#have it be the main focus so we don't have crashes like those

[ilikecarsandsupport4artists]

Really really hope the Sepang rumors aren't true cause seriously, all of the MotoGP tracks that get "modified" to fit F1 standards get super dangerous to ride on. We've already seen an increase in dangerous crashes last season, and I really don't want to see yet another classic circuit get made too dangerous.

Yeah, it is a great circuit. It is a historical circuit. But it'll either have to be a 100% F1 track or 100% MotoGP track if we want to keep it safe. Every time they try to get the tracks "more suitable for cars" we get gravel pits that injure riders and speedbumps that aren't safe to ride over.

It cannot be another "combined" circuit. Either it gets handed over 100% or not. I just don't want to have another crash like what we've had in 2023.

We already had an accident and the season hasn't even started.

[fukashiin]

attractive things they do #2 !

— w. housewardens

⤷ "yuutapdatass tweeted: malleus pls stop dming me to rub our feet together as a nightly custom"

cw: hinted suggestive content for malleus, vil and leona. passive reader! enjoy ♡

RIDDLE ROSEHEARTS

shushing others so you can focus.

pens and textbooks alike cluster along your designated study table, accompanied by the riddle rosehearts as his knee brushes against yours wordlessly. he's utilising this free period, toiling out and about to aid you in your, regretfully, pointless revision. finals season starts to get rigid around this time, so he's more than content to lend a hand if you're willing to put in the effort. except—the students abounded at the table diagonal to yours start getting chattier than what's socially allowed in the library, so riddle calls them out without a pain. one "they're trying to focus." and their mouths are zipped. he turns back to you, unperturbed, and smiles. "shall we continue?"

SO patient with you it makes you cry.

riddle may be a bomb of ire waiting to burst at any given moment, but you believe that his patience shouldn't go uncredited. a tireless awardee, a distinguished laureate, going sleepy in your eyes, although he's wrestling to win over the urge just so you can get the hand of the concept he's cramming into your head last-minute. the scent of white petunias could really alleviate his fatigue, and you make a promise to bring over a few of those in favour for his devoutness to your study sessions. for the time being, he'll make sure you pass, for him, and for yourself.

vows that he'll outdo your stupid ex in every way.

whatever your ex did wrong, riddle will do better. that's just in his nature. he swears with each and every fibre of his body, nuzzling his head in the dip of your shoulder, that he'll love you in ways that your morose ex never bothered to think about. a muttered pledge that couldn't compare to the pious burn that lit in his eyes, like a withstanding candle refusing to go out. his confessions are firm, where he'll be the betterment that you wished for on an astral night, so please, don't put him in your doubt.

LEONA KINGSCHOLAR

pressing you against the nearest wall he spots to kiss you.

there are numerous attributes to this man that renders you hopelessly drunk in love. one of them is his maddening habit of pressing you flushed against the nearest surface in his sight, and the most poorly lit areas when you're in stranded in a public space to guise the both of you. he executes this with the softest hint of care, ensuring that the landing wasn't too harsh, and advancing when given the green light. wispy strands of hair stroke your skin like a feather, as fine lips come crashing down to yours in a heartbeat, in paradise. he gives you a sheer once-over, bringing up the following statement: "grab onto my vest if you need to."

breathes the confidence into you.

downgrading oneself may be in his dictionary, but it won't appear in yours. he'll clasp any opportunity to brandish his infamous eye-roll to those whose comments about you stray a bit too loud. you may be a bit thrown off by the audacity and aimlessly think about the ways of which you could live up to his—your standards. you take a bit to reorient yourself when you hear your name being called out, sluggish hands circling your waist, as you're unable to finish your thought about how beautiful he is until he asks whether you're actually sparing a single thought for those nobodies. he casually states that you're leagues better than them, whether you think so or not, and won't mind giving you a physical demonstration if you can't bring yourself to accept it yet, because he knows it.

just knows what you want without you having to tell him.

eyeing an accoutrement that could accent your main outfit? longing for a new stand-alone book after the last one you buried yourself in was a letdown? leona has the prices covered. despite your incessant denial, that you don't actually need those, he tells you that a little spending wouldn't hurt. he doesn't need verbal expression to know what'll satisfy you, the flit of your gaze is the only opening he requires. you're embarrassed by how easily you're read, but the hearty smile that blooms on your face will be all the excuses leona needs to keep spoiling you.

AZUL ASHENGROTTO

drapes his coat over your legs if you're cold.

sometimes, you swear that he has the whole "affection capability" of a wooden plank. his actions aren't entirely faultless, nor was there not a single second of err in the delivery of his speeches, but he does haul around that handy coat solely for moments like these. perched wordlessly on top of mostro lounge's signature high stools, azul rebukes your rash behaviour after spurting out in the rain without an umbrella, clothes weatherworn and all—not to mention the lounge's benevolent addition of its AC. the chills rack your body from head to toe, not noticing that a fuzzy warmth starts to blanket your legs, as azul pats it down creaseless. he says that you can pay him in return at a later date, your declining health is his utmost priority at the moment.

sets you straight when you need it.

his prized coin collection seems to blur boorishly, bleeding into the soft jazz playing in the back. the thirsting need to word-vomit all over the place, thanks to the hours of ennui you've been experiencing ever since you've trudged yourself back to azul's room, threatens to tip over the edge. he notes your irresolute responses to his (nearly) bombarding questions while he's planted over at his desk, and takes the initiative to make you open up to him. he wants you to look at him, commit his words to memory, as he caresses your shoulder under the twinkling lavender glow of his night lamp with a sure look in his eyes, guaranteeing that you're going to do fine.

has a secret album dedicated to pictures of you in his gallery.

azul tries to get accustomed to the revolutionising tricks of technology just for you. fine, if he has to pass through every single hyperlink and learn unfamiliar terms, that's on him. other than owning a booming magicam account promoting #mostrolounge, he saves a single, peculiar file in his gallery that hoards all the pictures he's taken of you when you're together, on a date or not. he can't tell if your lovely visage is the sole cause to the rapid change of pace in his heart when he's dealing with a mounting workload, but if you ever drag yourself down after taking a quick glance at them, he'll bring you right back up.

KALIM-AL-ASIM

clears the hair out of your face when its windy.

you may be a tad bit hesitant to ride the magic carpet every once in a while, but kalim's sparkling serendipity puts your heart at ease. he takes you for a midnight rendezvous, golden embroidery flashing and sheening at every twist and turn you direct with the tassels with aplomb—as he compliments. his headpieces jangle merrily like a thousand bells in the breeze, up until he notices your sight being blocked by the troublesome hair whirling all over the place. chuckle as he may, he shifts it to the side of your face with a deft hand, tracing the last strands down to your chin. "there. seeing better now?"

interlaces your hand with his in your sleep. (the physical touch GOAT)

wrinkled bedsheets rustle under the weight of your movements, coarse, and even a bit sullen as the morning ooze of sunlight drenches through your curtains, as if it prohibits you to sleep in the entire day. kalim's newfound ailment forces the two of you to be separated indefinitely, so colour yourself surprised when you feel the taut clutch of your hand in another, holding onto the remaining pieces of you that he needily ached for all night. sun-kissed fingers wove between yours like silken ribbons, his eyes pleading for you to stay, as a minute—a moment without you in his world—would be infallible torture.

purchases a piece of the moon for you.

you know those moneyed, wealthy fans who purchase a piece of the moon for their favourite idol? kalim gets influenced, and is driven by his conviction that you deserve something more extravagant than rowdy parades or a hallowed mansion (regardless of how many he wishes to buy). he takes it upon himself to surf across Lunar Registry, registering your full name and gifting its stated amount for approximately...5000 sq ft of land of the celestial body that hung high in the sky, radiating its extraterrestrial luminance on your nights of sobriety. you chide him for such an impulsive act in return, but soften up when he states, upright, that he would gift you all the stars in space if he could.

VIL SCHOENHEIT

brings you to touch him himself.

no use if you're cowardly in the bold language of physical touch, vil will simply make you oblige into feeling him, whether its physically or through minds. oftentimes you find yourself hastily straddled on his lap, him decked in his satin-sewn pajamas, as you prod and poke his hands nervously while scrutinizing every area of skin that screamed of his unyielding years of care. there's a teasing lilt that lurks behind his voice, questioning if you're seriously taking your time trying to figure him out where you're aware that he's less than patient. he seizes your hand in his grip, and leads them to his chest—shamelessly. if he needs to remind you of who you're with every day, he'll be more than committed to reel you closer to his body.

demands full eye contact.

tsking and huffing is, an unsurprisingly normal habit for him to adapt. and this includes moments of when you're shying away from him, heaving under your tense breath about how unfairly attractive he is. slick in his latest outfit tailored specifically according to his calibrated measurements. high stilettos bests your height, and he almost seems disappointed in the lack of praise he's receiving (although he knows exactly why). you feel a manicured finger tilt your chin upwards, as your teetering praises come to an abrupt halt. he smiles, demanding you to look him in the eyes throughout every second you're worshipping him.

tells you to ready yourself before he showers you in his love.

vil wants you to experience each and every slide of his nails against your feverish skin, whispering pure promises and cherishing you, affirming that you're worth much more to him than a million grand. if you ever throw yourself below the bar lower than necessary, he waves your deplorable behaviour away, and asks if you truly believe that you're tumbling down that route of thinking when you're with him. vying arms enclose your figure like a velvet blanket, surrendering your chapped lips a centimetre away from his, as his refined scent tickles your nose until he advises you to prepare yourself to revel in his untiring devotion. all your worthwhile priorities were put on hold until further notice.

IDIA SHROUD

leaning back in his chair after finishing a game.

you arose from your sleep, previously dozing off while perusing written tales of the past propped up on idia's bed. the culprit of your awakening is off cheering in the same vicinity after speed running a round and emerging victorious, unmanned, of the latest version of a first-person shooter game he recently installed on his computer. he starts to recline in his chair as it creaks off his weight, arms slackened behind his head and his sweater gliding off of his stomach, exposing the barest bit of delicate skin that indulges you to run your hands across. he emits the heaviest of sighs while he runs a sore hand through his hair, as the disorientation of your mind starts to scatter all over the place.

"i thought it'd cost more."

Idia Shroud will not have you get scammed by lowly, needling scammers surfacing online websites like newborn piranhas. his head begins to split when you spout about the official item being too pricey and that you won't be able to milk a single penny out of your derelict dorm, so he insists that he pays for the item for you himself. you send him a link of the mentioned item, and he felt like he was dragging himself through wet cement throughout the whole mire. he remains indifferent to the price overall, and goes "oh? i thought it'd cost more." with a brazen smirk etched on his face that it almost gave you a whiplash.

discreetly orders things to your front door.

quivering lips settle atop of your shoulder for the last time before he sends you back from his room after the intimate amour that had you two wondrously occupied for the entire day. you pilfer a single gummy worm from his desk, and cloak yourself further into his jacket that intoxicates every one of your senses as you streel into the night air that reeked of petrichor. your steps begin to feel like bricks, whilst your eyes were betraying your wish to stay alert. as you approach the front door welcoming you to your dorm, you gauge the sight of a small box placed on the carpet with a small note plastered on it that follows the lines of "for you, pretty thing."

MALLEUS DRACONIA

cushioning your head with his hand.

bony fingers sail through the pleasance of your hair, twirling each and every tendril that it meets and bringing them to his defined, pillowy lips. amusement cracks through the ominosity that sits in his eyes, shielded by his bangs as he beams a smile your way before grasping your shoulders in a split second. he pushes you down onto the mattress with a thud, cushioning your head with a single hand, and tells you to save your yelps and complaints before he endows you with the ability to sing for him all night. he reassures you that he does in fact, know how to secure the deadbolt on the door.

doesn't bother with any potential contenders whatsoever.

malleus but it's "okay, and?" personified. yes, he's heard of the towering sovereign in the neighbouring country who was recently appointed. yes, he's heard of the lucrative salesman nearby situated in town whose attention you captured after visiting his booth. yes, he's heard of Leona Kingscholar. but he could not give Two (2) flying tamagotchis about whoever has been swaying your way, tossing cheap and low-grade courtship in an attempt to earn your affection. he notes that he does have some cheesy pick-up lines of his own to use, but unlike the others, he knows you inside and out. he has no use for the mainstream ways of love and is eager to please you to his own liking, further revealing the unparalleled reverence he maintains for you and only you.

brushes his fingers over your collarbone.

once you step across the threshold of his bathroom, adorned in his nightwear, malleus can't help but dim the lights with the flick of his finger after catching the sight of your collarbone that peaks out from underneath. he's in front of you the moment you blink, and hums in response to your addled self. he brings his ice-tipped fingers to your neck, padding it with caution, and sliding them down to the V-shaped collar that hides the rest of your warmth. stark fingers ghost over the structure of your collarbone, and malleus asks whether you think the gibbous moon will be kind enough as to not set so early.

[twstfanblog]

This is more of a worldbuidling question but what do the commoners live like in each district??? I'd there more of an emphasis on art in the west and everyone has like. Crazily painted houses or elaborate gardens, and do southern commoners have a higher cost of living because it's so expensive to shop there? In southern schools, is there a surplus of those kids that bring snacks to school and sell them because if how ingrained business practices are? Or is it just normal? I want to know more about the more middle class characters like Jack and Trey T_T. Speaking of which how did Ace and Deuce become Riddles servants 🤔?

Also what about the slums and Ruggie? Are there more slums in a certain district, I'd assume he'd be placed in the east... maybe the kingscholars like to cut costs and corners to make more profits, even though it leaves the general population poorer? Also do leona and ruggie ever meet in this au???

That's all my questions for now! I'm probably gonna have more but if you don't want to answer them that's totally fine! Hope you have a good day ^^!

*Cracks knuckles*

Ok, here we go. Long Answer coming!

The price of living increases the closer you get to the capital. So the slums of each area are around the edges of the district on the opposite side of where the palace sits.

Class-wise, the southern district is mostly populated by nobles since no matter where you go, it's considered prime real estate. So the South doesn't really have a slums, since its main population are rich commoners and business-owning nobles.

Oh the kids try...but the schools are already running school stores where you can purchase lunches, snacks, school supplies, small plots of land. You gotta be a very crafty school child to get your foot in the door starting a business while still in school.

Schooling is pretty standard across the empire, the southern district puts a heavier focus on math and reading though, just because most of the kids who do attend school normally end up working for their family business. East has a number of culture studies, the west has so many electives to pick from it's almost scary. Northern children basically get funneled into the military (The fuck are you feeding these kids? Why do they all grow up to be TANKS????)

Lord the West district is a nightmare to HOAs. So many houses all with different vibes and color palettes. The scholars who picked the middle ground and became architects building the most insane 'shouldn't be standing against a strong wind' kind of houses. The theming gets more uniform the closer to the capital, but that's just because that's the more tourist area, where all the big theaters and conference halls are.

Speaking in terms of just size, the East has the biggest slums of the empire. Since they are the main resting point for visiting diplomats, it became a culture hub and most of the immigrants moved their because it was more familiar to their homelands. in turn there's just A LOT of people there and sadly not enough work for everyone. at this point it's just cheaper to live on the edge of the empire than moving to the second cheapest housing; the West slums. The Northern slums are basically just living on a mountain and surviving off the land.

Ruggie and Leona do meet! As he gets older, Leona's fights with his dad get worse. One night it was bad enough that Leona just ran away and was missing for nearly a week. Ruggie finds who he assumed was a homeless man and helped him out a bit 'We've all been there man'. In his time in the slums, Leona finds a bit of purpose and wants to help the people he technically rules over.

Leona is found and leaves without saying goodbye to Ruggie. YEARS LATER, a servant of the Duke Kingscholar comes to the slums asking for Ruggie to come with him. Farena is slowly taking over the Duchy from their aging father and Leona listed Ruggie as a good choice for a consultant. Ruggie actually does pretty well in the role, just gotta give him a crash course in etiquette before every formal dinner he has to attend now.

Let me list where everyone is!

North

Jack lives with his family after his mother secured a tutor job for a noble child when they first came to the empire. Once in the north, his family of wolf beastmen flourished and lowkey are treated as untitled nobles.

Sebek's family has strong ties to the royal army since his grandfather served and is friends with THE LILIA VANROUGE. Sebek's dream is to join the army to continue his family's legacy (And maybe see the prince. HE RESPECTS HIM OKAY!? DON'T TEASE HIM ABOUT THE POEMS HE WRITES!)

Epel lives with his family on one of the many farms contracted to supply produce to the palace. As such they have very high standards of their produce and won't let you talk down to them even if they aren't nobles.

East

Ruggie moved to the empire with his 'grandma' in a big group of refugees when he was very young. He does odd jobs around the district to help support his community.

Rook was born and raised in the upper-middle-class East District. He only moves to the West District to further his art career once he comes of age. From there he meets Vil and they fall in artist love.

South

Azul's mother owns a very popular seafood restaurant. It's half in the water and displays the first shell coin her great-great-great grandmother made in the sea (For luck!). She married into nobility with Azul's stepfather who accepted Azul as his own.

The Tweels family aren't titled but with how many dirty dealings they've done with the various shady business owners, they might as well just buy a title. A very wealthy and dangerous commoner family

Trey's family owns a very nice bakery! With the high-quality baked goods and fair pricing, they're normally packed by commoners and noblemen alike.

West

Vil and his father live and breathe the theater. They've been living in the West since Vil's dad moved from the capital to help an old friend establish his theater.

Riddle lives with his mother and live-in attendants and is lowkey miserable but working hard to achieve in his studies. They use to live in the South, but his mother said he was distracted too easily there.

Deuce lives in fairly cheap housing with his mom and grandma. Deuce's mom travels from the West to the capital to work for a week then to come back for a week off.

Ace has a similar situation to Deuce with his mom AND older brother going off for work. It's why they take the jobs to be aids for Riddle. Also known as 'Riddle's mom had to buy him friends'.

The Capital

Cater's dad is a senior member of the imperial bank! He and his family live pretty cushy lives even though they don't have a title. Cater's looking to change that and has been studying how to bag a noble beau every social season since he was seven.

Silver lives in the palace with his father and Malleus since Lilia brought him home. His curse is slowly getting worse with age but he's still working hard so that he can try to pass the army entry exams.

I hope this answers everything! Let me tell you guys, world-building is much FUN!!!!

[maniculum]

Bestiaryposting Results: Tatchgob

This is a weird one, I think, because there are a couple aspects of this entry that fully make sense in the context of what this animal actually is, and others that just make you think, "wait, the medievals thought what about [redacted]?" Not a lot else to add here, and I'm already running unusually late with this tonight, so here's the entry in question:

And below the cut is the art people have produced, in rough chronological order:

@silverhart-makes-art (link to post here) has decided this is an insect, for entirely sensible reasons. The entry says that it flies, but not that it's a bird. It also says that the female reproduces without copulation with the male, and Silverhart helpfully observes that parthenogenesis is a much more common phenomenon in insects than in birds. Specifically, it's a bee, because the Tatchgob is said to be large and slow-flying, and as we all know, a bee's wings are too small to get its fat little body off the ground.* This one is specifically inspired by vulture bees -- bees that do in fact eat carrion as the Tatchgob is implied to do (the entry doesn't actually say it eats the corpses, only that perceives them).** Silverhart further notes that they ended up spending a few hours going down a rabbit hole about vulture bees, a warning from which I failed to learn, as I spent the last half-hour reading arguments about whether "meat honey" is a real thing. Anyway, enough commentary from me, look at the very good drawing of a bee and then read what Silverhart says about it in the linked post.

*Bee Movie reference mine; please don't blame Silverhart for my internet-poisoned sense of humor.

** The Aberdeen Bestiary does actually specify this, but it was buried in the long religious-allegory section after the main description so I missed it when setting this up and didn't include it in the post. Now I wish I had, because it hilariously notes that the [Tatchgob] "is often overtaken by death when it descends to the dead animal from a great height." The drawings we could have had of animals crashing full-force into the ground... actually I'm torn on whether that would be a plus or a minus.

@strangelyflesh (link to post here) has made the reasonable call that a large flying animal may as well be a dragon-thing, so here's a bird-like dragon for you. Delightful facial expression on this one. Honestly everything about that head is very charming, actually. The linked post mentions that they "reproduce like those fucked up little geckos" and I am struggling against the temptation to fall down another rabbit hole, so I'm just going to move on.

@cheapsweets (link to post here) drew a bird, but decided to focus in on the fact that it's too large to fly quickly. It's broadly based on a bustard, which is apparently the world's heaviest flying bird (learn something new every day) but is shaped and posed specifically to evoke the silhouette of an aircraft, specifically the infamous Spruce Goose. (Cover the head with your hand, you'll see it.) Extremely clever, in my opinion. For more details on the design decisions, see the linked post. One more thing before we move on, though... check out that thing on the far right of the image, down in the sea. I think that's one of these critters:

Okay, now we're moving to the next one.

@coolest-capybara (link to post here) continues to outdo herself with the stylized medieval drawings. This one is definitely a creative choice -- Capybara notes that they would have been inclined to draw a dragon for this one, except we already had the dragon entry a while back. So she decided this was a komodo dragon that can glide on skin flaps like a flying squirrel. Excellent, love it, very interesting coloration also.

Capybara also raises the interesting question of whether the bestiary writer ever considered what male Tatchgobs might be for, if they aren't involved in the reproductive process. I suppose evolution is a fickle mistress, especially when the person describing your animals doesn't know what evolution even is. They don't seem to have an allegorical purpose either (there's like half a page railing against hypothetical people who fully accept that a [Tatchgob] can give virgin birth but deny that Mary could, which I guess is the point of that detail, but the male Tatchgob goes unmentioned). Anyway, the monk would probably just say they exist because God wanted them to or something... actually I'm not sure how aware they were of the possibility of species that didn't come in two sexes. Anyway, moving on.

@pomrania (link to post here) also thought large flying thing -> dragon, but decided to make theirs more fishlike. See, fish engage in external fertilization, and what are the odds of a pre-modern observer just missing the fact that the male is involved? Assuming they're not on board the "spontaneous generation" wagon. I really like this design, also; gliding on these fin-like structures is especially cool. And yes, according to the linked post, the fact that it shares a color palette with the ace flag is fully intentional. Ace icon Tatchgob.

@strixcattus (link to post here) has drawn a good bird -- serrated beak a solid choice -- but as with many of their posts, the real gold is in the text. See, Strixcattus gave us another carrion-eating bird some months ago, and they've decided this one is a related species. That's right, meet Wutugald tatchgob, the Brown or Lesser Wutugald. Which also explains why this one has that yellow thing above its beak there. Love the connection being drawn to previous entries. (Strixcattus's original Wutugald post can be found here.) As usual, you are strongly, strongly encouraged to go read the descriptions Strixcattus includes with their animals. You should then go check their brief follow-up to the Tatchgob here.

Now, to the Aberdeen Bestiary.

That's right, it's the eagle again! I wasn't expecting a repeat, but you have to admit it's clearly the same bird. The illustration for "eagle", in case you don't remember, looks like this:

Virtually identical except for the coloration of the wing feathers.

Okay, yeah, there are no duplicate entries, I just had to point out the fact that they look exactly the same. This one is the vulture, which apparently also doesn't reach far enough north for our illustrator to be familiar with it.

(A quick check through Wikipedia indicates to me that the various vulture species whose ranges include Europe tend to stick to the southern parts. None of them seem to reach the British Isles, which is where this manuscript originates.)

Anyway, something I find interesting about this is that vultures are another animal that modern people often think of as sinister, creepy, or just gross, but the bestiary is actually really positive about them. There's even one part where they get to be a Christ symbol, which honestly I have to share. It starts with that "dying by descending from a great height" bit I quoted earlier:

The fact is, if a vulture, in flight, sees a corpse, it sets itself down to feed on it, and is often overtaken by death when it descends to the dead animal from a great height. It is right, therefore, that Christ, who was God's mediator and our redeemer, should be signified by the name 'vulture'. While remaining in the heights of his divinity, like the vulture flying on high, he saw the corpse of our mortality below and descended from heaven to the earth beneath; he deigned, indeed, to become man for our sake; and when he sought man, the living thing that had no life, he who in himself had eternal life, met his death at our hands.

That's right, the whole Jesus thing was the allegorical equivalent of diving towards a corpse and accidentally smashing into the ground. Really puts the New Testament in a different light.

There's also a part where vultures foretell death. But not foretell for our benefit, mind: the example given is that vultures have learned to recognize what an army is and follow it because they know there will be food. So they're foretelling for their own purposes, and if we happen to notice and draw any conclusions, that's just a side effect.

One more quote from the Aberdeen Bestiary, and then we're done.

For who looks at the eyes of the vulture, that is, at what lies behind men's thoughts?

... that's a reference people get, right? anyway, it's late, good night.

[britt-kageryuu]

It's a fairly calm day in the studio, considering Donnie has decided to update and /or upgrade everyones setups, and equipment. He had the desks pulled from their stations, and multiple parts stacked up around the area.

He periodically tested the parts or programs to make sure they were not broken in some way which would lead to more work, and needing to fix or order replacements, which was not the worst that could happen. Donnie still has nightmares about how somehow one of the setups fully bricked from just one faulty part, he was glad he always had backups for his backups, so it was only a loss of parts, time, and some money.

Donnie was also doing some upgrades to the desks themselves, like making Raphs a bit taller because his while growth rate may have slowed down alot, finally, he's still too big for the current height.

Mikeys was made a bit wider to accommodate a bigger digital drawing setup with multiple custom styluses that look like paintbrushes, pencils, pens, and crayons.

Leo's desk was just getting some new controller storage that doubles as a charging dock, he annoyed Donnie a bit too much recently, so minimal upgrades this time.

Donnie was going to add lighting to his, even if only those in the studio will see it, and maybe add a new monitor or something to allocate 'junk icons' to de clutter the other monitors. And he's planning to upgrade all of their stream decks.

He was also checking on Shelldon who was in the middle of an update himself and 'sleeping' on his charging bed. The updates being sent from a spare laptop wirelessly connected to Donnies main computer in his lab.

As he's about to put a new part into place, he pauses to yawn, and then checks the time.

"Sweet and Spicy Churros, has it been that long already. I'm surprised Angelo hasn't tried to drag me out to make sure I eat. Oh wait, he's working today. Right." Donnie looks around to see his current progress, and decides it's a good time to take a brake. Taking care to not step on any parts that got left out, he starts to head for the kitchen area of the studio.

When suddenly Shelldon shoots off his charging dock and flys across the room, thankfully not hitting anything except the wall he crashed into.

"Pizza Supreme! SHELLDON!" He uses his Ninpo to turn his battle-shell into it's hover mode, and quickly goes to check on his robot son. Donnie picks Shelldon up to look him over, "Are you okay, are your systems functioning?!"

Shelldon comes out of the 'daze' he was in. "I'm find Dad, but if that was real, your ancestors are jerks, except Gram Gram of course."

Donnie is understandably confused, "What do you mean 'if that was real'? And the Hamato ancestors tried to contact you?"

Shelldon shakes his head, "Well I don't know, it was like I was dreaming, and suddenly someone claiming to be a great great aunt from Grandpas aunts side, or something." He then rolls his eyes, "Dude was totally pushy about some distant cousin disgracing the family, or something. My translation programming wasn't working in my 'Dream'."

Donnie is still confused, "I don't know whether to be surprised over the fact that you can simulate dreaming, since you've told me you could, question why the ancestors decided to contact you, or wonder what was messing with your translation programming."

"Yeah, this Great Aunt was trying to tell me a name, but it kept translating the meaning of the name," Shelldon says annoyed at his programming, "And when I asked 'why me?' she was getting more pushy until she started chasing me. Which is probably what triggered me to fly off the dock."

Donnie was still feeling lost, but decided to shelve the idea for later, to focus on getting food. "We can check if this 'dream' was recorded, and look it over while I eat, and you finish your updates."

The dream was in fact recorded, and analyzing it revealed that Shelldon apparently had a human form in this dream, which they believe is why this random ancestor thought Shelldon could help. Also the name they discovered wasn't being translated because it was not the proper way to say the name, or something.

But that was a problem for a different day, when Donnie didn't have another, what feels like, 10 hours of work left, at least.

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

Masterpost

[starrywooyo]

treasure: four

synopsis: when y/n gets whooshed into an alternate universe, an adventure: one with pirates and monsters and much, much more

pairing: ot8! pirate ateez x fem! reader (hongjoong / wooyoung focus towards end)

genre: pirate au!!

!!warnings(per chapter)!! - [bellow cut!] alcohol, drunk!teez, implied bullying (not actually) swearing, mentions of blood, mc is too nice for her own good, guns, knifes, jealous wooyo.

notes: finally a new chapter!! whoop whoop!!!

word count: 4.4k

tag list: @toxic-babexe , @sunnyhokyu

(if you wanna be added or removed to the taglist just lmk)

series masterlist

main masterlist

previous | next chapter

“so, you can fight. you know how to use a sword. So I'll cut to the chase. I was talking to my crew and given your situation with your family, and the fact I lost some of my crew today, I'm still against the idea of having a woman on board but my crew seems to like you. so, I'd like you to join us. and Second, I wanna thank you for saving my life. I could've been heavily injured or dead if it wasn't for you. don't get me wrong though, just cause I'm thanking you and asking ye to join my crew doesn't mean i like you nor trust you.” he stands making his way to the door, opening it and just before he leaves, he turns to you again.

“you've got till we dock to give me your answer, what'll you do? join the illusion or you can get off my ship the next time we dock” he says still cold before leaving out the door to let you ponder your decision. 

what will you do...?

Join his crew? 

join him after how rude he's been to you? after all his insults... and all his sexist comments about women and ships... 

you couldn't deny the fact these thoughts made you not want to join his crew.

you just don't get him. How could he be so rude, cold, practically despising your presence one second and the next he saved you  and helped you through a panic attack... 

Does he have a split personality or something...

Despite these thoughts of the cold captain, the positives about joining the crew outweigh his bad points.

joining his crew could mean you can figure out how to get home!!... if you can get home that is.. and besides, you quite like the rest of his crew. they're nice and some are sweet. you can't just get up and leave them.  

so, you make your way out of your room and up the stairs onto the main deck, there were still traces of blood from the fight

you really wonder what happened and why those people attacked...

“Y/n~~” you heard your name being called, turning your head towards the voice.

oh? It's Yunho...?

looking at him you notice that he too has a few injuries of his own, he has a few cuts on his face and arms and it looks like he's got a bit of a busted lip...

“Oh Yunho... hi”

He makes his way down the rigging and walks towards you.

“so…” he begins. ”i uh overheard the captain saying he wants you to join us to seonghwa earlier,” he said.

you slightly nod gazing out towards the water.

Yunho tilts his head in your direction.

“are you going to?” he asked

he raises his hands in defence 

“I mean I'm not forcing you or anything but I think you should. We enjoy your company on the ship. and you're nice to be around, and… you might not know it yet but everyone in this ship is here because of a reason. So just think about it, okay?” he said and pats your shoulder. walking away to go elsewhere. 

you stand and watch the waves a bit more, the sound of them crashing against the ship calming. 

sighing you push yourself away from the side of the ship. and make my way inside. 

...

standing In Front of the door your palms began to sweat and slightly shake as you raise your fist to knock on the door

you knock, its quiet for a minute before someone sighs 

“Come in” a voice calls out.

opening the door you enter and the door swings shut behind you as if sealing your fate.

there he sits. map rolled out in front of him on the desk of a dark coloured bottle sitting on the corner. 

he shakes his hand angrily through his red hair 

“What” he spat out coldly. his eyes burning holes into me 

you clasp yor hands together in hopes to get them to stop shaking.

“i- i have my answer” you voice hoping it was loud enough for him to hear. 

he sighs out and rests his chin on his hand. 

“And what is it?” he asked.

“I'd like to join,” you say more confidently. 

He stands placing his hands on the table.

“Alright then. you may leave now” he said, still cold as he started to look over the map again. 

“yes sir” you quietly said and turned for the door.

“Stop” you heard him call out. you turn to face him. He makes his way to the front of the desk.

“If you're gonna be a part of my crew you best learn to address me properly” he spoke.

you just stand. blinking at him.

“Seriously” he sighs out and crosses his arms over his chest.

“It's the captain. c a p t a i n. captainnnn.” He said drawing out the last captain.

oh.

“ah, yes c-captain sorry” you apologised 

“good. don't apologise, just do it and get out and leave me be now” he spoke cold and proceeded to push you out the door.

you stand and turn back to face the now closed door that you were just shoved out. eyebrows furrowed and mouth slightly parted.

asshole. 

...

“Land hoooo!”

and there indeed was the island, it didn't take long to sail towards it nor dock the ship. and Soon all of you were on deck.  the captain giving out orders of who's to fetch what while on the island, you on the other hand didn't have a role. 

you were to simply fetch yourself some clothes for you to wear. if you were a part of the crew then you'd need your own instead of borrowing. and the person who was tasked to go with you was seonghwa.

so here you were walking with seonghwa as you looked at and bought various shirts, pants and even a skirt for some reason. Now you were just browsing the vast amounts of stalls.

you walked past a stall showing different styles of corsets, now you weren't gonna lie a few did catch your eye but you couldn't possibly wear one of those besides how would you breathe? 

“See something you like?” 

you jumped and turned to the voice 

seonghwa..

“yeah but I was just looking. I couldn't possibly get one” you told him. 

he tilts his head

“Why not?” he gestures to the countless women around you both, every one of them wearing a corset of some type. “they're all wearing one,” he said.

you laugh and shake your head.

“I just wouldn't feel comfortable wearing one,” you said. a half lie. you wanted one that's true but at the same time you thought you wouldn't feel comfortable with the constriction of your lungs while trying to breathe wearing one. 

he nods to your explanation 

“Okay” he said.  then you both start walking away from the stall

“Seonghwa~~~!!! Y/n~~~!!!” you and seonghwa stop at the sound of your names being called and you turn to where you heard them being called.

and there was wooyoung running towards you both, San and Yunho promptly running along after him.

Once he reaches you both. He flings his arms around both your necks pulling you both close to him.

“Hey you two!! Having fun? did you get some clothes for yerself y/n?” he asked, wide eyed looking at you.

Seonghwa shakes his arm off as San and Yunho catch up

“What’d you thinks in the bags woo?” he says to him waving the paper bag in his face.

“Okay, okay. Let's not argue. let's say we drop these bags back at the ship and~~” Yunho says pull you from wooyoung's grasp by your hands. pulling you close to him and wrapping his arm around your shoulder

“we all go get a drink at the tavern huh” he finishes looking between you all. biting his lip slightly. 

no one answers. seonghwa seems to be thinking about yunho's suggestion while wooyoung's eyes linger on yunho's arm that's around you.

just as you're about to open your mouth San pipes in.

“sounds like a great idea! besides, we could all use a drink couldn't we?” he said. 

everyone ends up agreeing and you all head back to the ship to drop off the bags and the things Yunho, wooyoung and san had bought. telling the others on the way about your plan to go to the tavern.

though you all forgot to do one very important thing...

...

Now here you all are sitting around a table in the bustling tavern, music slightly playing unheard over the countless men being loud and rowdy. you lightly sipping on our drink every so often. you didn't drink alcohol much.

while the others... well let's say they drank, and by drank you mean a lot. 

you don't know how long you were there for, but the table slowly but surely started to fill up with empty pint cups. you were all sat listening to jongho tell a story. Most of the guys tried their best to listen but most were dazed and out of it. eyes hazed over. poor seonghwa looked as though his head would hit the table any minute. 

jongho moving his arms ecstatically in his drunken state nearly hitting a poor guy walking past

“And there I was!! the criminal trapped right at the end, nearly had the sucker. THEN!! he socked me one and he would've gotten away but that's when i met the captain and-” 

SLAM 

jongho's story is interrupted by a heavily drunk wooyoung standing and slamming his hands on the table. He winces from the sting and staggers as he points his finger with his whole arm. 

“I'll tell you something about the captain,” he says, his speech slurred from drunkenness.  and goes on to tell his part.

you however being the only sober one notice something that everyone else doesn't in their drunken state of mind. 

a familiar mop of red hair entering the tavern and scanning the place until his eye lands on you. you feel yourself sinking into yourself trying to hide and as he marches to your table you focus back on the group and current drunken story teller: wooyoung.

“now. don't get me wrong. I love our captain but.. he can be a real mean asshole sometimes. makes me wanna take my dagger and ram it up his a-” he pauses mid-sentence and is looking at you. 

his eyebrows furrow

“what? what's with that face?” he asks his voice cracking at the start

and your eyes as well as the rest of the crews slightly shift to the furious red haired man standing behind him with his arms crossed

you forgot to tell the captain...

“what are you…” wooyoung begins and then follows your stare and everyone else's at the table and slowly oh so very slowly turns to face the captain

“Oh” he says.

the captain just stares at him, nose slightly flaring from anger.

wooyoung nervously smiles.

“hi hongjoong” he says

the captain or hongjoong raises his eyebrow.

“Excuse me?” he begins. His voice is laced with so much fury it makes you want to crawl into a hole and never come out.

He eyes all of you at the table.

“do.. do you all know how worried I've been!!?” he says, raising his voice as he slams his fist on the table as wooyoung did before only this time with more force as it tips over a few cups. 

“I came out of my room to find my crew. My crew. gone. no one seemed to bother telling me. Hell you didn't even leave a note.  I thought anything could've happened to you all. anything. I.. I thought you'd all been fucking captured or something!!” he yelled gaining the attention of other tavern goers. and the tavern goes slightly silent 

hongjoong laughs out in anger

“but no.. you're all here..” he says a bit quieter looking at the table now. the others looking down in shame but you. you saw something on the captain's face..

“drinking.. laughing.. and making fun” he added.

sadness 

That was what was on his face.

you could've sworn you heard him whisper out 'of me' at the end of his sentence.

He lets out a bit of a laugh 

“Whatever” he said biting his lip and wiped his face,

“Just hurry and get back to the ship. It's late. and we start planning our journey to find the Cromer tomorrow” and he made his way to the tavern door before shouting

“What are you all looking at! mind your own damn business!!” and then he was out the door.

...

After the outburst, most of the crew seemingly now sober after the scare from Hongjoong. Everyone was trying to tidy the bar table. but you. you had questions so you pestered seonghwa for the answers which he gave most likely because though looking sober he was still pretty drunk. 

you wanted to know about this Cromer thing the captain mentioned and all seonghwa said was it was the treasure they needed to find before it got into the wrong hands.

wrong hands. who could possibly be after this thing and if it's in the wrong hands then why are these people bad...?

but there it was. the beginning and plan of your first adventure...

you quickly leave the tavern, slightly shivering from the cool of the wind and make your way back to the ship.

only you don't get to the ship, you see hongjoong sitting on the beach watching the waves.

he sits, knees tucked up. his jacket discarded on the sand and his shirt's sleeves rolled up slightly.

carefully you tread your way towards him and settle on the sand beside him.

you stare at him. He makes no move to look at you and keeps his stare on the waves peacefully crashing in.

it's quiet for some time, nothing being spoken between the two of you. until it wasn't.

“What” falls past his lips ever as cold as always.

you suck in a breath about to answer him, but he speaks again.

“Why are you still sitting with me?” he says.

you're confused.

“after everything they were saying at the tavern.. I'm sure you agree with them” he says with a sniff.

he's... crying!!?

you softly smile to yourself.

“I think you've misunderstood, captain” you begin.

he side-glances at you confused.

“Your crew weren't bad mouthing you at all! they really care about you. In fact, they were telling me about how you saved them. how you saved each one of them and they're really grateful for you…” you finish

This only made the man cry more.

“hey hey” you say in a soothing tone and take his hands in yours and try to look at his face.

you gasp.

“y-you're bleeding!” you say. as you watch the blood seep out from underneath his eyepatch.

removing one of his hands from your hold he touches his face, and sure enough there's blood

he laughs slightly

“Oh. This just happens sometimes. it's nothing to worry about.” he tells you

nothing to worry about!!?

you stand and pull him to his feet

“What are you-” he begins but is cut off from you, starting to walk back to the ship and pull him into san's medic study.

you sit him down and search for some things. and once you find the things you turn back to him only to find more tears rolling down his cheeks.

“why” he says.

“Why are you being so nice to me when I've been a complete asshole to you…”

“well you are an asshole but I think you're more broken and kind than you let on captain” you explain to him as you wipe the slowly drying blood from his face

“hongjoong” he says.

you look at him.

“hmm”

“hongjoong. call me that” he says

you slowly nod. 

“okay. well hongjoong. Does it need to be cleaned under your eyepatch?” you say as you reach for it. he grabs your wrist.

“it's okay i can do it.. thanks y/n.. y-you can go.” he says. 

you stand and put a hand gently on his shoulder

“Are you sure?” 

he just nods ever so slightly.

and with no other option if he's not comfortable, you leave the room.

...

A few days had passed since the moment you had with hongjoong on the beach and in Sans study and it was sort of safe to say he was slowly changing his way of acting towards you and now you were also back on the waves beginning the search for this treasure.

 you were yet again leaning on the side of the ship watching the waves crashing on the wood, then a familiar mop of red hair pops in your peripheral vision.

turning to the side you see hongjoong also leaning on the side 

he looks at you and smirks a little

“enjoying the view,”  he asks.

you nod. 

“yeah, i am it's so peaceful” 

he smiles

“yeah it is. it's so freeing to me y'know?” he says, holding onto the side and leaning back as the wind blows through his hair.

he looks at you, only to find you looking back at him. His eyes looking conflicted in the next second.

“ah! yeah i was going to say. This voyage is most likely going to be dangerous. Now I know you can fight but you're missin a few points. I'd also like to train you up on using a gun and cutlass better if you're comfortable?” he says

your brows furrow

“you mean... you.. train me?” you ask to which he nods

“yeah.. if that's okay..” he adds

you agree

he claps his hands together once. 

“Great training starts tomorrow, okay?” he said and began to walk towards seonghwa who was at the wheel.

so training with the captain. How fun. if only you knew.

not long after the captain left you, another crew member saunters over to you 

wooyoung.

“so..” he begins

“training with the captain huh?” he asks 

“y'must be dreading that. with the way he treats you” he added

wooyoung lets out a nervous laugh ”you could.. always train with me.. y'know?”

you smile.

“That's sweet of you Woo. Thank you. but…” you say as your gaze drifts from him to where the captain stands now at the wheel 

“i'll have to get back to you on that one”

you miss the hurt that flashes on his face 

“no, no. That's okay. I was just saying because of how rude he is to you but whatever” he says and walks away.

what. what just happened.

you stand still looking in the direction wooyoung left in. perplexed.

shaking the feelings away, you make your way to yeosang's study. knocking on the door and entered once you heard his quiet 'come in'

you find him at his desk looking at the large map

“hey” you say to which he says hi back. you watch as he makes markings and little notes which you assume is for hongjoong about this journey.

“so..” you begin. “where are we going anyway?” you ask him 

He points to an island on the map.

“captain wants to go 'ere and thinks we'll find somethin useful there.. i disagree nothing but bandits there.” yeosang spoke his opinion. 

“maybe he knows something.. maybe there is something there” you tell him.

yeosang looks at you and sighs

“perhaps but its awful dangerous”

dangerous.. so that's why he wants me trained up you thought

...

Wooyoung sits in his crow nest with yunho.

yunho looking with his spyglass actually doing the job of a lookout, while wooyoung... well his spyglass is long forgotten on the planks of the crows nest. 

he sits with eyes fixated on you and the captain..

he watches as your cutlasses clang off each other and how hongjoong stops to adjust something about your stance or just giving pointers  

he doesn't fail to take notice of hongjoong's smile on his face nor the one on yours.

he sits arms crossed, tongue poking his cheek as he lets out another sigh

yunho sighs too

“wooyoung. why not instead of sitting and sighing. you do your job?” he says as he chucks the spyglass at him.

wooyoung lets out a laugh

“technically I am Yun. I'm observing the crew” he says

yunho shakes his head and continues to look through his own spyglass out a the waters

Yunho's words fall short as wooyoung continues to glare daggers at the pair below on the deck.

...

“again!” hongjoong said as he took his position, you followed suit, sighing. 

your whole body hurts. you've been doing this training for hours.. all day for the past 3 days. and let me tell you. hongjoong is not a lenient teacher. you definitely see why he's the captain. 

your cutlasses clang against each other and yet again he disarms you.

“Y'know if this was a real battle you'd be dead” he says throwing his head back running his hand through his red hair. when doing so he catches a glimpse of something or rather someone.

he lets out a chuckle

“Oh wow. this is great” he mutters under his breath, a small smirk making its way onto his face.

you stand and pick up your cutlass, hongjoong smirks

“again”

the metal crashes against each other

The cutlass again slips from your hand and pain shoots through you as you land on your butt.

the captain laughs and his sword points at your throat

“dead.. again” he says

nope he's still an asshole 

he holds out his hand for you to take it, you smack it away picking yourself up and your cutlass

“again” you say

hongjoong smirks again

“okay... determination i like it” he says and ready's himself 

and the clanging of metal begins again

he's being cocky you thought, and it was then that you saw your chance 

using your foot you slip it under his own making him fall on his own ass. 

“YESS” you hear being shouted. your eyes immediately flicker about to see who it was. then your eyes go up to see yunho with his hand over wooyoung's mouth as he raises his hand in apology

you shake your head with a laugh and turn back to the captain who's still on the floor glaring up at wooyoung

you lean yourself on your sword and then extend your hand to the captain

“well now you're dead captain” you say teasingly

he takes you hand and lets out a “ha ha”

he was about to say something-

“captain! land ho!!” yunho shouts from the nest. 

it was now that you took notice of your surroundings 

There it was! an island with rainforest looking trees. very dense looking. you're brought out of observing by hongjoong explaining what was going to happen.

“alright crew. we'll camp on the beach for now and some of you will stay 'ere and guard the ship. I don't think we need to worry about the bandits right now as we're on the other side of the island and at first light we'll make our trek to find her” he says 

and then the 9 of you plus a few extra pile into a few row boats after gathering some supplies and make the row towards the beach of the island. 

after getting to shore you all set up camp. and got started making a stew

“y'know there's still a few hours of light left. how'd you feel about training with one of these?” hongjoong asked you holding a pistol “you don't have to. i'd just feel calmer if you knew how to at least get a shot with one”

you reluctantly agree to do more of this training.

so now here you were a little ways further down the beach with some empty glass bottles on some crates.

“you ever shot one of these?” he asks

you shake your head 

“no.. we don't have guns back home or so to speak we're not allowed them” you say

“oh.. That's odd, nearly all towns and villages allow them here that I know of.. Right then.. well i'll show ye first then you can try okay?” he says and you nod.

and then hongjoong points the gun and bang! the glass shatters

you jump from the loud noise 

he notices and places a hand briefly on your shoulder

“You okay?”

you nod and then he places the gun in your hand

“now you try” he says 

and let's just say it's not going well. you've shot everywhere except the glass bottles. you've shot the sand, the crates, water even the tree just behind the crates

“y'know what” hongjoong says. ”I think I might have something that'll help you. i'll be back” he says as he makes his way back to the camp.

... 

again wooyoung sits eyeing the both of you still huffing and puffing. only this time instead of it being yunho its poor jongho that's getting the sigh’s in his ear.

that is until jongho's had enough.

“Why don't you just go over there and help her hmm? instead of huffing over here? Yer giving me a headache” he asks him, ”Look the captain’s coming back here so you go help her instead of whining to everyone about the captain being the one to help her.”  and with that jongho shoves the blonde in your direction down the beach.

“okay. i will just.. distract the captain for a bit will ya?” he says to jongho and then saunters his way down to you.  

... 

“Need some help?” 

startled from the sudden voice you turn to face them

“oh wooyoung.. yes please hongjo- ah the captain just disappeared on me” you say.

he takes the gun from your hands and settles himself on the sand patting the space next to him

“i feel you can't use a gun properly unless you understand how it works” and then he began explaining the different parts of the weapon to you

by the time he finished explaining the sun was starting to set

“okay now show me how you shoot, so i can see what it is you're doing wrong” he says

so you take aim and again miss the glass.

he nods

“hmm i see, 'ere try this and take aim” he says and passes you a smaller pistol. 

you take it and it feels much better in your small hands and then you aim for the bottles like he said

“you're also aiming too low.. try and aim just above the place you want to shoot” wooyoung spoke

he stands behind you almost flush. he gently touches your shoulders

“relax.. you're too tense you'll get hurt if you're too stiff” 

breathing in and then out trying to calm yourself, your shoulders visibly relax.

“good” he says

his hands slide from your shoulders down your arm to your hands where he raises your aim

“okay.. hold it there” his hands glide back up your arm and fall to rest on your waist

“shoot” he orders

BANG

his hands on your waist steadied you from the recoil 

the glass had shattered!!.

“better?” he whispered

you nod

“thank you” you turn to look at him his hands still on your waist

he was so close..

you saw how his eyes looked into yours, how he took in a shaky breath

“y/n I..” he whispered

you both were so close that your noses where almost touching, that you could almost ki-

a loud terrifying shriek comes from the forest.

wooyoung's quick to grab the pistol from you and aim it in the direction the noise came from

“w-what was that!?” you ask trying to steady your breathing

“the beast” hongjoong said eyes bore into you both. 

a/n: hihi!! I don't normally do a/n's but I just wanna apologise for how long this chapter took to get published-

I'm very deeply sorry I've just been writing wips for other little au's, oneshots and series I wanna post for you all!! I also just had no motivation to write for the treasure series. I don't wanna get burned out. hence been writing some wips!! I hope you enjoyed this chapter though!! till next time!! <3

previous | next

[jellisdraws]

WIP Whenever

It’s been a while since I posted anything from my Cyberfantasy WIP so…

The helm was a vision straight out of the last century of star cruisers , retrofitted into something more functionally modern. It's dated darksteel panels were accented with rust red ironwood, and a full suite of leather chairs and stations sat vacant on either side of the conically shaped room. In the middle of the room where an old timey captain's chair may have sat, a 12 foot tall, 8 foot wide inky black egg shaped pod was welded into the floor, it's sleek sides seamed with glowing strings of runes. Past the navigation egg, the circular front viewport glowed with the purple hue of the light spilling from the Gate, the traffic ahead of them mere dots of black with their own aetheric glow of main thrusters, slowly idling their way forward, waiting their turn to warp. Wires and cables humming with magic running out of the base of the pod disappeared under the floor panelling - Was that… mahogany? - and reappeared where they linked into the various navigation and control stations across the bridge. Advancements in cognition-enhancing alchemy, magics, and technology like Jack’s own implanted cyberbrain now allowed the entire suite of operating systems for a starship like this one to be controlled by one person- a fact not lost on the starlining corporations.

Now that Automaton Intelligences were calling for equal treatment as kith, and even the corporate funded governments were having to give way in order to appease their constituents both organic and manufactured, it was far cheaper to just maintain the fewest employees possible and focus on guild busting tactics. Paying for stimulants, overtime and legal payouts when things went wrong was far cheaper than paying a living wage and hiring Shipboard AI to supplement helmsmen. The pilots guild was more or less a full fledged insurrection anymore, hijacking, blockading and destroying Corpo ships across the Unified Systems. They supposedly maintained sleeper representatives across the various starliner companies, those willing to quietly recruit new guild members or crash starships into trade hubs in firey protest. Split between the Corpos bearing down on them and the Guild’s aggressive recruiting tactics, every pilot and helmsman Jack had ever met had been either stupefyingly boring or batshit insane. She hoped this one counted among the former.

(Rest under the cut)

A voice floated out of the Comm rune on the egg, “Hey, just a heads up we’re about T minus 16 minutes to warp. Not to put too much pressure on you, but non essential systems will be going down as we warp, standard procedure, and they wont be back on till we’re headed into final approach.”

“Right.” Jack said, edging around the pod, trying to get a view of the person inside

“It's weird you know, I don't remember logging a request.”

Jack froze, waiting for alarms, waiting for the doors behind her to open, but the voice continued, “ Sometimes I forget about the small stuff though, or maybe it's an old one- glad they're finally sending someone to deal with stuff like this,” The voice was dreamy- like their attention was largely elsewhere- which Jack supposed it was; flying large scale starships was consuming work.

She finally scooted in front of the navigation egg, peering through the layers and layers of projected information and glowing sensor displays on the glass of the viewing window into the beautiful reflective eyes of a mermaid. She smiled dreamily at Jack as she floated gracefully in the suspending fluid of the egg. She was around 4 feet tall, with a slender feminine torso covered in opalescent white scales that shifted into a curling, ridged neon yellow seahorse tail. Her pale green curls were trapped beneath a pair of headphones she had pulled around her neck- the cord of which disappeared into the top of the egg. Her eyes were the color and quality of mercury, sitting prettily in a heart shaped face. She had a prominent tattoo of an incredibly buff orcish man in a navy cap and not much else along her sternum. Down the sides of her neck and collar Jack could see her gills filtering. Jack had to remind herself to look the woman in her eyes.

“Hi there,” Jack said.

“Yeah, hi,” returned the dreamy voice through the pod, though Jack couldn't see the Mermaids lips move, “Feel free to do what you need to do, We got about- oh… just under 14 minutes now.”

“Right. I don't suppose we could speed that up?” Jack asked

“Speed it up how?”

“Most ships have thrusters I believe, they are used to provide thrust. I would like there to be more thrust.”

“Oh.”

Jack unfolded the titanium blade from her hand and pressed the tip into the glass of the navigation egg with what she hoped was a menacing click, her black eyes meeting the Mermaids mercury ones, “Im hijacking the ship.”

“Oh, Okay.”

“‘Okay?’ What the fuck do you mean, ‘Okay’?”

“I was acquiescing.” the mermaid said.

“I just told you I was stealing the ship. Why would you acquiesce to that? Who says acquiesce anymore?”

“I dunno. Protocol I think.”

“Protocol says to agree to hijacking?”

“Yeah.”

“I need to be through the Hyperlane gate as fast as you can get us there…?”

“Madolyn.”said Madolyn the mermaid.

“Madolyn, hi. My name is-”

An explosion rocked the cabin as the doors in the rear blew open with a wild squeal and cracking of metal and ceramic, with a shower of blue and purple arcane sparks. The Corprobots began to force their way through the exploded doors, kicking and twisting burning out of their way.

“JACK GATHOWAY YOU HAVE BEEN FOUND NON COMPLIANT.” came a loud tinny voice followed by a short burst of gunfire.

Jack yelped and ducked behind the egg as bullets ricocheted around the cabin, struggling to flatten herself against the convex surface.

“Now please Madolyn!” She yelled

“Just feel free to call me Maddie!” she said cheerfully, righting herself in the tank and pulling her headphones back up around her ears. She began to wave her hands fluidly though the fluid, and the ship responded instantly. Jack felt herself pressed firmly into the smooth hard surface of the egg as gravity shifted in response to the acceleration. An echoing crash and the sounds of cursing revealed a corprobot had fallen off of it's feet and tangled the legs of the others.

Jack looked frantically in front of her, the aetheric glow of the gate was huge and all encompassing, trying to stay stuck behind the egg as Maddie swung the starliner in and out of traffic, avoiding the ships trundling there as she continued to accelerate towards the gate.

“Stay where you are!” came a corprobot voice, and then more gunfire, Jack hissed as a ricochet skimmed past her forearm, slicing the skin like a red hot razor. The bots were spreading out, making the precarious cover she had found increasingly tenuous. Between the shouting and gunfire she could hear Maddie cheerfully speaking to someone,

“Thats right Raxxus Control we have been spacejacked, and the culprits are accelerating us directly into the Gate!” A pause, “Nope, it does not seem like re-establishing control of the vessel will be possible.” She gave Jack a thumbs up, and Jack returned the gesture with a weak smile.

A Metallic hand grabbed Jack by the ankle and ripped her out of her hiding spot and she yelled, swinging and kicking, slamming her knife repeatedly into the torso of the corprobot holding her, the aetherium infused titanium sinking into the thick ceramic armor over and over until the bot fell in a shower of purple sparks. More gunfire from the bots- TING! A bullet lodged itself in her metal leg, she almost could have laughed until another one took her in the shoulder and she spun over the controls landing with a bone rattling THUNK on the other side of the defunct console. Maddie was still speaking,

“That's right, we are a passenger vessel, so firing on us is out of the question unfortunately. Eject them? I don't have the authority to do that sir, Im so sorry. Listen we’re about to hit the Gate, it's been lovely to talk to you- what was that? Collision?”

Jack’s eyes widened as she turned to look out the front viewport to see the prow of Starsailer emerge from the gate, followed by its masts and sails, a huge galleon from the ancient days of spacefaring, it's Draconic figurehead looking as surprised to see the Starliner as they were to see it. Maddie hewed the ship hard to port, but it was too late. Jack felt it shudder beneath her before the impact came and she was thrown across the room. She slammed hard into the ceiling, navigation egg, floor, egg again. As the starliner bounced off of the hapless Starsailer’s shields and directly into Raxxus Station itself, metal and glass and ceramic buckled as the momentum of the ship ground it further and further into the Gates’s superstructure. Jack felt the shuddering reverberations of arcane explosions before she saw them, massive roiling purple flames being ejected out of the gate with increasing intensity as the starliner crashed into it before the momentum of the spinning structure caught them and flipped the disintegrating ship entirely and the purple aetheric glow overtook all.

[tumblrisweird]

Crash Course on Lancer, the best TTRPG

I've been obsessed with Lancer lately, so I thought I'd put together a quick and dirty crash course on the key aspects of the system so people could see if it interests them.

Basics:

Lancer is a ttrpg system "centered on shared narratives, customizable mechs, and the pilots who crew them"

It is co-created by the author of the webcomic Kill Six Billion Demons, who also provides some of the official illustrations

The mech design is primarily inpired by Titanfall, but there is a wide variety and plenty of options available to suit your taste.

Mechanically, it's most similar to D&D 5e, but with major improvements (imho).

The game and community are super inclusive of BIPOC and LGBTQ+ people.

Lore:

Lancer takes place in our universe, but several thousand years in the future

in the near future, human society collapses due to all the shit going on. ten generation ships are sent out to colonize space, but contact with them is soon lost as everything on Earth goes tits up and humanity enters a dark age for almost 5000 years

Eventually, humanity on Earth comes back, creates Union, and returns to space and tries to contact those generation ships, a few of which have founded new civilizations in deep space. Relations with these civilizations doesn't go great.

Union also finds a weird super-robot-mind-thing old humanity built on Mars, which lets them predict the future. After about a thousand years, it ends up producing a sort of super-AI called RA (I will get into this later).

The above event also lets Union develop FTL tech (using something called Blinkspace).

In the process of expansion, humanity runs into its first (and so far only) sentient alien race. Things go bad very quickly. The people in charge do very bad things and for this end up being overthrown. This is also when mechs first start getting used for combat.

A new committee in charge of Union takes over and has a strong anti-colonial, humanitarian ethic. This however is harder to reinforce the further you are from Earth (now called Cradle by some)

Some of the still independent civilizations and mega-corporations get in some fights. Union tries to keep the peace. This is where we are now.

AI

So there are two different types of AIs in Lancer.

The first kind are regular AIs which can act human but don't really have free will. They can be found all over the place.

The second kind are called NHPs (Non-Human Persons). These (mostly) came from that super-AI called RA I mentioned above. Their basic consciousness is "paracausal" (i.e. magic), so they have to be "shackled" to be able to even think like a regular human. They can often do really powerful things. They are hard to get and heavily regulated because they become really dangerous if they get unshackled.

Player Characters

Character creation in Lancer is incredibly fun. There's two main aspects of a character: the pilot and the mech

Pilots

The pilot is who you control during narrative scenes. While they can do combat, they generally are not suited for it, especially against mechs.

You can choose a background for your character, but this is purely flavor.

You get some "triggers", which are different skills you get bonuses in to use in narrative scenes. Default triggers include things like "lead or inspire", "read a situation", "apply fists to faces", "hack or fix" and many others. You can also create custom triggers (with your GM's permission). These are what you use for narrative scenes. You start with +2 to 4 different triggers and get another +2 at each level

You also get to choose things like armor, pilot weapons, and three pieces of equipment.

One expansion also adds a mechanic called "Bonds" which are like character archetype powers. These encourage you to roleplay more.

Mechs

You also have a certain number of "Talents" which help in mech combat. Each talent has 3 tiers and focus on things like using certain weapons or fighthing certain ways (e.g. grappling, spotting, hacking, etc.). You start with three tier-1 talents and get another tier each level.

Levels are referred to as "License Levels". You start at LL0, but this doesn't mean you can't do anything. You have access to the starter mech frame, which is a very good all-rounder. You may also have access to two more if you have certain expansions.

Mechs have two main sets of health: actual HP and "Heat". You get heat mostly by being hacked or using heat-generating weapons. Each player mech also has 4 points each of Structure and Stress, which correspond to these two sets of health. When your HP hits zero or your Heat goes above its max, you lose a point of Structure or Stress, respectively. You will also suffer other consequences like status effects or losing parts of your mech. If either hits zero, your mech gets destroyed (though this doesn't necessarily kill your pilot, and you can rebuild your mech). Also having 50% or more of your max heat means you're in the Danger Zone, which may let you do certain things.

Mechs will have a certain number of SP (system points), which you use to add different systems, equipment that gives you abilities and bonuses.

You also get to put points into 4 different "Mech Skills": Hull, which affects HP and physical stability, Agility, which affects speed and evasion (the thing enemies roll against to hit (most of the time)), Systems, which affects hacking ability and SP, and Engineering, which affects Heat management and ammo. You get another point each level.

There's other stats as well like Armor, Sensors, E-Defense, and Save Target, but I won't get into them now.

Mech's also have a certain number of weapon mounts, which determine what kind of weapons you can attach to it. The four weapon sizes are Auxiliary, Main, Heavy, and Superheavy. Most of the mount types match a specific weapon size. The only exception is Flex, which lets you mount one Main or two Aux. Also for a Superheavy, you need a heavy mount plus one other mount.

Player mechs come in 4 sizes: 1/2 (basically a suit of power armor), 1 (just big enough where a person could sit in the chest cockpit), 2 (much bigger than a person, about the size of heavier Titanfall mechs), and 3 (fucking huge, though maybe not quite as big as the mechs in Pacific Rim). NPCs can be even bigger. :)

This set of memes is a great way to get the idea behind several mechs.

While most mechs have a default appearance, they're highly customizable, and there are a couple of exceptions. Most Horus mechs have no default appearance, and the starting mech, the Everest, has no canon appearance, meaning it can look however you want.

EDIT: forgot to mention, every mech has a Core Power that you can use once per mission (usually). It typically gives you access to a really cool weapon or ability or otherwise powers up the mech for the rest of the scene.

Levels/Classes

Ever notice how in 5e, multiclassing kinda sucks unless you have a very specific thing in mind? That's not at all true in Lancer!

In addition to the stuff mentioned above, each LL you get to gain one level in the license for a certain mech! You can think of these as similar to classes.

Each level gets you two specific pieces of equipment from that license, generally either weapons or systems. Additionally, at the second level for a license, you get access to the mech frame.

Each license only has 3 levels to get, so you are very much encouraged to mix and match. Additionally, you gain levels at a more even rate than in 5e. Basically it's a milestone system I will explain later.

There are 4 manufacturers to choose from, each with a default of 7 licenses to choose from (more with expansions). ISP-N mechs are sturdy, reliable, and mundane. Smith-Shimano mechs are sleek, agile, and precise. Harrison Armory mechs are powerful and good at dealing with/using Heat. Horus mechs are extra weird and fucked-up.

Each session will generally consist of a few different "scenes", often including one combat scene. There may also be one "downtime" scene (usually at the beginning or end), which is sorta like a short rest. You can make limited repairs and change out equipment, as well as pursuing personal goals. A few sessions together constitute a "mission". After a mission, you get a level and can do a full repair, which is like a long rest. Get all your resources back and can completely rebuild a destroyed mech (or make a new one).

Action Economy

Each turn the player can take the following actions:

One Protocol (generally granted by a system, only at the beginning of the turn)

A standard movement, which can be taken in part or all at once.

Two Quick Actions or one Full Action

Quick Actions are things like Boost (take another full movement), Skirmish (attack with one weapon mount), Hack, Hide, Grapple, Ram, and Lock On.

Full actions are things like Stabilize (clear all heat or heal HP), Disengage, and Barrage (attack with two mounts or one Superheavy mount).

One Reaction, which can be taken on other characters turns when activated. The two default reactions are Overwatch (skirmish against an enemy that starts a movement in your threat range, which is 1 by default but more with some melee weapons or CQB weapons) and Brace (reduce damage from an incoming attack and be harder to hit, at the cost of losing actions on your next turn).

One Overcharge, where you take increasing amounts of heat to get another quick action.

There may also be certain systems or talents that grant certain Free Actions under certain circumstance

Combat

Combat in general is very fun, though a full round of turns may take half an hour or more. In my experience, most combat scenes are over within 8 rounds.

Using your systems and abilities in cooperation with your teammates is very important to surviving.

Of note is that getting advantage on a roll is much rarer than in 5e.

Much more common is Accuracy or Difficulty. Each point of Accuracy is an extra d6 you roll to add as the accuracy bonus. You pick the highest of your accuracy rolls to add as the bonus. Difficulty is the same except you are subtracting the number from the roll instead of adding it. For example, Lock-On lets you add an accuracy to a roll, but soft and hard cover add 1 and 2 difficulty respectively. Also points of accuracy and difficulty cancel each other out, which reduces the amount of rolling you have to do. So if your weapon has +1 accuracy but your target is behind hard cover, you roll the attack with 1 difficulty.

Resources:

you can get the core rulebook (minus npc info and detailed lore) for free here

here's the official fan-run discord server. it is very helpful for finding games that are looking for players and talking about the game.

You can use the official app called COMP/CON to build and manage characters. I fucking love making character in this. It makes things super easy and fun. You can also download .lcp files for various expansions to play around with the stuff they add as well. These are available for free for the official expansion, meaning players can play with extra stuff from expansions without needing to buy them.

In conclusion, Lancer is a great system that you should give a shot to if any of the above sounds appealing.

[simptasia]

Tell me all about LOST all I know is from Dane Cook

that is. such a funny sentence

aw shucks, its tempting, but i don't wanna give ya spoilers. and there are truly things in lost that must be experienced by your own flesh

...yes im aware of what my blog is like

so i guess i'll give a vague spoiler free overview

so. a group of plane crash survivors find themselves on a mysterious island and have to deal with the strange happenings + their weight of their individual traumas

the show is serialized and one ep more or less flows into another, so literally no ep can be skipped (no matter what anybody says) or else you'll miss something

its a large ensemble cast, ranging from the 13 to 20s range, all in all i think theres like 35 main characters

the show follows a flashback structure, each episode dedicated itself to a main plot on the island intercut with flashbacks to one character. we call these centric episodes. eg. this is a jack centric episode. sometimes an ep will have multiple characters have flashbacks in one ep. while this show didn't originate the concept of a large cast or flashback storytelling, it did popularize it in the early 2000s. so a lot of post 2004 shows wanted to be lost so bad and it shows

at first lost was a survival show but they gloss over this very quickly and its more about the weird shit going on. as time goes on, plots and mysteries stack up. this is to create intrigue, as the shows main focus is an endless parade of character studies. with the added bonus of some cool and twisty shit going on too

but because lost had so much plot, over time it got accused of being confusing and convoluted and Not Answering Questions and well. your mileage may vary. but i think its confusing if you watch it too slowly. like, it aired over a 6 year period, no wonder people got confused. its better to watch nowadays, way easier to handle

the genre of lost is: drama mystery action paranormal sci fi romance with a dash of comedy. lost is full of the saddest fucks you'll ever meet but the show contains enough levity and great colouring to make it not a huge misery fest

pretty decent racial diversity. next to no LGBT rep. more women than the average tv show. then and now

the score FUCKS

not a single bad actor in this entire show, the performances on display are fucking outstanding. and every emotion is like up to 11, which is great for my autistic brain

for those of you who find sex scenes to be tedious, i have a bit of trivia for ya: all sex in LOST happens off screen. not a single sex scene to be found. pre sex, yes, post sex, yes. making out, yes. but sex itself? footage not found. i'm neutral on the concept, i just thought that was something to point out

i highly recommend lost to, like, anybody. ever. its a masterpiece of television. even the low points are better than most shows. sometimes i take lost for granted and then i watch any other drama series and im like "oh right, lost is incredibly good"

its my third favourite show. and thats only cuz star trek and doctor who exist, and nobody is beating those fuckers

anyways do you like to see beautiful people cry and scream but it isn't cringe?* well, i've got a show for you! *okay there is some cringe. as a treat. the leading man of this show has the social grace of a cold pancake (affectionate)

thank you for your time

[sage-nebula]

When someone tries to downplay how important Sonic and Tails* are to each other I just . . . on the one hand, I can understand it depending on what Sonic media they grew up on. Shows like Sonic Underground or SatAM (and likely the comics that spawned from SatAM), or even more game-accurate ones like Sonic X, were shows where Tails' importance was greatly watered down, or Tails wasn't present at all. Even in the "dark era" 3D games, the cast was often too robust to focus on Sonic and Tails' relationship. If these shows, games, and comics were someone's first exposure to the series, I can kind of understand thinking that Sonic and Tails don't really have THAT close of a relationship.

But just because it can be understandable . . . doesn't really make it right lol, especially if you look at other things surrounding the "dark era" and the current iteration of the characters.

SatAM shoved Tails to the side, but AoStH had him as a main character Sonic would let the world burn for, and the OVA had him as an important character, too. 8bit Sonic 2 is all about Sonic collecting the Chaos Emeralds as ransom for Tails's safety, and the second scene in Sonic's story in SA1 has him bolting to Tails's side after a plane crash. In both Colors and Lost World, Tails was used against Sonic by their enemies; in the second movie, Sonic panics when Tails is injured and switches rapidly between begging Tails to wake up and yelling at the G.U.N. soldiers to get medical attention. In the IDW comics, Sonic yells at Silver to release him so he can make sure Tails is okay after a crash, and Tails protects Sonic from Kit and Surge more than the other way around. Oh, and lest we forget, the Chaos Emeralds gave Sonic a vision of West Side Island to make him go there in Origins (and the Sonic CD ending implies Amy also predicted this meeting with her fortune cards), and Ian Flynn has said, "Sonic needs Tails, and that's just a cosmic truth."

So I don't know, man. I can understand if you grew up on media that downplayed their bond that you don't care about it as much, or maybe you don't like Tails very much so you have trouble seeing how important he is to Sonic's story. But it always kind of just boggles my mind a little bit, when people downplay it. And saddens me, too, because it's one of the few actual examples of a platonic love story in media, and I love that. We don't have nearly enough platonic love stories in media.

But those are just my midnight musings. It's sleep time now 😴

(*I seriously mean how important they BOTH are to EACH OTHER. Sonic needs Tails every bit as much as Tails needs Sonic. They each have their own hobbies and their own individual relationships with others in the cast, but they're each other's family and best friend and they mutually benefit from their relationship the same amount. "Tails idolizes Sonic while Sonic just sees Tails as another friend" just isn't true on either side. Tails hasn't idolized Sonic for years and years; the only characters who still mistakenly think he does are the villains, and Tails HIMSELF says in Frontiers that he KNOWS Sonic isn't perfect. In that same game, Sonic expresses how weird it feels not having Tails with him and shows hesitation over letting Tails go solo that he quickly tries to cover so he can support Tails instead, because he knows this is important. Additionally, in the IDW comics, when Sonic's feeling antsy before the showdown at Angel Island, he flat out says that the one person he wants to be with when feeling that way is his wingman: Tails. Theirs is a mutually beneficial partnership. Tails deserves to have that recognized. He's earned it.)

[higharollakockamamie]

Dawntrail Thoughts

Just putting my thoughts together.

SPOILERS FOR THE WHOLE EXPANSION

Overall, I enjoyed it. The parts I liked less were more missed opportunities than anything outright bad. There was definitely nothing on the Werlyt scale of bad, which is what I was afraid of ever since I heard my personal enemy Werlyt Guy was working on MSQ. You can see where the less experienced writers are getting a feel for things, but I think they did a reasonably good job of it.

Things I Liked:

The environments are gorgeous. I spent plenty of time just ramming my face into plants so I could look at the leaves. Those leaves!

Meeting the different people of Tural was a lot of fun. I liked the summer vacation feeling of just exploring and learning about different cultures. I liked that there were a lot of things for us to do besides "go here kill this", like trade some wool for fancy mezcal like that one guy who traded a red paperclip until he got a house.

I loved seeing fantasy with a Central/South American inspiration. It's really fresh and the colors and designs are wonderful.

The centering of female characters. We had lots of women in major roles, and I really appreciate that. I especially love to see a female villain. I am a full supporter of women's wrongs.

Bakool Ja Ja going from a goofy enemy it was fun to give crap to (I love Wuk Lamat's delivery of, "Be quiet, Bakool Ja Ja. No one cares what you think.") to a tragic child overloaded with expectations was great.

Zoraal Ja betraying his Obviously Going to Betray Him Evil Vizier was hilarious, though it came at the price of giving us less Sareel Ja, who I enjoyed

I liked that the WoL stepped back and took a mentor role. I don't really invest in these kinds of blank characters - they're just a wall for the characters to play tennis against - so you could replace the WoL with a piece of cold pizza with "nods" pepperoni'd onto it and I wouldn't care. So I'm down with them being a supporting character.

Wuk Lamat. I love her design, I liked seeing her journey and growth throughout the story, and I liked the story being based around the development of a leader, this time based on maintaining the peace rather than overthrowing an oppressor. I also thought her voice suited her well. I understand the frustrations of people who thought she monopolized screentime. More on that in Missed Opportunities.

Sphene's part of the story was a lot of fun. I loved how openly friendly yet very suspicious she was, and I enjoyed trying to guess her secrets. Exploring her lands and figuring out the dark side of this ostensibly happy place made me and some friends think of The Giver, and that was fun to compare and contrast.

The combat and dungeons were a ton of fun. Vanguard is a personal favorite. Gotta love any dungeon you crash a train into.

Things I Didn't Mind:

The music used the main leitmotif a lot, but then again, so did Endwalker. In that case a lot of the big bangers that massively slap came in the patches, and, given how Honey B Lovely's theme has taken up residence in my head permanently, that pattern looks to hold out. Also I love the jazz in Tuliyollal.

Missed Opportunities:

I would have liked to see the Scions take more of an active mentorship role. Like, for each culture/area, have one of our buddies teach a lesson: like, Alphinaud should have definitely gotten a chance to talk about not letting yourself think you're the big omnipotent smarty boy who can solve everything yourself. This would have been a fun way to show the Scions' development as well as helping us not overdose on Wuk Lamat by having her be the focus alone.

Where's Zoraal Ja's mom? Where's Gulool Ja's mom? If it weren't for two-heads requiring two parents, I'd think these were those lizards that reproduce parthenogenically.

Zoraal Ja was a little underbaked. He's got this idea of sowing warfare to teach people that war is bad, but where did he get that notion? Why's he willing to go so far for it?

While effective, the idea of fighting someone who is trying to preserve the past at the cost of the present was a bit of an Ascians retread. It's strange that no character ever mentioned that similarity - or, with the idea of things that maintain their existence by sapping the life of other beings, the similarity to Primals.

Also, I hate to argue for more Thancred, who sucks, but "a person you loved and lost continues to exist but at the expense of currently living people" is something he should have been around to have an opinion on.

Where's the Ironworks? There's so much technology they'd have a field day with. Where's Nero? SHOW ME MY BOY

[dustxechoes]

"Two dead Vespers, coming up! Forged in ash, we stand as one!!" "Focus, Ziyi. Coming home alive...that's your special mission for today." "Yes, Uncle. I'll be careful." "And...try to avoid shouting those slogans so loudly. Encrypted comms won't do us any good if they can hear you all the way from your cockpit." "...Yes, Uncle." "Good. They're coming. Show them your fury, Little Sparrow."

Raven turned down the job, so he had to bring someone he could trust.

It tends to get lost in the shuffle when people talk about Flatwell between his time as a spy and his secret plans with Rusty, but the most important connection Ziyi is given by the narrative is with her 'Uncle', Middle Flatwell. Military Commander of the Rubicon Liberation Front.

As an infant, Ziyi was taken to Rubicon by her parents—who, tempted by the promise of riches from Coral mining, sought to make an illegal entry to the planet. Only Ziyi survived the crash landing. She came under the guardianship of Uncle Flatwell of the Rubicon Liberation Front, and the core of an AC was the young orphan's cradle as she grew up to become a Coral Warrior.

It's deeply fascinating to me that someone so deeply jaded and pragmatic as Flatwell, who criticizes the plucky heroic attitude of the rank and file RLF members and is even willing to sacrifice the lives of his subordinates and comrades to further his plans, is also the type of person who would find an orphaned baby from off-world and without reservation take her in and raise her as his own daughter.

But also I have. So many questions about that.

How involved was Flatwell in her upbringing?

Was AC piloting just a natural talent for her or has he been preparing her for it from a young age?

How did being a spy impact his ability to meet her emotionally?

If Flatwell is the one most critical of the rank and file RLF members for having been fighting occupation for so long that they are no longer actually picturing a future where they're free, mindlessly repeating slogans and fighting, why is his own daughter Ziyi the most...like that, of any of the named RLF pilots?

Was he too distant? Does she simply not understand the way he thinks? Or is this just more of Ziyi overcompensating for her perceiving herself as an 'outsider' that has to prove herself, regardless of what her comrades actually think?

It's obvious she doesn't know Rusty is a double agent, but how much else does he keep her in the dark about? Was this a pattern, or was this just one secret too important to entrust her with?

Is she expected to step up if something happens to him?

On the subject of Rusty, have they...talked about that? She knows they were close, but does she feel like she has a responsibility to ease his burden by bringing 'the traitor' home?

There's so much to their dynamic we just...don't know. In fact, to my knowledge neither of them directly mentions the other a single time in the entire game. But his spycraft, his master planning, directly gets Ziyi killed in the first playthrough. How does that impact him?

Ziyi has so much going on and is important to so many other characters but somehow manages to dodge everything important to the main plot and from the player's perspective is an optional encounter that takes about fifteen seconds to beat with you only finding out who she is afterward for a quick emotional gut punch, also the coolest thing she does is only alluded to in a single line of dialogue that was fucking cut, which makes me feel like I'm going insane because no one else talks about this shit.

but Arshile, Rokumonsen, Flatwell, Rusty, none of them have dialogue that changes if she's dead or not and I am eating my own organs wondering if they even know.

There is a mission where you can fight side-by-side with Flatwell having potentially killed his daughter and he doesn't have any different dialogue. Is he aware that Raven did that? Is he even aware she's gone? Or is he just so pragmatic that he's able to set all that aside for the sake of the plan?

[thatscarletflycatcher]

I watched Man Up (2015) a couple weeks ago, and I have been wanting to write a post about it ever since, because... how can I put this.

Man Up is a romcom that is structured in surprisingly classical ways. The action happens within roughly 24 hours. There's good twists and turns you don't expect. It has sweet quiet moments complemented by high emotion moments. The casting is really good in its aim for naturalism in both looks and performances.

But then... the movie shoots itself on the foot with...

sex and alcohol.

And you'll say "Scarlet, you are a prude!!!" Yes, I kinda am, but the fascinating thing is that it isn't about that? I don't think I've ever watched a romcom where these were problems at the level of plot and characterization in such an obvious, stark way.

Let's talk alcohol first because it will help me explain the plot at the same time.

We open with our main character, Nancy, trying to gather the courage to go to an engagement party. She gives up and orders some food and drinks from the minibar. She ends up going to the party where she has at least two mojitos. The next morning she has a mild hungover, and takes the train home for her parents' 40th wedding anniversary.

She accidentally meets Jack and they go on a date. They chat and drink beers and eat chips. He then takes her to a Mexican cantina where they do tequila shots and chat some more. Then he takes her to a bowling alley where they do bowling, eat some snacks, and drink some beers. Then they go back to the cantina, and bump into Jack's ex and her new partner. They have more beer, whiskey, and another tequila shot. Nancy then goes home to her parents' party, and Jack goes on another date, where he, of course, drinks another beer.

Even at these point and to the end, both characters look and behave completely sober.

Meanwhile, Nancy's sister, her husband, and their parents are preparing for the pary by... you got it... going to the store to purchase booze! An important part of a scene is about setting up the white wine sofa and the red wine sofa.

Looking for Nancy, Jack mistakenly crashes on a teen house party, where there's, of course, alcohol, and he holds a girl's hair while she vomits and he tells her of a hungover cure.

And I'm here like... it's not only a bit ridiculous that apparently Jack's alcohol resistance is over 2L of beer and 4 tequila shots combined, and he doesn't need to go to the bathroom and is perfectly capable of the fade-to-black sex at the end, but... what was the point? Why does this movie focus so much on alcohol and then never says anything about it? It's not a commentary on modern day hopelessness, addiction or consummerism or anything like that.

At what point of your screenplay writing you stop and think "mmm, isn't all this drinking becoming a little repetitive?" IDK. If it has no meaning, maybe switch the first date thing for ice-cream. Maybe they only have food at the Mexican cantina the first time they go there. IDK. But as it is, it is distracting.

Then, sex. The first one is classic and well known: the sex joke that is not a joke. The "writer thinks people saying embarrassing sex things in a public setting constitutes a joke". It's a truth universally acknowledged that a joke must have a set up and a punchline and that the relationship between those two must have a degree of absurdity to it that causes hilarity. "This situation IRL would make people laugh nervously because they'd be uncomfortable" does not constitute a joke, and is, as a general rule, not funny. Putting it several times into the story won't make it funny either.

Then there's... the stalker. Nancy has a stalker, and the movie attempts to play it for laughs. They went to school together. He knows where her parents live. He knows she has no social media. He's taken pictures of her in her bedroom that she didn't know of. He attempts to blackmail her into giving him sexual favors. THIS MOVIE TREATS THIS AS FUNNY IN THE YEAR OF THE LORD 2015.

Jack and Nancy are presented as opposites -Nancy is cynical, Jack is the hopeless romantic that opens his notebook in the middle of the date to write her name and surround it with heart doodles. No, that happens in the movie, really. There's also a running gag that whenever they dance his hands automatically go to her butt. He then grabs it in the middle of her parents' wedding anniversary party. In front of everyone. WHILE EVERYONE IS SPECIFICALLY LOOKING AT THEM. That's... that's not very character consistent, movie.

And then there's... the ending. There's this whole tension throughout the movie about how Nancy is supposed to be at her parents' wedding anniversary instead of her date with Jack. They lose each other when she's too quiet inviting him and he's too distracted to notice that she's inviting him to go with her. Her dad wonders if she'll bring him to the party and if the date won't be their anniversary as well. When Nancy's stalker pretends he's Jake, Nancy is framed as feeling alienated from the party. She comes back to herself to give her speech, and then Jack storms in the middle of it.

All this set up is building the importance of this family and this community as the framework where the kind of committed, trusting, vulnerable relationship Jack seeks and Nancy wants but is afraid of can flourish. Nancy's parents have been together for 40 years and they are happy and they have friends and family they love and are loved by! But the movie doesn't end with Jack being welcomed into this circle.

It ends with Jack and Nancy leaving the party to go have sex in a bathroom, and Nancy telling her stalker that she'll send him pictures. I kid you not. It's just so jarringly anticlimactic that way.

It was such a strange experience, because we often talk of the sex scene or sex-related scene that is there just to have it, but that contributes nothing to the plot and could have been cut without the movie losing anything, but in this case it actually made it a less cohesive, less consistent, less focused story just by being included. That's something alright.

[coldau]

Sorry to ask! I've been trying to find good resources to learn how to mod (both to create my own but also do mashups) and cannot seem to find any on my own that I can comprehend. So many rely on having basic knowledge of modding, and I'm at an assumed 0% of even where to begin. Do you have any resources you could share? ;w;

I long lost most of my guides but I'll make a walk-through for this here, with pictures.

HAIR MASHUPS:

Say you want to mash up a hair that's viera only with a hair that every other race has, like my longer styled for hire mod.

Find the hairs in Textools, and then EXPORT them as .fbx:

Next, open blender and import the hairs in from the dropdown file menu. It'll look like this. (NOTE THE FILES ON THE RIGHT SIDE! THESE ARE ALL VERY IMPORTANT!)

Now expand the files on the right side so they look like this. You'll be immediately joining the pieces together.

Select from the N_root of the hair you're stealing parts from, and drag up to the N_root you're making the base hair. HOLD SHIFT! Otherwise it'll be a bad boy.

and be sure to have ALL the things under that root node selected like I have it.

It'll drop the hair down to the ground like this. Click the orange box on the right hand menus and then, one piece at a time (don't select them all and try to do it, just won't work) rotate them to 90 degrees.

Next, join the bones together. They're those triangles.

SAVE! BEFORE! YOU DO THIS! Blender likes to crash randomly, but especially with "join" functions.

Select them either on the sandbox, or by holding CTRL and selecting the N_roots in the files.

Now you have one bone for all the hair pieces to work off of. You will have to reassign bones- i will show you later in the guide.

But now, we get to some very very important parts! Discussing node pieces.

First of all, before you do anything- look at their names. Au Ra Male is "1301", Viera male is "1701." I'll be renaming the Viera's pieces to match the Au ra's pieces in a minute, but don't start with that.

Instead, look to the numbers on the right. Those are the NODES. The numbers after the "." are just different parts, but the numbers BEFORE that are the actual different pieces!

0.X nodes will have different TEXTURES AND ATTRIBUTES than 1.X, 2.0 nodes. THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR TEXTOOLS! Pay attention to what pieces of hair are in "0.X" and so on.

But for the X.1, X.2, X.3? As long as they're all on the same node, you are free to join them.

IN A LOT OF OLD HAIRS THEY WILL HAVE A LOT OF PARTS! Feel free to join them if they're under the same main node!

Now, the Viera hair honestly can be one piece. It's got main hair and some fragments. So, I joined them together like how I would bones.

THEN!

I renamed them to match the naming structure (including this green thing in the dropdown) but put them on a whole new main node! (NOTE: see, it's 2.0 now instead of 0.0)

That's MOST of the technical bits out of the way.

Now we focus on modeling the hair. There's two tabs to model under. "Modeling" and "Sculpting."

Modeling is for deleting/moving individual pieces of polygons/deleting entire polygons.

This is the tool I mainly use: Poly Build. It allows me to click and drag polygons by their verticies and make new ones.

If you make new polygons, you have to triangulate your build when you're exporting your save to a new .fbx!

When you have "poly build" on, you can hold "Shift" and delete polygons or verticies.

(If you need to join verticies together, use the select tool and hold CTRL and click on the verticies you want to join one at a time, right click, and go to "merge at center" or "merge at first/last" depending on what you need)

Sculpting is for the entire shape of the hair you have highlighted.

Here are the tools I use in Sculpting:

The top one is "Grab", it grabs onto a vertex and pulls on it SHARPLY, so use it for very accurate things.

However, the other one that I have selected in that picture is "elastic deform." It grabs a VERY LARGE AREA and pulls on it gently, I use it for shifting things around by a large margin.

NOW! Let's say you did everything you want. You deleted, you moved things, you joined things.

Now, assign a bone. The part of the hair we moved from Viera doesn't have a bone anymore! So sad. So go back to "layout" and click the part of the hair the viera hair is on, and go to "Modifier properties"

Ignore the part at the top, just click on "object"'s box and select "n_root" and it'll have bones now.

You did it! Wow, look at that hair!

(results my vary)

Now you save it as a .blend once more, just to make sure it's there in case you fucked up somewhere.

Once you've done that, you're going to save it as an .FBX again.

Name it what you want, untick "add leaf bones" and "apply modifiers", while also selecting "Triangulate faces" if you NEED to- if not, don't bother.

You now have the hair modeled out. This... was only half the journey. Now you need to harvest the Normal and Multi layers of the hair you joined in with your base model and make a new texture.

To navigate to the different texture maps, it's on the upper right.

Remember, Normal files are _n, and Multis are _s

NOTE: TEXTOOLS ONLY ALLOWS FOUR TEXTURES /APPLIED/ ON HAIR. You don't have to delete unused textures, but you can only use four of them max.

Since my hair uses Viera hair 14, I go to Viera hair 14 on textools (note, for midlander based hairs you'll probably have to go to the midlander hair menus for the textures. You will see why in a moment.)

Export these as .dds, extract them from the folder they go to (lower right again) and now go alllll the way up to hair 157 on MIDLANDER.

Even though this hair is being made for au ra, it's ALL based on midlanders! IT'S A CONSPIRACY--

Next you click "more options" on the lower left, and this will pull up. Click the dropdown for "backfaces" and click "show backfaces"

then click the button "use unique textures". After you do that, it should look like this in the menu, and click "save"

You now have a blank texture.

Press "import" and put the _n texture of the hair on the normal, then use the dropdown on the upper right and go to multi and import the _s there.

REMEMBER THE TEXTURE NAME, it'll probably be something like Acc_C or Hir_C!

Once you've done that, it's a matter of uploading the .fbx.

Go back to au ra hair 157, press "import" on the "models" tab, and click your .fbx. Then, don't have any of the boxes checked (unless you are a miqote, then it's UV1 to [1,-1]) and press "open editor."

This is the part where I told you to remember which Root Nodes applied to which pieces of hair.

The base hair is on 0.X and 1.0, so all we care about is editing rootnode 2.0 in this guide.

Go to Rootnode 2, click the dropdown, click custom, then type in the Hir_B or acc_c address you need, then hit import!

BEHOLD, ART

Now you load into game, check if it works. If it does, go to "mods>create mods>basic modpacks" and select the pieces you changed.

Ask or DM me if you need anything else :)

Extra tips: if you want to scale things, but are having difficulty because the scale point is way too low- go to layout, click on "object" and "set origin" to "geometry," then press "S" and scale easier.

[themidnightcrimson]

Hiii bringing some Wanda thoughts to the table in these trying times in case anyone enjoys them

For those with a fluff craving I was thinking that now that we know that Wanda can fly imagine casually wrapping your arms around her shoulders and kissing her, she also wraps her arms around your waist and kisses you back, you two start kissing but Wanda loses herself a lil bit much in the kiss that she starts floating without realizing, pulling you up with her. and you chuckle, cos it's def happened before, like 'honey, I know you like my kisses, but you have to put us down'

For the whores tho I offer you this:

Because I know we all in this house got horny seeing Wanda drive her car and would like to be her passenger princess whose thigh she squeezes and rests her hand on 24/7, let's imagine going with her in her car (or Wanda coming over and driving your car which for me is equally as hot like yeah take control of my things and just be pleased to take your pretty gf around) and sucking her cock while she's driving because yes she's wearing the strap, and since she's the one always in charge of the car and keeping you both safe while you're on the road, you want to make her feel appreciated and loved as she sits back and just lets you do all the work. You starting to stroke the bulge on her pants over the cloth, bitting your lower lip with anticipation as you feel Wanda's breath hitch and her hands grip the wheel harder, struggling to keep an even expression. Wanda warning you when you're unzipping her fly "that's not a good idea when i'm driving, detka.", her voice clearly affected, but you ignore her, trusting her driving skills. And while you are rubbing her length and sucking, she curses in sokovian at how good your mouth feels sucking her off (please bear with me, i'm obsessed with the idea of Wanda cursing in sokovian, specially when she's fucking), and tries so hard to keep her eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel. You momentarily remove your mouth from her cock to tease her like "focus love, don't be an irresponsible driver.". Eventually she removes one of her hands and puts it on the back of your head, tugging your soft locks and feeling your movements up and down her cock; gagging rubbing humming sucking, as you take until the very last inch of strap into your beautiful mouth, spreading your saliva all over it and successfully driving Wanda insane. You keep going till she cums in your mouth "fuck. the car princess, i can't- im so close" "keep it in your mouth baby please, i want to come inside" 😩😩😩😩😩 literally moaning between gritted teeth trying with her life to keep her eyes open and the car on the lane 😩😩😩😩😩😩 and when you finally lift your head and lean back on your seat you notice Wanda has left the main road looking for a place to pull over. Once you are there she gets off the car, circle it, open your door and pulls you out to then slam you against the back door. You were already wet from hearing her grunts and moans as you got her off, but then she kisses you, touches you, grabs your ass and your tits, grinds against you, and you're more than lubricated to take her fingers, one hand buried between your legs while the other cups your cheek. She rests her face on the crook of your neck, kissing it and panting against your skin "you wanted me to crash the fucking car, malyshka? is that what you did all of this for?" You come on her fingers and when you think it's over, she turns you around, bends you over the passenger seat and starts taking you from behind, grunting, groaning and spanking your ass until she leaves red marks all over your cheeks. You making very unholy noises and desperately bitting the leathered seat, arching your back even more to give Wanda the perfect opening to fuck you as deep as she humanely could "Wanda come inside me again, please. Please please, I want your cum." She can finally throw her head back heavenly and close your eyes and let herself feel your walls clenching around her. "You're a fucking whore, god. I love it." Gripping your hips and slamming the entire of her cock inside you. "Yes baby, I will fill up that pretty pussy of yours, I promise." And then she comes inside you hips flat against your ass, holding you in place firmly as you take all her cum like a good girl and the nastiest moan ever known to man leaves your lips. "That's it baby, all my cum is yours."

Also this but with Wanda instead of Kara (I'm a huge slut for her too tho) https://twitter.com/Jennywebbynsfw/status/1616865839025688579?t=kFu1yeRJroqM2tm6VwTpvg&s=19

Sorry this was longer than expected hope it isn't too messy to understand I'm sleepy-horny and my brain isn't working too well

OH WOW UH I HAVE NO WORDS BUT I WANNA BE WANDAS PASSENGER PRINCESS SO BAD NOW WNXGWOWBWBWWH

[anonymouspuzzler]

Yay Yipee I Finally Remembered I Should Update Folks On Things That Are Happening

because hey whoops as some of you might remember Supposedly I Stream Sometimes! That Uhhhh Hasn't Happened In A While Has It! so I should probably let folks know what's goin' on!! the long and the short of it is

Around late November/early December I started having issues where Discord would crash and restart anytime I tried to screenshare my capture software with my friends who I stream with. This put console game streams (so 2/3 of the games we were streaming) on the backburner till I could troubleshoot and solve that issue

On top of that it was Fucking Finals Season for me at my Graduate School so at a certain point I had to be responsible and focus on getting my final projects & essays done, which meant sacrificing stream time till my break (where I would hopefully have time to troubleshoot and then do a ton of streaming to make up for lost time)

Except THEN literally the second I went home for the holidays my hard drive abruptly and completely died. It is very possible that this contributed to the aforementioned tech issues

I was able to replace the drive and get my computer working again but because I have a Fucking Curse a lot of tech-side things were lost or started experiencing issues due to the new drive, namely A) I haven't been able to get my capture software working yet and B) whoops my entire OBS layout is just gone now I guess

This whole saga, on top of juggling other life shit and work and the like, effectively ate up my entire winter break

so tl;dr! I have a computer curse and because of it streams are gonna have to wait till I can get both OBS and my capture software working again. I'm hoping to work on that this weekend so I can be back to streaming next week, but given my school & job workload I'm guessing it'll more likely be two or three weeks. On top of that, I won't be streaming most of March due to reason of "my partner is visiting then". all of this sucks cause I want to be streaming, both for reason of "i like spending time with my good friends doing this" and "haha whoops I'm not earning money now and oh boy there sure are a lot of expenses flying at my head like rocks huh".

I've already rambled a bit more than I'd like to now so here's da main points:

Streams will (HOPEFULLY) be back in February. When they are, they'll be Monday & Tuesday nights, 5:30pst/8:30est, for as long as my friends remain available at those times (we're all adults having to look for or maintain Day Jobs so availability could change. y'all know how it is). I may also do occasional one-off streams on weekends as my energy 'n schedule permits, most likely art streams

I'll continue to be around on Holly's streams Fri/Sat/Sun as her schedule permits, because I don't have to rebuild OBS from the ground up for that

There is a 99.99% chance I'll be totally absent stream-wise during March

Even though streams are facing The Troubles I am still taking art commissions! Those haven't been affected!! You can submit an interest form here and I'll reach out to confirm prices as soon as I'm ready to start work on yours

If, out of the kindness of your heart, you would like to toss some support my way during The Troubles (which would be much appreciated; as said I've got a lot of expenses coming my way and unfortunately my day job covers my rent and nothing more), here are some other ways you can do so: -- Tip me on Ko-Fi; if you pay $9 or more you can request a doodle that I'll do for you and post on here & twitter (and might stream the process of drawing once that's up and running again). Here's an example of some Ko-Fi doodles I did previously -- You can also tip through my stream page if you want but I probably won't see those till I start streaming again. Still appreciated!!! -- I have a Throne Wishlist that's mostly stuff like kitchenware, household goods, stuff for my kitty, etc. There's also a few Fun Things though, like vinyls and a billy big bass Jay insisted I add. Either way, if you wanna contribute to something on there it means a lot. You can also suggest items to make me laugh

an' above all: thank you for reading and for bein' around!!