circus Elements

Actually going back tho the title elements, wooh! (I'm so sorry for getting off topic on all of these).

In a Tweet, Vivzie mentions that all the sins represent a Circus Act, with Bee being an animals trainer which is why she has so many hoops on her design and in her mansion. Ayy Lmao on YouTube theorizes that for Asmodues, he is a dancer and trapeze artist since his club has so many dance and trapeze things.

But, bcuz I'm a chatty little bitch, I want to add to this.

I think Ozzie could be seen as a secondary ringmaster to Lucifer. Yes, he's obviously a pimp, but his outfit reminds me of a cool, modern ringmaster, especially with the tophat, boots, and glowing suit.

It makes sense as well because his entire club has a Circus theme to it. And, again, Lust & Pride are said to be the most dangerous sins. Perhaps Lucifer communicated with him the most about Hell.

Also, bcuz I won't get to the others for a while, he also said theorized about this for the other sins

Satan (wrath): Strongman bcuz his app is a weight lifting app, Bee mentions his abs, and it makes sense the sin of Wrath would be Strong.

Mammon: Obviously a clown

Belphagor (sloth): He said contortionist since her ring has to do with Healthcare, but this person pointed this out, and I like this theory a lot better

Leviathan (envy): He chose Magician for them because they would want to conjure things that they don't have.

Thanks for coming to my messy essay that would make my English teacher cry in shame at the things she has failed to teach me :)

[jtl-fics]

May I propose: ex boyfriends au. Neil and Andrew go back in time per usual, but they arrive together at the beginning of Neil's recruitment to palmetto. They agree that for now, they should keep it low key and not change much in fear of making the future worse. But, they come to find out that repeating your life exactly the same way is BORING. So, they decide to spice it up a bit. In order to explain their familiarity to the foxes, they create this awfully dramatic backstory full of twists and betrayals, where neil met Andrew while he was with Cass and then Andrew did something to land them both in Juvie, and maybe in juvie they betrayed each other or smthn. All of its fake but the foxes eat it up. Neil and Andrew even incorporate song lyrics that haven't been made into fake arguments that they have for fun (strawberry ice cream in Malibu don't act like we didn't do that shit too) and the foxes fully believe that they're ex boyfriends. But even they can't fully hide the affection they have for each other and when that bleeds through the fixes think they're witnessing the best second chance trope when in reality they're just fucking around

This is such a funny concept.

I am going to add one thing though. In this AU Neil and Andrew made it all the way to their 90s. They went to sleep in their bed old, in love, and happy together. They've both been getting more and more tired lately, they know what's coming. They've seen it with their friends. It's fine, whatever the next step is they're going to go together. If one leaves a little early, well they've had years to get patient while waiting for the other to catch up.

They pass together and their great grand nephew (Kevin's) finds them the next morning (he'd been staying with them to help with a few things. They're holding hands.

They find themselves in the immediate aftermath of Andrew having driven an Exy racquet into Neil's stomach. There's a moment where Andrew truly panics because "OH FUCK, WHAT IF I RUPTURED HIS COLOSTOMY BAG?" and then oh he never really forgot how Neil looked (Neil had been the one that needed the reminders about things) but seeing his husband at 18 with brown hair, wire thin frame, and brown eyes? It throws him off even if he'd know Neil no matter what hair color or eye color.

Kevin comes up and it's been almost 10 years since he'd died but he's there young, no liver spots, and with a 2 on his face again.

They have long been able to talk to one another without a single word. Now that Andrew's face has full range of motion again (partial stroke 3 years before) it's even easier.

"So this is where you ran off to?" Andrew demands.

"Oh, like I had a choice after what you pulled!" Neil shoots back.

Cue two old fucks who are now in the prime of their life bodies and when they lost a lot of their mobility with age the thing they had most loved to do was fuck with their numerous grand nieces and nephews (I am stating right here that every fox who has a kid FULLY views Andreil as uncles so it does not matter if there is a blood relation).

Neil and Andrew rarely need to lie about the shit they've gotten up to, it just hasn't happened yet. They only make it like 2 weeks MAX pretending like they're mad at one another. They've slept in the same bed holding hands for 70 years. They don't do well when they're separated and Andrew is on that god awful medication but this time they know the medical expert who can argue about how BAD this whole shit show is and they know the lawyer to hire. Neil might dip heavily into his stash money but they know more than enough to make that cash back.

Andrew off his meds almost a whole year early via an outpatient treatment.

Still they keep referencing some insane past. "I'll say sorry for getting us thrown in Juvie when YOU apologize for lighting the car on fire in the first place!" he huffs.

"Then I guess we're at a standstill."

These arguments are had while they are absolutely all over one another because a bunch of parts of theirs just WORK again and that's super fun for both of them. They seem like Seth & Allison 2.0 with 8x the history but Neil makes Andrew act like a human and not a monster so they're all very invested in the relationship working out.

This past is also NEVER elaborated on but they never fuck up the fabrication of it either. Andrew because his perfect memory and Neil because even decades later he is a super tier liar.

They're having fun, it's sort of like being back with all their grand nieces and nephews except it's all of their friends (+Seth). The Original Foxes were long used to Neil & Andrew's shit so it was impossible to mess with them like this.

They're going to have a blast.

Edit: Thanks @the-inner-musings-of-a-worm for the fun idea once again!

[glngrbred]

Hot take, Elden ring is a really good souls like, but that doesn't mean its actually a good game.

within the subgenre, souls-likes have always had really huge issues with accessibility, and i don't mean for disability alone. Elden ring especially had extremely horrible performance issues at launch, which they did eventually fix. Even then you still have to get a 400 dollar PC. Aside from that there are some strange decisions made with teaching the player, like the tutorial is just a hole that players had to point out to each other, and On my barely stable first 20 minutes, i couldn't even find (my b i guess). Obviously alot of extremely experienced gamers would be able to handle themselves super well in Elden ring even without a tutorial. But there's another issue there with accessibility.

2 last things on accessibility. The game's audio is mixed like a movie, (so barely audible or ripping out your eardrums ;-;) witch is another accessibility issue, that you have to put a lot of work in to fix. And the graphics range from maxing out the brightness, to being completely black on bad screens. obviously an issue. I'm not going to go into the issues with explanations and the general tell don't show nature of alot of souls likes, because people have already complained about the text tunnels enough

I do really appreciate the artistry and just beautiful atmosphere Elden ring has, my only issue with the graphics is the performance requirements for them. Also if you never turned the graphics all the way down, it used to cause bit lag spikes just because it wanted to i guess :")

So, my argument is that a game can be a good version of the predecessors it bases itself off of, but if it doesn't actually deliver on playability and accessibility, I really don't think its deserving of the praise it gets. here are examples of games I think are flawless Unraveled/Unraveled 2 Hades Minecraft (Java edition only [cuz bedrock is completely broken somehow???) Never alone (a cool 2 player co op platformer that me and my brother played through when we were 6 and 8 or smthn, it was incredible, and i still think its worth playing as an adult) Spelunky 2 ***Monster Hunter (except for the extremely slow RPG elements) [takes 3 months to get 1 armor set built fully :)]

So i actually have some great news for the difficulty purists, You can actually do a hardcore game well, So long as you make failure quick and readable, Make trying immediate, and Make learning a part of the design. Spelunky is not my cup of tea, i have a bad time with reaction time, but spelunky is really great, in that your goal every attempt is simply to get as far as possible. In elden ring, you have the opposite problem, where instead of completing the objective being extraordinarily hard, getting from point a to point b is tediouse, saving the game takes time, occasionally you can be attacked without knowing why, and you dont get a clear read on what went wrong, ETC. If Elden ring was only the boss fights, I would say its almost a great game. Which is why I included Monster hunter on that list, despite its insufferable grind. Also BTW spelunky 2 has four fun minigames. a requirement for any game to be truly perfect is for there to be appeal for casual gamers, and i don't think adding casual elements makes a game worse, like, ever.

Anyways, last little thing, I really dislike it when People praise games for not catering to the needs of some players. Like everyone has heard dudebros or their friends be like "It doesn't have any difficulty settings! that's so sick!" But, like, Have you ever met someone with a motor function disability, or like, just someone who doesn't play games for 30000 hours every year? Difficulty settings and the ability to control your experience are important. and this isn't about Elden ring, But if you care about being an ally you should want your games to have accessibility features, they only benefit people. and if you're so worked up about about an extra tab being in the settings window, maybe you should like, go to therapy or something.

Also Elden ring's UI is so ass it gave my design teacher a heart attack and they hired a Pe*o as our sub.

[sa2-astral]

some sow doodles i've done over the past few weeks since getting into it :)

little bit messy doodle boards skadkasdksd excuse the random lil notes on the side lol

1st one was mostly just me figuring out them in my style, 2nd was that too but a bit more expressive (but i had to go by the time i got to wall and phoenix so i was only able to do a rlly small doodle for them there sadly skdkasdkd) 3rd was a bunch more slight design testing with some additional fun ones and the 4th is just fun :D

also a silly lil oc for sow week ! v

i don't think i did a super good job trying to make an oc who was more of a background character / npc . i really just took one concept i had and it was the worst one for this SJDKSKDS but yee basically i was looking at inscriptor one day and saw cosmic horror was a subclass... and you know me, i like some horrors :3 and it promptly gave me character ideas aksdkasdk

soo a little while ago when i decided to join in with the sow oc-making i decided to bring that concept to life aksdkasdk i feel like this concept is very walking the thin line between what would probably be a pc and a npc but idk thats just the nature of the character kasdkakds just rlly silly like that. but at the same time is like a background character lmao. i think she'd be like. that one really wacky / silly maybe a bit odd but fun npc who appears occasionally . that one funky comedic relief npc with a side of cosmic horror LMAO

kdsakdalsd trying to post about this oc is fun because this is one of those things ive made that im being very social anxiety about and second guessing if its like. good enough or smthn like that askdkas i don't usually make ocs for ttrpg campaigns so i have 0 idea what im doing haha ^^''

bonus funfact: i made that little note in that drawing of how i was still unsure how i liked the outfit design and then a piece of my ipad case broke off 😭 she's haunting me /j

[viridiave]

A little love post to HORROR JRPGs

Content Warning:

So I'm gonna be talking a lot about some pre-Undertale era RPG Maker Horror games, and this post is gonna contain both spoilers and the discussion of the following:

Blood and Gore

Psychological horror

Child abuse

Sexual assault

Suicide

Violence

Fictional minors being put into very messed up situations, because that's just the kinds of games these are

Other upsetting themes

Hetalia (because I can imagine that all of us have very complex feelings about this fucking franchise. It existing feels like it needs a warning)

This post is a nostalgia trip and exists purely because uh. I have literally no one else to talk to about these games, and please just click away if any of the above makes you uncomfortable in any way. Some of this stuff can't exactly be handwaved as just being products of their time.

I'll draw smthn real quick later just to make up for it I promise

I'm like days late to Halloween but I just wanted to write this after getting a bout of nostalgia lmao

I absolutely fucking love Horror JRPGs - the freeware ones, even though I haven't touched one in a LONG time. I'm talking about the pre-Undertale era freeware games by the way, and in the first place I don't think I can consider Undertale a horror game but that's a topic for another day. OneShot also doesn't count aksjak OneShot gives me existential dread and a nonzero amount of guilt sure, but never terror

But let's dial that back a bit.

To begin with. 'Vir, you're a fucking coward, you run upstairs when you see that someone on TV has a gun. You can't stand watching horror movies. How the FUCK did this happen'

Weirdly, you can thank Hetalia for that. Specifically, the freeware Hetalia fangames that used to circulate on DeviantArt - that shit led me down this rabbit hole. And I guess it made sense, most Hetalia fangames are a coin toss between a horror game and a fantasy JRPG with countries getting isekai'd. I also played the fuck out of those.

For a bit of background, I love video games, but neither me nor my family ever really had that much spending power to buy game consoles, so my selection was pretty limited. Before I turned 18, I remember that we owned a GameBoy, a GameBoy Advance, a PSP, and one of those Fun-Sized Nintendo consoles with built-in games. We never bought cartridges either. I got my first DS from my dad on my birthday when I turned 18, and that's all the consoles that my family has ever owned. Still kinda jealous of my friends who have Switches, but eh - one day.

I just played a lot of Harvest Moon growing up, that's been my object of interest in my elementary days. The most of a horror game that I've been exposed to was watching my friends play Five Nights At Freddy's back in 5th grade.

Then high school happened, and I got new friends and shit - and was introduced to both more conventional horror games and Hetalia. Which is. A really weird combination when I think about it now, but everyone who was alive and kicking around in the early 2010's would know what HetaOni is, and you can see how that slope led to me playing freeware horror games. I'll always be grateful to these games, seeing as I never had easy access to mainstream experiences growing up.

I think I played HetaOni exactly once, on my first laptop. I played most Hetalia fangames exactly once, but they all just stayed on my old hard drive. None of them really had anything interesting going on gameplay-wise, I mean it's RPGMaker and these were people who just really wanted to make Hetalia fangames, but I remember some of them just sticking with me. I'd play them while I was away on trips to my grandmother's house, then watch let's plays on YouTube when I wasn't otherwise occupied with schoolwork. Really when I say Let's Plays I only mean KyoKoon64's - and that's how I was actually introduced to horror JRPGs.

CLOÉ'S REQUIEM

There's been a couple of times where they played some of the more recognizable horror JRPGs on their channel, but the first one I REALLY saw a playthrough on was one called Cloé's Requiem. I don't know what exactly it was about this specific game that stuck with me, and at the time I didn't know that this had like. More warnings than you would usually find on a horror JRPG. Calling it now, please look up said warnings before you try ANYTHING with this game - I can't promise quality and nuance, but I can promise great moments. Those moments stuck with me to this day, SOMEHOW, even after encountering games with better story and gameplay experiences… it's about a cursed 12 year-old boy trying to free a cursed 13 year-old girl, never getting a shot at the normal life he wanted and playing the violin because he can't do much else.

I think this game changed my life. Not in like, any grand manner mind you - but I feel like it's the game that best represented this time of my life as a weird high school outsider who obsesses over games that nobody's ever heard about. I was introduced to a lot of things through this game, it's just this whole volley of firsts that I wouldn't trade for anything else. Baby's first horror game, first jumpscare I ever consented to, first taste of games containing disturbing themes of sexual assault and gore, first trips to Pixiv and NicoNicoDouga - just all the fucking firsts. I wouldn't call it a great game, but it IS important to me.

When I think about it now, it's a game about curses. Michel D'Alembert is a talented violinist at 12, and his alcoholic father milks the shit out of this talent because they're not exactly what you would call well-off. His twin brother Pierre is a pianist, is nowhere near as talented as his brother, and hides his misery over this situation under a big-little brother façade. Cloé Ardennes is a pianist too, she's wealthy, talented, and still plays with her stuffed animals. She is cursed with an insane father who rapes her, and a mother who hates her. Charlotte is a young maid with nothing and tries her best, only to be killed because she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. Unsurprisingly things fall apart for everybody very quickly.

Pierre's frustrations with his spoiled, lazy brother boiled over, and he curses Michel out in a heated moment. This drives Michel to murder their Charlotte by accident, and she becomes his curse - he runs out of the house, kills cats, and finds himself in the dilapidated mansion that Cloé inhabits. Cloé by this point is already dead, and so is her dad, her parents, and the maids. Cloé's father may be her curse but she is the curse of this mansion, and it transforms into something hostile until Michel comes along and saves her from the shadow of her father. Michel plays her a requiem, and resolves to go home to confront his crimes - and back to Pierre, who regrets everything he's done. Watching the sun rise with a disappearing Cloé in the True Ending will likely be the last peaceful moment he will ever have in his life.

That's like. Not everything that happens in this game, but this post is already so goddamn long and I still have a lot of other stuff I want to talk about. But the gist of it to me nowadays is that these children are cursed with loveless lives and the whims of the adults that have power over them. In the end, their lives are all ruined. Cloé and Charlotte are dead, and we have no idea what becomes of Michel and Pierre when word gets out that Michel killed a maid and assaulted several others in the house in a fit of emotional instability. In every other ending, Michel is killed and Cloé remains an evil spirit, so really this is the best that anyone ever gets out of this experience.

I remember watching a playthrough of Con Amore on YouTube, but I understood none of it because it was in Japanese, and the game itself was untranslated at the time. It follows the cats Noir and Blanc and basically serves as an addendum to the base game - honestly it made me feel sorry for Charlotte, who was nowhere near as psychotic as Michel thought she was. There's also light novels, but international shipping is expensive and I don't know Japanese so. I'll just never figure out what happens to everyone after the game ends I guess

One of these days, I'll buy the remake on Steam - which exists, and I can't say I recommend it if everything I just listed bothers you in any way. But I can't shake the attachment I feel towards this game no matter how many years it's been, nor how uncomfortable its themes are, so you know - maybe one day. I'll go back to it.

IB

So - following that, I got pretty curious about the other games in this genre of freeware horror. Ib is the one that everyone knows the best, both Markiplier and Pewdiepie played it so you KNOW it gets press, but even in Japan this game was a hell of a hit. To me, it's a simple game that I can finish in an hour, but man what an hour it can be.

If you were to play this game right now after seeing how much press it gets (which I think you should, it's on the Switch now! Go get it!), you MIGHT be a little disappointed. It's nowhere near as gory or disturbing as Cloe's Requiem for one and you know - a bunch of blood and guts and ghosts on the walls does not a good horror game make, but make your choices accordingly. Nah - instead this game's staying power lies in its atmosphere. Like how many games can you say take place inside of an art gallery where most of the pieces try to fucking murder you? I mean there's probably a lot, but something about Ib's almost ambient sense of dread and exploration just kind of sticks in people's brains. Everything's a little scarier when the shapes are so close to being discernable but aren't, and I guess that's the appeal and horror behind Guertena's gallery.

Ib herself is a mute protagonist, pretty typical, but she's also NINE, and the game will let you know that no matter how unfazed she gets or how precocious she can be, she is a child all the same - and children break very easily. I personally love how the game barely has to say anything about how shaken she actually is about her situation, because it will show you how - she has nightmares that you can't escape, she sees herself getting hanged, Garry will need to shake her out of her shock when she sees a picture of her parents in the gallery that should not exist. She loses all of her will to live when she loses Garry to insanity. And speaking of Garry…

There's one standout room in this game and it's the Doll Room. 10/10 would NOT recommend it to anyone who suffers from anxiety because WOW I did not think the RPG Maker 2000 engine could ever have been capable of that. Nobody blames Garry if this room fucks him up. I mean come on the dude has to literally rip open the stomachs of dolls to find a paint ball. Those sound effects make it sound like the dolls are made of skin and flesh and all the while the giant fucking doll is creeping out of the goddamn painting while some of the most anxiety-inducing background noise is playing -

Yeah no I don't know why I ever said you'd be disappointed by this game. Or maybe you still would, this is a low-res game made in 2012. But my god does it TRY to scare you in the best ways it can.

One of the best moments in this game I think is the one where Mary and Ib are alone together, and the conversation gets increasingly unhinged with Mary asking Ib questions non-stop with no background noise other than their steps. At this point, they're separated from Garry, and they're trying to find a way back to each other. Garry meanwhile is slowly piecing together the truth about Mary and how dangerous it is for Ib to remain alone with her, all the while still trying to figure out how to get back to both of them.

The section after that is in the Sketchbook which honestly? The vibes of this place are impeccable. Somehow it's fitting that one of the tensest areas in a game about a fine arts gallery is the place made entirely out of childlike scribbles.

Overall, I'd say the experience is well worth an hour or two - I'd recommend it happily over Cloé's Requiem, if only so you can have a taste of what Horror JRPGs were like before Omori came along. Yes I know that Omori isn't Japanese but it's very much in the same vein as these games.

OTHER GAMES

Those were the safe two that planted my feet firmly into the Horror JRPG fandom, but there's a lot of other titles out there, so let's go - lightning round!

Ao Oni is the ubiquitous one, like chances are you've at least HEARD of it in passing at some point in your life. Like this shit made it to the big screen in Japan, that's how much of a deal it was. I've never played the original myself, but it's partly because its formula of stuck in a mansion with a horror that chases you around is present in pretty much every Horror JRPG after its release in 2007. If you want some classic fun with the big blue demon though then you can't go wrong with the freeware version.

Mad Father and The Witch's House are part of what I like to call the Big 3 of JRPGs starring preteen girls experiencing the Horrors™, mostly because back in the mid-2010's I couldn't go three posts without seeing them all together. Mad Father is the only other one of said Big 3 that I've touched, because I was too coward to touch The Witch's House and Ellen's whole deal remains a mystery to me to this day. I think Mad Father got a remake a couple of years ago, so you can check that out if you want, but keep in mind that these two games in particular might not stoke the same kind of magical staying power that Ib somehow retained years after its release, and I know those two rely on jumpscares a lot more than Ib does.

I'll eat my fedora right here by the way, because one of my cardinal sins of being a Horror JRPG fan is that I've never played Yume Nikki. As far as these freeware games go, this is probably one of the more avant-garde ones - it's artsy, atmospheric, and a game best experienced by getting lost in the strange environments it provides. Out of every game on this post, this is the one I'd describe as the most Earthbound-esque, with its horror lying mostly in the surrealist ambience of just… wandering around in Madotsuki's mind. The end is just as quiet as the beginning, but is no less chilling to watch happen. Then you fuck around a little bit on Youtube and you find out what's actually going on, and uh - yeah that checks out, cosmic horror sounds par for the course at this point.

Yume Nikki and OFF are two of the games I think of when I hear about Horror JRPGs being talked about alongside Undertale - and nope, I haven't played OFF either. That's my other Horror JRPG sin. I was a picky teenager, but I've grown now and wow I need to find a time to play these games in peace. OFF actually isn't even Japanese, it was developed by Mortis Ghost and released in French back in 2008, making both pretty old and already pretty weird in the library. The reason I bring up OFF is because it's one of the older examples I know of that also incorporate Earthbound's precision 4th-wall breaks, and that it's a game about judgment and interrogates the player (more you than the Batter you play as, serving more as a vehicle that the game uses to ask questions through) about the choices they make in the game. OneShot is probably the one game in this genre of indie RPG that I know so far that employs this metaphysical idea of the player existing in the game in any kind of charitable fashion (aside from again, Earthbound and to some extent Mother 3), so between it, OFF, and Undertale they're what I'd refer to as the Interface Screw-RPG Trio.

Some other titles that I like are between the same devs, even some that I haven't really played to completion. Cloé's Requiem for example was made by Buriki Clock, and they've made other titles like Fantasy Maiden's Off Hideout and Trauma Traum - the latter I can't play because it doesn't have an English translation rip. Miwashiba is another dev which I think people who have a taste for light lolita goth-pastel colors would like, because my god the character designs in both Alice Mare and LiEat are peak. Don't even get me started on the fashion of 1BitHeart because everything in that game has such an impeccable aesthetic. I think I saw something at one point about 1BitHeart that like. Might count as a shared joke between Xenoblade fans, but I'd be hard-pressed to give context because again… packed schedule, who dis?

Just to talk about Alice Mare a little more, I've actually played this one - it sports a heavily storybook-inspired cast with some unique tastes on the tales. Most of my actual experiences with Alice Mare were from the English Light Novel, which I do still have! I really recommend it to people who have a couple of hours to spare on some light, relatively bloodless horror. Most of these games have Light Novels, come to think of it - hell Ib even has whole audio dramas, one of which was fanmade in English, and from what I remember of it the voice acting for Mary was PEAK.

One last dev I want to talk about is Segawa. I've saved them for last because their brand of horror is reserved mainly for one game, but their other games Farethere City and Tower of Hanoi are no slouches either. I don't know much about Tower of Hanoi (or if it even has an English translation right now), but Farethere City is a pretty cute experience as far as pseudo-horror games go from what I've heard, which is probably good for us because their other standout game is anything but cute.

END ROLL

Ah, End Roll. The last of the Horror JRPGs I've played before school kicked me even harder in the shins and I had barely any time for it. Out of all the games I mentioned on this list, this is the one with the most staying power in my brain - and also the one that influenced me the most.

So, I don't talk a lot about my original works. Nobody asks, so I don't overshare. But some of the prevalent overarching themes of my personal mythos are those of guilt, self-love, and the burdens of love. All of these themes were lifted directly from End Roll - which is to say, End Roll actually only deals in guilt, my brain just ran buckwild with trying to wrap itself around the logistics behind InfoRuss. One of my main protagonists, Rosso, is a dead-ringer expy of Russell - the same goes for Blanco with the Informant. One of the only ways I can describe Rosso and Blanco's relationship is 'selfcest as a metaphor for the painful coexistence of self-love and self-loathing', and how this relationship reached this point was largely thanks to the Informant and his role in Russell's dream.

I don't really know why I've come to associate the idea of self-love with guilt, because that's like. Not what the game is trying to do. The game's express purpose is to tell you the story of a boy who comes to love his victims and self-destructs under the crushing guilt that he carries from killing them. By some weird hand, I've fixated on the Informant and his determination in seeing that mission of the game through - AND his secret boss fight. Actually, I should. Go ahead and describe the build-up to his secret boss fight

You can only access it if you've purchased the optional villa, and if I recall correctly you can only fight him on the last day of the dream. The locked shed next to the villa is revealed to be a library of some kind called the Graveyard of Books and like - sure enough, there's books of every kind just torn apart and scattered about everywhere. The reason for all of this is because of the Informant's jealousy. He is created specifically so he can provide Russell with the necessary information to complete the Happy Dream Experiment, and in this regard he thinks Russell doesn't need anyone other source of information than him. So he does away with the useless other books, except for the strategy guides because that's the only kind of book Russell likes - and thus, the only kind of book that the Informant likes. Notes are scattered in the hallway leading up into his boss room, with the last one sticking out in my mind to this day:

'He thinks he's the most important thing to you.'

Which. I don't know why that line is so important to me. Whether it be because it awakened something weird in me, or because I myself was dealing with my self-loathing in a VERY complicated manner at the time, that line has gone on to dictate the way that I write about my characters even to this day.

It's such a visceral depiction of self-inflicted brutality. Russell Seager is a 14 year-old serial killer who grew up loveless and abused, and has no shortage of things that make every waking moment of his life fucked up. He killed people - some who just happened to be wherever he was at the time, some willingly by his hand - could not feel guilt about any of it, and when he lost Yumi to his drunken father while his nymphomaniac mother watched he snapped and killed both his tormentors. He then turned himself in to the police, a teen on death row. Happy Dream is him discovering guilt through dream versions of the people he killed. Happy Dream is what allows him to manifest the newfound emotions he felt through interacting with the kinds of people that his victims COULD have been. The world he creates morphs into the self-inflicted hell that is his guilt.

Russell has no happy ending, his guilt won't allow him that. Everything around him becomes a reminder of the lives he's destroyed, and how much of a living hell his own life was. Through feeling happiness and love from these fabricated visages of the people he killed, he learned guilt. It's such a weird exercise in sympathy, knowing that you're playing as this remorseless kid going through rehabilitation through extreme means. It either doesn't work, and he's deemed a failure - or it does, and he commits suicide either by confessing his crimes to one of his victims and stabbing himself to death with a syringe, or he stays in the deteriorating dream, never to wake up again.

At some point it honestly just turns into misery porn, if you look at it from a certain angle - this game is set on having Russell die no matter what. I couldn't tell you what EXACTLY it is about this experience was so impactful that it would go on to influence the way I want to spend my life - that is, I want to make games exploring these kinds of themes. Guilt. Sins. If loveless lives can be redeemed and made better. By the time the last day in the game rolls around, it's just a matter of giving Russell closure over his miserable life and choosing for him what his last freedom is going to be.

I think one of the reasons I like thinking about the Informant with regards to Russell is the scene that happens if you choose to go through with the first True Ending. Russell never really much liked the Informant, and the feeling is mutual. Russell is cold to him, and the Informant takes every opportunity he can to rub all of Russell's sins in his face - and that's his job, he represents the fundamental, uncomfortable truths of Happy Dream. If Russell chooses not to leave the dream, he is resigned to its destruction and waits for the inevitable along with the other denizens of Nameless Town. But if Russell chooses to get out of the dream, the Informant returns to Russell in tears, happy that he can finally be back to being a part of him - to this game, it's the ultimate acceptance. Russell then goes on to confess his crimes and the reality of the dream to one of the citizens, and he wakes up when they kill him in tearful retribution by his request.

He grabs the syringe next to his bed, and stabs himself to death, unable to handle the guilt. That's how the game always ends for me. The Informant succeeded, Happy Dream succeeded - and Russell chose to die as person who could finally feel remorse.

It's a regretful story with themes that really shouldn't be replicated in any fashion in real life, but somehow I found it fascinating in the way it explores the facets of the self. It makes me want to ask more questions and explore that angle of self-reflection to the furthest extremes that I can conceivably reach, and I guess that's one of the many reasons why I respect it so much.

SO… WHAT NOW.

Nah, that's kind of it. Like, OF COURSE this isn't all I have to say about the games that I mentioned, but wow this post is so long and I was just pining for the days of a couple of years ago. These games were present for the most transformative years of my life, and uh - whether or not that was actually a good thing remains to be seen, but I'll always be grateful for their presence in the void that I call my gaming experiences.

Horror JRPGs will always have a special place in my heart for how they tell their stories. Nowadays, I've developed more of a taste for fantastical RPGs that prefer to hide their horror in the margins of the narrative, fridging the terror for when the player wants to step back a bit and think about the implications of certain events in the greater world. Undertale, OneShot, and the Octopath Traveler games all tick that box for me - and all of those games are ones I hold dear. Like I'll probably ramble about OneShot some other day, because that's the other game that really changed my life in a way I felt like I can never come back from - but there's just a lot of special things to be said about these neat little self-contained, 6-hour freeware games. For now I'll close this long-ass post out. Happy late Halloween I guess - the M&Ms in our fridge have never tasted better.

[bwoahtastic]

Okay so, I guess Girl Max it is then 😅

Okay so Maxy winning her championship and having resolved all the tension with Toto and Lewis and Mercedes and the whole fucked up situation with her bio Dad. Now she's like I'm tired of drama and proudly rock the Wolff name, so what should I do?

And she decided to do a live stream on I racing because thats fun and she just want to spend time with friends and fans and doing what she loves right?

Turns out people are still mad about abu Dhabi and she is getting flooded with death threats, insults and all the awful stuff people say to a woman. She tries to ignore it but it's under every post she makes. Like that photo of ever little self with Toto? Flooded with message of Rape threats and she cannot take it anymore. She quite the social medias and she seek confort into Toto and Susie loving arms.

I can also see Lewis being cut out of all social media but hearing from his friends the situation with Max and doing a whole post about leaving her alone. It's not much and he won't lie he is still conflicted about 2021 but he won't take it into a gilr who did nothing wrong.

And so when they meet back in February and Max sees him she smiles at him, and Lewis smiles back. It's still awkward but at least they know better than to continue their unhealthy rivalry.

Toto going above and beyond to find the people who threatened his girl and drag their asses to a trial. We don't mess with the Wolff family

Ph plss poor Maxy!

Max feeling so happy cos she has her championship and she finally got a good relationship with Toto again and isn't bothered by Jos or her past anymore.

She decides to do a stream for fun and it is fun at firdt until the comments turn dark... People are making comments about her tits in the shirt she is wearing and then it evolves in them talking about how she fucked to get her seat and worse, getting death treats too and nasty words about her family and she panics and ends the stream. She is shaken and then,sees comments like that on her posts too, even of the pics of her when she was small eith her parents.

She is so upset and goes to Toto and Susie, so distraught and crying snd they decide she needs a break from social media.

Lewis hearing about it, as do the other drivers and a lot of them post smthn about it and Toto shows her those messages to help her feel better. Max is especially surprised lewis spoke up but is very,grateful!

Them seeing each other again and Max has some more security around her and looks a little more cautious, bur smiles when she sees Lewis and gives him a little wave!

[lizaluvsthis]

How long have you known @shygirl4991 did you guys become friends then collab what’s the story?

We've only known eachother for about a week or 2 when we started to dm- actually- I started to dm them about the au.

We both agreed on the idea of the au collaboration and them creating notes while I was finishing Three's design from cnb.

I gave em some ideas, they also gave me back some quick sneaks of a "skate-fic" that made me feel motivated even more to do more stuff around the AU's room.

Thats the part we both started becoming friends along the way XD funny to know is that I keep coincidentally meeting people who're quite old for me but even tho I dont bother much cuz they're different and I'm also different.

Its a bunch of new faces to meet when theres progress more fun stuff appears.

Guess both of me and shay's story in a nutshell is...

"I made four's waitress design and shay wanted to write smthn about this new au (newly born from the fandom) and started to talk then- now theres us talking about it :D"

So um- there- tadaaa :D

[artis-lined]

HELL YEAH IVE BEEN WAITING 4 THIS QUESTION--

long story short, yes, it was incredible and if ur able to see it I would HIGHLY recommend getting tickets

Going into detail tho...

Let's start off w/ Jordan Fisher since he was (imo) the weakest link of the main cast. The end of Joannah was kinda anticlimactic and his vocal range wasn't the best. You could tell he didn't have opera lessons or smthn whilst the whole cast was very classical sounding, but I'm going to take a guess he just didn't have enough breath support since he sounded a bit shakey towards the end. He was stronger in the second act tho he wasnt rlly belting then. Jordan Fisher has never rlly surprised me vocally, but that's not rlly a bad thing, I just kinda wish they casted someone a bit more fit for the role.. but if that was the "worst" thing abt the show, I think it's going to be just fine.

The ensembles dancing was either hit or miss, some of it was very awkward whilst other numbers was incredible and clever. For "there was a barber and his wife" They had two dancers on a platform where they danced in the dark and it made them seem like silhouettes in the moonlight. Seeing as the show is still in previews, tho, they still have time to patch it up :).

Gaten Matarazzo was great as Toby and had nice vocals. I was also able to see him in deh and although he was more a talking role I think he is a great singer and actor. He definitely pulled off the ending as well and didn't worry about looking attractive or something while conveying to the audience that he had succumbed to the stress of his situation. Believe it or not I've seen a few shows where an actor would try to make themself look hot but also insane and its just kinda annoying tbh-- like they always sacrifice being believable over being handsome/pretty. All in all, he is a great performer and had wonderful stage presence.

Johanna was incredible. Like actually incredible. Green finch and linnet bird is one of my favorite numbers and she did it justice. I forget her actresses name unfortunately, but she was truly Johanna when she was onstage, and embodied the character beautifully.

Beedle was hateable as was the judge, but that's good because it means that they did their job well. Funny thing is that when he said his line "Deceiving slut!" A person behind me just went "oh-- 😨" and it was clear everyone was surprised.

The beggar woman was so good omg-- like she was great at switching between personalities when begging and it was so funny at times but other times it had the audience sobbing or thinking.

Mrs. Lovett was so incredibly funny it was unexpected. She's no Angela Lansbury but I think it's unfair to compare them to each other since no one is going to be as great as her. She was very lively and I never felt bored when she was onstage! Well-- I was never bored during the show but you know what I mean! Her songs were great and she has her own little twist on things. I don't know if they changed the key for "worst pies in london" bc I haven't listened to the og recording a lot but I wouldn't be surprised since every Mrs. Lovett has had a different key it seems. I really hope I get to see her in something else because she was just so fun to watch and I just loved her so much!

And finally...

JOSH FUCKING GROBAN LEZZ FUCKING GOOOO--

I love that man! I fucking love that man so much 😭!

He was absolutely incredible. My mother said she doubted he would be able to pull off an insane middle aged man but my god, he did it. It was strange to see him being so mean and malicious considering he seems so nice irl, but he was so great and I'm so glad he got to play Sweeney. And I'm even more thrilled that I got to SEE him play Sweeney. His vocals were stunning and he was incredible at acting (even if Todd himself is a rather silent and monotonous man).

So yes, all in all, it was amazing and I rlly hope I'll see it again! Here are some pictures of the stage and playbill :)

@succsessions @mystically-michaela

[tokillamockingbird427]

Fun fact about me: I have never played the Black Ops games. Which is a shame! Cus my brother did have them and I've heard very good things! But our oldest sister stole them, and then lost them to the void. Excellent.

So I guess I need to ask for those for my bday or smthn.

Oh also context for why my brother having them would be advantageous for me: He had like a million xbox 360 games and I got them all cus he fucked off to join the military lol >:)

[piracytheorist]

I got into Spy x Family recently due to family and a little because I discovered this blog. I just wanted to say that I love all of your essays (I guess that's what they'd be called?). They're all just so interesting.

(Though I did accidentally get myself majorly spoiled by some other rando on the internet- the animated series only goes up to mission 37 right now and I accidentally got a spoiler that claims to be from the 98th or smthn mission 😭 Now I have to read the manga too)

NOOOOO DON'T READ THE MANGA YOU'RE TOO SEXY AHA

Nah, I'm kidding for the meme! It would just be so fun having a fellow anime only going through it together. I'm glad I have people I talk to who are very careful to not mention spoilers, but it would be fun to have someone who actually doesn't know what's going to happen, you know?

I mean, I've gotten my fair share of spoilers, too, it's bound to happen in such fandoms ;_; But I am happy my metas is part of what got you into the story, that's actually a wonderful compliment to hear! I love analyzing stories I love, and it makes me so happy people like them and analyze things with me :D

To be clear, the anime usually adapts two manga chapters per episode, so currently it has adapted up to chapter 59. But yeah, with nearly 40 chapters in between, a lot of things must have happened in the meantime in the manga and though I'm so curious to know what's happening, I'm sticking to my stubbornness because I enjoy it more in "anime first manga second" form, and also because I'm curious to see how long I can last XD

Anyway, thanks for the message! I'm glad you're enjoying my metas!

[cuntlamb]

my theories on na’vi reproduction based on my rudimentary research —

🗯️ this post will be NSFW 🔞 im gonna be explicitly talking about sex/reproduction. feel free to contradict me, i’m just some 18 yr old who knows nothing about biology. however, i do have an interest in sexology and queer theory!

what do we know about na’vi reproduction? — in a playboy interview with in 2009, cameron mentions that even though the na’vi have breasts, they are non placental mammals. on earth, the non placental mammals we have are either monotremes or marsupials

personally, i just disregard na’vi breasts because of this. i think in a perfect world, the na’vi would be more androgynous. however because of the majority cishet audience that would’ve been watching avatar, i don’t think that would go over well. james cameron is also a perv /j

in Avatar: The High Ground (a comic based on the original screenplay for ATWOW) we see neytiri give birth, however everything was hidden, so we can’t really infer much from it.

although, when we do see neytiri pregnant, we see that her breasts grow. now i assume ronal’s do as well but there isn’t really anything i can find to reference her pre-pregnant body. according to the wiki, na’vi do breastfeed to up to four months old.

marsupials and monotremes (see above) do breastfeed - their milk has the nutrients a placenta would’ve provided. so… now we have to ask the question: do the na’vi lay eggs?

i’m gonna have to be real and say no. but if they don’t lay eggs and are non placental, where is their pouch/marsupium?? while i was researching - specifically opossums - i found that most of the time, marsupial babies are born extremely young and the pouch is to keep them safe

so in the best way i can think to explain the na’vi being non placental and having breasts is that their gestation period (how long the pregnancy lasts) is about as long a human’s (9 months) and they breastfeed at longer periods than humans — like the babies will breastfeed for hours

na’vi breast milk is most likely crazy nutritious. based on artwork, i’m assuming baby wearing is popular for both bonding and convenience in feeding. if my theory is correct in na’vi babies needing to be fed longer.

the longer gestation period may also help explain the amount of time the sully family is with the metkayina. if the na’vi were to have short pregnancies, then the amount of knowledge the sully family were to have about the way of water wouldn’t make too much sense

so… how are the babies made? — now we’re getting to the part everyone wants to know! just like the actual birthing of the babies, not much is known about how those little shits are made. other than…

now let me clear up the biggest misconception about na’vi sex: they DO NOT reproduce/fuck/make love however you wanna called it via tsaheylu. bonding with another is more like foreplay. so when the na’vi/avatars connect with smthn, they aren’t fucking it!!!

so… genitals

i’ve tried my hardest to find ANYTHING on their reproductive organs, but the most i could find was the pandorapedia (that says jack shit) and an interview done recently - which also doesn’t explain much

this is where my imagination is gonna come in. im gonna go out on a limb and say that i don’t think the na’vi have external genitals. i think they would behave similarly to shark reproductive organs (shown below)

i just dont think having an external penis would be advantageous. if they did, i think it would be more similar to an opossum (they are cool animals okay) where they have more of a… sack? like a lot of foreskin covering the penis. and a penis bone. vaginas are pretty universal. im honestly not sure if the na’vi would have a clit… mammals have clits but sharks dont and if im basing my na’vi dick on a shark then i guess i should with a na’vi vagina??

and… that’s all i have to say! i did this for fun so take everything i say so unseriously <3

[basiltonpitch]

I neeedddddd to know your predictions based off the trailer (of Benvi in particular, I really do care about other things in the show but I love them the most)

ooooh okay so.....not all of these predictions are actually serious some of them i just think would be FUN but i dont think they'll actually implement lmao. also....as usual i dont know when to shut the fuck up and stop typing SO. predictions under the cut!!

my prediction for benvi is: devi ghosts ben post-boinkening (basically confirmed; the trailer insinuates that they havent spoken since); ben goes after margot because she likes him (and we all saw how well it went the last time ben started dating someone else bc devi wasn't an option), it implodes, devi retaliates by dating ethan because he's hot or whatever the fuck (and honestly good for her im sure he's a tool but like.....rebound arm candy isnt necessarily a bad thing.....except in this case it is bc that is Also going to implode.) i think it would be HILARIOUS if margot and ethan ended up going out lmfao but. i doubt it. after both their rebounds fail (ben's i want to say around episode 2 bc i dont think they'll drag it out super long, and devi's probably episode 5?) they're still.....skirting around each other, in a will they/won't they kind of situation. i can see fab & eleanor trying to talk some sense into devi but devi just not listening bc she's stubborn as hell and of course she knows there's something there with ben but they've done this back-and-forth dance for so long that she's still nervous about taking that full leap.

and well. then she ends up getting like...accosted in new york (which im guessing the trailer may have been a bit misleading about that exact scenario because, ya know, it's a trailer) and ben tries to play knight in shining armor and well. we all saw what happened lmfao. cue devi icing ben's face n devi being like "why did you do that?" and ben just says "for you" or smthn cheesy as hell. this is probs around like? episode 7 i'd like to think? and they probably at least partially get their shit together but like. lbr it's ben and devi. so it can't be 100% smooth sailing. like you said im excpecing a tatbilb sort of thing - they agree to date & then break up before going to college. (we all know devi gets denied for early decision from princeton - this could play into her actually going to a school in new york - something prestigious, ofc, she graduates as valedictorian).

based on the trailer....im honestly torn on whether ben goes to prom or not! i know you said smthn about him perhaps going home and changing, but part of me also thinks - what if he didnt go at all? what if he stays home, because he knows this is gonna be one of his last good memories with devi and he just cant do it? i know we havent seen a lot of bts for season 4, but we have seen bts of maitreyi + lee + ramona in their prom dresses, and i dont recall jaren being there at all or wearing a suit (the only suit bts ive seen is of him in 2x10). so......maybe he doesnt go, but he comes to her after. idk exactly how that will play out but thats what im hoping for!!!

and of course, they end up going to the same school - thats been something ive been sure of since, well, forever lmao. i'm 100000% convinced that the last shot of the show is going to be devi coming up to ben in the library of their college or vice versa and if im wrong i will eat my mf words

as for other predictions....

i'm with you on thinking it might not be kamala's wedding anymore, but i'm still not sure who's wedding it would be - perhaps another family member? a family friend? who knows.

i think treleanor is going to break up, which is TRAGIC because they r everything to me <3 but i feel like they're the kind of couple to come back to each other after years apart so im holding out hope for them 🤞 in treleanor we trust u know !!!!

paxton's.....there. idk. he's there. devi probably like. goes after him or whatever in the midst of the ben/margot/ethan bullshit bc she doesnt want to be alone and shes like oh i finally like myself maybe i can have this since i can't have what i really want but ya know power dynamics due to him being sherman oaks staff or whatever so. im HOPING as the party with the upper hand in that scenario he turns her down or whatever. maybe she even waits until after this to go after ethan - make both ben and paxton jealous, kill two birds with one stone

i have no idea what else im hoping for and this is straight up a Wall of text aksjdss;d im SO SORRY u know how i get !!!!!