#fyi these screenshots are from two years ago

[ctrl-lupin]

[cutebutalsostabby]

iirc you said in another post that the time between ALTTP and OOT was either 80 or 400 years. i haven’t played ALTTP yet but love timelines - are those numbers in the game somewhere?

I think I came up with those specific figures myself, BUT I do have some in-game and official text basis for them! The reason for the 80 year vs 400 years (or even longer) options is that there is actually some pretty big inconsistency between a) various parts of the game itself, b) the official game booklet, and c) Nintendo's big ole retcon of the Imprisoning War. Or possibly retCONS if we count TotK.

(Idk if you wanted an info dump, but you're getting one lol. THANKS FOR THE ASK!! 💜)

SO. The intro cutscene.

We start by hearing of legends from long ago, about a Golden Power that resides in a hidden land. Many people tried to find it; none ever returned. One day, evil power began to flow forth (we later learn this was due to Ganondorf finding the Triforce), so the King told the sages (originally translated as "Wise Men") to seal the Golden Land away for good. The narrator then describes those events as occurring so long ago that they became legend. Sounds like a while, right?

But then within about an hour or two of gameplay, you meet Sahrasrahla. Sahasrala? Saharasala? YOU MEET MR SALSA. And he ends up telling you a story about the knights that fought to protect the sages and who were almost all killed at the time, leaving YOU, the protagonist, as the last known member of that bloodline. According to Mr Salsa, those events took place only three or four generations ago.

That's not long at all! I mean, the exact numbers may vary depending on whether it's 3-4 generations from Salsa-san's point of view or Link's, as well as whether we give that person a human lifespan or an elf one (ALTTP has some Western fantasy elements, but the later games suggest that Hylians are basically just humans with pointy ears), but that would be where my ~80 years figure came from.

One of the later bits of dialogue then mentions Ganondorf rediscovering the Golden Land after the knowledge of it was lost - which may explain the discrepancy between the intro cutscene and Sahasralah(?)'s own dialogue. (I'm taking screenshots from Youtube FYI - see cutscene compilation here.)

All good so far?

WELP. THEN WE HAVE THE GAME BOOKLET.

By "game booklet" I mean the little brochure thing that used to come with physical games up until someone decided they weren't necessary. Boo and bah humbug. But I digress.

The original booklet for ALTTP, which you can find online, says that the Imprisoning War took place centuries ago. It also adds a bunch of other new lore details, including Ganondorf's last name, Dragmire - which never actually appears in-game. Both of those things are however missing from the truncated lore dump you get in the Gameboy Advance release's booklet:

And then there's Nintendo's Fallen Hero retcon. Lol.

See, the original "Imprisoning War" from ALTTP went something like this:

Ganondorf found an entrance to the Sacred Realm (formerly "Golden Land") and went in. Much like the others before him, he was then stuck there forever. UNLIKE the others before him however, he then randomly stumbled across the Triforce, which offered him the power to make a wish.

He made some unspecified wish along the lines of "I want to take over the world". As a result, the Sacred Realm became the Dark World and started to leak evil magic and demons into the Light World (aka "Overworld").

The knights fought against the demons, allowing the sages to seal the entrances ro the Sacred Realm. Note it's unclear if they even knew about Ganondorf's existence at this point.

Sometime later, Ganondorf manages to partially break free, and sends his alter ego Agahnim out to break the seal on the Sacred Realm and merge the two worlds into one.

And then we have Nintendo's retcon, which introduces the whole idea of the Fallen Hero - as a means of clumsily tying ALTTP to Ocarina of Time. So instead of the above:

Ganondorf publicly swears allegiance to the King of Hyrule, only to later backstab him and take over the castle. He then follows Link into the Temple of Time and grabs hold of the Triforce while the latter goes to take a nice long nap. He only manages to claim part of the Triforce (Power), so his wish remains incomplete. The other parts go to Link (Courage) and Zelda (Wisdom).

Seven years later, Link challenges Ganondorf to an epic showdown and loses. Ganondorf claims the remaining parts of the Triforce and uses them to transform into the Demon King. The seven sages, Zelda included, then seal both Ganon and the Triforce away in the Sacred Realm.

The names of the seven sages (per OoT) eventually become the names of the towns in Zelda II. Any remaining discrepancies are handwaved away as unreliable narrators.

Interestingly, TotK's Imprisoning War is much closer to ALTTP's version than Hyrule Historia's - which makes me wonder if that whole retcon is doomed to be retconned once again. Of course, the Triforce isn't present at all within TotK, but it's also a pretty compelling reason for why seven sages with secret stones couldn't win against the one guy with a secret stone. So there’s that.

But yeah, going back to that initial question: no, there's no specific figure provided for the time between the Imprisoning War and events of ALttP. Just depends on which piece of conflicting lore you feel like using lol.

[stars-and-guts]

hey guyz its star or panic welcome back to another youtube video

im kind of a dude think of me as a diet man, they / he / star, a little bit bi. contrary to popular belief you are not allowed to call me by the name "sus" yet my friends do so anyway and i cannot stop them as we are all eldritch beings who can eliminate each other at any time

im 99.9% sure i have adhd and depression but im still on the journey of getting diagnosed, i reblog about those things fyi i am diagnosed with ocd and anxiety but those two things manifest less recently and are instead me being normally plagued with my not so normal actually kind of awful life

i like a lot of stuff my interests always change CURRENT BIG INTERESTS (last updated august 20 2024): PROJECT SEKAI, OSHI NO KO, POKEMON, VTUBERS ESP NIJIEN

i wont be interacting that much with nsfw seriously but there will be some freaky jokes !!

also the point of this blog is for me to find tumblr posts i found a few years ago at the peak of my tumblr usage (i didnt have an account then) and reblog them here because theyre funny. and i dont like having as many screenshots in my storage as i do rn. those posts will be in the archive set to roughly the date that i found the post but those dates are before i made this blog so you cant navigate to them- instead you get to scroll through my struggles in reverse chronological order

what else idk i joke about mental illness and suicide i block for petty and small reasons and i think the concept of cringe is dumb because why are we suddenly shaming people for expressing themselves im sorry are we actually a hivemind

ALSO. IF YOU ARE ON MY CUSTOM URL. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE CLICK THE INFO TAG ON EVERY POST I AM FUNNIEST IN MY TAGS BUT DIDNT KNOW MY TAGS GET HIDDEN LIKE THAT IN THE THEME I PUT IN UNTIL AFTER I ADDED A LOT OF CUSTOMIZATION

pinterest: starsxandxguts youtube: stars-and-guts anything else i either havent touched since i made the acc OR its related to vtubers and doesnt have anything to do w/ this blog

IMAGES USED IN MY BLOG: piplup forgot are you lost background sorry i dont remember where my pfp of piplup laying in the sand is from

[scoobydoodean]

I'm not reblogging some random's screenshotted tags again but FYI the actual American politics 🤝 SPN fandom 🤝 assigning everyone a political party happened within the bronly camp all by its lonesome which rended itself in two like two years ago when one person said it was unenjoyable to read anti Misha and anti destiel content on the bronly hate blogs because they were too racist, which resulted in the racists accusing the non-racists of trying to cancel them and being secret "hellers" who created wincest accounts and posted wincest fanfiction all in an effort to sneak into the bronly community and destroy them from the inside with screenshots of their racism.

[isoldmysoultojonahclemence]

JONAH’S EVER AFTER ON IKEREV TW

I CAN’T I--

HIS RELEASE CAMPAIGN CAME OUT YESTERDAY BUT I ONLY SAW IT A FEW MINUTES AGO BC I WAS ON VACATION I CAN’T BELIEVE I MISSED THIS WHAT KIND OF JONAH STAN AM I

THIS MEANS THAT JONAH’S ROUTE CAMPAIGN WILL BEGIN SOMEWHERE AROUND LATE OCTOBER OR EARLY NOVEMBER IN THE ENGLISH VERSION SO MARK YOUR CALENDARS

I’m putting the rest of this under a cut for length bc I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY

[Translation:

“On the 1 in a hundred million chance that I cannot marry you into the Clemence family, then I’m prepared to abandon my family.”

Whether it’s to build a family together, or to receive happiness together. For the one you love, the path you should take to the future is...

“You’re really too much. Don’t say something like...I’m sorry.”

The eyes that are brighter than the fireworks in the sky overflow with tears, and turn into strength to overcome the mirror blocking our path.

“When it’s only the two of us, I’m just Jonah...and I want to spoil you as much as I like.”]

ASDFKJWEIH;KAFJJE;LSAKFSD

I CAN ALREADY SENSE THE ABSOLUTE ANGST IN THIS ROUTE

IN HIS ORIGINAL ROUTE HE HAS TO ABANDON THE RED ARMY AND NOW IN HIS EVER AFTER HE HAS TO ABANDON HIS FAMILY TOO????? ESPECIALLY AS WE ALL KNOW HOW MUCH THE CRIMSON LINEAGE MEANS TO HIM??????????????????

And something I also really like is how the themes from the original route extends into his sequel, like the parts about “never apologizing” and “I can only be myself when I’m with you.” It just makes it feel more like a sequel and adds a better sense of completion uwu

ALSO JONAH’S TEARS ARE GOING TO DESTROY ME Y’ALL WILL SEE ME SOBBING ON TUMBLR WHEN I GET TO THAT PART

.

Here’s the mini talk list:

Luka + Sirius: please tell me about your families!

This one is already out, so here’s the screenshots!

[Translation:

Sirius: My home is always full of flowers, it’s a place that makes your mood lift.

Luka: Yeah...as opposed to Sirius’s family, mine was very quiet.

Luka: Even though it had always been pretty quiet...but ever since “that person” left home, it became even quieter.

Luka: Maybe it was because my family weren’t interested in me, so that’s why it feels so quiet.

Sirius: Haven’t you ever had experiences of playing noisily with Jonah in your home before?

Luka: No. We’re different from Sirius’s family...but there was only one time.

Luka: When I was young, that person had brought me out secretly before.

Luka: The both of us ran around and played in the secret courtyard that person found...

Luka: Until the skies grew dark.

Sirius: ...Is that so. Where is that courtyard full of memories? Is it close to your home?

Luka: I don’t know, I can’t remember...but, it doesn’t matter if I can’t remember it.

Luka: Now I think...it’s alright if that courtyard only exists in my memory.]

*deep breath*

ALKL;KCVKNCKDSA;KWOIWQOIK;FDMX;LZDS;ALKSJFA;LKJ

AKD;XJCEWQ8RJEIU;ANFVDFJSVVF’WDOIJ

;NWEFFKKGDMZXCKCERTIIUIBRI;JDSFJSMF;JLAEKF;LEQKJBNCM

FIRST OF ALL

A SECRET COURYARD???????? THAT JONAH FOUND?????????????? AND BROUGHT LUKA THERE TO PLAY???????????????????????? BUT ONLY ONCE???????????????????????????????????

I wonder how he managed to find it? But also it was to be expected that he would bring Luka bc he always wants to share what he loves with Luka (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡

Also just imagine the little Clemence bros running around and playing (｡･ω･｡)ﾉ♡ ♡ ♡

But like...

OH MY GOD LUKA WHAT HAVE YOU GONE THROUGH ˚‧º·(˚ ˃̣̣̥⌓˂̣̣̥ )‧º·˚

It’s so sadddddddd to think that the Clemence house got even quieter when Jonah left. Also I can’t figure out if Jonah “leaving” means that he left to go to boarding school or if he left to join the Red Army, but that was probably when Luka started to hate Jonah for abandoning him. I can’t imagine what it’s like to grow up in such a quiet and cold place and to have it grow even quieter and colder when the one person you thought cared about you left because now he has other things that are more important than you (/□＼*)・゜

Edgar + Kyle: can love between people of different social statuses exist?

The rest of these aren’t released at the moment I wrote this, so I’m mainly just going to be addressing my predictions!

So it’s clear that Jonah and MC are considered to be from different social ranks, even though MC is “Alice the Second” and has the power to nullify magic. She’s probably considered as a “commoner” in the Red Territory, so I can see why it would be difficult for Jonah and MC to get married.

And you know what else this reminds me of??? If we look at Seth’s route, we finally find out that the whole reason Cradle got divided into two was because a Red noble fell in love with a girl from a different social rank. And that romance tore a country apart, so.

Dean + Dalim: about family

Aight here we go. Are Dean and Dalim really family??? Do we finally get to find out??? Or at least get some sort of clue??? Bc I’m torn between the theory that they’re twins with amnesia or if Dean was some sort of clone created by the Magic Tower when they experimented on Dalim. And I have no idea when their routes are gonna be released, so I really hope we get more hints throughout each Ever After route.

Lancelot: Jonah’s tears

THIS IS THE SECOND MINI TALK THAT WILL DESTROY ME AFTER THE LUKA + SIRIUS ONE.

Also this is a reminder that Lancelot was probably the only one who has seen Jonah at his weakest before MC came along. It’s probably to be expected, since they’ve known each other for literally more than half their lives and also since Lancelot saved Jonah.

And technically Luka has known Jonah for the longest time, but I doubt that Jonah will ever show weakness in front of Luka because he considers himself as Luka’s protector, but it’s different in front of Lance. I feel like he can show his weaker side to Lance, and it just emphasizes how deep the relationship between them is.

SO GET READY FOR THE JONALOT FEELS WHEN THIS ONE COMES OUT.

Jonah: what is your ideal proposal?

OK I feel like this one is either gonna be super romantic or super cheesy. Or both, considering the type of person that Jonah is. But I’m gonna love it no matter what bc 1) Jonah can make even the most embarrassing situations funny and touching and 2) I’m too weak for my mille-feuille boi.

.

The screenshots for the “Peek at Romance” thing is here:

[Translation:

My dear Queen of Hearts, Jonah Clemence.

Jonah: In that party, every heir of the Clemence family will...

Jonah: Publicly introduce his fiancee, receive the acknowledgment and blessing of the whole clan, and finally step into the halls of marriage.

“What is a happy ending?”

--It’s when, the person who cannot be replaced becomes family.

Luka: Even though my brother is troublesome, and sometimes overly enthusiastic, but from now on please take care of him.

--It’s when, you become allies with the person you met.

Levie: Who hurt MC!? I’ll destroy that guy...!

Jonah: Calm down, Levie Castell. See who’s your true enemy clearly!

When he couldn’t provide an answer, it made tears overflow from his eyes.

And--while looking for an answer, it’s also possible to lose something.

Dalim: Thanks. Goodbye, princess.

Dean: I couldn’t ask any of the things I’ve been wondering before he ran...

But even so, we will still advance forward bravely.

This is all to receive the answer--to have a happy ending.

Jonah: From now on, everyone will see you as...

Jonah: The Queen of Heart’s...and also the head of the Clemence family’s wife.

Jonah: But, when there’s no one else, and when it’s just us two.

Jonah: We’ll become Jonah and MC again, and we can love each other as much as we like.

Jonah: I love you, MC.

No matter what happens, he, who is the most beautiful and pure in the world...

Will only accept a future that is even better than a happy ending...!]

I just...literally cannot express my love for this summary.

First of all I’m just gonna talk about the tone. Right off the bat MC calls him “my dear Queen” and it was just. So. CUUUUUUUUUUTE.

Also, the question and theme of “a happy ending” is brought up, and the rest of the sneak peek answers that question (it’s when the people you love become your family and the people you meet becomes your allies), but also explores how they could find those answers (Jonah crying when he couldn’t find an answer and advancing forward bravely because they just want their happy ending). And finally we finish it off with a super Jonah-like statement, announcing that he’ll accept no less than the most perfect ending of them all!

Moving on to the information revealed...it’s pretty cool how there’s a special party for the next head of the Clemence family when they’re ready to announce their marriage and gain approval. Also, it’s kinda wild to think that Jonah will eventually become a head of the family just like his father and his grandfather before that.

AND THE PART WITH LUKA AND LEVIE ARE LITERALLY SO ADORABLE. LIKE, LUKA INSULTING JONAH BUT ALSO LEAVING HIM TO MC AND LEVIE DEFENDING MC FROM PPL WHO WOULD HARM HER IS 10/10 PERFECT

Also it seems that Dean and Dalim’s backstories might be explored more but won’t be resolved just yet. I guess we really do have to wait until their routes get released to find out.

In short, this was an amazing summary of the route. WHY DO I HAVE TO WAIT ANOTHER MONTH UNTIL I CAN FINALLY READ THE WHOLE THING???????????????????????????

.

Also FYI, this is all completely new to me. For the other characters’ sequels, I played it through on Ikerev JP bc I can’t wait until the releases in the TW and English version that’s like, a year later. But I didn’t read Jonah’s sequel bc my Japanese isn’t super good and I wanted to read my man’s story in a language that I can completely understand so I literally have no idea of what to expect apart from what I found out in the campaign release :3

Also also I’m probably gonna be posting for every part in the story I’m going through BC I JUST LOVE JONAH THAT MUCH. I guess it would make up for my inactivity this month ^^;

[punkscowardschampions]

Rio & Liam

Rio: Erm, hi, what the actual fuck

Liam: how can I help you

Rio: Okay no, do not try to be cute with me right now

Rio: How do you even know my sister

Rio: do you

Liam: we’re both taken, ain’t we, and your sister wouldn’t like me being cute with anyone else rn

Liam: it’s a long story, I dunno why you’d wanna hear it from me instead of her

Rio: Believe me, I am trying to contact her

Rio: Do you really think this is appropriate?

Liam: you’re gonna tell me why you don’t think it is, that’s why you’re here

Liam: not my pov, yeah though

Rio: I’m here to ask you what you’re doing and why, both of which you’ve avoided answering so yeah, that’s not worrying AT ALL

Liam: you can see what’s happening and as she’s your sister I assumed you’d see why anyone would think it’s worth doing

Rio: You realise how that makes you sound, yeah

Rio: So you’ve just hit up a random girl who’s two years younger than you because you think she’s fit

Liam: you’re twisting it to make me sound like that bc you’ve already decided how this convo is gonna go, like I said

Liam: I didn’t know anything about her when we first started talking but am I mad she ended up being fit, no

Rio: If you had anything to say for yourself then I wouldn’t have to fill in the blanks

Rio: You aren’t exactly making it sound like you’re anything but guilty

Rio: Did you start talking to her or her to you?

Liam: [a screenshot of her post on the ARG thread and your reply because of course you have that]

Liam: guilty of what, having a common interest

Rio: Aren’t those places anonymous

Rio: So, what, she’s just giving out her info to anyone on the internet?

Rio: Great

Liam: she’s smarter than that

Rio: She’s my sister, I know what she’s like

Rio: Just say what you mean and what happened, it shouldn’t be difficult if you have nothing to hide

Liam: then you know she made we work for knowing more about her and I did

Rio: And you like her, do you

Liam: why are you phrasing it like I shouldn’t, she’s incredible

Rio: I’m not

Rio: that’s twisting it

Rio: but you’re an older lad, she’s never had a boyfriend

Rio: I just don’t think this is ideal for her first experience

Liam: what’s better about a lad from her year, I’ll look after her

Rio: It isn’t really about the age, it’s about experience

Liam: I dunno what Lex has told you but it sounds like she’s lying

Rio: I know Lex too

Liam: it didn’t work with her, maybe she’s still annoyed about it

Rio: She hasn’t said anything against you, FYI

Liam: she’s your mate, you wouldn’t really say if she had

Rio: It’s not about Lexie anyway

Rio: I still don’t understand how you and Edie started talking, outside of the forum thing

Liam: how we are, we found out who each other was and moved it here

Rio: Right…

Rio: And you have things in common, that’s more than how it seems

Rio: Can you like, not break her heart

Rio: Because then we will have a problem

Liam: we won’t ever have a problem

Rio: I know she looks and acts mature, but she’s not

Rio: well, she’s still just a kid, you know what I mean

Liam: she’s not a kid, but she 👀 at the world how they do, sometimes, not having that in common is why I wouldn’t hurt her

Rio: Does that not put you off?

Liam: it’s not a - it’s a +

Rio: She doesn’t need a protector, that isn’t your job

Liam: it’s not your job to tell me what she needs, I know it’s not me

Rio: What do you think she needs?

Liam: I’m not gonna out her like that

Rio: What does that even mean

Liam: my thoughts are coming from what she’s said to me, maybe it’s private or maybe you already know, but if you don’t, I’m not betraying her trust

Rio: If there’s something wrong or she’s in trouble you need to tell me

Liam: she’s not, and there’s nothing wrong, she could just be happier

Rio: Well couldn’t everyone

Liam: everyone don’t get the chance

Rio: I’m not going to rail on you if you think you can make her happy

Rio: that’s sweet and I’m not a massive bitch

Rio: I’m just a little shocked

Liam: me too when it ended up being her, it’s a massive thread

Rio: I’m not trying to out her, or anything like that and if you say anything about her it’s over for you

Rio: but have you considered she searched you out specifically?

Rio: She’s really smart

Liam: why me

Rio: Come on, Liam

Rio: She clearly thinks you’re amazing, and she’s not the only one interested

Liam: she was as surprised

Rio: Okay, if you’re sure

Rio: You don’t know anything about what’s been happening to Lexie, do you?

Liam: I’m camping with my dad, what’s happening with Lexie

Rio: Edie hasn’t mentioned anything?

Liam: what’s it gotta do with Edie

Rio: Hopefully nothing, don’t worry

Liam: you’re seriously not gonna fill in the blanks

Rio: Ha, the level we are not at there yet

Rio: I believe you, so the Lexie stuff is clearly unrelated to this, you don’t need to know

Liam: she did message me asking questions that made no sense, so if she thinks I did something I wanna know

Rio: Someone did do something, she’ll work it out

Rio: it isn’t my information to spread around, that doesn’t seem sensible

Liam: if she’s spreading round it’s me, it’s uncool of you to not give me any info at all

Rio: She isn’t

Rio: she’s looking at all eventualities and you are her ex, that’s how your name came up, she hasn’t told people it was you, by any means

Liam: the timing is funny, I get a new girlfriend and she’s trying to make me look bad

Rio: I can see that

Rio: but there’s been videos, things left at her house

Rio: I don’t think it was you, I’m not saying that, but she’s shown me

Rio: What would that mean, she’d done it herself? idk, also sounds funny

Rio: it’s clearly just an unrelated weirdo and the timing is a coincidence

Liam: she should be more careful what she posts, if some random has found her house

Rio: It must be someone else from her real life

Rio: even peripherally

Rio: I don’t know, but you’re fine, she’s not talking shit about you

Rio: even if she’s a little salty, she’s not going to stoop that low, truly

Liam: I don’t think she’s still hung up on me or something, my ego’s not crazy big

Rio: She liked you, but it was a while ago now

Rio: and she isn’t going to say or do anything to hurt my sister in front of me, or behind my back if she knows what’s good so

Liam: she came across happy for us in my comments, but I never could read her

Rio: No?

Rio: well, reading her isn’t your priority now, right

Liam: it’ll make me sound like a dick if I admit it wasn’t ever enough of a priority for me, but you clearly respect honesty

Rio: It’s okay, you weren’t well-suited, it’s not a crime

Rio: it would be more problematic if you were still trying to make things work now

Rio: sorry, I should say I never thought you were a match, and I’ve told her so I’m not being two-faced by dropping that here

Liam: I shouldn’t have done it

Rio: I don’t blame you

Rio: neither does Lex, I’m sure

Liam: would she forgive me if I can find out who’s doing this to her, it’s not the same, but I helped Edie with some lads in her dms, I might be able to

Rio: You did?

Rio: I didn’t even know

Rio: but then, she hadn’t mentioned you until today’s announcement so, I guess that’s an us thing

Rio: I mean, yeah, I’m sure she’d be really grateful for that; you really think you can?

Liam: I can try, Edie’s busy getting ready for a show and it’s fucking boring here

Rio: Is it just you and your dad?

Liam: yeah

Rio: I feel for you

Liam: we got off on the wrong foot at the start and I’m not trying to go back to there, I wanna be clear that, like, this has been quick and I know how it looks

Rio: I appreciate that

Rio: I’m also not trying to start anything here, it isn’t personal with regards to you, it only was because she’s my little sister

Rio: But if you like her and she likes you, then this is fine

Liam: she’s unlike anyone I’ve ever met and I know loads of people

Rio: She is

Rio: She’s special, even if I’m biased

Liam: I’ve told her she can do better but she don’t believe me

Rio: If she wants you, then I support her

Rio: It’s not about ideals, or some other in-theory notion like that

Liam: it was about the view you had of me that you got from somewhere, apparently not Lexie

Rio: You said yourself, it looks suspect

Rio: she hadn’t mentioned you until this and I had no idea you knew each other

Liam: but if it was only that you wouldn’t be throwing out lines about experience like there’s something you wanna say about me specifically

Rio: Do I need to spell that out?

Rio: I just meant she’s 14 and hasn’t had a boyfriend before, you’re 16 and have had girlfriends… that’s all I was saying

Rio: if that was your intention, I wouldn’t want that for her

Rio: but you’ve made it clear it’s more than that

Liam: no I’ve not, if there were any girls between her and your sister the Lexie thing wouldn’t be as weird as it is

Rio: Oh, sorry, I just assumed

Liam: I still don’t think she’s doing it herself it’s just the timing that’s making me ??!

Rio: You don’t think it’s Edie, do you?

Rio: I didn’t want to say before because I’m sure she’d be furious at me for even suggesting that but

Liam: even if I could think of a why, she wouldn’t have had time, with setting the show up and this ARG we’re making, that’s the shit I know about, there’s gonna be loads of surprises she’s sorted for when I get back too

Rio: I am not going to pretend I remember what ARG stands for but that’s a relief

Rio: I really do not want to come at her with that energy

Rio: You guys are sweet, it’s nice to see

Liam: you should come to see her perform, Lex too if she wants

Rio: When is it? She never tells me anything

Liam: [the date and the place]

Liam: she wasn’t gonna go but I’ve never seen her on stage

Rio: Typical, I was meant to be in London then

Rio: I’ll see if we can swap and be here instead

Liam: there’ll be others if not

Rio: She’s not going to invite me herself, at least this time I can say you did

Liam: cool, throw me under the bus, that’s fine 😏

Rio: it’s the honeymoon phase, she isn’t going to get mad at you 😉

Liam: 🥺 will work

Rio: I don’t want to hear about your tactics, thank you

Liam: don’t worry, it ain’t what I’m gonna really do

Rio: I should hope not!

Rio: would not be the move to tell me about it

Liam: I probably shouldn’t have talked to you this long, if she don’t tell you things

Rio: She doesn’t NOT tell me things

Liam: no massive secrets implied by me for a second time

Rio: It’s a part of growing up, right

Rio: you don’t tell your parents everything either

Liam: how I grew up isn’t the standard, I dunno

Rio: It must’ve made you all close

Liam: we still didn’t tell our parents anything, must be universal

Rio: I think so

Rio: what they don’t know, eh

Liam: yeah

Rio: Well, I’ll let you get back to not loving camping then

Liam: and I’ll let you get back to trying to contact Edie

Rio: I’ll see her at home

Rio: Can’t avoid me forever

Liam: I couldn’t bring her, next time 📴👋

Rio: It’s a bit soon for sleepovers, honey

Rio: Nice try though

Rio: Thanks for talking to me, eventually 😏

Rio: See you around 😊

Liam: it's a yearly tradition, no need to go back to that way of thinking about me

Rio: I’m just joking, your dads there too, I know

Rio: it’s your birthday, right?

Rio: Happy Birthday for the actual day

Liam: I didn't realise you knew when my birthday was

Rio: I remember it being sometime in the summer, we have been in the same classes forever, that’s not weird, right

Liam: you remember my name on the list of all the kids getting that shared happy birthday cheer in final assembly before school ended, you mean

Rio: Hey, my birthday is in December so you’ll get no sympathy from me, all anyone cares about is their own presents 🎅

Liam: 💔 sorry

Rio: No need, I still find a way to get spoilt

Rio: Are you doing anything when you get back?

Liam: my ma'd be 💔 if I don't

Rio: Duh, I meant with Edie or your friends though

Liam: can't let my parents have all the fun

Rio: Definitely not

Liam: you know Edie, I won’t be bored even when summer’s been and gone

Rio: That’s true

Rio: for 😁 and 😬

Liam: you added the 😬 not me

Rio: that is exclusive to my big sister role, for sure

Rio: it’d be rude if you were

Liam: I used to get loads of 😬 off my own big sister, she’d have called it a + too

Rio: that’s our job

Rio: guinea pig and middle man

Rio: You must miss her even more, on special occasions

Liam: it’s easier to find ways not to on special occasions, mates buy you rounds, think nothing of keeping the party going for a couple of days, I miss her more after, when shit’s meant to go back to normal

Rio: No, that makes sense actually, when you say it like that

Rio: it’s the everyday, little things, they affect you more

Liam: she’d be 18 and too cool to 🥳 with me, but yeah, later on, that’s when she should be around, to tell me what she did on her 16th was better

Rio: It’s fucked she didn’t get to her 18th, it really is

Rio: I’m sure it would have been epic and you’d happily take that 🥈

Rio: Still, make sure you have a good day, yeah?

Rio: 16 is a biggie too

Liam: I will, I’ll be with Edie

Rio: 😊🧡

[fairweathermyth]

hi!!! i was just wondering what you do to your gifsets to get them looking so sharp and nicely colored??

hello!! i am VERY bad explaining this stuff, but okay here is my very very very basic gifmaking process… under the cut!

start with high quality source material! when possible, always gif from 1080p vids. 720p is generally good too. anything lower, then you’re not going to get hq looking gifs no matter how hard you try.

start by cropping and resizing as needed (reminder it’s 177-178-177 for three across, 268-268 for two, and 540 for one)

then sharpen. i built my own sharpening action literally years ago and have used that same one ever since. it’s tedious to build, but once you have it it’s the easiest thing in the wold. i’ll put a screenshot of my smart sharpen settings at the bottom here, but if you’re not familiar with actions this probably isn’t that helpful! there are a bunch of different sharpening techniques, so maybe browse @completeresources​ and see what works best for you! i just really don’t know how effectively i can describe building a sharpening action without physically showing you! but i’m sure there’s a good tutorial out there somewhere!

for the smoothest running gifs i set the frame delay to .07 (also check for duplicate frames. if your gif looks skippy even at .07 it’s probably bc the video file is corrupted and imported some duplicate frames. just delete any duplicates and you’re good. idk if this is a common problem but i was having an issue with this last spring and it drove me insane so thought it was worth mentioning).

for coloring, the most lifesaving tip i can give is to always  start with white balance and black balance using curves. THIS TUTORIAL is much better at explaining it than i am so please take a look. if you are using curves right, it does like 90% of the work for you and the rest is just enhancing and having fun playing with coloring!

for the remaining coloring i have two different actions which i use for almost every gif . one is very basic color enhancing, the other is a little more stylized with heavy blues and reduced yellows (i use that one for things like the text post meme gifs). so basically after setting the curves, i just run one of my actions and get to a good base, then make whatever adjustments are needed which isn’t usually too much. my main tools are brightness/contrast, selective color, color balance, and vibrance.

(for the record, the fun coloring ones like this  are a whole other process which i won’t get into now lol)

i’m sorry if any of this is way too vague to be helpful, i was trying to avoid getting rambly, and i don’t want to assume your level of experience. if you’re not familiar with actions, they really can make your life so easy, so definitely look into it! let me know if you have more specific questions and i’ll try to help!

sharpening settings:

and fyi this is what my adjustment layer workspace almost always looks like:

[tgwtgrumours-blog]

oh boy.....

I don’t know, you don’t post for 6 years and the whole fandom explodes.....

 So, I saw my name dropped on kiwi farms (I’ve been a Cwc lurker since Bluespike, yes, I’m old,) I decided that I probably should post with everything going on. 

I had resigned some time ago that I had put my days of internet detectivering (A word I made up) behind me, but I guess I gotta dust off my keyboard.

Who am I:

Ok, I was a fan of the tgwtg crew, a huge fan and I’ve always been strong with google-FYI so I thought I’d use my powers for good.  At the time tgwtg was pretty big and there were a lot of rumours going about, and being the kind of person who is #foreverlurking on sites like SA, the chans, ED, tvtropes, etc,  I was seeing a lot of shit talk about contributors who I liked.  I also saw that Rants who used to run (not sure if they still do) the tgwtg secrets tumblr was getting a lot of stuff at the time about various rumours going around, and Rants didn’t have the information to respond to them.

I thought I would provide my services as a sort of neutral  party who would purely answer this stuff factually and maybe try to stop lies being spread throughout the internet. I think my most significant post was about JesuOtaku, then Hope, now Jacob.

There had been rumours for a long time about homophobia on JO’s part, and I did some extensive research for that one.  On a hard drive I still have the hundreds of screenshots I made of literally every forum post in which JO had said something shitty.  I delved very deeply and spoke to people who knew JO IRL, they said that they felt JO was a nice person who had never been mean or nasty to them.  I concluded that while JO was younger he had made some shitty posts but had since become a better person.  Hence the rumour was technically true, but JO had reformed his opinion. Of course that was before all the stuff with Nash, so..... yeah.

Why did I stop posting:

There were a number of reasons.  I’ve always suffered with mental health issues, namely depression, ocd and ptsd, and that makes me erratic at times about commitments, which was a small part of it.

The other reason was largely to do with a video called “things tgwtg fans say” -this was made by mostly chez apocalypse people and there were two things which began to sit very badly with me in that video. 

The first one was, I believe Elisa, saying “I’m worried about spoony” - this was PRE Spoony meltdown, and I myself was one of the fans concerned about his mental health issues and his erratic behaviour.  We all know how that ended, don’t we?

I didn’t like the idea of this video taking the piss out of fans was not just poking fun, there was genuine reason to be concerned about Spoony’s behaviour, as was proved shortly afterwards. I don’t know who made the decision to include that line, but it made me feel very uncomfortable. 

The second was Kyle aka Oan Citizen saying “I hate Rants!”  Everyone thought that it meant Rants as in ranting, but after Rants of the tgwtg secrets tumblr had said they liked the video, Kyle went out of his way to let Rants know that line was directed at them personally. Kyle didn’t think this was inappropriate at all until Hagan told him off and he apologised and the video was edited to cut that line.

‘Shortly after Kyle’s apology was added to his ‘crowning moment of heartwarming’ section on tvtropes. I couldn’t help but think, “these guys make videos on the internet and get money for watches and they’re openly insulting the people who watch their videos to their faces.”

That made me feel sick to my stomach. 

It STILL makes me eel sick to my stomach 6 years later.  

Kyle had also tweeted (then deleted before I got a chance to screenshot) a tweet saying “I just want some people to know I hate them. Deeply.” This was aimed at Rants.

Rants ran a blog where people made posts about people saying they fancied this producer or thought that producer was cute - so yeah, I didn’t like this.

Then.... ugh...  I’m sorry, I started getting messages about Jew Wario.

I have various screenshots I will share, but can’t share some for various reasons, mostly I’m not at home right now, I’m on holiday abroad, and I’m posting on my iPad. I’m having a holiday because my Dad died last month from a long battle with brain cancer so I need to chill, y’all.

The stuff I was getting was really disturbing so I’m just going to post the one screen cap of me asking Rants if they’d been getting anything, though I erroneously refer to his victim as his girlfriend for some reason, I think I’d thought they were dating. When I get home I’ll go through all my archive and see what else I have saved.

 It put me off the fandom in a big way, I decided to take a break, which turned into a complete hiatus. I was scared of the information. I was just a girl, sitting in her room, watching videos about bad movies, then suddenly I was being told about crimes and fans were being attacked. 

I didn’t want to be a part of it and I ran away. 

I was a coward. 

I was much younger, more naive, and didn’t possess the social skills to be able to deal with it or process it properly. 

I’m sorry. 

I’m so sorry. 

I feel that I have a proportional piece of blame, but after Justin’s suicide I felt the issue was over, in a Jimmy Saville way and tried to move on. Even though I no longer visited tgwtg/channel awesome any longer, I felt intense guilt for years and that is part of the reason I stopped posting. 

Again, I’m sorry. 

During my tenure as internet detective I had the opportunity to speak with several producers, Lupa, Brad, Linkara, Holly and others, everyone who I spoke to personally was friendly and helpful and generally really lovely people. 

I didn’t start the blog to upset anyone, I just wanted to be a small part of something that I enjoyed immensely as a fan and the only talent I had was the ability to read through 149 forum pages in one night and make sense of it all.

I should have spoken up, and I can’t take that back now, but I hope I can find a way to make it up to the people my silence hurt.

Elf xoxo

[yaemikosideboob]

ok ya i did this like over a year ago and it has been saved in my drafts for a very long time. this is how i made my pokemon egg for my spark cosplay that i never finished btw. it is very light weight because it is made of phone so ill explain what i did to sculpt it.

i got a big foam cube from hobby lobby (im gay i dont support hoblob, it was just a convenient craft store location), you will also need some sandpaper of some medium grit, it doesnt really matter. also a brush, tissue paper, modge podge, and whatever color paints you wanna use on the egg. (i mixed mine so)

um i just started carving that bih w a butter knife so cut off the corners but dont get too into it bc u wanna keep most of the cube so its still a good size. i made the top of the egg a corner NOT EDGE of the cube, and the bottom was the opposite side, so i couldnt lay it flat to carve it

once it is mostly shaped u do the rest w sandpaper n be sure to turn it often else u will screw it up fyi

after sanding i put modge podge on it and covered it in tissue paper to make it less porous... i think i only did two or three layers, and i thought paint would cover rest, no it did not, i recommend doing more layers so the egg is smoother

then i primed it with white paint, i think,,, unless it was gesso, but i think that would have made it crack. i wouldnt use gesso lol

let that dry and paint ur egg the cream off-white color first, let dry and then go in with green or whatever. i used the pokemon go model for 2k eggs, which is also the traditional egg in the games. i just took screenshots of it rotating on the egg profile screen lol, but i wanted it to be accurate, really doesnt matter tho lol

hope this helps, if you have any questions feel free to message me :^)

[themostsarcasticone]

LISTEN UP

READ ALL THE WAY THROUGH. Please. I need this to spread. I need this kind of stuff to stop. Everyone needs it to stop. So i’m on iFunny minding my own business, and I see something and have the urge to comment. So I did. It was something along the lines of “Haha dude the last guy that messed with my best friend got a two hour long lecture from me and basically a five paragraph essay. He cheated on her with like four other girls. He had it coming...” And I know what you’re thinking: That will probably provoke someone. Well: I. Don’t. Care. Honestly, I don’t. What bothers me, ohhhh what bother me, you see, is the comments that followed. The first: “Doubt.” Now you can’t comment pics or anything so oh well but I have the screenshots on my phone. I have it alllll. I explained this to him. He finally left me alone. This isn’t the asshole of the story. No, no he’s coming into the story next. I get a notification a few days later. Someone replied. Cool! Let’s go read it! As soon as I read it: I’m instantly mad. “You dumb bitch this is obviously fake shit girls are weak and have an IQ of like 18 and guys are smarter after high school” Like wow. Dude are you really gonna say that to me? Because I can prove you wrong. My IQ is over 100. I’m going to college next year an i’m only a sophomore in high school right now. This is bullshit. So, naturally I reply back... pretty mad. “Man, that’s not a funny joke, dude. And you know what? That’s the kind of thinking that ruins relationships. FYI” In hindsight, a little rude. But y’know what? Well deserved. Well. Frickin. Deserved. I’m just trying to let the guy know that if it was an attempted joke, he failed horribly. He replies: “1) it wasn’t a joke. It’s 100% true. And 2) I have never been dumped. I broke up with the two girlfriends I had. Also: if you think I act like this in public you’re delusional. I have manners. Just not for people with bullshit stories on a comedy app.” Boi. This ain’t bullshit. This is real shit. If you don’t like it leave. Like come on. It’s not unreasonable that my best friend was cheated on. I mean, it shouldn’t be, she’s freaking amazing, but he guy’s a scumbag who frequently cheats. So it’s perfectly reasonable. Not to mention it’s tHE TRUTH!!! Anyways, I feel compelled to reply. Because I don’t just quit. I go out fighting. “Leave me the hell alone! I refuse to stoop to your level! I did basically nothing to you!!” To which he replies: “You’re just a bitch. You didn’t do shit. Men are better than women everywhere.” Well. Bite me. Lemme just tell ya how wrong that is. Let’s see you birth a child. Let’s see you bleed for a week and not die. Still think you’re better everywhere? Hm? You have no idea how strong women are. You have no. Freaking. Idea. Try a day in the life before you insult it. And I reply: “Wow. It just makes you think...why is it SO unreasonable that 1) yes I am a girl 2) yes I protected my friend 3) i’m a girl and i’m Not weak OR dumb. I’m pretty sure no one with an IQ of 18 or above would be saying someone’s dumb and spouting bullshit because she spoke up for a friend.” And I leave it at that. Because that was my last reply. As of ten minutes ago.

[attract-mode-collective]

Ready To Wear, Ready To Play

As previously noted, there’s been yet another change in direction for the Attract Mode blog… which I have dubbed Version 2.8 Final CE EX Λ Core Plus Alpha. BTW/FYI. But yeah, been posting on Twitter, a lot. So much so that you may have missed something, so here’s a recap!

Note: was originally going to cover everything tweeted throughout the month, but because there’s so much to cover (and February’s short)… am guessing bi-weekly might be the way to go. Am also going to present things mostly in order.

K, enough chatter: at the very top is another fine example of a Famicom being the ultimate in fashion accessory (via nintendu). And here we have, not designer threads but designer plastic (via gamefreaksnz)...

Speaking of plastic, Sega (or someone who got Sega’s blessing, or maybe not even) made Super Monkey Ball figures? Guess so (via magimacaque)...

I was under the belief that, if I truly wanted to make an impact with the relaunch of the Attract Mode Twitter, I couldn’t just post one single piece of Klonoa fan art, but two... 

And I only have one example of Cuphead fan art, but it’s the one that counts (via jothelion)...

It was Kyle who helped kick the Attract Mode Twitter’s rebirth into high gear, with the reveal of his Nintendo Power covers. So to help replay the favor, I must insistent that everyone purchase the hard copy of RPG_Friends (which I first mentioned here)...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing such a dense assortment of Japanese game stuffs (via peazy86)...

... Yet that being said, I also believe less can be more, plus a nice breeze while playing Secret of Mana is... well... nice (via sixteen-bit.tumblr)

These gamer chairs perfectly embody Japanese sensibilities when it comes to furniture, plus are a total 180 to the junk they peddle in the US (via shmups)...

Time for another excellent toco toco vid, this one features your fave old school Capcom illustrator, and mine, Akiman…

There's so much I love about this interview with the creator of Hong Kong 1997, whose goal was "to make the worst game possible”. Though this picture of the guy is near the top of my list... 

I love these kooky kids, thinking they could possibly get away with  stealing an entire Final Fight arcade cab (via videogamead)...

Yeah, I feel the same way kid (via tvgame)...

"This is Jesus. He lives inside my Neo Geo MVS cabinet. He was there when I got it. He is glorious." (via arcadephile)...

The pathos that is Sub Zero at the bat, in four modded screenshots(via lanceboyles)...

The pathos that is the Kachō interacting with kids, in just three YouTube screengrabs (via gaijira)...

And the pathos that is Splatoon 2, via two screengrabs and the piece of fan art that resulted (via lunaticobscurity)...

Though in addition to pathos, Splatoon is also filled to the brim with intensity (via thewaragainstgiygas)...

Welcome to VIOLENT CITY (via shmups)...

Also, STAY CHILL (via paperbeatsscissors)...

Not that any band in which music is performed via guitars hooked up to Famicoms is all that typical to being with, but this one is most definitely not typical (via miki800.com)...

This "what the hell is going on exactly" illustration has motivated me to finally Wario Land a spin at long last (via it8bit)...

Remember Absolutely Rose Street, the Beverly Hills 90210 meets Degrassi meets Wayne’s World-esque show that was actually an infomercial for the Sega 32X in disguise that I wrote about a little whiles ago? Well here's ad for it (via oldgamemags)...

I'm a total sucker for old Japanese video game mags, primarily ones featuring models/statues on the cover (via miki800)...

Another cover to an old Japanese game rag, this one featuring the very first Metal Gear; I wonder if this slightly cutesy take helped to inspire the Metal Gear we meet in Snatcher (via mendelpalace)...

Here we have a page from an 11 page comic, done in a single sitting, for an event that celebrates various pairings of Solid Snake/Otacon, one that's called Snot Week for whatever reason (via millionfish)...

I want this woman to be my mom (via cyberfights)...

Am obsessed with this image of a man playing Xevious in the middle of a desert that's clearly fabricated and clearly from the 80s (via shmups)...

mendelpalace sez: "This picture gives me anxiety" and I feel exactly the same...

This is comparable to my own morning commute, except for the lack of floating cherry blossom petals and various other differences (via tightenupthe)...

Spring is almost here, which means it's time for a new wardrobe, which really means it's time to get new PaRappa attire (via miki800.com)...

If a glitched Nintendo logo when booting up a Game Boy looks fashionable to you, you're in luck (via gameandgraphics)...

Tho if a glitched Game Boy Advance start up is more your style (via corruptionasart)...

Has anyone received this Mega Drive/Genesis chiptune album on a cart (described as a "16-bit VMU") yet? (via catskullelectronics)

Ever wonder what a 3 part symphony, one performed via 5 different Nintendo DSs and 5 different copies of Electroplankton, sounds like? Well wonder no more (via mendelpalace)...

And ever wonder what an Italian-based, US-born R&B, blues and disco singer (which is how Wikipedia describes Ronnie Jones) thought of video games in the year 1980? Again, wonder no more (via aestheticoftheday)...

The new DDR, which will record your performance and also add snazzy video effects, is my early contender for GOTY 2018 (via @Sega_AM2)...

I will never grow tired or bored of watching this run cycle, ever (via shmups)...

What appears to be a Nier motion study (via sixteen-bit)...

Sakura-ha (via rosscountertv)..

To commemorate the discontinuation of the Kinect sensor (via prostheticknowledge)...

Google Translate took the original Korean & translated it as: "Ittsumi! Maria", which @NotLikeFreddy re-translated as: "It's-a me, Mary-o"...

The medium of video games most certainly has many mountains to overcome yet, but there's little denying that we've made some progress nonetheless (via videofame)...

"I have to go now. My planet needs me.” (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz it's been a while since I shared a gif from Sin & Punishment (via n64thstreet)...

The SNES & Genesis had cool accessories and all, yet I often wonder what it would have been like if 3D printers & Etsy were around back then...

Pretty much the cutest lil thing you'll see all day is this Genesis CDX hooked up to a 5″ Sony PVM (via decideweapons)...

“'Club Sega during the Snow' is a top-tier aesthetic, I think." (via pr0jectneedlemouse)

I love old VG sound team photos, especially when they double as old band photos, like Capcom's Alph Lyra here (via videogamesdensetsu)...

You all have no idea how happy I am to finally see a decent sized version of the flyer for Deadly Sport... again, no idea (via melvanainchains)...

Here's an illustration of Terry Bogard eating a hot dog (with the rest of his Fatal Fury posse chowing down as well)...

... Turns out, Terry's affinity for hot dogs is somewhat of a thing (via busterwolf)....

... Or, perhaps SNK as a whole are simply huge fans of hot dogs? (via meldowiseau)

I absolutely love this familiar, yet thoroughly refreshing take on Samus (via lady--peaches)...

And nothing new to report, as it pertains to @deimosremus's Metroid redesign, so am just going to continue staring at this some more...

Love Hultén is mostly known for their handheld creations, like the Pixel Vision, though I mostly dig their full-sized cabinet, the Kabin 1...

"Damn Tecmo never let Microsoft live that design down" (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz I recently began replaying Breath of the Wild...got the Switch version for the gf on her birthday... some fan art (via it8bit)...

I've seen my fair share of comics with Sonic & Tails, but never one that addresses the debug mode from the original Genesis games (via vg-libary)...

Here we have two cats, from the game Jingle Cats, occupied with the fridge (via obscurevideogames)...

And here we have just one cat, from the Sailor Moon anime, occupied with an arcade game that I am unable to identify (via sailormoonreblogs)...

Can you believe the music video for @MissyElliott's Sock It 2 Me is over 20 years old? Crazy, I know...

Speaking of Mega Man, I guess I need to finally check out Mega Man Zero, cuz apparently X goes through some kind of religious conversion or something (via omnilunary)...

And here we have Cut Man, the one we all know (and love) from Mega Man meeting his Captain N doppelganger (via mewymarsher)...

I absolutely need this on a shirt or jacket (via @buzz_clik)...

It's always a thrill, seeing a fighting stick made out of tupperware in the wild for the very first time, isn't it? (via @silva_hime)

Yes. Fighting Layer is that game in which you jump off a folding chair to smash another one on the head of a gigantic falcon (via lordmo)...

Tonight’s episode: PINBALL ALCHEMIST (via tonights-episode)...

Here we have a Tumblr thread giving suggestions on how to access a seemingly inaccessible area of a hotel lobby; my fave, for perhaps obvious reasons, is the ring path/light speed dash combo from Sonic Adventure...

Am kinda hungry atm and feel like slicing & dicing some celery & onions, plus making some Julienne Fries; anyone got a copy of Sonic 2 handy? (via sonicthehedgeblog)

A. thanks to this fan art, I now know you can also play OutRun in Hokuto no Ken PS4! & B. great piece & all, but...still a shame that Alex Kidd is missing (via inspiredfatty)...

I've legit been staring at these rotating NES and SNES gifs all day long (via 3d-bear)...

These photos from the Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, circa the late 90s, right before the system's launch are very... and I mean VERY... 90s (via posthumanwanderings)...

"What will your next dream be?" (via 081594)

You know that UK/US reality show Undercover Boss, in which a billionaire CEO disguises himself as the new mailroom guy? Well there's apparently a version in Japan, with an episode starring the president of Taito (via @MMCafe_Prof)...

On Valentine's Day I came across a horror movies blog that presented various horror movie Valentines, including one for Jason Voorhees that references Friday The 13th for NES (via cameraviscera.com)...

Also, for Valentine's, my girlfriend made me pixelated chocolate; the pic does the blue hearts in particular zero justice, which look like plastic toys, but most assuredly are made of milk chocolate...

... And that’s it for now! The rest of February coming up in a few!

[black-strike-otp]

part 87

♫♪ I am not your pet, not another thing you own. I was not born guilty of your crimes. Your riches and your influence can’t hold me anymore. I won’t be possessed. Burdened by your royal test. I will not surrender this life, is, mine~ ♫♪

More small tidbits. Since tonight’s Halloween, there won’t be another chap tonight, and only one posted tomorrow as well, just an FYI!

Music lifted through the air and carried a melancholy tune through the shipyard. There was only one small craft in the large room void of bots. With the topside landing strip and lower hatch, this area was obviously hardly used. A thin layer of dust covered the majority of the room though it appeared someone had made a genuine effort to clear the area of some of it at one point and gave up.

The soft sneeze caused Blackout to flinch. He looked down at Novastrike’s apologetic smile as she sheepishly lowered her audio receptors.

He gave a small shake of his helm. Offering a brief smile, Blackout casually strolled over to the Jaguar. This had been their first meeting at the seeker’s vessel while on the Nemesis. Meeting in their rooms was unquestionably stupid, and speaking too frequently in the med-bay was risky business. They couldn’t depend on the option of just flying off the Nemesis and relying on late meet ups anymore; such frequent jours spent off the ship for even brief interweaving amounts of time was bound to come to Megatron’s attention if it hadn’t already.

Infiltrator poked his helm out first. The beast’s red optics looked to Blackout, then to Novastrike, then to Scorponok who offered a click in greeting. He turned around, wishing his tail as he returned inside the ship.

Assuming that was the best indication they were going to have that it was okay to enter, Blackout followed the dragon slowly.

The Jaguar clearly wasn’t built to have someone as tall as himself on board. It didn’t surprise him; he was above even the average ‘tallest’ bots. Slumping his shoulders, Blackout bowed his helm as he grumbled and squeezed himself into the tight space.

It came to some surprise to see a sight he hadn’t witnessed in generations. With bow in servo, Nighthawk drew the thin cable hair along those strung up along the violin. He hadn’t even considered the melody to be more than a recorded backdrop to hide their words, but with dark light adding to the atmosphere and almost pained look upon the medic’s faceplate, he played on the harmony.

“Gosh,” Novastrike whispered as she revered the seeker with envy. “I didn’t know Nighthawk could play an instrument. That sounds absolutely enchanting. Who wrote that?”

Light flickered in Nighthawk’s optics as he glanced slightly to Novastrike with embarrassment. He dropped his equipment from his shoulder and placed it neatly in a lined box on the floor. After snapping the case shut, he leaned forward in his seat to tap a button. The recording began to fill the area from his playing outside of the ship; muffled within the Jaguar.

“It’s an original,” Nighthawk admitted sheepishly.

“You play so lovely,” Nova murmured, nervously scuffing her pedes on the floor. “The song really draws a lot of pain, though.”

“That’s because it was written in a fit of pain,” the medic stated as he pushed himself up to stand.

“I’m surprised you still have that,” Blackout grumbled, nodding his helm to the instruments case as Infiltrator wound around the chair to retrieve it. He disappeared further into the ship to place it back where it had been stored.

“My sire got it for me,” he grunted in answer somewhat angrily. “I would never get rid of Roi Têtu.”

Raising an optic ridge, the giant mech snorted softly. “‘The Stubborn King’? An interesting name.”

“‘The greatest slave in a kingdom is generally the king of it’,” Nighthawk quoted with a simple nod. “Roi Têtu has been a fine friend to me over the years, and has reminded me of my more humble beginnings. I would never simply sell off or trade a trusted confident.”

Flicking her audios, Novastrike peered sideways up to Blackout. He offered a slight shrug. The name made little sense to him as well. He had believed it to be some silly reference to how musicians felt as though they were slaves to their weapons whim.

“I didn’t call you here for your interpretation of my work,” the medic spoke up firmly, walking over to pick up a datapad from a stand.

Blackout shifted his pedes, feeling a slight throbbing ache in his neck already for keeping in this hunched position. He watched as Nighthawk’s projector on his pad flashed out a large map. For a moment, the obsidian giant was confused by the moving dots on the screen. Then he looked through the large holographic screen to meet the seeker’s smug expression.

“This is a live feed of the cavern system where the space bridge is kept, isn’t it?”

“It is indeed,” Nighthawk agreed.

“Isn’t it dangerous to have more than just a screenshot,” Novastrike offered quietly.

“Why do we have an active ledger of what’s going on in the mines?” Blackout mused.

“Most likely to keep an optic on the workers,” Nighthawk stated in a voice that suggested such a question was obvious. He glanced to Nova as he went on, “I would agree with you on this normally, but I have a secure network hidden in the ship transmitting the feed.”

Blackout scoffed. “Safe? Even from Soundwave’s detection?”

Wincing slightly, the medic resized the screen display smaller so that he could easily meet Blackout’s optics. “I believe so,” he murmured nervously. “I used a data transfer developed by Soundwave himself.”

“How in Primus name would you get a hold of something like that?” Blackout asked with wide optics. “How can you even be assured it’s something Soundwave made?”

“Because I was given that encryption stick eons ago when it was a prototype Megatron had ordered so that Decepticons could hack into Autobot databases,” the seeker growled. “No one is as clever or capable of hacking a system as fast as Soundwave; he’s been a walking computer server since purging much of his emotional core for more space in that helm of his. So he invented these transmitter data sticks. They’re meant to go undetected and change their method of discretely taking data to go undetected as long as possible. Since I programmed it only to the program with the map for the mine, it’s even less likely to be found out; not to mention it’s recognized coding on our ship.”

Narrowing his optics, Blackout let out a slight vent. “Soundwave does happen to be preoccupied with decoding the Iacon relic locations,” he mused in a deep voice.

“The Iacon relics?” Nighthawk echoed.

“Long story, and one that doesn’t matter much at the moment anyway,” Blackout stated, pressing his pointer and thumb digit in the space between his optics. “How soon will you be ready to depart? Novastrike, Scorponok and I have practically everything we need on us; and I’m not risking stealing anything from this blasted ship and having Megatron hunt me down and throw me around the ship like he did you.”

“Thank you for that reminder,” the medic badgered with a flick of his wings. “Infiltrator and I are more than ready to go. Everything not taken off the Jaguar by the Eradicon and Vehicon is still here. We didn’t bother bringing anything into our room.”

“Fair enough,” he grunted, crossing his arms. “Let’s watch the feed for a few days and determine our best course of action-”

“Already done,” the seeker confidently chorused, tapping a few keys on his datapad. A collection of areas were circled and lit up red.

“These clustered spots are recorded high activity areas I’ve noticed backtracking the data saved from these maps. They’re where the majority of the guards are stationed, where they trade off new sentries, and where most stand around. The higher the traffic area, the more marks there are.”

Humming thoughtfully, Blackout squinted at the screen. The seeker extended its size a few more ratios for him to examine better.

“It looks like our best route goes here,” Blackout muttered, ghosting a digit through the map.

“-leads us here,” Nighthawk stated, drawing his digit in as well.

“-goes through this area-”

“-and finally we’re lead here, which is a high concentration zone.”

“Well, that’s to be expected,” snorted the large mech.

“I’m not an idiot, Blackout,” the seeker retorted hotly. “Tthere’s no zone that is clear of high-risk areas. Anyway, as you can tell, it leads us in to this tunnel and down in this larger chamber is where the space bridge is kept, see?”

“I’m not blind, mech.”

“Good to know, then I guess you can see we’ll expect high resistance once we hit the space bridge.”

“If we make it that far, we need to be in and out as fast as possible,” Blackout stated quietly, his optics narrowed at the screen.

“Well, obviously,” vented the medic, looking down to Scorponok and Novastrike. “Scorponok, I assume you can help make us a more clear path ahead here?”

The bug nodded as he indicated at the chart, giving a chirp.

“Infiltrator and I are going to remain here to make sure the area stays clear while you two get the space bridge activated. Scorponok should join you when we’re sure the area had been cleared of anymore bots.”

Letting out a quiet breath, Novastrike looked up to Nighthawk as she exclaimed, “Why? Shouldn’t we all stick together? Or at least have Scorponok or I stay with you to help-”

Nighthawk gave a swift shake of his helm. “Two reasons why I suggest this: one, as medics, Infiltrator and I have a deceptive quality. We’re valuable assets, and bots are less likely to use lethal force on us upon sight. The ‘Cons may even be unaware of the breech and we might be able to fib through medical engineering in explaining that a radioactive energy is emitting from the space bridge and we’re on standby and can not allow any bots further in to the mine at the time until the workers are through, and then we’ll be called in to surveillance their injuries. That might buy us some time with some.”

“Secondly,” he continued, “Too many of us grouped together is going to give off a suspicious vibe. Blackout himself, or Scorponok and you, could most likely operate the bridge alone. If we require immediate assistance, we can always hail you to come while someone still ensures the bridge is active and protected for us to hurry through if we need to.”

“I still don’t like it,” Novastrike hissed, lowering her ears.

“Nighthawk’s the mech with a plan,” Blackout pointed out. “He’s been spending time staring at this map. I can respect his evaluation. He didn’t get the nickname of jaguar for nothing.”

Slightly confused, the little femme looked from Blackout to Nighthawk.

“I thought that was the name of his ship-”

Knocking Blackout in the shoulder with the back of his servo, the medic spoke loudly over Blackout’s snickering as he went on, “I believe this is our best course of action, and I think we should initiate it tonight.”

The snickering instantly stopped.

“Tonight?” the Decepticon Hound snorted. “What’s the rush, Nighthawk?”

“You’re telling me you’re not eager to leave this Pit anymore?” the medic jeered.

Shaking his helm, the shadowy mech spoke calmly: “Just seems a bit of a nervous rush.”

“Well I am nervous,” hissed the seeker. “You try sitting in that room all day, wandering the halls, bots staring at you and slipping you glances. They’re reporting on me Blackout; constantly keeping watch.”

“We risk the exposure of the data stick as well,” Infiltrator finally spoke up quietly. “Although it is hidden, it’s also Soundwave’s device of manufacture. He would recall exactly whom was aware of these sticks and who they were dispensed to. There were not many, and there is an active bot on this ship was knowingly had one of these.”

Giving a slow nod of his helm, Blackout looked down at Novastrike’s trusting optics. She gave a firm nod of her helm, optics blazing.

“Alright,” he agreed, offering his palms in a pleading motion as he shrugged. “But you had better come packing some serious weapons, Nighthawk. Don’t leave all the offlining to me.”

Scorponok gave a slight hiss in defense of the seeker, lightly jabbing Blackout’s pede with his pronged drills.

Offering a peacefully serene chuckle, Nighthawk flashed his fangs in the most grim smiles as he spoke gently, “I’m still more than capable of taking care of my share of bots, young mech, don’t you forget that for a nanoklik.”

~

Novastrike sat on the edge of the berth as she watched Blackout move about the room. Picking up the few tools things they had, the giant mech subspaced them in various compartments of his frame. It was like having what those humans referred to as cargo pants? Was that the term? She couldn’t remember exactly; the very idea of looking into the species on this ship seemed highly inappropriate and frowned upon.

Apparently humans were considered too stupid and ugly to be viewed or expressed in any other term than being stupid and ugly.

Behind him, Scorponok would scurry along on the floor to pick up the junk Blackout dropped to the floor carelessly. It brought a smile to Nova’s face to watch as he dumped the items down a chute that would lead to the small furnace on the ship to be melted down.

“Blackout, dear, could you sit and relax for just a moment?” she whispered. “You’ve double-checked the same cupboards at least a dozen times now.”

“I just don’t want to leave any of our supplies around,” he muttered, venting.

“You’re hovering. Are you... nervous?”

A stiff laugh escaped Blackout. He smiled at her with a boastful expression. It deflated somewhat as she placed her servos to her hips and raised an optic ridge.

“Only of throwing us into another mess,” he finally admitted uncomfortably.

“A mess?” she stated while looking to his haunted faceplate. “Geez- Blackout, dear, us coming here isn’t any fault of your own-”

“If it’s not my fault, than it is my own damnation come for me. Why else would we end up right in the servos of the mech I’ve spent my entire life following, bowing to, pleasing at every turn?”

“So, you’re blaming karma?”

Scraping his servo against his faceplate, Blackout let out a heavy growling sound in the back of his throat.

Placing a sympathetic smile on her faceplate, Nova tapped the berth beside her. With a relenting grumble, the big mech stalked over and sat down to join her.

“You know, Nighthawk and you are a lot alike,” she murmured, standing up so that she could lean into his side. “You both like to shoulder responsibility and blame, you both enjoy beating yourselves up, and you both are have some of the most burdened sparks I’ve ever met.”

Growling quietly, the ebony mech muttered as he looked away, “We’re hardly alike.”

“Yes, you are,” Nova assured him, caressing his armor with feather-light touches across his side and chassis. “Maybe stop searching for a reason to hate yourself, and start looking for the reason to love yourself.”

“You and your mercy and compassion,” Blackout growled quietly, reaching over to pick her up.

Squeaking, the small femme looked down the span of her significant others armor. The panels reflected such little light; dulled once. Even sitting the floor looked so far away from this height. She moved her optics to look at Blackout’s as he held her at optic level, curling his servos around her slightly.

“Must you be so loving and wise?” he taunted lightly with a smile.

“It’s just an obvious observation,” she disagreed with a small shake of her helm. “Maybe you should speak to Nighthawk some time about how he’s feeling? You know you two could probably do a little bonding-”

“Ugh, no thank you.”

“You’re the worst. Give him a chance. Look how well you two can get along when working for the same goal.”

“Our spitting and griping is getting along well to you hmm?” he questioned softly, grinning.

“Hush,” she scolded, reaching out to touch his cheek with her servo. “I just want you to be happy. You should love yourself, as much as I love you.”

“I’d say I’m pretty happy with what I’ve got here in this room with me,” he stated, turning his optics down to Scorponok as the bug chirped and then up to her.

Giggling softly, Novastrike leaned to press her lips against his mouth lightly.

“Can you do me a favor?”

“Mmm?” Blackout grunted in the back of his throat, pressing a kiss against the top of her helm.

“Can you promise me that you two aren’t going to go at it once we arrive on Cybertron?”

“I hadn’t offlined him thus far. I think I can agree to those terms.”

“Then maybe you can try opening up a little more when we get back home?” she offered.

“To him?” Blackout scoffed, pressing his forehead against her lightly. “I doubt that.”

“We’re going to need all the help we can get if Cybertron is still in disarray,” she pointed out, stroking his cheek gently.

“That doesn’t mean he needs to know my sappy feelings, Novastrike,” he reminded her with a quiet, rumbling laugh. “I don’t need a psychiatrist.”

“No, you need a friend.”

“What do you call Scorponok and you, hmm?”

“I think it’d be good for you both,” she pouted, pressing a kiss to his forehead with an expressive ‘mwah’.

Grunting, the large mech lowered her from his faceplate with a vent. Gingerly he pressed her to his chassis, hugging her against his thick armor.

“We’ll see how it goes,” he admitted quietly. “I’d rather focus on the task at servo, for the time being.

“Just looking out for your well-being, darling,” Nova replied, innocently snuggling against his chassis as she dared to look up at him with her wide-eyes of wonder.

Letting out yet another vent from his systems, Blackout swiftly glanced away from her with a pout. A soft laugh escaped her as he glanced back, grinning from her intoxicating joy and the brimming smile on her faceplate.

Wrapping his servos a fraction tighter against her frame, the dark armored mech squeezed her closer as he hummed. The sound only matched by that of her own purr as she nuzzled securely into his own armor with a sigh. Very soon, they’d be free of this oppressive place, and everything would be fine again.

[pixelgrotto]

"Don’t give up, Senua”

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is one of those games that’s hard to view objectively if you’re up-to-date with video game trends. It came out about a month ago and is currently an industry darling for combining the thoughtful nature and affordable price point of indie games with the big-budget look of AAA games. It’s effectively brought back the concept of the “mid-tier” title, something that existed before the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, when the cost of developing games suddenly became too expensive for most companies to aim for anything less than the returns yielded by mainstream blockbusters. It’s finally won wholehearted praise for developer Ninja Theory, who produced a reboot of Devil May Cry four years ago which attracted so many whiners that Capcom now seems determined to forget that it ever existed. (A mistake, if you ask me.) And most importantly, Hellblade has garnered recognition for its earnest and extensive portrayal of psychosis. Ninja Theory dared to create a game starring a protagonist who suffers from acute mental illness, and thanks to input from neuroscientists and actual psychosis patients, they pulled it off respectfully, to the point where Mental Health America had approving words.

All of this is great, and made me wanna check the game out ASAP even though I’ve got a ton of other things on my backlog. After my first couple hours, though, I realized that there were actually a lot of things that I didn’t like about Hellblade, which made me feel sorta guilty. I’m all for criticizing critical darlings if I find them overrated, but Hellblade’s very existence was doing so many wonderful things for the industry that it seemed unfair of me to have anything less than gushing praise. So I continued playing until the conclusion of Senua’s 10 hour journey, wondering if my opinions would change. And they partially did. In the end, I’ll say that Hellblade deserves to be played by as many people as possible - though there were several occasions where I found the experience clunky and even painful.  Even though it’s mostly been promoted as a third-person action adventure, Hellblade is really a psychological horror game, and the premise makes me think of a Celtic version of Silent Hill. Senua is a Pict warrior trying to enter Hel to free the soul of her murdered lover, and because she has multiple voices raging in her head and can’t stop hallucinating, there’s some discrepancy over how much of her journey is actually “real.” A discussion on reality is pointless, however, because the ordeal of the quest is real to Senua, and it soon feels real to the player too, especially as the game stealthily weaves the multiple voices of Senua’s mind in and out of your ears thanks to surround sound. Then there are the hallucinations that you’re forced to endure, many of which manifest by changing the environment. One particularly unpleasant hallucination turns Senua’s surroundings into a blood-soaked realm filled with human hands all gripping for her flesh, and it’s heavy stuff. There’s a high probability that playing through Hellblade will be too much for a lot of people, especially those who have personally suffered from psychosis or other forms of mental illness. It was too much for me at some points, and when I call the experience “painful,” I mean that I really had to put the gamepad down every now and then or risk being overwhelmed. All of this made Hellblade an ordeal to play, but it’s perfectly okay to make players endure grimness as long as they’re invested in the characters they’re controlling and want to see things through until the end. Horror games do this all the time, and believe me, I was rooting for Senua to persevere and emerge victorious from the dungeon of her mind. Unfortunately, while grimness is one thing to endure, not-so-fun technical design decisions are another thing entirely. Hellblade typically has you doing either one of three things - 1) watching cutscenes, 2) fighting vikings, or 3) using Senua’s “focus” ability to zone in on hidden runes in the environment, which are then used to open doors and solve puzzles. This “focus” mechanic is actually meant to evoke the capability that psychotic people have to mentally restructure their surroundings, zoning in on certain details and seeing elaborate patterns in the items around them that others might be totally unaware of. While it’s admirable that Ninja Theory managed to take this and make it into a main gameplay pillar, I just didn’t find the puzzles particularly satisfying or enjoyable. All you’re really doing is wandering around looking for optical illusions, several of which are a pain to locate. Once you find ‘em, you go, “Hm, that’s neat,” open a door, and then find some more. There are a few different parts where you’ve got to traverse mini-mazes or use Senua’s focus to rebuild bridges and stairs, but mostly its just looking for runes. It’s probably a good thing that Hellblade only lasts for 10 hours, since this mechanic wouldn’t be able to sustain interest in a longer game.

I did like the combat more than the puzzle solving, and pretty much all of the screenshots above were taken during battle segments. I don’t wanna say that the game “feels like Dark Souls” (ugh), but Senua’s movements and sword swings do have a similar weight to them, and it’s satisfying to see blows connect. The only problem is the camera, which is something that really should not be an issue in a 2017 game. Senua’s just too close to the screen most of the time, and when stuck in a combat stance she lacks a fast move to create distance between herself and enemies. Because combat encounters usually take place in confined spaces with multiple foes, it’s quite possible to get stuck in a corner with your vision blocked as everybody curb-stomps you to death, and the whole thing kinda feels reminiscent of something out of an early third-person PS1 game.

These technical issues, as well as a prominent gameplay mechanic that I didn’t especially like, would keep me from giving Hellblade five out of five stars if I were reviewing it for a magazine. But I think I’d go ahead and give it three and a half stars, and I’d also earnestly proclaim that this is a game that’s still worth experiencing at least once. Why? Well, because of what it represents and encompasses - a positive portrayal of a much misunderstood disorder, an unsexualized female protagonist who strives to be heroic despite her flaws, a game that strips away all of the fat plaguing far too many modern titles and offers an intriguing alternative to teeny indies and bloated big-budget spectacles. And also because there were a few times when Hellblade, despite its problems, really clicked for me. 

(Some light spoilers ahead, FYI.)

The first occasion was when a determined Senua cleared two gates blocking her from a bridge leading to Hel. When she finally steps foot on that bridge, the game kicks in with an awesome Norse-inspired backing track that really pumps up the soul. A flurry of enemies fly at Senua, and combat with them is fast and glorious, particularly since it’s on an open bridge and not the usual confined spaces where the other battles take place. 

The second occasion was when Senua temporarily loses all ability to see her surroundings. Guided only by the voice of her dead lover and the fading light of a single torch, the player has to help her navigate a forested area and a cabin filled with grotesque flesh monsters just lurking in the background. It’s here that the game’s binaural audio really proves its worth. You can hear the monsters, but you can’t really see them, and the dread is intense. Then there’s a part where Senua has to move through a series of corridors that all look the same, and every time she makes an error and ends up travelling in circles, the muses in her mind laugh at her with frightening ferocity, creating surreal feelings of claustrophobia, confusion and frustration - perhaps the closest the game ever gets to actually emulating the experience of living with voices constantly inside your head.  And the third occasion was at the very end, when Senua faces Hela and her minions in a final battle to the haunting ambiance of a really incredible song by Passarella Death Squad. Not only is the song the perfect accompaniment for the desperation of this finale, but this is the moment in the game where Senua’s mastered the voices in her head - at least temporarily - and forced them to work together in harmony. While the voices have always chimed in during combat to serve as a kind of “second sense” for Senua, warning her when enemies are about to strike from behind, they’ve usually done so in a denigrating way. This conclusion, however, sees the voices finally acknowledging Senua’s worth and encouraging her onwards. “You can do this, Senua.” “Behind you, Senua.” “Look out, Senua.” All of these are gentle whispers rather than the normal cackles and cacophony, and the end result feels like poetry in motion as you press buttons in a pulsating attempt to overcome both Hela and Senua’s inner madness. It’s cathartic, it’s a darn good ending and it makes the game feel worthwhile. 

That, in a nutshell, is Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice. Highly imperfect, but also highly worthwhile. I probably won’t ever play this game again, and I’m not sure if I’ll be checking for its sequel...but I am glad that it was made. Both the electronic entertainment industry and the mental health community deserve something like this, and I’m perfectly comfortable with saying that Hellblade deserves all of the attention it’s been getting. Even if it wasn’t 100% my cup of tea. All screenshots taken by yours truly using Hellblade’s photo mode.

[kennyoswife]

FYI THIS HAS NO SCREENSHOTS OF THE POKEMON MERCH TRANSACTION. ONLY OF THE COMMISSIONS MADE IN DECEMBER. I’m only posting this because we share mutuals and saw them rt her commission sales!

First and foremost I’d like to introduce myself and background of relationship between her and I.I have been her best friend/close friend since 3rd grade. (18 years) We have had ups and downs and truly she was an amazing person in my life. We were like fire and ice two complete opposites but never the less an important person in my life. I have gotten commissions from her in the past and she had done fantastic on them. We had just gotten super close recently after she had claimed to have some issues with a group on here and I was only let known after she purged herself from the sight explaining she had changed because of them and only wanted to appeal. Which I can understand some of us are like that. Recently a similar situation has happened with two people to where she has completely changed her attitude and who she is as a person. Wether they forced her or intimidated her to doing it I’ll never know. And when being honest and confronting her on these changes she outright denied it and said she was just scared and being ‘herself’.

@EmmaSwanna on twitter had given Janna a collection of pokemon merchandise valued at the very least of 200 USD in promise she would receive commissioned art pieces including a cover for a fanfiction she was writing. Janna agreed to These terms literally over a year ago and never said or even showed she attempted to work on it.

A year later comes (Present time) and Emma and I send her about 100 each for commissioned art as she was in a rut and needed creativity/update portfolio/and wanted to do charms. (Dec 2016) also sending detailed commission info via email and even poses and references to help as well. only to get about one picture ($20 USD value each) and magically got a refund of 80 each in April Which was 4 months later with no explanation as to why she couldn’t fulfill her commissions only that we were close friends and understood. While it may seem her chibis are cute and cheap I warn you that if she does NOT feel like drawing it she won’t and will attempt to draw herself things. Unfortunately this is not a good way to conduct business especially self promoting your artwork. The fact of the matter is she took advantage of two friends because we would be understanding and patient or maybe forget about it. That’s all I’m saying on the matter. below lines im going to go more into detail about how she WRONGED @EmmaSwanna and I for all of our mutuals that want to know what happened.

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

So this is for any mutuals of Emma and I that want to know what happened or are curious.

So this is just in GENERAL what she has done to Emma and I over the course of a year having a group chat together. for the most part she was a good friend and easy to talk to. However we had only recently stopped being friends right before we had all went to Acen (I’ll get into that later) She had first gotten extremely aggressive towards Whitney and I when we were very much hardcore into in the pokemon fandom. She claimed/HC’d the character N was asexual therefore Emma’s OC couldn’t be with him. As well as Janna making her own and forcing him on Emma’s OC as well. Eventually it got to the point of claiming certain canon pokemon characters were yandere and if you had an opposing thought she got angry and would yell at you via chat. This is literally ONLY the tip of the iceberg.

She has made it a point to also make Emma feel bad she hasn’t played or cared much for the Legend of Zelda(just as she made me feel like shit for not caring much for the persona series) saying how the mean so much to her and how dare we have opposing views on the series or generally dont care much for them. Including trying to force us to watch things we didn’t care to or guilt trip us into watching it (ex. constantly asking if we had watched it yet) 

Janna has also made it a point to make Emma hysterical on her birthday from our weekend skype movie nights. Watching Once upon a time and seeing a pair of scissors and sleeping drugs, Janna was triggered and proceeded to yell at Whitney and then make her cry making the call very awkward and was only apologizing so Whitney wouldn’t leave her as a friend as opposed to apologizing FOR acting out and yelling. But yet was FINE around these items in Persona and has watched plenty of horror playthroughs with more graphic images. After some time we eventually all started talking again and everything SEEMED fine for at least a while.

What really showed me how much a friend she truly was/thought of me was nearing a month before her Emma and I had planned on going to Acen together. Janna had set RULES for our hotel but primarily me. Such as I wasn’t allowed to drink alcohol period (I’m 22 btw) and Not allowed to leave her alone after 4pm (even if we had opposing panels). Being respectful and trying to understand where all of this was coming from I agreed as she had never been to a big convention before and wanted to help her overcome anxiety in one of the ways i only knew how. I had even offered to refund her badge if she felt she couldn’t handle the stress (which she took as me not wanting her to go) and was making it a point to EMPHASIZE she was nervous. She constantly made statuses about how she was nervous and she was going to have a bad time despite HER setting ALL the rules and regulations. Since I work in the hospitality industry I managed to get our hotel for free and asked she chip in for gas (literally the ONLY thing she was responsible for) and I guess I have no ‘right’ to get angry she didn’t offer to help with anything else but I was. Emma who had spent 400 on a plane ticket and luggage STILL offered to help whatever ways she could and really made it one of the best times ever. Eventually she made Emma and I make a spreadsheet of EVERYTHING and what times they were she could have a guide and reference. only to have her have a breakdown on skype claiming we would leave her and what not. only the very next day when asking her where a specific food she liked was located called me huffy and that’s when i broke down and told her she wasn’t going with me anymore. I had been more than accommodating and trying to be nice. She wanted me to dump her as a friend AFTER we went just so she could still go and hang with Emma at the expense of me being upset. She kept trying to weasel back in and telling me to “reconsider” so she could go and trying to convince me I was making a mistake. Finally after she acccepted she wasn’t going she messaged our group saying “Well can you at least drop off Emma to hang out with me the day before you leave.” NEVER ASKING EMMA WHAT SHE WANTED, and texting her saying that she hoped she had fun and guilt tripping the shit out of her. We decided to leave it alone and not say anything to her and went to the con happy only to receive a message saying “Hope you guys are having fun” and me asking if she meant it in a good or bad. She not soon after removed Emma and I from all social medias and put DETOX as her header name referencing detoxing the ‘internet’ but truly meant her and I.

[punkscowardschampions]

Tommy & Meena/Meena & Ro

Slides into ya DMs a million years later

Tommy: [Sends her a link to a facebook post about their dance teacher from when they were kiddos] Tommy: As if she's retiring! 😮 It doesn't seem 5 mins since she was calling me out for picking my nose like Tommy: I wanna get her a pressie or something, what you reckon? 🤔 Gin or bubbles Meena joined the chat 105 minutes ago Meena: I know, crazy isn't it, sure she's telling everyone she doesn't feel anywhere near old enough (hoping they'll say she doesn't look it either) Bless her Meena: and it is a pretty nasty habit I hope you left behind, in fairness 😛 Meena: I don't think she'll oppose either, I'll go in with you on it if that's alright Meena: We should, really Tommy: 😂 Mostly. We all have our off days though, yeah? Bet your thumb still be looking tempting on the reg 😜 Tommy: Fuck it let her be down with the kids and chug down a 'trendy' gin Tommy: Yeah I was gonna ask if you did wanna but knowing you I didn't wanna assume you hadn't already gone all out like 🎉 Tommy: 😇 to my 😈 Meena: Never! That rancid nail paint Ana got me put me off for life Meena: could totally rock a mani now, even if pedis are forever out of the question 💃👣 Meena: I hadn't actually, been so busy with this band stuff with your sisters and that Meena: Probably wouldn't have done it if you hadn't, doesn't want any old riff-raff she barely remembers showing up Meena: her ⭐pupil though, that's different Tommy: fair, she's been at me bout it too Tommy: needs my skills appaz but it'll cost her Tommy: come on, it takes two to tango! nothing without the baby to my johnny 💑 Meena: Nice try but I'm not getting involved in sibling drama, I know better than that 🙅 Meena: my own Brother is going great lengths to avoid me so I'm chilling Meena: 😂 please Meena: if the other girl hadn't got knocked up, baby woulda been surplus from the start Tommy: Drama, me? Please 😂 Tommy: Nah tbh I'm excited to get involved Tommy: & see you lot in action ofc Tommy: Imagine! We'd have to have been going some to be dealing with pregnancy scares at that age even by my ma's standards Meena: 😏 Isn't it on your required curriculum? Meena: Can't blame you Meena: It has been a lot of fun Meena: It'll be good to see you too Meena: 😨 No thank you, I'll leave that to Ali, she's got it covered Meena: No way either of us could keep a child alive 😂 Tommy: You got me 🥊 Tommy: It looks it & the socials never lie Tommy: It'll be fab to see you too! 💙 Tommy: How've you been, girl? Meena: Naturally, filters need not apply Meena: Me? I'm all good Meena: Nothing to report, no pregnancy scares or slightly predatory older men Meena: How's the London life? Tommy: 👍 Tommy: Me either Tommy: Only the teachers 😂 Tommy: London's capital D dramatic but I'm surviving 🤩 Tommy: like you said, required, yeah? Meena: Don't even joke, Mr. Lucas, this new teacher, is soooo sketchy Meena: not that he's likely to go after me 😂 but there will be drama worth reporting there Meena: mark my words Meena: and don't lie, you so LIVE for it, don't you? 🙂 Tommy: Oh my god colour me unsurprised and deeply disturbed Tommy: Trying to big you up without calling you a lolita and all that jazz Tommy: but noted Tommy: Shame the news came too late to get my sister learning from the nuns Tommy: 😂 Meena: Thank the Lord we can rule out everyone but Caleb pretty much for Rio's daddy Meena: she's so cute 😍 Tommy: Right? she's his double Meena: Nah she looks a lot like Ali too Meena: still, Mr. Lucas has not gone that far is my point Meena: she hates him, its so funny 'cos your Ma can't even be mad 😂 Tommy: Yas! Glad she ain't protesting too much Tommy: None of us got time to be dealing with that level of drama even me 😏 Tommy: Ma can ALWAYS be mad tho Meena: I wouldn't like to say Meena: Trying to get me to badmouth all your family today...are you print screening this?! 🙊 Tommy: Only if it gets juicy 😂 Tommy: what'll it take to get you to throwdown on 'em? Meena: 🤐 Tommy: It's been good catching up Tommy: Soz I'm not better at it Meena: No, it's not all you Meena: I'm not the most social of bears Meena: and its been a while Meena: but it was nice 🙂 Tommy: we should get a drink when I'm back 🍹 do it proper Tommy: no pressure like and even less drama Meena: You got it in you to leave it in London? 🤔 Meena: but i'm up for it Meena: I don't drink drink though, just an FYI Tommy: I'll do it for the craic 🍀 Tommy: Still gonna dance on the tables tho, yeah? Meena: 😳🙈 guess so Meena: anything you do, i'll do backwards and in heels Meena: thems still the rules, last I checked Tommy: 👑💚 Tommy: Love it Meena: Okay...Can I just vent at you for a hot sec, Ro Meena: More than free to comment any way you see fit (of course) but also as free to say nothing if you can't or don't wanna Meena: Just need to get it out 'cos what even Ro: Oh...of course Ro: Go ahead Meena: [Screenshots Tommy in her DMs] Meena: so I know its awkward 'cos familial ties and whatnot but WHAT THE WHAT Meena: He's been ignorning me for what, 6 years? Meena: Perhaps a little dramatic but basically Meena: and now we're just meant to move on as if a. those years didn't happen and b. the ones BEFORE didn't either Meena: am I being insane? I tried not to sound it with him but I am at such a loss rn Ro Ro: Um...I'd say it's rather awkward regardless Ro: What was he thinking? Ro: You are most definitely not insane, in fact, I applaud how together you remained Ro: It's a nice idea, in theory, to reconnect, but that's all it can be and surely he must see that Ro: The past can't just be erased when it's convenient Meena: Ugh, thank you! Meena: I can tell you're not just yes-manning me and it is so appreciated 😘 Meena: You'd think it had been a couple of days, the way he just tried to pick up there Meena: I get it...I wish it was possible in many ways Meena: but if we're going to be anything more than passing acquiantances ever again then I'm afraid we need to have a convo more awkward than that one even! 😬 Ro: Exactly! Ro: We'd all love a quick fix but they simply don't exist, even if you are a McKenna Ro: I'm frankly at a loss for words Meena: I mean...guess it was a nice gesture? right? Meena: God, feel like I'm 9 and he's pretending to like me so he can laugh about me with his friends at break Meena: Ridiculous Ro: I suppose so, if misplaced and poorly timed Ro: Well that's hardly surprising considering you were a child when he last talked to you Ro: You don't have to go for a drink with him just because you agreed then, remember that Meena: I know Meena: but I don't know Meena: I think I want to? Meena: Maybe he wants to say his piece in person Meena: although, in that case, perhaps give an indication in the text! Meena: Walking into an ambush Ro: You don't have to decide now at least Ro: And you can always call me if it does turn into an ambush Ro: I'll act as if there's an emergency Meena: Ooh, good plan Meena: never felt like I was in a romcom before Meena: almost exciting except i feel a bit sick Ro: I understand that all too well Ro: Another idea, cliche though it is, would be to channel this situation into composing a song Ro: Just don't let him know he's the subject Meena: it might be time to embrace the clichedness of it all Meena: the others would be proud Ro: They certainly would Meena: if not a little curious where all these deep feelings had sprung from Meena: oh the shame 🙈 Ro: True, but have no fear, my lips are sealed Ro: Whilst we're on the subject though, how do you feel about him getting involved with the band? Meena: Thanks, Ro 💛 Meena: I mean, I don't mind...I don't WANT to mind, it should be fine Meena: He's a part of my life as long as you guys are but that was admittedly far more abstract when he was more Meena: gone Meena: I am going to try, it would be good for the band, and me, to get over this Ro: Never mind the others, I'm very proud of you, Meena Ro: And for what it's worth, I think that's the right move, after all, he won't be away at school forever Ro: Should he decide to come back home for good you too are bound to interact more Meena: Exactly Meena: Can't ban him from Dublin and activities with his fam Meena: but I also don't think I need to exile myself...far too cliche for words and I frankly, don't want to Meena: I feel better for having talked it out...I just felt absolutely insane, like I was in topsy-turvy land or something, there for a sec Meena: Thanks again Ro, it means a lot Ro: What are friends for? No need to thank me, I'm just glad you feel better Ro: A very strange day for you indeed Ro: Tomorrow is a new one though at least and I'll be here if you need to talk again Meena: Truly! So strange manners were dropped at the door Meena: When we talk again I WILL ask how you are and what's going on with you Meena: I promise 😘 Ro: I have no doubt whatever Ro: But you're forgiven Ro: If there was ever a time for such an entitlement it was now Meena: 💛

[badcowboy69]

FYI I’m back...well, sorta pfft...I just completed a very insane trade show which showcased all the new tvs and stuff coming out.  8k FINALLY looks amazing compared to when it first was presented two years ago.  Brace yourselves for that one kiddies.  This show took it’s toll on me mentally and physically.  Today I’m recovering....going to treat myself to a nice steak for lunch and then enjoy the rest of the day playing Sims, Overwatch, and writing a few things.  I’m hoping to get some FNV screenshots soon too...maybe tonight if I’m up to it.  I have planned on getting back into drawing so we’ll see where that takes me.  I’m also staying distracted lest my most recent reason to be irritated tries to overcome me.  If anyone truly knows me, they know I hate backstabbers, fake people, and hypocrites.  I’m probably going to be salty for a while, so please no licking me right now.  Buuuuuuut I digress.  It’s a lovely day.  I’m in good spirits, Travis is in good spirits, my cats are in good spirits.  Let’s keep it that way.  Now, off to my yummy lunch so I can continue to have a groovy day.  Drop me an Ask or two as I’m sure Travis would love to hear from y’all as it’s been a while because of this insane job of mine.