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thewertsearch · 4 months ago

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@necrowyrm asked: happy new year!!! enjoy the last little bit of homestuck before act 6! Anonymous asked: You have NO IDEA how much I was looking forward to your reaction to this flash :D @teddy-bearer-of-bad-news asked: a very late congratulations from me for making it this far! i gotta say, saving CASCADE for new year's is probably the smartest thing i've heard all week. may your experience be nothing short of righteous, comrade Anonymous asked: Cascade … Even years latter knowing it almost by heart, every once in a while I will take a little quarter of an hour to rewatch it, Say what you want about Hussie but there is a good reason Homestuck became so iconic. @adeptarcanist asked: The leadup to Cascade was honestly my favorite sequence in Homestuck, and maybe one of my favorites in any media ever? The way the narrative splits apart into all of the different scenes swirling in towards the critical moment, both advancing main plots and finding time to spend a moment of melancholy with characters who’d been left behind (The Jaspers and Nepeta scene :( )… it’s such a strong narrative device, and the tone it generates is impeccable. @calamitascalliope asked: I literally watched the flash again, and it still gives me chills every single time. Welcome to your post-Cascade life. You won't be able to think about anything the same ever again @iris-in-the-dark-world asked: "she looks so cool… but she’s so tragic… but she looks so cool…" has become a brainworm for me. i too love the handmaid's design btw, cascade time has been i think the most anticipated non-personal event of the entire year for me. i'm so excited @publicuniversalworstie asked: I want you to know that I also opened Cascade and started watching with you right after I saw your "oh my god it has chapters" ask, and I finished just as you posted "I will never be the same" !! And I bet lots of other people did too <3 so it's like we all watched it together!!!! Happy New Year and thank you for liveblogging!!!! It's been a pleasure！(and will continue to be) @krixwell asked: I would like you to know that your "Right, we're good to go!" and "oh my god it has chapters" posts were posted right as I was outside watching midnight fireworks ring in 2025 for the Central European timezone. Happy new year! @captorations asked:

hey remember when rose just up and fucking said that. anyway congrats on reaching cascade! it absolutely wrecked me back in the day, i think i stared at those flaming curtains for a solid ten minutes as my brain permanently reconfigured. the first few notes of the track alone still give shivers. getting your reaction to cascade was a wonderful birthday present. (speaking of getting older: aradia 🤝 dulcinea also got that "distressingly short lifespan only to die early anyway" story thread going on. the parallels are paralleling.) anyway happy new year and congrats you are… slightly less than halfway done with homestuck. have fun!

Hey, guys. Cascade was so fucking good.

Like, there's really no competition; this is the best Flash page in the comic thus far. Peak music, peak animation, and absolutely a peak narrative. It tied up mountains of plot threads, providing complete answer to questions we're been asking for literally thousands of pages. It completed over a dozen arcs, both big and small. It made me gasp three times in fourteen minutes. It let Jade become a furry.

11/10, and I'm glad people had as much fun here as I did on New Year's Eve. Happy 2025, and happy Act 6!

@morganwick asked: Sally, predicting Cascade: "I have approximate knowledge of many things." @morganwick asked: "You literally have the whole world in the palm of your hands." -Sally to Jadesprite, December 16, 2024 (You might also want to reread post/770701212350857216 in light of recent developments.)

Hah!

I mean, based on her powerset, it made sense that Jadesprite would do something like this eventually, but it's pretty funny that she did it more or less immediately.

And in the end, CD really was a tricky little bastard. We'll definitely need to keep a closer eye on him, next time around.

Anonymous asked: Take a moment to consider that if anyone were to use the Homestuck website as it stands now instead of the Collection program, Cascade would have been presented in the YouTube player in Standard Definition, artifacted to hell, with a clear boundary showing the dimensions of the video from the very start. Preservation is so important.

Jeez, you're not kidding. The 1080p is fine, I guess, but it certainly doesn't hit like the Flash version does, especially with its lack of moving panels.

I know something had to change when Flash kicked the bucket, but surely there was a better way to preserve the video's soul.

Anonymous asked: to give you some of an idea of what homestuck fandom looked like during this time period, im cribbing from a very popular homestuck post: “first, this upd8 was something that we had been waiting for for WEEKS. A literally unprecedented wait period at the time. We were used to suckling at the teat of daily updates, a constant stream of conversation and plot twists and buildup, and as EOA5, we were finally going to figure out what all these countdowns and plot threads and disconnected elements were building up for. And when the progress bar reached 100%, and when the page FINALLY loaded on 10/25/11, it was chaos. This was 2011, a primetime peak point and growth period of Homestuck fan density.” (…) “MSPA crashed, as it had started to during the last few big [S] updates. Hussie had already bought new servers in advance, but even when allegedly thousands of dollars were spent it couldn't handle the accidental DDOS attack of Homestuck fans. People were up all night waiting for this upd8, the curiosity was killing me. I know at some point he was receiving at least 1 million unique visitors per day to his site [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, upwards of 2 million during this time], and even though Hussie had foreseen such traffic and thusly hosted [S] Cascade on Newgrounds, a dedicated video streaming site, Newgrounds was similarly unprepared for the sheer amount of people frantically mashing the play and refresh buttons, and also crashed. Immediately. MSPA and Newgrounds crashed definitively for at least two nights in a row” (…) “Andrew Hussie has gone on record to say this was one of the few times he thought Homestuck wasn’t worth it, because the sheer unbelievable cost (was it $10,000?) [correction: according to Hussie’s tumblr, it looked like it was going to cost $100,000 to keep [S] Cascade up for several days] of servers and the chaos of no one able to see the upd8 and crashing nearly every site after. He was tweeting during the whole debacle, stating he was reluctant to put it up on Youtube because of all the moving elements of the flash, and style, and how youtube degraded the quality of the file size, and how he tried to scratch out buffer time and pauses by putting periods of silence between each section of the 14 minute upd8, the longest upd8 yet” “So after Newgrounds patooted, he didn’t put it on youtube and instead put up the entire flash file on Megaupload, where it could be downloaded in it’s entirety to be watched. UNFORTUNATELY, Megaupload also crashed very quickly, which Hussie felt much headache over. But before that happened I managed to get the file, since I happened to be up very early that night! Next it was on dropbox, which didn’t crash but had “link unavailable” on and off. ”Spoilers were flying everywhere, people didn’t understand everything that had happened, and by the time the timeline of events in and out of [S] Cascade was all straightened out, people became even MORE hype. Like this whole thing lasted at least four days, and on top of that, the upd8 was good. Fandom exploded.” it is impossible to quantify the experience. The fact hussie was going to have to fork over A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS to host it is crazy. I am never going to be over it.

Cascade's complete obliteration of the Flash-hosting internet says a lot about huge Homestuck truly was - but I think an even bigger indicator of the comic's success is the fact that Hussie dropped literally thousands of dollars on server upgrades to host the thing. That's not an investment you make unless you're expecting some serious returns.

#homestuck liveblog #full liveblog #act 5.2 #asks #also happy belated birthday @captorations. what a birthdate to have fr fr

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desaintjustfancam · 3 months ago

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Bodies in Nier Replicant

NieR Replicant is a game characterized by a preoccupation with bodies, their failures, their betrayals, and their significance both constructed and inherent. Each of its protagonists enjoys a complicated relationship with their body, its main plot threads revolve around the discrepancy between body and soul, and the game both out of necessity and seemingly some genuine interest engages with sexual politics. An accounting of this ought to be made in an organized and thoughtful fashion, and I believe the best way to proceed with such an account is to discuss how the questions of corporeality touch upon each of our protagonists, painting a picture as we go. It is worth noting that I will from time to time touch upon the question of authorial intent, as Yoko Taro and associates have been vocal and engaged with fan questions. While this may be the case, I am engaging with NieR as a text, of which its creators' interpretations are one of many and do not possess a unique charisma of truth. I also do not wish to make conjecture about authorial intent, but merely about what I regard to be substantive and valid readings of a work of fiction. Spoilers will be unmarked and plentiful.

Kaine is a fairly apparent and explicit case of bodily and sexual politics. Kaine is an intersex woman of uncertain parentage raised in a xenophobic, superstitious, and authoritarian society. Within her society she is a pariah along with her grandmother Kali and is forced to the social margins, often subject to violence and abuse from a young age. Kaine is a creature of contrasts and contradictions: a beautiful woman full of hatred and profanity, a victim who has become a fierce warrior and herself a victimizer, a social outsider who herself participates in genocide and the destruction of the other, a woman ashamed of her body who dresses in an outfit that would make Hugh Heffner blush, a human and a shade, an object of sexual gratification but also one of revulsion.

The issue of Kaine's presentation is a recurring discussion in the game, frequent reference is made to her undress and Weiss refers to her with the increasingly affectionate nickname "hussy", despite the fact that Kaine's sexuality is actually a subject that is not broached in the game – her existence is solitary and lonely, and her only romantic inclinations are rather chastely directed towards Nier himself within the game itself. Indeed, in Ending E, NieR is reincarnated with all his purity in the body of a child, and the pair cling to each other in nudity amid a pure white blossom – a Lunar Tear, which by this point has taken its place as a signifier of pure love (Yonah and Nier, Kali and Kaine, and now Kaine and Nier). As Kaine holds NieR, there does not appear to be a sexual element to her protective embrace. In this sense, we see a glimpse of Kaine the maiden, Kaine the woman.

The audio CD "Lust" depicts Kaine as lustful and fixated on Nier, and engaging in necrophilia by proxy in a fit of madness. Kaine is also a murderer, with a dark passenger in the form of the shade Tyrann who permits her to live only so long as she victimizes others. Kaine is uniquely situated to prevent the wholesale slaughter inflicted by Nier upon the Shades, including innumerable children and infants, yet she remains quiet and does not disclose her understanding of their language. Kaine drips with profanity, threatens to mutilate her enemies often in sexualized fashions. Kaine, in this context, is powerful, violent, lustful – here we have Kaine the monster, the phallic Kaine.

These contradictions are not tolerated well within Kaine. Her duality, reflected in her twin swords, one of which is ultimately destroyed in her conflict with Nier, is the source of a great deal of suffering. She struggles to continue to psychologically steel herself to kill Shades as the apparent evil of her deeds makes itself clear. Even after avenging herself on the shade Hook, Kaine is not satisfied and simply wishes, feeling her purpose exhausted, for death to take her before being, effectively, reanimated by the benevolence and purity of child Nier. Even Tyrann, symbolic of Kaine's evil and masculinity is eventually moved by the experience of love and comes to regard himself and his actions with disgust. Kaine ultimately resolves the struggle between feminine-masculine, good-evil, chastity-sexuality in favor of her womanhood.

However, as in all conflicts there is a unity in opposites. Kaine's phallic aspect is given rise to by her desire to protect her womanhood, her virtue, from the community of hatred that surrounds her, from a society that spurns and rejects her. Kaine is hateful and murderous because she has been given no other recourse, no other communities, no other options. A clear example of this is in Ending E, where when the player attempts to manipulate the camera to obtain the vaunted panty shot, and as the game's achievements frames it, "discover her secret" – a clear reference to her ambiguous genitalia, Kaine assaults and eventually murders the player themselves to defend her chastity and modesty. Rather than an intrinsic quality of her person, her aggression and masculinity are passed onto her by her grandmother as means of self defense. Kaine's greatest acts of evil and murder are all fundamentally acts of love, tribute, and defense to those who have given her life meaning. One might interpret her clothing, which shows clearly a body she hates and despises, as an act of self-sacrifice, a hair shirt, a tribute to the efforts of her grandmother and to those that love her.

Emil is textually homosexual. He expresses his wish during the wedding of Facade's King to Fyra that he might enjoy such a wedding some day and as Nier assures him he will find a bride some day, he is left to awkwardly note in his absence that this is not what he desires. The creators of the game have similarly confirmed their understanding of Emil as a homosexual character who is motivated by an unreciprocated love for Nier. Emil is depicted as pure and essentially omnibenevolent, despite being cursed with a body that destroys everything that he sees and later contains a monstrosity so profound that it exterminates entire communities. His love for Nier is chaste and is held in contradiction to the terror of his condition.

I think, however, equally compelling as a strictly homosexual reading is a reading of Emil as transgender. Wishing to be the bride in a wedding is conducive to such a reading, and NieR is a game with a lot to say about bodies. Emil is first met wearing a blindfold, alone, isolated from the world, unable to see the people he loves or wishes to give himself to, the very act of looking, of desiring, in this regard, becomes violent for Emil. Emil spends more time with Kaine than Nier for his time in the narrative, and they develop a close bond. It is, as well, Kaine who Emil petrifies with his gaze, not Nier. It is to free Kaine from the stone which symbolizes Emil's world that Emil descends into the depths of his home, his past, to confront the monstrosity within, represented by Halua, his twin sister, who has been reduced to a monster.

Emil gives himself to the monstrosity willingly, sublimating himself and being devoured by it with the hope that he might take it similarly into himself. And he does. Emil and his feminine counterpart, twins, exist within each other as anima and animus. Emil is blessed with sight, desire, knowledge, power, but is placed into a monstrous, hideous, ghoulish body, which he despises and which provokes fear and hatred from those who might previously have offered him kindness. It is a body designed to inflict harm, a body which does not suit its contents, a body which Emil himself desperately fears. In joining Kaine within the ranks of monstrous bodies and dysphoria, Emil is able to free her from this self-imposed prison. He is able to enable her to live a normal life. Emil rescues Kaine again in the narrative, saving her in Ending E and in the Shadowlord's Castle. These are tasks Nier is incapable of performing. Nier, despite loving Kaine, does not appear to understand her and might be incapable of understanding her. It is only her peer, someone who truly does empathize with her monstrosity, Emil, that is able to free her.

Emil as a pre-awareness transgender woman, trapped in a rotting, artificial, ghoulish body designed to do harm on her and others, able to free and empathize with those like her, pining after a man who cannot understand her, now free to desire but acutely aware of her own ugliness, inadequacy, and the hatred her desire provokes in others, I argue is extremely compelling. It is worth noting that Emil's bodily monstrosity escalates as the end of the eternal childhood her body had been trapped in, her beatific and cherubic features melting away to bones at crude angles, her hair falling away, at the moment she is meant to be graduating into self assurance and control.

Nier and Weiss are somewhat less involved from the perspective of body politics. Nier is noteworthy in that per associated works he was forced into sex work as an adolescent in order to get by, and that as a result he binds his hair into a ponytail as a response to sexual trauma. As he matures into adulthood he severs this ponytail, wearing his hair loose, representing in ways a growth past this. In doing so, however, Nier steels himself into a warrior, devoted only to recovering Yonah, sacrificing everything in his path to do so. In this sense I am not sure Nier has grown past his trauma so much as he has sublimated it into the acts of brutality which he inflicts upon others and his obsessive, bordering on incestuous, fixation on his sister. Nier is repeatedly prompted to feel empathy for other victims and outsiders and refuses to do so willfully, choosing to remain ignorant and deluded in his quest. Weiss, himself without a body or bodily autonomy, assists Nier in remaining blind and hardening his heart.

Louise forms a mirror to the concerns of bodies that are exhibited by Emil and Kaine. A Gestalt without a corresponding Replicant, Louise is a girl who was born without any options, a cruel product of fate. Able to think, feel, and take a false form as a woman, Louise is unable to speak or sing or perform in human society. She admires the beauty of humanity and desperately wishes to join them, cursing her own hideousness and admiring, desiring, the beauty of the world. She is infatuated with Hans the Postman, who cannot and will not reciprocate her love. She is denied humanity or sympathy by Nier and Weiss – although Kaine and Hans are able to provide it for her posthumously. In this sense Louise is a mirror of Kaine and Emil. This parallel might cast Neir and Hans in somewhat of a Walrus and the Carpenter role – they will both mercilessly eradicate the Other from the world, but one will, at least, cry about it.

Louise, is of course, the pinnacle of the Other. She has no Replicant. No earthly or human attachment. She cannot become anything except herself, her efforts to do so render her even more monstrous, hideous, and terrible than before. The sort of perverse excitement with which Nier and Weiss regard her extraordinarily powerful body feels at times reminiscent of discourse about the physicality of transgender women and athletes. It reminds me of the times one clocks involuntarily a person they encounter. It feels dirty, transgressive, and wrong.

There are innumerable stones left unturned in this brief discussion of how NieR Replicant talks about and shows bodies and people's relationships to them, but I thought it would be interesting to reflect on my own thoughts on the issue, how they made me feel, and what kinds of readings can be made of the work.

#nier replicant #nier #text post #kaine #emil

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muiitoloko · 5 months ago

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Hi could you please write a Harry (love actually) x reader in which reader is his wife who suspects that he’s cheating and sees the necklace in his coat and basically follows the plot with the gifts exchange and him giving reader something else causing her to cry, however unlike the movie he later when alone gifts it to reader and he tells her that his receptionist does try to seduce him but no one can come near to reader

Thanks in advance!

Title: Threads of Forgiveness

Summary: A wife discovers a hidden necklace in her husband’s pocket, unraveling doubts about his fidelity. As truths are confronted, they navigate the fragility of love and the strength of forgiveness.

Pairing: Harry ( Love Actually) × Fem! Reader

Warnings: Angst

Author's Notes: Thank you for your request!

Also read on Ao3

You folded the laundry, mechanically smoothing out each piece of clothing, trying to suppress the storm of emotions raging within you. The expensive necklace you’d found in Harry’s pocket earlier that day had burned a hole through your composure. You tried to rationalize it—Maybe it’s not what it looks like, you thought. But the implication loomed over you, undeniable and suffocating.

A necklace like that wasn’t something Harry would buy for just anyone. Certainly not for you, his wife, who had received a Joni Mitchell CD as a Christmas gift just days ago. A thoughtful gift, perhaps, but hardly one to match the elegance of the necklace. If it wasn’t for you, who could it possibly be for?

Another woman.

Your breath hitched at the thought, and you paused mid-fold, your hands trembling as you pressed them to your face. The tears threatened to spill, but you bit them back, inhaling deeply to regain control. You’d spent years devoted to Harry, sacrificing your own dreams to care for him, to nurture his son, Hadrian. Was this how it all ended? With your husband straying to someone younger, someone… shinier?

“Mom?” a small voice called, pulling you out of your thoughts.

You quickly wiped at your eyes and turned to see Hadrian standing in the doorway, his 10-year-old frame silhouetted by the hallway light. He looked at you with a furrowed brow, concern evident in his hazel eyes—the same eyes that always reminded you of Harry.

“Can you make me a sandwich?” he asked hesitantly, his hands fidgeting with the hem of his shirt.

You forced a smile, shaking your head. “I’m busy right now, sweetheart. But there’s turkey breast in the fridge. You can make one yourself, can’t you?”

Hadrian nodded but lingered in the doorway, his gaze searching your face. “Are you okay, Mom? You look… tired.”

Your heart ached at his observation, but you managed to keep your voice steady. “I’m fine, Hadrian. Just a little tired, that’s all.”

He seemed to accept your answer, nodding again before heading downstairs. You watched him go, your chest tight with the effort of keeping it together. Once you were alone again, you sank onto the edge of the bed, staring at the neatly folded laundry with unseeing eyes.

Meanwhile, downstairs, Harry sat on the living room couch, his gaze fixed on the television but his mind elsewhere. A Christmas movie played in the background, but he couldn’t focus on it. His thoughts kept drifting to the necklace hidden in the drawer of his office desk. He didn’t even know why he’d bought it. Or maybe he did.

The intention had been clear at the time: to give it to Mia, his secretary. For weeks, she’d been lingering a little too long by his desk, her flirtations growing bolder. And Harry… he hadn’t pushed her away. If anything, he’d enjoyed the attention. It had been so long since he’d felt wanted, noticed, desired.

Things with you had changed after Hadrian was born. Not overnight, but slowly, like a ship drifting further and further from shore. Your world seemed to revolve around your son, and Harry couldn’t help but feel like an afterthought. He told himself it was selfish to feel that way, but the longing for connection, for intimacy, was a heavy burden.

Still, as he sat there, the box in his desk drawer felt like a physical weight. Could he really go through with it? Could he betray the woman who had stood by him, loved him, and built a life with him? Could he cheat on the mother of his son with someone younger, someone who made him feel alive again but whose allure was nothing more than a fleeting spark?

A loud thudding sound startled him out of his thoughts. Harry turned to see Hadrian bounding down the stairs, his steps echoing through the house.

“Hadrian!” Harry barked, his baritone voice sharp. “How many times have I told you not to run down the stairs? You’ll break your neck!”

Hadrian skidded to a halt at the bottom, wide-eyed at his father’s tone. “Sorry, Dad,” he mumbled, clutching his half-made sandwich.

Harry sighed, rubbing a hand over his face. “Just… be careful, alright?” he said, his voice softening. “Go eat your sandwich.”

Hadrian nodded and shuffled off to the kitchen, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts once more. He leaned back against the couch, his glasses catching the flickering light of the TV. His hazel eyes stared unseeingly at the screen as he grappled with the weight of his actions—or, rather, his inaction.

The box in the desk drawer loomed large in his mind, a decision waiting to be made. Would he open it and let it define his choices? Or would he bury it, along with the temptation that had brought him to this point?

Upstairs, you sat in silence, staring out the window at the falling snow, the quiet of the room broken only by the soft rustle of the curtains. Unspoken questions swirled in your mind, threatening to drown you.

And downstairs, Harry stared at the screen, his chest tight with indecision.

Two hearts, two minds, two paths converging on a truth neither of you wanted to face.

The box. The necklace. The shame. His jaw clenched as he rubbed a hand over his face, pushing his glasses further up his nose. No, he couldn’t let this fester. He wouldn’t stay like this—paralyzed by his mistakes, his cowardice.

With a deep breath, he stood, the decision made in the steel of his resolve. The television flicked off with a click, and the room fell silent except for the faint hum of the radiator. Harry crossed to his office, his heart pounding as he pulled open the desk drawer. Beneath a stack of papers and old receipts, his fingers found the small velvet box. He stared at it for a long moment, his hazel eyes clouded with self-loathing and determination.

This was it.

He climbed the stairs, each step feeling like a penance, and made his way to your shared bedroom. There you were, sitting by the window, bathed in the soft glow of moonlight. You didn’t turn when you heard him enter; your silence felt colder than the winter night outside.

“Can we talk?” Harry asked, his baritone voice unusually soft, almost pleading.

You didn’t respond, your gaze remaining fixed on the falling snow. He hesitated but then moved closer, his steps careful, deliberate. He knelt before you, his glasses catching the faint light, his hooked nose silhouetted against the soft shadow of the room.

“Please, love,” he murmured, his voice breaking slightly as he reached out to caress your knee. The touch was hesitant, unsure, but still familiar. “Look at me.”

Slowly, you turned your head, your eyes meeting his. The pain in your gaze hit him like a punch to the gut. He swallowed hard and placed the velvet box on your lap, his hand lingering there for a moment as if afraid you might push it away.

“What’s this?” you asked, your voice steady but cold.

Harry exhaled shakily, lowering his gaze to the floor before looking back up at you. “It’s a necklace,” he began, his voice trembling as he spoke. “I bought it… for Mia.”

The words felt like knives, each syllable cutting deeper into the fragile fabric of trust between you. Your breath hitched, and Harry quickly continued, his tone desperate.

“She’s my secretary,” he admitted, his hazel eyes searching yours for some glimmer of understanding. “She’s been… persistent, trying to… get closer. And I—” He faltered, his voice thick with shame. “I didn’t stop her attention. I let it feed a part of me that felt… empty.”

You stiffened, your fingers clenching around the edge of the box. “Empty?” The word fell from your lips, sharp and accusatory.

“Yes,” Harry said, his voice breaking as he leaned forward, his hands gripping your thighs. “Since Hadrian was born, everything’s been about him. I don’t blame you for that—I love him, too—but I’ve felt… neglected, invisible. Like I wasn’t enough for you anymore.”

Tears welled in your eyes, but they didn’t fall. You looked down at the man kneeling before you, his face etched with regret, his hands trembling as they clung to you.

“But I couldn’t do it,” Harry continued, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I couldn’t give it to her. Because no one compares to you. No one. You’re the one who deserves this, not her. You’re the woman I love, the mother of my son, the person who’s given me a life worth living.”

You said nothing, your gaze fixed on the box in your lap. Slowly, you set it aside, and Harry’s breath hitched as he buried his face in your lap, his shoulders trembling. “Please,” he begged, his voice muffled but raw. “Forgive me. I was a fool. I let my loneliness drive me to the edge, but I swear I never crossed it. I love you. Only you.”

His words hung in the air, heavy with sincerity and regret. You ran your fingers through his hair, feeling the tension in his body as he clung to you. Before you could respond, a voice called from downstairs, breaking the moment.

“Mom!” Hadrian shouted. “Where’s the peanut butter?”

Harry groaned against your lap, his voice muffled but laced with frustration. “Bloody hell, that kid has the worst timing.”

You couldn’t help the small laugh that escaped you, despite the turmoil in your chest. You gently pushed Harry back, his hazel eyes looking up at you, still filled with vulnerability. “Go help him find it,” you said softly, your voice wavering.

“But—” Harry began, his hand tightening on your thigh.

“Go,” you repeated, more firmly this time. “We’ll talk more later.”

“No.” Harry’s voice was resolute as he pushed himself to kneel upright, his hands sliding up to your waist. “Hadrian can find it himself. I need to make things right with you. Now.”

You hesitated, your lips parting to speak, but Hadrian’s voice interrupted again, louder this time. “Mom! I still can’t find it!”

Harry turned sharply toward the door, his baritone voice booming. “Hadrian! Check the upstairs cupboard, behind the cereal!”

A few moments of silence passed before a triumphant yell echoed from downstairs. “Found it!”

Harry sighed, shaking his head as he muttered, “That boy…”

You laughed softly, and the sound seemed to melt some of the tension in the room. Harry turned back to you, his hazel eyes locking onto yours. His hands came up, firm and commanding, cupping your face as he tilted your head slightly to meet his gaze.

“Don’t laugh at me, love,” he said, his voice low, the playful edge tinged with something darker. “I’m not done begging.”

Your breath hitched as he leaned closer, his hooked nose brushing yours, his warm breath mingling with your own. His thumbs stroked your cheeks, his touch both possessive and tender.

“Harry,” you whispered, your hands coming up to cover his. Your fingers trembled as they closed around his wrists, and he stilled, waiting. “I need to know… Did you sleep with her?”

His hazel eyes widened, and he shook his head quickly, fiercely. “No,” he said, his voice breaking slightly with the weight of his denial. “No, I swear to you, I didn’t. I thought about it, yes. I entertained the idea for a moment, but I couldn’t. I wouldn’t.” His grip on your face tightened just slightly, his desperation evident. “You have to believe me.”

Your forehead dropped against his, your breaths shallow as you tried to process the flood of emotions. His hands remained on your face, steadying you, grounding you.

“I believe you,” you finally whispered, your voice trembling. “But, Harry… If you feel neglected, if you’re lonely… you have to tell me. I can’t fix what I don’t know is broken.”

He closed his eyes briefly, exhaling a shaky breath. “You’re right. I should’ve told you. I let it fester, and I… I was a bloody fool. I’m sorry.”

Your hands slid down to his chest, your fingers brushing over the soft fabric of his sweater. You could feel the rapid beat of his heart beneath your palms. “We can’t let this happen again,” you murmured, your voice steadier now. “If something’s wrong, we talk about it. Promise me.”

“I promise,” Harry replied immediately, his baritone voice low and rough with emotion. His hands slid from your face to your waist, pulling you closer. “But let me show you something else right now. Let me remind you of what you mean to me.”

You felt the heat of his words, the intensity of his gaze as his fingers pressed into your waist. A spark ignited between you, the tension shifting from uncertainty to something far more primal.

“Harry,” you murmured, your voice wavering as his lips brushed the corner of your mouth, his breath hot against your skin.

“Shh,” he murmured back, his voice a velvet growl. “Let me worship you, love. Let me remind you that no one else could ever make me feel the way you do. No one else could ever compare to my wife.”

Your resolve wavered as his lips trailed along your jaw, his hands sliding up your back to pull you flush against him. He paused, his nose nuzzling your ear, and his voice dropped to a husky whisper.

“Tell me you’re mine,” he said, his words laced with possessiveness. “Tell me no one else gets to touch you, to see you like this.”

You shivered, your hands gripping his shoulders as you whispered back, “I’m yours, Harry. Only yours.”

A low growl rumbled in his chest as he claimed your lips in a kiss that was anything but gentle. It was raw, desperate, a silent vow that he would never take you for granted again. As he pulled you into his arms, the snow continued to fall outside, but neither of you noticed, lost in the warmth of each other.

Harry’s lips left yours reluctantly, his forehead resting against yours as he tried to steady his breathing. But the sound of a small voice broke the spell.

“Yuck,” Hadrian muttered, his words muffled by the bite of sandwich in his mouth.

You both turned sharply toward the doorway to see your son standing there, a smug little grin on his face. He was holding his sandwich with one hand, the other planted firmly on his hip, looking at you as if he’d caught you both committing a crime.

“Hadrian,” Harry growled, his baritone voice filled with exasperation as he straightened up, adjusting his glasses. “What have I told you about knocking before entering?”

Hadrian shrugged, clearly unbothered. “The door was already open.”

“That’s not the point,” Harry replied, his hazel eyes narrowing behind his glasses. He crossed his arms, his hooked nose accentuating the stern expression he was trying to maintain. “You still announce yourself. It’s called manners, young man.”

Hadrian took another bite of his sandwich, chewing thoughtfully as he tilted his head. “Why do I have to knock if you’re just kissing Mom? It’s not like you’re doing anything weird.”

Your cheeks flushed, and you quickly stood from your chair, brushing imaginary crumbs off your pants. “Hadrian,” you said firmly, though your voice wavered with suppressed laughter, “what do you need, sweetheart?”

Hadrian swallowed his bite, then smiled brightly. “Can we watch a movie together? All of us?”

Harry sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose as he muttered under his breath, “This boy and his timing.”

You shot Harry a warning glance, your lips twitching with amusement as you addressed your son. “Of course, we can. Go pick out a movie, and we’ll join you in a minute.”

Hadrian’s face lit up, and he turned to dash off but paused halfway down the hall, spinning around. “But it has to be one we all like! No boring grown-up movies, okay?”

“No boring grown-up movies,” you agreed, chuckling. “Now, go pick one.”

Once Hadrian was out of sight, Harry let out a long sigh, running a hand through his hair and mussing it slightly. He turned to you, his hazel eyes filled with a mix of exasperation and fondness. “That boy will be the death of me,” he muttered.

You reached out, smoothing down the tousled strands of his hair. “He’s your son, Harry. You wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Harry gave you a crooked smile, his hooked nose twitching slightly as he leaned in to press a quick, chaste kiss to your lips. “True,” he admitted. “But he could learn better timing.”

You laughed, looping your arm through his as you both made your way downstairs. “Consider it payback for all those times you’ve interrupted me mid-thought or while I was busy with something important.”

He raised an eyebrow, mock offense in his baritone voice. “I’d never interrupt my beloved wife so carelessly.”

“Hmm,” you teased, patting his arm. “Sure you wouldn’t, love.”

When you reached the living room, Hadrian was already curled up on the couch, clutching a DVD in his hands. “I picked The Incredibles!” he announced proudly, holding it up like a trophy.

Harry groaned dramatically, sinking into the couch next to him. “Superheroes again?”

Hadrian nodded enthusiastically. “You’ll love it, Dad. It’s about a family, and you always say we’re a super team, right?”

Harry glanced at you, his hazel eyes softening as he gave a resigned smile. “Alright, champ,” he said, ruffling Hadrian’s hair. “Let’s see if this family can live up to ours.”

You joined them on the couch, snuggling close to Harry as he put an arm around you. Hadrian nestled between you both, the TV glowing softly as the movie began.

And for the first time in what felt like ages, you felt truly at peace—together, as a family.

#alan rickman #alan rickman x reader #harry x reader #harry love actually

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luveline · 3 months ago

Note

Jadee would you be up to a good old fainting fic w our lovely broody miguel?

—spidergirl gets sick and miguel is there to catch her, 1.4k

“I could get you one of those, you know.”

You sniffle with a tissue held to your nose, standing across from him, having just been to the bathroom for a concerning amount of time, “What could you get me?”

You're sick with laryngitis again, your throat sore and voice hoarse, but you’re wearing it well, little sign of your sickness beyond your increased usage of balsam tissues and your two-day t-shirt (and your sore nose, and the occasional tear edging its way unbidden from the corner of your left eye).

“A super dog.”

“You’re gonna get me a puppy?” you ask, swiping aside the e-reader and mini fabric pouch that fell into your seat as you left.

“Come on,” he says, holding out his arm.

You sit down and back under his arm again. Miguel doesn’t know much about love besides wanting it badly (and living what isn’t meant for him), but this is where you should always be. “Do you want a super puppy?” he asks, a pinch in his chest relaxing as you melt into his side.

On screen, the super puppy in question barks erratically. You like these movies, citing a deep love for the romantic background plots and the adorableness of the lab puppy as it barks its way to victory. Miguel honestly cannot believe he’s watching it, but then you cough next to him and he remembers his reasons.

“I can’t take care of a puppy.”

“I’ll take care of the dog,” Miguel says.

“Don’t be whipped.”

Sick, and you still say things with your strange sweet whimsy. “I’m not whipped,” he says, “I just want you to feel better.”

“And when I’m better we’ll still have a puppy.”

“I’ll rehome him.”

“That’s not funny, Miguel,” you say, turning to him, shifting your leg where it’s underneath you to be a bit taller. “Can I put my face here? I won’t breathe on you.”

While it did take a superbug to make you sick, your super powers, your healing and strength, aren’t as dialled up as most Spider’s would be. Miguel probably won’t catch it because he has a stronger immune response, and so he lets you put your face in his neck without comment.

“We could keep the dog,” Miguel says.

“Yeah? I worry you’re too busy for a pet, O’Hara.”

“What do you mean? I look after you.”

“So funny,” you murmur, rubbing your nose against his shoulder. He barely feels it, and somehow a contentedness springs from your touch. “I look after you.”

It’s true, and he doesn’t refute it. Miguel’s not sure what he’d do without you, too addicted now to your company. It’s not like he had a choice when it came to wanting you, didn’t he try his hardest not to feed into the whole crush? You’d twirl into his laboratory with a paper flower for his desk and he’d send you away, the memory of your hand brushing his arm stuck on repeat. He does want you, and he did choose to kiss you, as he chose to be with you —you fell into his bed in a way, but loving you is as many parts consciously done as it is helpless.

“What can I do to make you feel better?” he asks.

It’s not like Miguel to beg for things. You shift in your seat, hands on your tummy, peering at him with a thread of suspicion and more obvious adoration. “I’m okay,” you say, parts of your voice shadowed and scratched, like an old CD playing back. “I feel better just sitting here with you, and you know that.” You reach for his cheek. “Mi cielo,” you murmur, smiling bashfully, stealing his most pathetic, most precious pet name, “it’s not so bad. I’m gonna be back in working order before you know it.”

“It’s not about that,” he says, catching your hand to press to his lips.

“I’m basically fully healed,” you say, giving his palm a kiss and then, all of a sudden and without his consent, using his shoulder to shoot onto your feet. “I’m gonna make us matching banana split Sundaes with the glacé cherries and hot fudge, and we’ll eat them right here– on…”

Miguel grabs for your elbows as your eyes roll back.

His gasp is sharp. The pain in his chest sharper. Your knees buckle and it’s all Miguel can do where he’s sat to stop you from slamming down onto your ass, a folded pretzel of a girl defeated by a heavy head. “I have you,” he says through gritted teeth, nearly toppling into you as he rises and arranges you carefully. When you’re safely set down, Miguel stands and bends and drags you up into his arms awkwardly. You’re scarily limp, reactionless as he manoeuvres you onto the couch, laying you flat and long over the cushions.

“Sorry,” he says, his heart pounding hard, yours a slow, careless thing as always in your chest, “sorry, sweetheart, I’m sorry,” he murmurs, slipping his hand behind your neck. “Ah, why do you do this to me?”

Your breath comes sluggishly from between chapped lips. Miguel watches it like a hawk.

“Can you hear me?” he asks.

Lyla, blessed, awful Lyla, would be a godsend right about now if he hadn’t barricaded her (with some extreme difficulty) from appearing during the evening hours unless there’s an external emergency. She’d tell him you’ve only fainted and he’d snap that he knows. She’d calculate when you’re most likely to rouse and he’d tell her she’s a glorified chatbot.

A moment later, you wince.

“Ah, my head,” you say hoarsely.

“What’s wrong?”

“Hurts.”

“What kind of hurt?” he asks.

“Why are you shouting at me?”

Miguel takes a short breath. “Sorry. Your head hurts how, mi cielo? Throbbing?”

“You didn’t let me fall, did you?”

“Of course I didn’t.”

“Stop biting.”

He lets his forehead fall against your chest. Lost for words, he hugs you to him, hit by the horrible thought that you could’ve hit your head, could’ve never woken up again. The horrible reality of life is that it ends all the time and for stupid reasons. But you’re okay. You’re talking. Your heart beats under his ear, slowly rising in rate.

You bring your hand up to scratch weakly through his hair.

“Sorry,” you say. Your voice is so ridiculously fragile. He holds you tighter.

“I’m sorry.”

“No, I am, I knew I felt dizzy and I got up like an idiot.”

“You’re not well.”

“No.”

“It’s not your fault that you’re sick… You can’t say sorry.”

“Well, I am.”

He drags his head up to check you over. “Are you alright?” he asks quietly.

“Yeah.” Your eyes shut. “No, I don’t know. I feel awful now.”

“What can I do?”

“That thing where you kiss my stomach to tickle me would be nice.”

He thinks about it. Miguel doesn’t tend to do it unless he’s feeling particularly gone for you —when he forgets himself. When it’s all about making you laugh. Miguel rubs his nose against the soft of your sternum and promises himself he’ll tickle you later.

“Can you please just let me take care of you?” he asks quietly, lifting his chin to plead with you eye to eye.

You blink. “I– yeah. Okay, yeah.”

Miguel gathers his bearings and stands to collect the things he needs to do that, but he gets caught a step away, spinning on his heel to make sure you’re alright, and then bending down to kiss your forehead. “Idiot girl.”

“I love you.”

Miguel holds your cheek in his hand, unable to return the sentiment anymore than he does. “All I want is to look after you,” he says.

You know what he means by that. You turn your head to kiss his hand.

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karleksmumskladdkaka · 10 months ago

Text

I promised that I'd show you guys what my package of DL goods actually contained.

So...

Behold my treasures╰(*´︶`*)╯♡

(Please be forewarned that the quality of the photos are shit. They were taken by an idiot with no real photography experience whatsoever. Added to that I'm not fully recovered yet and honestly didn't have the energy to do multiple takes I'm also a lazy bitch at the best of times so there's that. But to compensate I have added a list below each picture to make it fully clear what exactly is depicted in them.)

Booklets ⋆⋅☆⋆⋅

From upper left to bottom right:

More, Blood Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Vandead Carnival Special Booklet

Vandead Carnival Animate Limited Set Booklet

Vandead Carnival Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

More, Blood Limited V Edition Animate Limited Set Booklet

More, Blood Limited V Edition Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Dark Fate Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Lunatic Parade Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Grand Edition Stellaworth Special Tokuten Booklet

Lost Eden Special Booklet

Grand Edition Special Booklet

Chaos Lineage Special Stellaworth Tokuten Booklet

Daylight Special Stellaworth Complete Set Purchase Tokuten Booklet

All of these booklets contain short stories, either individual ones for each diaboy or just a singular one that involves Yui and all the diaboys from the associated game (though the stories do not necessarily have anything to do with the plot of said game. Like at all. One story is literally a Mafia AU. I'm not making this up I swear.)

There are a few booklets that I'm missing, namely the HDB ones and most of the Drama CD ones. I'm on active lookout for the latter while the former... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I honestly don't care about. No Ruki = none of my money. I'm a Ruki fan first and foremost, if that's not abundantly clear lol.

Drama CDs ⋆⋅✮⋅⋆

From upper left to bottom right:

Vandead Carnival Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

More, Blood Limited V Edition Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

Dark Fate Stella Set Tokuten: Special Voice CD

More, Blood B-2 Price Drama CD (Mukami Ver.)

Lost Eden Vol.4: Mukami Saga

Lost Eden Stella Set Bonus: Special Voice CD

Chaos Lineage Vol.3: Orange

Sadistic Night 2017 Event Pamphlet CD

Versus IV Vol.2 Shuu vs Ruki Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD: "The Vampires got a Part-time Job: Ruki"

Eternal Blood 5th Eternal Blood Vol.1 & Vol.2 Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "A Certain Day at the Mukami Household" (Ruki & Yuma)

Chaos Lineage Ebten/WonderGoo Tokuten Drama CD: “The Vampire’s Every Day: Board Game Edition ~ Ruki VS Azusa VS Kino ~”

Grand Edition Animate Situation CD

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "Monopolizing Her"

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Animate Tokuten Drama CD: "Living a Normal School Life For Once!"

Daylight Vol.7 Mukami Ruki Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD: "Sadistic ★ Date"

Do you notice the common thread running across all these CDs?

I remember mentioning a while back that there were only two Ruki CDs I had yet to listen to. Well, turns out I'm a fucking fool and forgot about the existence of most of the CDs on this list. I have no idea whether the majority of these are any good but my hopes are high! In any case I am very excited to give them all a listen! Or more like multiple. I'm addicted to Ruki's sexy voice what can I say.

Miscellaneous ⋆⋅☽⋅⋆

From upper left to bottom right:

More, Blood Ebten After Story Card: Shuu

More, Blood Ebten After Story Card: Ruki

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Deluxe Edition Message Card

More, More Blood Vol.12 Mukami Ruki Mini Story Card (which ties into his Another Story CD).

In addition to these items I have three other message cards from Ruki and two of his short story papers (his More, Blood and Bloody Bouquet ones) in storage, which I'll also share in the future.

That's all I got at the moment. Again, sorry for the piss-poor quality of the photos. I'll strive to do better with the next scans I upload.

- _(´ω`_)⌒)_

#diabolik lovers #mine #dialovers #diahell #diabolik lovers drama cd #short stories #i'll post about each individual thing in more detail later on but keep in mind what i said earlier: i am a lazy bitch #and often ill at that #but mostly chronically lazy #meaning it will most likely take some time to get through all of these things #i WILL however soon come back to regularly spam my followers with any rukiyui content i can find (and ofc also shameless ruki thirst)

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tacorerooster · 9 months ago

Text

Long Thread Shadow and Amy Rose. So with Sonic Movie 3 continuing the trend of Sega (or at the very less Sega of America) not giving a shit about Amy Rose, I’m gonna list all the shit she SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN, but was left out of

First off Every 90’s Dic Animated Cartoon (SatAM, AoStH and Underground), Amy around during each one of those productions yet she doesn’t show up, yet Tails and Knuckles both do, even tho A. She came out the same year as Tails and B. Showed up BEFORE Knuckles

Next would-be classic games collections minus Gems & Origins. Amy & her debut game Sonic CD for a long time was excluded from many of the Classic Collections, like Sonic Mega Collection, the DS collection & the Sonic's “Ultimate” Genesis Collection which had Archie & Spinball

Then we get to the modern era and oh boy this is fun. She’s in the 1st Sonic adventure as a playable character, all be it a Slow Character but still relevant, In SA2 she is not playable but has plot relevance, which I will get to later when talking about Movie 3

From there you have Heroes, Shadow, & 06. In Heroes she is a speed type like Sonic & Shadow, but can’t do ring dash or wall jumps & as many fans make clear she has the least popular group. Thank you, Shadow, for being So popular & taking Rouge from being apart of OG team Rose.

In Shadows game she is in 1 level & a cut scene at the end, even tho AMY was who got Shadow to be himself, Shadow Fans forget this. Tails & Knux who he has no history with get many. Heck Maria & Omega get more then Amy, despite being flat characters that exist to prop up Shadow

Next up 06, same before she in 1 level but gets 1 extra mission in the hub world. Whereas Shadow gets himself a whole campaign + vehicles, + his side characters get cooler gameplay than Amy. What does Amy get? Will she’s not long fast & for some reason can turn invisible. Clearly one of them got more attention during development. It also didn’t help Amy’s status as a love interest with Elise being there.

Now for the handheld games and it somehow gets worse for her. Dimps, the developers behind the Sonic Advance Trilogy + the Sonic rush Trilogy DID NOT LIKE AMY AT ALL! She gets to be the slow gimmick character in 1 & is not part of 2 but instead the hidden unlock you get the emeralds for.

In Rush, Dimps, makes Cream the Sidekick/Tails to Blaze even tho in the last game Amy & Cream where the female Sonic & Tails. They even write Amy as being abusive to Cream, A THING AMY WOULD NOT DO. Which is even dumber bc Marine shows up next game as the Tails to Blaze’s Sonic.

Now we have Sonic Battle, which does even less favors. Made by THQ (Not Sonic Team) you a cool Sonic fighting game, you let Amy form a Mother Child bond with a Robot, you give her some GODDAMN COOL ROCK LEE TRAINING WEIGHTS & Cream even says Amy is the strongest Women she knows.

But you have Amy starve herself for Sonic, not treat it seriously or for her friends to show concern. All her Attacks are Sonic driven, she thinks up a physical copy of Sonic to fight Rouge (which Fans use to say she is Crazy or Weaker than Rogue, both of them beat each up)

Finally in Handhelds is Sonic Rivals 1 &2 by Backbone Entertainment & Sega Studio USA. In 1 she is captured at the start ALONG WITH TAILS & saved at the end for Sonic to say he forgot about her & be creeped out by her. She’s not even in 2 so a good thing, can’t mess her up

We than get a period of time where Sonic games only have Sonic & Tails in them. So can’t mess her up like that (Unleashed is great for Her). In Sonic Forces while this point is minor, She along with Knuckles are leading the Resistance but Knux gets to be on the box & Amy doesn't

But I think the most damaging thing would be Sonic Mania. It makes itself out to be a celebration of all the things you loved about Classic Sonic from 1, 2, 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Knuckles Chaotix, Mean Bean Machine, Spinball and CD. But Amy somehow was not in any of it.

Hell I would say that Sonic Mania takes a good chunk from CD but no Amy. You get Amy Doll which explodes when it hugs you. (Get it the joke is that Amy is crazy & explosive and you don’t want her to hug you and should always run away from her ha ha so funny)

Fang Bean and Back get full sprites in Mania not Amy. Oh yeah and Mighty and Ray get to be playable but not Amy. There was even a hashtag for Amy to be added, only for Christin Whitehead or Sega to say - nah. (This is also why Origins and Superstars are better than Mania, Amy)

A pattern with all this is when people who aren’t Sonic Team write for Sonic, Amy usually gets the worst treatment (not to say she is the only 1, just the worst. Sonic X in Japanese is Great for Amy. But the English try & mess it up, but you still you get good stuff for her.

Not getting into Archie because if we are grading quality of how Amy is treated, that is dead last. PS Fleetway Amy Sweep and IDW Amy is Canon which I’m happy about.

This all to say and go back to my main point about Sonic Movie 3. I have like the Sonic movies so far, 2 was fantastic, but with the Knux show, the flaws showed to it & the movies. All of it is just marketing. The movie universe isn’t here to tell stories its here to sell stuff.

Wondering what I mean by this. So far the main Sonic character in the Sonic movie are Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Shadow and Eggman. 4 being mobians & 1 human. When looking at the merchandise for Sonic as a whole you see it plan as day it is always Sonic Tails knuckles & Shadow. (Only recently has Amy been include but she still gets left out from time to time.)

Amy is supposed to be the fourth member of team Sonic, NOT Shadow. He not only has his own team he doesn’t even like Sonic, Knuckles or Tails. Hell straight up has a vendetta against Tails. But marketing keeps pushing them together

That’s what Sonic Movie 3 is MARKETING, not a story, bc if it was Amy would be in it already. Bc we have Sonic, Eggman, Echidna Tribe, Tails, Knux, Chaos Emeralds, Pac, Shadow, Maria, Gerald, GUN & no Amy. & Shadow Fans will say it is perfectly fine he needs all that screen time

I want to like Shadow, but he just sucks up any light from others. Rogue on Team Rose, no Fans want Shadow alive again, Amy Rose game? No Shadow Game. Other playable characters, no only Shadow. More Sonic Characters in a Sonic Movie? No, only characters tied to Shadow. But yeah

#sonic #sonic the hedgehog #sonic movie #sonic wachowski #amy rose #shadow the hedgehog #sth #sonic movie 3 #sonic cinematic universe #paramount pictures #sega #sega of america #miles tails prower #knuckles the echidna #rant post #shadow is not even top 10 sonic characters

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menheramar · 1 year ago

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Otogi No Uta Masterlist

This series has like 3 fans so I figured I'd make it easier for people to get into it. The story is told through a series of "movements," CD dramas, and a manga. It also has cute comics, posted on the official Mute Twitter. This list will focus on collecting sources for English speaking fans.

If you don't know anything about the series, you should start by reading this twitter thread by nemuruoogarasu! Feel free to look through the unofficial wiki as well, you can learn a little more about each band and character there. The series is mostly based on the bands and the characters, so pick your favorites :)

After that, listen to some of the songs. I have a playlist compiling them from the official channel here, and I have listed them below as well. There is no specific order you have to listen to them in. Be aware that some of the songs are not uploaded in their entirety, as some have to be purchased through the official drama CDs. The full mp3 files can accessed through amazon.jp.

Story

The story is a bit confusing to follow, and as of writing, not everything has been translated. I will be updating this as often as possible.

Basically, Otogi no Uta is about several bands fighting with special music powers in "Live Battles" against each other. This is in order to obtain "The End," a thing which can grant any wish. Those who posess music powers are called "Utaibito," which could roughly translate to "Melody User," "Musician," or "Music Person" in english (though I left it as is in the manga).

Comics

As of now, most of the comics are untranslated. They don't follow the main plot, and mainly consist of cute and silly interactions with the characters in their mute forms.

Some mute comics have been translated on the wiki, and most of them can be found on the official Mute Twitter. (I ran out of hyperlinks in this post but they are both linked above.) A few have also been translated by me and are at the end of each manga chapter.

There is also a series of short comics from the official website explaining some of the concepts in Otogi no Uta. I've translated them here.

Manga

The manga serves as a backstory for each band and character. You should probably get to know the characters a little through the wiki first so you are not completely lost. Each two chapters go over the backstory of how one of the bands formed and what their goal is and set the group dynamics and personalities.

Also to note, each chapter title corresponds to a song by that band! All chapters have been translated by me.

Ch 0 - Prologue (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 1 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 2 - Ensa no Roubitsu Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 3 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 4 - HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 5 - Kazoe Uta Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 6 - Kazoe Uta Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 7 - Weltreise Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 8 - Weltreise Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 9 - Reine Seele Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 10 - Reine Seele Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 11 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 12 - Jyuroku Yaman Hana Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 13 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 14 - Rinnegyo Kei Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 15 - LOUDBRAVE Part 1 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 16 - LOUDBRAVE Part 2 (tumblr) (mangadex) Ch 17 - Epilogue (tumblr) (mangadex)

Movements

There are 45 "movements" (and 2 overtures and 1 prelude), starting here. Make sure you don't miss the tabs on the top of the page to read all of them! I believe it goes over all the bands meeting up to participate in the live battles.

Songs + Drama Tracks

From my understanding, the drama tracks that aren't part of a "vs" CD go over mostly the same as the manga but more in depth.

Note: The wiki has auto translated lyrics for untranslated songs! A lot is still untranslated, but I'll do my best to gather everything here. If you find any links to translations, please send them my way, I'll be sure to add them!

Shuan no Gokumon - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Togabito no Shirabe - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Ensa no Roubitsu - Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitoribōshi - Issun-Bōshi Komo Yūgi - Issun-Bōshi Kazoe Uta - Issun-Bōshi Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi DRAMA TRACK 02

Blinzen Parade - Bremüsik Gutes Fest! - Bremüsik Weltreise - Bremüsik Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 01 Bremüsik DRAMA TRACK 02

Rosen Melodie - BLASSKAIZ Ritus - BLASSKAIZ Reine Seele - BLASSKAIZ BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ DRAMA TRACK 02

HaPpY uNBirThDAy♠ - AlicexToxic (translated lyrics) HaVE A NicE tRIP♧ - AlicexToxic HelLO wOnder WorLd♣ - AlicexToxic Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Liberty - Momotroop Imperfect - Momotroop LOUDBRAVE - Momotroop Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 01 Momotroop DRAMA TRACK 02

Note: I will be shortening "Mushoku no Sora to Warau Ito" to "MSWI" Ochiyuku Hasu No Hanabira Rinne Wo Mitsumete - MSWI Nehan Jakujo - MSWI Rinnegyo Kei - MSWI MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02

Jyuroku Yaman Hana - Kashin no Okina SPECIAL VOICE DRAMA

Fantasie Nacht - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club Kaimei no Doukoku - Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club (translated lyrics) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 01 (translation) Bremüsik VS Setsudan Club DRAMA TRACK 02

Hitorigoto - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Keep on… - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Rinne no Kubiki - Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 01 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 02 Issun-Bōshi vs Momotroop vs MSWI DRAMA TRACK 03

Möbius - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic ♢WoNdeR PaRTy♦ - BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 01 BLASSKAIZ VS Alice×Toxic DRAMA TRACK 02

Oshimai wo Kono Te Ni - all (translated lyrics) Medorē (DJ Remix) feat. Issun-Bōshi - connected the songs of 7 units from the 1st series by Issun-Bōshi Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS - DRAMA TRACK 01 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 02 Otogi no Uta 〜CHRONICLE〜 ALL STARS -DRAMA TRACK 03

#otogi no uta #音戯の世界 #オトクロ #otoginouta #♡ 𝖔𝖙𝖔𝖌𝖎 𝖓𝖔 𝖚𝖙𝖆 ♡

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felassan · 2 years ago

Text

Some more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from some older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube videos where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago. (Multiple videos are covered in this post, so the source video of each bullet point is included there) -

"I'm pretty sure that the [in-world] Dragon Age will be an age that lasts a suspiciously long time, as long as there are Dragon Ages being made. I don't think they will drop 'Dragon Age' because it's such an identifiable part of the franchise". [source]

"I totally cannot spoil what the original Black City was supposed to be. I'm pretty sure that the approach to lore in DA has always been to leave it ambiguous to allow the future to go where it needs to go. Though that being said, DA:O was definitely built with the assumption that it was not getting a sequel." [source]

"The Calling is presented as taking decades to kill you on its own. So Alistair would still be alive in DA:I and DA:D if he went that way. I think, if I remember the lore correctly." [source]

"DA:O introduces a lot of hanging plot threads that aren't necessarily resolved. Orzammar potentially sets up a civil war, there's potentially werewolves running around. There's a lot of stuff we've been able to kind've ignore, but there's a lot of stuff that's still out there. The line of succession for Ferelden is open isn't it." [source]

[on the Warden's quest for a cure for the Calling] "I don't think it's established that the cure is actually found is it. Or just that they're looking." [source]

"Likely any cure for the Calling would be to extract the Taint from the person, so you would basically cease being a Grey Warden at that point." [source]

"I think they're treating the Trespasser epilogue slides as canon." [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "You can see, this leaves a lot of threads in a lot of potential different directions that Dragon Age has been dealing with since then, since 2009." [source]

"The resistance that there was for toolset for Frostbite was a feeling like, 'this engine is proprietary, it does a bunch of stuff that we don't want other people to be able to steal'. That's basically not even true anymore. There's actually a feeling now within EA that user-generated content, UGC, is incredibly good, that it's basically free marketing. Like you say, Skyrim has been going forever. So that's why, EA has a really complicated relationship with UGC. What they want is basically, everyone to make TikTok videos and things about how great the game is. They don't necessarily want you to make DLC or Twitch stream the thing but they also recognize that this is not a, you don't get to have one without the other really. Yeah, the 'cost of free ads from fans is fan DLC'. That's pretty much, sums it up perfectly." [source]

"CD Projekt uses slightly different language than BioWare did for DLCs, expansion packs etc. I would not classify the free DLCs from The Witcher as expansion packs, they're DLC. They called them expansion packs but from my perspective, an expansion pack is larger than that but it's a spectrum for sure. The thing I would say about CD Projekt in general is they're amazingly good at picking the right language. So what they did on Witcher 3 is they said, they added a tiny bit of content to each of their patches and said 'this is DLC, we're going to give it away for free, aren't we amazing?' And then they made their DLC a little bit bigger and then said 'these are expansion packs, we're gonna charge for that', brilliant. Honestly brilliant. Because it makes them, it's a great PR move, it also meant that they got a, every time they released a patch they essentially got an article on the gaming sites. It's something that BioWare and frankly DA in particular is pretty bad at, like, naming things, and using language that makes things sound better." [source]

[on The Sims] "'Buy a thing and then later they release more stuff to add to your thing', it's an amazing business model. It's also a business model that EA does not understand, they, like BioWare, suffer from being a thing that exists within the sports-focused EA ecosystem that, constantly trying to explain that 'our players are not the same as your players, you need to let us do what we know how to do'." [source]

"We had a free-to-play version for DA multiplayer, that was Hendrix. It's not on the, EA didn't want it to exist so it was only on the servers for a little while, a couple of months, but it was actually there. I'm sure it's not up anymore." [source]

"I don't know if Frostbite is gonna die. I think there's a very good chance that what's going to happen is, it may become the next sports engine. FIFA is a monolith and has taken over the driver's seat for that engine. I don't think they're gonna be very interested in switching again. Even if active Frostbite development in general goes away, FIFA will keep going and then a bunch of other games live in the rain shadow of FIFA, like NHL." [source]

"If it was up to me, I'd probably have forced Mass Effect onto Frostbite. And I would be strongly inclined to keep Dragon Age on Frostbite for at least one more game because you've built the foundation. The best engine to use is the one you just used. But I don't know what's gonna happen after DA:D to be honest. BioWare seems to be addicted to throwing away work they've done in the past. And it was never up to me." [source]

"Frostbite isn't a recruitment negative but certainly it's a lot easier to find people that already know how to use Unreal. What you actually see in programming is some people, it's not a universal, but some programmers, they don't wanna work in Unreal because they feel like someone else gets to do all the cool programming bits." [source]

"The question for Awakening is should it have even been an expansion pack, or is a different solution to have made it, say, 40% bigger and made it a full-sized game. This is, I think, the reason why expansion packs are so rare these days is because, it's easy to imagine a path from an expansion pack to a $60 or $70 game and then you're getting somewhere between 80-120% attach as opposed to 30% attach. I suspect this is the primary reason why expansion packs have kind've faded away, because 'I'm gonna ship every year' is fairly accepted within games these days. So honestly the pitch for Joplin's live service was 'we're not gonna do a live service, we're gonna do a game, and then we're gonna do another game in 18 months and another 18 months after that. And maybe we'll do one piece of DLC in there, but we'll just be like dunk-dunk-dunk' and the economics for that are great. So that's why expansion packs are gone I think." [source]

"That's the fundamental problem of DA:O not knowing it's gonna have sequels, it leaves the world in a very quantum state. There's still stuff that's hinted at in those [epilogue slides] that are happening sometime in the future that I think are gonna probably at this point be ignored. Probably the biggest issue of DA:O is that it leaves the world in a state that probably wasn't intending that there would be a sequel." [source]

"When we were discussing doing a remaster for the trilogy, my pitch was to essentially retcon it [DA:O, DAII and DA:I] into a trilogy, to make it the 'Champion's Trilogy' or something to that effect, where you group the three games together, imply that they were always intended to be a trilogy kind of, and then that does a couple of things. It packages them into something that stands on its own a bit better, but also lets you potentially change what you're doing with the player character going forward. If you've decided that, okay, we've changed player character every single game up until now, but maybe we're not going to do that going forward, by packaging them together in a remaster you kind've give yourself permission to do that. Certainly DA:D is gonna have a new player character, given that the one from DA:I is missing a limb." [source]

"We probably oversold the Wardens in the marketing for DA:O. Because essentially, what we did was establish them as the coolest thing in the world and then yeah, so the series has definitely been dealing with the aftermath oh 'but not Wardens? Therefore not cool' forever since then." [source]

"But a new player character means you have a harder job every single game, because you have to get people interested, you don't get the shortcut of 'Shepard is Shepard, you know Shepard'." [source]

"Anders is the one that made us rethink how we introduce romances, because a lot of people ended up in romance with him that didn't mean to. We'll see if they come back to that in DA:D, but I think that because of Anders in DAII, DA:I was definitely trying to not 'accidentally do anything to you'. But it does mean that it is very player-controlled and very player-initiated. But maybe they'll be willing to go back to that a little bit." [source]

"Tevinter Nights does a really good job of staying away from violating canon. The thing with, the further you go away from what's in the games the more you are, the less well it's gonna do, so that's not necessarily a problem but it is something to keep in mind that you don't, you're trying to make money with your novels. Setting it in a time period that people don't know is great for the core fans but isn't necessarily gonna do super amazing. The advantage that Tevinter Nights is, because it's an anthology, you're able to just, everything kinda just stands on its own and therefore you're able to just stay away from the major characters to a large degree." [source]

"Varric's definitely not quantum, he's in good shape. Dorian, I feel like Dorian is guaranteed to be around [as in quantum], but maybe not, maybe I'm wrong about that. But the games have gotten better or at least more conscious of what they do with companions as it's gone on, in terms of trying to, being at least aware of the fact that you might want these people to come back, so maybe at least understand the quantum you're putting them in. There's a bunch of followers in DA:I that you might just not recruit. Like Blackwall's pretty easy to miss. Dorian can show up but he doesn't die if you don't recruit him, he's alive. The biggest thing for quantum is 'are they alive', in which, in DA:O there's a lot that don't make it. Then you have to deal with, well they might be [killed/not recruited?] or something but the biggest thing is, if they're alive you can probably make it work." [source]

"I have a feeling that Desire Demons are going to be just, ignored, or, honestly I mean one way to, I think, Desire is seen in a very narrow light in DA:O. I think if you go, if you move into Desire being a much broader concept, you have a lot of options there. I think if you approach Desire in a broader sense I think you have some opportunities. But then you kind've end up with the DA:I problem with the Fear." [source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"Orzammar is definitely the place in DA:O that actually looks like Dragon Age. Everything else is kind've generic late 2000s fantasy, pretty much the same as The Witcher. For example, Ostagar has a more generic fantasy visual" [source]

"You know, other than DAII, DA does involve a lot of crossing the entire country to turn around and go back doesn't it" [source]

Chat asked "How well does the vanilla game DA:O play on modern hardware?" Mark replied, "I'm playing it on modern hardware, I don't have everything cranked way up and currently I'm running it in a window. It's running really well. The only thing that happens is if you turn the graphic settings up too far it will blow up because it will run out of memory. It's a 32-bit game and so if you cross 4 gig it will explode. But there are some mods out there that get you around that. That's the only problem with it is that, if you turn it up too far it will become unstable. I'm worried about stability problems during the [Battle of Denerim] part of the game" [source]

"I always found Redcliffe Village in DA:O a bit confusing to move around" [source]

Chat observed that the soil in Redcliffe would be be bad because of all the darkspawn and undead that were there. Some users theorized that the people there moved to a different part of the nearby land to make 'Redcliffe' again. Mark commented, "One of the reasons we felt okay pretty much redesigning Redcliffe in DA:I, because it's kind've broken. You know, we don't show it completely destroyed here but certainly it's hard its struggles" [source]

"I don't know who came up with the ogre-sync kill. Sync kills are really cool for bosses, they become a lot less cool for things when they're constantly happening but they're usually, unfortunately sync kills are often something that end up being de-prioritized as a feature, because they don't actually have a gameplay effect so they're kind've just aesthetics. So they often actually get cut for time reasons" [source]

Mark mentioned that he "certainly [has] some degree of lingering crunch trauma" [source]

[during the Battle of Denerim, when many creatures are on-screen] "DA:O does a good job of selling large groups for a game of its time. We must be doing a trick, something to get all this, because this is way over the creature count limit for DA:O. It's possible that we made special creatures that are way cheaper. Or it's a mixture. Waves is part of it. They aren't dropping any loot so there's definitely something going on" [source]

"Shouldn't there be people in the Wardens who have a bit more training in dragon killing?" [source]

"We probably should have auto-levelled unlevelled party members before the Battle of Denerim" [source]

[on the elves in the alienage during the Battle of Denerim] "Where'd they get the bows? Pretty sure it's frowned upon for elves to have weapons in alienages" [source]

"People do play DA solo which makes it difficult to have any sort of puzzle or anything that requires a group" [source]

[on Sandal] "I told the team if you put him in DA:I you gotta put him in everything because he basically then becomes a central figure of the franchise. So they gave him a rest. So you can blame me for him not being in DA:I" [source]

Chat asked "I'm curious why BioWare never brought back the army spawning mechanic from DA:O to DA:I, I always thought it was epic and underrated". Mark said "We talked about it in DA:I, it was actually a UI thing, we didn't have time to do the UI properly. I mean there's a lot of reasons why you don't get to play with your Inquisition well in DA:I, like to play with the organization, which is actually too bad" [source]

[while fighting baby dragons during the Battle of Denerim] Chat asked "Why are the baby dragons there in the first place?" Mark said "Someone wanted another addition to the combat. But it doesn't really make a lot of lore sense" [source]

[on lock bash] "I like what we tried to do in DA:I, giving you different things for different classes. Didn't really get used effectively. But it does strike me as weird, it didn't at the time, but playing through this, is like, you go into a space, all the chests are locked, you kill everyone, no-one has a key. Like, whose got the key to that chest?" [source]

"DA:O really does do some impressive army stuff given the chunkiness of its engine" [source]

[at end of DA:O] "Probably should have shown Morrigan leaving" [source]

"Alistair would be a fine/adequate king. He just needs a policy wonk to give him ideas" [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "These are the ones that set up the quantum for the rest of the game" [source]

[during DA:O epilogue slides] "It's interesting that we called Dagna a mage" [source]

"I think DA:O still holds together. I mean it wasn't a very attractive game in 2009 and certainly it doesn't look better now than it did then, but I think it holds together. Some of the storytelling choices are problematic from a now perspective, almost everything in the Pearl, and then the whole broodmother bit could be, I mean it's a bit too far, it was probably a bit too far even at the time honestly. The combat holds up pretty well, because it's not 'push a button and immediately do an action' it has aged pretty well. The animations are kinda clunky and things don't line up very great but that's not that bothersome. It would be much more noticeable that it was a problem if things were a bit more direct" [source]

"DA:O has WASD in large part because Oblivion had WASD controls. I remember the transition and being kind've confused as to why you would do that, but yeah it's the right call. In the time that this was in development it became pretty universal" [source]

"How involved was I in Anthem? I was in charge of Anthem for the past 16 months. So a damaging amount" [source]

"Will I do an Anthem stream? I will probably do at least 1 Anthem stream. I might play through the story, I'm not gonna play multiplayer. I might play through the story and play it in pure dark pattern, forcing it to let me play it by myself, but we'll see" [note this video is several months old] [source]

[on Awakening] "Other than Destiny, this is pretty much one of the last expansion packs there ever really was with a retail presence. It's honestly a way better business than DLC. DLC you're attaching, maybe 10% of your people are gonna buy it, whereas expansion packs, 30%. You can spend a lot more money and make a lot more money with an expansion pack" [source]

"I think the idea for DA multiplayer getting harder when somebody died was to try to make the match start to end so that you weren't waiting. I don't know how effective that is, probably not very, but I think that's the thinking" [source]

"I don't think we really were, pretty much I think DA became a series when BioWare got bought by EA. I don't remember the exact moment but you can see by the slides at the end of DA:O there's a bunch of stuff that isn't really completely thinking about the fact that we're gonna have to pick up this ball in future" [source]

"Frostbite shares a lot with Unreal as well from a tools perspective. It wasn't done quite as intentionally. It's funny because the tools for Eclipse for DA:O, there was a specifically-designed wall between the two project streams to prevent this engine from taking too much from Unreal. There was a worry that Epic was going to get mad at us and sue us. Which given everybody elses' engine development was probably unfounded" [source]

"I imagine that a Blight probably increases Warden recruitment. I think it makes sense that people would be interested [right after a Blight was stopped] because you're the heroes on the block, but given what the Wardens know about Blights and things you would think that the responsible thing would be to actually cut recruitment way down, keep the order alive and then as they sense a Blight starting to come, ramp the recruitment way back up again. But I don't know that they know that a Blight is coming early enough to do so, so I guess the worry would be that if they don't keep their order relatively large then they wouldn't have the forces necessary to fight a Blight. Though of course you wouldn't expect another Blight right now, we just finished with one [Mark was playing Awakening's opening sequence at this time]. I think it's, there's darkspawn to fight and despite what they may claim, it's about being big enough to have a political impact on the world so that everyone doesn't ignore their existence and then they show up and no-one remembers who they are. Duncan talks about knowing it was coming but everyone not believing him so it does imply that they know at least some time beforehand. But you probably don't wanna wait til 1 year before it starts happening before you start rebuilding your forces" [source]

"The reason why Awakening was able to ship so close to DA:O was because DA:O moved a huge amount really late in development to do the consoles. So Awakening was pretty much mostly built in 2009, you know in the last 9 months of DA:O development, which was mostly porting it to the consoles. There's no way you were getting an expansion pack out within five months of that size without [this]" [source]

"Awakening is a masterclass in 'people who are familiar with the fools using the tools at their disposal to do some amazing stuff" [source]

"One of the challenges with expansion packs is they kind've have to fit inside the umbrella, even if they're taking place afterwards like this one does [Awakening], they can't raise the stakes too much. Whereas if it was a full-fledged sequel it could kind've do something new, kind've has to. Which is part of the problem with Awakening, given where DA:O leaves the world it's kind've hard to, we didn't really know where we were gonna go for our sequels yet, so that's probably why" [source]

"The problem with not sequel-ing Dragon Age is then what you would have been doing is probably trying to make a fantasy RPG in a new setting and then having this impossible comparison to DA constantly happening, and every single difference being a potential criticism, you can see why that, being a potential big problem. Much as I wouldn't want to wish it upon other dev teams, DAII is what allowed DA to be a series, because it kind've is the one that eats the rock of 'this is not like my previous game' and it kind've gets rid of the worst bits of continuity errors. And so to a large degree I would say that by DAII being this sort of thing that's rushed out to fill a financial gap, it allows the series to become a series. But you know, I wouldn't say that's the fix that everyone should take" [source]

"The problem you have to remember with DAII and 'more time' is very quickly you run into Skyrim releasing, and releasing DAII then, regardless of much much extra effort you put into it, after Skyrim is not a good thing. It has to kind've live there in a pre-Skyrim world. There is stuff that can be done for sure, but there's a limit to what you can do" [source]

"Mass Effect has, Shepard is too tightly associated with ME, so what do you do? Do you just keep bringing him back and making clones of him or something? That was definitely a problem in the case of Mass Effect: Andromeda because you had a younger player character, so therefore the tonal differences were seen as problematic. So it's something that you definitely have to think about" [source]

"With Justice, you do a pretty good job of explaining away anything that happens to Anders" [source]

"Oghren is here in Awakening in part because of again, quantum. Because Wynne could be dead, Leliana could be dead, Alistair could be dead, Sten could be dead or not even recruited. So you don't really have a lot of choices if you wanna bring a companion back." Here chat mentioned that Oghren can be dead. "Oh, so they do [in-game] respond to it [if Oghren was killed in DA:O]. He must have been the least quantum then. The place that you were most likely to kill Leliana in DA:O was at the Urn of Sacred Ashes, and I think we just sort've were like 'the Urn's right there so. She's fine'. Yeah, there needs to be a warrior [in Awakening]. I mean, we could've made a brand new character but. Sten was really likely to die. Lots of people didn't even recruit him. Hers [Leliana's death] is probably the most plausible retcon" [source]

"One of the things that kind've frustrates me a bit about the lore in DA moreso than ME is because it's so quantum, is the linear stuff in the comic books and novels have had, just picked canons on occasion. Which I get because you wanna have Isabela or Sten in the comics, but it does mean that it undermines the player agency there because it's like 'what you did isn't real, because here's what's real because we put it in a comic book'. I really don't like that but given the branching in the games you would've just had to have stayed away from those characters completely, which undermines the storytelling, so I don't know. I don't know what the answer is honestly. It's a good point that it's hard to imagine that Leliana's gonna be like 'sign me up for the Wardens' [source]

[on secondary media] "I don't disagree that you could do lots of prequels, but I think there's a limit" [source]

"The biggest reason why the darkspawn design changed from DA:O to DAII is that the DA:O darkspawn, mainly honestly the ogre, but they don't quite fit into our artistic palette, and there was a strong push from the art team on DAII to move the art direction into something that was ownable and so that's the main reason. It's really just an ownability perspective. But you can kinda see it in Awakening, because like The Withered is starting to look a lot like the DAII darkspawn, or at least he's headed in that direction" [source]

"One of DAII's big art direction things, Eclipse is really good at pushing polygons, so a lot of things in the art direction of DAII are pushing polygons. So they're spikier and they just have a lot more polys in them because it's one of the things it's really good at" [source]

"If you were doing a remaster you would keep the same engine. If you were doing a remake you would switch engines. It's not a remaster if you're switching engines, that's for sure" [source]

"I still maintain that Dog was essentially put through the Joining, but whatever. Technically probably everyone who has had contact with darkspawn blood is not a Warden, but it is a bit, I do think it's one of the things where the Taint and the Blight is a bit, is presented as being more bad than really is pulled off in the games" [source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #alistair theirin #fav warden #long post #longpost #morrigan #queen of my heart #anthem #mass effect #mass effect 5 #mass effect: andromeda #dragon age: tevinter nights #random spaces sry bc the bullet point list text blocks got too long

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ittybittysugarplum · 1 year ago

Note

🎁 A gift has been sent! 🎁

There is a small box, wrapped in violet paper, and tied with a deep blue ribbon - mostly for aesthetic purposes. (Contains: a recording of a musical - in the form of a CD - made down in Hell. The plot is bit gruesome, and the character death is showed through the actors actually dying. A small note has been stuck to the casing of the CD - 'The dance choreography has more thought put into than the entire plot-line, and I thought you might take an interest.' )

Alongside this is a bouquet of flowers, and a letter. The flowers ranged in many different colours and shapes - Hell wasn't Earth and the plants weren't exactly the same. A few looked a bit like nightshades - though probably not poisonous, its purples braided around the stems of sunflower-lookalikes, their petals bleached into an ivory hue.

Small, decorative things that looked sort of like lavender, if lavender was peach in colour, threaded around the actual wrapping-thing itself.

Finally, the letter. Plain and simple on the outside, not so much on the inside...

'Dear Plum,

I have placed an invitation to a popular *non-cannibalistic, I wasn't sure of your palette so just to be safe*, restaurant I would like to take you to in this envelope.

By no means do you need to accept, although if you do, I have left my phone number below.

Even if you do not wish to go there with me, any food you get from there (for the first time only) will be paid for by myself. Do not feel like you have to go with me to get a meal. I promise you, should you say no, you will not be charged in any way.

I wish you a lovely day.

- Vox '

🔇i know nothint about flowers, i researched so quickly, im in the middle of cooking so this will have to do. @vox-no-longer-a-box-tek 🔇

*Plum discreetly brings the gift box up to her room in the hotel, just to avoid any questioning, before opening it, taking out the flowers and CD first. She talks to herself as she does*

“Oh my goodness-! I didn’t know Hell had such beautiful flowers… Are these from Vox? Surely not…”

*but she reads the note about the musical and opens the letter, breaking out into a smile as she reads the invitation. She excitedly grabs her phone to dial Vox’s number*

“I just have to call him…!”

#holy shit-#THIS is why you were researching flowers??#you put so much effort into this #I’m so down bad for the tv #hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel rp #hazbin hotel vox rp #oc rp

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metallicmadnik · 4 months ago

Text

indie, private + low-activity Metal Sonic from the sonic franchise. mostly pulls from the sonic games (sonic cd, sonic heroes, etc.), sonic universe, the sonic idw comics, the sonic the hedgehog ova, and my headcanons. penned by fer. dossier here.

(my multimuse blog is @spirestar.)

my rules can be found beneath this cut. read before following.

don’t be a bigot freak (xenophobic, racist, lgbt+phobic, you ship adults w/ children, etc.)

my blog is low-activity by default since i work a full-time job and i’m often mobile-bound, but this may fluctuate at times when i have more free time. thank you for your patience.

this is a private blog, open to writing with mutuals only. i'll only interact with mutuals of this blog (you don't need to be following any other blog of mine). if i don’t plan on following someone back, i typically softblock. if we are mutuals, please write me starters / send me asks whenever you want! i typically softblock after 4+ months of inactivity, but feel free to follow me again if you return after a break!

no exclusives. i may have mains, which are people who i plot and create the lore with at least somewhat regularly, but there will be no exclusivity for characters at this time.

metal sonic will treat each character in a thread like they’re the existing version of a character from his world unless the muse is very divergent in ways that would make that weird (i.e. interacting with movie-verse eggman or sonic, etc.).

as a follow-up, this blog will not be for movie metal sonic. if i ever add a verse post-movie release for that, i will make a post about it, but that is not in the cards for any of the foreseeable future. this is strictly a games-verse & comic based metal portrayal.

shipping with metal sonic: i genuinely would not recommend coming to this blog looking for a ship. i don't know how many people have ships with metal, but i’m not looking for any pairings with him and i likely will not write him in any way that helps to create chemistry for a ship. once again, dm me if you want to plot out a big crazy idea and i’ll definitely chat with you, but, again, do not come to this blog with shipping as a primary goal because that's not what i’m looking to write as a primary focus with metal sonic.

writing with the evil robot: metal sonic is evil. regardless of whether he is following eggman’s programming or rebelling, he is still a violent and dangerous killer robot who will react accordingly to muses. i have nothing against you or your muses, that's just his whole thing! he's not a character who sits around hanging out with people, so please don't expect docile metal sonic threads without major plotting behind the scenes, and please don’t expect to be able to use him as a punching bag / quipping target without retaliation from him in character.

duplicates are fine, but may not always make the most sense unless we want to beep boop at each other a lot. message me if you wanna do a dupe thread so we can sort it out.

i prefer longer, more literate replies. a crack thread here and there is fine, whatever, but i like to write stuff with plot or at least some structure 95% of the time!

as far as nsfw content goes, i’m not comfortable seeing people write smut with the sonic cast (humans are ok though). please tag this accordingly or do it on sideblogs. this includes extensive ic jokes (the occasional one-off is fine) or extensive allusions to nsfw themes. other nsfw content like violence, horror, psychological trauma, etc. is fine.

i use small text + 70x70 icons in my replies with the occasional bold and italic font for emphasis. if you don’t use small text i won’t either.

(12 cont.) i will not write with people who overuse super fancy formatting, if you are concerned your formatting is too fancy, what bothers me the most is fancy/non screenreader friendly fonts and excessive amounts of spacing between words. font colors and font size changes can be rough sometimes too depending on the contrast and how often it is used. i really can't read this stuff and it kind of sucks when i can't engage with your headcanons or other posts because of that. i will softblock if your blog is inaccessible to me in this way because it’s just impossible to get stuff started.

i don't follow people who post excessive amounts of ooc negativity. even if it's under a cut, tagged as tbd, etc. an occasional vent is fine of course, we are all human, but please be reasonable.

if we are mutuals for a while and you seem to be present on the dash often (i.e. obviously not on a break/inactive or you aren't someone who is generally away from the dash often) but we can't seem to get anything going interactions-wise, i might softblock you or hardblock you (i opt for a sb over a hb but i know some people prefer to just be hardblocked) after a certain amount of time. if i sb you, you are welcome to refollow as i don't mean it personally, i just assume you are uninterested in writing together and i prefer to keep my following list limited to people i see myself interacting with. i would rather accept we aren't gonna work on stuff than spend the time wondering what's going on or feeling like a bother in your mentions because we can't get anything going. furthermore, please don't take it personally if you refollow and i don't follow back again.

sort of related to the above, mutuals are always welcome to write me unprompted starters, send unprompted asks, go through my prompts tag and send me random asks from those prompts. any time, any place, any prompt. this is a writing blog and that's what i’m here to do! write an evil robot!

fer/will, 24, he/they! PLS say hi! access this blog's metal sonic dossier here.

#pinned.#ty to my friends for letting me borrow from their rules <3 #read me.

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80roxy08 · 4 months ago

Text

2025 to do list

(to be updated later obviously but I need to Remember some unfinished 2024 projects)

ART

Finish one (1) chapter of LLLC (please. I can do it. I have like 7 pages to color left. I must defeat the art block demons)

Cutesy shaped glasses with the blorbos

Be free of cringe drawing of Louis in my 14 years old anime boy crush outfit

Emilie doggo cover art

Practice digital painting

SEWING

Shorten second hand summer pants I was given (not urgent)

Replace ugly sparkly chain with ribbon or black thread on second hand vest I was given (can be done between two other project, should take 5min once I've decided on replacement) - It took way longer than 5min lol

Doll crop top for Rainbow High

Sweatshirt vest for doll Louis

Also basic print t-shirts for both => In progress

More cross stitch projects

Learn crochet ?

WRITING

Re-read the Kaeya almost die on dragonspine electric Boogaloo fic for orthography and have it edited for posting later

Also the Razor Ragnvindr last two parts ? Depends if beta reader is busy (love u babe)

Make progress on second eula/Kaeya fic

Make progress on new Ragbros longish fic (Need to review Sumeru lore and shit) - write down basic outline, figure out Plot

More French???

MINIS

Finish dollhouse. Paint porch, glue windows, glue and paint roof trim, prepare roof coverage (which glue?). Toilet door ? Make more furniture. And books.

Get started on Doll Emilie (3d sculpt then print)

Needle felt head eating bug from Lethal Company

Maybe needle felt Kiki from Acnh ? For another mini doll

Make progress on some kits (but the painting pieces is so looooong)

And the Versailles inspired room box!

GAME

Replay Stray (trying for full memories + achievements)

Play Portal

And cult of the Lamb

Genshin - finish at least Sumeru exploration and characters' quests for fic purpose. Try to get to Fontaine (looks fun)

OTHER

Start list of cool museums and places to show in September

Do stupid paperwork (voting stuff beginning of the year, september holiday stuff in may/june)

Look into getting laptop battery replaced ?

Get better a cooking. Objective : from shitty to vaguely acceptable

Print and bind more fics/books !!

Listen to more music - all of dad's cassette tapes. maybe find new CDs for the car. AC/DC or Springsteen vinyl if I can find it for a reasonable price ?

Clean up old clothes/books. I don't need them all. I know I don't.

#Text #Perso #Objectives #2025

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meimi-haneoka · 1 year ago

Note

Do you really think Clamp left too many “loose ends” in Clear Card? I mean, it's true that we don't know where Momo is, but I don't think there are as many unsolved mysteries as a lot of people say. What do you think?

No, that's true, anon! For the most part, all the main mysteries were solved. If people perceive there are still unsolved mysteries it's either:

because they haven't re-read the story and the answer is already in the story itself, it's just that in full CLAMP-style, it isn't spoon-fed to the readers (CLAMP want us to use our brain a lot, in Clear Card)

it is meant to stay a secret, to make things interesting and stimulate the fan's imagination, like what Yukito gave as a price when he made the pact with the Tsukimine Shrine. But at the end of the day, does it change anything, to know what he paid with? If it was anything relevant to the plot, we would know. The important thing is that thanks to this pact, he was able to help in a very critical situation. Or like Momo's true name. While the revelation of Akiho and Kaito's true names is used inside the story as a way to convey other things (feelings, most of all), Momo didn't really need to reveal her true name to us, as an ethereal and ageless being. It is a mystery on the level of "Yuuko Ichihara"'s mystery.

My opinion is that there were parts that deserved to be explored better, especially about the new characters since we learn to know them in this arc, to reconnect things better.

The first thing I really wish they reconnected better was the whole synchronization between Sakura and Akiho. We're completely left on our own to tie the threads on how that worked. Who started it? We have to assume it's part of Kaito's plan, since he's not surprised when it first happens. Though he doesn't really say clearly that it was his (or Momo's book's) job. Akiho seems to be tuning into Sakura's dreams sometimes. But not all of them might be because of the synchronization. That one time Akiho says that she dreamt of being in a high place, wishing for something someone had, might have been a normal dream, and CLAMP framed it in a way that made it seem like she was dreaming of being the Mysterious Cloaked Figure. What was the purpose of the synchro? To "prepare" them for their life as twins in the future? They do say that twins have such a connection that they end up thinking the same things.... Why Akiho needed to read about Sakura's adventures in the Alice in Clockland book? There are some elements we can use to give ourselves some answers, but they're very vague. Admittedly, this is the ONE part I really wish CLAMP executed better.

Then, we have a sort of "gap" in the period when Kaito decided to accompany Akiho in her journey. It is completely left up to us to imagine what went through his mind when he raised his hand and said "I'll go", that day. (Truth to be told, we have few elements we can work with, and I'd say that his journey started for a reason, and turned quickly into something else the more he spent time with Akiho). Like, he was always wearing that "dead" expression before meeting Akiho, what made him think to learn to smile in light of their first meeting? Was Momo the one teaching him? We only have a couple of lines between him and Momo thrown around in the Drama CD to go by: "And laugh more properly, even if it's a fake laugh!" "Hm, I'm trying my best though...". We could infer that Kaito still had a hard time learning how to express his emotions. Thankfully, all the smiles he gave Akiho were portrayed as absolutely genuine. But knowing "how it started" I think would've outlined Kaito's character and motivations better. Or the whole "how Akiho parents died" matter that I've already mentioned somewhere else (and at this point the non-mention makes me think it was a reason too harsh to mention in Nakayoshi).

It's also to be noted that some things were portrayed in a certain way to give us a sense of danger and make us fall into the trap of prejudice towards newcomers (another theme of this arc), for example in Sakura's dreams there's a scene of the Dragon (Kaito) that opens its mouth and "shoots an attack" at her. That scene never happened in reality. It was definitely meant to "scare us", but now that we know that the Dragon was absolutely inoffensive, we must elaborate that as a byproduct of Sakura's anxiety. After all, it is a foretelling dream, but still a dream influenced by subconscious.

Yeah, stuff like that. However, when I talk about "open ending", I'm not talking about those "issues", I can make peace with those...after all, it's a story that lasted 80 chapters and 7 years and half, one of the longest in CLAMP's catalogue. It's difficult to hold the reins tight on a story so full of foreshadowings and complex matters. Moreover, the series has been criticized both in Japan and abroad for "not being Sakura's story" (that's not true at all), because fans couldn't stand how in this arc Sakura shared the storyline and spotlight with other characters. People wanted the mysteries connected to Akiho and Kaito to be revealed, but at the same time didn't want CLAMP to talk about them, to focus a chapter on them. Like??? How does that make sense?? So it makes me think that what we got is already a lot, in the situation we were in.

When I say "open ending" I'm actually talking about all the new stuff they added in the last chapter, that really is giving everyone the feeling of "there's going to be more, right?" Cause it's weird that you end a story like that. While you finish explaining the last details of what happened to the Clear Cards and Sakura Cards, and the aftermath of Sakura's huge spell, you introduce the travel of two characters, you give a very detailed explanation of what they're going to do, you leave up in the air the "will they actually find a way to heal Kaito and make his time start again?", and you don't make one of the most important characters appear?? Momo?? The one who was basically a backbone of this arc, without her intervention in the finale Sakura would've never known that her world was rewritten? That also seemed to me like such an out-of-character move, for how caring and maternal they portrayed Momo to be. Leaving her kids like that. I can't imagine that we'll be left forever out there without knowing what happened to Momo. Even if her choice was to move on, they should've mentioned it clearly. And needless to say, Kaito offering to teach Syaoran about time magic (surely as a way to thank him) was another seemingly "additional" plot thread one could grasp onto, in case they wanted to resume this one day.

That's why I feel CLAMP have left so many opportunities to talk about these characters again, in any possible way (another arc, a spin off, a cameo in another manga), and created an "open ending", as opposed to how "closed" felt the original ending.

#reply #cardcaptor sakura #card captor sakura #ccsakura #ccs spoilers #anonymous

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