#fos: base icons

[filmtalia]

PAID  CONTENT  !!      $20     in  the  source  is  the  link  to  the  payhip  where  you  can  buy  #1,374  pre - cropped  ( 100x100 )  and  sharpened  icons  of  talia  ryder  ( 2002 )   in  the  role  of  clare  rafferty  from  the  netflix  movie  hello,  goodbye,  and  everything  in-between   ( 2022 ),   if  you  buy,   like / reblog  this  post.   if  you  use,   be  sure  to  credit  as  credit  is  mandatory. 

[aptericia]

Octopath II gameplay tips!

I'd been thinking about this for a while, but since I have mutuals who are playing 8path2, here's a list of advice and things the game doesn't explain!

Incorrect/vague skill descriptions:

The Warrior skill "Enervating Slash": The description is flat-out wrong. This will remove all positive status effects from the USER, rather than the targeted enemy!

"Increased intensity spells" courtesy of the Scholar job: So wtf does this even mean? It gives you a counter that causes the next x number of AREA TARGET SPELLS to be "intensified". For instance, the Cleric's "Heal Wounds" skill can be intensified, but NOT the Apothecary's "Healing Touch" skill. For elemental-based spells, such as Fireball, this causes it to trigger twice (or three times if using Alephan's Wisdom).

Throné's EX skill "Disguise": When used on an ally, Throné takes on their job(s) and learned skills. Sadly, because she doesn't also take on their equipment stats (to my knowledge; I haven't actually verified this), it means she's usually not optimized for their fighting style.

Partitio's EX skill "Share SP": This also has a flat-out wrong description. He gives a percentage of his SP to EACH party member, not just one. For instance, without boosting, he will lose 25% of his max SP and every other party member will gain whatever that amount is. And yes, they'll get it even if it puts them above their normal max SP! Partito rocks!

The Apothecary job’s “Preventative Measures” support skill: Rather than nullifying status ailments for the first 3 turns of battle (as the description says), it nullifies the first three status effects to target the user. So if the user isn’t hit with a status effect until turn 4, it will still be nullified, but if they’re hit with 4 status effects within the first three turns, the 4th will still take effect.

Battle interface:

"Status ailments" include Poison (take damage each turn), Sleep (unable to act until hit), Unconsciousness (unable to act, period), Blindness (greatly reduced accuracy), Terror (unable to boost), Silence (unable to use skills) and Confusion (target a random ally until hit).

"Positive status effects" and "negative status effects" include buffs/penalties to stats, as well effects like temporary HP regen, Sidestep/Vengeful Blade charges, etc. Note that the Cleric skill "Sacred Shield" does NOT appear next to the character's name, and therefore does not count as a "positive status effect"

The order of enemy weaknesses is something you'll see mentioned in any guide/trivia about the game, and it's incredibly helpful. Weaknesses are always listed in the same order: Sword, Polearm, Dagger, Axe, Bow, Staff, Fire, Ice, Thunder, Wind, Light, and Dark (SPD ABS FIT WLD). So for instance, if I determine that an enemy is weak to daggers and the dagger icon is in the first square, I know that enemy CANNOT be weak to swords or polearms, because those would be listed first.

Traveler talents:

Don't forget that Osvald's Study Foe talent reveals more weaknesses each time he encounters the same enemy!

Remember to have Partitio in your party in order to take advantage of his Business Partners talent! For instance, if Parti's follower gives a discount when buying things, this applies not only to NPCs he Purchases from but also shops if he happens to be in the party. Similarly, you may want to pick up a follower that earns more from sales before you sell off a bunch of junk. And if his follower gives a refund at the inn, you can refill your whole party's meters for free as long as you keep Partitio in your party.

Dancer skills that will activate Agnea's Dance Session talent include: Lion Dance (Dance Session targets the ally), Peacock Strut (Dance Session targets the ally), Dagger Dance (Dance Session targets Agnea), and Bewildering Grace (Dance Session targets a random party member). Ruinous Kick, Stimulate, and Sweeping Gale will NOT trigger a Dance Session.

If you want to go into a dungeon you're just under-leveled for, try taking both Throné and Temenos and clearing it at night. Blessing of Darkness and Moonlight Judgement together can give a huge advantage, especially once you're higher-level.

Miscellaneous:

Caits and Octopuffs have absurdly high evasion and elemental defense, but give you massive rewards if defeated. They will often flee the battlefield if ANY enemy has taken damage by the time their turn comes around. Usually the best way to defeat them is to hammer them will all your strongest magic, as spells can't miss and have a minimum damage of 1. Use of Stimulate, Leghold Trap, and the A Step Ahead support skill can come in handy to push their turns back. As @limayde mentioned, Medium and Large Soulstones can also defeat most of them instantly!

Healing (via skills) is based on the caster’s elemental defense. Therefore, it’s a good idea to give your healers equipment with high Elem. Def!

[snowfox102]

I added the Franklin Badge to my lineup of MOTHER/EarthBound pin designs! This one is based on the way it looks in Smash Bros since that's kind of accepted as the "main" appearance, though I would like to make the gold colored version too. It comes in two sizes.

[theomeganerd]

Video Game News Stories for March 17th, 2024

Unionization Efforts Gain Momentum: The ongoing movement towards unionization within the gaming industry continued with news of another 600 Activision QA testers joining the cause. This development comes amidst the ongoing battle between Activision Blizzard and the Communications Workers of America (CWA) over union recognition. The additional workers joining the cause solidify the movement within Activision and could have significant implications for working conditions across the industry.

Epic Games Scores Victory in Europe: In a significant development, Apple reversed its ban on Epic Games' developer account following an enquiry by the European Commission. This reversal stems from the ongoing legal battle between the two companies concerning in-app purchases and Epic's use of its own payment system within Fortnite. While the ruling only applies within the European Union, it represents a potential turning point in the ongoing fight for fairer App Store practices.

SAG-AFTRA Considers Strike Over AI Terms in Contracts: The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) is reportedly considering a strike over proposed contract language concerning the use of artificial intelligence in video game performances. The union is concerned about the potential for AI to replace voice actors and the lack of clear regulations regarding ownership and compensation for AI-generated performances. This development highlights the growing challenges posed by AI in the entertainment industry and the need for fair treatment of all performers.

Minors Prioritize Safety in Online Gaming Spaces: A new report revealed that minors and young adults prioritize safety in online gaming spaces. The study highlights concerns about harassment, bullying, and predatory behavior within online games. The findings call for developers and platforms to prioritize safety features and implement stricter moderation policies to create a more welcoming environment for younger players.

Industry Gears Up for World Video Game Hall of Fame Finalists Announced: The finalists for the 2024 World Video Game Hall of Fame were officially announced. The prestigious list includes iconic titles like Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and Pong. This year's inductees will be revealed later this year, sparking nostalgia and debate among gamers worldwide.

Twitch Viewership Dips: While the news wasn't all sunshine and rainbows, reports also emerged regarding a slight dip in viewership on Twitch in February 2024. While the exact reasons are still being investigated, this could indicate a shift in viewing habits or increased competition in the streaming landscape.

New Video Game Releases for March 17th, - March 22nd

Thursday, March 21st

Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Collection (PC): The critically acclaimed PlayStation 5 exclusive Horizon Forbidden West arrives on PC with this release. This Complete Collection includes the base game and all story-based DLC.

Final Fantasy 14 (Xbox Series X/S): Fans of the MMORPG rejoice! Final Fantasy 14 is finally playable on Xbox Series X/S.

Midnight Ghost Hunt (PC): This asymmetrical hide-and-seek horror game tasks players with either being a Ghost haunting a mansion or a Hunter trying to banish them.

Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile (iOS, Android): The popular free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone comes to mobile devices.

Friday, March 22nd

Dragon's Dogma 2 (PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S): The long-awaited sequel to the 2012 action RPG Dragon's Dogma is here! Expect an all-new story, new enemies, and a revamped pawn system.

Princess Peach: Showtime! (Switch): In this new musical adventure game, Princess Peach uses her singing voice to defeat enemies and save the day.

Rise of the Ronin (PS5): Team Ninja, the developers of Nioh, bring you Rise of the Ronin, a new open-world action RPG set in Japan during the Boshin War. Play as a former samurai forging your own path in a changing world.

The Legend of Legacy HD Remastered (PC, Switch, PS4, PS5): This remastered version of the RPG The Legend of Legacy includes a new guidebook function and high-definition visuals.

[thesims4blogger]

The Sims 4: Official Laundry List (December 1st, 2023)

The Sims Direct Communications, the official Twitter account for technical information on The Sims 4, has just shared a new Laundry List of bug fixes that should be resolved with the next game update.

Although an exact date hasn’t been confirmed for the next patch, it is safe fo assume it is going live on Tuesday, December 5th, two days before the release of The Sims 4 For Rent Expansion Pack.

Sul Sul Simmers!

Welcome to this month’s Laundry List, where we share a list of the top community concerns we’re currently investigating and hope to resolve in the next patch. This is only a list of topics with upcoming fixes; there are more topics reported by players that are not listed and are still being worked on.This list is based on reports by players on Answers HQ and helps us continue our work of improving the user experience on a regular basis.

Please note that some topics can be tricky and may require an extended investigation on our end, so even though we are actively reviewing, it’s not a guarantee that we’ll have an immediate fix in the upcoming patch.

Here’s the list of the community concerns we’re investigating and aiming to resolve in the game update this month: 

Admired Icon: Can't fulfill 250 followers on Social Bunny

Sims Use Far Away Sink for Dishes instead of Close

Sims excessively making coffee/tea, autonomy issue

Issues after placing " Standard gas oven by blazin ladles" oven.

Sims gaining fame eventhough they are out of the spotlight

Sims Won't Finish Meal If Finish Drink First

Sims excessively "Ask What Happened"

Constant kitchen fires with fear of fires trait

Plant reverts to dirt pile (Sim is on different lot on season change)

Game 'freezes' occasionally when opening in-game menus

Sims created via genetics are having default body hair

Sims doing country dancing when different style of music is playing

Build Mode Undo Button That Brings Up The Search Menu

Excessive use of phones and use in inappropriate places

Want to solve hard problems for kids but only available to teens

Errands Taste of Adventure: Cross stich task doesn't fulfill

Song/Book/Paint/Nectar progress bar fills up action never finishes

Sims enter locked apartments/houses

Thank you for all your patience and valuable help in reporting!

Please continue sharing with us any issues you’re experiencing on Answers HQ.

We’ll continue to check in and together we can make this game the best it can be. Happy Simming!

[therumpus]

Strong Women and Tenderness in Poetry: A Conversation with Caitlin Coey

by Jeri Frederickson

Through the strength of Ani DiFranco’s songs, Jessica Chastain’s ass-kicking characters, and a host of friends, Caitlin Coey’s debut poetry collection, Without the Cliff (Finishing Line Press, 2023) weaves strength and beauty to bolster the reader through the grieving and painful seasons of life. The poems explore complex memories and relationships through healing and beauty.

Coey is a queer writer whose work focuses on gender-based violence, mental health, queer love, and the importance of friendship. Her poetry names childhood traumas that many have experienced and reminds readers they are not alone. Coey’s poems resonate with the strength of friendships that guide folks out of dark nights of the soul. Her works reimagine what could have or should have been - and how to draw strength from the icons of our day. Her poetry has appeared in Shambles, The Roadrunner Review, Awakened Voices, Sad Girls Club, and The Heduan Review.

Coey and I met attending poetry seminars and workshops, and I have had the privilege to publish her poems in Awakened Voices, a journal for survivors of sexual violence. I spoke with her recently on Zoom to learn how these poems came to be and how she has cared for herself and her reader.

***

The Rumpus: Congratulations on your debut book! How did Without the Cliff  title come about?

Caitlin Coey: There is a poem in the book called “A Prayer for When Legs Crumble and Vision Blurs” and the last couplet is “make me Thelma and Louise without the cliff.” It's a prayer to myself about wanting to be strong. Something I do as a coping mechanism when I’m feeling disempowered is watch movies and TV shows where strong women are kicking butt and defeating villains. It’s comforting because I know it’ll end well and my body remembers what it is to feel empowered. 

Rumpus: The book ends on a poem with strong women and a prayer. You’ve offered coping mechanisms to the reader at the end.

Coey: The poem that ends the book now is a calming poem. It's a soothing poem. My goal was always to be mindful of not overly protecting, but not triggering the reader. I didn’t want to include anything just because it was difficult or because it was shocking. So, ending with a piece that's comforting is like giving the reader a warm blanket, and it lets the reader know that I, as the author, am okay too.

Rumpus: Why is it important to you that the reader knows the author is okay?

Coey: I come from a theater background and if you're an actor in a challenging scene, and you're not okay as the actor, the audience knows that. Then the audience worries about you instead of following the story and having their own experience. That's something that I really carry with me as a writer. I didn't want to shy away from anything, but I also didn’t want to re-traumatize anyone if I could help it. I know there's a big divide about trigger warnings, but I like to have them. At 34, I know what a lot of my triggers are, not all of them, but a lot. Even if there aren’t the words “trigger warning” or “content warning,” there are often breadcrumbs and you can sense what something is going to be and choose if you want to engage with it. To be clear—even if I end up being triggered by something I watch or read, I'm never mad at the person who made the art. But if there are intentionally no breadcrumbs and no warning of any kind, it feels like valuing the art over the mental health of the audience.

Rumpus: You begin the book with an Ani Difranco quote. Is this a way to prepare the reader and yourself for the sometimes difficult content in the book?

Coey: As many queer women do, I have a long relationship with Ani DiFranco and I love that song “If He Tries Anything” from the album “Out of Range.” It makes me feel empowered. I was probably listening to it during the writing of many of these poems. I wanted there to be those breadcrumbs. The dedication is to survivors. For me it functions as both a welcome and a content warning. For this book, I’m saying listen this happened to me, and I made it out of the bottom of the well, metaphorically. And you're going to be okay too. The only reason I was able to write any of this is because I had people around me who showed me how to get out because they’d been there too.

Rumpus: How did you know these poems all went into a collection?

Coey: I've been writing for most of my life—since I was ten—but it was sporadic. When I started going to therapy and diving into and uncovering the stuff that I talk about in the book and dealing with it, writing is what helped. The poems go together because they’re all a part of my healing process.

Rumpus: There are several poems that are letters to specific people in your life, but the reader gets to be someone who knows you and the person that these letters are written to.

Coey: I’m glad to hear that as a reader you feel let in by those pieces. I got some feedback a while ago that those poems shouldn't be in the book because they’re an inside thing between me and somebody the reader doesn't know. I was adamant they needed to go in the book because those people are very important to me.

Now there's a lot of books and surveys that talk about how friendship is equally as important as romantic relationships. But I remember a time when, and maybe it was just the atmosphere I was in, but friendship was looked at as a placeholder to romance. I’ve never agreed with that. I wanted to elevate the importance of friendship and show that a big part of what enables me to be okay enough to write about what’s in the book are the people I wrote letters to.

Rumpus: As a fellow writer, I was impressed with the beauty of the language that was in poems that include difficult subject matter. As a reader, it also felt like an elevation that holds everything.

Coey:  I have always dealt with complicated feelings with metaphor, even before I knew what a metaphor was. As a kid, I had a lot of really complicated feelings, but I didn't know how to describe them. I can remember being asked, “Do you feel sad? Do you feel happy?” I was always like, “That's not enough; those aren't enough words.” I still have trouble as a 34 year-old identifying my feelings sometimes, which is a result of things I talk about in the book. So, I use imagery to express myself and to understand how I feel and what I think.

Rumpus: This beautiful language also extends through the First Kiss series.

Coey: The first one I’d never written about before because it's about a coercive experience. I was always mad that was how my first kiss went. And you know, you can get into conversations with friends about first kisses and what they were like and it’s supposed to be fun. I would always have to decide if I was going to say the real thing or pick something else. And that just makes me so mad and sad for myself. So, I wrote what I wished instead, which is where the redux poem comes in. The other First Kiss poems are those alternative stories. I liked the idea of surprising the reader in an exciting way with those stories. I’m reframing the experiences and choosing what I want to tell in the moment.

Rumpus: Is Without the Cliff telling the story you want to tell?

Coey: Absolutely. I hope people feel less alone. Maybe one day we won't have to say this anymore, but writing about trauma isn’t just therapeutic, it’s valid artistic material. Even ten years ago, I can remember feeling like my work didn’t have a place in the literary world, and that could have been my specific bubble, but I don’t think so. With that idea resounding in society, it can be hard to keep writing about these difficult things, to remember that your voice is important. That’s what I want people to know. Don't listen to the critic in your head saying you don't matter or that nobody wants to hear it because it’s not true. Your story is valuable.

________________________________________

Jeri Frederickson is the author of You Are Not Lost, available from Finishing Line Press. She is the Creative Director of a nonprofit arts organization in Chicago whose mission centers survivors of sexual violence. She graduated from Antioch University Los Angeles with an MFA in Writing.

[azure-firecracker]

X-Files Season 1: MVA Awards

So I’m aware that my most popular post on here is about Mulder and Scully not being the best agents in the world all the time (and I love them for it). That being said, they do have their moments, so I decided that every time I wrap up a season, I’ll be giving out MVA (most valuable agent-not motor vehicle accident) awards for each episode.

Since I basically only have 2 characters to choose from, this won’t be too surprising, but I thought it was important to acknowledge our agents’ good agent-ing.

Some of these choices will be obvious, some less so. Feel free to comment YOUR favorite MVA moments:) Awards and explanations under the cut.

Pilot: Mulder-For solving the entire case based on very little information (still don’t get how he figured it out), and for explaining UFO phenomena to Scully and, by extension, us.

Deep Throat: Scully-For taking the air base agent hostage and exchanging him for Mulder (this was iconic!)

Squeeze: Mulder-For figuring out all the supernatural weirdness (a trend across basically all episodes), and for saving Scully from Tooms.

Conduit: Honestly they weren’t doing too great this episode, but I’ll give it to Mulder for saving that kid from the motorcycles (he’s FAST).

The Jersey Devil: Scully-For bailing Mulder out of jail and for later scaring away the Jersey Devil before it could kill him.

Shadows: Honestly neither of them were doing anything in particular this episode. I guess I’ll give it to Mulder for helping find the evidence in the office.

Ghost in the Machine: Scully-For fighting her way out of the vent/fan death trap and rescuing Mulder from gunpoint.

Ice: Scully-For generally being the most levelheaded one there, and for figuring out how to neutralize the parasitic worms.

Space: Our agents didn’t do a ton in this one, so I’m going to give this MVA award to a one off character, Michelle-for basically running NASA Mission Control by herself for much of the episode, even when everything was going to shit (and after being in a car accident!)

Fallen Angel: Scully-For bailing Mulder out of jail (again), and for scrubbing in at the drop of a hat to help all of the burn victims.

Eve: Mulder-For realizing that their drinks were poisoned and for catching the twins.

Fire: Scully-For basically solving the entire case on her own while Mulder was…emotionally occupied, and for taking care of Mulder after he was fire traumatized in the middle (also for putting up with all of Phoebe’s shenanigans in a very professional manner).

Beyond the Sea: Scully (obviously), for protecting Mulder after he was shot, for striking up a potentially dangerous connection with Luther Lee Boggs, and for chasing the killer to his death. All while she was grieving her father, if you believe that.

Genderbender: Mulder-For saving Scully from the weird seductive gender transforming alien cult person (honestly the only scene in the episode where they didn’t massively fail at everything).

Lazarus: Mulder-For figuring out the body swap insanely fast, for successfully finding Scully when she was being held hostage, and for leading the charge into Lula’s apartment (it is her apartment right?)

Young at Heart: Mulder-For overcoming his trauma, shooting John Barnett, and saving the cello player.

E.B.E: Scully-For that great « the truth is out there, but so are lies » speech (this was another episode where our agents did not actually do many things).

Miracle Man: Another episode where not much was done, but I’ll give this one to Scully for her autopsy skills.

Shapes: Another one off character-this one goes to Sheriff Tskany for making sure Mulder and Scully got the information they needed, and for shooting the manitou and saving them both.

Darkness Falls: Mulder-For making his deal with Spinney, which was the only reason they all got as far out as they did and were able to be saved.

Tooms: Scully-For being simultaneously professional and snarky to FBI superiors, for keeping Mulder sane on his stakeout, and for pulling Mulder out of the escalator den just in time.

Born Again: Mulder-Once again, for figuring out all of the supernatural weirdness based on very little information and somehow getting everything right.

Roland: Scully-For getting through to Roland at the right time, and for being seemingly the only one to have any idea of how to interact with autistic people.

The Erlenmeyer Flask: Scully-For breaking into a government facility and risking her career (possibly her life) in order to steal evidence and save Mulder, and for being ready for anything during the bridge exchange. I’m convinced Mulder may have died on the bridge if she hadn’t been there.

Let me know if y’all like these, I’d love to keep doing them for season 2!

[skylarksilver]

Enter Tutorial

a/n: Twisted Wonderland and Sword Art Online crossover.

A girl with short brown hair and hazel eyes gazed up at the decrepit ceiling, listening to rain strike the roof overhead. The building itself looked to be in shambles, there was a nasty draft stirring dust and bringing in cold air. The fiery hellcat that had been the kick off of her problems of the last few hours was at least warm as he curled against her side. His flaming blue ears gave off a surprisingly small amount of light.

She closed her eyes and let out a long slow breath, the stress and fear she had been holding back coming out now that she felt she was relatively safe and unobserved. 

Alright, let's take stock of things as far as I remember before waking up here with Grim yelling in my face. I finished my exercises, ate dinner and got ready for bed. Then Yui called. We were on the phone together for a while.

Sword Art Online had been a deeply immerse game that wouldn't have made it past the development hurdles without a Mental Health Monitoring AI to ensure the players were not at risk of harming themselves. Yui's growing a degree of sentience thanks to Kirito and Asuna had made her a friend, and peer in some ways. And even now, as a navigation pixie in Alfheim Online, she was very observant.

And remembered dates impeccably well, as did her in-game ‘parents’.

The date was one that would carry weight for Liana for the rest of her life. She had excused herself from playing in Alfheim Online with her friends and she had tried to be subtle about it. But she hadn't been alone with her sadness for more than twenty minutes before she was invited into a voice call with her Alfheim guild. Klein was complaining how Kirito had persuaded some NPC to give them a hugely cut discount on their last supply run. Agil and Leafa, Kirito's sister, were discussing a weapons upgrade.

"Weren't you all gonna be at the new dungeon opening?"

She had been quite confused at what they were doing. And there was a small lull that Yui piped up to fill, speaking from all thir devices at once.

"I noticed tonal shift in your speech patterns, and upon recognizing the date, I thought that being alone was not going to be good for you."

It seemed you could take a Mental Health AI out of the game, but you couldn't change her base code. Liana had felt a soft gratitude fill her at the sound of her friends voices. Asuna was the one who voiced their resolve.

“We weren't going to go into a dungeon without our Beast Master. It'll still be there later.”

And they hadn't played together, but just talked. Kirito had known Jax personally, from the Beta Test., so he would volunter some stories about the amusing accidents that could occurr when you were trying to learn the proper positioning for Sword Skill activation. Or how Jax had, with an absurdly high Stealth skill, pretended to be an NPC for a full two days by hiding his player icon. And Liana found herself telling more about him in life. How the traits he had manifested in Sword Art Online were reflected in his daily life. How he never needed to hear a song more than once before he had the lyrics memorized, pitch perfect. And they all let her talk. In hindsight, it was a skillful way of leading her into opening up.

And she did. With a confession that brought feelings of both shame and guilt.

“You know how some times, you'll pause while doing something and realize you're waiting for the system to identify how to interact with it? Or when you get a cut or scrap and remember that you can bleed again? Well, sometimes just after I wake up, I'll forget the game is over. And think I'm back in Aincrad. And for a second, I'm excited to be there. Not because I wasn't scared, but because when I was there, so was he.”

She hadn't even gotten to go to the funeral. They had all still been trapped in the game when he had been killed by a trap room. Jax's stealth stats had been among the highest in the game, and his trap detection skills made him excellent for guiding parties through the high XP grinding areas that had automatic, resetting obstacles on the 45th floor. She hadn't been high enough level to go with them, so he had left her on the 19th floor where she could work on bonding with one of her favorite companions, a crimson salamander she was coaxing through the steps to fledge out into a dragon.

All his possessions had been transfered to her upon his death. She had found out when she was notified that she had to sort her inventory beecause she didn't have enough room for all of his items. At the same time, Kirito got a message in which Jax asked him, from one elder brother to another, to look out for his sister and make sure she never got anywhere near the clearing party or the guilds that spearheaded that effort.

And through Kirito, Liana met Asuna, Yui, Agil and Klein. And she had someone to catch her. Then and now on the aniversary of his passing. The talk had been good after she vented some of her grief. Peaceful. Agil described his wife's latest frustrations with pregnancy. Klein put his foot in his mouth on three seperate occasions. Sugu and Ayano got into a minor disagreement about the virtues of a K-pop Group whose name she couldn't recall. Yui was flickering around her phone as they played through some cooperative puzzles while listening to everyone. All conversation was now on comfortably light subjects that helped her house feel less dead and silent. That made the day feel like just any other day.

Then Liana heard the distinct sound of hooves on pavement. The jingle of a harness. And that startled and worried her. She had read that coma patients sometimes had moments where they experienced some sensory hallucinations. A side effect of their brains having to self stimulate enough to function once they woke up.

“Does anyone else hear a horse?”

The call had gone silent when Liana asked this.

“Yuu, tell me five things you can touch.”

Agil's voice was deep and soothing, she could hear the worry in it as the eldest of their strange little group brought out what they affectionately called ‘dad mode'. He was prompting her to begin a grounding exercise to focus through whatever halucinations were coming.

“My sheets. My phone.”

She reached out blindly, trying to ignore the ringing hoofbeats that seemed to be coming ever closer. They had never been this strong before and it was somewhat scary to experience.

“My bedframe. The lamp by my bed. My- it's in my room. How is it in my room?”

She remembered seeing the horse looming over her, the smell of the animal and the creak of leather harness the groaning of wooden wheels. The walls of her room had somehow vanished. The horse was rather beautiful. Pitch black, but with liquid dark eyes that looked rather friendly. She felt paralyzed in her bed, gripping the sheets as tightly as she could.

“Stay with us Yuu, it's not real. Yui. Can you call her mom?”

“Right Papa!”

Their young AI friend had transferred herself entirely to Liana's phone and started the emergency dial up for Liana's mother. The SOS that she was having a hallucination and needed help grounding herself again. The black of the horse seemed to fill all her vision and the last thing she heard was her friends trying to get her to respond to them.

She didn't remember anything else after that.

Just waking up in the box.

I don't care if the damn bird calls it a gate. It's a coffin.

Everything that had transpired after that. Meeting Grim, learning about Night Raven College, seeing the little monster set fire to the hall, endangering the strange, hooded and robed throng of teenagers-

It was all too much.

Liana had given her avatars name reflexively when questioned about her identity. Yuu, a neutral name that had endless potential for puns, and had been a private joke between herself and her brother.

She had always enjoyed exasperating him into wordless frustration. So oftentimes the only word he had been able to get out was: ‘You...!’ He had made the first avatar for her and had given it that name as a little homage to her favorite pastime of driving her big brother up the wall as he did to so many others.

Dire Crowley, the headmage, had not impressed her with his portrayed intelligence. But then again, Kaiyaba had hidden under everyone's nose almost from day one during the death game. No one had realized he was there until Kirito forced him to reveal the fact that he had given his avatar Immortal Object status. His bluster and apparent lack of care or competence aside, she doubted that he was as harmless as he pretended.

I'd almost rather get kicked out of here. But if this is some sort of dream, it's probably better to let it play out normally as long as it's not actively traumatizing me. Lucid dreams get unstable and chaotic if I try to control them. And this is more interesting than repeating the same scene over and over again.

But there was one thing keeping her from writing this whole affair off as a dream. Liana held up her hand slowly making a fist. She couldn't see it in this light, but she could feel the bandages that covered it. She had helped smother the flames on a student when Grim had been lashing out. A boy with unreal red eyes and pale hair had not been fast enough to dodge the flames.

The burns on her palm from that experience were real. That pain was real. The blisters, the redness. The sensory transmitters in Alfheim could recreate the pain up to a certain point. But they didn't make the injury look as real as it had seemed when Crowley helped her put a dressing on her hand. There had been no faint pixelization in the air to indicate she had taken damage. That was 100% genuine.

But if that's the case, and I'm not dreaming...

She gave a short downward flick of her index finger at about chest height. A series of five white icons appeared in the air before her.

How can I access the SAO menu?

She knew it was the Sword Art Online menu. Her life had depended on the data that those five little white dots had held and what she had put into them. She knew the strange cool pressure on her finger of selecting an icon. The faintest resistance that swiping through the menus had they wouldn't respond too readily to unpracticed or uncertain movements.

And just like in SAO, the log out button was gone. So was the chat function, the map, the magic list, and her list of pets. She had her inventory, her skills, and that was about it. She returned to the default menu, mouth pressed in a tight line as she tried to think rationally. 

Fact, I definitely get hurt here like I do IRL. Fact. I definitely see and can interact with the menu. Though considering that I was hearing things earlier, I could still be hallucinating. But apparently the horse could also be real so I'm back at square one.

Her other hand tightened on her phone. She would normally have set it to charge, but she doubted this place was even wired for electricity. Listening to Crowley prattle, aka world exposition she was not in a position to pass up, she concluded that most things Earth used electricity for had been superseded by magic and magic stones.

 This whole scenario feels contrived. Like the tutorial of some sort of isekai game. Only the player doesn't miraculously get magic to help them survive.

Liana frowned at that thought, eyeing the menu dots again. She hadn't popped with unknown powers, but maybe... She tentatively reached out and tapped her attributes icon.

The stats of a Lv 73 Beast Master looked back at her and she gave a sigh of pure relief.

I was LV 65 when we escaped Aincrad. The other levels I got in Alfheim after converting my avatar into Summoner. And I'm 100% OK with getting abilities I at least know how to use instead of something entirely new.

She was very certain that if it were not her only way to communicate with her friends, people who knew what her life had been like while she was functionally a vegetable, Liana would never have picked up another game again. It had taken months for her to even try to get back into the multi-player games her brother first taught her to play on. In the end, she had chosen to not allow her joy in it to be stolen by a game designer with a god complex.

 A Beast Master's needed decent physical attributes, and good charisma to interact positively with animals and monsters, but her highest stat was actually her Perception. She had reasoned that people who were well in tune with animals in the real world were those that noticed their behavior and knew how to respond to him.

“That ain't how games work, sis. But...suppose this isn't exactly qualified to be called a game anymore.”

Jax's smiles had been much more rare after the Death Game began. It had taken concerted effort to draw them out of him where they had always come readily before.

High perception, meant a proportionately fast reaction time. Coupled with a high dexterity, it meant Liana had been able to keep up with much higher leveled players, while avoiding their notice most of the time. Jax had still kept her out of harms' way as much as possible while he worked to clear the game.

I can't focus on that right now.

She pulled herself out of her introspection, tapping into her inventory. It still had the items she had last placed in it while in Alfheim, though the text was blurred over some items. And there were other items that were defeinitely from SAO that she did not recall having in there.

It's some weird mashup of the SAO and Alfheim menu? I've got my old class, but the stats, level and skills of my new one.

Liana selected a basic set of clothes, casual wear she had made in SAO for the dirty daily work of tending to her pets and companions. It rested in her hand as she pulled it out of her Inventory, reaching over to the rickety chair, the only other secure piece of furniture in this bedroom, and placed it down carefully.

If you're still there tomorrow, then I can trust that the Menu is real and...and this is some new kind of game. Or my life is now a Gamer story. 

Grim muttered, rolling around by her side to curl into a tighter ball, paws tucked in to conceal his belly. Liana held her phone close to her chest, and accessed her menu to set a timer on how long she wanted to sleep. She wasn't sure what time it was right now. But as pretentious and dramatic a ceremony such as what she had seen, she would be astounded if the sorting was not held at midnight. And the average teenager needed 8-10 hours of sleep, so the following day of classes would hopefully be adjusted as a result.

She set a timer in her menu to wake her in 6 hours. She'd get her optimal amount of sleep once she knew if this world she had found herself in was safe.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The soft chime of her timer made Liana's eyes snap open. Grim groaned, flattening his ears to his head with his forepaws.

“Fglnha....Turn it off...” 

He can hear it too.

She quickly silenced the alarm and closed her menu with a flick of her hand, watching as he went back to snoozing. The sky outside was lightening but still far from proper daylight. She went into her settings and turned on Secrecy. With a high enough Stealth modifier, you could conceal your PC icon, and also your menu alerts from other players. This could be countered with a sufficiently high perception. But something told her that as long as she was discreet and careful, she would be able to hide the menu from most everyone.

Assuming this is a game where the NPC's can see the menu. Or not a game...

Her bandaged hand tightened, the faint throb of pain reminding her that this was not the sort of setting she was used to.

I'd better treat this as it's own death game until I figure out some rules. If this is a tutorial like I think it is, then I should get some more clues. Regardless, I'm playing it safe until I can figure out what to do next.

Liana carefully slipped out of bed to investigate the dorm. The clothes she had laid out the night before, pulled from her inventory, were still on the old chair. Further proof that she was either having a very consistent dream or she had somehow been transported to a new reality. She stuck close to the walls, judging that the floorboards were less creaky there than they were at the center of the floor.

The bathroom she had found the night before was in even worse shape in good light. But she still took advantage of the functional lock to change out of the ornate black and violet robe she had found herself in yesterday. The ceremonial attire that Grim had been so desperate to get his paws on.

Curious, Liana eyed it up and down and activated her little used Appraise skill.

Tight, even stitching. It fit me as though it were tailored. Very fine material, though not one I am familiar with. Possibly actual gold thread. Every student was wearing this last night, so I'm assuming I was a part of a large ritual that this was a component of. And it has hardly wrinkled even though I slept in it. Magical? No way for me to tell.

Storing it in her Inventory would be the easiest thing. She certainly didn't trust the closet or wardrobe. But this was also something she was known to have so if it wasn't easily visible, it could be a bit odd.

I'll have to get used to being called Yuu again.

Her Alfheim friends used her name and her screen name interchangeably. It wouldn't be that big of a stretch to go back to it. Just a different mindset that she had compartmentalized for her own well being.

Yuu didn't see people the same way as Liana did. Liana had never dealt with a genuine threat in her life. She grieved her brother, missed him and clung to her friends across the world to stay sane.

Yuu saw people as potential threats. And though she had accepted Jax's death, she was still angry over his loss. Yuu held onto her comrades like her life depended on it because it did.

There was an ominous sounding chuckle rising from the floor and Yuu looked down sharply to see the top of a hat poking through the floor.

“You're an early riser, prefe-”

One of the ghosts from last night froze upon seeing her, milky eyes going wide with shock. She carefully folded the robe as best she could, resolving to find someplace sheltered with hopefully less dust to keep it in.

“Good morning to you too. I don't think I caught your name last night.’

The ghost remained motionless, gawking at her. She crouched and poked at his face curiously. It felt like waving her hand through mist, only it wasn't wet but some other unique feeling. He flinched and popped wholly into the room, his form losing its distinction in shock.

“You're a girl!”

“Yeah. Guess it wasn't that obvious in the robe, huh?”

The ghost seemed genuinely distressed, wringing his hands and turning this way and that.

“Oh dear. Oh dear oh dear oh dear. This is going to make some waves.”

Exposition?

“How so?”

Yuu rose to talk with him more readily, keeping her tone level and non accusatory. He seemed to be winding himself up well enough without her help.

“Night Raven College is a boy's school. And you've been presented to the Mirror as a student and accepted as one!”

“But I wasn't sorted in a dormitory.”

He waved his hands impatiently.

“That doesn't matter! Not every teenager that stands before the mirror has a clearly defined soul. Sometimes it takes a bit more time for them to figure out the direction of their ambition, and sometimes it even changes as they are here. The part that makes you a student of Night Raven College is the gate, the robe and the mirror, not the dormitory placement!”

It was part of a ritual. I knew it.

“What does being a student mean as opposed to being a guest?”

“Lots of things. Way too many for just this puff of ectoplasm to remember. Oh, this is going to be so stressful but so very interesting!”

[momsforroadhead]

top 5 movies that you had to watch for uni

5. The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance by John Ford (written by James Warner Bellah and Willis Goldbeck, based on a book by Dorothy M. Johnson): MY HUSBAND JAMES STEWART is in this movie. i watched it with hater friends who hated it but don't take their word for it please. if you like westerns but shy away from the violence you will like this movie (and probably already know it). imo it showcases an alternative side of masculinity in a genre that so often focuses on one single side. beautiful friendship between men. thematically extremely well done.

4. Sunset Boulevard by Billy Wilder (written by Wilder, Charles Brackett and D. M. Marshman Jr.): absolute classic, the atmosphere is perfect, the story is sooooo good, the characters are so well written and memorable. an iconic movie!!!

3. The Graduate by Mike Nichols (written by Calder Willingham and Buck Henry): Yeah i'm a sucker for a loser. again i watched this movie with my sister and we were both fighting for our lives cause whenever mrs robinson was on screen my sister would just say "milf." and whenever ben was on screen i would go heart eyes. again the soundtrack is noteworthy cause it's at the same time incredibly good (simon and garfunkel) and also absurd. awesome movie with one of my favourite endings of all time

2. THE MISSION (/Cheung Fo) by Johnnie To (written by Yau Nai-Hoi): This movie made me and my sister (who hates "serious" movies and subtitles) loose our shit. fr we were treating it like a drag race finale. vibes aside the movie is technically immaculate, looks amazing, hits impeccable emotional beats, plus the score goes INSANE (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp0KiMQ9ock link to the iconic theme)

The Philadelphia Story by George Cukor (written by Donald Ogden Stewart): MY HUSBAND JAMES STEWART is in this movie also. polycule movie of all time. a cukor classic. heavy hitters stewart grant and hepburn. meta relationship to katherine hepburn's real reputation in hollywood (if you want me to explain message me lmao). what can i say it's a perfect movie. and it's aabria iyengar's favourite movie!!!! enough said.

[utaicon]

★・ABOUT・★

★・call me adrien

★・I use he/it primarily, but feel free to ask about my neopronoun hoard

★・This is a sideblog, my main is @2-kamikou-1 !

★・Fandom edit blog, sources listed below

★・minor, nsfw dni

All my edits are free to use, with the only rule being you must reblog them and credit me.

note: I am still doing edits for Palestine outside of strike days.

★・WHAT CAN I DO ?・★

★・icons (pride, aesthetic, color...any theme you can think of really) (usually 3-8 icons per post but i can go up to 30) (1000 x 1000 by default)

★・moodboards/songboards/stimboards/mixed media boards (3x3, 5x3/3x5, and 2x3/3x2 offered)

★・full body edits (see one, two) (selective) (i think these are called renders?) (one per post/request, these are time consuming)

★・transparents (1-3 per post, but can vary)

★・sprite/card edits

★・gifs/gifsets (6-12 per post, could vary though)

★・character pride flag recolors (1-5 per post but usually just 1) (this includes colorpicking flags from characters and editing characters into the color palette of a pride flag!)

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★・song-themed edits

★・gifsets

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★・RULES・★

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★・unlisted sources are allowed!!

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★・blacklist and whitelist are subject to change without prior notice

★・NOTE: if we are mutuals/friends, I might be willing to overlook some of these rules (like if you leave out a detail in an ask I might fill in the blanks based on things I know you like). But if and only if we are muts.・★

★・TAG LIST・★

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link: [xxx] ☆ - where the link in a caption will lead you (if applicable)

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★・BLACKLIST・★

・requests for any of the following will be deleted or declined.・

★・(sources) boyfriends (webtoon), Blend S, Menhera-chan, drv3, dr3, south park, hoyoverse

★・(game content) revival cards, anything from donnaketsu 2dmv (cards are okay)

★・(ships) zenitsu x nezuko

★・(aesthetics) traumacore, weirdcore, dreamcore, etc.

★・(characters) Main Character (DDLC) | Mikan Tsumiki | Aqua, Ruby (onk)

★・any kind of problematic ship (incest, adult x child, etc.)

★・real people/actors (if you found me before this revamp, yes, I've done it before. I found it made me uncomfortable, i will not be doing it again.)

★・WHITELIST ・★

・requests for any of the following will be prioritized.・

★・(sources) project sekai, vocal synths, demon slayer, stellar paradigm

★・(characters) Matsudappoiyo | Nightcord at 25:00, Wonderlands x Showtime, Toya, Akito, Airi, Saki, Honami | Rui Ayaki, Enmu, Nezuko, Zenitsu, Inosuke, Mitsuri, Tengen, Kanao, Aoi | Kenma, Hinata | Toko, Kyoko, Sakura, Aoi, Mondo, Chihiro, Sayaka, Celeste, Akane, Hajime, Nagito, H-y-ko (i know some people dont like her so her name is censored 👍) Mahiru, Kazuichi, Ibuki, all the udg kids | August, Hirano

★・(ships) Mizuena, Anhane, Kanamafu, Ruikasa, Shizuai, Shizurui, Shizukasa, Shizuruikasa, Mizurui, Mafurui, Kanarui, anything niigosho tbh, Honasaki, Emunene, Mafunene, Honasaki | Kagehina | Tokomaru, Ishimondo, Akanidai | Obamitsu, Aoino, Shinomitsu | Calaug

★・(types) icons, gifs/gifsets, colorpicked flags, dividers, blinkies

★・(aesthetics/themes) pride, glitchcore/vaporwave, webcore, scenecore

★・(etc) rui pd icons. <3 that boy is Nawt egotypical

★・SOURCES・★

★・project sekai

★・vocal synths

★・demon slayer

★・stellar paradigm

★・haikyuu!!

★・pmuse

★・sweet sins superstars

★・death palette/matsuro

★・danganronpa

★・alter ego

★・purrgatory

★・the amazing digital circus

★・needy streamer overload

★・DNI ・★

racist, queerphobic, ableist, anti-neopronouns/xenogenders, transandrophobic, discourse-focused blogs nsfw blog, anti-recovery, (pro)transx, pro map/nomap/pedo

★・BYI ・★

i am in no way against agere, but i cannot and will not guarantee everything on this blog will be child-safe. There's nothing explicitly nsfw but there are curse words, some sources i edit may involve violence or curse words, and things of that nature

as stated above I barely know about kinning and irls and things of that nature, i have surface level knowledge just from interacting w people who are kins/irls/ids etc but like that's it. I try to be friendly and welcome to everyone, though.

I'm human, I make mistakes. If i offend on accident, please, i am begging you to tell me. it's never intentional, I'm always trying to better myself.

・divider credit・

・layout credit・

・replycons by me・

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Some random opening weekend predictions for animated movies for the rest of the year and maybe some 2025 ones, too...

THE GARFIELD MOVIE - Somewhere around $30m-45m. The only thing we can kind of base this on is the live-action GARFIELD from 2004, which did okay at best, wasn't really all that big back then. Whereas this is all-animated and much more recognizably Garfield & co., which I think will help it open above your typical post-COVID outbreak animated movie. It's the first all-new animated picture since KUNG FU PANDA 4, though not the first kid-friendly movie, as IF will open the weekend before it. Still, it's Garfield. Well-known, decades-old character. I guess the only other comparison here would have to be THE PEANUT MOVIES, which opened w/ $44m back in fall 2015. So yeah, somewhere in that ballpark.

INSIDE OUT 2 - Over $100m. The first INSIDE OUT opened with $90m back in 2015. Adjusted, that's definitely higher than $100m now. Anxiety was a huge hit upon the teaser release last fall, too. Could be a Grogu-esque character for the film that gets everyone in droves to check it out... So yeah, easy $100m opening. Will sit up there with THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE ($146m) and SPIDER-MAN: ACROSS THE SPIDER-VERSE ($120m), as grand champion animated openings post-March 2020. Could even make a play for the record, which currently belongs to the 2019 LION KING ($191m). If we don't want to count those kinds of CG movies, then... INCREDIBLES 2, with $182m.

DESPICABLE ME 4 - Over $60m. MINIONS: THE RISE OF GRU opened to a great $107m back in 2022, being the first movie in this franchise in five years (it had been delayed from its original planned summer 2020 release date), and it also helped that the DESPICABLE ME franchise was over ten years old by that point - the first movie having turned 10 in July 2020. I think that definitely helped MINIONS 2, and out of nowhere came that whole meme with people dressing up in fancy suits to see the movie. That's a sort of thing that can't be engineered, and can't happen again... Thus, I expect DESPICABLE ME 4 to perform a little more closely to DESPICABLE ME 3 (that opened to $72m back in 2017) and open above $60m. Could be anywhere between that and $80m, really. Maybe higher, if there's something of a nostalgia rush for it like there was for MINIONS 2.

TRANSFORMERS ONE - Over $25m. Tricky, given that this is an all-new take on Transformers and all-animated no less. I'll compare this to fellow Paramount animated film TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES: MUTANT MAYHEM. That movie came off of two live-action takes on the characters (released in 2014 and 2016), and prior to that there was a single animated movie in 2007 that made an okay amount of money, and there were the three live-action movies from the 1990s, the first of which being iconic... MUTANT MAYHEM opened with $28m last year, so I expect a similar turnout for TF ONE. Especially coming a year after RISE OF THE BEASTS (opened with $60m). With no footage out yet, it'll have to make a real impression the way MUTANT MAYHEM did in order to not get fully dismissed as "Oh, a TRANSFORMERS cartoon now?" Keep in mind, the first SPIDER-VERSE got that kind of reaction in 2018, and opened w/ $35m.

THE WILD ROBOT - Over $30m. I sense a real hype for this one, unlike most non-sequel animated movies released over the past couple of years. And even before COVID, honestly. The trailer really, *really* made an impression. At the movie theater I work at, between co-workers and guests commenting on the poster? Yeah, I think this one possibly scores the biggest opening for a DreamWorks non-sequel since THE BOSS BABY ($50m) all the way back in 2017. The bar isn't too high, for CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS, ABOMINABLE, and THE BAD GUYS grossed between $20-25m on their respective opening weekends, while RUBY GILLMAN came and went. This one, I think, will surprise.

THE DAY THE EARTH BLEW UP - Over $10m. It's Looney Tunes, yes. It's 2D, also. I don't expect a huge opening for it, given how the tides often flow. No doubt fans and those who have been keeping track of its existence will show up. Not sure how GFM goes about marketing and advertising this one, but I'm basing this on how a lot of non-anime 2D films - whether they're based on pre-existing franchises or not - did over the past 15 years.

MOANA 2 - Over $100m. The first MOANA opened with $56m back in 2016 and legged it up to a $245m+ domestic gross. Pretty solid run in theaters... But on streaming? E-X-P-L-O-D-E-D... It continues to be one of the most streamed movies of all-time, every year. Something about it, really keeps it atop the tidal wave. The post-theatrical life for this movie is ROBUST... Thus, I think this sequel will be a massive opener.

THE LORD OF THE RINGS: THE WAR OF THE ROHIRRIM - Over $10m. Being an anime take on LORD OF THE RINGS, I think this will largely be ignored on its opening weekend, looked at as just "a LORD OF THE RINGS cartoon". With some diehards and animation fans such as ourselves showing up. Could be a leggy surprise thereafter, though.

MUFASA: THE LION KING - Over $30m. Whenever a sequel/prequel/whatever to a Disney remake crops up, it usually doesn't do great. ALICE IN WONDERLAND (2010), for example, was a billion dollar smash. Six years later came ALICE THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS, which didn't make half of what the first Burton movie made worldwide. It did pitifully domestically, opening with $26m, waaaaay down from the first one's $116m opening take. MALEFICENT 2 had a similar trajectory, though not as harsh as a come down. That opened with $36m domestically, down from the first's $70m opening. I think LION KING prequel - coming off of the first, which opened with $191m - has a similar fate. It'll also have SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 to compete with.

DOG MAN - Over $10m. Basically a milder CAPTAIN UNDERPANTS. Looking at the likes of MIGRATION and such, it'll be a teens opener, probably having spectacular legs afterwards.

THE SMURF MOVIE - Over $10m. Kinda hard to gauge. A little while ago, Sony Animation did SMURFS: THE LOST VILLAGE in 2017, which opened with $13m. That came off of two relatively recent live-action hybrid movies. In 2025, it'll have been almost 10 years since LOST VILLAGE, so maybe that helps it? Maybe the new approach helps it? Remains to be seen, this is based on what little we know of it... But we already had three Smurfs movies in the 2010s, so it seems like it'll only do alright.

[filmtalia]

PAID  CONTENT  !!      $7     in  the  source  is  the  link  to  the  payhip  where  you  can  buy  #307  pre - cropped  ( 100x100 )  and  sharpened  icons  of  talia  ryder  ( 2002 )   in  the  role  of  gabbi  broussard  from  the  netflix  original  movie  do  revenge   ( 2022 ),   if  you  buy,   like / reblog  this  post.   if  you  use,   be  sure  to  credit  as  credit  is  mandatory. 

[fishybehavior]

I've been wanting to make this for awhile, for the new people coming into my fandom but for anyone who's new in general

Now I am a newer Tumblr user (I joined in 2020 what a year) but I know how to get around here on the ole tumbles so if you are new and wondering "what the fuck is all this?" I'll show u a few tips

---

now the first thing I'd honestly recommend is to get involved with some kind of fandom. You don't have to be super into anything, but finding people who like things similar to you is a great way to start making friends! And honestly we have a fandom for almost anything, if u aren't into anything now you can probably look up any tv show or movie you watched in the last 20 years and someone will have made a post of it!

You don't have to be involved in a fandom but its a good way to meet people and see how we interact casually with one another if you are lurking for a little bit to learn

---

Now, second piece of advise, your blog.

Tumblr is a blogging site, and what you are probably used to refering ur profile, we call our blogs. It has ur pfp, header pic, maybe a couple of lines introducing urself, and then all of ur posts.

First thing I recommend is to change ur pfp, a lot of people base if u are a bot or not is if u use the default image as ur pfp. I suggest a character u like, an animal, a color, a flower, anything u like. I must warn you that I don't recommend u use ur own face. Number 1 some of the appeal of tumblr is anonymity, but 2, there are other bot blogs (such as porn blogs) that use real people as their pfp, and so some people may block u on site.

Now under your pfp you can put a couple of sentences in you blog, you can use this for anything. A lot of people put their preferred pronouns or maybe their age, or what fandoms their into, or maybe their patrons, or other blogs they run. What I recommend is that you dont put any personal info in here, especially if u are a minor. Don't specify ur age if your under like 18-21, if your under that just put minor.

---

next i want to talk about is cultivating your experience

Now you dont have to do this right away but if there is certain types of content that you know you don't like or you find triggering I suggest doing this. On Tumblr we use tags to organize our posts as well as to warn. You can block certain tags in your settings.

press this button on the top right of ur page (if you are on desktop, if on mobile it'll be the bottom right

then in the drop-down menu select Settings, then go to Account, then scroll down until you see the header, "Content you see"

(on mobile once you hit the lil person icon on your bottom right, hit the gear on the top right of you screen, then fo down until u see "Content you see, it'll take you to the same thing)

here you can block tags and filter content. There are two types of filtering, by tags and by content. By tags only will block posts by the tags they have, while content blocking will look through the entire post for blocked words or phrases.

I personally use blocked tags more but do whichever works for you. If you are going to block tags there are certain types of things to keep in mind.

For one, we use warning tags. Tags that are put in posts specifically to warn people of certain content that we know can be triggering. For warning tags there are three main ways that people tag them (there are more but these are very common), tw dogs, cw dogs, dogs . Now I'm using dogs as an example tag, but the preface of tw (trigger warning) and cw (content warning) are very common, and if you want to block a certain trigger i suggest that you block both of these along with just the word by itself. (Also spelling does count)

this works similarly with content blocking, but u dont use tw or cw. Just put down the words or phrases that you dont want to see.

now when you block a post u don't ever see it, rather it appears on your dash like this

it blocks out the whole post, tells you what tags or content that appeared for it to be blocked, and gives you a choice if you would like to see it anyways. This is how blocked posts will appear and you wont see the post at all unless you decide to view the post for yourself.

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i think this is where I'm going to leave it for now, might reblog with more info in the future. But there are plenty of other posts with other info about how tumblr works and how to maneuver this site. I hope you find this helpful and that you enjoy your experience on this site 👋

[ucw-forever]

Universal Cross Wrestling (Year 1, Month 3)

------------------------------

Post-Starrcade

------------------------------

Two days after UCW's first official schedule pay-per-view, UCW Blackout's 2nd full month goes live in Brooklyn with the first show of the month being just 48 hours removed from an eventful and epic Starrcade. The show begins with a championship coronation held by Triple H and William Regal that sees AJ Styles, Pete Dunne, and Karrion Kross all come down to the ring and celebrate their championship wins and defenses amongst the General Managers.

Hank is then called down to end the ceremony with a direct announcement as to who his next opponent for the World Championship will be; that being the newly debuting but very well known superstar of Adam Cole. However, Nene also makes her presence known with demands for a rematch against the World Champion--prompting Triple H to book a match between her and Adam Cole to decide a number #1 contender on the go-home show before UCW's next pay-per-view, No Mercy.

Sky is seen backstage speaking to Tricky on the topic of her arrival in UCW. The two lament on their friendship and the fact that the both of them-one from Hank and the other from Nene-have targets on their backs that have completely changed their lives for better and for worse.

Sky speaks on how when she first appeared in the Newgrounds universe, she was seen as nothing more than an obsessive waste of space by everyone besides Tricky who genuinely made an effort to be her friend, and when she decided to leave to try and reevaluate herself, she saw how people like Whitty, Zardy, and Ruv had grown be known as pioneers and megastars solely through their own dominating strength while away.

She then decided to take it upon herself to follow in their footsteps, and despite going against Tricky's warnings, seeks to use her own newfound strength to cut a path through UCW and show the world what she's capable of--starting with Nene and ending with the UCW champion.

The second round of the UCW Tag Team Championship tournament gets underway as reDRagon faces off against the debuting FTR to decide who will face The Way in the tournaments semi-finals. Between FTR's old school and physicality based style and reDRagon's more strike oriented and fast paced wrestling, reDRagon are able to outsmart the Revolt and come out on top to advance in the tournament.

The Tag Team Championship tournament's third round pits Black Void against the Usos to determine who faces either the Street Profits or Top Guys in the semi-finals. Though they are easily outmatched in power by Top Guys, the Usos use their synergy and teamwork to put them away in the end; sending the brothers further into the second half of the tournament.

William Regal announces that a Battle Royal will be held to decide who will face Bianca Belair at No Mercy for the UCW Women's Championship. The BR itself introduces new and old icons of women's wrestling to the crowd, and ends with both Io Shirai and Toni Storm hitting the outside at the exact same time--prompting Regal to make the match at No Mercy a triple threat match for the Women's Championship.

Roman Reigns cuts a promo from a dimly lit room backstage that details his history as a leader; from his time in NXT as a dough-rolling businessman to one of the three hounds of justice that made up the Shield, he reflects on his time in the limelight amongst those who followed him and compares those times to that of Ardbert's achievements. A supposed hero across two separate worlds that still failed to put him away is no hero at all in Roman's own words, and with the Warrior of Darkness himself out of action because of Roman Reigns, the Tribal Chief opts to turn his attention to someone who reminds him of himself--Karrion Kross and the Openweight Championship. Kross accepts this challenge later in the show, and Triple H makes it official for No Mercy.

Pete Dunne has a sit-down interview with ring announcer Justin Roberts following his win over Cesaro, an interview in which the bruiserweight claims to Triple H that the only people in UCW who have any prowess as submission specialists are either gone or have been already beaten by him. He states that he knows that his run as Submission Champion is just beginning, but by the look of UCW's roster and the names that catch his eye, Pete only sees one man who would even come close to his level and acknowledges that he isn't here either; that is until the man himself, Daniel Bryan, comes face to face with Dunne and throws out the challenge right there, which Dunne accepts.

———— Mid-Month Break ————

A Six Pack Challenge is held to determine who will face AJ Styles for the Undisputed Championship at No Mercy. This match consists of G'raha Tia, Tricky, Drew McIntyre, Papalymo, Thancred, Pico, and Darnell. Though the match goes on for an over-the-top and chaotic 20 minutes, the winner is decided when Darnell assists Pico in pinning Thancred to win an opportunity at AJ Styles. As for Darnell himself, he states to his friend that this is an opportunity made for Pico--Darnell has his own business to take care of.

The fourth round of the UCW Tag Team Championship tournament sees the Street Profits go two-on-two against Top Guys to see which of the two teams will face the Usos in the semi-finals. In the end, Montez Ford and Angelo Dawkins use their mixture of high flying and heavy hitting wrestling styles to outpower and outspeed Top Guys to a victory and a match against the Usos.

The UCW Tag Team Championship tournament's fifth round takes the tourney into its semi-final bracket, opening up with The Way facing off against reDRagon in an extremely technical and fast-paced clinic of a match. After 20 minutes of a consistently back and forth contest, The Way are able to use their resilience to run reDRagon dry of energy and defeat them to move on to the finals.

The sixth round in the Tag Team Championship tournament pits The Usos against the Street Profits in a match that blows the entire tournament out of the water. A nearly 30 minute instant classic of high-octane never slowing down action that sees both teams give their all in the vein of teamwork, synergy, and heart for a chance at the titles, the Usos are just narrowly capable of defeating the Profits and securing their spot in the finals.

The UCW Tag Team Championship tournament finishes with a bang: a 20 minute, always moving spot-fest between the Usos and The Way that sees both teams push themselves to their absolute limits both in desperation and courage for a shot at the Tag Team titles. Despite the efforts of the Way, however, the Usos defeat Johnny Gargano and Austin Theory in convincing fashion and come face to face with Sanford and Deimos as their match and title shot are locked in for No Mercy. By request of the Tag Team champions though, that match will take place as UCW's first ever ladder match for the Championships.

On the last episode of Blackout before No Mercy, Adam Cole makes his in-ring debut against Nene in a #1 Contender's match for Hank's UCW World Championship. The two of them absolutely bludgeon each other in a half hour long showcase of Cole's patented wrestling ability and Nene's hunger for another chance at the title. Sanford and Deimos make an attempt to get involved on the behalf of Hank late in the match, but are stopped by Darnell who even gets into a scuffle with Sky on the entrance ramp once the Tag Team champions are taken care of.

Darnell's involvement however throws Nene off just enough for Adam Cole to take advantage, spiking Nene with a Panama Sunrise and finishing her off with the Last Shot to secure a match with Hank in the main event of No Mercy. As a result, Nene demands a match against Sky at No Mercy from Regal and has her wish granted; stating that if Sky has a hit list all to show the world that she means business, then she better be prepared for her newly found enemies to fire back in the match that will be, by Nene's request, an Ironman match.

------------------------------

No Mercy

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No Mercy opens up in the center of Brooklyn with the Tag Team Championship match; Wasteland Blood Vs. The Usos in a ladder match that tears through the bodies of both teams for a 20 minute clash of showcased unity. In the end, Wasteland Blood are just barely able to take the advantage from Jimmy and Jey and capitalize on the opportunity, retaining their titles in convincing fashion.

Roman Reigns, determined to show Karrion Kross that despite their similarities that he is the better man, puts on an absolute war against him for the Openweight Championship in the second match of the night. Even so, no matter what Reigns does to get through Karrion, the merciless monster fights through and defeats Roman Reigns by way of pinfall.

The third match on the card pits submission specialists against one another for the titular championship, that being Pete Dunne and Daniel Bryan who put on another 20 minute match that pushes them both to their very limits.

The match concludes with Bryan not tapping out, but passing out in a tight guillotine choke which Pete Dunne uses to retain the Submission Championship. However, when the match is over, Bryan takes a moment to sit in the ring amongst a clapping audience and claims that, knowing he couldn't beat Ardbert first and Pete Dunne now, he knows he needs to make a change. And he has an idea as to what kind of change.

The fourth match on the card of No Mercy was the one match that the entire pay-per-view was being sold on. Sky, having just returned from her own personal void to finally gain the respect she couldn't earn when she first arrived, sets her sights on a girl who she sees too much of herself in to keep around; Nene. And so, as soon as the bell is rung, the both of them give it their all to brawl like hell from beginning to end in a relentless, brutal, half-hour long fight in which both women walk away with injuries from. However, even with all the perseverance in the world, Sky isn't able to defeat Nene, losing by 3 falls to 4 and coming up short by just that match. Tricky attempts to console her after the bell, but is shoved off while Sky leaves backstage.

In what is presented as one of No Mercy's three main events to cap off the pay-per-view, Bianca Belair defends her UCW Women's Championship against the likes of both Toni Storm and Io Shirai. The match lasts for a decisive 15 minutes with a collection of over-the-top mat wrestling and high-flying spectacle showcased between the three women, ending with Bianca Belair pinning Toni Storm to retain her Women's Championship.

The second to last match on the card of No Mercy is for the most prestigious title in the company; the UCW World Championship, placed in between the wills of Hank J. Wimbleton and Adam Cole. The two of them showcase the absolute best pure wrestling ability they have to offer, and though Adam Cole comes just shy of a 3 count on two occasions, Hank is able to overpower Adam-not without the help of Sanford and Deimos-and retain the world title with a grating laugh.

The main event of the show sees Pico take on AJ Styles for the Undisputed Championship in a match of the year worthy showing. Nearly a full 30 minutes of pure mat wrestling and high moves calls the match from start to finish, and eventually ends with Pico overextending his own offense and giving AJ a chance to capitalize; sealing the victory and allowing him to retain the title. However, after the match, AJ calls for the shocking assistance of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson from the crowd, who emerge with plans to attack Pico until all three of them are warded off by an appearing Boyfriend and Girlfriend to close out the night.

[infoblogifyzen]

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Whether you need lobby flowers to enhance your space or bridesmaids bouquets to celebrate a special day, we invite you to experience the artistry and elegance of our creations. Visit our website or stop by our store to explore our stunning arrangements and learn more about our services. Let us help you elevate your floral experience to new heights with Lenox Hill Florist & Events.

[manchesterhomes5]

Discover the Charm of Manchester Homes

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