#entire paragraphs of what crystalized did wrong

[styrmwb]

I beat Final Fantasy VII Rebirth

There's gonna be spoilers in this just in case you care, hopefully I tagged it correctly, and also yeah this is a long one (I don't have it tagged game ramblings for nothing)

Anyways, loved this game. My gripes with it are very few, but unfortunately one of said gripes is very major and hasn't changed from Remake; but in the effort to Pretend like my thoughts are organized, I'm gonna section this cause sectioning is fun :)

Actually, one thing I wanted to note here (writing this after like, 3 paragraphs), is something that influences a lot of my love for this game is the fact that it... Doesn't suffer from translation problems like the OG. It brings factors that i never truly appreciated into the forefront, and clears up a lot of confusion. I wanted to put this here because I realized it would be weird to say all of my nonsense without clarifying this.

Gameplay

Rebirth (and Remake) is what I think is What modern FF should be. I absolutely love this style of combat so much. I do wish there was a very small passive ATB charge cause sometimes I get stuck in a situation where I can't do anything, but other than that the rotation of hack and slash then classic menu, and switch between party members is so fun, in the best of times I can make a really cool action scene, everyone showing off their own moves; it's a blast. I'll go a little deeper into the characters when I go to That section, but overall I found everyone really fun in some way, even though end game I ended up using the same party as I did in Remake (and also the OG VII lmfao).

I know to some/possibly most, the amount of open world (and Chadley) and the side quests might feel like a bunch of fluff and garbage, but I actually kinda really enjoyed it? I loved how the world intel all changed slightly as you progressed. Moogles as an example, annoying as they were, did add an extra level of challenge every time you saw them. When you had to catch a chocobo, it was a different style of stealth minigame. Summon crystals all had increasingly complicated patterns. Hell, even the towers were slightly different every time with how you had to climb or even reach them! I think this being the strength solidifies itself when I think of my least favorite intels being the Fiend Intel, because I think they were the most samey the entire game through. The side quests I compare to XVI. XVI's side quests were... like XIV. A LOT of dialogue, run here, more dialogue, fight one enemy or gather 6 items, then go back. Rebirth's quests felt... a little more alive? A little more varied? Sure, side quests are usually going to be the same in these styles of game, but I think of chasing a dog through the region while the dialogue happens along the way, I think of the options to gather more resources than the bare minimum for different rewards and dialogues, picking different flowers, having to pay attention to notes, having to interact with the minigames: it all felt more interesting and like I actually wanted to do them. The varied nature of everything is what made me enjoy it.

Oh and Queen's Blood? Greatest FF card game don't even @ me I had so much fun with it it better stay

Characters

One of my favorite parts of Rebirth is how much it helped or made me love the cast. Even characters that I did not care about or possibly actively disliked, this game made me enjoy. Main characters were all expanded on, side characters were silly, and brought back into relevance when I would never expect (Like holy shit I swear every named NPC from Remake came back which is so cool), and they all make the journey an absolute joy to take, and the world as colorful as FFVII SHOULD be. But let me talk about a cast that went from "yeah I like them" to possibly one of my favorite parties in the entire franchise.

Cloud

I honestly already considered him my favorite character in VII (which is a very hard thing to admit without the fear of people thinking you like him for the wrong reasons), and Rebirth being essentially half the game lets me get to see why again. A man who presents himself as serious and uncaring, but OOPS he actually does care and is really silly but unfortunately has some major mental problems! (please help him he is NOT ok). Sure, they kinda speed up his realization of certain aspects, and maybe they go a Little too hard on the fact that Something Isn't Right, but I really enjoyed seeing his declining mental state, its effect on the world, and his relationships with the party. The Sephiroth juice is intense at this point in the story, and I am very excited to see him in the next game. His gameplay is classic yet fun, with big swordy slashes and huge hits that don't have to be slow (they're sometimes slow).

Barret

My favorite part of Barret in Rebirth compared to Remake is how he didn't wear his sunglasses for most of the game. He's open, he's feeling, he's emotional; he's the big tough softy I love. This is where him and Cloud's relationship really gets to shine, where you can tell there is respect, trust, and concern between both of them. The Gold Saucer and side quests are where I think this is at its strongest, and I love seeing it. His gameplay makes him a really fun support, and just like Remake I had him as a sort of paladin healy tanky type, staying behind with GUN as he takes care of the party, which is really fun and consistent.

Tifa

This game does wonders for Tifa enjoyers (it's me I'm Tifa enjoyers), giving her a lot of focus and emphasis on that caring, observant nature that is her strongest suit. Her concern for Cloud and friendship with Aerith feel very strong here and it makes me happy to see. Her gameplay had her in my party the entire time no other reason, her fast attacks, dodges, ATB filling, and stagger damage multiplier being extremely huge in every single fight.

Aerith

The big one. Honestly, I'm gonna keep my real big story thoughts for later, but I will say I loved seeing her enjoy life, the open world, and helping others in the side quests. She's a great character to see happy :) Also, her scene in the Gold Saucer is probably now one of my favorite scenes in the entire series. It was so fucking stunning that I cannot get enough of it. Unfortunately, her gameplay is easily my least favorite out of the group, as her slow attacks and dodging (yes I know she has an ability to boost her attacks but that takes a while to get to) makes her kind of a slog in my hands, and better off in the computer's.

Red XIII

One of two characters that I did not expect to grow to love as much as I did. I'll prob mention this again later, but... I didn't REALLY know the extent of his change when I played the original. Yeah, I knew he was young for his race, but he always felt like just that wise grumpy dog man (some of this could be on me not reading well enough but between poor translation and Advent Children and the fact he didn't make it into DFFOO I'm gonna give myself a break). Rebirth showed me how much of a joy Red is. Despite the trauma and pain he went through, he's silly, he's excited for life, he has fun and loves his family. But also, despite this and his youth, he doesn't COMPLETELY lose his knowledge and wise nature after his reveal; he just relaxes more. I care about Red so much more than I originally did now because this change was made clearer. His gameplay is also really fun, fast attacks, strong defenses, and even stronger abilities (stardust ray my beloved).

Yuffie

We already got a good amount of Yuffie in Intergrade, so having her again here felt like anyone else from last game. However, I do absolutely love how she was integrated into the main plot instead of just being Girl in Forest. She served as great comic relief (and literally says this!) for her appearance in the story (although I do think there were a couple occasions where it was a bit much but that's ok her arc is next game), and I really enjoyed that she started to become a cared for member of the group (really shown by Cloud in the Skywheel date and her and Barret's relationship). Gameplay was just as fun as Intergrade, the throwing/ninjutsu swapping being a joy, and I loved using her doppelganger attack in combination with elemental weaknesses and Sonic Boom. Yuffie was key for some of the harder fights, the MVP fr fr.

Cait Sith

The other of two characters I did not expect to enjoy, and Cait Sith here is the absolute king of it, as I DID NOT like him in the OG. But here? He's a larger character, he's more sympathetic, he's a little more understandable, and his gameplay doesn't suck shit lmfao. His betrayal I think was done a lot cleaner this time around, where he really Felt like part of the group, and his return was done pretty smoothly but honestly doing anything other than being like "hi hello I'm back!" while Cloud beats the shit out of Aerith is an improvement I really enjoyed his melee/ranged nature being similar to Cloud, and his heavy hitting attacks. Despite the fact that he still had RNG, it was RNG that felt good no matter what and I appreciated that.

Cid and Vincent

Our poor poor "you're not allowed yet" boys. No gameplay section here cause they ain't got any! But that's ok, because for what little role they had, I really enjoyed their presence. Early Cid was very interesting to me, and while i do feel like he loses a little not being introduced as a complete dickwad, I still love having Cid around and giving him a little more connection to the party. He didn't seem as aggressive and %#*^-y, but I kinda hope we get more of that in part 3 when Rocket Town happens. Vincent, similar to Yuffie, gets tied into the story in such a great way. Getting to fight him was super super cool, and I loved that small amount of comic relief he gives by being Overly edgy yet out of touch with the world. I'm very excited to see where both of them go.

Zack

It took me some time to... Accept what Remake did to the timeline. Once I did, I was all in on the train for more Zack. I love Zack! He's my other favorite VII character other than Cloud! This game gave me more Zack, and I appreciate it for that. Not to mention his whole interactions with Aerith and Cloud made me very happy and filled a void in my heart I needed (that fucking synergy attack between the two of them???? DUUUUUDE) Unfortunately however; he didn't get to... get the story treatment I would have liked. Gameplay wise; I don't care much for his charge mechanic, sadly.

Sephiroth

I don't have much to say here. Sephiroth is Sephiroth. He appears, says "pee your pants cloud", then fucks off, and he's really good at that, and that's what he's supposed to be. My grudges against him aren't against him and more against who's writing him. Playing him was hype though, and I enjoyed his counter mechanic which I feel got later reincarnated into Red.

As for people other than in the playable cast, Dio was incredibly fun, Elena felt like a treat and a more threatening than the original but still showing that silly nature (pink gun???? no tactical advantage whatsoever I love it), Hojo is still the scum of the earth as he should be (he never gets better!), I got to actually understand what Bugenhagen is, and so on and so on. Nobody was worse than their original appearance and I loved that.

ALSO CISSNEI GANG RISE UP WE LOVE OUR GIRL AND I'M SO GLAD SHE GOT TO RETURN

Story

So. This is the big part. If I had to choose where my biggest gripe with the game would be, it would be in the aspect of story. This is the Exact Same Gripe I had with Remake, that being the aspect of whispers, alternate timelines, and whatever Sephiroth is cooking. This being.... I don't really like it? I don't think it adds anything?? It's confusing, intentionally vague, and it really ruins the flow that these games have otherwise. Cause aside from this singular (big) aspect? Dude! This game fucks! It takes every story beat that was in the original, and expands on it in a way that i feel makes me love the story and world way more! I feel like a lot of aspects got tied together a lot more smoothly (although again, I also attribute this to not terrible translation), and every experience that I expected from the original was a joy to watch in this game. The swamp, Junon, the boat, Costa del Sol, the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Nibelheim, the Temple of the Ancients. These were all done so well. All of the side content and side stories were really fun, added a lot of character to the world. And with the slight changes they did make, like with Cait Sith's arc being changed to be more sympathetic instead of blackmailing and Cloud being controlled by Sephiroth NOT beating Aerith I think were actually done really tastefully and improved the experience (actually thinking about it Dyne's just felt like they wanted to hurt Barret more why would they do that). I just... I wish if they were going to do this whole alternate timeline dealy, they were a little more clear on it? i wish I could feel like it actually mattered to this series, but what i get is "oh wow the unknown journey" that turns into "yeah here are these extra bits that are confusing and don't change anything and actually instead ruin the impact of one of the most well known scenes in video game history)

With that I will talk about the ending. I was willing to ignore the fact that we didn't get to walk through the City of the Ancients more. I was still shaking and nervous until the very end, thinking "oh man what's going to happen???? oh fuck!!!" and what i was instead rewarded with was a constant whiplash of emotions and confusion that left me numb to what should have torn my heart out. I shouldn't have to be left wondering if a character truly died or not for the sake of "OHHH MAN TIMELINESSSSS WORLDS???" that didn't DO anything when I could have gotten either a successful changing of timeline, or a 4K edition of something to tear my heart out, and hearing the absolute pain in Cloud's voice in his speech afterwards. I am Really Hoping that part 3 will clear this up, and retroactively improve an ending and story beats that I think single-handedly knock this game down from a 10/10. I shouldn't have faith in them, cause they've beefed two endings in a row, but I do, because they've shown that everything else they can create are honestly perfect.

Graphics

shortest section in the world this game is beautiful the landscapes are beautiful the characters are beautiful (or ugly when they needed to be and it still worked) my eyes were given a treat this entire 80 hours

Music

shortest section in the world this soundtrack is amazing hamauzu and suzuki cooked and made so many good songs

it's like they knew tifa's theme was one of my favorites and proceeded to give me 20 versions of it also gold saucer getting individual remixes???? a top 5 battle on the big bridge? NO PROMISES TO KEEP???????? GOD FUCKING DAMN.

Unorganized Ramblings/Finale

I really did have a lot of fun with this game. I didn't feel soured until the end for the most part, even during some frustrating game segments (fuck you Rufus and Odin and then Odin again and also that last Fort Condor). I really appreciate getting to see the wider world of FFVII in a modern sense, and I think overall I appreciate what I didn't previously a lot more. I also loved how with the addition of a card game and Gilgamesh, it got to match up with VIII and IX, the other 2 PS1 FFs to really feel like a unified FF vision. This game kept the silliness that the original had on top of its incredibly dark setting for something that I love to describe as the same vibe as Yakuza. I laughed seeing Red get a whole scene instead of a single bit in his person outfit, and then cried at a newfound caring for Cloud, Tifa, and Barret seeing Jessie's poster in the Gold Saucer. The vibes were immaculate and I'm really really excited to see what they do for the final part (which is going to be called Reunion I'm betting my left materia on it)

9/10. The peak of modern FF gameplay that enhances a classic, but fails its mission of being different.

[perpetual-stories]

Story Structures for your Next WIP

hello, hello. this post will be mostly for my notes. this is something I need in to be reminded of for my business, but it can also be very useful and beneficial for you guys as well.

everything in life has structure and storytelling is no different, so let’s dive right in :)

First off let’s just review what a story structure is :

a story is the backbone of the story, the skeleton if you will. It hold the entire story together.

the structure in which you choose your story will effectively determine how you create drama and depending on the structure you choose it should help you align your story and sequence it with the conflict, climax, and resolution.

1. Freytag's Pyramid

this first story structure i will be talking about was named after 19th century German novelist and playwright.

it is a five point structure that is based off classical Greek tragedies such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripedes.

Freytag's Pyramid structure consists of:

Introduction: the status quo has been established and an inciting incident occurs.

Rise or rising action: the protagonist will search and try to achieve their goal, heightening the stakes,

Climax: the protagonist can no longer go back, the point of no return if you will.

Return or fall: after the climax of the story, tension builds and the story inevitably heads towards...

Catastrophe: the main character has reached their lowest point and their greatest fears have come into fruition.

this structure is used less and less nowadays in modern storytelling mainly due to readers lack of appetite for tragic narratives.

2. The Hero's Journey

the hero's journey is a very well known and popular form of storytelling.

it is very popular in modern stories such as Star Wars, and movies in the MCU.

although the hero's journey was inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept, a Disney executive Christopher Vogler has created a simplified version:

The Ordinary World: The hero's everyday routine and life is established.

The Call of Adventure: the inciting incident.

Refusal of the Call: the hero / protagonist is hesitant or reluctant to take on the challenges.

Meeting the Mentor: the hero meets someone who will help them and prepare them for the dangers ahead.

Crossing the First Threshold: first steps out of the comfort zone are taken.

Tests, Allie, Enemies: new challenges occur, and maybe new friends or enemies.

Approach to the Inmost Cave: hero approaches goal.

The Ordeal: the hero faces their biggest challenge.

Reward (Seizing the Sword): the hero manages to get ahold of what they were after.

The Road Back: they realize that their goal was not the final hurdle, but may have actually caused a bigger problem than before.

Resurrection: a final challenge, testing them on everything they've learned.

Return with the Elixir: after succeeding they return to their old life.

the hero's journey can be applied to any genre of fiction.

3. Three Act Structure:

this structure splits the story into the 'beginning, middle and end' but with in-depth components for each act.

Act 1: Setup:

exposition: the status quo or the ordinary life is established.

inciting incident: an event sets the whole story into motion.

plot point one: the main character decided to take on the challenge head on and she crosses the threshold and the story is now progressing forward.

Act 2: Confrontation:

rising action: the stakes are clearer and the hero has started to become familiar with the new world and begins to encounter enemies, allies and tests.

midpoint: an event that derails the protagonists mission.

plot point two: the hero is tested and fails, and begins to doubt themselves.

Act 3: Resolution:

pre-climax: the hero must chose between acting or failing.

climax: they fights against the antagonist or danger one last time, but will they succeed?

Denouement: loose ends are tied up and the reader discovers the consequences of the climax, and return to ordinary life.

4. Dan Harmon's Story Circle

it surprised me to know the creator of Rick and Morty had their own variation of Campbell's hero's journey.

the benefit of Harmon's approach is that is focuses on the main character's arc.

it makes sense that he has such a successful structure, after all the show has multiple seasons, five or six seasons? i don't know not a fan of the show.

the character is in their comfort zone: also known as the status quo or ordinary life.

they want something: this is a longing and it can be brought forth by an inciting incident.

the character enters and unfamiliar situation: they must take action and do something new to pursue what they want.

adapt to it: of course there are challenges, there is struggle and begin to succeed.

they get what they want: often a false victory.

a heavy price is paid: a realization of what they wanted isn't what they needed.

back to the good old ways: they return to their familiar situation yet with a new truth.

having changed: was it for the better or worse?

i might actually make a operate post going more in depth about dan harmon's story circle.

5. Fichtean Curve:

the fichtean curve places the main character in a series of obstacles in order to achieve their goal.

this structure encourages writers to write a story packed with tension and mini-crises to keep the reader engaged.

The Rising Action

the story must start with an inciting indecent.

then a series of crisis arise.

there are often four crises.

2. The Climax:

3. Falling Action

this type of story telling structure goes very well with flash-back structured story as well as in theatre.

6. Save the Cat Beat Sheet:

this is another variation of a three act structure created by screenwriter Blake Snyder, and is praised widely by champion storytellers.

Structure for Save the Cat is as follows: (the numbers in the brackets are for the number of pages required, assuming you're writing a 110 page screenplay)

Opening Image [1]: The first shot of the film. If you’re starting a novel, this would be an opening paragraph or scene that sucks readers into the world of your story.

Set-up [1-10]. Establishing the ‘ordinary world’ of your protagonist. What does he want? What is he missing out on?

Theme Stated [5]. During the setup, hint at what your story is really about — the truth that your protagonist will discover by the end.

Catalyst [12]. The inciting incident!

Debate [12-25]. The hero refuses the call to adventure. He tries to avoid the conflict before they are forced into action.

Break into Two [25]. The protagonist makes an active choice and the journey begins in earnest.

B Story [30]. A subplot kicks in. Often romantic in nature, the protagonist’s subplot should serve to highlight the theme.

The Promise of the Premise [30-55]. Often called the ‘fun and games’ stage, this is usually a highly entertaining section where the writer delivers the goods. If you promised an exciting detective story, we’d see the detective in action. If you promised a goofy story of people falling in love, let’s go on some charmingly awkward dates.

Midpoint [55]. A plot twist occurs that ups the stakes and makes the hero’s goal harder to achieve — or makes them focus on a new, more important goal.

Bad Guys Close In [55-75]. The tension ratchets up. The hero’s obstacles become greater, his plan falls apart, and he is on the back foot.

All is Lost [75]. The hero hits rock bottom. He loses everything he’s gained so far, and things are looking bleak. The hero is overpowered by the villain; a mentor dies; our lovebirds have an argument and break up.

Dark Night of the Soul [75-85-ish]. Having just lost everything, the hero shambles around the city in a minor-key musical montage before discovering some “new information” that reveals exactly what he needs to do if he wants to take another crack at success. (This new information is often delivered through the B-Story)

Break into Three [85]. Armed with this new information, our protagonist decides to try once more!

Finale [85-110]. The hero confronts the antagonist or whatever the source of the primary conflict is. The truth that eluded him at the start of the story (established in step three and accentuated by the B Story) is now clear, allowing him to resolve their story.

Final Image [110]. A final moment or scene that crystallizes how the character has changed. It’s a reflection, in some way, of the opening image.

(all information regarding the save the cat beat sheet was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

7. Seven Point Story Structure:

this structure encourages writers to start with the at the end, with the resolution, and work their way back to the starting point.

this structure is about dramatic changes from beginning to end

The Hook. Draw readers in by explaining the protagonist’s current situation. Their state of being at the beginning of the novel should be in direct contrast to what it will be at the end of the novel.

Plot Point 1. Whether it’s a person, an idea, an inciting incident, or something else — there should be a "Call to Adventure" of sorts that sets the narrative and character development in motion.

Pinch Point 1. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses for your protagonist. Something should go wrong here that applies pressure to the main character, forcing them to step up and solve the problem.

Midpoint. A “Turning Point” wherein the main character changes from a passive force to an active force in the story. Whatever the narrative’s main conflict is, the protagonist decides to start meeting it head-on.

Pinch Point 2. The second pinch point involves another blow to the protagonist — things go even more awry than they did during the first pinch point. This might involve the passing of a mentor, the failure of a plan, the reveal of a traitor, etc.

Plot Point 2. After the calamity of Pinch Point 2, the protagonist learns that they’ve actually had the key to solving the conflict the whole time.

Resolution. The story’s primary conflict is resolved — and the character goes through the final bit of development necessary to transform them from who they were at the start of the novel.

(all information regarding the seven point story structure was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

i decided to fit all of them in one post instead of making it a two part post.

i hope you all enjoy this post and feel free to comment or reblog which structure you use the most, or if you have your own you prefer to use! please share with me!

if you find this useful feel free to reblog on instagram and tag me at perpetualstories

Follow my tumblr and instagram for more writing and grammar tips and more!

[smol-nevi]

I don't generally make this kind of thing a habit, but I think if you happen to be on the Crystal RP Discord, aka @crystal-rp-ffxiv, you should probably be aware of this kind of behavior, so here goes.

If you're on Crystal RP and the admin team decides they don't like you, you're going to be living under a microscope while they wait for you to mess up, if not bait you, probably while making up conspiracies about you as well. As for how I know this, I was a moderator for about a week's duration and saw it first-hand.

Unapologetically lengthy post. Receipts in the link above, long version below the cut.

From the first time I looked in the mod chat I knew something was wrong. I read backwards in the channel, thinking I'd acclimate myself and see what kind of rules precedents had been set and that sort of thing. I mostly just found out that they had it out for a particular member (at the time using the name Jericho) for not much reason. They'd spent a troubling amount of time over the past few months watching him and another member like vultures, believing them to be the same person and waiting for them to make some kind of mistake that would justify banning both of them...despite keeping different schedules, having different personalities and typing habits, and visibly being two different people. The admin team had come to the conclusion that Jericho was a troll who wanted to make them look bad, and anything he said or did was scrutinized to a ridiculous degree for evidence that would corroborate their belief.

Except none of the things they believed at all were true: he'd had a minor argument via DM with the head admin Benjimir Thursby's wife, Tessariel Aerlinn, who had made an overly broad statement about anime and Asian culture. Jericho had told her that overgeneralization about 'Asian culture' is potentially racist, and she became extremely angry, saying that because she's Asian, she can't be racist against Asians. After that, it seemed that Jericho was considered fair game for whatever retaliatory actions the two of them could justify.

Even a cursory glance at actual racism in Asia pokes Tessariel's statement entirely full of holes, and having personally read the conversation I didn't see anything actually inaccurate in his statement even if she believed it didn't apply to her. I asked what he had done that would merit such a response, because it felt very disproportionate to anything I'd ever seen him do publicly, and that was what I was told. The exchange via DMs had been screencapped and kept in a channel for evidence, and while I didn't get a copy of it, I did read it, and I said that I thought it sounded awfully one-sided and punitive and would have been much better as an actual conversation. I also expressed that I was concerned how much of the channel had been solely devoted to what was basically a witch hunt, considering that some of the server members had over the course of the past couple of months commented that the admins' behavior towards Jericho seemed biased.

I basically got a pat on the head and told that my opinion was "valued" but wrong. This would happen a lot over the course of the week.

Shit continued to escalate. Their favorite punching bag, who was acutely aware of the grudge by now and probably trying to be nice and discuss something that he thought they could all talk about, brought up some articles that stated that LOTRO might be having a graphical overhaul. This actually ended in him being put into some kind of time-out mute, because "everyone knows those articles are debunked already" despite them still being hosted on reputable games news sites. Back-channel, the admin consensus was that he was in fact trying to bait Benjimir and Tessariel into somehow looking stupid in public, because [paraphrasing] 'he knows how important LOTRO is to them.'

Benjimir in fact went off publicly about how he knows the dev team and they sent him 'personalized swag' for 'being himself' and that everyone should just listen to him because he's right. Someone else made a reasonable request for sources on statements that Benjimir made about the LOTRO improvements not happening, and they immediately became the team's private #2 punching bag.

The whole time I reiterated that this was really uncomfortable and I had serious concerns about the way they were handling Jericho. And as always I received a pat on the head and was told to not worry about it, there were really good reasons for it, really. He was 'bringing down the quality of discourse' on the server somehow. Benjimir decided that the only way he would unmute Jericho is if Jericho talked directly to him, and that Jericho tried to talk to any of the more level-headed members of the team first was taken as obvious evidence that he wanted to evade rules and create problems. I asked when we planned to unmute him, and Tessariel immediately jumped to the conclusion that he had messaged me, which wasn't incorrect but the way she worded it felt highly accusatory and I was beginning to feel that I was also in trouble somehow for not agreeing with the rest of the team.

Things came to a head quickly when I woke up and looked at the mod chat and they were having an animated conversation that started with Benjimir asking if it was 'bad that he was laughing at Jericho' and most of the rest of the team talking about how he was stupid, uninformed, a troll, etc. for the sin of having some misgivings about cryptocurrency, of all the things. One of the mods self-described their behavior as bullying. I said that this was extremely unprofessional and that I thought they should keep conversation to actual moderation matters, and if they had a personal disagreement with a server member they should handle it in a personal venue, not via official server moderation channels.

I was, for the final time, patted on the head, and told that this was not something they would consider, because the moderation team 'needs to be able to vent for their mental health' (never mind that the job was not stressful except for the rest of the team committing worse behavior than the server members) and that maybe I was in fact too sensitive for the job. Benjimir heavily implied that I had become too close to Jericho and was being manipulated, managed to misgender me somehow despite my having used solely male or neutral pronouns the entire time I'd been on the server, and after relating a story in which a couple of years ago a well-liked moderator left after having the same complaints as I did (which he saw nothing at all troubling about), suggested that I should be demoted to babysitting the lore channel.

So I took some time to collect receipts, which are linked at the top of the post, and told him where to shove it.

Since that time, things have actually somehow gotten worse on Crystal RP. Benjimir posted an entire page screed vaguely talking about "rampant negativity" that stated anyone with questions should DM him.

Upon DMing him with questions, Jericho was banned, the only reason given being that he was a 'poor fit' for the server in some vague way. I was immediately banned afterwards for calling out this decision as being driven by a personal vendetta in the feedback channel and let him know afterwards via DMs in no uncertain terms that I had logged everything I needed and would be building my case (and that he is an asshole). Jericho was reinstated, though I'm not sure what the conditions of his return were as that was after my ban and I didn't ask since I didn't want to stress him out further. Benjimir also reprimanded someone for discussing asexuality, stating in a DM to them that the conversation was somehow ERP related. I called him out on this via DM as well. Tessariel was not much later caught posting my last DMs to Benjimir in an entirely unrelated server, though she didn't include the part after that where I brought up his aphobia (during Pride Month, in a server with a rainbow icon no less). Benjimir for some reason decided to suddenly start following my FC's Tumblr well after our falling-out.

And as of today (6/24), Crystal RP now has seven pages of draconian rules, because it wasn't micromanaged hard enough before or something. Notably, a lot of these rules describe behaviors that they wanted to punish Jericho for but couldn't at the time justify, or that they'd like to punish me for but have nothing they can do to me. Or they exist to justify their own behavior, as now seen in the very beginning of the channel:

"This approach also provides our volunteers with leeway to act in good faith without the burden befitting a professional occupation."

"So we afford them the means to speak openly, vent, lament, candidly and yes, sometimes crassly and raw about everything and one."

Not only did they behave unprofessionally and shit-talk before, they have now encoded in the rules that this is acceptable and even good moderator behavior, because they saw someone else do it so it's fine (a lot of this wording is very similar to what I was told when I protested it). So rather than address anything I ever said past or present, Benjimir is choosing to double down and giving himself and his team explicit permission to be shitty, right in the opening paragraphs where you'd have expected a mission statement or at least some sort of welcome.

Which is about all you need to know about that server and its owners, in my estimation. I'd considered not even posting to Tumblr about it, but given that it's only getting worse, I think it should be generally known that this is how you can expect to potentially be treated.

[merryfortune]

You give me flowers of love

Written for 100ships Challenge on Dreamwidth

Prompt #39 - Pink

Ship: Nodoka/Hinata

Fandom: Healin’ Good PreCure

Word Count: 3,757

Rating: M

Warnings: No Warnings Apply

AN: title comes from Bloodflowers by The Cure and is recommended listening for this fic.

Tags:  Alternate Universe - Hanahaki, Horror, Gore, Emetophobia/Emetophilia, Angst and Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Mutual Pining, Past/Referenced Eriko/Hinata, Minor Blood

   Hinata was not the type of girl who could handle horror stories, urban legends, or anything spookier than a rom-com set against the background of a popular coffee shop. However, there was something about this creepypasta that caught her attention. Maybe she read it to prove that she wasn’t a scaredy-cat or maybe she read it because something about it was almost too real.

   It came across her Curestagram feed, screenshots reposted from another site with long form text functions rather than the optimized for photos aesthetic of Curestagram. It wasn’t late at night, quite the opposite, Hinata had just been scrolling as she was half nibbling on a banana muffin for morning tea. So she was kind of bored and not already unsettled by a vague anxiety sort of mindset so she stopped her scroll to read this totally true story from a friend of a friend that had happened upon her timeline.

   The story involved a sickness. A lovesickness, hooking Hinata immediately since she was a hopeless romantic and leaving her vulnerable to what was hiding down below a few paragraphs after and Hinata realised she was reading a surreal medical horror story.

   Supposedly, some girl from a high school in the next town over had been hospitalized due to damage to her stomach and esophagus but ultimately culminated in her passing away from brain damage due to suffocation. The suffocation that was the outcome of the damage she had taken to her stomach and esophagus had, supposedly, been caused by the growing of flowers inside of her. Doctors couldn’t explain it. They were baffled by the impossibility of it. Yet where they failed to posit theories at all, their patient had her own she desperately desired to reveal. 

   The nameless girl, as weak as she was in her final moments of speech and cognition, was certain with the most crystal clear clarity that she could muster said that reason for the flowers growing inside of her was due to a crush that she had been fostering for quite some time. A crush that was so powerful and deep that it had manifested as literal and impossible distress in the form of tiger lily flowers. Though her claims were dismissed as nonsense, despite the very given evidence that she had been vomiting exotic flowers, except by the narrator who was sharing her story online on her behalf.

   Hinata got to the bottom line of the final screenshot and she dropped her phone on the table. She shivered and flinched as her phone clattered. Nyatoran looked up, alarmed, from the milk that he had been sipping.

   “Heh? Are you okay Hinata?” he asked.

   “Y-Yeah, I just lost my grip.” Hinata replied. It wasn’t a lie.

   “Really? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.” Nyatoran pointed out.

   Hinata made an expression that was both guilty and embarrassed, “Er, sort of… I read a ghost story online and I haven’t the stomach for them.”

   “Oh, well, no worries then. I’ll keep ya safe from all the ghoulies then.” Nyatoran boasted.

   Hinata laughed, “Thanks, Nyatoran.” she replied.

   And that was more or less enough to keep her mind off what she had read for the rest of the day as she did her Sunday homework and such. At least until well after lights out. 

   Hinata cursed herself. She knew endless walls of text in screenshots never bore good news but it was under her skin now. It wasn’t even that scary, she tried to convince herself. It just so happened to play off something she had been thinking about in ways that cut deep and yes, even scary. 

   Hinata had a crush of her own. One she didn’t think she ought to act on. Or didn’t know how to act on. 

   Hinata had a crush on Nodoka. She was sweet and gentle yet so motivated. Hinata felt like she learned something new about either herself or Nodoka after every time they hung out. Things never felt old between them despite how natural their companionship was between them.

   Catching feelings for Nodoka was inevitable, Hinata felt regarding their dynamic as close friends and their friendship was relatively intense due to their bond as comrades being Pretty Cures but that made Hinata sick to her stomach with fear. This wasn’t her first crush that she had on another girl. 

   In the not so recent past, Hinata had been wrong reading other girls’ opinions and feelings regarding her before. She and Eriko had been so close, childhood friends with a pact that seemed fit to stand the test of time when they had made it, and Hinata didn’t think it was a coincidence that already scarce contact between them after Eriko moved was when Hinata had confessed her feelings to Eriko. 

   The rejection had been crushing and Hinata had never told a soul about it. The wound was older now but it still hurt so, as lovely as Nodoka was, Hinata didn’t want to gamble their friendship due to that prior rejection. Yet her feelings crackled like electricity near a lightning rod whenever she was around Nodoka anyway. She could only hope that Nodoka was oblivious since she was so inexperienced socially due to her childhood spent mostly in the hospital.

    (And that Chiyu never brought up the blatantly obvious which she would hopefully never do since she knew there was a place and a time and it wasn’t her place).

   Thus, for all these different and entangling reasons, that horror story Hinata had read this morning really resonated. The thought of her unrequited feelings becoming literal, even in the form of pretty and seemingly harmless flowers, and suffocating. It was a very real fear to Hinata despite that fantastical execution that it was captured inside.

   All because she was a magical girl infused with the power of light and thunder. She fought villains who caused infections in nature and created monsters. To her, it didn’t seem too far outside of her sphere of tried and true reality that such a floral disease of the body could exist. Heck, maybe it did exist and was tied to the war that she and her friends were fighting in secret on behalf of the Healing Animals. It was entirely possible this flower vomit disease was another agent or power of the Byougens. 

   Hinata groaned and the more she scolded herself for thinking about these horrible possibilities, the more she thought about them. She tossed and turned all night, in the dark and under the covers of her doona. She knew Nyatoran would live up to his boasting over morning tea if she asked but he was totally conked out in his little room. Hinata couldn’t bring herself to wake him, to unnecessarily burden him, so she just hid from her fears as best as she could in her blankets.

   The following morning, Hinata was a wreck. She had bags under her eyes and was generally a drag. She hasn’t slept a wink last night but just like she was hiding from the horror story in her head, she decided to hide from the aftermath too. She touched up her eyes with concealer and finished off her make-up with a nice little kiss of lip balm, too. She chose a nice tropical flavour: pineapple with vanilla undertones and wore nude in practice. With that, she was ready for what was no doubt going to be a long, long day of school.

   A prediction that she was very right in having. Just making it to lunch felt like an eternity and a half on low energy. Worst still, despite the precautions that Hinata had taken, both Chiyu and Nodoka had noticed that she wasn’t exactly her bouncy self today. Even with her favourite lunch box in her lap with fried chicken and a fruit drink, too.

   “Are you okay, Hinata?” Nodoka asked and she batted her long eyelashes in concern.

   Hinata knew she couldn’t lie or deflect around Nodoka, at least for the most part, and deflated, “No…” she moaned. “I slept awfully last night.”

   “I expect that it wasn’t due to over studying?” Chiyu asked, sniping. 

   “No, I just. Couldn’t sleep.” Hinata shrugged.

   “Well, be sure to put yourself early to bed tonight then. There’s nothing worse than being tired.” Nodoka said.

   “Will do.” Hinata sighed.

   “Also?” Nodoka prompted her.

   “Yeah?” Hinata glanced at Nodoka was she tried a spoonful of rice from her side dishes.

   “Your lip balm has a very strong smell today, I can smell it from here.” Nodoka laughed.

   “Oh, joy…” Hinata hung her head in misery. She didn’t think it was so pungent in the tube.

   “I didn’t mean that in a mean way.” Nodoka panicked whilst Chiyu had a discrete giggle at Hinata’s misfortune. “I really like it. I think it smells nice. Like cherries. I love the smell of cherries best.”

   “Huh?” Hinata mumbled and she stared straight at Nodoka in confusion.

   Nodoka stared back. Also in confusion. “Is something the matter?”

   “Er, no,” Hinata awkwardly began and she forced herself to laugh and she flapped a hand about too to disguise her weirdness, “I must have been so tired this morning that I though I used one lip balm and instead used another.”

   “That is a little odd…” Chiyu murmured.

   But Nodoka seemed to buy it, she gasped, “Fwow, you must have been really tired this morning to make such a mistake. Promise me to get a good night’s rest tonight then.” Nodoka fussed for her.

   “I promise, I promise.” Hinata replied.

   Just as Hinata spoke, the end of lunch bell rang. She moaned with the utmost misery as she hadn’t finished her lunch even slightly and roused much sympathy from both Nodoka and Chiyu. So, Hinata crammed what she could into her mouth and swallowed before returning with her friends indoors to their classroom.

   She plopped down in her chair and desk, her stomach growling almost immediately. Were it not for the teacher at the front of the classroom, Hinata would have flopped down and keeled over right there and then. She would have killed for a nap. Not even a luxurious nanna nap at this point, she would take a horrid power nap. Anything would have been better than nothing. Instead, the best she could muster was some daydreaming whilst scribbling in her work book so she could at least pretend to be paying attention.

   Her mind strayed to Nodoka. She couldn’t help it. A silly little pining schoolgirl was exactly what she was after all. She doodled Nodoka’s name in her margins, surrounded with love-hearts, paw prints, and even flowers. It was a little bit childish but Hinata was a lot childish so she didn’t mind, she was more or less on cloud nine since Nodoka had shown her care for her over lunch, fussing for her like that.

   It was such a small act but it was more than enough to launch Hinata’s heart in a million miles an hour race. So much so, she began to taste something at the back of her throat. It was a sweet taste accompanied by a fizzy sensation. Hinata liked it and it seemed to get stronger the more she daydreamed about Nodoka. Even though it was the middle of class, Hinata was letting her mind completely run away from the contents of what the teacher was attempting to educate on them.

   Finally, after what felt like a day of self torment because of reading some stupid horror story about puking flowers, Hinata felt free of that gnawing anxiety. But just as she revelled in this, her stomach wretched. She dry gagged with the searing taste of bile at the back of her throat and her hand automatically clamped over her mouth, pen and all. The prior anxiety might have dissipated but a new one had spiked in its place.

   Hinata frowned. Was it because she hadn’t eaten all her lunch that she suddenly felt nauseous? Or was it something else? She begged that it wasn’t her period, she was still quite irregular so this felt off or early to her.

   Then she gagged again. She swallowed it back down. Hard. Whatever she swallowed was thick and sweet. It wasn’t vomit, Hinata had the startling realisation. She tried hard to keep it down but she failed. She vomited into her hand, or at least something similar. The motions were awful, worse than anything else she had ever had to eject from her body orally before.

   Hinata felt sick to the very bottom of her stomach. Her hands shook as she slowly removed the one over her mouth and… and she couldn’t believe her eyes. They widened in shock as she saw the head of a flower in the palm of her hand. It was a cherry blossom, she realised. The pale pink petals were frayed at the edges, burnt by stomach acid and wet with her saliva; the anthers of its centre drooped and dragged, splayed across the petals. Her skin crawled as she marveled at the insane gravity of the situation. She quickly paled.

   And the teacher noticed, “Hiramitsu, are you okay?” he asked from in front of the chalkboard, looking up concerned from the book he was reciting from.

   “I-I, um, I need to go. To the nurse.” Hinata eked out her words with strained difficulty.

   Her stomach flipped and she could feel another one coming up. It slithered up her throat and she hated the slow, dreadful sensation of it, the way it made her mouth taste of bile and cherries in horrible combination. Hinata bolted to her feet, afraid, alarming the whole class. She hid her mouth behind her hand again, holding tight that first flower that she had vomited.

   “I need to go.” Hinata mumbled and she fled.

   The feeling of her classmates' eyes on her felt like broken glass digging. She knew, deep down, they didn’t mean harm but their gazes only served to amplify the terror she felt as she fled. She was fast at first, escaping from the classroom but her stomach lurched and she vomited another flower and then again but two at once this time.

   Hinata stopped in the hallway, she had to rest her shoulder against the wall just to stand as she looked down into the palm of her hand. The flowers were accumulating against her skin, wet and heavy, and accelerating in pace of production. Already she felt another lurch and this one was dire, Hinata didn’t think she would be so lucky to only vomit one or two this next time.

   She had to get to the sick bay. She wasn’t sure what she would do there but anything had to be better than nothing, so she hobbled on in immense pain. By nothing less than a miracle, Hinata managed to get to the nurse’s suite without collapsing. Or with leaving too many flowers in her meagre wake.

   The school nurse panicked almost immediately when she saw Hinata in this state. Hinata sputtered out a thank you whilst she was put to bed. Hinata curled up under the sheets, her stomach lurching and mangled petals dripped out of her mouth. She had to hide her ailment from the nurse. She just had to. She didn’t know how to explain it or anything else pertaining to it but fortunately, the nurse bought her some time by going to use administration’s phone to let her father know that Hinata was in immediate medical distress.

   Hinata held her scrawny belly with one hand and her mouth the other. No matter how hard she tried, these flowers kept dredging up from inside of her and it was worsening. There was distention building inside of her, it was as if she could feel the bushels of cherry blossom flowers forming inside of her and something else too. It was raw and firm and poking up through her like a stick. Hinata moaned in utter agony as she tasted not just sweetness and bile in her mouth, but the cutting, metallic taste of blood too.

   She whimpered as she tried to swallow it down. Attempting so, just made the nicks and cuts to her throat worsen and the petals to clog. Her lungs ached sharply as she struggled to breathe. Her eyes squeezed tight and she begged every deity she could think of for a saviour.

   The door to the sick bay opened again. Hinata murmured to herself and the curtain was pulled aside, “Hinata?” a sweet voice greeted her.

   “Huh?” Hinata slurred.

   She rolled over, still holding herself but even a simple and slow motion like that was enough to rouse her illness violently. Her grimace was deep on her face as she tried to look at Nodoka, even feebly.

   “A-Are you okay, Hinata?” she asked. “I couldn’t sit by and worry when I saw you ill you were, what’s wrong?”

   Hinata opened her mouth. Mostly to reply, but that’s not what happened. She threw up in front of Nodoka and Nodoka couldn’t believe her eyes. Hinata was throwing up bushels upon bushels of flowers. Cherry blossoms. Nodoka blinked. She couldn’t believe the sights - or the smell. The smell was disconcerting with how almost pleasantly fragrant it was, heightening Nodoka’s realisation that this wasn’t Hinata pulling pranks.

   “H-How on Earth did this happen…?” Nodoka asked.

   She was horrified yet found herself unable to resist the impulse. She picked a blossom out of the pile that Hinata had vomited up. It was soft in her hand, even if it was grotesquely wet.

   “I - I don’t-” Hinata tried to speak but she cut herself off when she felt something jut out of her mouth. An entire branch of cherry blossoms began to spike out of her mouth.

   Her eyes began to roll back on themselves as Nodoka watched, in abject and frozen horror, as Hinata contended with this stick inside of her. It emerged slowly from the depths of her throat and made her chest convulse. Her fingers spasmed as she choked around it, flowers blooming along the thin and coarse branch.

   “H-Help me.” Hinata sputtered out.

   Nodoka nodded. She was scared, her heart was pounding, but she was first and foremost a helper of most empathetic ends. She had been on the receiving end of a strange and bizarre illness that had rendered most her childhood for naught. She couldn’t just let Hinata struggle. Suffocate.

   So, she got onto the bed with Hinata. She straddled her so she could best approach the foreign object inside of Hinata. She focused her eyes and was as ready as she could ever be for an amateur operation quite like this one. Nodoka reached out and pinched the end of the branch delicately. It was entirely unsafe, Nodoka knew that, but she began to pull. She peered into Hinata’s pink mouth was clogged with twigs and petals, and tried her best to dislodge what she could.

   Hinata gagged. Tears in her eyes and she plead, silently and afraid, that Nodoka could handle this. Nodoka’s hands shook but she did, in fact, manage. She tried her hardest and she did succeed even if it felt pyrrhic as Hinata screamed out as the last, and thickest, part of the cherry blossom branch was removed. 

   Nodoka flinched hearing the scream, dropping the cherry blossom branch between them. Hinata spat out blood and petals but the cherry blossom branch had been removed. She caressed her neck and it was raw with what it had been through. Her touches did little to soothe or quell her pain, she looked up at Nodoka with pathetic, red rimmed eyes.

   “What was that?” Nodoka asked, her heart quaking. “How could any of this be possibly real?”

   “I - I don’t know.” Hinata mumbled but that was a lie. She choked on her words all the same as she had choked on those cherry blossoms. Her hands squeezed tight. “No. I’m sorry. I do know.”

   “Pardon?” Nodoka quietly exclaimed.

   “There’s a very rare disease,” Hinata began, hasty, “that causes flowers to grow inside of someone suffering with a crush that they just can’t handle.”

   “That’s horrible…” Nodoka murmured.

   It was now or never, Hinata realised. Or she was going to end up exactly like the girl from the story that she had read yesterday. She knew it. She just knew it.

   “Nodoka, it’s you.” Hinata confessed, half a sob in her voice. “I’m crushing on you.”

   Nodoka was stunned by Hinata’s admission. 

   Hinata panted, her face was going bright red whilst her heart pounded like a hammer at her rib cage. She couldn’t believe it. She had done it. But it felt like a weight off, she had to admit, she didn’t realise her crush had been such a burden until right now. She felt herself lighten with the confession, from the very pit of her stomach, upwards and outwards.

   Nodoka averted her gaze and Hinata was reminded once more why a crush was called a crush. That borderline feel good feeling from before popped. Burst. Nodoka played with her hair, fidgeting, and then managed to speak in a very calm and very quiet voice.

   “I have a crush on you, too, Hinata.” Nodoka replied. “I admire so much how you sparkle and shine. It’s very refreshing to be around. I like you too. A lot.”

   Nodoka reached out to Hinata’s hand and held it. She was so warm and she was still trembling but Nodoka’s caress of it did soothe her. Hinata hazarded a smile, like she couldn’t believe her ears, through her scarlet expression. Nodoka leaned in and kissed Hinata.

   Hinata was unable to kiss back, afraid of her own breath but Nodoka didn’t mind. It was pungent with cherry blossoms and wet but she found the kiss sufficiently sweet, kissing Hinata’s soft, balmy lips. They were tinged with pineapple and vanilla beneath that overwhelming sensation of cherry blossoms.

   “Thank you, Nodoka…” Hinata murmured and somehow, she didn’t know or understand how but she wasn’t going to complain, she was cured, prettily, of her affliction. 

   The cherry blossom flowers on the bed or in her gut, disappeared. All with seemingly little aplomb. Even the branch that had to have been removed from her throat, all with a soft, fizzling noise that Hinata could hardly hear over the sound of her pounding heart. She still had the cuts and scrapes, but she was no longer growing flowers inside of her stomach. Hinata was cured and Nodoka was her blessed, angelic cure.

[repentantsky]

The difference Between JRPG’s and WRPG’s, and why we should stop comparing them

If you’re like me, you love RPG’s of many different genre’s. Whether they cover fantastical realms like Skyrim and Final Fantasy, or more technologically advanced ones like Borderlands or Star Ocean. 

Like all genre’s most RPG’s of different genre’s also suffer from different problems because of tropes and reused settings that people can grow tired of, but talking about RPG’s from two different parts of the world, is a whole other problem. Japan for example, is mostly marketing itself to Western players, while Western RPG’s, are mostly marketing themselves to Western players...uh wait, why does that make them different? 

It’s all because of style choices. See, Japan like most countries, has a lot of traditions that make a lot of it’s products fairly same-y. As I said that happens with everyone, but Japan has to try harder with smaller series to get western appeal, which is required to have a successful selling game, unless it’s a mobile title, since those all do really well in Japan, because people can just game on their way to and from work. I digress, but Japan is so rooted in tradition, that you can watch an episode of Gigantor, the anime that is considered by many to be the first anime ever created, and Demon Slayer, and notice a lot of similarities in the way the characters are speaking, because Japan has always made their shows where actors talk like they would in real life, which isn’t always true in other acting platforms around the world, which of course means, this translates to video games. 

Specifically what it means, is that Japan has to hop a cultural barrier that Western games don’t, and they have to rely on a lot more tropes, because there are only so many ways to translate the same basic plot of a JRPG, for Western audiences, before things become too cliché. A lot of RPG’s are successful in doing this, like the aforementioned Final Fantasy, and other JRPG’s are coming through with successful games to, like Fire Emblem. Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, Atelier, and several others. All of the games coming through lately, lead people to believe that JRPG’s are a thriving genre in the west, but that’s not really true. 

If you were to ask any random person what the most successful JRPG of all time was, a lot of people would probably think of a Final Fantasy game, but not even Final Fantasy 7, has come close. In fact the only JRPG that even made it to the top 10 best selling games ever, is Pokemon Red/Blue/Green/Yellow as a collective, with four different versions. The next best selling one is Pokemon Gold/Silver/Crystal, and in fact, only 11 of the top 49 best selling games of all time, are RPG’s, and all of the JRPG’s are Pokemon titles. Final Fantasy 7 has still been wildly successful, as the original has sold over 11.8 million units, and the remake over 5 million, but the fact of the matter is, that even though RPG’s as a whole are the biggest genre of the top 49, the few that made it are exceptions to the rules. In fact, of the top 10 best selling games of all time, 6 of them are by Nintendo. The other 5 excluding Pokemon, are Wii Sports, Super Mario Bros. Mario Kart 8/Deluxe, Wii Fit/Plus and the original Gameboy version of Tetris, which itself is on there twice because EA’s version is number 3. so you’re actually better off in Japan, not making a JRPG. 

There’s a lot more that can be gleamed from looking at the list, so you can check it out here if you want: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_best-selling_video_games 

The point is that JRPG’s, aren’t always as successful as people think they are. I mean sure, you don’t have to be on the top best selling games list to be successful, but Persona 4 Golden on PC is considered a massive success for selling only just over a million units since it’s release, and the Tales of Series, which is one of the longest running in gaming, as recently as April of this year, had it’s sales numbers made public, and Tales of Symphonia, the undeniable Final Fantasy 7 of the series, sold a total of 940,000 units in the United States, and the game, easily the most successful title from Tales of, only managed 2.4 million in total. None of this is to say, that JRPG’s are struggling, because most of the ones I brought up are shining examples that they aren’t, but going back to that top 10 list, Minecraft and Grand Theft Auto V,  just the top two of that list, have sold 345,000,000 total units. That not only beats the entire mainline series of Pokemon, it’s only about 2.5 million short extra, of beating the original 151′s total sales, with how many spare units the two games over Pokemon’s  300,000,000 million total sales mainline games, which means likely, the two of them will beat the series out at some point in the future. 

Western RPG’s, don’t often suffer from as many problems, because they don’t have a border to hop, and it shows with Elder Scrolls, which has sold 58 million total copies with only five mainline games, and 30 million of those came from Skyrim alone. It took Pokemon, the undisputed champion of JRPG sales, 20 mainline games to reach 300 million, which means arguably, by the time Elder Scrolls reaches it’s 10th installment, it will have caught up to Pokemon’s first 20 games total sales. Borderlands, which is arguably the Tales of to Western RPG’s in most people’s eyes, has actually outsold Elder Scrolls with only 4 mainline entries, one of which is considered bad by many, with a total of 60 million total units sold. The better comparison, surprising for many I’m sure, for a Tales of comparison, is actually Fallout, which has sold 13.51 million units, to Tales of 23.5 million units. 

Enough about numbers for a few minutes, 3 paragraphs about it is a bit much, but the fact of the matter is, Japan struggles more overall to make successful RPG’s in the West, than the West does in the West, and it’s all due to how much of a challenge it is to hop that border. 

Outside of sales numbers, the other major difference between JRPG’s vs Western RPG’s is how they are classified. Generally, when someone thinks of a JRPG, they think of a fantasy world, with leveling, where rare items can be won off bosses, but your main way of improving stats is to level up, and have enough money to buy the best equipment at each new town you enter with a shop. However, a lot of games have been getting that label slapped on them by their marketing teams or fans, and some of it is just wrong. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is one such game, despite the drops from enemies being the only correlation between BoTW and JRPG’s. The correlation was made by fans, which might seem like an innocent mistakes, and in fact could be nothing but that, but then there’s Monster Hunter, which actually does have two JRPG’s attached to it, in the Stories 1 and 2 games, but who took the reigns of JRPG to market, calling Monster Hunter World, a JRPG. despite it having few differences from other Monster Hunter action games, outside of having a story, and having nothing more to do with JRPG’s than Zelda. A lot of fans of Japanese games will classify simply playing as a fake character an RPG, which normally would be fine, but in games, that’s not how genres are defined. If that were the case, all of Yakuza’s games would be JRPG’s, instead of just Like a Dragon, and in fact most games would be RPG’s, and they obviously aren’t. Bubsy 3D RPG anyone? No? Ya sure? Yeah I didn’t think so.   

The west has the exact opposite problem of under classifying it’s games as RPGs. While sure, you wouldn’t call Halo an RPG, unless you know, Master Chief was shooting an RPG, you absolutely should call Ratchet and Clank one. Think about it, your main playable characters all have HP, most of them have weapons that can level up, and the action setting of these games, basically should make Ratchet, a response to Level 5′s Dark Cloud series, which did all the same things for combat. However, it’s just seen as series of action games, despite it also being a lot like Borderlands. 

The point is, there are a lot of things that differ JRPG’s and WRPG’s from sales, to marketing, to style and so many other factors, I would run out of characters available to me, before I get through them all. There’s nothing wrong with these genre’s being different, but people classifying them as similar, could harm either since they don’t often jell that well together. So please, think before you compare, and for those rare RPG’s, where you can’t tell the difference, makes sure you find out where they were developed, because a lot of games you might think are JRPG’s, could in fact be Korean or Chinese. 

[ask-brainysmurf]

Dear Alternate Universe Version of me. Or should I just adress you by our shared name? I've never been in this situation before. Colourful showed me how to answer or rather write a letter to you. They were very excited.

Colourful asked me to answer your questions myself and I don't smurf what is going on in that smurfling's head. Yet here I am. They don't even smurf exactly how old they are, can you believe it?

Onto your questions about my relationships with some other Smurfs.

Clumsy is my best and closest friend. He is rather adorable as well. Don't tell him I said that though. I haven't always treated him that well, which I smurf regret for.

As for Smurfette, she and I are fine at the moment. Sometimes she kicks me out the village or yells at me but that's nothing unusual about that.

Gender is confusing and riddicoulous.

Hefty and I do not get along most of the time. He kicks me out of the village on the regular, sometimes as soon as I open my mouth before I even smurfed my advice. There has been periods where he tolerated me though.

As for Baby Smurf. I am nearly always off babysitting with Clumsy. Don't get me wrong I love Baby Smurf.

Gender is confusing and to be honest ridiculous as a concept.

I live in the southeast part of the village. I was delivered among the younger bunch, the middle young adult group currently. We were delivered over a period of 50 years in this universe so. Clumsy is about a year younger than me.

I am sorry this is such a short letter but I have other things smurfing my attention.

Sincerely

Brainy Smurf.

Dear Brainy Smurf #3,*

I've never smurfed in this situation before, either. This is my first time smurfing with another version of myself. I apologize if you were rushed into answering- I have time to wait, if necessary, but I smurfpose I didn't make myself clear.

I can understand them not knowing how old they were, if they didn't have a caretaker as diligent with timekeeping as Papa Smurf. Speaking of Papa Smurf, I notice that you did not answer my question on his "sense of humor," which makes sense. I came up with that code phrase in order to ask a question I deemed important to our potential differences without scaring the Smurfling, but I shouldn't have expected another version of me to recognize a code that I smurfed on something Jokey Smurf said years ago.

(My memory is truly astonishing- I continue to mix up Colorful and Crystal when people from your universe write me letters, I regularly forget what year it is and have to check the records to remember, and yet somehow I can remember single sentences from decades ago. For your sake, I hope that you don't have my memory issues.)

As for your relationships with the Smurfs that I mentioned, they mostly seem to align with mine. However, the Smurfette I know does not "kick me out of the village"- in my village, Hefty is the only one with that level of strength, and most Smurfs just hit me on the head instead. Smurfette doesn't even like smurfing to that level of violence.

Another difference is that I would, in fact, tell Clumsy he's adorable. Not in front of others- well, minus the one time I filled an entire page in this book with a rant about how much I loved Clumsy Smurf. I wasn't in my right mind that day. I don't know what was wrong with me- I wasn't drunk (I don't drink alcohol), I wasn't sleepy, it was in autumn and not spring... I've tried to rip that page out since then, because it's incredibly embarassing to have that out there for multiple universes to see, but the pages of this book do not rip. I can't take back the feelings I've exposed to everyone. But I digress. The reason I smurfed a new paragraph for this topic is that I would encourage you to tell him. It'll probably make him happy. Also, I don't know how different your Clumsy is from mine, but if you're worried he'd take it as a romantic advance rather than a platonic compliment, and you'd have to explain, and it would end up incredibly awkward... actually I think I've just talked myself out of talking you into saying that to him. I was going to tell you that my Clumsy is as dumb as the rocks he collects when it comes to those things, and that he'll assume pretty much anything is a friendly gesture unless the person doing it overtly states that it isn't, but you're another version of me and therefore your Clumsy might be different, so I guess just go with what your mind is telling you.

Anyways, moving on.

Taking care of Baby Smurf has never been a constant job for me, but Clumsy and I have certainly smurfed it more than any other Smurf in the village, even if not by much. Even now, if Papa needs most of the Smurfs in the village to help him with something, Clumsy and I will still be the ones tasked with taking care of Baby instead of actually helping Papa. However, in my universe, Baby Smurf is now in their early 20s, so they're a toddler and much easier to take care of. If your version of Baby is still, well, a baby, I can undersmurf how it feels like you're always taking care of them.

I agree with you on the concept of gender, and I also live in the southeast of the village, so we have much in common! Obviously, given that we're the same Smurf and all, but we can't definitively say that any trait is intrinsic to every version of us. For all I know, there may be an alternate version of me who doesn't even smurf glasses!

It's smurfily fascinating that your version of Clumsy is about a year younger than you. In my universe, my Clumsy is about a year older than me! (1 year, 4 months, and 15 days to be exact- Clumsy was delivered on November 29, 100327, and I was delivered on April 13, 100329.) I'm the youngest of my age group to be delivered to my own village, but there are two grove Smurfs younger than me. I suppose the artificial Smurfs are as well, but I don't know if that holds up physically as well as chronologically.

I understand the short letter, as I, too, am often busy. I'm mainly available today because it snowed yesterday, and I decided to stay inside so that other Smurfs don't smurf me with snowballs.

I hope you're having a smurfy day, and Merry Christmas!

Sincerely,

Brainy Smurf #1

*I have decided to address you as Brainy Smurf #3, because numbering makes it easy to distinguish between alternate versions of myself. As I am the one who smurfed this book, I am #1. Another Brainy who was mentioned offhandedly by an asker (when I had a bit of a headache and thus couldn't ask more, hence why you're the first I've smurfed questions to) is Brainy #2. And you're the third.

[sarcastically-defensive17]

Probably you have some request, but I was wondering if you could write a Calum x Reader based on The Moment I Knew where even the guys send her a happy birthday message but Calum was radio silence (If you're interested in it not ending with angst maybe a second part based in The Last Time haha, lol)

The Moment I Knew - C. Hood

Okay so, I had never heard this song before and now I’ve played it on repeat. Your girl lives to write angst so I may have gone a bit too far but I hope you like it!!

I will have a part two done soon! Send me a message so I can tag you in it, if you like!

Thank you for the request, lovie! 💕

Original story by sarcastically-defensive17

Her 24th birthday should have been a day she spent surrounded by her dear friends and her boyfriend.

Her friends were waiting at Luke and Sierra’s house for their guest it honor who would arrive with Calum.

She should have spent it with a smile stretching her cherry tinted lips, not droplets smearing her perfectly done mascara.

It should have ended in a night of passion, not heartbreak.

It should have been a lot of things, but Calum couldn’t even remember a single day to spend with the woman he claimed to love so much. And Y/N couldn’t sit back and deal with his ignorance and inability to be there for his girl.

You should've been there. Should've burst through the door with that "Baby, I'm right here" smile.

She woke that morning to messages from everybody. Everybody but Calum.

Sierra and Luke has stopped by to wish her a happy birthday, and give her flowers and a dress that Sierra had picked out for the party that night.

Crystal and Michael called to apologize for not stopping by but to wish her a happy birthday and make lunch plans for the following day with promises to see her that night.

Ashton and KayKay took her out for breakfast, something which Calum was meant to attend but she received no reply from him. Her friends tried their hardest to take her mind off of the missing person at their table. They also had promised that Calum would most likely see her later that night.

And it would've felt like a million little shining stars had just aligned. And I would've been so happy.

She didn’t want to pull it, but this was the last straw. In their over year long relationship, he started to slack after their anniversary.

He showed up late for their anniversary dinner, barely replied to her messages, even when he was at home, spent more time out with the guys than paying any mind to Y/N. She thought the last straw was when they had made big plans to spend the day together on Christmas Eve. Her favourite holiday.

Christmas lights glisten, I've got my eye on the door, just waiting for you to walk in.

He didn’t show until late that night. He simply left his present for her sitting under her tree and crawled into bed with her sleeping form.

Still, she pushed aside her feelings of abandonment, for she loved the kiwi man too much.

But this was the most she could take.

The minutes ticked by, and she sat on her lounge, lips stained red, black dress accentuating every part of her body that she felt confident in. Heels slipped onto her feet, that made her walk away more than usual.

She felt like a million bucks when she had gotten ready. Now, she felt like the booby prize.

After all, she must be if Calum couldn’t spare a few hours to attend the party Sierra had planned for her special day.

He was radio silence all day. Not a single message. Not even a quick gif of a cat wearing a party hat like Mali-Koa had sent her, although the elder hood had also sent her a long paragraph about how much she adores her and how happy she makes Calum.

If only Calum made her feel like she made him happy. Or that he even wanted her around.

They were now 45 minutes past the time Calum had promised to be there.

She was fuming.

But the time is ticking. People ask me how I've been, as I comb back through my memory, how you said you'd be here.

She can’t quite determine the amount of times that Calum has stood her up. She understands that his music is important to him, but he tells her she is important to him as well. How?

How can he be so sure that she is important to him, when he has left her sitting alone on her birthday. Her birthday.

You said you'd be here

Enough was enough. She stood up from her lounge, straightening her dress out and checking her makeup in the mirror. If Calum wasn’t going to take her to enjoy her birthday, then she would do it herself.

She typed a quick message to Calum before she threw her phone on the abandoned lounge, snatching her keys from a hook and slamming the door closed behind her.

And it was like slow motion. Standing there in my party dress, in red lipstick, with no one to impress.

“You said you’d be here. Don’t bother showing up tonight. Happy birthday to me, right?”

And they're all laughing as I'm looking around the room. But there was one thing missing, and that was the moment I knew.

She had been at the party for hours, and all she wanted was to go home and drown her sadness in ice cream and flood her pillow with tears. Namely, the pillow that trapped Calum’s scent like a butterfly net.

It was hard to be with her friends, because, even though she was introduced to them as Calum’s friends, each of them became something special to her, and they all grew closer over the time.

Especially Luke and Sierra.

Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she struggled to settle in the atmosphere without him. For a minute she thought whether he would have come to her if she called him but given the three and a half hours that had passed since her message, she knew he had something better to do.

Or somebody better to be with.

The tears started to fall and her hands started to shake. She had always struggled with abandonment issues, but this experience felt new.

She couldn’t handle it anymore. She couldn’t be with Calum anymore.

And the hours pass by. Now I just wanna be alone but your close friends always seem to know when there's something really wrong.

She trudged down the hall, tears blurring her vision as she forced her way into the bathroom of the house.

Heeled shoes echoed behind her and Sierra’s dark head of hair flooded her gaze as the woman’s arms wrapped around her, letting her sob into her shoulder.

Y/N tries to stop the tears, but the pain is so overwhelming.

Her birthday, the one day in the entire year that she requested her boyfriend to be there for her with no exceptions, he let her down.

Again. Lately, he only let her down.

She couldn’t handle it anymore. She couldn’t handle being second best. No, third best.

Not even that.

So they follow me down the hall, and there in the bathroom, I try not to fall apart and the sinking feeling starts.

She lowers herself to the ground, her legs no longer supporting her. Sierra crouches with her, still holding her friend through her breakdown.

She knew Y/N struggled with abandonment, as she had gotten the closest to the girl, but she never imagined Calum could be the one to make her feel this way.

“It’s okay, breathe babe. Breathe,” Sierra cooed, stroking the woman’s perfectly done hair. She looked stunning, and that made Sierra’s heart ache more. “I’m sorry he did this, I’m so sorry.”

Y/N sniffed, trying to will her tears to stop. Mascara was most likely smudged on her face, and on the shoulder of Sierra’s royal blue blouse, but she couldn’t contain the emotion that had been building all day.

For months even.

For three months, Calum hadn’t been there for her. If not for the random mornings she would wake up with him by her side, or the fleeting messages of open promises, it was as if she was single.

She might as well be.

“He said he would be here,” she sobbed, her voice sounding more broken than anything Sierra had heard before.

“I know, honey, I know.”

As I say hopelessly, "He said he'd be here"

“Do you wanna tell everybody to head home? You and I can veg out and watch some movies, if you like?” Sierra proposed, rubbing the arms of her friend whose tears had halted.

Y/N shook her head with a small smile on her face, “It’s okay Si. Let’s just enjoy ourselves, yeah? No more tears, I promise.”

What do you say, when tears are streaming down your face in front of everyone you know?

Y/N felt embarrassed to have broken down in such a way in front of her friends. She had always tried to be the tough one, even cracking a smile that very morning when Ashton asked about her absent boyfriend.

But she had hit her limit.

And what do you do when the one who means the most to you is the one who didn't show?

The room was full of so many people, every one of her friends, her siblings, even her parents and some family had made the trip to see her for her birthday. Everybody but Calum.

Almost everybody she loved and held fear was there to witness her standing in her party dress and her red lipstick. Her fixed mascara and now clean face. With her best friend holding her hand and a chocolate cake placed in front of her.

The lit number “24” stared back at her as she tried to ignore the missing piece to the puzzle that was the night.

Their voices faded to the background as they all sung to her, watching as she blew out the candles with one thing on her mind.

‘I wish you were here’

And they're all standing around me singing "Happy birthday to you". But there was one thing missing.

Y/N now knew, she couldn’t be with Calum anymore.

And that was the moment I knew.

Calum had this overwhelming feeling that he was forgetting something. He couldn’t place his finger on it, but he knew it was something important.

His fingers plucked the strings of his bass, and his mind ran through the lyrics to a song they were working on for their newest album.

The album has been taking up most of his free thought, for he was determined to get some of the songs just right for when it drops.

His heart dropped when he checked his phone, a message from Y/N that had been sent four hours before.

Guilt boiled in his stomach and he was grabbing his keys, slipping his shoes on and rushing out the door without a second thought.

“You said you’d be here. Don’t bother showing up tonight. Happy birthday to me, right?”

He could feel the malicious intent in the message, and he deserved it. This was the seventh time he had stood her up, and he knew that she had every right to be mad at him.

Even if she told him not to, he was on his way to Luke’s house to apologize to her. He just thanked god that he had already put her present in his car.

He sent a message to his best friend asking if his girl was still there.

Luke replied with a simple and snappy “she left. She doesn’t want to see you.”

He sighed, resting his head against his steering wheel as he dialed the number accompanied by a heart.

Y/N would be alright, he knew it. She would answer the phone, apologize, and tell her he loves her. She would return the sentiment, and all would be well.

Wouldn’t it?

You called me later, and said, "I'm sorry, I didn't make it".

Y/N saw the name show up on her phone as the sound of Calum’s voice floods her dark bedroom.

She made true of her promise to go home, drown her feelings in ice cream and soak her pillow with tears. She just wished that her ringtone for Calum wasn’t his angelic voice singing “If you don’t know.”

She hit the answer button and switched it onto loud speaker so she didn’t need to love from her positioned curled up in the middle of her bed.

“Hey baby, sorry I didn’t make it. Lost track of time writing. I love you so much, happy birthday angel,” his voice transferred through the receiver and she couldn’t bring herself to find an answer other than what is on her mind.

And I said, "I'm sorry too".

“I’m sorry too, Calum,” she answered, feeling her words catch in her throat.

“For what, baby?” He chuckled, brushing off the serious tone of her voice.

She steered her nerves, sitting up and the sound of crinkling sheets temporarily flooded Calum’s ears.

She let out a deep breath, letting the tears fall as she spoke. “I can’t do this anymore. I can’t always be a second thought, especially when it’s my birthday and I’m sitting at our friends house crying my eyes out because you couldn’t give me enough respect to tell me you won’t be there for me.”

“Y/N, I’m so sorry-“

“So am I, Cal. I can’t be with you anymore. Goodbye.”

And that was the moment I knew.

[docholligay]

Hi! Please rework and expand on Chibi-Usa's arrival in R.

This was more fun than I thought it would be! 1411 words 

It should have been a day like any other. Well, not quite like any other. It was a romantic day, and Usagi loved romantic days best of all. Mamoru had taken her to lunch at a very nice Italian place, and Usagi had the baked Ziti, which she thought was probably more romantic than spaghetti, because she wouldn’t be so likely to drip sauce over herself. Then they had gone to the park, where he had just dreamily paddled her around in a rowboat, just the two of them, and now they were strolling on a bridge over the pond, hand in hand. 

Usagi was so lucky. Not everyone had a man like Mamoru, who was so good at knowing exactly what romance was, as if he was stealing all his ideas from romance novels and Hallmark movies. So she was wrong before. It should not have been a day like any other. It should have been a perfect day, and very nearly was, as Usagi tilted her head up toward Mamoru’s. 

“I’m so lucky to have you.” She said, echoing all of the things that she had previously been thinking only one paragraph before. 

“Oh, Usako.” Her took her chin delicately with his hand, and leaned into her, and they kissed softly, the entire world going watercolor in the moment, soft honks of love or perhaps geese surrounding them. 

It would have been perfect, except a woman fell from the sky. A woman fell from the sky, a great explosion accompanying her as the sky turned a bright pink in the exact sort of way that Tokyo would immediately forget in less than fifteen minutes, and landed right on top of Usagi, throwing her back to the bridge, the rough wood scraping at her butt as her skirt flew up over her head. 

And even that might have been fine, given the manner of unusual things that came into Usagi’s life, and given her general cheerful nature, but for the fact that as she shook herself off, picking a stray piece of grass out of her hair, she looked over to where Mamoru had fallen, only to see the said woman, having so recently fallen out of the sky, straddling him. 

“Who--” Her face turned bright red, “Who do you think you are? Get away from Mamoru! Stop...touching him, with yourself!” 

“Mamoru?” The woman looked down at him as she touched her chest. 

Usagi continued her tirade. “Just what do you think you’re--” 

The woman turned to look at her, her eyes sharp and menacing. And yet, familiar. There was something about the woman that Usasgi could not immediately place, but she somehow felt as if she knew. She was angular, with long blonde hair that had an almost oddly pink tone, and her eyes seemed pinkish too, with a hint of world-weary exhaustion in them, though she seemed she could not be too much older than Usagi. She wore a school’s uniform, though it was no school uniform Usagi recognized, and it seemed almost as the idea of a school uniform, more than the actual article. As if someone had gone to costuming, and said the character attended school in Tokyo, and the seamstress had tucked together two or three pictures into one. 

It took Usagi to a moment to remember herself, and the nature of her grievance. 

“What--what are you doing here? Who are you?” 

The woman narrowed her eyes, and smiled in a way that did not seem friendly so much as the rattle of a snake. 

“Why, I’m Princess Serenity.” 

“Serenity?” Mamoru recovered the gift of speech, but Princess Serenity paid him no mind, simply rose to her feet and faced Usagi. 

“And who might you be? I recognize that style, I think.” She crossed her arms. “The buns. But I want to be sure.”

If Mina had been there, she might have tackled Usagi, and given her a quick lecture on the wisdom not telling every woman who fell out of the sky one’s identity immediately, particularly when it was a certain function of one’s life that enemies, more often than not, happened to come out of holes in the fabric of space and time. 

But Mina was not there, it was only Mamoru, and Usagi’s small pride, and so she got to her feet, stamped her foot, and said. “There are my signature! I’m Usagi Tsukino, and what’s more, YOU aren’t Princess Serenity, because I’M ---” 

From someplace inside Usagi, the spirit of Minako Aino reared up, and Usagi, wide-eyed, clasped both hands over her mouth. 

“You’re chubbier than you are in the books,” Princess Serenity looked at her, “But, you look enough like her. So you’re Usagi Tsukino. And if you’re Usagi Tsukino,” she drew a pistol from somewhere in her uniform, “Then we have business.” 

She placed the pistol to Usagi’s forehead, and Usagi tried to run through the list of people she could possibly have this sort of business with. Her brand of recklessness tended to get her in trouble with parents, schoolteachers, and the odd restaurant, but it didn’t generally inspire murder. Even when people came through the fabric of space and time to kill her, it was in her professional capacity as Sailor Moon, and never anything that Usagi Tsukino had done specifically. 

“Hand over the Silver Crystal.” The woman placed her finger on the trigger. 

“This has to be a joke,” Mamoru chuckled, “I mean, that’s got to be a toy or something, I….” 

“Shut the fuck up!” She barked over her shoulder, “Unless you want me to just take it by force. Move, and I’ll stop asking. Now,” she looked back to Usagi. “The Silver Crystal. “ 

Mina was a good leader, in most ways, and Usagi would be the first to say it. She had taught them all about the importance of keeping things quiet, of not letting on what you do and don’t know, of keeping the enemy guessing. MIna was skilled at all of these things, and had worked with her senshi to make them so. She wouldn’t have wanted Usagi to outright refuse, because that would suggest that Usagi knew something, wouldn’t it? She’d practiced resistance to interrogation with all of them, and though Usgi had cried a few times, she’d worked very hard, and so in this moment, she said, as confidently as she could: 

“What Silver Crystal?” 

Princess Serenity gave a heavy sign and rolled her eyes, her finger still never leaving the trigger. “Don’t try to play dumb with me, you’re just wasting my time. I know you have the Silver Crystal. I know you’ll give it up for the cost of a few tears. So don’t waste both of our times, Usagi. Give me the Silver Crystal.” 

“But I don’t know what you’re talking about!” Usagi did, at present, feel more than a little anxious, but she hoped that added something that Michiru would almost certainly call verisimilitude, but she simply thought of as ‘looking realness’ “And I can’t tell you what I don’t know about the Silver Crystal! I mean, the whatever crystal thing it is you’re looking for!” 

“You really insist on playing dumb, even after all this?” She put a hand on her hip. “You ARE stupid. Well!” 

Before either she or Mamoru could move, or breathe, Princess Serenity pulled the trigger. Usagi had thought about what it might be like to die, a time or two, as she had not yet had the opportunity afforded to her other senshi, and it seemed rude to ask. She let herself fall back, as if into a mattress, giving herself over. There was no pain, in that moment, no rushing ball of light, no staring down on her body as she floated above it, no being dragged into the darkness….actually, there was nothing at all. No wait, there was something. The rising bruise where the back of her head had hit the bridge, and Mamoru shaking her and calling her name. 

She opened one eye to see the woman standing there, looking at the gun with a puzzled look in her eyes, and more than a little annoyed. 

“It wasn’t loaded?” Mamoru took her by the shoulders. “It wasn’t loaded! Hey, that was taking it too far, you…” 

But the minute he turned, she was gone. There was nothing there, on the bridge, simply he and Usagi and the rustle of leaves. 

“But I’M Princess Serenity!” Usagi pouted.

[locoslowpoke]

The Defense and Prosecution of Pink Diamond /Rose Quartz: An Essay Rant Part 3

Part 1. Part 2.

And finally, the last bad deed that ties into many other ones but I will just summarize in one giant paragraph because I have yet to talk about the good deeds. That’s right y’all, I’m talking about her treatment of the Pearl we know and love today and the secrets she kept from her and the lies she told her. We have learned that ever since the start of Pink’s colony, Pearl has always been by her side. All Pearl wanted to do was to make Pink happy and keep her Diamond in good spirits. Which is why Pearl was the one who suggested that they go down to Earth and why she was the one who made the Gemsona of Rose Quartz in the first place. All she wanted was to make her Diamond happy. Of course, in the process of making Pink happy, Pearl definitely didn’t expect to catch feelings for her, but she did and Pink felt the same way for her too. All’s well that ends well, right. WRONG. As we already know from the song, “It’s Over, Isn’t It”, Rose took a more open approach when it came to their relationship. Pearl, for the most part, was fine with it because she knew that it wouldn’t last and that in the end, Rose would come back to her because she was the one who knew Rose best. She knew all her secrets, likes, dislikes, practically everything. Because to Pearl, Rose was her everything. She was her Diamond, her Rose, her best friend and confidant, and most importantly, her the only person who truly loved her. Rose knew that Pearl would do anything and everything for her.

Just look at the song again. Pearl went through a lot of hardships and obstacles just for the sole purpose of her love and attention. OF COURSE, Rose is not supposed to be held accountable for Pearl’s romantic feelings toward her, but at the very least, I feel like she could’ve tried to sit down and talk with Pearl about her feelings and about how she doesn’t feel the same for her anymore. Rose didn’t even properly prepare Pearl or the other Crystal Gems for her demise. Look at how they almost took out Steven’s gem. An episode I feel shows a ton on evidence supporting this part of my argument is A Single Pale Rose. When Steven starts encountering past versions of Pearl in her mind, one of the ones we meet are Crying Pearl, who is currently devastated that the person she has dedicated her entire life to is going to disappear and there is nothing she can do about it. She states, “What am I going to do when she disappears,” and “I’m going to lose her.”

What trips me up the most though is what that Pearl says before transporting Steven deeper into her mind though. When he ask her where the stupid phone is, she says, “It’s probably where I lost everything else.” Pay attention to that specific line. During the war, Pearl had made friends, just like Bismuth. People she had considered dear to her just like Rose. But when the Diamonds did their counter light attack, she lost everyone and everything that she considered dear to her, other than Garnet and Pearl. Just look at war torn Pearl. She’s devastated that basically everyone she knew is probably dead. She then utters this very important line. “Why did I do it?”. What could that line be referring to? That is none other than the act of helping Pink fake her shattering. Pearl basically realized at that moment that it was foolish to think that they could pull of such a big rebellion without humongous losses. Because of her tricking the other diamonds that Pink had been killed, it lead to the death of all her friends.

Pearl pleaded with Pink to find another way,that the retaliation of the Diamonds was going to be powerful. But Pink just waved off Pearl’s concern and said she had tried everything, which giving Pink credit where it’s due, it appears she did. But what makes me mad about this scene is how Pink says that she just wants to do it and to never look back. How convenient of Pink to do just that huh? Then she forces Pearl to keep her secret which essentially eats away at Pearl as the years go on. Pearl even snaps and loses it when she finds out that Rose kept secrets from her, like Lion and Bismuth, because she was supposed the one she could always trust. Just goes to show you, Rose did care, but Rose never truly cared enough, did she now?

Now, let me give the poor girl a break and stitch her back up now shall we? It’s not a lot, but it’ll do. One of the good things she did was the saving of Earth. Even though her intentions weren’t completely pure, her heart was on the right path. She saw that the human were capable of intelligent thinking and were creatures with their own customs, thoughts, and beliefs. She knew then that what she was doing to that planet was evil and decided to do the right thing and save the planet from any further damage. Another one of the good things we have to give her credit for is that she genuinely wanted the best for her fellow Crystal Gems and even stated that she wanted them to be able to live a good life on the Earth, free of the Diamonds and of their society’s expectations about them. As to why she couldn’t tell them of her true identity, that scenario could’ve gone 2 ways. She would tell them she is Pink Diamond, but that she is fighting for their freedom and to keep her identity a secret. One way it could’ve gone is that they accept and are happy with the fact that an actual Diamond is fighting for them, further invigorating their will to fight and determination. Or it could’ve sowed the seeds of doubt and mistrust. The soldiers would question why a Diamond is supposedly fighting for their rights, if this is just a test to see who is loyal to the Diamond Authority and to weed out bad seeds, and finally, why should they put their lives on the line for a vague promise that a Diamond has made to them. It would either be win-win or lose-lose, more likely the latter.

Another one of the good things she did was the collecting of her corrupted Crystal Gems. She technically didn’t even have to do go out of her way and bubble them, unless you’re counting the humans’ safety, but she did it primarily because she felt guilty. She felt responsible for their corrupted forms and the fact that she bubbled them makes me believe that she was planning on finding some way to heal her friends.

Another one of the good things we also have to give her credit for is Garnet. The Garnet we know and love today would not be who she is if it wasn’t for the guidance and wisdom of Rose. Rose was the one that taught her that she was an experience and that she was not wrong for existing. That she was made of love.

Finally, the last, best, most selfless thing Rose ever did in her life was giving birth to Steven. She was willing to cease existing just for the chance of being able to bring another life into the world. She not only did just that, but so much more. She gave birth to the most empathetic, understanding, and kindest child ever. Steven turned out to be everything Rose hoped she could be. She didn’t really think that the consequences of her actions would come back and haunt her son guys. All she wanted to do was bring forth a new life in this world that she hoped would turn out to be better than she could ever aspire to be. I think we all know how that turned out. She finally succeeded and did one good deed that resulted, for the most part, in only positives and no negatives anywhere to be found.

The main theme of this show is about the ability to change. Pink started out as a bratty, immature,and selfish. Then she grew into Rose, wise, caring, and full of love. She takes a lot of missteps along her journey, but she tries her best to continually evolve into a better version of herself.

Welp, that’s my essay on one of the more complex cartoon characters of the decade. She’s not completely great, but she’s not exactly evil either. She’s just a pure solid grey character in my opinion. And that’s alright by me. Let me know what you guys think. Was there anything I missed that you felt should’ve been in here? I would love to receive asks or feedback and I’m really open to discussion. Thanks so much for reading.

[jswdmb1]

Identical

I don't just know you, I've grown like that too...

If I don't dislike you, I'm withdrawn, unrighteous too...

I’m no prophet, I'm your friend

Take my advice, make your mistakes”

- Phoenix

Every four years, the PBS series “Frontline” presents an episode called “The Choice”.  It presents the two candidates running in that particular presidential election.  But, it is not a show about the current campaign, policy issues or even the politics behind the particular candidates.  It is instead a personal biography of each candidate up to the point of the current election told chronologically.  The show portrays each individual’s story back and forth as the years go on that allow the viewer to both understand the people behind the front their campaigns present, but also provides a unique opportunity to compare and contrast the two candidates.  I have watched this particular episode of Frontline in every presidential election dating back to 2000, and I find it to consistently be the single best source of information for me to decide (or confirm) which candidate I am to support in that year’s election.

I was going to pass on this year’s version as I didn’t think there was anything I could learn about either man, and my choice is already made, but I watched anyway.  I have to admit that I was surprised to pick up nuggets of information that were new to me such as that Joe Biden’s first wife and daughter were killed six weeks after his election to the Senate for the first time, or that Donald Trump’s mother fell ill when he was very small and was effectively absent for his nurturing years.  Those are facts that seemingly are unimportant when weighing which man to support in a presidential election, but I think we have all found out in the last four years that an individual’s personality, temperament, and morality are just as important as their stance on any issue or their knowledge of the inner workings of government.  In the example of this year’s election, it finally crystallized the stark difference between Joe Biden and Donald Trump that has made my decision for whom to vote so easy.

Let’s start with the challenger Biden.  If there are two things that are clear about Joe, it is 1) he makes a lot of mistakes, and 2) he has overcome quite a bit of adversity of the years whether they are of his own doing or not.  You can watch the show to see the examples of both, but Biden’s approach to problems in his life has been remarkably consistent.  First, he acknowledges the problem exists and that he has responsibility to address it.  Next, if it was a problem of his own doing, he owns up to it.  Often times, he does this quite clumsily and occasionally makes things worse, but he does, at a minimum, take responsibility.  Finally, once it is out there, he puts his head down and gets to work with an amazing ability to ignore the long odds that he may face or the chirping he hears in the background about how badly he messed up and/or how he will never make it right.  He simply has a fundamental belief that humans make mistakes and he is no exception to that rule.  At times, it would be refreshing if he demonstrated better that he learns from some of these mistakes so as not to repeat them, but there is at least a good faith effort even if the execution at times is mediocre.

There is no need to go into detail how Trump behaves whenever he is faced with a problem and it is well documented that he never admits to making a mistake (and likely doesn’t even believe he has ever made one).  There are daily examples of this behavior and running through the list at this point is massively unappealing.  What I do find interesting is why he is this way.  The show goes into great detail about the influence three men have had on his life. The first is his father Fred.  We all know his background and his ruthlessness in business and within his personal relationships and this was applied to each of his sons.  The first, Fred Jr., bristled at the notion of going into the family business, and became an airline pilot instead (a decision for which both father and brother Donald would mock him mercilessly and drove him to alcoholism and an early death).  Fred Sr. then set his sights on son #2 who was more than willing to take up the cause.  After a stint in military school that hardened his outlook on life and reduced what little emotional capacity he had, he moved into his father’s footsteps and practiced the approach that personal gain is everything and little else matters.

The second man was a lawyer named Roy Cohn.  Cohn rose to fame in the 1950s as Joseph McCarthy’s hatchet man in the blacklisting of innocent American citizens for unfounded (and mostly false) accusations of communism.  Despite the shame eventually brought upon him for that role, he rose to become one of the most powerful attorneys in New York.  A client of his was a young Donald Trump and Cohn taught him three things that helped him rise from the ashes: 1) deny anything that makes you look bad as even having happened 2) attack those that bring these things up and deflect the blame elsewhere, and 3) never take responsibility for your actions unless there is a transactional gain that serves you.  This has been Donald Trump’s blueprint his entire life and it can be found in his business, his marriages, and certainly his presidency.  He literally has never operated in a manner that is different in any aspect of his life, so the fact that this has come through during his time in the White House should be surprising to no one who witnessed him before his election.

The final man was the Rev. Norman Vincent Peale who was the pastor at the church Donald Trump attended for over 50 years.  Peale’s claim-to-fame was the publishing of a book The Power of Positive Thinking and the Trumps followed it like their bible.  Boiled down, the main tenant of the book was that one must think positively at all costs and negative thoughts must be barred from the mind or success cannot be achieved.  That seems okay on the surface, but it becomes a problem when situations require more effort than simply a good thought and a wish that it goes away.  This clearly explains Trump’s complete inability to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.  Even though he obviously intellectually understood the severity and danger of the virus from his recordings on the Woodward tapes, this brainwashing of Peale on the Trump family made it impossible for Donald to acknowledge that the problem existing in any way.  When combined with Cohn’s teachings on taking no responsibility and Fred Sr.’s example of bulldozing past anyone who disagrees with you (like a scientist or doctor), the end result of his response makes a lot of sense.  It’s why even when catching the disease himself, he views it as a positive event that only he could dream up.

I do find it curious that I spent three long paragraphs on Trump with only one brief paragraph on Biden, but that meshes with each approach they have on the basic issues of life as a human being which is confronting adversity and accepting that we do make mistakes.  Biden’s approach is simple and to the point, sometimes to a fault.  Trump has this complicated troika of mad men’s teachings running through his head when problems come up and it is no wonder he is paralyzed with inaction when it comes time to do something about it.  For me, this is the defining trait between the two men that seems to tower over everything else about them personally or this election in general.  The question then is what do we do with this information.

I’m certain it is obvious which way I am going to go, but it may surprise you why.  You see, I have struggled myself with some of these same issues that each man has faced.  Up until a few years ago, I actually would describe myself as really being more Trump-like in my approach to life than I really care to admit.  I rarely acknowledged I was wrong and often blamed others for problems that were within and could only be solved by the guy responsible for them in the first place – me.  This attitude prevented me from seeing what was the real root of my unhappiness and depression and did not allow for me to acknowledge that my drinking and moderate drug use had become a problem.  It wasn’t until everything broke down and I ended up in an intense six-week program of therapy and deep soul searching that I discovered that mistakes we make are what builds us up and not what tears us down.  Granted, we need to learn from those mistakes to become better people and achieve great things, but admitting responsibility is the only path to doing either of those things.  I know now after a few years that I will never get things totally right, but I can get up each day and at least try to improve on the one before.  At a minimum, I strive to not make things worse, and it all gives me strength to fight whatever demons I have head on.  It’s a trial-and-error approach for sure, but I don’t see how it can be done any other way.

And given where things are at now, I don’t see how any other approach can help us overcome the enormous problems we face at this time whether it be COVID-19, or the economy, or global warming, or any other massive threat we face right now.  There is no amount of positive thinking that will help us overcome any one of these things and clearly wishing the problems away (or denying they even exist) is not going to work.  We need someone who understands this and there is no doubt the current president has no ability to do so.  Joe Biden may not be perfect, and he is not going to get us all of the way there on likely any one thing, but we have to start somewhere.  And, if there is one thing that he is good at, it is looking at a big hill, putting his head down, and climbing up.  It’s not pretty, and it isn’t the easy thing to do, but it is what we need right now more than anything.  

That is a tough pill to swallow for many Americans who think their freedom is a birthright that requires no effort, but that fantasy has been squashed.  In three weeks, the choice is clear about what needs to be done and the decision is up to you: are you going to acknowledge fault and accept responsibility for our collective actions that have led us to this point and vote for Joe, or are you going to give Trump another four years by simply wishing that all our problems away (spoiler alert – they don’t)?  The politically correct thing to say at this point is that either way you decide please make sure you vote, but I cannot apply that here.  The stakes are too high and the path is too obvious – either vote for Joe or don’t vote at all.  That second option may be tough for some people to take, but consider it your first step on a long road to recovery and redemption not just for yourself but our nation.

Good luck, everyone, we are going to need it.

-        Jim

[kylosupremeimagines]

Knights of Ren OCs

So after watching the Rise of Skywalker, I am immensely disappointed with how the Knights of Ren turned out. And I’m pretty sure many others are as well. Of course, all the hype for them was great and we were left wondering about them for years only to be let down with a lack of importance for them in the movie. 

I’ve had these OCs for quite a few years now and after what we got with the movie, I thought that it would be great to share them! It’s a diverse group of Force Users, all of them coming from the temple, which means that there is some lore changed since I created them before the movie/comic came out. Either way, I still think that they’re great! 

(*SPOILER FOR TROS IN THIS PARAGRAPH!* Also, in reference to Cazalin: I created her long before this movie even came out, and I originally wrote her as the granddaughter of Palpatine through Sly Moore. It’s an important part of her character. Despite how the Rise of Skywalker turned out - both with Rey being a Palpatine as well as what Palpatine did with knowing he had a grandchild - I’m not changing that about her. So it looks like Rey now has a Knight of Ren Cousin!) 

Cazalin (Main OC with RPs)

(Willa Holland)

Name: Cazalin Zera Crandora-Palpatine (Granddaughter) 

Alias: Caz Ren 

Rank: Knight of Ren, Commander

Gender: Female

Birth Planet: Corellia 

Species: Human/Umbaran Hybrid

Affiliation: First Order, Knights Of Ren 

Age: 29 (Born 6 ABY)

Skin: Pale | Has light blue/Purple markings around eyes and on lips

Hairstyle: Wavy | Thick | To Lower Back | Braided

Hair Color: Warm Brown 

Eye Color: Pale Green (Umbaran Gene)

Scars: Lightning scar due to Snoke going down entire back/parts of her right side, cybernetic left arm from starting just above the elbow (has synthskin), various smaller ones.

Positive Traits: Her drive is something that pushes her constantly. She puts pride in her work and wants to make sure that the First Order works to its highest ability. Deep down, however, she knows that much of what they’re doing is wrong and part of her hopes to one day put an end to Snoke so that he can’t treat the people of the galaxy with as much abuse and control as he does some of the knights (especially Kylo). Sure, she was full of anger at first for Luke, but that doesn’t mean she’s a complete monster.

Negative traits: With the passion she holds, Cazalin tends to be extremely stubborn. She likes to stick to one plan if she can help it and rarely dives away from her original plans. It mainly comes from her constant anxiety of failure thanks to the high expectations Snoke has on all of the Knights. She also doesn’t let a lot of people in. But even with the few that she holds close - like the other Knights of Ren - she sometimes feels to be a burden to them thus opts not to turn to them in times of emotional need. Therefore, she has a lot of emotions building up which can be dangerous in the wrong situation.

Likes: meat, studying holocrons, the idea of making changes to the Order, soft blankets, training, sleeping in silence. 

Dislikes: Manipulation, the ocean, bug creatures, snow/the cold, her family (from childhood)

Motivations/drives: Her main motivation is the idea of growing stronger to later kill Snoke so that the Knights can take command with Kylo as the Supreme Leader. 

Character Flaws: She suffers from trauma that can cloud her judgment with emotions, and she tends to push herself too far to the point of utter exhaustion during both training and missions as a way to “punish” herself. 

Combat  Strengths: Agility, use of force lightning 

Combat Weaknesses: Physical strength, patience, can get provoked due to emotions

Main Weapon: Saber Staff | One Hilt | Two Blades | Two Red Crystals

Background/History: Cazalin grew up on Corellia with her mother Shalla (half human, half Umbaran, Child of Palpatine and Sly Moore), father Devron-Rell, and twin brother Drexen-Thel. Devron was close with her when she was a child, and he had encouraged her to embrace her powers while her mother didn’t want her using them, knowing the history with her own father, even if she wasn’t close with him at all. She lost her father due to a shipment accident at the shipyard, and with Shalla’s refusal to let her use her powers untrained, Cazalin ran off and eventually found herself at the temple. She and Ben became close friends, relating to him in the fact that a dark entity reached out to her through the Force. Later, she joined him and some other students to join the First Order. 

Dralin 

(Henry Cavill)

Name: Dralin Novar

Alias: Dralin Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren 

Gender: Male

Birth Planet: Ord Mantell

Species: Human

Affiliation: Black Sun (Previously), First Order, Knights of Ren

Age: 40 (Born 5 BBY)

Skin: Fair

Hairstyle: Sleek

Hair Color: Dark Brown 

Eye Color: Blue 

Scars: His left ring and middle fingers are cybernetic from losing them, Scar on the right hand from getting stabbed as a teenager. 

Positive traits: Despite his embrace of negative emotions through the dark side, many of the other Knights are rather unsure how Dralin is able to stay so calm. He’s patient and prefers to wait things out until he feels as if it’s the right time to strike. The man also holds respect for his fellow First Order Members so long as they are competently doing what they are supposed to. He allows room for error as long as there was a clear effort put in that showed no signs of total ignorance. He is also a man who seeks out knowledge, interested in certain aspects of sith alchemy or other like aspects of the Force. 

Negative traits: Opposite to his usual calm demeanor, he is terrifying the instances when he’s pissed off. He will often snap necks to prevent things from getting too gruesome - partially because of his OCD and dislike of getting excess blood on his tunic. He likes things to be swift so he’ll do what he can to avoid violent confrontation so long as circumstances allow for it. IT proves bad in certain situations when the other knights believe violence is needed. Because of that, he doesn’t work too well alone with Orus, thus they don’t go on certain missions alone together. 

Likes: Force Knowledge, peaceful resolve when possible, fancy wine, people who waste his time, opera music (loves going to The Galaxies Opera House on Coruscant.) 

Dislikes: Complete incompetence, ignorance, disorganization, people who don’t speak up when they have something important to contribute to a conversation

Motivations/drives: He genuinely wants to keep order in the galaxy, and believes that the First Order is the way to go.

Character Flaws: Sometimes he doesn’t see that diplomacy will fail and always insists on staying on his original route on trying to negotiate rather than doing the hard things that are necessary unless there’s no turning back from it. 

Combat  Strengths: Patience, talking his opponents down

Combat Weaknesses: Dislike of excess blood on his tunic, balancing his saber and force abilities when he uses them connected. 

Main Weapon: Curved Hilted Sabers | Attachable Hilts | Two Red Crystals

Background/History: Being born before the fall of the Galactic Empire, he had a few memories growing up about them. It’s Because his parents were workers at the Ord Mantell Deep Dock that he lived on the planet under the control of the Empire. His parents often were caught up with work so he had to take care of himself, therefore learning not to expect much as well as to respect people who fight for themselves. He had his basic needs met with having enough food and other similar things. He eventually ended up meeting Volgoth and getting involved with the Black Sun to better support himself. But it ended badly he escaped with the Devaroian to survive on their own for a while until joining Luke to learn the ways of the Force. 

Isa 

( https://www.tvovermind.com/darth-atroxa-cosplay-star-wars-old-republic/

Name: Isa Covell

Alias: Isa Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren

Gender: Female 

Birth Planet: Ryloth

Species: Twi’lek

Affiliation: First Order, Knights of Ren

Age: 33 (Born 2 ABY)

Skin: Ren

Hairstyle: None 

Hair Color: N/A

Eye Color: Gold

Scars: Cybernetic Implants above right eye that serves as a way to better hack into technology 

positive traits: Even if she can be ruthless sometimes in her actions, that doesn’t mean that she’s always so merciless. In fact, she will normally keep to herself and not say much unless needed. Therefore, she will be observant with her surroundings. Isa is very committed to her knowledge of technology and occasionally works with First Order to develop new ideas. In her free time, a lot of the time she will focus on technology as well as practicing hacking into systems. There’s a training room for the knights dedicated to this practice Because she was insistent that the others learn tricks For when she isn’t on missions. 

negative traits: She is a bit of a mystery, as she seems to lack some basic emotions. It’s not that she doesn’t feel at all but she’s become numb to certain feelings. Therefore, she can be a mixed card and hard to read, unpredictable if you would like to call it. It frightens many in the first order Because they’re all terrified that with one wrong move, they will have their heads. There is no telling if she will tear you in two or if she will merely bush things off and forget about them. Also, she tends to “pop” out of nowhere and scared people with how quite she was. 

Likes: Sweets (Guilty Pleasure), technology, massages. 

Dislikes: Medication, when people stare at her, people who try to talk too much, talking too much herself, red meats, mentions of her past. 

Motivations/drives: She doesn’t really seem to have one, but rather just does things to do things. 

Character Flaws: The fact that she’s pretty lacking in the emotions department. 

Combat  Strengths: Not showing her emotions to the enemy (Therefore, being unpredictable), Use of technology (she’s great with decoding and hacking, plus has a lot of knowledge about technology overall and knows how to use it against her opponents.)

Combat Weaknesses: Stealth (Prefers to run right into a fight rather than wait to get things over with), 

Main Weapon: Saber With Retractable Handle | Red Crystal

Background/History: Isa comes from a family of Twi’lek refugees that gave birth to her a couple of years before the Emperor died. She doesn’t remember anything from those days but ess met with the after-effects of the empire when her family tried to rebuild everything they and their people had lost. With all that her parents were doing, she tended to be forgotten about and neglected. Therefore, forming social bonds was never a strong suit for her with the lack of a proper social and emotional upbringing. It played a part in her difficulties of understanding the proper functions of emotions or how to handle them. Let’s just say she’s not too great at making friends because of such an upbringing. 

Jerex

( https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/swtor-making-a-char-the-resembles-darth-maul.2540321/ 

Name: Jerex Donos

Alias: Jerex Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren

Gender: Male

Birth Planet: Unknown

Species: Zabrak

Affiliation: First Order, Knights of Ren

Age: 32 (Born 3 ABY)

Skin: Red (Black Markings)

Hairstyle: None

Hair Color: N/A

Eye Color: Yellow with Red Ring around the iris 

Scars: Scar along mouth (think Heath Ledger Joker(

positive traits: Despite being a more aggressive Knight who isn’t afraid to express his emotions, he tends to be calmer around the other Knights. He trusts them all with his life and holds high respect for reach other them; they’ve all got their strong suits and always prove to be valuable assets to the team. Deep down, Jerex genuinely cares for the others even if it is not obvious. He understands his emotions well and how to use each one to benefit him in battle. They never overpower him as he is always in control of his actions, therefore being effective in pushing back the complete influence of dark side where many others would fail. 

negative traits: Unlike someone such as Dralin, Jerex has little patience with people unless they are of a close rank to him, primarily being his fellow Knights of Ren or the Supreme Leader. He will usually go into a fight ready to get aggressive and dirty, but will not let himself go crazy like Orus might. He has some restraint, but only when it is extremely necessary for the occasion. Because he has a hard time finding reasons to respect others, he tends to just ignore anyone that he doesn’t believe is worth his time. 

Likes: Combat training, Warm weather, watching Volgoth and Orus bicker, lack of strict rules for himself on missions, meditating in the dark. 

Dislikes: Volgoth pushing him to drink, using bacta to heal his wounds, droids (some people suspect something happened in his past), 

Motivations/drives: To grow in strength, based on physical abilities and connection to the Force.

Character Flaws: His disrespect for some lower-ranked members of the First Order. 

Combat  Strengths: Stealth, utilizing his emotions in battle.

Combat Weaknesses: Speed, inability to properly use saber and offensive force abilities at once. 

Main Weapon: Spinning Double-Bladed Saber | Two Red Crystals

Background/History: One my see Orus of having the most mysterious background of all the Knights, but Jerex is a total Mystery to the point that even Kylo has no idea where he comes from. One day, he just showed up to the Temple with Master Luke and nothing was ever said about where he came from. The others don’t bother to question him about it as he had never shown even a drop of interest in telling them anything about himself. All that they can piece together is that he had a tough childhood that made him serious as an adult. 

Orus

(Megan Fox)

Name: Orus Valara 

Alias: Orus Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren

Gender: Female

Birth Planet: Unknown, though suspected to be Nar Shaddaa

Species: Human

Affiliation: First Order, Knights of Ren

Age: 28 (Born 7 ABU)

Skin: Pale

Hairstyle: Down | To Breasts

Hair Color: Black 

Eye Color: Icy Blue

Scars: Faint scar above eyebrow, burn marks starting on left hand trailing up to her elbow. 

positive traits: She’s very dedicated to her work as a Knight of Ren, and when she finds the group she feels the most satisfied with (The Knights of Ren in current times), she will devote herself to them. Unless one of her own were to betray her, she would never do harm to them - unless one of them gets on her nerves. Though, she is not afraid to speak her mind so you will know when you cause her issue. With the small chances, if someone happens to get her attention, you may be able to break her walls and be one of the only people that she thoroughly enjoys being around. Only a few people in her life have seen her affectionate side. 

negative traits: Ever since she was a child, she took some form of pleasure in other people’s misfortunes because she believed that she was damned by the galaxy, this thinking that no one deserved something good unless they pushed to earn it. In her days as a Knight of Ren, she used it to fuel her acts of torture and interrogations. She is known as the best in the entire Order to get information out of prisoners or just to make them suffer for their misdeeds. Orus is the one who deals with anyone that betrays the First Order. 

Likes: Her Light Whip, peace and quiet, sensing fear in others, successfully finishing a mission, flying out to space to “float in the void” in a ship alone. 

Dislikes: People who push her buttons (Which is very easy to do), getting wet, Nar Shadda, excessively optimistic people. 

Motivations/drives: She takes some pleasure in making people suffer, almost as if she believes that they deserve it from the galaxy being hard on her with her 

Character Flaws: She lacks empathy much of the time for people she doesn’t care about and therefore can someones be excessive with how she treats people. 

Combat  Strengths: Control of the whip, lack of empathy

Combat Weaknesses: Tendency to get to extreme with fighting, her bloodlust.

Main Weapon: Light Whip | Red Crystal Broken Into Smaller Pieces To Allow For Whip Effect

Background/History: She keeps much of her background hidden from others as a padawan, never telling anyone where she comes from or the past that she derives from. However, when they joined the First Order as Knights of Ren, she slowly started to open up a bit more about her past. It started with Volgoth’s insistence of her drinking to “loosen up a bit,” to allow herself to relax, which led to her admitting about her past. When she realized that there was no going back, she revealed that she was abandoned as a child and left with the Hutts and gangs of Nar Shaddaa. She surprising survived, and picked up on her violent behaviors from watching the cartel do nasty things. And of course, she had some seriously horrific things done to herself. Those things she refuses to talk about with anyone. 

Volgoth 

Name: Volgoth Garr

Alias: Volgoth Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren

Gender: Male

Birth Planet: Devaron (Grew up on Ord Mantell)

Species: Devaronian

Affiliation: Black Sun (Previously), First Order, Knight of Ren 

Age: 38 (Born 3 BBY)

Skin: Red

Hairstyle: None (Horns) 

Hair Color: N/A

Eye Color: Brown

Scars: Slightly chipped left horn | Scar under right eye | Busted knee with cybernetic implants to fix the injury

positive traits: Volgoth is very open with his surprisingly light-hearted side, at least with the other knights or when he’s out for fun. He brings the much-needed humor to the group through trying to lift their spirits with sarcasm. With most of the others, he is always expressive and platonically affectionate, wrapping his arm around someone’s shoulder for fun as they talk. He’s also daring, some say that he’s stupid but he likes to see himself as a brave soul willing to do anything no matter the cost. 

negative traits: Growing up with a gang, he tends to get overconfident at times. It affects his training when he doesn’t expect whoever he’s sparring with to go so hard on him. Or during a mission, there are a few rare cases where he might come close to compromising it unless even if the others are there to fix things. Overall, he isn’t a bad guy but his need to enjoy things in life occasionally lead to him not taking his duties as seriously as he should. He also was utterly oblivious to the fact that Zira is in love with him before the others said something. 

Likes: Zira (In a relationship with her), Alcohol,  Nar Shaddaa, Snazzy music

Dislikes: When Orus won’t lighten up, being told to tone it down with his actions, being in space/on ships for too long, going more than a day without even a small sip of alcohol. 

Motivations/drives: Being able to enjoy life even if it means doing a few not so ethical things. 

Character Flaws: His arrotance

Combat  Strengths: Ability to run off of pure instinct, daring nature (won’t back down from anything and will attempt crazy things he may think will lead to victory.)

Combat Weaknesses: Balance (Can get clumsy at times), occasional arrogance

Main Weapon: Saber With Elongated Hilt | Red Crystal

Background/History:  Most of his life has consisted of being around the Black Sun thanks to his father having associations with the group. With them, he would run jobs for them even at a young age but also learned how to enjoy himself. They pushed personal pleasure to be one of his drives in life. Volgoth eventually met Dralin and taught him to do things for himself every so often to gain personal pleasure. The two left when Volgoth did something to piss off the Black Sun. They stole a star ship together and were on the run ever since, avoiding any Black Sun. They finally had nothing to worry about when they joined the temple in their teenage years. 

Zira

( Togruta from Star Wars by Maja Felicitas Photo by eosAndy )

Name: Zira Vale 

Alias: Zira Ren

Rank: Knight of Ren

Gender: Female

Birth Planet: Shili

Species: Togruta

Affiliation: First Order, Knights of Ren

Age: 31 (4 ABY)

Skin: Yellow

Hairstyle: None

Hair Color: (Lekku/Montrals) Bluish Grey

Eye Color: Purple

Scars: None

positive traits: Out of all the Knights of Ren, Zira is the most compassionate. She first followed the others when she saw the errors in Luke’s ways as well as hoping to make sure that the others did not fully submit to the dark side as she cared for all of them. She’s an experience and Force healing techniques, therefore serves as the group’s primary healer. She’s almost like the “mom friend” of the group, making sure that they’re all doing alright and occasionally checking in on them. She’ll even go as far as to do it via holo if she’s not close to them. 

negative traits: As she’s a Knight of Ren, she sometimes feels out of place being as compassionate as she is. There are moments that she hesitates doing certain things expected of her but will still comply as she remains loyal to Kylo and the other Knights. Orus questions why she even stays with the Knights of Ren giving her compassionate nature, to which Zira will defend herself. In order to not need to get aggressive, she will use the force to manipulate people into doing what she wants. In this, she surprisingly doesn’t despite when she needs to do it, Because she justifies it by saying that there are just people in the galaxy that need to comply and she’s not afraid to influence them in necessary. 

Likes: Meditation, learning new Force healing techniques, floral-scented bath soaps, the beach, gold jewelry. 

Dislikes: How often the others get injured, being excessive in combat, how Orus treats some prisoners, being told to let everything of her past die

Motivations/drives: She wants to keep balance in the order and show some officers kindness when they can’t find it anywhere else. 

Character Flaws: Of course she is a little too sensitive and compassionate in her line of work but still stays for the tiebreak. 

Combat  Strengths: Healing herself or allies, Control of emotions

Combat Weaknesses: Empathetic Nature

Main Weapon: Two Saber Tonfa | Two Red Crystals

Background/History: She doesn’t remember much about her childhood before Luke found her while she was young. Feeling that she was Force-sensitive, Considering that Ben was Force-sensitive and his sense of duty to pass on the legacy of the Jedi, it was part of the reason why he decided to form the Temple in the first place. Leia would help with her much of the time until he put together the temple, where he eventually brought Zira and Ben; as well as a few other Force-sensitives that he had gathered. 

[johannesviii]

Top 10 Personal Favorite Hit Songs from 2005

16 to 17 years old. Finished public highschool, started public university in September. Looking back at 2003-2005 feels like looking at ten years of my life condensed in three. Exhausting.

Also we’re now past the halfway point of these lists! And this is another exceptionally good year for hits.

Disclaimers:

Keep in mind I’m using both the year-end top 100 lists from the US and from France while making these top 10 things. There’s songs in English that charted in my country way higher than they did in their home countries, or even earlier or later, so that might get surprising at times.

Of course there will be stuff in French. We suck. I know. It’s my list. Deal with it.

My musical tastes have always been terrible and I’m not a critic, just a listener and an idiot.

I have sound to color synesthesia which justifies nothing but might explain why I have trouble describing some songs in other terms than visual ones.

So I finished highschool that year. I met my best friend ever in late 2004 and we even had some sort of small crew back then! I had a bit of a crush on her but alas it wasn’t meant to be. I don’t know who invented the term ‘friendzone’ but they got its meaning completely wrong because staying friends basically forever with someone you love can be a fantastic thing. Things weren’t rosy nor perfect that year, of course, and I still was miserable at home, but I’m not sure where I’ll be today without her. She's amazing and she still lives nearby nowadays. Shoutout: if you read this, E., you pretty much saved my life.

I was still making tapes and burning CDs, still using my trusty portable cd player, and always listening to stuff while drawing during recess, sitting in a corner and doodling stuff in my sketchbook on the floor like a weird gangly goblin.

I had already started to buy Rock Mag in August 2004 but it really became my monthly ritual in 2005, and it lasted until autumn 2007. A reliable source of posters to cover my walls. At that point they were almost completely covered with paintings, drawings, torn pages from magazines and posters of Linkin Park, Mylène Farmer, Placebo and Indochine.

I also had a better access to the family computer and was a bit more involved online. Might explain why the number of singles I was buying plummeted.

It’s time once again for some (ok, many) honorable mentions!

Beverly Hills (Weezer) - I don’t even know why I like this but I do.

Bouger Bouger (Magic System) - I never understood why it was cool to make fun of these guys in my country. Their music is so happy and fun.

Holiday (Green Day) - My brother loved that band and listened to it a lot, and I was 100% fine with that.

Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day) - See above.

Gabriel (Najoua Belyzel) - That is so-bad-it’s-good at its finest right here.

Candy Shop (50 Cents) - As a sucker for terrible puns (HA, get it?? I’m sorry I’ll get out immediately) I can’t help it, I love this.

Love Generation (Bob Sinclar) - Stay tuned for more of this guy on another list.

Listen to Your Heart (DHT) - The original is better, but it was really nice to hear that again on the radio.

We Be Burnin’ (Sean Paul) - Not my favorite but still damn good.

Bad Day (Daniel Powter) - I even bought the single. What can I say except “relatable”.

All About Us (Tatu) - I bought that single as well. Almost made the list.

Le Bateau Blanc (Karol) - The last cut from the list. Not even kidding at all. I’m still not sure if Keane deserves to be on the list more than this to be honest.

Like it happened previously with Placebo not being elligible at all, it is a complete outrage that Precious by Depeche Mode isn’t elligible for this list. Like, what the f█ck. Playing the Angel was one of the defining albums of the year to me. I’m not even sure it would have topped the list, maybe #2, but it still feels wrong.

There’s another band who’s complete absence from this top feels kinda painful to me, considering how much I loved their new album at the time. Indeed, no single from Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge by My Chemical Romance is elligible for this list, and it feels wrooooong, man. I love I’m not okay and especially Thank You For the Venom, but even Helena would have been nice. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

For some unfathomable reason, Get The Party Started (Pink) and, even more unexplainable, Do You Really Want to Hurt Me (Culture Club) recharted in France in 2005 and both made the year-end top 100. The fact they are both elligible but all the stuff mentioned above this paragraph isn’t makes no sense whatsoever.

And now, the actual list!

10 - Everybody’s Changing (Keane)

US: Not on the list / FR: #48

Pretty great even though it’s not my favorite Keane song. That would be Crystal Ball. It’s fantastic and as a person who is scared, above all, by existential horror, the music video is terrifying. Sadly, it’s not elligible for my 2006 list, so Everybody’s Changing will have to be its slightly less good proxy for 2005.

9 - Et Si En Plus Ya Personne (Alain Souchon)

US: Not on the list / FR: #100

This has to be the most borderline non-elligible song ever put on one of my lists. But I’m glad it is still elligible. Remember the song on the 1993 list that I called an “anticapitalist ballad”? Well that’s the same guy. And this time it’s a song about how religion can cause both beautiful things and war, and how “the sky might be empty” because of us. It’s great. Here’s a translation. You’re welcome.

8 - F█ck Them All (Mylène Farmer)

US: Not on the list / FR: #62

Aaaaaaaaand unfortunately for everyone including myself, she’s back. Not her best song by a mile (told you it was all downhill after C’est Une Belle Journée didn’t I), but still pretty damn good, and that music video where she’s destroying bird-like scarecrows is amazing so here’s a bonus gif.

7 - Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Green Day)

US: #7 / FR: Not on the list

My brother LOVED this band and listened to it SO MUCH. And yeah, they were very good and that song might just be my favorite one from them. I don’t have much more to say about it, you all know it already. Let’s move on.

6 - Sugar We’re Going Down (Fall Out Boy)

US: #40 / FR: Not on the list

Again, it feels wrong that both Fall Out Boy AND Panic! at the Disco were elligible for this list but not My Chemical Romance. I was never a fan of these two acts, at all, and their supposed rivalry was kinda hilarious to watch from afar. With a bucket of popcorn. While listening to Three Cheers For Sweet Revenge and nodding sadly, of course.

This is still a great song, mind you.

5 - Feel Good Inc (Gorillaz)

US: #37 / FR: Not on the list (really? wtf happened)

Again, I live with someone who loves Gorillaz, so I claim overexposure.

It’s still #5 on a list based on a very, very good year.

That’s quality for you.

4 - Speed of Sound (Coldplay)

US: #57 / FR: Not on the list

A new chapter in the ascension of Coldplay from “Johannes hates this band” to “this is one of the best mainstream bands we have”. An epic saga, years in the making, and Speed of Sound was basically the last scene of Act One. Not my favorite song from X&Y (that would be Talk), but still really good. Hell, I even bought the single, and goodness knows I wasn’t buying a lot of singles anymore in 2005.

Holy shit, half of these are Benassi Bros garbage. None of them are elligible, though! Dodged a bullet there, didn’t I.

3 - Numb/Encore (JayZ + Linkin Park)

US: #93 / FR: #75

What a blessed mashup. For a few magical months in 2005, all the punk goth kids and the hiphop kids were united under this song’s banner and it felt like world peace had been achieved. It could have pissed off everybody but no! Everyone loved it instead!

“But Johannes, this is just Numb all over again with different lyrics. You can’t keep putting Linkin Park at the top of your lists forever.” Sadly no, I can’t. I know. It’s only #3. Don’t yell at me. Also, the next two songs are genuinely better, at least in my opinion!

2 - Lift Me Up (Moby)

US: Not on the list / FR: #31

I heard this on the radio and bought the album, Hotel, on the grounds that Natural Blues from 2000 was one of my favorite songs ever and than it wouldn’t hurt to actually own an album of that guy after all that time (”all that time” being only five years, but please keep in mind the past three years had felt like ten, and in my mind, they still do ; trauma is one hell of a thing). And a couple of days later that year, we went to Disneyland for my brother’s birthday, and I only had a small bag that could contain my cd player, and the earphones and nothing else. So I could only put one cd in it and that was it.

So I picked Hotel, and I basically retreated inside of it whenever my mother was starting to talk aggressively, which happened a lot in the various queues. So in the end, I listened to that cd a LOT that day and every single time, it would calm me while still being energetic enough to keep me enthusiastic for the various Disneyland rides.

Lift Me Up is energetic but cold, aerial but distant, uplifting but sinister. It was the perfect song for someone who was, at the time, trying to tone down their aggressivity and anger and trying to be masculine but in a softer way, while still staying themselves and not giving up the fight. I absolutely adore this song. It’s perfect.

It instantly joined my list of favorite songs ever that year.

1 - Mr Brightside (The Killers)

US: #16 / FR: Not on the list (this feels so wrong)

If I had to make a top ten of the hits of that entire decade, this would be #2. No debate whatsoever.

Because holy shit.

I was already sold on that band after hearing Somebody Told Me on the radio, which sadly isn’t elligible for this list (I instantly loved it, first because it was catchy as hell, but also because I love the chorus “Well somebody told me you had a boyfriend / Who looked like a girlfriend / That I had in February of last year", because as you already know I tend to be extremely literal minded and my immediate conclusion was “wow you two dated the same trans guy before and after he was out of the closet” and that was highkey relatable and no you can’t change my mind). So I bought the album about two weeks after, mostly blind, because the cd store was playing it and also because Rock Mag said it was great.

That was an understatement. Hot Fuss is one of the best albums of the entire decade and you probably know that already. The first song, Jenny Was a Friend of Mine, floored me right after putting the cd in the player and it felt like the album already reached its peak and there were still 12 tracks after that.

The very next track was Mr. Brightside. And. How do I put this.

There’s like a dozen interpretations possible for this song, and most of them are something like “this guy is so anxious and paranoid he’s gonna break up with this girl because he keeps imagining her cheating with another guy and it might not even be real.”

Now might be a good moment to remind you that at the time, I had a crush on my best friend, and was still firmly in the closet. And this song starts, as everyone knows, with “Coming out of my cage and I've been doing just fine“.

So... yeah. This is the song that accidentally convinced me the closet sucked and did nothing to deter bullies anyway, and that after more than three years of feeling mostly miserable, I should try to be myself and screw the consequences. I know it wasn’t the original intention behind that song. But still.

Godspeed, The Killers. I owe you one, guys.

Next up: Still not able to put Indochine nor Placebo on a list, OP is this close to punching a wall

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S4 Ep6: Gozaburo Kaiba Just Casually Started WWIII And Only This One Guy Cares

Welcome to November, where we celebrate writing a 50,000 word book as if I don’t do that every single time I write about an episode of Yugioh. Hello, this is my season. It’s wordy season. I’m so freakin good at doing this. I can’t say most of what I’ve made is any good, but I CAN say at least I’m prolific. Do enough content to fill that bitter pit and walk right over it, that’s been my motto for the past 5 years.

Anyway, I had an awful flu this past week. (Everyone I live with had it so every bathroom was like ground zero) It was SO bad. I still can’t eat spicy food over a week later (Which is so hard for me because usually I can keep up with my Indian friends, that’s my spicy level--max spicy, please--but since this illness, my white taste genes went into overdrive and I tried putting pepperoncini slices in my sandwich and it set my mouth on fire. Pepperoncini. It’s v embarrassing.)

I did attempt to write this post. Unfortunately I never made it past this cap because I got VERY distracted by the emblem on Alister’s face, and how it isn’t proportionally adjusted to match the angle of his face, and it was like three paragraphs of just wanting to talk about it. And then at some point I got very distracted talking about how many empty glasses I was given at my place setting at this baby shower I went to during the flu epidemic, and it mattered a whole lot to me at the time, but I think, overall, was mostly just some sort of nonsense. The things I’ve spared you. 

(bro has just informed me that the 4 gold-lipped crystal goblets I was given at this baby shower was actually very distressing and a very big deal and that I should absolutely talk to at least someone about it, but maybe he’s just saying that to make me feel better, but I have no idea. I am too sick for sarcasm at this time but my god why was I given so many glasses????)

I straight up have no memory of if I’ve made this joke before. Maybe.

(read more under the cut)

Since it feels like 8 years since the last time I could just eat chicken without feeling like I consumed an entire Thanksgiving meal, a little recap:

-Alister pretended he was Pegasus to lure Kaiba and then, off screen, murdered everyone in Pegasus’ castle

-Pegasus got murdered by I’m pretty sure Mai (which is like...OK then...)

-Yugi and Co went on vacation by driving directly through San Francisco and peeking out the window and saying “yeah that’s enough for me”

-No adults, not even Roland, bothered to come with their kids this time, so the only adult of the entire crew--Pegasus--is dead

-Rex and Weevil are luggage

-The Eye of Sauron showed up and it was the end of the world but Yugi threw a dragon at it so I guess everything is OK now

-Monsters are real but they are hard to animate so we’ll just pretend like they’re causing havoc everywhere although most of the planet seems basically unaffected by this.

-The Grim Reaper is a friendly monster that hangs out in a Japanese park and that feels fairly on brand.

And I think that was all that was happening so far.

In a weird twist of fate, Mokuba is the only one in this room that isn’t trapped which sort of...if you’re the only one NOT kidnapped wouldn’t that also be a type of being kidnapped?

And we finally get to figure out why Alister wants to Murder Kaiba so bad and, spoiler, it reaches.

???

I’m gonna get more to the obvious problems with Alister’s devotion to murdering all the Kaibas in a bit but yes, Alister is in fact going to try and Kill Kaiba on this kid’s show because of Kaiba’s Dad, who is such a horrible and abusive person that Kaiba essentially drove the bastard out of Japan and straight to the bottom of the ocean.

Just kinda feels like Alister has been living under a rock...which, I guess he has been. He has been living in some weird Atlantis structure so I guess he never got the memo that Gozaburo Kaiba is hella dead.

So that’s what they’re up to. How’s Sausalito?

Um.

Huh.

So the North Bay is a really classic scenery. It’s rolling hills. It’s NAPA. It’s like...definitely not Arizona. California has a couple of mesas but they’re no where near here and the Monument Valley style Mesas really only exist in Monument Valley.

And I know it’s because the background artist for Yugioh is all horny for horny rock structures but like...this couldn’t be farther from the Bay Area in the way that it is drawn and it is such a shock after all the work they did last episode to research that Bay Area lore. Once they crossed the Golden Gate they were like “well no one will care about this part” which is true not only of Yugioh but also of real life Californian politics.

Anyway, I have been making a map, but unfortunately my original file will not suffice. time to fix it.

There we go. Now they’re in the right place. Just smack dab in Monument Valley, Arizona, smack dab in the middle of the Navajo Nation and so hypothetically, not even in the United States anymore.

While in the car, Yugi has just been anxious as hell the entire time, and just going “y’all I have a bad feeling I’m uncomfortable I have a bad feeling” while Joey and Tea just patiently stared at him flipping out in the corner. So...kinda like a normal trip with someone who has high anxiety/possessed by a ghost. I  kinda feel like this is every girls trip to Disneyland for me. There’s always one Yugi who’s like “no one said anything about CROWDS.” and you kinda just gotta let them do their thing. Just let them get it out of their system and hide in the bathroom when they need to hide in the bathroom and don’t fight it, they’ll be fine. Just hold their spot in line when they desperately look for a secret place to medicinally vape because there’s too many freakin children at Disneyland.

And it is HILARIOUS that Yugi is able to have this type of premonition but cannot figure out that they have somehow missed San Fransisco and have wandered into a DESERT.

Back in Pegasus’ California (an island that legitimately looks more like California than actual Yugioh California) Alister has decided to go completely off the rails and it happens so fast and without any warning.

the line is actually “This doll used to be my brother’s” which is a very different meaning but both are likely from weird ass Alister and this weird ass show, so I’ll leave the cap like this (although yes, this is what I thought Alister was saying for kind of a while until I recorded it for this blog and was like “oh shoot I heard the line wrong when I had the flu huh.”)

Man, RIP Noah, he would have been excellent this episode.

Honestly seems like just yesterday when Seto and Noah were pitted against eachother by a cyberdemon Dad-head floating in the sky, Mokuba was possessed for some reason and being used as a human shield, Tristan was a robot monkey, and Yugi was just shrugging at Kaiba from across the field like “Kaiba if you don’t play good you die--oh my gods, he died. Well that was bound to happen...again.” Man.

Alister should be their best friend, this is nonsense.

So lets do the math to 7 years before 2002.

I searched Wikipedia for wars during 1995 (they do have a list of 90′s wars) and looked for any that involved heavy use of tanks and their artillery fire (on big swatches of cities like this), inner city western architecture, temperate landscapes, and western clothing that match Alister and Mikey (AKA WWII vibes) and found out:

Nothing fits that description

UNLESS Alister and Mikey are time travelers from a WWII bombing in Europe. This is Yugioh. That could happen. Probably not, but youknow...it’s not too late for Yugioh to bring in time travel.

I mean if you don’t want to get super political in your cartoon just invent a world war I guess? We’ve already clarified that Gozaburo was Big Boss, so at this point I can easily see him inventing wars just to sell ships.

(I could probably add thousands of more deaths at this point but I have no idea where they are, if they’re on a tiny island or an entire country so I’ll just...leave the count alone but just now it’s implied that a hell ton of people died during this episode)

People going off about how Sesame Street is so amazing for talking about issues like you’re Dad going to prison while Yugioh was straight up talking about the intricacy of the War Economy. Yugioh being all “don’t forget kids, your good capitalist economy survives off of the undeserved bloodshed of civilians in other countries! Eat the poor!” and it’s like hot damn this heavy commentary came out of freakin no where.

Anyways, this is stuff most kid’s shows will delicately skip over but nah, Yugioh is going to go here, and they are going to steamroll directly through it with massive tanks.

So, lets kill this kid’s entire family and talk about the terrors of the World War of 1995 and all the war orphans who get recruited to become soldiers at the ripe old age of 9. Alister was 9 when he was recruited to be a child card soldier.

This kid’s show.

Alister is...basically Raiden, right? Like as long as we’re talking about Metal Gear, this kid is just one step away from cyborg implants and weird colored blood?

Better wear bright red when you visit the war crime scene, surprised Gozaburo didn’t invite like an entire photo -op crew to incriminate him even further.

Now we did look up “where the hell is Alister from Yugioh from?” (there is no answer) and we did find out a little factoid. In the Japanese version of the show, Gozaburo had bought the land and was just forcibly evicting Alister and his family from their home with tanks.

Which is wild.

He just straight up evicted an entire metropolitan city????

Like the dub did a way better job than the sub at this one, I’ll give them that.

It’s just so weird that Gozoboro just didn’t like...raise the rent like a normal bad landlord. Instead he was like “rather than gentrify my land and save me a ton of money, I’ll just destroy everything I just bought and murder everyone here” which is like...

...Seto did the world so many favors when he kicked out his Dad, right? Like Damn. I don't understand why Alister isn’t freakin worshiping Seto right now when his whole deal is “I must kill Gozaburo” and Seto’s like “yo I already did that. Twice. I didn’t even have to literally kill him either, I just embarrassed him so bad that he killed himself. His stupid tank company sells joke games now. I literally turned the man into a joke.”

Then again, Alister is on the green magic and like I think it alters your brain chemistry somewhat.

(How ripped did Alister get in this episode, by the way? The kid is like 16 years old or something so how did this happen? ...The perpetual horny line running straight through Yugioh, man. Look at it run. That 16 year old is drawn like he’s 28 and really into Crossfit and his crop top gets smaller and smaller like every scene.)

So like this is a very gray issue that I cannot believe they brought up in a kid’s show (like can you imagine if Scrooge McDuck had to face facts that his company murdered tons of people???), but also this is Seto Kaiba. Seto grew up in the system, so like he doesn’t need to be lectured to about dirty money because he was on the losing end of that not too long ago. Seto is himself basically a upscale war orphan since he was adopted by Gozaburo to continue the machine like a freakin maniac (a Solidus Snake, if you will) so of all the people on this show I don’t get why Seto would care about this. This is just how Seto views the entire world as either losing or winning and no reason to feel bad about it because he’s been both.

Also...Seto stopped the machine. Kind of. He was unaware that cards were the same thing as weapons, but at least he stopped the sale of huge child-stealing tanks.

So they play the game for a little while and Seto does kind of poorly as usual, and just when I thought this episode couldn’t get any weirder...

And just like that, Seto peaces out. Like he does almost every single time he has ever played a card game solo except for that one time he was playing Joey Wheeler. (Which was also one of the few times Seto ever won.)

Like I just want to remind you that this segment is in the same episode as WWIII and the tonal whiplash is pretty remarkable.

That’s right, we’re back in the Unnamed Monster World, which is not the Shadow Realm, and which I thought you could only access if you were dreaming and able to search through the puzzle maze.

Apparently this can just happen at any time and all that stuff with the guiding Kuriboh and Yugi and Pharaoh trying to find this place was just...them wasting time.

Again he ditches the legendary sword so freakin fast because who needs a sword when you have a dragon? Only this anime.

And that’s how Seto, who was absolutely going to lose this game, somehow just barely came to a draw.

So just to recap, Seto has yet to win a card game that he didn’t get prophetic help for via a hallucination or Yugi telling him what to do. Unless you count Joey and grandpa.

Then, the one last adult I forgot about, the driver of Yugi’s car, decides that it’s about time that he also died and left this show as adult free as possible.

THE HELL ARE THEY?

Also...maybe it’s the angle but the writing on that gas station looks a lot like kanji.

Yo, what if this is the backgrounds for a different show and they’re just sharing? I mean I doubt it because Yugioh had a good enough budget but...what if? What if that’s why they’re in Arizona?

Anyway, next time we’ll find out if this guy just drops dead or has been a Yugioh monster this whole time, and I think maybe both?

And if you just got here, this is a link to read all my Yugioh recaps in chrono order

[slasherkisss]

CABIN FEVER - JASON VOORHEES X READER [CHAPTER 4]

Summary In an effort to remove yourself from your previous life in the big city, you move to Crystal Lake. The cabin you had inherited from your father makes the perfect place for a fresh start, however, there is a secret in these woods (and within yourself) that you must come to accept…and to love.

A/N It’s finally been updated! As promised, chapter 4 of this series has some sexual themes, so read with caution if you are under the age of 18! Thank-you all for your patience on this and I promise this series is not abandoned. I just have a lot on my plate and am sporadic with updates. Thanks for bearing with me!

You entered your home, the room warmed with the sweet scent of freshly baked pastries that you had pulled from the oven recently and were allowing to cool amongst your comfortable day against the back of your couch. You held the door open for Jason before closing it behind you, not locking it in case he wanted to leave...or in case you needed to run. Caution filled your veins, but, not as much as one would have liked to be normal. Hell, a ‘normal’ person wouldn’t have let this man into their house at all. They wouldn’t have moved to Crystal Lake at all, knowing its history and the being that lived within it. Were you normal, though, you wondered with a haphazard smile at your own musings, perhaps not. Regardless, you allowed it.

Regardless, you were alive.

You placed the arm on the kitchen table, careful to make sure the severed section was resting against a placemat in case blood somehow did leak out of the older orifice. Asking him to sit on the couch, you took a moment to brew some tea before joining him.

You leaned against the massive figure at your side, his skin cold against your own warm, fluctuating temperature. You could feel the muscles hidden underneath the coat and sweater shift as they tensed with sudden surprise at your closeness. Your eyes held the movements with careful regulation, making sure there was no line being crossed that would result in the careful mood you had helped to set being ruined. Moments passed and, soon, the tension gave away to relaxation as he grew to realize your movements were going nowhere beyond what you had done already. A smile graced your face as you sighed, comfortable with the situation now and hopeful that the room you were in would be able to warm Jason soon.

“Now," You murmured as you touched at the Grimm tome at your side, "Would you like to hear a story?"

His nod was almost eager, as if you had asked the question to a child. Another swell of pity crashed into the shores of your heart like a tsunami upon the realization that he most likely hadn't heard a story in many, many years. Even if he did, you further mused in your mind while you took your time to flip open the book and graze its pages for the perfect beginning tale, he would only have heard campfire tales of him. Words falling from irresponsible trespassers about the boy who drowned in the lake they were staying next to and who had come back to seek revenge on those who entered his territory. Instead of being sad or mournful of the poor, dead soul who had been hurt that day, they dared to commercialize it. To mock it relentlessly and dare one another to enter the area like petty thieves! You felt your body bristle with annoyance at the mere idea of it all, teeth clenching in your jaw as you took a deep breath and steadied your now shaking hands against the book. Jason watched you, half of him curious and the other half daring to keep his distance from you, less something happen that would prove his need to end your life swiftly.

"How about Cinderella?" You hummed softly as your fingers grazed the pages of said tale and you took a breath to compose yourself, "It's one of my favorites...Do you know about the story?"

Jason shook his head, and you couldn't help but smile in delight at the thought of being the one to show someone your favorite story for their first time. You moved closer to him, resting against his body and propping the book between the both of you so that he might see the pictures illustrated on the finely yellowed paper.

"A rich man's wife became sick...and, when she felt that her end was drawing near, she called her only daughter to her bedside..."

As you read, the words flowing like a memory from between your lips, Jason leaned in closer. His breath ghosted over the top of your head, his arms moving away from his sides and to the book, to you, in an effort to trace the words and images. You bit a chuckle back through paragraphs as he tilted his head through the narrative, looking like he wanted to ask several questions but was unable to. His body tensed as the tale crescendoed into the end, your gruesome description of the stepsister's fates perhaps slightly embellished under your tongue as you read through them with vehement passion.  Once finished, you sighed with satisfaction before shutting the book and placing it on the coffee table before you with an affirming nod.

"I love the ending of that story," You murmured to Jason, who was now so close to you that you were able to hear the faint beating of his heart under his clothes, "Those who were cruel got what they deserve, don't you think? Torturing that poor girl like that...I don't find it fair at all."

Jason nodded. You saw his eye avert its gaze from you and down to your body. You felt cold on your thigh, gazing with him to see he had put his hand on it as well. It was trembling on your skin and you felt your heart jump into your throat as you reached out, touching it to judge the amount of movement it was creating for itself. "What's wrong, Jason?" You asked with breathless worry, "Did it scare you? Are you feeling alright? Here, come closer and let me look-"

You reached. He didn't jerk back. He accepted the gentle touch you placed on his face, leaning him forward so that you could look through the mask and into its sockets. Into his face, holding his gaze for a moment before daring to break it in search of any other mark of pain or breakage on his body. Once finding nothing, your mind slid itself out of its momentary fit of intense activity to realize the gravity of your position. You had practically climbed on top of Jason in your efforts to both see what was wrong with him and through the passion you had read your story. His hand in yours, they sat on your hips once more as you held his face in your hand, cradling it close to your own. His breaths were ragged, shaking his shoulders as if he were the beginnings of an earthquake.

"Are you nervous?" You asked, choosing your words carefully as you could.

He shook his head 'no'. You licked your lips, pursing them into a line.

"Are you lying to me?"

A pause...and then a slow, shameful nod of his head yes. Your brows furrowed as you tilted your head.

"It's rude to lie."

He nodded that he knew.

"Are you nervous because I'm so close?"

Yes.

"Do you want me...to move away?"

No.

You held your breath, the sharp inhale obvious as your grip tightened by only the smallest of margines. Your body was shaking now too, being so close to Jason and holding him like this...Your mind flew around within itself, half of it writhing under the other's fierce taloned grip. It begged you not to do what you wanted to do, to think of the consequences and the reasoning behind its patience. The other tore at its neck, silencing it under the victorious screams of encouragement. Do it, it wailed in delight, you know you are able to! Do not be controlled, take control. You are what needs to happen, do it! Do it!

Don't! Do...Don't! Do...Do...!Do!

"Do you want me to get closer?"

It hung like stagnant water around you both, your breathings ceasing at the same time. The only sound that echoed now was the crackling of the fireplace, the scent of the room a mix of tea and copper from the appendage still sitting, half-forgotten, on your kitchen table. You were patient in your waiting as Jason took his time to argue with something within himself, his stomach curdling softly as he seemed to hyper focus on the offer put before him. You but your lip, mind racing to try and think if a way to comfort him. To show him that this was entirely his decision and his alone. Whatever response you received, you would respect it.

You dared move forward, slow and steady, as if he were a frightened deer. You could see his eye widen in awe at the closeness of your body. Of the way you pressed yourself against him. For all his Momma and him preached of sin amongst campers and trespassers, he couldn't help but feel the thoughts fade within his mind as you brought your face to his. After all, you did live here didn't you?  It didn't make you a trespasser or even a camper...perhaps that's why his Momma made no objection in the back of his mind? Perhaps that's why he felt... excited? Excited to see you. To head your voice. To feel pride at the way you so proudly displayed his gifts. To-

You pressed your lips to his mask, not daring to lift it up in case you crossed a boundary that sent him panicking. The plastic was cold on your lips, tasting of dirt and copper and wetness as you dared open your mouth to taste. The indents of the holes where his mouth would be pressed into the appendage. You could feel the labored breathing of Jason through each one as he exhaled, coating you in his taste and scent. It was as intoxicating as it was dangerous. You felt your pulse beat rapidly in the center of your chest as your lips touched where his might be, taking in more and more of his scent. More of his form.

You honestly were ready to die.

You knew of the rumors. Of the reason behind Jason's murders to those trespassing, specifically teenagers who were too horny for their own good. Yet there you were, practically on his lap as you held his hands with yours through the deep kiss you had initiated.  How disgusting, you mused in your mind with a smirk that pushed against his mask, that you would die the same way those ungrateful creatures would. How sad, what a sad...tragic little girl you were. How horrible. How-

Your mind froze when you felt a hand on your leg, tightening its grip so solidly that you made yourself pull away from the 'lips' of the man before you, keeping your gaze steady on his eyes, which were long avoiding your gaze. Something akin to shame seemed to burn in their center and you tilted your head, taking your time to observe what you saw in his eyes. Taking your time to observe the heaving of his shoulders. The sudden tightness of his pants as his fingers gripped at your thigh with a bruising strength that had long melted into pleasure and awe at his power. Licking your lips, tasting him still on the faintest edges of them, you found confidence.

"Did you...like that?"

Yes.

"I...won't ask you to do anything you aren't comfortable with but...Did your Momma ever tell you that there are other ways to pleasure people...without it being bad?"

His head snapped up, eyes widening dangerously in your direction and you felt your heart beat erratically in your chest as you tried to find your words to explain as fast as possible. Quickly, before that grip on your leg became tight enough to rip it off of your body and beat you with it. For some reason, that thought and pressure just managed to make you more wet as you leaned forward, rocking your lower half on his and taking a deep breath, shutting your eyes to concentrate on your words rather than his face. His form. His cock straining on his pants.

"People can use sex to get to know one another...To feel close to people they love...To understand them in a carnal and pure way...It's not just how people do it out here, you know, with just their lower halves. You can use other parts...Your hands...your mouth...Your fingers."

A pause so heavy it broke like glass. You waited for an answer. A question. Anything that might indicate his curiosity above all else. All you seemed to get was a contemplative look for a while and, you were sure, your fate was sealed. You had a good run, without a doubt, but this one mistake may cost you it all. Your shoulders were tense as Jason Voorhees finally gazed back up at you, visible eye wide with intensity that made panic swarm the base of your throat. His hand twitched on your bottom half, fingers ghosting up your body, tracing your shoulders. Touching your neck with the faintest grip before leaving to feel your form, passing your chest and holding your hips and you shuddered at each ghost of a touch he seemed to offer you. You dared to reach down, hand touching to his.

"Can I show you?"

He didn't move. You took that as an indication to start.

You brought his hand to your stomach, letting his fingers spread to caress the supple flesh under your shirt before making it travel downwards. Jason inhaled, sharp and deep, as you let his fingers rest on the waistband of your pants. Keeping it there, you used your free hand to awkwardly shake yourself from their confines with the utmost caution you could muster. Slow. Careful. This first time would not be anything large, but, it would be intimate. Your pants fell behind you with your pulls, leaving you in a flimsy pair of cheap panties you had slipped on in the morning on a whim of choice. You took his hand again and began to bring it further down.

He took initiative out of curiosity next, fingers pressing against your clothed pussy and moving his hand. His fingers were so thick, just one of them enough as it pressed into your panties and sent both the digit and the fabric into your wet hole, soaking both in your juices as his knuckle brushed your clit. You bit your lip, moaning soft and breathy at the sensation he offered to you and rocking your hips in a display of approval. His eyes widened again, fingers drawing back and holding his hand to his chest as if he was afraid he had done something wrong. Eyes widening, you bit at your lip before reaching out to his hand, bringing it back upwards to place a kiss on the knuckle.

"You didn't hurt me! I'm okay, see?" You smiled, "It felt good...Are you okay?"

He seemed...confused by this question. Not uncomfortable, but, definitely perturbed. You waited, patiently, for him to find his ability to answer, which he did by giving a slow nod of agreement, this one more eager than the initial hesitance had when you asked to show him. It was good. It was progress. Your mind, still riding the high of his visit in general, continued on instinct as you smiled and brought his hand down again to your core, this time making sure his fingers slipped past your panties so that the flesh of them touched your labia, pushing further as he inserted his finger into your pussy with slow and methodical interest.

He was huge, you realized with a soft moan of his name. One finger was enough to fill you so well that you were practically writhing. It hadn't helped that, well, since you had arrived there hadn't been time to either seek action or masturbate on your own. Each touch was like ten as a result, your hypersensitivity not going unnoticed but not drawing a negative reaction either as Jason tilted his head and pushed his finger deeper, hitting the knuckle before bringing it back out and repeating the process, admiring the squelch of your juices that echoed as a result.  Your hands flew out, gripping at his shoulders while your hips moved. You bit your lip, eyes screwed shut as you concentrated on the pleasure.

"Yes," You breathed out at him with a soft laugh, "Yes, that's it...Ah, it feels-mm-good. C-Can you add-ahh-another finger please?"

Your politeness was amusing enough to earn an awkward chuckle at the least, but a compliance as you felt a second finger slide in, the two digits far thicker than one and stretching you so comfortably that your moan was louder than you had planned. Rather than shy away from it, however, it seemed to spur him on.

Jason continued to finger you, each scissoring movement hitting your core and your careful instructions to him making sure that you experienced the perfect pleasure. Three fingers in, he pumped them vigorously in and out of you as you all but rode his hand, white knuckled grip on his shoulders only tightening more as you felt the approach of your orgasm immanent over your body. You could only warn him in huffs of air, gentle calls of his name, and finally a keen so high-pitched it may have belonged to a bird as goosebumps ran over your entire form. Your orgasm coated his hands in your juices and Jason, quite surprised by the sudden onslaught, kept his fingers buried deep within you as you bucked your hips on them, riding them through the white hot pleasure that had spilled out of you with a gasp for air.

You looked up at Jason with hooded eyes, mouth parted in surprised at the events before a chuckle managed through your lips.

"That was...hah...Wonderful, Jason...Th-Thank you I-."

A pause as you looked down. His cock strained almost painfully in his pants. As he pulled his fingers out of you, he noted your gaze and turned away in shame. Reaching, you touched his arm with a deep breath, "You don't have to be ashamed of it, you know. It's natural."

Natural...was any of this natural? Was your longing for this life of isolation natural? Or what of the sudden craving you had to see this ghost of a man's dick...You wondered how natural it was for a grieving girl to give her life up for a land she may die in and no one would find her body. For her to risk her life as she showed a murderer how to touch himself for the first time. It was all, perhaps, the most unnatural thing you could possibly imagine yourself doing, yet, there was something perfect about it. Something like pieces falling into place, a puzzle being solved as you untucked Jason from his pants and inhaled sharply at the sizable length offered in return.

He was a large man, and it went both ways.

Nine inches at the least, you realized as you swallowed in awe, and perhaps a little less thick than your wrist...you weren't quite sure what to make of the dick you were currently staring at. It stood at attention to your touch, throbbing and weeping with precum as the veins on its underside tensed with a longing for release. Jason seemed unsure of where to put his hands, one settling on the couch an the other back on your thigh as if it were a sort of lifeline. As if, when in doubt, he could touch you and you would inform him. It was flattering, in a way, but you were far too distracted to actually take on the gesture in your mind. Instead, you licked your lips. You certainly weren't getting it inside of you, not today. You were horny, but not stupid. Preparation would be necessary, surely, but, it was all you could offer for the time being as he had gotten you off first like a true gentlemen.

Your fingers curled around his base, giving him one solid pump.

He groaned like an animal, the noise so deep in his chest that it practically made the couch vibrate. It sounded more like a monster than a man. It almost startled you into stopping, but, something about it was so delectable. So primal...Your body suddenly craved more of those noises. More of those movements as his hips softly bucked into your touch. As his head tilted back, breath practically misting through his mask as he continued to bite back those soft sounds you had never expected him to make. Faster, you urged yourself just as you had in the forest, but not too fast this time. Careful. Show him how it felt. Take your time. Show him that it felt good.

That you both could enjoy this.

Your hand moved faster, then slowed as you lowered your mouth towards his cock. He inhaled as you dared lick a long, solid strip from the base to his tip, tasting the salty, mossy precum that permeated through. Not the most pleasant, certainly, but addicting all the same as you felt your tongue go back for more, lapping at the head and swirling your lips around it before enveloping what you could into your mouth, using your hand to cover the rest. You felt his hips buck, sending more into your throat and causing you to gag as tears swelled into your eyes. You went with it though, determined to see your decision through as you felt his tip hit the back of your esophagus. The way he fucked your throat as you helped to urge it on with moans that sent vibrations up his dick made you wet all over again, your free hand finding your pussy and rubbing vigorously at your clit to stimulate your second, more sensitive, orgasm of the night.

He didn't last long either and you felt his cock throb before it spilled his seed between your lips, the load so heavy that it dripped out of your cheeks around his cock, staining your chin and cheeks as it dribbled outwards. Pulling off of his cock, you licked your lips to gather what you could, as not to make a mess on your couch, before looking on at Jason with wide, curious eyes.

He lay back on the couch, watching you with wide eye and heaving chest, almost curiously as he tilted his head back at you. Reaching out, you touched his thigh this time, mimicking the gesture he offered you as you smiled.

"Did that...feel alright?"

No answer. Worry filled you. An anxiety returning over the high of your orgasms as you remembered who he was. What he has done. Your brain swirled in its own realization, drowning like a soup as the ways he could kill you rushed through your mind as if your life flashed before your eyes. Terror. Worry. Loss. Your stomach twisted itself full of these fears as you felt your breath pick up. You tried not to show it though as you tucked him back into his pants. As he stood up afterwards and watched you with an intimidating silence. You waited longer, your eyes wide at him. Curious. Wanting. Knowing.

He nodded his head.

Yes.

You let out a breath you didn't know you had been holding, it devolved into a laugh of delight as you covered your face with your hands and smiled up at him, pleased with yourself and proud of your actions all at once as you gave him a gentle nod and let out a sigh. "I'm glad, then," You murmured as you sat up from the couch as well, reaching out a hand to him. Hesitantly...he took it, gripping your smaller one in his much larger, blood stained grip. His hands were bloody. There was a severed arm in your kitchen. You had almost forgotten about that. You needed to put it in a vase or something. Maybe it would be a nice centerpiece on the table for a while? That sounded good.

Your mind fogged as you followed his movements automatically, moving to the kitchen as he helped you with the dishes the both of you had created. As you worked in silence and sat on the counter afterwards. He leaned forward. You leaned with him, your lips meeting this time in a slow and tender kiss that you didn't get to have before you had brought his hands to your hips. He couldn't kiss you back, but, the grip on your midsection offered all the reassurance you needed to see that he was trying.

You both were.

He left as the sun set, your day together slow but meaningful as you waved goodbye to the being shifting his way cryptodicly through the forest around your home. When he was out of sight you went back in, shut the door, and counted your fingers.

They were all still there.

You were still alive.

Tears fell down your face without your permission, eyes burning with the wetness as the smile on your lips simply wouldn't go away, legs giving out as you sat in the middle of your living room and held your head in your hands for a moment to allow the tears of shock and delight to pass through your system. You didn't...know why you were crying now. What was the point? Perhaps it was because of the hot, heavy thumping in your chest as your heart skipped a beat at the memory of Jason. Of how his fingers filled you so perfectly. Of the look he gave you as he spared your life over taking it away as he did with every trespasser.

There was something in you, a voice whispered eagerly on the wind. Something others didn't have. Something he liked. You would live because of that, and he would continue to let you.

You could continue as you were.

Perhaps...moving to Crystal Lake was something more than a decision made on a whim. Maybe, you realized in awe as you finally found your way back up from the sitting position you had crumpled down in, there was a purpose to being here other than healing from wounds.

Maybe it was Jason Voorhees himself.

[michael-langdon-appreciation]

Don’t forget about the foursome with this epic collab!!

OH HONEYYYYYYYYYY I WOULD NEVER FORGET ABOUT THE FOURSOME.

Here’s Part 4 ❤️😘

(Gets smutty here!) 

Over the past couple of months you’ve have little to no contact with anyone but Michael. It been lonely and isolating, the few friends you had have moved on with their lives and all phone calls and Facebook messages since have been brief episodes of small talk. You can no longer punch through the veil of distant friendship. The foursome are tangled so intimately with the fabric of who you are that there is nothing else to talk about, and no one would exactly approve of a polyamorous relationship even if you did confess. 

Michael has thrown himself back into ending the world. Gone most of the daytime and holed up in meeting with The Cooperative, you only see him in the mornings and then late in the evening when he was tired and the stress of the day forced your Antichrist to curl up behind you in bed. Michael was trying to make a life for you both, but the two of you haven’t been intimate since the day everything changed.

Neither of you have heard a word from Jim, or Duncan. 

Duncan’s silence broke Michael more than anything, the kind of pain it takes years to come back from. You can’t help the coil of jealousy that furls deep inside you whenever you catch Michael in the midst of his despair. He leans over the kitchen countertop, phone in hand as his thumb wavers over the call button. You keep an eye on him over the top of your laptop and wait for Michael to yet again bottle his courage. A pained little noise escapes his lips, the phone disappearing into Michael’s pocket and Duncan Shepherd is ready to be forgotten about for a couple of days. 

It can’t go on.

‘Perhaps it’s time to talk to him.’ You offer, closing the laptop lid. 

Michael looks so defeated, ’I can’t.’ 

‘The two of you were in this long before Jim and I came along.’ You point out, ‘To just cut him off-’

‘What do I say?’ Michael meets your eyes, ‘That he broke me? That all our time together meant nothing? If he thinks can just discard me like I’m a bad business transaction-’

‘Yes, he’s been a huge dick.’ You can’t believe you’re the one defending him, ‘But you don’t know what he’s thinking. Maybe an explanation is what’s needed.’

‘He wants Jim.’ Michael grabs a packet of Oreos out of the cupboard and shoves one in his mouth, ‘He can have him.’

His eyes meet yours again, crumbs coating Michael’s mouth. You know what he’s waiting for, ‘I haven’t answered Jim.’ Michael knows this, but he still craves the reassurance. ‘I won’t do so until we’re in a better place.’

Michael opens his arms and you step into them automatically. He kisses the top of your head, ‘Where are we, exactly?’

You don’t have an answer. You can’t remember the last time you kissed Michael Langdon, ‘I don’t know.’ You search for something better than that, ‘Together, I guess.’

He seems satisfied, but you wonder if it’s enough. You both stay that way for a few minutes, letting the weight of Michael’s head rest atop yours, indulging yourself in the warmth of his arms. His golden locks tickle your face, ‘If Jim and Duncan are a thing…’ Michael begins, ‘What do we do?’

You bite down what you want to tell him. That you know for a fact that Jim and Duncan are not speaking due to the paragraphs Jim’s sent you. There’s a new one everyday, varying from excerpts about his day, to Medina’s latest surfing championship, to how much he misses you. Every day you read them and then mark them as ‘unread’. Jim’s intent is crystal clear, he has never asked about Duncan or Michael. 

‘If they’re happy I don’t think we can ruin that.’ 

It’s not the answer Michael wants. It’s a lie, but it’s better than the truth. You look up at him, this man who is sculpted to perfection. Michael should never be in pain, he doesn’t deserve this. The tension between the two of you is magnetic. You can both feel it. Michael leans down, his hands sliding round your face to pull you in. Your hand creeps up to rest against his chest, the light pressure making him halt, ‘We can’t do this.’

He swallows, ‘Why?’

‘Because we’re only doing it because we’re hurting.’ 

You escape his grip, tuck your laptop under your arm and head over to the dining table. Michael remains motionless, staring at the spot you were once standing in. His hands ball into fists and then he brings them down hard on the countertop, ‘Michael!’

You know it’s hurt him. The pain is more than he expected as Michael cringes in obvious agony. You run straight back over, taking his fists in your hands. They’re going to bruise, ‘Stupid man.’

He wrenches free of your grasp, ‘I’m going out.’

‘You need to put ice on them-’ 

Michael ignores you. He seizes his coat and shoves his arms through it and buttons it up, ‘I’m going out.’

‘Michael-’

‘What, Y/N?’

‘I still love you.’ 

He freezes, ‘You love me, but you won’t let me kiss you.’ 

You let Michael leave. He needs time to cool down and you’ll give it to him. 

With no sign of Michael returning anytime soon, you start the day with coffee. The line at Starbucks was long, irritating and you were beginning to think a cold brew was worth the wait today. The smell of roasted beans is overpowering and you can see the stack of cinnamon buns slowly decreasing, sinking your spirits even further. The guy up front has been taking forever, his trench coat and neat hair giving off the appearance of someone who clearly has their life in order. 

You hate him for no reason whatsoever. 

Things begin look up as another Barista opens a till and Trench Coat looks as if he’s finally finished. Then he points to the last cinnamon bun in the display case, the one you had been eying up for yourself and your frustration boils over, ‘Just order already.’ 

The entire line turns their heads to look at you, including Trench Coat. His soft brown locks fall in front of his eyes, his mouth dipping into an ‘o’. He ignores the Barista trying to shove his coffee at him. You’re both caught spellbound as you meet those deep blue eyes - Duncan Shepherd. 

You’re heading back out the door immediately, coffee forgotten about, ‘Y/N!’ 

He’s got longer legs than you and Duncan easily catches up with you, standing right in-front and blocking your way on the street, ‘I don’t want to see you.’

‘We run into each other when there’s however many Starbucks around.’ He points out, ‘This is fate.’

‘Since when do you believe in that kind of crap?’

Duncan’s trying to balance his coffee, cinnamon roll and his phone. His hand guides you over to the couple of seats outside. It’s a cold day, too cold to be sat outside but you have little choice but to sit down. Duncan means business and you’d rather get it over with than be harassed by his assistant. ‘How have you been?’

You throw him the nastiest glare you can muster, ‘Really?’

‘Bad start.’ He puts his coffee down on the table, along with his phone. ‘You still with Michael?’

‘Yes.’

Duncan nods, thinking things over. ‘Not surprised there.’

You frown, ‘Why?’

Duncan crosses one knee over the other, a move you’ve learned signals that his guard is up, ’You two. You’ve always had a…deep connection. Deeper than with Jim and I.’

‘We’re just honest with each other.’

His face turns to stone, ‘I was going to tell you.’

‘When?’

‘That afternoon. As soon as everything had cleared…Jim just panicked. Ruined it all.’

You reach across and take a drink from his coffee. It’s an action based entirely on habit, you stealing sips from the boys coffees to try new things. It’s black and you cringe, but Duncan’s smirking from ear to ear, ‘What?’

‘I’ve missed that.’

You place the coffee cup back down, ‘Michael misses you. He keeps trying to call, to give you a chance to explain.’

Duncan leans in, his forearms resting on the table on either side of his coffee, ‘And you?’

You blink away the sudden bite of tears, ‘Of course I do.’ You’ve latched onto the corner of his sleeve, ‘I should fucking hate you for causing all this.’

‘You should.’ Duncan agrees, ‘I don’t blame you. But I miss you, all of you.’ 

‘Especially Jim.’

He tries his best to not let your barb get to him, ‘Jim, he was so different. The opposite of me, laid-back and dumb at times. I don’t know why or how he suckered me in so easily. But he did.’

His hand slips into yours, but you tug it away. ‘I know you Duncan.’ You say, ‘You’re full of strategy. You’ll try and wheedle your way back in and then take him and this time you’ll win.’

Duncan shakes his head, ‘Things have changed.’ 

‘Because he chose me?’

‘Because I don’t want to carry on with this gaping fucking mess inside me.’

Duncan doesn’t often admit his feelings. He reaches for your hand again, standing up and leaning over to make sure he has you in his grasp. ‘Y/N, I can’t focus on work. I don’t know what i’m doing and I’m fucking things up for my family.’ His thumb slides over your hand, ‘I need a break.’

His intonation hits you like a freight train, ‘We can’t.’

‘Why?’

‘Because it would be wrong.’ 

He bites his lip and it’s so sexy you feel your stomach tighten a little, ‘Just blowing off some steam.’ The upper right corner of his lip quirks up, ‘And I think from how you shouted in Starbucks, you need a break too.’ That storm is brewing in his eyes, Duncan’s fingers trailing over your skin. ‘I’m staying at the Four Seasons.’ Duncan reveals, ‘I hope you’ll meet me there.’

It’s hard not to agree right away. Duncan’s tongue glides out across his top lip, employing all his charm. You want things to go back to how they were, but this is something different.

This is meeting Duncan, exclusively. On your own.

‘I’ll come.’ You say, ‘But I’m not agreeing to anything. I just want to fix things.’ 

’We’ll see.’ Duncan lifts your hand to his lips, presses a gentle kiss and then he’s standing up. The spell is broken and you find yourself standing too, out of politeness. Duncan slides the coffee back to you, ‘Keep it. It’s how you drink it anyway.’

He knows she’s going to show. Because Y/N is predictable, and Duncan knows that Y/N will do whatever to reunite them all. The months in-between have been hell and it’s taken all Duncan’s restraint not to message any of them, to keep his head down and work like a dog to mask his feelings. To think about spreadsheets and code and elections rather than the feel of Y/N’s breasts, Jim’s needy whines or how Michael’s rings feel against his skin. Duncan Shepherd, the man without the balls to contact the three people he supposedly loves. How could he start up a conversation with Michael, the man who brought him into the man he is today? A man he passed up for Jim, the Beach Boy who never really loved him. Even Y/N whose eyes sparkle with devotion looked at him with such hostility, Duncan has thought about cancelling five times. 

But he won’t because he’s a selfish man. 

He needs this. 

Duncan has been prepping the hotel room for the past half hour, the flowers have been laid out, the champagne chilled in a bucket, a dessert platter lies under a silver domed tray. The lights aren’t dimmed yet but Duncan’s got on his best Tom Ford suit.  

The knock comes at eight pm on the dot. Y/N hasn’t bothered to dress up for him and Duncan’s disappointed. Perhaps it was too much to expect Y/N to dress up for him, to put on a beautiful dress, her hair styled perfectly and her make-up perfectly in place. She dumps her bag on the nearest surface and folds her arms, ‘Michael doesn’t know I’m here.’

‘Of course he doesn’t.’ Duncan already knows this, ‘Would he really let you see me?’

‘He would follow me I’m sure.’ 

He likes that answer, because yes, Michael has always worn his heart on his sleeve, just like Y/N, just like Jim.

Duncan shoves down the pain, Jim’s rejection still white hot and raw. But Y/N is standing there, her hip jutting to the side. She looks so confident, despite everything. How did she come out so squeaky clean? What the fuck does she have that he doesn’t? 

His lips collide onto hers, Duncan’s hands dragging Y/N right into him. She pushes against his chest, her cry of indignation muffled as Duncan pushes his tongue into her mouth. She tastes fucking amazing, of cinnamon and sweetness and it’s all too familiar and engulfing. He used to taste that everyday. A taste that used to dance on Jim’s tongue and make him feel even better than cocaine. 

Y/N rips away from him and with a CRACK, Duncan’s head flies to the side. ‘What the fuck are you doing?’

His hands still grip her, painfully hard. ‘Showing you what you’re missing.’

‘Fuck you, Duncan Shepherd.’ 

‘You will.’ He grins, diving back for a second round. ‘Stop fighting fate.’

She fights for another minute, but her hands slide everywhere. Over his shoulders, gripping his jacket tight, his ass. Finally they settle in his hair, tugging sharply at the roots. Y/N’s kiss bruises his lips and Duncan’s obsessed with the feeling racing through him. He hasn’t felt this alive since the very first time he took her, Michael watching from between her legs, Jim over on the sofa fisting his cock in his hand. 

They find their way to the bed, stripping clothes as they go. Duncan’s already suckling at every spot he can reach when she taps him, ‘I can’t have marks…Michael-’

‘Right.’

They’re both being selfish, letting their lust control them. But Duncan has gone far too long without being buried inside her and his body missed Y/N more than he cares to admit. Their pace is natural, experienced as Duncan quickly has he lying underneath him. Her breasts look wonderful as he leans one down and suckles it into his mouth. He plays her like he always has, Y/N arching and keening underneath his every touch. ‘Duncan,’ 

‘Hush,’ He purrs. ‘Let me take you apart.’

‘You’re a fucking dick.’

He slides his cock through her folds, watching the sparks fly in Y/N’s eyes. ‘What’s Michael gonna say?’ He challenges, ‘When he finds out you’ve been stuffed full of me again?’

‘Doesn’t need to know.’

‘And Jim?’ He’s being cruel. Neither of them will ever spill about tonight, not now it’s gone this far. ‘He wants you so bad, my Beach Boy and you’re here letting me fuck you.’

She grabs him by the ass and pushes Duncan in before he can do anything else. He groans in sheer pleasure, her slickness dripping into a puddle beneath them as he fucks Y/N roughly into the bed. Her tits bounce and she’s thrusting back up into him and letting her cries echo freely around the room, ‘OH GOD.’

‘Fuck.’ The curse slips out because she feels so fucking good and fuck he has missed her. 

‘I’m close.’

‘You missed me?’ He grunts it out, his cock pushing as far in as he can. ‘Missed how deep I can get my cock? Making you cum all over me? Your pretty cunt drooling?’

Y/N whites out, cumming early and Duncan’s gone too. He explodes, triggered by her early release and he fights back the embarrassment because it’s been too long for either of them. Y/N’s hands slide over his back, the motion gentle as Duncan pumps her full of his cum, ‘Duncan.’ She sighs it out, all the tension leaving her as Y/N brings him back in for a kiss. Duncan can feel the anger ebbing away with his orgasm. He surrenders for a blissful moment into her, Y/N’s smell and how soft she is. Duncan stays within her, his cock softening and his head resting on her shoulder. Y/N’s fingers flitter through his hair almost absentmindedly, ‘I did need that.’ He can’t watch her from his position with his face buried in her hair, but Y/N’s voice is soft, ‘Peonies. I didn’t even notice.’

He smirks, ‘My efforts finally being appreciated?’

He can feel her nod and a wave of pride surges through him at her approval, ‘The champagne is a nice touch. Very Duncan Shepherd.’

Duncan can’t hold back his smile. To be rewarded and praised, to be admired by someone even for a short time feels exquisite. Y/N always had a talent for making him loose, pliable. Something not even Jim could accomplish and lying there in her arms, Duncan feels his heart wailing for more. 

He wants her. it bubbles deep within him and maybe it’s the loneliness and the want to see Jim again, to reunite with Michael. 

No. 

This is different. 

Duncan leans up to kiss her, soft and gentle. Y/N lets him, her fingers massaging into his back, ‘I want to see you.’

She still under him, ‘I want things to go back to how they were.’

‘I don’t.’

She gives him a tired look, ‘Why?’

Because the old way didn’t work. Duncan was never fully happy. He craves exclusivity, to be the only one in her life. Because if he can’t have Jim…then he’ll take Y/N away from him. 

He can be happy with Y/N. 

Duncan captures her lips and slides out. Her face creases from discomfort as he lays down beside Y/N and pulls her into his arms, ‘Can we try it?’

‘Behind Michael’s back?’

‘If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work.’ He says, ‘But I think tonight proves that despite everything we can’t resist what is natural.’

She thinks it over, long and hard. Y/N may have an agenda, but Duncan doesn’t care anymore. He can show her that he’s good for her, Duncan can offer Y/N the world, ‘One date.’ Y/N says, ‘And in return, you finally speak with Michael.’

‘Deal.’

TAGGING: @michael-langdon-owns-my-soul @langdonsinferno @pastel-cloudz @misslanabananaa @lovelykhaleesiii napping-is-my-favorite @tickled–pinkmoodpoisoning @lvngdvns @ccodyfernn @asstichrist @yourkingcodyfern @langdonsdemon @satcnas @russianspacegeckosexparty @rosy-pugs @luxuryglitterhoe @langdonsoceaneyes @sodanova @petersfern-fics @avesatanormalpeoplescareme @sassylangdon @confettucini @sammythankyou @wroteclassicaly @Sloppy-Wrist @Langdonalien @alexcornerblog @sevenwondr @queencocoakimmie @sojournmichael @langdonsdemon @satcnas kinlovecody @kylosbabe @americanhorrorstudies @xxpixiefromdixiexx @elenareginaauditore @dadddysprincessss  @gremlinkween @readsalot73 @astir-bread @i-will-die-for-jim-mason @ms-mead @mega-combusken @hanhanxx @kahhlo @thelangdoncooperative @sojournmichael @langdonsrapture @ritualmichael @cryptid-coalition @sloppy-little-witch-bitch26 @infernal-langdon @jim-mason2 @duncandimension @dark-jim @jimmlangdon @xtheinevitableprophecyx @moontheweirdpan @moonlit-void-to-the-far-unknown

[wingsporkhalo]

New Senshi Generation: A Sailor Moon Fanfiction Spork

Hello all! I didn’t get my rear in gear to edit the next video for TodoBaku/BakuTodo, so we’re doing a new fic today!

Today’s fic comes to you from a reader submission! Thank you so much, @happysmilehello! (Not sure why it’s not letting me tag you...)

Now, I am by no means an expert at anything Sailor Moon. I watched maybe 30 episodes of the original (undubbed) anime way back in high school out of sheer curiosity. A lot of it didn’t stick with me. So! I brought on a Sailor Moon expert to help me with this, who also happens to be one of my very best friends! Thanks for all your help, @kittykatz009! All of that out of the way, let’s get started on New Senshi Generation!

============================================================

KittyKatz009 dont even get me started on how they changed the names in the 90s dub

WingSongHalo B U N N Y

KittyKatz009 any more questions before we get started on this wonderful fic

I WISH THEY WOULD HAVE JUST STUCK WITH BUNNY

WingSongHalo ah yes here is the link

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/8050676/1/New-Senshi-Generation

KittyKatz009 okay. we are open

WingSongHalo wait they named her something other than Bunny? I forgot that

KittyKatz009 in the english dub her name was Serena

WingSongHalo OH YEAH

KittyKatz009 Usagi -- Serena Ami -- Amy Rei -- Ray Makoto -- Lita Minako -- Mina Mamoru -- Darien ChibiUsa -- Rini

WingSongHalo I like how Ami and Rei got to stay the same lksjdflk

KittyKatz009 just had to ~Americanize~ it

WingSongHalo yeah because schoolgirls wearing seifuku is totally American

KittyKatz009 you know okay. im already on paragraph 2 and have issues

WingSongHalo

The time is 30th Century Crystal Tokyo.

That really sounds more like a year, not a time. If I ask you for the time and you tell me that I'm gonna be pissed

Nobody would ask for a better ruler than her.

Hmm. Your wording, saying nobody WOULD and not nobody COULD, suggests that they are too intimidated to ask for more...

She had a beautiful daughter named Lady Serenity, but the kingdom knew her as ChibiUsa.

Poor little bastard.

She admired her so much that she wanted to be trainind by her.

She wanted to be what now?

She hated that name so much that she asked to be called Usagi.

Understandable.

KittyKatz009 okay so like. Shinta... who is your father? Also, Makoto didn't necessarily like picking fights. she would defend herself, yes. but it wasn't like she was going and picking fights with everyone and their mother. Like yes, I know Makoto got kicked out of her last school for being in a fight, but that does't mean she is a delinquent. this was a part of her entire fucking arc

WingSongHalo

Instead, she more likely to get away from trouble.

She also more likely to skip words in sentences? Hmmm thanks for this background info. So the author has a fundamental misunderstanding of a character's personality right out of the gate.

KittyKatz009 like, everyone was scared of Makoto when she came to school because they heard the rumors and Usagi is all like "damn she cute. let me be her friend" and then there were the bonus points of Makoto being a great cook and Usagi being a bottomless pit

WingSongHalo

but she truely hated it.

Know what I truely hate? People spelling truly like that

KittyKatz009 okay... Amari. you are a carbon copy of your mother jesus christ

WingSongHalo

She spent all of her time the nose in the books and truely believe that friends weren't a necessaty in life.

...there's so much wrong with this sentence that I don't know what to focus on. I think I'll pick "the nose in the books." Like, what nose? Whose? is it just some big-shnauzed person that everyone has nicknamed The Nose? Why are they imprisoning them in the books? What did they do to incur this punishment?

But unfortunatly, she was raised as a fighter.

Excuse you, being raised as a fighter is usually really beneficial for royalty

She had become the new Sailor V.

Wow, she was five of them all by herself?

When she saw the teacher enter the room, she thaught she had saw her before.

She what now

I will call out your name to take your presence.

Where are you taking it and what do you plan to do with it??

KittyKatz009 Actually, Sailor V was Venus's name before she went by Venus, so that one actually tracks

WingSongHalo huh... I understand nothing

Present mam.

Is that Present Mic's similarly-Quirked sister? If it's not, it is now.

I just hope that you won't be as much of a pain as she was.

Wow, this teacher is a real gem!!

Even if she is our gracefull Queen today, your mother truely gave me numerous headaches while under my teachings.

Shit, I'd be late to your class every day too if you talk that ungrammatically. Plus I would also have headaches. NUMEROUS headaches.

KittyKatz009 Sailor Venus awoke first out of the 5 of them, so her alias she went by when she was fighting crime by herself was Sailor V

WingSongHalo huh! So I guess she kind of was 5 all by herself!

KittyKatz009 lmao yeah okay so im stuck on the fact that the author has switched between 90;s english dub and the manga

WingSongHalo

No mam, I might be my mother's daughter, but I am not as clubsy as she was before.

I... assume this means she's not in any clubs?

But she knew, after what had happened, miss Haruna would call her mother.

??? Did I somehow miss something happening? She didn't do anything wrong, did she?

KittyKatz009 Haruna????

WingSongHalo no I mean why would the teacher call Usagi's mother? Usagi didn't do anything wrong

I am very resorsfull.

Then learn to read a dictionary, geez.

KittyKatz009 Im just SO CONFUSED like, they're in Crystal Tokyo now. why in the world would Ms. Haruna be there? She was from the 20th century

WingSongHalo

My mother is not all there sometimes.

I know this means "my mother isn't there all the time," but this wording definitely is Usagi calling her mother crazy aslkfjs;lkd Yeah they mention being in the 20th century?? it says "Usagi felt embarassed as she knew how her mother was in the 20th century. It was now the time to show how she was a lot more mature at her age." oh okay so that was the past

KittyKatz009 i mean, Chibiusa DID think her mom was crazy.

WingSongHalo Haruna is here from there I guess, as a fully-grown woman

KittyKatz009 but... Ms. Haruna was already a full grown woman in the 20th century... she was Usagi's teacher... CLUMSY. That's supposed to be clumsy. jesus

WingSongHalo yes it's supposed to be clumsy

KittyKatz009 okay lol

WingSongHalo and oh I see. So Haruna is just old now

KittyKatz009 Haruna would be fucking dust JESUS I WANT TO CALL YOU AND SCREAM

WingSongHalo laj;fsdlk I listened to a lot of loud crowds and stuff today so I would probably just panic if I heard screaming atm XD

KittyKatz009 not ACTUALLY scream lol but i know what you mean more like rant. bc im on the paragraph about the bad guy and I HAVE WORDS

WingSongHalo

I always spend time talking to all of my firends."

You always spend time talking to Firenze? What are you doing in the Forbidden Forest to begin with?? Not to mention that conversations with centaurs are hardly ever productive; you're probably wasting your time.

An new evil face had been awaken from it's deep sleep.

The new evil face is deep sleep apparently

KittyKatz009 I HAVE SO MANY ISSUES WITH THIS

WingSongHalo

She had long red hair covered by a light pink vail.

A light pink what now

Deep blue eyes and a long turquish blue dress.

Ah yes, Turquish, from the country of Tourquey. Say, won't you have some Tourquish Delight in the Tourquish Bath? Later we'll have some Thanksgiving Tourquey.

KittyKatz009 So you just add -ai to the end of Beryl's name and that's how you get your new villain's name???

WingSongHalo

She was the new Queen of the Negaverse.

All right what the hell is the Negaverse. Please tell me it's better than the Omegaverse

KittyKatz009 Negaverse was the 90's dub term for the Dark Kingdom Next, we have a continuation error. Endymion can't be both the King of Crystal Tokyo AND the Dark Prince. So either he be cheating on Usagi, or you're grasping at straws here for this one.

WingSongHalo

The second one was Cyrius, who controls the East and willed the power of ice. The thrid was general Tera, who controls the West and willed the powers of the earth. And finally, Tempest, who controls the Southern parts of the Underworld and controls the wind.

Mkay so these names are rooted in Greek and Roman Mythology so this leads me to believe that the author did not come up with these names by themself

KittyKatz009 that was what i was thinking too. and convenience was used

WingSongHalo Wait Endymion is with Usagi? Usagi Senior? Wouldn't that just make him Tuxedo Mask

KittyKatz009 Okay, Mamoru, aka Tuxedo Mask, is Endymion

WingSongHalo ah

KittyKatz009 Endymion was the protector of Earth who fell in love with the Moon Princess

WingSongHalo that sure is a lot of names for one person, but I guess it's pretty funny that his name literally means "to protect"

KittyKatz009 he was, for all intents and purposes, Sailor Earth lmao

WingSongHalo I WAS JUST THINKING THAT

KittyKatz009 SAME TERU BRAIN

WingSongHalo "all these dumb bitches writing Sailor Earth fiction... they had one all along"

KittyKatz009 there's so much lore getting messed up here it's ridiculous

WingSongHalo I'm so so glad I have you here to help me parse it all LOL I'd be totally ignorant about everything

KittyKatz009 also... CHIBIUSA IS ALREADY A SAILOR GUARDIAN. YOU CAN'T FUCKING RE-AWAKEN HER. SHE DIDN'T GET HER MEMORIES WIPED

WingSongHalo

" Diana, you have to wake the sleeping powers of the next generation of senshis.

Who the fuck is Diana???

KittyKatz009 Diana is Luna and Artemis's child

WingSongHalo We got fuckin Wonder Woman in here now? That would make sense, although not from a mythological perspective because Artemis and Diana are tHE SAME FUCKING GODDESS well relatively speaking there are of course differences between the Greek and Roman incarnations of the goddess

KittyKatz009 oh, so you took away her brooch. THAT DOESNT MEAN SHE ISN'T A GUARDIAN ANYMORE. SHE'S JUST ONE WHO IS USELESS

WingSongHalo

A new evil had arrived on Earth and they must be stopped. Now go! "

Gee mom, d'you think I could get a little more information first???

KittyKatz009 lmao oh believe me, I know all about Diana and Artemis, since I study both of them so... you LITERALLY have her wearing the same thing her mother wore. when she CANONICALLY HAS HER OWN OUTFIT THAT IS PINK

WingSongHalo

She has experience compared to the inner's daughter, who has none."

What the fuck is the inner. That sounds gross

KittyKatz009 I'm assuming they mean Sailor Venus's child.

WingSongHalo

Luna, are you sure that this is the right thing to do, she might not be able to take care of this by herself? " asks Artemis

You know what? The most irritating thing about this is that there's no description given to any characters except to give us a basic picture of new ones. If I didn't have a basic knowledge of Sailor Moon, it might be hard to remember that Artemis is a fUCKING TALKING CAT

KittyKatz009 i just finished the chapter and i am going to scream i mean, they have human forms too. but yeah, they are in their cat forms from what i gathered

WingSongHalo

You will give her the Moon Brooch and call her Sailo Moon."

I really don't think it works like that. You can't just subtract a letter and call it good oh he has a human form?? How come it's not on the Wiki?? I just looked at the gallery to see if there was one!!

KittyKatz009 because it was a manga only thing

WingSongHalo Ah I see

KittyKatz009 though, in the 2nd sailor moon movie, you do get to see Luna animated in her human form

WingSongHalo wait what the fuck why don't they even list his human form on the wiki under Manga info???

KittyKatz009 i have no idea

WingSongHalo STEP UP UR WIKI GAME, SAILOR MOON FANDOM

KittyKatz009 RIGHT

WingSongHalo It's not like they haven't had plenty of time to compile all the info!!

KittyKatz009 BUT FOR REAL THOUGH

WingSongHalo

Usagi was in her room trying to figure out a way to tell her mother about miss H.'s reaction about her in class.

??? I really don't get this. Usagi didn't do anything wrong; why does she need to tell her mother about it at all???

- What's this? Blue, I don't wear blue. Where the fuku that Pegasus gave us?" Usagi was now freaking out.

WHERE THE FUKU YOU GOING, PEGASUS

KittyKatz009 i have no idea. unless she is embarrassed that her mom is the reason Miss should be dead H has a negative opinion of her

WingSongHalo

Meanwhile, Berylia called out Cyrius and ordered her to steal as many humans as she could, so they could be corrupted to their cause.

Sure why not. Sounds just vague enough to work

She aggrees and leaves.

She what now

KittyKatz009 SPEAKING OF PEGASUS. SM CRYSTAL IS FINALLY GETTING THE 4TH SEASON THIS YEAR. WELL, IT'S THE MOVIE. BUT IT'S THE PEGASUS ARC

WingSongHalo

Her specialy were jewelry and was called madame Bijou.

Leave Hamtaro's girlfriend out of this.

She was now confident enough to capture alot of humans since their desire for shining and expensif jewels were enough to corrupt them.

I'm fucking dying at "expensif" alkjf;sdkljf

KittyKatz009 okay but like... THIS IS A FUCKING PLAY BY PLAY OF THE ORIGINAL.

the first villain Usagi fights is a monster who disguises itself as Naru's mom (Usagi's bff) who owns a jewelry store and had a 90% off sale

WingSongHalo

Don't miss the opportunity to buy your spouse's happiness."

Sounds legit!!!! lsjkdfdkj what the fuku

The day was a magnificent success.

God I wish that were me

KittyKatz009 im almost in tears from this fic. and it's only chapter 1

WingSongHalo

She saw a young human girl. She grabbed her by the neck and changed into her monster form.

OH NO, NOT A YOUNG HUMAN GIRL!! THOSE ARE THE LEAST FLAVORFUL(???)

KittyKatz009 THOSE ARE THE ONES WITH THE MOST ENERGY

WingSongHalo

- Who are you? Who sent you?"

You need to chill. You just said she's a young human girl. Why would the monster be suspicious of a young human girl? Did it sense something about her? Was she giving off a powerful amount of energy? Did she look familiar? GIVE US SOMETHING, AUTHOR

- Help me please... " as the young victim struggled for air.

that's me laughing at this fic oh wow lookee there! The author actually tries to describe a battle!! Points for effort! However... is this description another blow-by-blow, Jaz?

KittyKatz009 i feel like that's supposed to be a bad parallel to when the ORIGINAL monster held NARU like this and NARU'S cries for help are what made USAGI come save her why yes, yes it is

WingSongHalo ooooooof course

- My name is the Silver Masked Tuxedo. And it was a pleasure to be of help." as he left.

Oh shit, your Silver Moon might show up here yet

KittyKatz009 the only thing they left out was the fact that Usagi started bawling like a baby, and it got amplified, which stunned them before Tuxedo Mask arrived SILVER MOON IS MINE AND THIS AUTHOR CAN FUCK RIGHT OFF

WingSongHalo

Sailor Moon grabbed her tiara and used it to purify the corrupted humans and toast the monster.

Oh, lovely! Everyone loves a good toasted monster, roasted cozily over a campfire. A family favorite

Diana came by her side and ask if she was doing better, but all she had as an answer was babbling.

Well that's a mood.

KittyKatz009 WHY ARE YOU IN HIGH SCHOOL???

WingSongHalo Usagi was zoning out, remembering that really handsome man that just saved her.

It's probably her brother or something I mean if she's like an exact copy of her mom, this guy is an exact copy of their dad, right?? It's all falling into place,,,

KittyKatz009 the only thing i can see is that they bring Pegasus into the fic and that he is Silver Mask

WingSongHalo

- My name is Tsukino Usagi, Lady Serenity and Sailor Moon, all that being in high school and 15 years old. Hope tomorrow will be better.

Hope next chapter will be better.

=============================================================

Next time: chapters 2 and 3! The girls watch InuYasha and fight a villain!

Support me on Patreon! I am poor!! https://www.patreon.com/WingSongHalo And check out my YouTube channel, where you can see video sporks!! https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgTMFf7W6SyWoZdpqY9ZdPw