#but they all don't read at the same pace so they going extra slow to ensure everybody is on the same page

[shirakow]

I was wondering if you could write some Vincent x reader smut from dead plate? There’s barely any on this site and I need my fix😭

˗ˏˋ꒰ synopsis ꒱ ; Vincent's always so mean to you, especially at work. (18+)

‧₊ ᵎᵎ 🍇 pair ⋅ ˚✮ ; Vincent Charbonneau x GN!Reader .

. . . words ; 1.3k+

EXTRA ! here you go boo, sorry if it's not up to your expectations ^3^ I wrote this in one sitting at 3 am so this is not proof read <3

"I'm mean to you?" Vincent frequently asked you on multiple occasions, only because you brought it up once and now he wouldn't let it go.

He'd unexpectedly corner you near the dumpster whenever you take the trash out—it wasn't the most romantic meet-up spot, even he knows—but it's the only place where he could be alone with you.

That or his office. But it's not like he can call you there every hour of the day, or else the chefs and Rody might get suspicious, right? So he only does it every few days.

This day is one of the few.

"Have you been watching Rody like I told you to?" He'd ask you in that same deep and brooding voice of his—charming, with a hint of danger that always lingered in his tone whenever he talked.

You just looked up at him with tear stained cheeks as he stared back down at you, "Oh right," the corner of Vincent's lip quirked upward upon remembrance. "I forgot your mouths too full." He pushed your head back down on his cock, forcing you to deepthroat him as a gutteral moan came out from his mouth.

"There we go... At least you're good for something..." Vincent whispered breathlessly, momentarily forgetting that he needs to be quiet, or else someone'll hear him and catch the two of you in such an embarrassing predicament.

However, he could just play it off: say he stubbed his toe while he makes eye contact with Rody while you keep sucking him off from under his desk. He'll make sure to start small talk with Rody too just to embarrass you further.

You gagged and drooled all over his dick, the ache in your throat growing more immense the more he continued to fuck it like his personal fleshlight. But despite the pain—you slobbered all over his cock like a fucking prostitute.

Vincent let his head fall back as his teeth bit down on his bottom lip with a silent curse following after it. His slender fingers loosened it's hold on your hair, giving you a moment of respite to breathe and slow your pace down.

Noticing the way you hesitated to continue, Vincent ran his hand down to caress your throat; gently massaging and rubbing the skin with his cold fingers.

"Was I being too hard on you?" His voice purred almost teasingly. You slowly nodded with tears rolling down your cheeks, silently enjoying the way he gave attention to your aching throat. You took his wet cock out your mouth, and gave the bright red tip a kiss, before running your tongue down the side—tracing the veins while maintaining eye contact with Vincent.

You saw the glint that appeared in his raven eyes, "What?" Vincent let out a breath which you assumed was a laugh, "Is this your way of begging?" He gave a small grin. Vincent moved his hand away from your throat, which earned a whine from you.

"Don't worry," he hummed and parted your lips, using his thumb to toy with your tongue as he pumped his cock, "I'll massage it from the inside..." Vincent whispered and slapped the tip on your tongue, "Now be a good little cocksucker and keep my dick in your mouth."

Vincent's always so mean to you, regardless if you were in and out of work. But he's especially so when you're at work.

Sometimes, he'd finger your hole before opening hours, stretching it to his hearts content while whispering all kinds of things into your ear.

"Imagine how they'll react when they see my server bent over my desk..."

"Having you walk around with a toy in your ass while you work...~"

"And the fact you're just letting your boss have his way with you too? Aren't you just a naughty thing."

And then when you're about to cum, Vincent would pull his fingers out and make you lick them clean. You'd beg and beg for him to make you cum, but Vincent only shoves his fingers down your throat to shut you up.

He'd have a grin on his face while he does it too, because he knows how much you hate it when he leaves you aching for more.

Right before you leave his office, he would put a pink vibrator in your hole and let you prance around the whole restaurant with him knowing you have something in you to remember him by.

He'd occasionally turn the level up by one, but most of the time, he'd turn it up to max just to see you squirm from the pleasure. Vincent would watch you from the hole in his office as his hand fisted his cock at the sight of you flushed with embarrassment.

Vincent felt so dirty whenever he does that, but he can't deny that acting the slightest bit perverted didn't turn him on.

He doesn't make any exceptions, however. So if you mess up at all during work hours: he will not let it slip. Even if it's because you have a toy in you, Vincent will not hesitate to punish you after closing hours.

If you let even the slightest moan out your mouth—best believe you're gonna get ravaged.

"I told you... Not to make a fucking noise." Vincent panted into your ear, tightening the belt around your neck as he takes you from behind. Your perky ass bent over his desk while he drills his cock into your hole.

Vincent reached for vibrators remote, and turnt it up to the max level; feeling it vibrate against your gummy walls along with his dick that rubbed your prostate. "Feel that? Feel my cock kissing the deepest parts of you?" He groaned against your shoulder.

You squealed into the gag, the overstimulation being too much for your poor sensitive body. Your eyes rolled into the back of your head from the sweet pleasure he gave you. If it weren't for the ball in your mouth, you'd be screaming Vincent's name over and over again like a prayer.

Your face was flushed with sweat dripping from your forehead, and down to the discarded news paper articles of missing people on his desk.

He gave the leather belt another tug, and you made a choking sound. Vincent grunted at the noise you made, finding pleasure in knowing he controls your breathing.

He could cut it off if he wanted to, but he's not that mean.

"Is it too much? Am I making you go lightheaded?" He teased while giving a particularly sharp thrust.

Your toes curled as you cried. You shook your head and held onto the desk tightly. You felt your vision going dark, like you were about to pass out. Luckily, Vincent slowed to a stop and turn the vibrator down a level to give you a break.

At first you saw it as a blessing, but it quickly became a curse when you felt your release slipping away from you. More tears rolled down your rosy cheeks as you sobbed, babbling incoherent nonsense both from the pleasure and because of the ball gag.

Vincent grinned and used his hand to turn your head towards him, "You sound so pathetic..." He pushed your head down flat onto his desk, pulling all the way out and thrusted back in.

The tip of his cock kissing your prostate as he moaned. "Don't worry... I'll give it to you soon enough."

He's such a meanie.

© shirakow ! Reblogs are greatly appreciated .

I'm starting to get into soul eater so expect something from that !! Also keep those requests coming <3 I love writing for you guys (even though I rarely post anymore)

ㅤ

[mysticheathenn]

What Is Your Intuition Trying To Tell You?

Hi, Hexlings!

This pick-a-card reading is about what have you been ignoring when it comes to your intuition. Some of you don't trust your intuition completely and those of you that do have been ignoring it for x reason. Let's dive in shall we.

This is a general reading, remember to take what resonates and leave what does not. This reading does not supplement your need to seek professional help. Tarot should be used as entertainment and not a for sure answer to your problems but as a guide, a sense of hope, and amusement.

Take your time when choosing your pile. Ask yourself the question and choose the picture that you can’t stop looking at. Listen to your intuition.

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Pile l:

What is your intuition telling you? (Tarot: 4 of Swords (reversed), Knight of Swords, Death, 9 of Swords, 7 of Wands)

It's time for a change in pace, place, and environment in general pile 1. Some of you are prolonging the inevitable of your life trying to change for the better. This could be you possibly slightly self-sabotaging yourself by procrastinating on things that could help better your life, circumstances, etc all because you are listening to the negativity of your mind. This could be anxiety, depression, or imposter syndrome, either way, there is something in your life that you need to act on but you are taking your slow sweet time. You may even entertain the idea that every time you do something as small as touch your project or whatever it is that you need to be doing you treat yourself with rest, and playtime, when in reality this is a form of procrastination. It's time to get yourself together and do the thing, whatever it is for you. For some of you, you're asking for a change in your life but refuse to act on the things that will give you the changes because of fear. Sit down with yourself and ask yourself is this really what I really want and if so figure out ways to get the job done and bypass your anxiety and perfectionism. If it is not what you want have a chat with your spirit team that you no longer want what it is that they are offering. For very few of you, this change that is happening in your life is what you want but the way you have to go about getting it is not the route you want to take. Again talk to your spirit team about this.

Extra Messages: Spellcasting Oracle Deck: Love, New Beginnings, Family, Peace, & Freedom.

Whatever this is that you have been ignoring is trying to bring in the things that you complain about of have been trying to manifest. For some of you, this is love but you refuse to take your inspired action in going out to meet people, the same thing goes for making friends. I am also hearing that some of you want to reconnect with family but are afraid it might be a bad decision, but overall this thing you need to act on is bringing in freedom and peace.

Pile ll:

What is your intuition telling you? (Tarot: 5 of Pentacles (reversed), Knight of Wands & Swords, King of Cups, Strength, & 7 of Swords.

Pile ll I feel as soon as you began to choose your pile you already knew what you have been ignoring with your intuition. I am just here to confirm it for you that...yes...yes you do need to leave whomever it is around you that is on your mind alone. Some of you have been thinking about leaving a specific group, job, or person alone for a while now but lack the strength to leave because either fear of FOMO, you fear change, or because you fear what comes after the change. Similar to how some people don't fear death just what happens after it. You fear what may come after leaving whatever this is alone. Will you feel lonely? Will this person or place retaliate? Will you need them later on in life and regret losing them? These are the questions that plague your mind pile ll. You have to trust the universe (God, Allah, Source, etc) that whatever is being taken away from you, will be replaced with something even better. There is a quote that says "I would rather adjust my life to your absence than adjust my boundaries for your disrespect" and this is what you have to do. Stop allowing others to play in your face. You deserve better than that and you know this...have more self-love and respect for yourself. Love yourself more than you do whatever is it that is causing discourse in your life. You are the most important thing in your life, not a job, friends, etc but yourself. No one is going to treat you better than you can yourself. I need you to know this and to demand better and not let others shame you into wanting more. You might be the type to also eat whatever the waiter brings to the table when it's not what you ordered (some not all of you).

Extra Messages: Tea Tree Leaf Oracle Deck: Parting of the ways in either romance, friendship, or business, You will receive a gift, Strong emotions passionate love or hate, Happiness and well-being, Wish will not be granted, Dealing with a younger man, feeling tied down or frustrated.

Pile lll:

What is your intuition telling you? (Tarot: The Hierophant (reversed), Ace of Pentacles (reversed), 7 of Swords, 10 of Swords, and 8 of Pentacles.

I feel you are our own enemy pile lll. What you are ignoring with your intuition seems to be a mindset that you can't let go of. Maybe you are used to having to work hard for everything you have or have been taught that being a doctor, lawyer, etc is the only way you can be something in this lifetime and you are starting to finally see that they might not be true. OR at least you are kind of entertaining the idea but not tall the way fully. The abundance that you see is on the other side of the ways you have been telling or letting others tell you is the way it needs to be done. For some of you, you may have found teachings by Neville Goddard, The Secret, Joseph Murrey, etc, and have this aching feeling in your body to test out some of these theories for you to make more money because you are starting to believe that there is no way you have been placed on this earth to just work, sleep, pay bills, and die. You want to do more with your life and that includes traveling for some of you or even saving for retirement because you are seeing so many of the older generations having to go back to work because they didn't predict the inflation that is happening in today's society. You want financial freedom and stability. You want to be comfortable with your finances to where you only need to check it once a month or two to make sure you aren't overspending. Some of you also I am hearing need to learn more about about budgeting and not be triggered by the word budget. Purchase a spreadsheet from Etsy where you can track your expenses to see what you spend every month. I say give this new mindset a try. I can honestly speak for myself that it does work when ou change your mindset to a more abundant one and go about bringing in money the non-traditional way. Follow this lead. You won't know unless you try and when I mean try I mean keep going even when you don't see results. Give yourself a few months of trying something new. It doesn't hurt.

Extra Messages: Spellcasting Oracle Deck: Trust, Forgiveness, Financial Health, Life Purpose, & Clarity

Trust that whatever your intuition is leading you is the way to go. Some of you may be from a religious background and stepping into the world of manifesting, LOA, etc might give you some anxiety. Trust and embrace the new path you are walking on. Trust that the traditional way to have financial stability is not the only way. This path may even lead you to your life purpose, following non-traditional ways of making money whether it's being an artist, manifesting money, or whatever it is that has been speaking to your intuition that you have been ignoring.

Pile lV:

What is your intuition telling you? (Tarot: Justice, The Wheel, 6 of Cups, 7 of Cups, and 8 of Wands

Therapy is what your intuition has been calling for you to seek but you keep ignoring. If not therapy your inner child is seeking for you to heal whatever it is that happened in the past to help break the cycles of your future. You have probably made excuses for the behaviors of others in your past and something maybe a lightbulb moment hit you to where you finally said no..the things that happened in the past are not okay and you aren't sure how to go about processing your emotions. It reminds me of a video I once saw about how your inner child wants love but your inner teenager wants revenge. You probably rage with your emotions from depression, and rage, to just everything and anything within the spectrum of feeling sorry for yourself to wanting to watch the world of others burn and you need someone whether a therapist, a shadow work journal, or even a trusted LEVEL HEADED friend...you see what I put in all caps..please choose a level headed friend who won't encourage you to go to jail because you want to slash your exes tires and bust the windows of his car. Either way, you can't avoid this healing pile lv, it's time you forgive yourself for the past and stop letting it have a hold on you and dictate your future. You are not the reason or cause for the way people have disrespected you, made you feel unsafe, etc. Some of you may be waking up that the way you were raised was not okay and you don't want to repeat that on to your future kids or others in your life.

Extra Messages: Spellcasting Oracle Deck: Empowerment, Financial Health, Life Purpose, Fertility, Commitment, & Blessings.

You are on the verge of birthing a whole new you pile lV. As you begin to heal old wounds of the past and forgive yourself you will be releasing soul and karmic ties, bringing in blessings, a healthier relationship with money, finding your life purpose, and feeling empowered that you are taking back your life and not allowing the past to make you feel the way you have been feeling any longer.

Thank you for liking and reblogging my readings. I always appreciate you guys on here and on Patreon.

Stay safe and be blessed

[lightandfellowship]

KHDR Re:Write - Giving Hermod A More Prominent Character Arc

Urd's rewrite can be found here.

The tl;dr:

Hermod’s initial motivation: To uphold the "greater order" and follow the rules no matter what.

Hermod’s struggle: He doesn’t always agree with the rules, and following them often results in both him and his friends getting harmed. His commitment to following the rules even at the cost of himself partially stems from him feeling like he has no control over his life, and he copes by assuming that (most) authority figures are trustworthy, competent, and have his best interests in mind.

Hermod’s conclusion: He needs to be willing to break the rules and think for himself in order to do what’s right and protect his friends.

Below the read more is a rough outline of how I would implement this character arc into the story. Be forewarned that it's a fairly long and text-heavy post.

Four notes before we begin (feel free to skip):

Rather than this being a full-fledged rewrite where I get to go ham and do whatever I want, instead my goal is to try and demonstrate how the game in its PRE-EXISTING state could have given Hermod a more clear and satisfying character arc via fairly minor changes to the dialog, characters, and story. I want to see if this could have been possible without having to expend too much extra time and resources, since it seems like a lack of time/resources/budget is why his story got cut in the first place. So I won’t be doing anything drastic like creating entirely new episodes or anything like that. Same worlds. Same number of episodes. Same sequence of events. Same overarching plot.

Ideally, I would have liked to convey certain details about these characters and their story via secret reports/diary entries. Specifically, the sorts of details that would slow the pace down or feel a little too direct/clunky if addressed within the story itself. However, because of the self-imposed restriction I talked about in point 1 (i.e. no drastic alterations to the game or additions that would require extensive effort to implement), I won't be utilizing such a format, and so I will sometimes have the characters speak a bit more openly/directly about their feelings/thoughts than I otherwise would've liked.

Because I have a lot to say, I won't be providing summaries of the episodes I'm discussing as I explain my story changes. A fairly solid recollection of the game's events is...perhaps not required, but certainly helpful for understanding what I'm talking about and how I arrived at my choices.

I don't claim to know better than the writers or even be an experienced writer myself, this is just how I personally would approach giving Hermod a more prominent character arc, because I think we can all at least agree that Hermod didn't get enough focus in this game. If Hermod's story hadn't been cut (presumably), I have no doubt that Tomoco Kanemaki would have come up with something better than what I'm proposing here.

But anyway, without further ado:

Hermod's Motivation and Personality

"Simple as that."

During the flashback where the underclassmen are asked why they want to become Keyblade Masters, Hermod is initially flustered at the question, as if he either didn't have a good answer prepared or was reluctant to say what it was. He averts his gaze and noncommittally agrees with everyone else’s reasons, avoiding the question somewhat, but then he clarifies that he’s doing it so that he can “uphold the greater order." This phrasing is a little vague, but I assume he basically just means that he wants to uphold the law of Scala, Keyblade wielders, and Light.

Based on his behavior and dialog here, it almost seems like Hermod became a Keyblade wielder for much the same reason as Eraqus: it was just expected of him. It was what he was told to do, and he always does as he’s told. But he nonetheless is content with the path chosen for him because he knows that it’s the best way to uphold order and protect his loved ones. As his official bio states, “he plays the role of big brother as he looks out for and takes care of everyone.”

Honestly, I think even in the base game Hermod’s “arc” is fairly obvious: he goes from strictly following the rules to being willing to break them for his friends. However, the problem is that the game doesn’t really focus on Hermod enough to make this arc feel sufficiently developed and explored. As in, the end of his arc just kinda happens abruptly with very little build up. So, in my rewrite, I’m going to have Hermod more frequently demonstrate his commitment to upholding order, and have him do it in a way that impacts the events of the story more, while also having the narrative address the consequences of that mindset more directly.

Also, as an aside, Hermod's official bio makes special mention of his anger, but I don’t think the game showcases that aspect of his character enough? So I'll try to incorporate his anger into the story just a tiny bit more. To be clear, I don't really want his anger to be framed as, like, this major character flaw of his (for the purposes of this rewrite, his major character flaw is going to be his aforementioned strict rule-following), I just want it to crop up more often in the story to add more Flavor to his character. It seems like the original intent was for Hermod to be the fire to Urd's ice, but the game doesn't really convey that all too well, if you ask me.

Before we move on, I want to quickly summarize some canon aspects of Hermod's character that are going to be important to this arc, things that are consistently established about him throughout the game, to the point where it would be silly of me to list every single example of these character traits as I walk you through my rewrite (I will be mentioning some of them in more detail later, though).

He's a model student. Hermod tends to be the one who takes charge in class; he's the one who approaches Odin with the underclassmen's issues, speaks on behalf of the underclassmen, and volunteers for tasks. He also tends to prioritize Odin's wishes and judgment.

There's some implied friction between him and Eraqus that eases up as time goes on. He tends to give Eraqus annoyed and disapproving looks whenever Eraqus talks back to Odin or says something ignorant. That being said, he also seems fond of Eraqus, smiling and laughing at jokes about his antics.

With that, let's get into the rewrite.

Episodes 1-2: Establishing Hermod's Character, and "The Problem"

To start off with, I want to point out a small detail at the very beginning of the game that leads me to believe that Hermod isn’t actually satisfied with being such a well-behaved rule-follower.

When the underclassmen talk about the potential existence of newborn worlds that don’t have rules or laws set in place yet, Hermod, after some quiet contemplation, remarks with “Then the rules can be changed...” (this is even the quote chosen for Hermod’s official bio, no less!) The fact that this thought crossed Hermod’s mind at all, and the fact that the narrative chose him specifically to be the one to deliver this line, makes me think that he has some unspoken desire to see the rules be changed despite his best efforts to be a model student. This is great, because it provides a decent foundation for his character arc and hidden depths.

TANGENT: I want to highlight a moment in Episode 1 that will be relevant to this rewrite later. Namely, Hermod getting annoyed at Eraqus talking back to Odin. (As I said before, there are several other moments throughout the game where Hermod looks at Eraqus with an annoyed/disapproving look, but I'm only going to mention this one.)

Anyway, on to the actual changes. First off, much like the Urd rewrite, I’m removing the mechanic from Episodes 1-3 that lets you choose your third party member for the cutscenes. Why? It just doesn't make for good writing in this particular case; the dialog has to be at least semi-generic across all the characters in order to make swapping them out easier, and that's simply not conducive to giving the characters unique character traits and individual focus.

Episode 1 is mostly uneventful and focuses more on Urd in my rewrite for her, so let's move on to Episode 2.

Urd is your party member for this episode (for reasons I explained in Urd’s rewrite), and Hermod, Vor, and Bragi are the three party members that get put on trial. And rather than all three of them yielding to the Card Soldiers because they unanimously agreed to not mess with the world order, instead it was HERMOD’S idea specifically. Bragi suggested that they fight back, and since Vor’s bio mentions that she “shies away from battle”, she suggested that they try to run away and evade capture. Hermod points out, however, that the best way to avoid disturbing the order would be to follow the laws of this world and not cause trouble.

Vor and Bragi are hesitant but ultimately decide to trust Hermod’s judgment on the matter, as they tend to rely on him as a big brother figure anyway. This serves to highlight how Hermod will follow the rules and obey authority even when he doesn’t necessarily agree with what’s happening to him or is put in serious danger because of it. Now, none of this happens on-screen of course, because we also didn't see what happened in the base game either, but we'll find out about it after the trial.

Speaking of the trial. When Xehanort, Eraqus, and Urd find the other underclassmen at the court on trial, it is Hermod who is leading the defense. In the base game, either Bragi or Hermod will lead the defense depending on who you picked as your third party member, but since I want the trial plotline to focus more on Hermod, in this rewrite it is only ever Hermod who stands in front and speaks to the Queen of Hearts. (A quick note, if you compare the two different versions of this scene, the one where Hermod leads and the one where Bragi does, Hermod comes across as a bit more apologetic, whereas Bragi puts his foot down more about what he's willing to take responsibility for. Hermod: "Okay, I apologize for trespassing." vs Bragi: "Wait, I'll own up to tresspassing, but that's it.")

Anyway, back to Hermod and the rewrite. At first, he's a bit of a bootlicker, being very polite and trying his best to placate the Queen while also calmly defending himself and his friends. After a while of trying and failing to reason with the Queen however, Hermod loses his patience and explodes at her. He pretty much immediately regrets it and tries to backpedal in a panic, stammering the entire time, but it's too late—that was the last straw for the Queen. Just like in the base game, Xehanort, Eraqus, and Urd recognize the danger and intervene to try and talk the Queen down from executing their friends. The cutscenes then proceed just like they do in the base game, with the Queen demonstrating that her rule is based on her subjects living in fear of her.

After the trial, the discussion the underclassmen have about the darkness in people's hearts being more dangerous than the Heartless still happens, but either before or after it there is a separate (but still interconnected) discussion where Hermod apologies to the others and takes responsibility for his idea to surrender themselves to the Card Soldiers, explaining his reasoning for why he did that. Namely, that as Keyblade wielders, it was their duty to not disrupt the order in any way, and their hands were tied.

Xehanort and the party exchange Knowing glances to indicate that this isn’t uncommon behavior for Hermod (and also that they’re not exactly pleased about how quickly and easily he relented to the Card Soldiers, not putting up much of an argument or fight) but they silently agree to not confront Hermod about it since he had no way of knowing what a farce the trial was going to be. Perhaps letting themselves get captured would have been the correct decision if Wonderland’s court system was actually fair. Instead they assure him that they understand why he thought that not fighting back or running away was the best decision in the moment, but nonetheless he needs to be more careful in the future. Hermod agrees and is genuinely apologetic for putting his friends in danger, but there’s still a hint of irritation in his expression. He still thinks that adamantly refusing to disrupt the order was the inarguably right decision to make; after all, it’s what they were specifically instructed to do by Master Odin. And if there's one thing that Hermod refuses to do, it's break the rules.

Episode 3: Minor Details of Note

Episode 3 isn't a Hermod focused episode in my rewrite, but there are two details from this episode that I find worth mentioning.

Detail 1: Unique dialog from Hermod that won't exist in my rewrite (because I have Vor slotted for Episode 3) but I think says a lot about Hermod: "But the Tweedles didn't seem to be cowering under [The Queen's] rule. They looked happy enough to me." Does Hermod perhaps consider himself "happy enough" with his life, and thus makes no attempts to change or improve his circumstances?

Detail 2: When Eraqus starts getting angry and upset at Xehanort because Xehanort said that the upperclassmen might have been felled by darkness (presumably, a painful reminder of the fate that befell Eraqus' grandfather), Hermod looks sympathetic, puts his hand on Eraqus' shoulder, and tries to calm Eraqus down. Though Hermod is sometimes at odds with Eraqus, he seems to know about what happened to Eraqus' grandfather, and tries to be understanding about it. At the end of the day, they are good friends even if they don't agree on everything.

Episode 5: Further Emphasizing Hermod's Personality and His Dilemma

Canonically, Episode 3 (if you choose Vor to be your party member like the game prompts you to) and Episode 4 are more Vor focused, and in my rewrites Episode 5 is Urd focused, but we can squeeze a couple of minor Hermod moments in Episode 5 to keep things balanced.

Specifically through Cogsworth and the Beast, as people of authority in the castle that Hermod can show respect to.

With Cogsworth, I just imagine Hermod being very polite with him and being more than willing to help him get the rose back, giving him respect as the head of the household.

Same goes for the Beast (in fact, in the base game it is Hermod who speaks/approaches the Beast first, not Urd like you'd expect), but when the Beast tries to viciously attack Hermod despite the underclassmen being very polite and reasonable with him, afterwards Hermod makes a comment about how surprised he is that someone in such a respectable position as lord of the castle would act like that and yet still garner such love and loyalty from his servants. Genuine loyalty, not the fake, fear-based loyalty that the Queen of Hearts commanded back in Episode 2.

"There's still much we don't know about this world and its residents. Perhaps we're missing something important. Or perhaps this world is like Wonderland; it's just the order of things." says Xehanort. "Maybe he's not so bad once you get to know him?" offers Urd.

And like, that's the thing, right. The Beast definitely needs to learn how to treat his servants better, but he lashes out because he's hurting, not out of genuine disdain for them like the Queen of Hearts, and deep down he really does care about his family at the castle even if he doesn't always show it. If Hermod can somehow recognize that that is what's going on, if he can recognize what exactly makes the Queen of Hearts and the Beast different despite their similar temperaments, then he can also realize that "Hey, people who genuinely care about you and your wellbeing probably deserve your loyalty more, and those who don't, don't." (Not that the Beast is a terribly great example of this given his nonetheless inexcusable behavior, but you get the idea.)

I can imagine Hermod starting to realize what conditions are required to birth true loyalty in people's hearts after they return the rose to the Beast, and the party finally sees him in a more calm, grateful state. This could be a discussion that Xehanort, Hermod, and Urd have as they leave the castle, capping off their adventure there.

BUT regardless of whether or not Hermod ends up seeing the hidden humanity of the Beast, once again Hermod is being presented with a wrathful, flawed authority figure wielding power against their subjects in unfair ways, and not yet recognizing how his alarmed and frustrated emotional responses to these scenarios could be applied to his own life and circumstances.

(And, honestly, maybe seeing such extreme examples of anger being wielded carelessly and spitefully against people who don't deserve it would make Hermod re-examine his own anger issues too and learn how to wield/direct his anger more responsibly? I know I said I didn't want his anger to be the focus of this rewrite (especially since anger isn't inherently bad) but the connection that can be drawn here is still a little too juicy to pass up, don't you think. Also, in addition to the Queen of Hearts and the Beast being examples of extreme anger wielded carelessly, there's also Hades to consider, who is known for his own unique brand of fiery, explosive anger as well. Keep him in mind for later.)

Episode 6: Confrontation and Introspection

The next set of major events relevant to Hermod’s development occur in Episode 6. In fact, Episode 6 is like, THE Hermod episode.

Episode 6 starts off with Jafar trying to trick Xehanort, Urd, and Hermod into going to the Cave of Wonders and fetching the lamp for him, lying about how the lamp is crucial to saving the kingdom. In the base game, Hermod is the first one in the group to show sympathy for Jafar and start falling for Jafar’s ruse, to the point that Urd worriedly grabs his hand to stop him when he starts to approach Jafar after overhearing Jafar's "woes".

In this rewrite, I’m taking inspiration from that little interaction and having Hermod be way more trusting of Jafar than Xehanort and Urd are, implicitly respecting Jafar’s authority as the royal vizier. So rather than Xehanort being the one who agrees to help Jafar (because he has suspicions about the lamp and wants access to the Cave of Wonders) with Hermod acting surprised/displeased at Xehanort’s willingness, instead it's Hermod who enthusiastically agrees to help, with Xehanort and Urd acting a little surprised and displeased but nonetheless going along with it (due to the aforementioned "the lamp might be important to our mission actually.")

There's also a moment during this scene where Xehanort and Urd start poking holes in Jafar's sob story and Hermod seems surprised/displeased that they're so rudely questioning Jafar like that, and obviously I'm keeping that in since it exemplifies Hermod's hesitation to question authority.

Afterwards, as the party makes their way down into the Cave of Wonders, Xehanort voices his doubts about Jafar’s intentions. In my rewrite, rather than Hermod instantly trusting Xehanort’s judgment of Jafar’s character, instead I want Hermod to argue with Xehanort about it. Hermod doesn't understand why Xehanort is accusing Jafar of nefarious intentions without any evidence to back it up, especially since Jafar seemed so...NORMAL and COMPASSIONATE compared to the other authority figures they've encountered so far. He's just trying to save his city, is that really so bad? says Hermod.

Xehanort, realizing that "I can feel his greed/darkness tho" doesn't really qualify as hard evidence, but ALSO being kinda fed up with Hermod's inflexibility and compliance up until this point, calls him out on not thinking for himself and just blindly following authority even when they're so CLEARLY suspect. Must I remind you about what happened with the Queen of Hearts, Hermod?

Hermod, shocked and offended at being criticized like that, and also getting defensive at having his Major Character Flaw thrown into his face, scoffs but doesn’t argue the point further. However, he’s still very visibly angry, and short with Xehanort whenever they do happen to exchange words. "Whatever. Let's go find this lamp already and get back to our mission." Or something like that.

It’s only when the party runs into Bragi and Eraqus who reveal that Jafar tasked them with the exact same dangerous mission too without ever mentioning them to Xehanort and company that Hermod is finally convinced that Xehanort had been right all along. Jafar was treating them like disposable pawns and knowingly sending them into a death trap.

He also realizes that he was naive to trust Jafar so easily just because he was a charismatic authority figure. Before, Hermod was presented with the unfortunate reality of some authority figures just being plain cruel and incompetent and careless, but here he learns that they can also be deceitfully charismatic on top of that, and that it's not always going to be obvious when you're being taken advantage of.

He apologizes to Xehanort for (yet again) dragging his friends into danger due to his own personal hang-ups and choosing to trust Jafar, a stranger, over Xehanort, his close friend. Feeling the need to explain himself, he confesses that lately, he has felt like he has had no control over his life (perhaps with the implication that his family is really strict and expect way too much from him?), and the only way he knew how to cope with that was to assume that the authority figures controlling every aspect of his life were trustworthy, knew what they were doing, and had his best interests in mind. If he believed that with all his heart, then he could accept his lack of freedom to make his own choices, and be content with it. Xehanort, realizing that he was overly harsh on Hermod earlier, apologies as well.

TANGENT: Once again, I wish to highlight a moment from the base game that will be relevant later. Namely, Hermod and Eraqus starting to act more and more like each other.

Moving on: In addition to Vidar trying to recruit Eraqus in the lamp room, I want Vidar to try to recruit Hermod as well, because there's an awfully convenient similarity between the two of them that's relevant here. In that very scene, Vidar talks about how he and his friends heeding what they were taught (i.e. “don’t mess with the order no matter what”) is what resulted in four of them dying in the first place. Vidar had to learn the hard way what happens when you blindly follow the rules without considering your own opinions on what the right thing to do is. This lesson is absolutely what Hermod needs to learn, too. Perhaps Vidar’s entreaty isn’t enough to convince Hermod to join him, but in conjunction with the Wonderland fiasco and Jafar’s deceit from earlier, it’s certainly enough to make Hermod start re-evaluating himself. 

Specifically, I can imagine this theoretical Vidar and Hermod interaction slotting somewhere after Hermod's canon line "...upsetting each world's order is the worst thing you could do." (Is it? Perhaps Hermod will change his mind about this very soon...) Maybe it goes something like this (my added dialog in italics):

"I don't have a clue about true darkness and how much of a threat it is, but upsetting each world's order is the worst thing you could do." says Hermod, angrily. "'Don't upset the order,' huh? That's what we were taught, too." [Upperclassmen classroom flashback, followed by Vidar explaining that the other upperclassmen are dead, just like in the base game.] "And what about you, Hermod?" "Huh?" Hermod's anger gives way to confusion. "How has 'upholding the order' treated you and your friends so far? In Wonderland, and here in Agrabah?" (<-knowledge he got from spying on them.) "..." "If there's one thing I've learned from all of this, it's that you can't let darkness have its way. Not ever. Otherwise, it'll take away everything you care about the moment you give it the chance. If you wish to protect your friends...then you must fight it. So why not join me, and fight it?"

Hermod, much like Eraqus, refuses Vidar's offer, being worried about what might happen to the worlds if Vidar continues to steal the items of world order. But now he has something to mull over.

Episode 7: Realization and Resolve

Episode 7 is where Hermod's arc concludes (naturally, since he dies here.)

A couple of canon moments from this episode I want to highlight before we get to my changes, since I think they're important to Hermod's arc:

In the scene where Odin and the underclassmen discuss Vidar's plans to purge true darkness, Odin says to Hermod and the underclassmen "However, it has not yet been determined that what we face now is true darkness. And if it is indeed so, will you risk the lives of countless others to save your friends?" A question that we will actually get an answer to quite soon.

After Odin relieves the underclassmen from their duty, Hermod despairs over this fact and acts like there's nothing they can do about it since Odin's word is absolute. We see his anger and frustration spill out due to his conflicting feelings on the matter. He seems to be at a crossroads, unsure of what the best thing to do is. You get the impression that he is on the cusp of doing something uncharacteristic of him.

Anyway, Episode 7 remains mostly the same up until the Hades boss fight that occurs due to Hades claiming to have imprisoned Bragi or Baldr. Hermod, after much internal conflict, finally decides to break the rules and agrees to fight the literal GOD of the Underworld (you could not have asked for a more fitting ending to Hermod's arc than that) in order to save his friends, wielding his anger compassionately and strategically to protect what's most important to him. This acts as a bookend to the Wonderland episode; there, Hermod’s refusal to fight an authority figure nearly got him and his friends executed, but here he’s finally realized that he needs to follow his heart and do what he thinks is right, even if that means disregarding his orders or disobeying those in power. He nearly got his friends killed last time; he won’t let that happen again.

However, instead of Hermod showing up after the Hades boss fight, I want him to show up before it and actually be involved in the battle. And since Eraqus and Hermod are usually at odds with each other due to Eraqus’s flippant and disrespectful attitude towards authority, I think it would be very emblematic of Hermod’s change of heart for him to protect Eraqus in the battle. (Remember those canon Eraqus and Hermod moments I highlighted? This is where they finally pay off. This moment of Hermod putting himself in danger to save Eraqus works without me having to add any extra details to lead up to it. Nice.) So at one point Hades gets very close to offing Eraqus. but Hermod jumps in front of him just in time to fend Hades off, getting seriously injured in the process. 

So later in the dark corridor when Hermod starts passing out way before Urd does, it’s specifically because of the extra wounds he sustained in the fight, adding another layer of tragedy to his death. He stood up for his friends and what he believed was right, discarding his strict adherence to the rules and disrupting the order in the process, but the ironic cost of that choice was that he was too hurt/exhausted to properly protect Urd and himself from Baldr. He did his best, and realized his error in time, but unfortunately that just wasn’t enough. This game is a tragedy where nothing goes right despite how hard the characters try to change for the better, after all.

And that's my pitch. As before, if you have any ideas, feedback, or criticisms, feel free to add on. Thanks for reading to the end.

[bbyquokka]

aftercare with skz

pairing: ot8 x gender neutral reader

genre: headcanon, smut, fluff – MDNI

synopsis: stray kids and their types of aftercare

warnings: aftercare, food mentioned, some bdsm themes, sex toys mentioned, make-up sex, some implementation of rough sex, crying during sex–lmk if i missed any!

words: 2.0k ~ (2,020)

♡ m.list — ♡ you can also read it on my ao3

dont repost. dont translate. minors, ageless & default blogs; dni! feedback and reblogs are highly advised and appreciated!

chan went a little too hard on you. not like you minded of course, however after you were both done did you feel the tremendous weight of your body weighing you down alongside sleep that's fast approaching. chan would feel a little guilty for being too rough on you. he knows you don't mind and knows you're vocal if you ever felt unsure about something. but as he looks at your bruised body, guilt sinks in his stomach a little. he'd gently shake you by the shoulder, instructing you to go pee. you'd do as he says, legs struggling to hold your weight as you wobble to the bathroom. all the while, chan cleans up the bedroom. he changes the sheets, cleans any toys you both may have used and open the window to air out the bedroom. next chan would grab your comfy underwear and a big fluffy towel before filling a bathtub full of warm water and lavender bubble bath. he'd help you in the tub, him sitting behind you so you can lean all your weight onto him. whilst washing your hair, he would notice how silent you are, laughing as he notices you've fallen asleep on him. he'd rinse you off, help you out and dry and dress you before carrying you to the bedroom bridal style and tucking you in bed for the night.

minho would cook you a hearty meal. you both had make-up sex, both of you letting off steam and pent up frustrations on one another. work has been piling up resulting in you both not having time for one another which caused you both to snap at each other over the smallest thing. so you both took it out on each other in the form of sex. hair tousled, marks on one another, muscles sore and achy but you both feel ok, well kind off. however, both of you being stubborn, neither of you want to be the first to apologize so you'd be sat at the dinner table, shooting glares at one another and little comments until one of you breaks character and laughs, apologizing before agreeing to have a second round; this time, it's much more loving and passionate. minho being very tender with you, fingertips like feathers as he glides them up your skin. lips softly pressing on your skin, hips rocking in a slow yet passionate pace. your name and various ’i love yous’ rolling off his tongue, showing you that he does care and so do you.

changbin would make you a nice fruit smoothie packed with vitamins and minerals to replace what's been lost from sweating. he would add in all your favourite fruits paired with whatever juice, milk or yogurt you want. he'd go that extra mile to make it that extra special for you, topping the smoothie off with a piece of fruit. you'd happily drink the smoothies together, talking about this and that before changbin spontaneously decides to take you out on a date that same night. he can't help it, he's a big guy with a big heart, so every time he sees you wobble around, he feels a little guilty. you'd remember one time where changbin was once so lost in the pleasure, it went on for hours. your body bruised and tender and after it all, changbin apologized the whole week and even cried, claiming he felt so guilty and promised to be more gentle with you. you calmed him down, reassuring him it's ok before going for another round because his crying face is just something too adorable to you.

a night filled with nothing but passion and love, hyunjin would still be cautious and treat you like royalty afterwards. he knows your skin is tender and your muscles are screaming at you. he knows he has put you in various positions and your back is screaming and legs jelly. the bruises and marks he made on you very visible to which hyunjin is somewhat smug about. a hot shower with him to relax your muscles paired with a nice shoulder massage afterwards. naked back to hyunjin, his fingers digging into your muscles which causes soft, involuntary moans to roll past from your lips. hyunjin would plant soft kisses on the back of your neck and shoulder blades. the bedroom lite up with candles, soft classical music playing and essence burning in the background. hyunjin would leave your side for a second to gather some paint and paintbrushes to paint pictures around your bruises, sometimes incorporating them in his art work. he would take photos of your decorated body, using it as reference for his next art piece.

jisung just can't get enough of you. he'd wait an hour or two to allow you to calm down and sort yourself out, for your muscles to stop screaming at you. but the way your body looks, glistening in sweat and marked by him and the way you sound with your voice hoarse and dry; just makes the man crave you some more. his cock driving in and out of you slowly and sensually. his body towering over you, weight on his forearms as he strokes your sweaty hair. your nails gliding over the skin of his back, soft moans and pants leaving your lips. jisung would kiss you so softly and delicately, his hips moving at such a slow and gentle tempo. he'd praise you, tell you how good you are for him. tell you how good you feel around him. he'd ask you over and over again “are you ok?” and “how do you feel? is this ok?” to help relieve that guilt he is feeling from knowing your body is probably hurting but he just can't stop. he'd tell you he's so addicted to you yet scared of breaking you because you're so fragile and precious in his eyes. your heart would swell and nerve endings on fire as the man above you becomes reduced to tears as an overwhelming feeling of pleasure mixed with a suffocating amount of love for you would cause him to crumble and cry. he'd chant those three words of “i love you” over and over again until he is certain it's engraved in your mind and heart. you'd find it cute but also start crying due to how suffocating his love feels to you. but it's good! it's a good feeling, a feeling neither of you wants to end. you're both drowning in each other's love and tenderness but you don't want it to stop. you both want to keep drowning because it's the best feeling in the world.

pillow talk and cuddles. two of felix's and yours favourite thing to do after sensual love making. head on his chest so you can hear his heartbeat. skin naked and touching because it's comforting. felix's fingers through your hair as you'd both talk about anything and everything (even if it is random) there wouldn't be a dull minute between the two of you, both of you being able to hold conversations and being comforted by each other proving that you're both soulmates and even when there is nothing left to say; comforting silence would hit. the sound of felix's heartbeat in your ear. his fingers running and playing with your hair. the sound of the cars passing by and the occasional breeze coming in through the open window, tickling your naked skin and causing goose bumps to rise. felix would occasionally sing to you, talk about what he is most excited about in the upcoming schedule and what he isn't (its always the constant traveling that felix never enjoys) he'd explain to you how excited he is to see stays and be with the members. live in hotels for months on end and go sightseeing in places he's never been or seen before. he'd tell you that when he has free time or when he retires, he will take you to these places and spend time with you. make new memories. take new photos. go sightseeing with you because it's different spending time with the love of your life than with friends and that's all he ever wants to do. he wants to stay with you–for eternity 

you and seungmin have been experimenting in the sex department. you've both been trying new things, buying and using new toys. you've both been testing each others limitations, seeing how far you can push each other until one (or both) of you hit that threshold. aftercare is a must with seungmin, no matter the situation. he'd pre prepared, buying lotions, oils and multiple first aid kits to heal your wounds and bruises. the fridge and cupboards stacked with energy drinks packed with electrolytes, your favourite snacks and candy held hostage in the cupboards. the freezer packed with frozen and quick meals with ingredients in the fridge for seungmin to cook you a nice hearty meal. due to you both being newbies at bdsm, you would ask each other questions such as “do you like that?”, “was it good?”, “what should i improve on?” seungmin could be washing your hair, the soap suds coating his arms and hands whilst the pair of you discuss what you liked and didn't like. ideas sparking here and there. with a full stomach and a clean and treated body, you and seungmin would spend hours in bed together browsing sex shops online whilst giving ideas to each other. new toys. lube. sex games. edible chocolate in various and lude shapes. strap ons, rope–every idea you both pitched to each other, a new sex item would be added into the basket. you both want to create a safe space for one another, letting each other explore sex safely and comfortably. you're seungmin's safe space and he is yours. being able to do this with someone you trust and love makes sex much more enjoyable for the both of you.

he's tired. it had been a tiring week for him in general. photoshoot after photoshoot, recoding in the studio, filming for upcoming youtube content–jeongin is spent. he'd feel a little guilty though, however. he knows you have been doing everything for him such as the cooking and cleaning. when you both moved in together, you both made plans and promises on who would do what to make it easier around the house however, once jeongin grew increasingly busy did all his household responsibilities shift onto you. he feels guilty, incredibly guilty–but there is nothing he can do. he watches you zooming around the house, in and out. here there and everywhere at the same time and all he can do is watch because his body is so exhausted. he wants his body to move but it simply can't. due to you doing another person's chores (which you are understanding off. it's not his fault he is so busy) do you start to feel tired and when two loving people are exhausted constantly does the lack of intimacy happen. neither of you could take it anymore. the lack of touch from one another drives you both insane resulting in slow and lazy sex. bodies tired but mind and heart needing each other. needing the touch, the sounds and the smell. needing to see each other naked and raw. jeongin's thrusts lazy and slow but deep, reaching untouched territory. his arms around you, holding you close to him. fingers caressing your skin and hair, lips dancing along your neck and shoulder blades. after sex, you'd both pee and wash up deciding that the night is still young (in other words, neither of you want the night to end) and settling on a cheesy romcom movie. a fluffy blanket around you both as you'd cuddle on the sofa, feeding each other popcorn and candy. thirty minutes into the movie, the weight of tiredness weighing both your bodies down as you both try to fight sleep. the exhausting week catching up to you both paired with restless nights and soon, you'd both fall asleep on the sofa in each others arms, feeling happy, content and loved.

note: repost because original wasnt showing in tags. ty tumblr :) sorry to those who are tagged to be tagged again. don’t forget to leave feedback, reblog and tell me what you think here. curious as to what is next? here is my wips list! i hope you all enjoy! ‹3

tags (open): @sstarryoong ; @septicrebel ; @alyszaen ; @writerracha ; @hyunluvxo ; @aestheticsluut ; @xcookiemonsteer ; @telesvng

[marvelgirlstories]

Hi, I realized that I accidentally saved this to my drafts instead of posting it. 🥲🥲 This is the George Weasley fic that I wrote to celebrate one month on Tumblr. ❤️❤️❤️

Enjoy Xxx

George Weasley x reader (dating)

Cute Date

SFW

Warnings: Bad language, Fred scaring people, George being sad

It was a sunny Friday and you were slowly dying in the north tower, where you had divination. You were sat next to George bored as fuck, trying not to fall asleep. You were just about to close your eyes, when George passed you a note.

Hey gorgeous,

Are you free tonight?

Yes Yes

Go on a date?

Yes Yes

Pick you up at 7.

Your loving boyfriend,

George Fabien Weasley

Xxx

You chuckled as you read the message and saw the possible answers. Georges face lit up when he saw the message, even though he knew you wouldn't turn down the opportunity.

After divination you finally got to speak to him. He pulled you put of the way of all the people wanting to get down to the great hall for lunch. You were about to say something when he kissed you. The kiss lasted about 20 seconds before you broke it. "So pick you up at seven?", George asked. "We literally have the same common room", you answered. "I'll take that for a yes.", he said. "Dress code?", you wanted to know. "Nothing to fancy", he replied. "Ok.", you said leaning in for a kiss.

You were finally ready at five to seven and so you went down into the common room because George couldn't come up to the dorm. You were wearing your favorite outfit to wear outside of school. You had glammed it up with some jewelry and make-up and you did your hair.

He was already there and you could see how his eyes shone when he saw you. But as he made no move to go over to you, you sat down near the golden trio and tried to help Hermione help Ron and Harry with their homework.

At seven he walked over to you. "Wow, you look stunning", he said, before pulling you in for a deep kiss. "Get a room", Ron shouted and George pulled away ready to yell something back. But Hermione got there before him hitting Ron on the head with a big bit of parchment. "Don't worry about him", you said,"I was promised a date!" "Come on then, gorgeous!", he said, leading you out of the portrait hole.

"Where are we going?", you asked as you both went down the stairs. "Shhhh", was what he said. When you stood in front of the corridor with the one-eyed witch, you knew where this was going. "Oh no. No. Not Hogsmeade.", you said, before you could stop yourself. George turned around to face you. "Well, I mean... If you don't want to we don't have to.", he answered, trying to hide how much it hurt him. But you knew him to well to think he didn't mind. "No, George. Fuck! That's not what how meant it." You internally cursed at your self. You lightly kissed him. "I was just worried. I thought we might get caught. But then I realized you would of thought of that. Because my loving boyfriend, George Fabien Weasley thinks of everything." "If you are sure...", he said. "Don't worry, handsome. I will always go along with your crazy plans." He smiled. "Come on, then!", he said opening the tunnel.

He stepped in first, then helped you down. After he closed the passage, he took your hand. "You ready", he asked. "Of course", you replied. He took out his wand. "Lumos!" "Come on!", he dragged your arm as he started to run. You joining his pace.

You ran for about two minutes before you slowed down to a walk. After a while, you got to the end of the tunnel. "Ok. Let's go!", he said. You two snuck up through the storeroom and into the main shop. The owner wasn't there. He was probably up stairs. You two made your way to Zonko's and then two the Three Broomsticks. Madam Rosmerta gave you extra cream with your Butterbeer. "You are the first Hogwarts students that have snuck out tonight.", was her reason. "This is really nice. Thank you so much!", you said to George. "It isn't over yet, love. There's more to come.", he replied. "Well, I'm looking forward to it.", you said, kissing him softly.

When you had both finished your Butterbeer, you went outside. "You ready for the rest of the date?", he asked. "Always", you answered. He grabbed your wrist and lead you back to Honeydukes. After you snuck back down the tunnel. He took out his wand, ready to light it up. "Wait!", you said. He was about to ask why when you kissed him passionately. Taking your time, tasting the Butterbeer you both drank. His tongue ran along your bottom lip and you let him in. He pulled away just before it became a major make out. As you whimpered at the loss of contact, he reasoned you with: "There plenty of time to do that later." He lit up his wand and you carried along the tunnel. He went first and then helped you up back into the corridor. Suddenly you heard a voice. "Well, what do we have here?"

You both froze "Umm...", you were about to say something when Fred appeared. "Fred! You idiot! You scared us to death!", George shouted. "I thought you were Snape.", you added. "Keep your voices down", was all Fred said back. George was just about to lunge at Fred, but you held him back. "Leave him alone.", you said,"It was kind of funny!" "At least someone has humor around here!", Fred exclaimed. "Don't test my patience.", you shot back. He put his hands up in defense. "Have fun, you two.", was the last thing that he said before he crept away. "Come on, gorgeous. Let's get out of here before Filch or his cat finds us.", George said. "Where are we going?", you asked. "It's a surprise!", he replied.

"Well, considering we are going up the only stairs that head to the astronomy tower, it's not much of a surprise, is it?", you commented. "Ok, cleverclogs. Whatever you say!", he answered, half annoyed, half amused. You where about to say something back, when you stopped in your tracks. You had reached the top of the tower, but your mouth dropped all the way to the bottom again. "Do you like it?", George asked, not being able to read your face. "I love it! It's beautiful!" He had set ups beautiful picnic area with candles, pillows, blankets, a picnic rug and all of your favorite foods. "I didn't know what...", but he didn't get any further, because once again you pulled him in for a kiss. "Wow!", he exclaimed, when you finally pulled away.

He lead you loosely by the wrist to the rug covered in blankets. George picked up a chocolate-covered strawberry and fed it to you. You both had an amazing time eating, laughing and having fun. It was so nice to relax instead of studying or catching up on homework. Then George put on your favorite song. "May I have this dance, madam?", he asked standing up and bowing in a truly gentlemanly style. "Of course.", you said. As you two slowly danced across the room, you rested your head on his shoulder. "What did I do to deserve him?", you thought. "Everything", he replied. You looked up startled. "Did I say that out loud?", you asked. "Yes"

When it was finally time to go, he took you to his dorm. Everyone else was asleep, so it didn't matter. "Thank you so much!", you said while you were cuddled up in his bed. "Of course. I love you.", he replied. "I love you too"

You both fell asleep, enjoying your last moment as before the next school day together.

Hope you like it ♥️😘 See you all soon. Xxx

Tags:

@kandis-mom @felicitylemon

[iobartach]

GET TO KNOW YOUR ADMIN !!

name — Nix

pronouns — anything at all tbh, i don't mind!

preferred comms — leaning more towards discord than tumblr; i am just a slow replier / not available at times. so gimme a shout if you ever wanna share discord usernames!

name of muse — miguel o'hara / spider-man 2099

experience in RP — coming up fast on 18ish years this july, i think? 🥴tumblr's been the platform i've used the most, i came over from bebo, the original version, way back in the day, and also gave forum and discord server rps a go, but eh, i just like the format of tumblr more? especially for being able to make themes and stuff.

best experiences — fortunate to have had plenty of 'em! with miguel though, i have to say it's been especially fun? i really missed the whole aspect of meeting new people and crafting plots / crossovers when it comes to RP, as i had slowed down on writing for a while to get my career started. but now, i'm so glad to be back at it , more often!

pet peeves/dealbreakers — ahhh, let's see, i've gotten laid back af the longer i've been writing? the things that i appreciate nowadays are when folks take the time out to read over my guidelines, headcanons, bio (it's so poorly written, i am so sorry) etc, but i'm not gonna be a hardass about telling you to do so, either? like, someone taking the time to read my hcs is cool! going the extra mile and mentioning them in threads / plots? damn, kudos to you, i can't thank you enough! and if someone has any questions? my door's always open, i will ramble at you until the crack of dawn about miguel if you give me the chance 😂 but yeah with all that said, i'm not gonna hassle or bother folks if they don't read my stuff or ask me questions.!

that said, though, i do wanna point out that there are some specific things to my flavour of miguel that i'm trying to be consistent about? which, for anyone who's known me for years shouldn't be surprising to hear. i've been meaning to add them to my pinned post for my own / other's reference, and 100% accept that i don't call or jot them down as often as i should, it's all kinda just sitting in my head! oops!

and well... to that end, i'd also like to tentatively say... please don't automatically make assumptions / presumptions about my take on miguel, either? 🙏 yes, he's arisen from the atsv version, which i acknowledge can attract certain... notions. but, at the same time, please respect that he's not a soundboard or a thirst trap. he's a guy that, in my telling, fucked up, royally and is trying to deal with that, in his own way.

same also goes for no meaning no. both in-character and out-of-character. miguel will be blunt / react accordingly to things he doesn't vibe with (physical touch, dehumanising comments [deliberate or otherwise], etc), especially with strangers / unfamiliar people -- and for myself, i've been in enough rpcs for long enough to not allow myself to be strongarmed into doing certain things. i'd expand more about my previous experiences, but a munday post ain't the place for that, so yeah. i just would be grateful for any acknowledgement of this. all i wanna do is write one spidery guy, in relative peace, at my own pace & leisure. cheers !

muse preference ( fluff, angst, smut ) — i'm a glutton for a bit of everything, but i kinda lean lately more towards action and slice of life. fluff is good, but i try to approach it so that i don't overdo it -- same with angst, i thrive on it, but again, all things in moderation ! and of course, if mutuals ever feel like i'm leaning hard towards a particular genre (which i've a tendency to do!), feel free to pull me back a bit, i won't mind!

plot or memes — memes are the balm for my soul, i stg <3 i love how they can be icebreakers, as well as the perfect thing to spark some muse inspiration after spending the weekdays working. i do love to plot, too, and i've been thinking of doing a lot more of it lately, especially as i grow to learn about another mun's muse, but i'm also a bit of a slow burner when it comes to that, largely because of how much of my week is taken up by work (a blessing and a curse :() . so if you're fine with plots & long form threads progressing over months, absolutelyyy hit me up! 👀

long or short replies — cackling me + short reply is rarer than hen's teeth🤣 i can't do one-liners for the life of me, so you'll always get a small paragraph or two. i love doing long replies, especially if my writing muse is thriving, but never fear about matching reply length or anything! i just ... can't shut up, sometimes, lmao.

best time to write — weekdays are a huge hit or miss 🥴 sometimes, i'm able to write, more times, i'm not. so weekends, when i have the time to chill and relax, not stress about things, is when i find my motivation to write thrives the most

are you like your muse? — in one very specific way maybe; little patience for assholes 🤣 . i'd love to be able to take things on the chin, but eh, stupid stuff can get to me at times. if anything, i feel i'm more like miguel's brother gabriel, and i both love and work in tech rather than in science. worked a two-year stint in a medical corpo and i came out the other side vowing to never again do that. 🥴 i'd also love to be a smartass and have miguel's dry wit, but alas i'm just a funky irish potato.🤣

Tagged: @pzfr

Tagging: anyone who wants to steal this!

[zodiactalks]

Zodiac Signs Ranked from LEAST to MOST ROMANTIC

Oh, love! What a sweet feeling and what a joy when Cupid decides to point his arrow at us! Well, not everyone has such a pleasant experience with it.

There are some who find displays of affection distasteful, others who prefer to occupy their time with more interesting pursuits and some who simply regard love as a weakness.

Read on to find out which Zodiac Signs are the least to most romantic:

#1. Capricorn

Honestly, sometimes it appears that Capricorn has no feelings at all! They are so busy focusing on their career goals and ambitions that relationships seem like a mere waste of time. Falling in love will be their greatest challenge and life lesson, as they must learn to be more vulnerable and to openly show their passion for their loved ones to avoid losing them.

#2. Aquarius

Aquarians are very friendly, sociable, smart, and fun! However, they are very sharp and tend to rationalize all their feelings as if they were computers. They also cherish their freedom and consider relationships to be just like cages. That's why they are so detached from their emotions and not very romantic. Moreover, when dating, they tend to treat their partners the same way they treat their friends.

#3. Virgo

These Zodiac Signs firmly separate matters of the heart from those of reason. Their labyrinthine mind loves riddles, mathematical problems, science, among other subjects. Now, love is not something you can read in a book or understand through a chemical formula. It is so irrational that Virgos fail to understand what it is all about and ends up discarding it. When they fall in love, they do their best not to show it and go unnoticed most of the time.

#4. Gemini

Geminis take love as a fun ride! Instead of being romantic and affectionate, they show their significant other how much they love them through jokes, games, or engaging chats. It may not seem very tender, but it's just the way they express their excitement! After getting used to it, their lovers learn to appreciate its benefits. For example, none of their dates will be boring and as long as they are by their side, they will always be laughing.

#5. Aries

Although Aries is passionate, they don't have a lot of patience for romantic displays of affection. They tend to cut to the chase and show their love through concrete actions. So, forget about love poems or endless hugs while looking at the stars. With Aries, there is no need to waste time on cloying cuddles, in fact, this makes them anxious and impatient. Better to accept their fast pace and enjoy this energy in the privacy of the bedroom.

#6. Sagittarius

Sagittarians are not specifically romantic, but they know exactly how to lift their partner's spirits. So, if they notice their loved one is having a bad day, they will go out of their way to see them smile! From buying them ice cream, making them a playlist with their favorite music, or inviting them to watch a movie. Maybe they don't get them chocolates and roses every single day, but they do make an effort when it's required. If this is not love, then what is?

#7. Taurus

When Taurus plans a romantic gesture, it turns out to be the greatest one of all! The problem is that they perform these gestures very sporadically. With them, everything takes a long time, as they walk at a slow pace, and tend to put their ideas together with one at a time. So, yes, they are romantic, but they don't usually prove it too often! Still, their partners appreciate the extra effort they put into anniversaries and other special occasions.

#8. Libra

Libra lives for romance! They get excited about love stories and strive for their relationships to be as Hollywood movie-like as possible. They are amazing partners, always making sure their beloved feels loved and appreciated with their cute demonstrations of love. For example, surprise lunches, custom-designed gifts, couple massages, and so more! Anyone in a relationship with Libra can testify to this.

#9. Scorpio

Scorpio's passion for their beloved has no boundaries or restrictions! They don't fall in love easily, but when they do, their love burns as brightly as a thousand suns. Now, they may not show it in public, but they are very romantic and do everything to make their beloved aware of it. Their demonstrations of love are not exactly tender, but rather passionate and exuberant.

#10. Leo

Leo is a warm and expressive fire sign. They rejoice in love expressions, and the bigger the better! They have no shame in shouting to the world who is the lucky one to be by their side. Every brief encounter turns to be a special event to commemorate with gifts and love notes. As long as their partner appreciates these details, Leo will come back for more.

#11. Cancer

The only time a Cancer shows their vulnerable side is when they fall in love for the first time. That's when they drop their tough facade and bring out all the lovely feelings they hold inside! Every day is an opportunity to show their love for their sweetheart, treat them like royalty and tell them how lucky they are to have them.

#12. Pisces

As a water sign, Pisces tend to be very in tune with their feelings. That is why being romantic is as natural to them as breathing! As soon as they feel something for a special person, they start displaying their affection through poems, songs, paintings, even heartwarming text messages! Dating a Pisces is like living in a magical wonderland where no harm can befall them.

[crmsnmth-journal]

3/29/2024

11:02 PM

I decided I need to get out of my slump I've been in lately. I may feel angry and depressed and very apathetic right now, but that doesn't mean I should sit and wallow in my own self-pity. It's not a good place to go, and I know that. I know better than doing what I have been, which is absolutely nothing. So today, I woke up, and had one cup of coffee (I've decided I'm going to attempt and cut my caffeine intact way way down). Talked with mom for a while, which is odd but was nice. Usually, we don't talk more than five minutes at a time. It almost always turns into a fight between the two of us, but right now, out of the three of us (my two younger brothers), somehow the felon with a really bad attitude is being the most responsible. I mean, it only took me 35 years to get here, but I'm actually doing pretty good, and I need to remind myself of that. I have come so far from where I was, even four years ago. Hell, even last year. And it's not arrogant to remind yourself of that every so often.

Anyway, I showered and finally bleached half my head. I took extra care in washing and cleaning and just making myself look like a person again. I think I read somewhere that that's supposed to help. I don't know if it actually does, but it kept me occupied for a while.

I got to work at 2, which is usual for Friday's. It gives me about an hour of alone time where I can just belt along to my music and get the prep for the night down. Honestly, being alone back there is my favorite part of part of my job. The closest I've ever come to a religious experience was back there. It was right when I got work release during my time in jail. I had sat six months already, and for the last three months I was allowed to have work release. And the first night I came back, I was alone for three hours before open. I listened to music for the first time in six months, and I cried like a baby and screamed along to Amigo The Devil's Stronger Than Dead while dicing tomatoes. It's an experience I will never forget. That song holds such a deep importance in my life (it's part of my next round of tattoos, my only hand tattoo is going to be Amigo's 'pineapple' logo with the chorus of that song). Only two songs I've ever heard can I say truly saved my life. Stronger than Dead and Frank Turner's The Ballad of Me And My Friends. Different reasons, but the end result was the same for both and I didn't listen to the impulses and bury a bullet in my brain. And I still listen to both songs, religiously. At least once or twice a day.

Sorry. I keep getting off track. Sherry came in around 3 and started putting together the salad bar. That's her one thing she has to set up for Fridays and she never complains about it. I always tell her I do nothing with the salad bar, that it's all on her. It used to be just a trick I learned a long time ago on how to deal with less then stellar staff. Give them something that is all their own. It give them a feeling of control, and let's face it, I hate putting our salad bar together. I don't like salad bars in general. They are extremely gross on the kitchen's side of things.

It wasn't exactly busy tonight, but it wasn't exactly slow. Just kind of real steady, plodding forward pace. And Sherry did alright, by her standards. We shut down, and when I left after doing all my closing work, Sherry only had to finish up her dishes. Usually she just leaves the extra for tomorrow, when she opens.

I did start getting a pretty massive headache around 7 though. I'm pretty sure that's just the withdrawal from caffeine. At least that's what it felt like. I'd get them a lot in jail when we'd run out of coffee. It's all we drank all day, that instant add hot water crap, and when we'd run out before commissary made it's way, everyone was in hell. Ibuprofen costs 75 cents for two pills. The price mark up is insane, which I really don't think is all that fair. I get having some cost added, this is jail after all and it's not supposed to be fun. But when a package of Ramen ends up costing close to two dollars, that is a little passed a punishment. That's an outrageous kind of extortion.

Back to what I was saying, I got out of work around 9:30 and got my cab ride home. When I got home, I had yet another actual conversation with my mom, finally got some Advil in me and showered. The bathroom still smelled like the bleach I did my hair with. And finally, I took my handful of pills and turned on Malcolm In The Middle. I've only got a few episodes to go before I move on to whatever the next mindless background noise I put on. I'll write and work with phrases for a little bit and read. I restarted reading my favorite book, The Great And Secret Show by Clive Barker.

For being as bitchy and moody as I have been the last few days, I think I did okay today.

[triangle-dog]

Rally Novice Class #2

Rude corgi lady aside, class went fairly well. This time the instructor/assistant held dogs for the new students so we could do a practice walk through of the first course. Nova was very good, but I need to work on the various finish signs because I get turned around with all the arrows 😅. She did get spooked by a firecracker-like noise (I don't know what it was) from inside the building, but she handled it pretty well and I'm going to consider it a good training opportunity instead of worrying about it, she recovered well and was happy to do the next course (and got extra treats).

Notes *Fast Pace/Slow Pace last until the Normal Pace sign *Lots of students struggle with going through the Figure 8 the correct number of times (3). It's probably worth practicing from several different angles of approach *Talk with your dog! Make sure they know what's going on *Keep the signs on your right (usually)

New and/or key signs practiced: 6. Left Turn 9. 270 Right 12. 360 Left Turn 17. Slow Pace 18. Fast Pace 19. Normal Pace 29. Left About Turn 117. HALT - Pivot Left - Forward

I'd like to work on: *Front & finishes - I did some work on front this week, but hadn't gotten to the finishes *A start routine *Me mentally going through the signs/watching some videos on the more complex ones so I can read them quickly

What went better: *No sign sniffing! At all! Not a thought on it! I guess she figured out that unlike the trick tests we're not interacting with everything because I didn't work on it at all and was using the same treats *Front has actually had some training behind it so now she gets what I'm asking for instead of the Here Sit we had last time (which works, but I think it's better for her as a separate cue. I want sit to be wherever I say sit, not get close to me then sit.) *I split my treats this time. Higher value mix in the treat pouch for when we do the courses and a bottle of kibble for rewarding while we wait (I pay her for attention/settling/looking at me when a dog starts barking). It went great, will repeat in the future.

[doubleddenden]

Anxiety is rampage tonight, so it is time to hyperfocus on pokemon

Specifically I'm going to be thinking about the next 3 years of the franchise. It's long, so you're welcome for the read more

I know pretty much 90% of the fans want them to slow down (with 9% wanting them to stop all together and 1% wanting more games of lower quality, which yes is a take I've seen (source for these numbers: me I made to those numbers but it feels accurate yknow?)).

That being said, we know Game Freak are stubborn. In fact, TPC has said, on record, they want to maintain their cadence of releases while "ensuring quality."

So if nothing is changing in terms of pace of release, then oh well, all we can do is wait for more releases and judge from there.

But with that knowledge out of the way, let's get talking.

I'm gonna make a radical prediction. Gen 9 is going to last 4 years rather than the usual 3. SV released in 22, and guess when the 30th anniversary is?

2026.

Now here's the thing. They COULD drop gen 10 in 2025 on regular schedule and drop dlc in 2026. But let me ask this: would that be AS profitable? My take is that Pokémon has succeeded because of genius marketing strategies and timed releases, so the 30th anniversary, being a huge year for them, would probably boast much better profits by dropping a new generation, which would also give them an extra year to develop the game.

Let's also keep this in mind: the Switch 2 is almost upon us. It's not in the wild yet, but devs have been talking about getting dev kits for a while, they've been talking about ps4 level specs or close to it, and how they want it to be an easy transfer from Switch 1 owners to Switch 2- name not final obviously.

If that's not enough, there was a very accurate leak regarding Indigo Disk a few months back on 4chan that stated they were working with a new system for performance tweaks.

So basically what I'm getting at is that by 2026 we will have the Switch 2 or Switch U or whatever, and gen 10 will launch on that- but it won't be a launch title. Pokémon mainline games don't really do that for some reason.

Let's back up a bit before I go further. Assuming gen 10 releases on the 30th anniversary in 2026, that leaves a blank period in 2024 and 2025. Make sense?

This has been very long winded, but this is what I think will happen.

2024

Pokemon reveals intent to revisit Unova in 2 separate instances of games.

Nintendo reveals the Switch 2 to the public and announces a launch for late 2024 or early 2025.

The Unova revisitation titles are the last mainline pokemon games for Switch.

2025

Johto revisits are announced as the first mainline titles on the Switch 2. Most likely Crystal reremakes, but I'm not sure if it'll be precisely Let's Go style.

In addition, pokemon Switch 1 titles will have some better performance, particularly gen 9 games.

They might do a Legends title, but not just for Johto.

2026

Lots of Pokémon celebration, music videos, ports, and eventually gen 10 as the finish line of a huge celebration.

Now you may be asking "why 2 remakes in a row? Didn't they just remake gen 4?"

Hence why I said "revisits" instead. Because of Legends Arceus, we truly don't know what kind of curve ball could come next for us. Could be straight up remakes, could be new games entirely. We can't even say that they'll just 1 game a year because Legends Arceus and SV both dropped in 2022.

Something else that complicates things is this: Unova didn't have a Platinum or Emerald that they can just ignore the enhancements of. Well. They CAN, but I'm pretty sure we all agree that if they just remake BW1 and completely ignore BW2- aka a game most hardcore and long time fans hold as the GOAT of all Pokémon games in the same area as HGSS- fans will be absolutely livid.

That is... if they choose to REMAKE BW1 at all.

The Revisit clause opens the door for alternative takes. Perhaps a BW3, a BW0 or prequel to BW1, or perhaps something completely different all together like Legends Unova by itself. Or Paradox versions.

My personal predictions

BW1 remake, Legends following

BW1 and 2 combo remake, Legends following

A completely new game set in Unova that acts as a soft sequel to SV and its DLC, possibly merged with the concept of a Legends game OR a Legends game following said soft sequel set in either the past or future.

How do we know Unova is coming anyway? I mean it's kind of obvious if you've been paying attention to the DLC recently, but it's pretty much the most obvious hints since the KANTO KANTO KANTO re remake flags they kept waving in gen 7.

Blueberry Academy is in Unova

They keep highlighting and singling out specific Unovan pokemon such as the Unovan dragons or the starters, particularly Tepig and Snivy after giving Oshawott love in Legends Arceus.

There's an area that strongly resembles Chargestone Cave, apparently.

There's characters that may or may not be related to Unovan characters, like Drayton and Drayden

Ingo is in Legends Arceus

Now you may think all of this is easily explained because of the first point. Let me counter with this:

Why put BBA in Unova specifically?

Now are the gears turning? Sure there's a chance it was just a name thrown out- but if it were a nothing name, why not something different? They could've put Blueberry Academy near Kitakami, they could have put it in the real life chain of islands called the Canary Islands off the coast of Spain, they could have just left it unnamed in the middle of the ocean, heck they could have made it the Indigo Academy from the anime or place it in Kanto in general and nobody would have batted an eye. Or Sinnoh for that matter since we know that's a done revisit.

So the fact they choose Unova has to be of some significance.

Here's something else: the concept of the paradoxes blends seamlessly with Unova's tradition vs futurism that's present in certain areas such as the desert area, Opelucid, and Black City or White Forest.

Plus... cmon guys, Game Freak LOVES money. That's EASY money. Idk if I want it because I'm still in shock of how bad BDSP were and just how abysmal SV perform, but they generally follow the money, whether the game is finished or not. They have multiple teams, they are willing to use outside studios, they can and will do anything for the dollar.

My next point actually leads quite well with the next remake topic

The specific choice of paradoxes for Violet are the Unovan Musketeers

Now this is the clincher: why choose these specific pokemon for future paradoxes? Perhaps a hint to the future? For that matter, there's also plenty of Paradox Pokémon from gen 5 (Brute Bonnet, Slither Wing, Iron Moth, and Iron Jugulus) and plenty of gen 5 variants and cross evolutions.

Perhaps the musketeers pair nicely with the Johto Beast paradoxes given their similar purposes and design styles.

... so why the Johto Beasts for Scarlet?

Now comes my argument for JOHTO revisits, and granted the points aren't as strong as it is with Unova, but I still think there's a compelling case.

The idea was already brought up in the ending for Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee.

I'll pause: "but Game Freak said they weren't making another Let's Go game-"

Lying is a thing. My name is Pinkrillabussy von Skalkatrass, I'm a Capricorn born in July of 1757, and I have 10 wives from Canada and Antarctica. See? Easy

They changed their minds because money

They maybe had no plans at the time

NDAs are a thing

It might not be specifically a Let's Go game

Now, back on track

The Switch 2 will launch in the next year or two, and let's be honest, GSC re remakes would sell the console like hot cakes just like Yellow remakes did for Switch. Pokémon is a system seller after all. Let's not kid ourselves, it will/would outsell Unova.

In SV, there are various gold and silver colored items. By itself that's not a huge hint, but 2 prominent items are sets of mirrored sunglasses- no other mirrored glasses are in the game, and they both show some odd reflection of other locations.

In Teal Mask, Kitakami is in Japan, same as Johto, and has a decent chunk of Johto representation.

Also from Teal Mask, we got some photo music, including 2 very specific remixes from the GSC games, including very muffled versions of the Johto wild Pokémon battle musuc, and the Pokémon March song from the Pokegear. Muffled as in maybe pretty far off, but soon ish. Probably the strongest point.

Billy and O'Nare, the rich assholes we chase around Kitakami and Paldea. They dress in golden colors, have some silver under tones to their hair, and give out a ton of nuggets- gold- and pearls- kinda silver in the menu.

In the same way that paradoxes line up well with BW, the use of the time machine itself is also relevant to Johto, given that the original GSC games had backwards trading compatibility with RBY via a time machine trading system- the exceptions being that you couldn't send a gen 2 Pokémon or a gen 1 Pokémon with a gen 2 move back to the gen 1 games.

While not exactly damming evidence, the variants, Convergent species, and cross gen evolutions- Wooper, Tauros, Wiglett and Wugtrio/Diglett and Dugtrio, Toedscool and Toedscruel/Tentacool and Tentacruel, Annihilape, Farigiraf, Dundunsparce, Clodsire- with exception to Kinggambit and the other cross gen evolutions and covergents introduced in the dlc, these are a lot of Kanto and Johto pokemon or derivatives that can easily be brought to gen 2 re remakes in the same vein as the Alolan forms and Megas in LGPE. For that matter, there's also Certain Hisuian Pokémon, and certain Paradox Pokémon that line up with this as well.

Lastly, johto now is the main region we have spent the longest time since last revisiting. Go figure, Unova is second.

So what could a revisit to Johto look like? Unlike Unova, Johto isn't as complex to approach. In fact, there's several directions they can go, but most likely they'll try to stay true ish to the originals.

Let's Go Johto

Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee had a few signs pointing towards its creation from gen 7, but one of the funnier ones was the phrase Let's Go written directly on the box of Ultra Sun and Moon.

In SV, we have the Let's Go mechanic.

I personally don't want a Let's Go game because I hate motion controls and the Go aspect of it all, but I won't deny the possibility.

An ILCA style remake of HGSS

Hang on, a remake of a remake?

Well, BDSP were straight up just Diamond and Pearl with a few extra bells and whistles, almost frustratingly so. In fact, they even have the same glitches as the originals, and the coding is basically just ported directly to the Unity engine.

HGSS were DS games as well, and most hard-core fans will say they're the absolute best of the franchise- I'm not included, but I do respect just how much shit is cram packed into these games by Morimoto. I'm pretty sure most people would be just fine with straight up ports with modern amenities to reduce the grind.

Different Gold and Silver remakes

This is the deal- HGSS were already Crystal remakes split into 2 versions. They could just remake GS and remove the crystal isms, but that seems unlikely to me

A new take on gen 2

A Legends Kanto and Johto game since they're connected, a revised version of the original ideas for Gold seen in the Space World demo, etc. By now, GF have to be aware that WE are aware of that demo and several of the beta pokemon and chamges. Some fun could be had.

Personally, my bet is a safe Crystal remake split into 2 again. Nothing too fancy, just gen 2 in 3D. Don't wanna scare genwunners or og fans.

Anyway, that was a lot for what could ultimately be nothing at all. In fact, they could follow SV with Johto first and then Unova, or do neither in favor of something new. I'm not gonna deny the possibility of one happening and the other not, and hell, they could drop gen 10 in 2025 on schedule. Could also do a Legends Unova game or similar by itself, then Johto by itself, then gen 10. Could even be a second set of dlc. Who knows, man.

Anyway thanks for reading if you've come this far. Anxiety is a bitch and rambling about this series helps me relax.

[longinglook]

happy to see you back (sorta) and that you are ok! I'd love to hear your thoughts on shows and what you're looking forward to, but no pressure :) whatever works best for you

HIIIII hello happy to be back (sorta)!! I have about 9 months worth of show to review so I'll give them a grade out of 5 and I'll try to be brief with any comments lol I haven't scrolled through my dashboard on here in ages so I have no clue what everyone thought about them!

Under a read more because it's literally an essay

WATCHED (in some sort of chronological order)

-To my star s2: 3.5/5

I think I need to rewatch it already and binge it because following it weekly was extremely frustrating to me and I feel like I might have been too harsh on my judgement. Everything about Jiwoo's choices and actions seemed extremely irrational to me and it was a struggle to watch. It might make more sense if I watch all of it at once again though. It was still well made, well acted and well produced so at least there's that.

-Roommates of Poongduck 304: 5/5

I am EXTREMELY biased about this show because I've been obsessed with this pairing since Kissable Lips (camp masterpiece, I feel like nobody gets it the way I do) and I was sooooo happy to see them again with different characters. I honestly loved the show, I feel like it was using a lot of common kdrama tropes as opposed to the usual bl tropes and it was so fun to me. The pace felt great, the characters and their motives made sense, the chemistry was so great... That said I need everyone to go vote for Jiwoong on Boys Planet because being an idol has been his dream and his goal for ages and he finally deserves a GOOD chance

-Triage: 4/5

I had started this back when it was airing but I was missing a few episodes and I have to say I am pleased with it. It had some weird pacing issues and that's why I wouldn't give it a full 5/5 but the plot was very interesting and engaging. I would definitely recommend it.

-Love mechanics: 4.5/5

I was very unfortunately a love mechanics (2020) enjoyer and veemark have a hold on me so I had to watch it and it was definitely better than the original one. They fixed some of the plot issues and the longer run time allowed them to give the characters more depth. It did feel slightly repetitive or slow at times but the actors are so good that I didn't even mind.

-Vice versa: 3/5

Very cool concept, I was a bit worried about it at first but I enjoyed the plot. My main issues were with the pacing (it felt way too slow at times) and I wasn't completely sold on the romance/chemistry either. The way the parallel universe rules were explained felt a bit lame, having someone just straight up tell them how it works while I was hoping they'd have to figure things out together. I have to say i LOVED the small details they used to define the other universe like the transparent paper or the different food, it was a fun extra element that highlighted they were strangers there. I honestly don't remember too much else of this show which means it wasn't a standout to me.

-The Eclipse: 4/5

THE ACTINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG I was so obsessed. The plot got a bit lost but wow I loooooooved the brainwashed school prefect slowly realizing he's being manipulated by the people in power. That was GOOD. I liked the characters more than the plot they ended up with. The trailer was overpromising in that regard, I was expecting a full on mystery/possible scifi elements but it got sidetracked and lost itself. The final episodes when they're shooting the movie make no sense to me. It still gets a 4 because of the main couple, both characters and actors.

-Kieta Hatsukoi: 5/5

I had not seen this before and I finally caught up and wow it is as good as they say. Genuinely heartwarming and wholesome, i LOOOOOOVE the friendships, the OST is so good omg it was so sweet and funny. I already want to rewatch it, it's in the same category as Light On Me for cute slowburn with wholesome friendships

-The director who buys me dinner: 1.5/5

Honestly it's a 1.5 because the plot is somewhat interesting but it did NOT deliver at all. The short episodes might have been the first hindrance to fully developing the storyline but the weird idol with a bad attitude side character subplot took up way too much time. The flashbacks felt rushed and hard to follow, I think Tinted With You had tried something similar but in my opinion they had managed the pacing and plot way better. This is one of those webcomic adaptations that gets destroyed by the short running time and low budget unfortunately. If it ever got remade properly I'd be interested though.

-Cutie Pie 2 You: 2.5/5

It started out better than s1 and then I sort of lost interest and remembered why I didn't like s1. SO much wasted potential. I only tuned in to see Nuer and Syn and they did not disappoint (I LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVED their spicy scene, god it was so awkward and honest and true and still managed to be hot) but I wish they'd gotten more screen time. Please give them a spinoff! The whole wedding fiasco was so boring, the comedy did not land well this time, how do you manage to have so much filler content in a 4 episode special is beyond me

-Between Us: 4/5

Oh the UWMA nostalgia hit so hard with this one. It was exactly what it should have been and slightly better than I was expecting (I think New's directing has improved over the years). Seeing Pharm, Team and Manaow together again made me so happy, my best friends. When the original ost started playing at the end I might have sobbed. I spent the whole time screaming for Team to get theraphy and stop trying to actively trigger his PTSD but he wouldn't listen. I had read the novel and I was a bit worried about the adaptation but I think they managed to capture the sense of comfort and safetly that Win provides to Team very well. Even the misunderstandings and the repressed feelings weren't too frustrating except for one or two instances. I even managed to enjoy the new side couple, Prince is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!! Man I just love characters who are sure about their identity and have been for a long time.

-The New Employee: 3.5/5

Cute. Nicely acted. Adored the flashbacks to university and the friendships. Plot wasn't anything too exceptional and it seems like they ran out of it 4 episodes in. Just okay

-Individual Circumstances: 2/5

The past few months have not been a happy time for kbls. They seem to be going for quantity over quality and they've been falling flat. I think the parallel between the story and the novel being written are the only interesting thing about this show, but they're also so obvious they don't really help saving it. I zoned out so bad I can't even remember why they had broken up in the first place. Were they even together? The low budget was also a heavy weight here, it just wasn't good.

-Gap: 2.5/5

I struggled rating this because it has some high highs and some low lows. I just wasn't vibing with the plot, i know the title is literally GAP and the show is about the gap in age, power, etc between them but god it got so repetitive and frustrating I couldn't really take it seriously anymore. Things I liked: Freen's acting, i think she did a great job portraying Sam. I liked Sam's character a lot, her awkwardness and apparent coldness and how she tried to break free from the manipulative power her grandma had over her. I think she was very interesting and layered and well acted. Another thing I liked were the intimacy scenes. I wasn't expecting much but I found them to be very well done, the chemistry was good and they felt very realistic. I don't think they were overdone and honestly we needed some lesbian sex to restore the balance after 5000000 bls. Cons are literally everything else, the people at the office and Sam's friends all felt like comic relief caricatures with no depth, Kirk was absolutely unsufferable. I'm only saving Tee and Yuki who I am hoping will get a spin off because I SAW THEM... I heard that baby in the last episode... How did they sacrifice such an interesting side couple for what? 10 minutes of extremely pointless Saint screen time? As a lesbian, (this is my excuse as to why this got so long)

-My school president: 5/5 10/10 1000/1000 <3/<3

WOW!!!! I was expecting less than nothing because the trailer had not prepared me. I thought it would be yet another boring high school slow burn with unexperienced actors but instead we got this amazing gem. I am SO happy I gave it a chance, it had my attention right from episode 1 and it was my motivation to get to the end of each weekend. Gemini and Fourth are incredible!!!! It was such a wholesome show about frienships and growing up together and being supportive. I loved every minute of it. THE MUSIC!! oh my god the music!!!!!!!!! Both the original songs and the bgm were so on point, I am so obsessed with all the tracks. I am usually not a fan of slow burn but if it's like this then I am all for it. The characters are clear about their feelings a few episodes in already and then it's more of a self imposed boundary that they keep pushing and pushing and that tension is just so much fun to witness. Honestly GMM was on fire these past few months, all my favorite shows were from them and it seems like they've been listening to some feedback unless it was a coincidence that all the good shows ended up airing at the same time lol

-The warp effect: 4/5

I am so confliced about this show. Everything about it is a full 5/5 for me except for Alex's character (and Army not shutting up ever). I'm trying not to spoil the ending because it's only been a week since it aired but it's hard to explain what I liked and what I didn't like about it lol. I guess I liked how the time skip worked but, while for most of the show it felt like it was an ensemble cast narration, the ending really does remind us that after all Alex is the main character. The side characters and their subplots were all interesting and varied and felt very refereshing for GMM standards (except for Army constantly outing Joe, I get that they were trying to portray him as someone very sure and proud of his identity and a bit slow at understanding others but man... they were really forcing his character to get some drama between them). Spent a solid bunch of time rooting for a Jean/Kat couple only for it to get adressed in canon and get laughed at so I quickly and bitterly gave up and accepted they were never going to be anything but straight. The more we found out about Alex and Jean's first time the more horrified I was, I did NOT want that Alex to ever be dating her so I was scared they'd put them together anyway since they're main leads. The actual ending was a compromise I can accept but still... Not ideal. If only there was a magical camera to send all idiots forward in time to witness the damage they've done...

-Moonlight Chicken: 10000000/5

A masterpiece!!! Legendary!!!! Everything I've ever wanted and more!!! There was nothing I didn't like? Not a single thing I can think of? Maybe just Alan being overly bitter and mean but oh well assholes exist everywhere. I went in with zero expectations because the trailer had made it seem like it would be all about cheating, as soon as I found out there would be no cheating involved I dropped all my reserves and was on board 100%. EarthMix were perfect and delightful, they're just so good together and their characters worked very well as a pairing. Surprisingly slow burn seeing how ep 1 part 1 starts. I like that Wen's job is shown a lot and he actually has real tasks to do that someone in his position would do (him answering emails at the temple really got to me lol). The atmosphere the setting the lighting the colors... Just gorgeous. AND THE SIDE COUPLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE don't even get me started on Li Ming and Heart. Wow. Getting double GeminiFourth for a few weeks was such a treat, 3 days in a row of them delivering incredible performances (their first kisses lining up on the two shows was just adorable).

-Never let me go: ?/5

I sort of dropped this one? I was following it weekly up until ep 4 or 5 and then it lost me. The pacing was way too off and they had weird audio issues. The editing as well was bothering me, with really long closeups with nothing happening and similar issues. The plot wasn't interesting or new enough to keep me interested. I might finish it now that most of the shows I was following have ended.

CURRENTLY WATCHING

-Bed Friend:

I started this for two reasons: I will be tuning in for its spinoff since it's TutorYim AND I've been hearing about this show possibily getting made for the past 3 years. I remember when people wanted it to go to SaintZee (rip) so I wanted to check it out and I see what they meant. James has Saint energy, I won't elaborate. It's definitely as explicit as a show about friends with benefits should be lol I hope they can develop the romance aspect nicely and I hope it won't stem soley from King trying to "fix" Uea. The flashbacks to Uea's past are rather alarming (another instance of me screaming GET THERAPHY at him every time he's on screen) and I'm hoping there won't be too many more insances of them. As if the abusive mother wasn't enough? It feels too tropey to send all these bad "punishments" his way because he's an explicitly gay character.

-A Boss and a Babe:

Here comes another fully biased review, I couldn't not watch this as an avid ForceBooker. Only one episode in so there is not too much to say but honestly I am on board with ANYTHING from them. It's directed by New so I am prepared to be let down at some point but they could seriously just show me 60 minutes of Force's face and I wouldn't mind. I'm excited because it did not look slow burn-y at all and that fills my heart with joy. I like office romance comedies so much what can I say. I KNOW Cher looks like an absolute dumbass but I know there's a brain in there. He's so cute he'll never get on my nerves. I will fight every single person on MDL to defend Book and his acting, I don't care.

LOOKING FORWARD TO

-Our Skyy 2: STACKED LINEUP. More PhuTian and more PatPran are a dream come true, a blessing, a gift etc. Please air soon I need to water my crops. I am honestly excited for all couples (I just need to catch up on never let me go I guess), give me that little extra content to boost my serotonin and PLEASE BE GOOD

-23.5: MILKLOVEEEEEEEEE I also really really want this to be good because it has so much potential please please please. Happy about more GeminiFourth as well, and Ford too! He did so well on My School President, I need to see more of him.

-Middleman's love: TutorYim. TutorYim. TutorYim. TutorYim.

-Only Friends: I am hoping this will be a BL version of friend zone with a more grown up writing. Stellar cast again so I am very intrigued. (I've been affectionately referring to it as the gmm horny show)

-Last Twilight: could be a big hit or a big miss depending on how they handle it. I am very curious and a bit hopeful after seeing Moonlight Chicken

-The Next Prince: I think I'll end up hating this one but the trailer was so dreamy, straight out of a royalty AU. The truth is I believe Nunew should be the next global idol and singing a few OSTs for his bls + the occasional youtube cover isn't the way to go. (I am sort of joking, of course if he's happy doing this then it's not an issue at all) (IDK why Wabi Sabi sent their actors (Yacht especially, wtf) on a Korean survival and Nunew is still shackled to Zee)

-Absolute Zero: I feel like this will be a disaster. It sounds interesting on paper but I have zero faith they'll do it justice. Please prove me wrong

-The Korean Why R U remake: I feel like I am contractually obliged to tune in since the original show is what made me who I am today as a person. I have serious doubts this will work the same magic on me.

-About a hundred new Kbls (I truly can't keep up and I end up skipping most of them unless someone I trust really recommends me one at this point)

-Rumored season 2 of blueming? Rumored season 2 of Kissable Lips???????

I think that's all for now (lol) I swear to never take another 9 month break because this recap took me 2 full hours to write

[whatchasaytobeingnice]

Have you ever read a book that is both amazing and terrible in its presentation that you both have to finish it and yet at the same time wish it would just end?

No? Well let me introduce you to Paradise-1, a story unlike any I've read before.

For the record, I am not, nor have I ever been a professional reviewer. I am simply a man with a strong taste for good Sci Fi and horror. You want professional opinions, ask someone else. Now with that out of the way:

The Premise: Two ostracized individuals, a pilot with a chip on his shoulder, and a rapscalious robot named... wait for it... rapscallion embark on a mission to Paradise-1, a colony that has gone dark for some strange reason. What follows is a tale of horror as the crew struggle to complete their mission against an impossible enemy and a question that no one can seem to answer: how does one fight an idea?

If you like what I've read so far, feel free to pick up the book, because from here on out there be spoilers.

Now, for the good: The ideas this book presents in terms of an 'other' are absolutely unique and phenomenal. Rather than a simple zombie virus, the entity known simply as "The Basalisk" takes on the form of an idea. But never the same idea twice. Which makes each encounter unique in how it is portrayed. "You are hungry. You are unclean. You cannot be in the light." All of these ideas are fascinating and create unique hurdles to be overcome. The fact that the A.I. of this world can also be infected gives the Basalisk an extra level of danger and depth not normally seen in these types of books. At one point in time the A.I. literally makes a mouth out of discarded pieces of metal in an attempt to eat one of the Protagonists. Everything feels real and lived in within the confines of the story, and the craziness of the Basalisk means you can never quite be sure what new horror will leap out from each new ship. Because it's not just one area, but four different ships the protagonists go to in an attempt to understand their new foe. I felt a real sense of curiosity trying to understand what this thing was even as it showed how dangerous ans uncaring it felt in destroying the humans that had come to the planet. If only the dialog could keep pace with the story...

The bad: This story feels like it was written by two different people. The first is the world builder, who sets everything up in a believable way. From the ships, to the technology, to the way a person undergoing the Basalisk thinks and feels. It all feels quite alive and believable. Some of the details of the scenes can be a little off, but I never felt truly confused as to where I was. The same, could not be said sadly, for character interactions and ideas. So many times the book has the characters say what is needed to move the plot to the next point along, but without any consideration if someone would actually say that. For example, during one scene near the end of the story, a character has another in a standoff of sorts. Upon seeing she is outnumbered, the character mutters the word "Shit" and runs. Now in a book full of over the top swearing and violence, this line would feel natural. But this character has been portrayed as sinister and composed, not prone to outbursts such as these. This feels like something someone would write just to move the scene. Which brings me to my next point: the chapters are short. Now when I say short, I don't mean five pages. I mean like two. Sometimes not even that. And with each chapter, almost always there is a perspective shift to one of the four characters. This results in such whiplash in both tone, voice, and scene that I often found my head hurting and the characters hadn't even left the room from the previous scenes. It feels like it wants to be a fast paced edge of your seat thrill ride... with the slow methodical style of a well paced horror movie. The two styles do not fit as intended, causing headaches for this reader if nothing else.

The middle: The characters themselves are a mixed bag to be quite honest. The main focus character of Petrova is not necessarily an interesting character beyond her interactions with and eventual desire to move away from her mother, this being of legendary status in Firewatch, the settings version of space cops. She makes rash decisions with no real thought and can be frustrating to root for even as she comes into her own. That said, the second main focus, Dr. Zeing, does have a bit more to work with. Having encountered the Basalisk before, he has the unique role of being the only one who knows the danger they are all facing. But he remains the same throughout the book, never taking charge or working past his previous trauma. He is the same as he was when he first left for Paradise 1 as when he crashes on its surface.

Verdict: I think this is a story worth reading, seeing just how something like a thought can eat a person from the inside out. And despite my criticisms, I am actually looking forward to next book, if for no other reason then to see the plot continue dragging its characters behind it at a breakneck speed.

7/10

[lightandfellowship]

KHDR Re:Write - Giving Urd A More Prominent Character Arc

Hermod's rewrite can be found here.

The tl;dr:

Urd’s initial motivation: To explore the outside worlds and learn more about them.

Urd’s struggle: She realizes that when their mission ends, she will go back to her boring, normal life in Scala, once again forbidden to leave. This in conjunction with feelings of loneliness make her consider running away after their mission is complete.

Urd’s conclusion: The freedom to explore the worlds is still a motivating factor, but she realizes that protecting the worlds and sharing her experiences with her friends is her true desire, compelling her to stay in Scala and continue her training. Her loneliness can not be cured so easily, but her friends will help her work through it.

Below the read more is a rough outline of how I would implement this character arc into the story. Be forewarned that it's a fairly long and text-heavy post.

Four notes before we begin:

Rather than this being a full-fledged rewrite where I get to go ham and do whatever I want, instead my goal is to try and demonstrate how the game in its PRE-EXISTING state could have given Urd a more clear and satisfying character arc via fairly minor changes to the dialog, characters, and story. I want to see if this could have been possible without having to expend too much extra time and resources, since it seems like a lack of time/resources/budget is why her story got cut in the first place. So I won’t be doing anything drastic like creating entirely new episodes or anything like that. Same worlds. Same number of episodes. Same sequence of events. Same overarching plot.

Ideally, I would have liked to convey certain details about these characters and their story via secret reports/diary entries. Specifically, the sorts of details that would slow the pace down or feel a little too direct/clunky if addressed within the story itself. However, because of the self-imposed restriction I talked about in point 1 (i.e. no drastic alterations to the game or additions that would require extensive effort to implement), I won't be utilizing such a format, and so I will sometimes have the characters speak a bit more openly/directly about their feelings/thoughts than I otherwise would've liked.

Because I have a lot to say, I won't be providing summaries of the episodes I'm discussing as I explain my story changes. A fairly solid recollection of the game's events is...perhaps not required, but certainly helpful for understanding what I'm talking about and how I arrived at my choices.

I don't claim to know better than the writers or even be an experienced writer myself, this is just how I personally would approach giving Urd a more prominent character arc, because I think we can all at least agree that Urd didn't get enough focus in this game. If Urd's story hadn't been cut (presumably), I have no doubt that Tomoco Kanemaki would have come up with something better than what I'm proposing here.

But anyway, without further ado:

Urd's Motivation and Personality

During the flashback where the underclassmen explain their reasons for wanting to become Keyblade Masters, Urd says that it’s because she wants to explore the outside worlds and learn more about them. However, I feel that KHDR could do a better job of depicting this motivation throughout the game. Were it not for Urd directly stating her motivation in this scene, I don't think you could have ever reasonably guessed that this was her motivation based solely on her dialog and actions throughout the rest of the game.

She says her dream is to see the outside worlds for herself, and yet she rarely ever shows any particular interest in the Disney worlds that she does visit, or at least she’s no more interested than the rest of her friends are, which is to say: barely. It's a common gag/occurence throughout the game that the underclassmen are either disinterested or unsettled by the worlds and their inhabitants, and for whatever reason Urd is included in that. Sure, she’s on an important mission, but where’s the curiosity? Where’s the desire to learn more about the worlds? Shouldn’t that motivation bleed into her actions and dialog even a little bit? Even if she’s trying to reign herself back for the sake of the mission?

I think having Urd be just as indifferent/detached from the worlds as her friends is a misstep, personally. So in this rewrite, I am adjusting her personality a bit, in contrast to Hermod who doesn't really require any personality changes in order to have his arc make sense (to be discussed in his rewrite post). In short: I want her to be more excited and inquisitive in each world. I want her to be enamored by all the strange sights and sounds. I want her to get lost in thought as she analyzes some new find, her friends having to snap her back to reality and remind her of their mission. When the rest of the characters are awkwardly trying to ignore some oddity that's demanding their attention, I want Urd to be one of the few who actually shows genuine interest.

Like I mentioned, I know the characters are on an important mission and aren’t supposed to get sidetracked from their primary goal, but like, Vor and Eraqus were allowed to be curious and easily distracted by stuff, so I don't see why Urd couldn't as well, at least a little bit. I also think this personality change will provide more variety among the underclassmen, specifically in how they interact with the outside worlds.

Anyway, for the sake of not making this post any longer than it needs to be, I’m not going to list every dialog tweak that needs to occur in order to accomodate this personality change, just the most notable ones I can think of.

One last thing: it’s under-explored, but the game seems to suggest that Urd might be lonely. When remarking on how close Eraqus and Xehanort are, she says that she wishes she had a relationship like that herself. The implication seemingly being that she doesn’t feel like she has any best friends to share a special bond with. I think this desire for a friendship like Xehanort and Eraqus' may be further evidenced by the fact that she tends to tease Eraqus the most and is pretty friendly with him in a way that she isn't with the others, which makes me think that she's indeed jealous (in a nice way) of the relationship Xehanort has with Eraqus, and thus attempts to mimic their dynamic with Eraqus.

To me, Urd being lonely is too interesting of an emotional angle not to expand upon, even if the writers didn’t intend for her one-off comment to mean anything deeper. And I think her struggling with feelings of loneliness will synergize well with what I have in mind for her story.

Episodes 1-4: Establishing Urd's Character

The first dialog tweak: when Odin informs the class that they’re being sent on a mission to the outside worlds, in addition to Eraqus and Bragi expressing excitement at the news, I want Urd to be excited, too. She can still have her “Don’t sound so excited about it.” line, but maybe after she says that she makes her :3c face because she can’t hide her true feelings. Eraqus can reply with something like “Speak for yourself, Urd! Getting to see the outside worlds is a dream come true for you!”. Hermod and Eraqus can then have their usual lines of H: “Hey, this is serious! People are missing, you know!” and E: “Right. Sorry.”

As cool as the party member specific dialogs in Episode 3 can be, I’m dropping the mechanic where Episodes 1-3 let you choose your party member for the cutscenes. IMO, it's just bad for the story, because you can never focus on just one particular character and properly illustrate their unique personality; everyone's dialog has to be juuust generic enough to be easily swappable. Instead, in my rewrite, Urd is your assigned party member for Episode 1; perhaps she's even the one who requested to team up with Xehanort and Eraqus.

Not much happens in Episode 1 admittedly (it's mostly an exposition dump and premise setup), but in the very least it needs to establish and emphasize her love for exploration and learning. I think this can be easily achieved with the pre-existing Agrabah scenes. For example: when the party arrives to the outskirts of Agrabah and is attacked by Heartless, have Urd be disappointed that their first trip to the outside world was soured by their presence. When the party enters the abandoned city proper, have Urd express further disappointment that there’s no residents to interact with. Things like that. But obviously still have her be serious about their mission and the missing upperclassmen; she shouldn't seem selfish in her interests.

So Episode 1 is just kinda whatever, but It’s in Episode 2 that I definitely want her desire to learn and explore be in full force (she’s your primary party member for this episode as well. Which also synergizes with my Hermod rewrite—stay tuned for that, eventually). Everything in Wonderland is so strange and different and fascinating to her. The other characters find the world confusing and off-putting, but Urd finds it charming and unique. This does admittedly require Episode 2 to have some extra cutscenes/events since in the base game the only thing that really happens in this episode is the trial, and I think it’s still essential for Vor to be the party member in Episode 3 (where most of the Wonderland hijinks happen) since Vor doesn’t get much screentime in the second half of the game.

Two changes I would suggest: rather than the party waiting around indefinitely for the other underclassmen to show up to their meeting spot, and having the Cheshire Cat and Card Soldiers come to them, instead they get worried and decide to leave to go look for their friends, while running into these characters along the way. Then, take the tea party scene from Episode 3 and put it in Episode 2 instead, before the trial happens. You could even use this scene to foreshadow the trial by making it so that the White Rabbit fretting over his broken watch is because he doesn’t know what time it is and he fears that he’s going to be late for the trial. This will require some dialog tweaks in Episode 3 because the characters have an important discussion there that involves the Mad Hatter and March Hare, but it's nothing too hard to work around; maybe they just visit the tea party a second time, maybe they just bring up their interaction with them from Episode 2, or maybe they only talk about the Tweedles instead. There are multiple routes you could take to accomodate this change.

And rather than the Cheshire Cat directly telling the party that their friends are locked up, and the Card Soldiers mentioning the trial, instead I want the whereabouts of the other underclassmen to be more of a mystery that the party has to solve, with Urd being the one picking up on most of the clues just by being her inquisitive and observant self. Eraqus says it himself in some optional dialog that Urd has "always been good at figuring things out".

So ultimately, it’s Urd who realizes that the “trial” mentioned by the White Rabbit (because in this rewrite its the rabbit who mentions it instead of the soldiers), and the other “trespassers” mentioned by the Card Soldiers, are both in reference to their missing friends. (And maybe the Cheshire Cat gives the party a legit riddle too that they solve together, rather than being fairly straightforward in his hint like he is in the base game). Thus Urd paying attention and finding inherent worth in the strange and nonsensical world of Wonderland is what saves the day, her natural curiosity and collected knowledge about the world and its residents coming in clutch. This way, her motivations and personality can also be directly integrated into the plot rather than just being a character side story, and she gets the opportunity to shine, too.

And to tie in to the loneliness angle, I think some of the other underclassmen should be a little confused by Urd’s enthusiasm for the worlds they visit. Not in a mean or insulting or putting her down kind of way (they are friends!), but just a little at a loss for how to react when she expects them to understand her feelings and her point of view. The plot doesn’t need to highlight this too directly, just have Urd’s classmates being confused/unsure of something Urd says or shows them and then have Urd looking a little let down at their lukewarm reactions. Much like the underclassmen unintentionally leaving Vor out of stuff and underestimating her, I want this to be kinda subtle and under-the-radar. This would be mostly meant as set up for her arc later.

All that being said, I imagine Urd's loneliness isn't just because her friends don't always Get Her on a deeper level, it's also because she's not really open about her true feelings a lot of the time. Her official bio states that she's relied upon by the others, so perhaps she's too scared of burdening her friends with her own issues. However, relationships are a two-way street, and she's partially preventing herself from forming that close bond she desires because she isn't really letting herself lean on her friends when she needs them.

Episode 5: The Problem/Conclusion

So, to summarize, Episodes 1-2 need to establish her love for exploration and learning (and also give some brief glimpses at her loneliness) since she’s not present much in Episodes 3-4. Episode 5 is when her side story needs to officially complete. A rather quick arc, admittedly, but I think that’s what would work best in the framework of what the game gives us; the base game seems to suggest that her arc was supposed to end in this episode, anyway.

Events start to unfold when Urd realizes that once their mission is over, things will go back to normal and she will no longer be able to explore the outside worlds until she becomes a Keyblade Master. Something that might not occur for YEARS; heck, something that might not occur AT ALL if she fails her exam or if Scala's rules change. Thus, she starts to question whether she even wants to return home to Scala. What if, after their mission was over, she ran away? What if she got to explore to her heart’s content? She can’t imagine returning to her boring, normal life now that she’s gotten a taste of freedom. And maybe she can discover a way to cure her loneliness by finding fulfillment elsewhere? Perhaps it was Vor leaving in the previous episode that makes Urd realize that leaving is even an option.

Thus, in this rewrite, in Episode 5 when Lumiere offers Urd an invitation to stay in the castle, she actually seriously considers it. Of course Hermod and Xehanort are not happy to hear this, especially after what happened with Vor, and thus try to convince her to reconsider, but Urd is conflicted and doesn’t know what to do. She explains her concerns about being stuck in Scala forever, but is understandably reluctant to talk about how Eraqus and Xehanort’s strong bond has only reminded her of the closeness she desires and yet lacks. She loves her friends, but she doesn’t feel like she has a best friend who understands her on a deeper level, and she’s too scared of potentially hurting her friends’ feelings to admit this, so she keeps it to herself.

Xehanort doesn’t say it out loud, but he understands exactly the feeling of being stuck somewhere against your will and desiring connection and fulfillment in the outside worlds. He tells Urd that she should follow her heart on this. Hermod is taken aback and anguished at the situation, but doesn’t know what he can say to make Urd change her mind. They decide to just shelf the conversation for later so that they can focus on their mission of finding the culprits who stole the rose.

Vala witnesses this argument and decides to use what she's learned about Urd to her advantage (much like how Vidar witnessed Vor's conversation with the Mirror and then used that to his advantage). So when Vala finally approaches Urd, rather than trying to order Urd around (which didn’t make much sense as a tactic to begin with; that approach would have worked far better on Hermod, if you ask me) instead Vala tries to convince Urd that she can have the freedom she wants if she joins Vidar’s crew. She can explore to her heart’s content, with the benefit of having comrades at her side to keep her safe on her journey rather than having to run away and travel alone.

Vala, perhaps through her ambigious "vision" abilities, also correctly guesses about Urd's loneliness and tries to appeal to Urd’s desire to be understood by claiming that she and Urd are very much the same. They are both level-headed, analytical individuals who crave knowledge, and sometimes people are just too blind in their pre-existing beliefs to understand their (Urd + Vala's) "vision" of the world. However, Urd is unsure. She still doesn’t understand what Vidar is trying to accomplish, and as much as she wants to run away and find meaning elsewhere, if securing her freedom means having to harm the worlds alongside the upperclassmen, then she doesn’t want to do it. Plus, the thought of traveling the worlds with the upperclassmen rather than with her friends doesn’t sit right with her, despite everything.

Much like in the base game, Xehanort eavesdrops on this conversation, but this time Hermod has tagged along as well. In the base game, Xehanort alone eavesdropping on Urd and Vala doesn't really lead to much in the story as far as I can tell, because Urd reveals her conversation with Vala in the very next episode. I think this might be a dropped plot thread where Xehanort was supposed to sit on this secret information for a while longer before acting on it somehow, but in any case, it's no longer necessary for my rewrite, thus Hermod is now here as well. Perhaps Hermod initially tries to approach Urd right away, but Xehanort pulls him back and convinces him to stay in the shadows in the hopes that Vala will reveal something important about Vidar's plans.

As they eavesdrop on the conversation, they finally learn of Urd’s secret loneliness, and see that Vala might successfully persuade Urd to leave them just like Vidar did with Vor. Hermod simply can't let this happen, and so against Xehanort's wishes he bursts into the room, interrupting Urd and Vala’s conversation to grab Urd’s hands and tell her how much she means to him and their friends. He doesn’t invalidate her feelings, but apologies for making her feel so lonely. He never meant to make her feel like she was different or weird for her interests; he may not always understand her, but he thinks she’s amazing and brilliant. And he’s willing to help her in any way he can and support her in whatever she decides to do. Perhaps he and Xehanort even bring up how her interest in the worlds was essential to saving their friends in Episode 2, to show her that she's valuable and appreciated.

Hermod's impassioned and sincere speech along with her own misgivings about Vala's offer help Urd realize two important things. One, that she enjoys exploring the worlds so much precisely because she gets to share that experience with her friends; it wouldn’t be the same without them. Yes, maybe there’s still this feeling of loneliness inside of her, and maybe she still wishes that her friends and her were more on the same page about certain things, but sharing a laugh, fighting by their side, and just getting to spend time with them are still precious experiences for her, and not to mention, her loneliness would be so much worse if she didn’t have her friends by her side at all. It’s not perfect, but she still loves them dearly, and she knows they love her back. And who knows, maybe they’ll be able to help her work through her feelings now that the cat's out the bag.

The second thing she realizes, is that exploring and learning about the worlds and its people, though a big part of her motivation, is ultimately secondary to wanting to protect the worlds and its people. Which is what being a Keyblade Master is all about, really; a goal that can only be achieved by staying in Scala and continuing her training. And a goal that would certainly be jeopardized by assisting the upperclassmen.

I imagine Urd directly talking about at least some of her thought process here when she refuses Vala's offer and explains to her why, but the rest should probably just be implied. In any case, these two realizations make her change her mind about running away. As she says to Lumiere later:

Her home is with her friends in Scala, and she has the important responsibility of protecting the worlds she holds so dear.

And when Urd says “[The Beast’s] wish will come true, I know it.” she’s implicitly including herself in this statement. She knows she’ll gain her freedom one day and form the bonds she's looking for, she just has to be patient and believe in herself. Additionally, I want this line to now invite comparisons between the Beast and Urd: the Beast, lonely, trapped inside his castle, wishing for a genuine connection, ignorant of how he is surrounded by servants who love him unconditionally; and Urd, stuck in her little world of Scala, wanting to find fulfillment in the worlds outside, feeling distant from her friends despite them loving her deeply. Oh, and, perhaps Urd telling the servants to help keep the Beast's spirits up could parallel how Urd is now going to allow herself to rely on her friends for emotional support.

Finally, to make her untimely demise a bit more of a gut punch, I think it’d be fitting if Urd got to have some dying words. Maybe something like “But I never...got to...” Got to what? Become a Keyblade Master? See all her friends one last time? Explore all the worlds? Who knows, she doesn’t get to finish. That’s for your imagination to decide.

And yeah, that's my pitch. Thanks for reading this far. If you have any feedback, ideas, or criticisms, feel free to add on.

[leothil]

Hi Frida, amazing job on finishing the 10k!! Can I ask, have you been running for a long time? Do you have tips on how to like… start and staying consistent? I wanna try running, but I deal with a bit of chronic pain on top of being in absolute rubbish shape. I cant afford the gym so I thought walks and runs would be best but I struggle even getting out the door. How do you do it? 🙃

Thank you so much! <3 I've been doing it on and off since my mid or late teens, mostly in the summer. My dad has been going on runs for as long as I can remember, and a lot of my cousins picked it up around the same time I did as the easiest way to work out at our summer place, so I kind of fell into it that way. But I've come to quite like it! Before this summer I'd not been running regularly for quite a while, and I'm still not back to the pace I could achieve 5-7 years ago, but I'm sure I can get there.

I'll put my answer under a read more to spare the dash!

I feel the struggle of getting out the door! Getting started and trying to get into a routine is so, so hard. I honestly think the thing that has helped me the most is that my dad has kept encouraging me. I live very close to my parents, so most weekends he asks if I want to join them for a run, and when I was following a schedule this summer (more on that soon) he helped keep me accountable. Having someone join you can make it more fun, since you'll have someone to talk to, but just having someone in your life who can gently encourage you in a way that won't make you push back or feel bad about yourself can be a godsend. My dad could run so much faster if he wanted to, but he says it's nice to keep my pace too, because it gives him a different kind of training.

And that leads us into point two: you don't need to go fast when you start out. Hell, you don't need to go fast even after doing it for months or years. While you run, you should still be able to talk. I heard someone use the rule of thumb that a good pace is when you can finish a sentence without having to take extra breaths more than once. It can feel very silly, but it's very beneficial to keep a pace you can sustain for longer. In the race last night, I started out quite slow and was among the last in my starting group, but as it went on, I passed several people who'd gone too fast in the beginning and now were so winded that they had to walk the rest of the way, while I could keep my calm pace the whole race (except some hills that I had to walk up to spare my poor heart).

Having a sports watch that monitors my heart rate has also been incredibly helpful. I have a very high pulse whenever I work out, for whatever reason, and being able to check my watch regularly to see where it's at helps me keep my pace at a manageable level while running. It's easy to get carried away e.g. in downhill slopes or when you hit a good part of a trail, and this is a very easy way to catch when I'm speeding up before it hits my breath. If it's not in your budget, monitoring your breathing can help in the same way, following the "you need to be able to talk" rule I mentioned above.

What got me started with running again this summer was my sister asking me to join her on a 10k race, so having a goal can definitely help with the motivation. It can be time sensitive (like mine was) or just "I want to be able to run x kilometers without stopping." What I did was I found a 10k training program that looked promising and then followed that schedule for a couple of months. There are a lot of free programs available on the internet; couch to 5k is a well known one that I've seen several people try. And if all of them seem like too many days of working out a week, don't be afraid to keep the general structure but put in more rest days as needed. I wouldn't be able to follow the same 10k program right now, for example, as all of my hobbies have started up again and thus keep some evenings too busy to have time for a run as well, but I'm trying to keep the general idea of "one long run, one shorter run, two days of non-running activity and one very slow run a week." I don't hit all of those things every week - this week I did one day of non-running activity, one shorter run and one long run - but it's something I can aim for. For a while in the mid-2010's I used the app Zombies, Run! to keep me motivated, as it gave me little story snippets as I progressed on that day's run (it's apparently called ZRX now? Wild). In that app you can choose either time or distance as your goal for the day, and it will split up the story snippets accordingly. Now when I go on runs alone I listen to either a podcast or music, depending on the mood.

Man, that's a lot of text, but the main points are a) it's okay to go slow in fact you should aim for it when starting out, b) having someone to talk to or something to listen to while you do it can help a lot, and c) a schedule helps keep you accountable. While I followed the program this summer I had a screenshot of it as a shortcut on my phone's home screen so I had to see it every time I unlocked the phone, and every time I completed a workout/run I edited the screenshot to cross over that day on the schedule, which was incredibly satisfying.

Please come back if you have more questions or want me to elaborate on something! Getting started is the hardest part, but allowing yourself to suck in the beginning is very freeing and lowers the threshold!

[blakegatfield]

Social Media Experiment

After reading Emma's article and watching/listening to Max earlier in the week, I wanted to remind myself that whatever I did for this experiment would only be beneficial.

I decided to remove myself from my social media apps that I go on the most (Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok) throughout the whole day, except for in between classes. Since this experiment occurred yesterday (Thursday) purposely, I had two back-to-back classes from 11-1:45. I would only allow myself to go on the apps in between these classes - no other time was to be allowed. I did this on purpose because I wanted to see how much my mind actually craved them. Usually, when I wake up in the morning, I access these apps within 10-15 minutes of waking up which is not healthy at all.

My day started getting up around 9:00, and immediately getting things in order without touching my phone besides shutting the alarm off. At first, it was hard to reject the usual act of scrolling before starting my day. Truly staying off my phone for a solid hour while getting things done that are actually for myself, helped my mind right out of the gate. There are so many things that are not necessary for me to complete, but without that time filler that social media is for me, I was able to do the extra things that would normally not get done until later in the day. As embarrassing as that is to admit, social media has that procrastination effect. Obviously, it isn't too dramatic, or I would have worse problems on my hands. I was able to check/respond to emails, do some quick reading for a class, edit/write in my planner, etc. Once I got these tasks started, my phone and that constant desire for quick stimuli was forgotten. When I started my walk to class, the only thing I accessed was my music that I normally listen to. Everything was going as planned and honestly, I felt relieved. I didn't have to worry about anything, and my mind was clear and focused entering my first class.

Walking upstairs to my second class in the same building, I did not feel the desire to go on any social media. I did anyway for the sake of the experiment. I sat in my seat and scrolled through Instagram and felt dumb. "What is on here right now that I actually need to see" is what I thought to myself. Snapchat was the same story; these streaks are really starting to get to me. It is so funny how I still do these, but I didn't stay on that app longer than 10 seconds truthfully. TikTok was just a mess. The best part about it is that I don't even go on these apps to post so I am letting myself feel out of touch or this artificial feeling in my gut to catch up to everyone that I see. After I closed out of TikTok a couple minutes before class started, I was happy to get back to my real, meaningful tasks at hand. After my second class, it was even easier than before to not go back on those apps. As I went about my afternoon, going to the SAC, library, back at my apartment, I found a much more productive and efficient routine than usual. Time wise, there isn't much of a change for scrolling for two brief minutes in spurts throughout the day, but it is the significant change of mindset that I really noticed. When I called it a night and put my phone down on the charger and set my alarm for the next day, there was no desire to catch up on everything that I missed. I realized that the only time I go on these apps is when I feel bored, or 'there is nothing else to do' which is probably the biggest lie that I have been telling myself for way too long.

The biggest takeaway from this experiment is the change of mind. I didn't have this short attention span, or brain fog. I felt more alert and calmer throughout the day. It almost felt like I kept the same pace, but time slowed down around me. I am truthfully happy about the outcome of this social media experiment. There was a deep cleanse in my mind and moving forward (even today when I am writing this) I am optimistic about the habits that I will develop.

[canirim]

I won't make commissions anymore

Trying to put my feelings and thoughts in an organized text is something I struggle with sometimes, so doing this first 'though dump' on twitter helped me a lot. But I want to word this better, and maybe get into more detail than twitter allows me with the word limit.

In the past few days, I've been feeling very depressed. It's not a new feeling for me, and the reason for this for sure isn't. After my classes where done, I had high expectations for myself, that I would draw a lot and finish all of the things I had sitting in my WIP paste for months and even years - pretty unrealistic, but I often do set goals that are impossible for me. And when I did not meet the high standard I set for myself, it all came crashing down. The thing is, my work pace is really slow. I don't know how much of this is a constant burnout from depression, my perfectionism holding me back, and the pressure I get from the horrendous hyper-fast expectation that social media set up, with the lifespan of a post being so short. Even outside of my art making, I don't feel like I can keep up with things: I rarely manage to watch things when they are coming out, get stuck re watching the same shows and movies I already love because of the comfort they give me...

And I guess that's okay. Life has been harsh on all of us, way more than it needed to be. And not a single person on this Earth live the same life and reacts to things the same way, so it is pretty absurd that I keep comparing myself to others like that. But I still can't help but do it, to hold a notion of perfection that I'll never let myself reach, always pushing the bar up. Growing up suicidal, I didn't think I'd live past 16. I'm 22. Going on to 23 in just six more months - and God, how life goes by fast when you stop waiting to die. But the thing is, I didn't really made any plans for my life. When I decided to try and live, art was "the only thing I'm kinda okay at" for me. And in a way, it still is; I don't have that many skills, specially not marketable ones. But I can work with what I have, and try to learn more.

So, I'll try to find a part time job. It's terrifying and very hard to job hunt in this mess of an economy we're living in, all the entry level jobs seem to expect that you have previous experience. With my mom taking care of me, I'm in a privileged position where I'm not struggling financially and can survive this time searching, but I know that won't last forever - nothing does. All I can do is try to be ready for when it changes.

And I'll keep doing art. I'll stay on my university, learning more about this thing that I love, experimenting the most I can. But I don't want to open commissions or requests again in the near future. I'm thankful to the few people that did, extra thankful for my friends and family that hyped me up, but it only made me stressed and worried, with very little financial gain. And I'm tired of trying to make the thing that makes me happy profitable. I want to make art for ME. I want to create for ME. I want to make myself happy, give me room to breath and be safe.

This does not mean I'll stop posting, streaming and etc., but I won't try to rush my art anymore. It will be finished when it's finished, it'll be about things I really want to make, and won't ever be perfect. So, if you followed for my art only, I understand if you want to leave.

But if you do stick around, I hope you'll enjoy...seeing more of me and my thoughts I guess! Thank you for reading and for all the support so far!