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crosshairlovebot · 1 year

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building feelings / tech x gn!reader

pairing: tech x gn!reader (no y/n)

description: tech teaches you how to fix something on the marauder, and you've always admired him and his intellect.

word count: 1,819

warnings: none. tech is a sweetheart.

two fics in several days?!?! what?!? this is ANOTHER request from another lovely twitter mutual who asked for tech teaching the reader how to fix something on the marauder! i have never written for tech before but i had?? so much fun?? i loved writing his dialogue so much. i loved writing HIM. i hope you enjoy it!

disclaimer: i don't know anything about mechanics, let alone mechanics in the star wars universe. but i tried my best!

also posted this on ao3. feedback is welcomed, reblogs are appreciated.

Your feet echoed as you came down the Marauder’s gangplank. Currently situated in a Tatooine landing bay, Clone Force 99 had made a quick stop between missions for repairs after being damaged in a firefight as they left nearby Christophsis. While the other members of the squad had been ordered by Hunter to gather and replenish their supplies from whatever vendors they could find, you and Tech had been ordered to stay with the ship. You, as their official GAR liaison and medic, and unofficial cheerleader, took stock of medical supplies and caught up on filling reports as Tech tinkered with the hull.

But having finished all your tasks, and the boys still weren’t back yet, you ventured out of the stuffy and slightly odorous Marauder, and out into the Tatooine sun that bathed the landing bay.

You heard the spark of a welding tool and the clattering of rummaging through the toolbox before you saw him. Rounding the corner, you found Tech with his back to you as he faced the open belly of the Marauder. His tall lean frame reached up to tighten a valve, and you watched his body strain with the movement, and you imagined his face was screwed up, an intense furrow on his brow and his jaw clenched. You felt your face heat up.

You would be lying if your heart didn’t flutter a little around Tech. There was something so endearing about his eagerness to share his knowledge, and his conviction in whatever he did. He was kind, even if he wasn’t actively trying to be. He excelled at anything he did, and most of all, he was a good brother. He cared so much about them, but in ways you had to look for. Modifying the ship so it performed the best it could, ensuring their safety when flying. Volunteering for the first watch and staying up extra late working on a project so they could get extra sleep. Researching anything they came across, so everyone was informed and no one got hurt. And more recently, enhancing Echo’s cybernetics so they were comfortable for him, and caused less strain and increased efficiency for his cerebral interface.

You knew that to Tech, these things were just things he did. But once you noticed, it wasn’t hard to see the care and love behind them.

“Hey, Tech,” you called out to him as you approached.

Tech turned around and met your gaze. He greeted you with your name.

“How’s it going?” you asked.

“Quite well. Though more systems were damaged than the initial diagnostic detected, everything is fixable. I have even increased the efficiency of the power flux stabilisers, so there is less strain on hyperdrive priming and more output for faster ignition.”

You smiled at him and moved to sit on a crate. You only partially understood what he was saying. “That’s good to hear.”

Tech nodded and resumed his work. You watched him, fascinated. His aptitude for engineering of any kind was admirable. Though you weren’t techno-illiterate – you could work a datapad and fly a ship, you knew nothing about mechanics beyond recognising the names of things. Tech always knew exactly what parts were what and how to use them, which tool to take to them. You could stitch up wounds, but this was different. He could build things – pull together seemingly complicated and unrelated components to make something tangible and operational.

“How can you remember what part is what? And how to fix it?” you asked after a stretch of silence.

Tech stopped and looked at you. “My genetic enhancements are increased intellect and aptitude for technology.”

“I know, but how do you remember it all? How do you have space for it up there?” You tapped your temple with a curious smile.

You could see gears turning in his head as his hands stilled. “I’m not sure I understand the question…I just simply do.”

Tech put down the Harris wrench in the box and met your gaze, which must’ve been furrowed pensively at his vagueness because then he picked up a calibrator and continued talking as he turned back to the ship.

“Though increased neuron capacity and information processing factor into my abilities, I still had to learn; to form a basis of knowledge that could be built upon as my understanding of concepts grew. I wasn’t born knowing the schematics of a T1 Hyperdrive and how to wire its various transmitters.”

You tittered but listened as he turned back and placed the calibrator away.

“However, we all have our aptitudes. The same way you know all the ways a body works, and how to fix them – I know all the ways machines work, and how to fix them.”

You smiled at his words. “I suppose you’re right.”

He twirled a tool between his fingers. “I often am.”

You grinned, meeting his honey-eye gaze behind his goggles. Tech’s mouth turned up at the corners slightly before turning away again, the open hull engulfing him as he rewired something. He suddenly stopped, head lifting up and turning to you with a thoughtful look.

“What?” you frowned in concern.

“Come here.”

Your frown deepened and you pushed yourself off the crate, moving closer to him. He guided you closer with a hand to the small of your back, and you brushed up against him as he maneuvered you to stand in front of him. Your face flushed and you were very glad he couldn’t see it.

“These are the wires to the power couplings that syphon power from the auxiliary engines to the main thrusters,” he told you, his gloved fingers running along the four coloured wires in front of you slowly.

You look up at him slightly confused before nodding. “Okay?”

Tech pointed and ran the tip of his finger over one of the wires. “See how one is slightly more charred than the others?”

You swallowed and nodded.

“That wire has short-circuited, causing lag when the Marauder accelerates because three wires are doing the job of four. What do you think will happen to the other wires if we don’t fix the short?”

You looked back at him, frown increasing. “I thought you knew all about this?”

Tech raised an amused brow at you. “I do. I am teaching you.”

“Oh!” Your cheeks flamed and butterflies swooped in your stomach. Embarrassed and nervous, you cleared your throat to answer his question. “Um, well I suppose if the other wires are being overworked, then they’ll short out too?”

“That is correct,” he nodded. “If wires transmit more power than their capacity, then not only can they short, but they can also degrade the ship’s performance.”

“Well, we can’t have that,” you joked lightly.

“No, we can’t. So, you’re going to help me rewire this one.”

Tech stepped away to grab a new wire from the case next to the toolbox, and your heart sped up, hands tingling with nervous energy.

“Are you sure? What if I do something wrong?”

Tech pushed his goggles up his nose. “You won’t. I’m an excellent teacher.”

And he was. He guided you through the process clearly, showing you the parts and the tools before he watched you use a micro-welder to fix the shorted wire.

“Keep it steady,” he said, placing a hand on yours, helping you move it across the ends of the wire. Your heartbeat quickened and your face heated up. His slender and dexterous hand engulfed yours, and you could feel the grooves of his white plastoid armour against your shoulder as his body brushed against you. If you leaned back, your back would meet his chest, and those dexterous hands of his might even steady you with a hold of your hips. You pushed the thoughts from your mind, doing everything you could to focus on the tool in your hand and not how close he was, and how easy it would be to get even closer.

“There,” Tech declared, removing his hand from yours. “That should do it.”

You cradled the tool to your chest, tightening your grip on it as he took a step back. You simultaneously felt cold and hot all over as you watched Tech grab his datapad, pressing a few buttons before hovering it over the length of the wire. “The diagnostic report shows that the wire is functional.”

You blinked in surprise. “I did it?”

“Of course, you did,” Tech adjusted his goggles. “With my excellent instruction and your intellect, changing a shorted wire is quite simple.”

Your chest tightened. “You think I’m smart?”

Tech paused for a moment before he started tapping the screen again. “You’re a proficient medic, that takes high levels of understanding.”

Your face stretched into a grin, warmth pooling in your stomach as your grip on the tool loosened. “You think I’m smart.”

Tech looked up at you before the corner of his mouth lifted impishly. “Well, perhaps not as smart as me.”

“I don’t think anyone is as smart as you, Tech,” you gave a lilted laugh, placing the micro-welder in the box with the other tools, feeling light inside. Tech’s smile was sort of everything…and to earn one was a privilege.

To be a witness to Tech in his most honest, comfortable form was not something experienced by many people outside of his brothers, and now, you too. You looked at him now, so engrossed in whatever the screen was telling him, and felt your heart swell and fall for him just a little more. You wanted to know why he decided to show you how to fix a shorted wire, but you didn’t want to ruin this moment by revealing feelings that may not be returned. So instead, you settled for:

“Thanks for showing me how to do that.”

His eyes slid to you before nodding and returning his gaze to the screen. “It is a useful skill to have. I’m happy to teach you whatever else you’d like to know.”

You took in a breath. Teaching you this was just another small thing to Tech, but it still showed how much he cared, just like everything else he did. “I’d like that,” you told him after a moment, your heart beating fast, even though you were sure he was just offering to be nice.

Tech’s hand stilled over his datapad before he fully looked up at you, a wrinkle in his brow that softened at your hopeful expression. Tech smiled again, his eyes shining behind those yellow-tinted goggles. And maybe it was just the Tatooine heat, but you could’ve sworn you saw the tips of his ears go pink before he adjusted his goggles and turned back to the Marauder, letting the mechanics envelop him again.

“The landing array needs recalibrating,” he said as he tugged on a part. “Shall I show you how to do that?”

You smiled at him. “Yes, please.”

thank you for reading! i have more requests to get through so i'll likely get through those in a couple of weeks!'

banner art by @vimse

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#larissa writes #tech x reader #tech x reader fic #tech bad batch #tech bad batch fic #tech fic #bad batch tech #bad batch tech x reader #tbb tech #tbb tech fic #the bad batch #tbb tech x you

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danwhobrowses · 2 months

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I've kept myself contained and (mostly) quiet as I consumed all of Downfall - knowing that each part would alter my previous perspectives and assumptions - but man, there is so much to discuss. Finally it's time to talk about it!

Spoilers for all 3 Parts of Downfall below

The TLDR of this essay is that it was awesome and it has both unraveled so much context while enshrouding so much more lore in mystery. The long answer is long so stock up on cake - but not Brennan's cake, he's very protective of it - or something to keep the energy up.

Let's start at the beginning: Tengar. What a start that was! The destruction of Tengar really does reframe the Gods from the get-go. They were lights, they were refugees, they watched the destruction of their home and the loss of their family just as mortals would in life, war, and Calamity - but in a place where those things had only just come into being. It poses many questions too; were they what the Luxon scattered themselves into? Is Dunamis the remnants of Tengar? Was Predathos - assuming that the 'fruit' was Predathos - a purposeful creation or one that got out of hand? We knew of two gods that it ate but there was more (Unless Predathos is Edun? It's definitely a theory). The prologue shows how the Gods ended up being forced into shape, how their traumas limited their possibility as they careened towards proto-Exandria. There's a parallel to be made with the Lights' response to escaping Tengar's destruction and several PCs', especially Bells Hells who are able or attempting to rise above their pre-defined traumas and unhealthy coping mechanisms, development and growth - compared to the gods who found themselves stuck in place: doomed to play the role and domain they became shaped into. It also makes me wonder about the Founding, Creation, and the Schism itself; did the Primes start creation in order to keep an essence of home (all the divine trees planted across Exandria could be parallel to the Orchard)? What are each Betrayer's views on mortals? Asmodeus and Lolth clearly have disdain for them, but Asmodeus hurts mortals with a 'jealously kicking down your siblings' legos' vibe whereas Lolth likes to make mortals look as ugly as she already sees them. In cooldowns it was mentioned that had Melora been willing to walk away from Exandria she might've been a Betrayer, so I wonder if all Betrayers are simply mortal-hating or some are just willing to just leave mortals behind? I remain super curious over what the Primordials' side of the story is too; asking Rau'shan and Ka'mort should be considered eventually, given how they have knowledge and experience with sealing Predathos, but how did they see the events leading to the Schism; was there a deal that was broken? Did the Primordials hate mortals? Were they aware of Tengar before the Founding? Did they aid the gods in adjusting to their fixed forms and domains? And did they treat them like children like the gods treat mortals? What in history is lies and what in history is lecture?

Then of course there's the mission itself, which commits to its title in many areas; the Downfall of a civilization and culture within Aeor, the Downfall of (more) Wizard hubris with the Factorum, the Downfall of splinter factions trying to end the war by thinking they're doing what the gods want, and the Downfall of the Primes' infallible reputation as their armies and followers felt abandoned by them, no longer willing to accept the 'I am the parent, you are the child' justification. In the end only the Betrayers succeeded because the city falls and mortals died, but they don't succeed enough because they didn't get the Factorum - and the Primes still cared enough for mortals to try and save them - and thus the Calamity resumes, which I suppose is another Downfall: they were once family and wanted to be family again, but the truce wasn't real. The Betrayers were planning to use the Factorum to win the war (perhaps the two who didn't show had a change of heart?), they wanted to go where the Primes would not because, at that moment, winning and being right was more important than family.

The characters to nobody's surprise are all fantastic; Ashley's Trist (Saranrae) and Noshir's Emissary (Proxy of Erathis) had my heart in a winch for all three episodes, reminding me of it every so often with a big squeeze of emotions. Laura's Emhira (Matron of Ravens), Taliesin's Asha (Wildmother), Abubakar's SILAHA (Corellon) and Nick's Ayden (Dawnfather) all flourished as their characters too, alongside Brennan's variety of NPCs both as mortal gods and Aeorians. I loved Trist's boundless compassion and her constant struggle with having to do something cruel to many for the sake of saving the people she loved, as well as being forced to choose between her mortal family and her infinite ones, I loved how Asha was prickly and cutthroat as Nature can be in desolation but also not without her own regrets, longings and her gradual softening towards the Emissary, I loved how Ayden was an embodiment of the Dawnfather's purest hope and desire to protect people - contained in the body of a teenage boy, I loved how SILAHA loved Aeor's culture and people so much that he couldn't even be angry at the archmages using their gift to build a weapon that could destroy them, I loved that Emhira played cold and detached in an effort to bond with her siblings but found that her connection to them shone greater in the more human moments, and I loved the Emissary's innocence, how with so few words you had an earnest encapsulation of what he was thinking or feeling, and how in death the deep bass became a childlike lightness when meeting the Matron in her domain. The short arcs each of these characters undergo was amazing to see and the combat the more they became divine was insane - like seriously Trist hit 500 damage from a Guiding Bolt! And Ayden's Sunburst killed 3 Dragons and more AT THE SAME TIME! And btw throughout all 3 parts the dialogue has been outstanding, good grief! You could make a small book of all the amazing, thought-provoking, and downright emotional quotes packed in these three episodes. These are true tour de force players, guided by Brennan painting a gallery of scenes as if he was speaking at the Globe Theatre.

I like that the Factorum Malleus is pretty blatantly an allegory to a Nuclear Warhead. With the problem being that dropping a nuke will only beget the sobering conclusion that it can be done again, by others too - much like the Ritual of Seeding: once you make god bleed, everyone will try to cut them. The Factorum should not exist just as Nuclear Weapons should not exist, and that plays a part in the horror of seeing Cassida present it to Trist as if it was a gift to win the war rather than a tool to kill her family, just as Oppenheimer saw the bomb as a means to end all wars until he realised after that it was just a new escalation to warfare.

We also found room for important non-God NPCs, mainly the tragic success and failure of two Aeorian Archmages: Selena Erenves and Cassida Previn. Both display acts of humanity which end tragically; Cassida fell into faith to save her son and was given the chance to try and erase the knowledge of the Factorum so that people could survive, but her good intentions was prey to Asmodeus' cruelty and she was tortured and killed for information that, had he maintained the Arcadia guise, would've been handed over willingly, then on the other side there's Selena, who accepted death and consequences before attempting to activate the Factorum while also successfully spreading the knowledge of its construction to every wizard in Aeor, effectively forcing the Primes into having to destroy the city, only to be embraced by Corellon, forgiven, spared, and left to live with her actions. It's ironic that Cassida was punished for her humility while Selena was spared for her hubris, and the only real reason for their fate is which god they were stood before at that moment. The celestials Garathran and Acastriel were solid obstacles for Brennan to flex his dialogue of embitterment and demonstrate humanity in characters deemed otherworldly but not so much human, Garathran's suicide was very visceral even if them killing themselves in front of the Death Goddess was dumb, and Emhira and Ayden both using themselves to shield a blow from Acastriel was great symbolism to pay off their arc of bonding as siblings. They and the Archmages also acted as a harsh reality for the gods that their 'children' don't want to be coddled anymore, they've grown enough to want to understand, and have at least a voice on the table. On the lighter side of NPCs, Slitch was a lot of fun, I hope he managed to survive - maybe ascending with the Matron since Emhira did willingly relinquish her mortal form rather than it being destroyed in the crash - and still serves the Matron somehow, he's just a funny lil' guy. Brennan playing as children is always gonna be heartwrenching too, but the Everchildren Haylie and Topher were both sweet and also so brave; they have their mother's courage, as well as her divine spark.

For the mortal god NPCs Brennan rightfully didn't have Arcadia (Ioun), Zaharzht (Torog), Umleta (Lolth) or Tishar (Grummsh) outshine the main cast, often guiding the story along or cracking wise with them, but that could not be helped when it came to Milo Cowst. Brennan's Asmodeus is spectacular, absolutely untouchable, and when I say that I mean every time he does something I want to punch his smirking shit-eating face so hard that my hand appears on the other side of his head, because fuck that guy! The continual torment he does not just to mortals but to his own family is just some absolute peak villainy; he conspired with the celestials to entrap Ioun and was willing to sacrifice her, his own sister, to get what he wants. He as Arcadia tried to convince Trist to go after her family, telling her 'I love you' just as Imri did before heading into the fire, knowing KNOWING that he was luring her away from Cassida - one of the few followers she had left - to try and run away with the knowledge of the Factorum, and then donning Trist's husband's shape while he revelled in getting Cassida to allegedly renounce her before eviscerating her at his feet for Trist to find, all this while he had already sent his forces to murder all the refugees in Hawk's Hill - targeting Trist's mortal family especially while this all happens - I hate him so much. As a side note, it's interesting how Brennan and Matt establish two different Major God villains in the world: Brennan's Asmodeus and Matt's Tharizdun. It's not a bad thing to have two godly villains, I shudder to think what would happen if they worked together (at least before the inevitable power struggle), especially since their villainy is in two different departments: Asmodeus is a villain to beings while Tharizdun is more a villain to the Material Plane, you could also relate that to Predathos who uses both of their methods in their own way. Since Tharizdun doesn't get as much in-person appearances atm Brennan's Asmodeus does truly feel like the absolute villain of everything right now, but Matt does have way more time than Brennan does to get his godly villain across.

The three episodes each had a unique flavour to them; Part 1 was very much about establishing the dynamics and setting the scene: Aeor in its militarized dystopian state and the characters as mortal avatars of a pantheon of siblings and lovers, refugee lights of Tengar, in a truce. Part 2 however flaunted the positives, negatives, and defiance of mortality; the Ars Elysia was wild as it was beautiful, SILAHA's monologue with Emhira was engrossing, and the episode excelled in showing the weight of knowing how many innocent, faithful and/or good people there were, paired with the horror of knowing how many lost faith in the Gods there also was, and the lengths both the devout and the undevout would go because of the Calamity's toll on them. And then Part 3 ramps up the tragedy to like 15: the dystopia dystopes again, the destruction destroys, and the disaster disasts, and we reach the boiling point of conflict for an episode that was a mammoth SIX AND A HALF HOURS! The visual of the gods slowly being forced to break from their mortal shells to keep fighting their creations, and each other, to different ends showed the physical and mental toll the mission had done to them, Ayden rapidly aging the more his divinity courses through him and Trist continually trying to hold onto mortality if but for a single second longer, and reaching a point of no return: a choice between sacrificing, at that point, one unknown god to potentially find a way to spare the rest of Aeor - as they had desired to do - or save their entrapped sibling - having already lost so many to Predathos and the Matron having replaced another - but doom all of its people by not stopping Selena's Wish, which she believed would be a victory rather than a damning of her city. Heartbreak after heartbreak, sacrifice after sacrifice, and betrayal after betrayal, but even in the dark and desperation there was still a faint measure of hope; a mother seeking to erase the scrolls to save not just her son but all families in her home, Primes seeking only to destroy a weapon and as the city falls offering acts of compassion where they could, and a Slingshot firing a Sending Stone across the sea like a shooting star so that a mother could protect her children one last time. It is the fact that the hope still existed that makes it a tragedy: it could have been prevented, but because of the way mortals are, and because of the way the gods are, it couldn't end that way. By Part 2 I was intrigued by the fact that the idea of the Divine Gate had started to take shape this early, the Calamity after all would last another century, but it was a greater surprise learning that by the end of Part 3 Aeor wasn't the start of the conversation but the conversation, the last straw. Everything leading up to the Divergence was the Primes attempting to corral their siblings - and the Chained Oblivion - so they could lock themselves away from their second home forever, for the sake what they had built, which was chronologically the final layer to the tragedy. The theme that will complete the trinity of tragedies would be the theme of sacrifice. The Emissary was Erathis' sacrificial lamb, how biblical it was that she sent her 'son' knowing that he would die because she was unable to defy her laws nor bear to watch her lover come to harm, just as biblical is how Pelor sent the best and most hopeful qualities of himself to try and help people, Asha sacrificed her mortal form to embrace Zaharzht even when he hooked and clawed her form away, SILAHA sacrificed saving Aeor like he wanted in order to save Ioun, and then all the Primes resolve to sacrifice their presence in order to protect what was left of what they made. The theme of sacrifice will be compared with the weight of whether it was worth it, but it's not something you can say was justified either way, Downfall doesn't feel like it should be about sides; it was always a Trolley Problem, it is a current fey-absorbing, war-criming, land-sundering elf mage who is trying to make it about sides.

On that note, we must wonder how Bells Hells feel about watching all this. I did like many others think about their reactions throughout; did Imogen think of her mother when watching Trist and Cassida? Did Orym relate to Asha given how stretched thin and pining for Erathis she was? Did Ashton perhaps relate to Trist a little having also felt broken and powerless, kept going by the support of their family? I know we joke about Braius probably having to be silenced for cheering and hollering for Asmodeus but did he really agree with all that? And will Fearne now worry about seeing Asmodeus' true nature, which she should (call them lawyers Dorian!), given how she has unwittingly (and I maintain that it was not said to be a pact, Fearne clearly didn't know it was one and Nanna Mori, who is versed in pacts, called it an 'invitation to trade') bound her soul to him for Dominox's dusty wikipedia page - which is more a redirect to a 2-line section in 'List of Demons Unaccounted for Since the Calamity' - that yielded less info than a Speak with the Dead spell with an Aeorian corpse did. Outside of individual thoughts, I wonder if the Hells collectively related to other events the Gods underwent; the loss and lack of a home, tension caused by one of them thinking they knew better, the constant attack of their sense of morality by others? Ayden's character may invoke an interesting pause - since the Dawnfather has been pretty cold and unkind to the Hells, mainly Team Trauma, and Deanna lately - I wonder if they acknowledge or soften towards this new light (pun not intended but welcomed)? I know he didn't show and wasn't gonna but I also wonder if the Hells kept looking to see if FCG was there, if only to get another glimpse of their fallen friend, or if any of them managed to spot FRIDA - who while we know is canonically present wasn't explicitly mentioned either.

I must admit though I'm in the camp of 'what does this achieve for Ludinus?' because Matt said in the Cooldown that there was parts that proved him right but honestly I don't see it. History knows that the Gods united to drop Aeor, but if anything the footage makes most of the Gods more sympathetic, even to the god-adverse Hells. Showing how they have been just as messed up, traumatized and conflicted as they are as they tried to limit the loss but in the end get put in a crossroads where they choose their family, without discarding or disavowing their creations because of it, isn't gonna endear them to Ludinus' already ill-thought plan. Honestly the only Prime Deity that seemed overly brutal was the Stormlord and like, why would you even try to use Control Weather in a storm made by a Weather God? In interviews Taliesin has mentioned that Ashton has conflicted thoughts on the humanizing of the Gods, though again I don't think it's in the way Ludinus expects - I anticipate that it's more of an 'it was easier to hate them when they were all-powerful, all-arrogant entities that ignored our prayers' kinda thing, having sympathy for someone they had grown accustomed to disliking - so I wonder if other members of the Hells have conflicted feelings and whether it smooths over their aversion or whether their resolve remains the same. I'm not saying they will, but imagine if the Hells decide to be more open to allying more with some of the gods because of this? Seeking the temple in Aeor to converse with them and get on the same page. They all seem pretty respectful towards the Matron already, but perhaps some focus on Corellon - if only to see if he rebuilt the Ars Elysia elsewhere for a post-Ruidus rager XD - and Ioun would be an interesting route; the Knowing Mistress would have answers for those seeking history and information, and the Arch Heart could have answers in curious and divine magics. In addition, imagine if the Everlight gains more followers through the Hells? She helped revive Laudna through Pike so the Hells shouldn't really have any negative feelings towards her, honestly I just think she deserves more followers after seeing all of this. Plus if they could get some of that Divine Prowess (Vitality and Potency at the least) for the final fight we could be in for some blockbuster and creative damage feats! Again, I don't see it as likely, but it's a thought. We could also entertain learning more about the non-god characters that survived; did the blood of the Everchildren continue to this day - there are theories they're tied to the Clay family? What did Selena do post-Aeor? Is Cassida's body still in a protective shield? These are questions fans would want answered that isn't 'was the silver dragon's name Bolo?'.

One has to wonder too if this presentation framed as validation for the atrocities he's committed just shows how divorced from reality Deludinus is. Was the point that 'they're family so they'll choose to save each other over entire cities'? Because many mortals would do the same in their position, the Hells themselves have inferred at times that they would prioritize each other over everyone else. You know what's not a way to avoid that dilemma? Unleashing a god-eating entity the gods even at the height of their power are afraid of! Because of this, Ludinus is painted as someone blind to the fact that it's his machinations that are trying to push the world into an even worse and bloodier Calamity than what he endured as a child, with him weakening the measures put in place to avoid such a thing rather than preventing it. Also he is almost like the Primes in that the people he's allied with secretly seek to remove him from the equation, though I think he's just arrogant enough to believe he can handle them. On the topic of whether Ludinus is Hallis Previn - spared by the Matron after having been healed by the Everlight - I'm not sure, it is possible but I don't think he needs to be Hallis, in fact it would probably be more interesting if he wasn't - since you'd have to jump through a fair amount of hoops to even begin explaining his motives and mindset.

But now we have to ask a question: what do we do now? The mission was to take down Ludinus, and we could still achieve that given how it's 10v1; but Orym isn't in the best of shape health-wise, the Toothy Maw and Dominox fights did cause a lot of the group's slots to be used up and Ludinus only really used 2 spells (Gate and Counterspell) since being encountered, deluded he may be but weak he is not. Laudna's haunting will permanently track him anyway and if he shows this to the world it'll likely emit similar results we and the Hells are having; some faiths may be shaken sure but others may be more supportive of the Gods. Right now there's no real reason not to show this footage. I suppose we could kill him and show the footage anyway - I mean it doesn't need to be shown by him explicitly - before handing it to Vassalheim or the Cobalt Soul's archive, honestly I would live for it if the first thing Bells Hells did after seeing the footage was Orym or Ashton just calmly walking up to Ludinus and decking him in the face, but the encounter in Aeor does feel designed for either Ludinus or the group to escape rather than fight to the death. Between the two, it would favour more for the Hells to stay; Aeor still feels barely scraped for them and Essek, who hasn't given Ashton any tangible answers about Dunamancy that he couldn't have gotten from a book yet - plus wild magic is rife within Aeor heck a beacon could be here, won't have much reason to stick with the Hells if they leave. If they don't use Essek's 'emergency escape' measure he's hinted at there could be something devised to let the group linger here a bit more such as finding the temple, the Ars Elysia, or another special room simply to explore more of Aeor - freeing the Stasis bubbles may not be the smartest or merciful option right now, given that all wizards within know how to make the Factorum. In terms of Ludinus, it'd be good to kill him now from a mission standpoint because he's the head honcho and the Hells need a big, convincing W to kinda make up for Otohan (which was more Matt's fault for rolling so high), but if we eliminate too many Exandrian enemies like Ludinus, providing that Liliana won't 180 again with him gone...which is a possibility, the endgame battle can risk turning into a more ugly Exandria vs Ruidus conflict rather than Life vs Predathos. So perhaps Ludinus should simply escape this time and we'll save the next major enemy to kill for Zathuda or one of the Five Imperium leaders.

Overall, and this won't be the last time we'll have to say it because some people have short memories and impulsive reactions, this is a prime example towards why we need to let CR cook. Yes, C3 has been scattered a bit, but this plot is a worldwide threat, which means you must show that it affects the whole world: this is a convergence of storylines from all 3 campaigns AND spinoffs, everything has its place and while we can be irked about the timing of things what we get is still pretty awesome. Just like the CK intermission, Downfall was an incredibly intricate and well-performed piece of narrative important to the main plot which honestly, as much as I still miss the Hells, could've gone an episode longer. Where we go next becomes further interesting because we have a greater grasp on the lore and characters of the gods, and it opens the door for more lore - such as what Corellon's strand of hair he left behind is - and context to be discovered in later episodes in this and/or later campaigns.

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theswordwizard · 1 year

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ai art: both sides

I think a lot of non-artists are also just really and truly not understanding the big picture. I personally could not care less about that cat image, it was fun, whatever, but you are only producing those kinds of images in the sense that an art director "produces" whatever art they are in charge of. They are telling another artist what to do, even guiding them, but they are not considered the artist themselves. Artists who are creating their own art, who are trying to survive off of their work (many of whom have some form of disability, as art is easy to do while sitting down, etc), who are already in the middle of fighting to not just be tossed aside for a product which doesn't even produce the results it claims, are reacting negatively because they are seeing that in parallel with tabling spaces taken up with people presenting generated art as their own illustration, and game devs/producers using it as a way to explicitly avoid paying people for work, while using something that was trained on their work.

"Why do people react so strongly to things possibly being AI art?" If you want to keep it out of the courts, then public opinion matters all the more. It's about a party line that is easily communicable. Most artists are going to be strongly anti-AI because that's the best way to protect themselves than trying to "open a discussion" about it. It's like nurse scabs. We can argue back and forth all day about the intricacies of scabbing for important jobs, but at the end of the day the party line will generally be "scabbing is bad," "we don't like scabs," "scabbing harms workers."

People are trying to compare people getting mad about it to people getting mad about Duchamp's fountain, which just lets me know about their level of art education, and the level of which they like to talk out their ass.

Duchamp's fountain isn't a major point in art history because of the object itself, its because of the STATEMENT. It is because of the placement of the object IN THE GALLERY. It is the equivalent of a political pamphlet, but summed up in a single object that incites discussion around his political statement. It isn't about the object it is about the CONCEPT. We can literally call anything we want "art" if we dedicate ourselves to reframing it and treating it as such, it's just that most non-artists don't even care. They want the label of being an artist without even putting in an effort to. It's like if I wanted to be called a photographer and I wanted people to treat me as such, and so I just made a portfolio of pictures I took off of Pinterest or even a stock photo site, because I've decided that it's the photos I would WANT to take, and thus I can just act like they have anything to do with me.

There have been arguments over much more "similar" things for a long time too. Since the 90s Richard Prince has been taking people's instagram photos, making slight tweaks to avoid copyright, and then printing them large scale and selling them for tens of thousands of dollars. Technically legal, kinda shitty, as he does it without even contacting the (plenty of times, women) original posters. And that's just with selfies people have taken! But I don't see people mentioning that because a lot of people don't like him, and most people arguing to legitimize AI art to be uncontested don't actually care that much about contemporary art. They have zero real interest in being an artist and talking about art to that degree, to have those discussions in a way that isn't validating themselves. Duchamp's fountain in a gallery incites discussion because galleries are places of art discussion. If someone brought a crate of mechanically woven baskets (that they bought from amazon) to a craft fair, people are going to be rightly pissed off. It's about context.

It's also, in my opinion, a similar discussion to the one that was big on twitter not too long ago, where people argued that artists weren't obligated to be able to draw non-white and/or disabled people. Which, sure, but you probably aren't that good of an artist if you don't know how to. And someone going through a portfolio of exclusively white people might go "huh, only white people. interesting." (I even want to include a gotcha here! If an artist has a portfolio of white people, and they have a section talking about their focus being painting their family tree in like, northern Ireland, it's gonna be a totally different story. why, you ask? because there is an underlying concept other than "wow this artist really only likes white people." this is part of the reading comprehension test that will follow.)

And you know what, I'm going to be honest - and this is likely a result of me not being a photographer - but I'm not even really talking all that much about AI photo edits, outside of the large scale implications of what it means that anyone can create a highly realistic image of anything they want (including political figures, female celebrities, you see my pattern here) with zero effort, on a mass scale we've never seen previously. I think they should only be used with stock, and I even think that photographers who upload their works should get additional payments from it. I actually had used a generator back in 2019 for a project, well before this even became a discussion, and it was even featured in a gallery show for a bit! The overall theme was "fake news," so it was a conceptual piece with fake landscape photography that I made with some beta tool. The point was the tool in combination with the tool's result, not how pretty the fake pictures were. I also want to say it was trained a lot more ethically than a lot of the generators that are so popular today.

And this isn't to say that you have to have a gallery or be so fully integrated in a physical art scene or whatever to be able to make conceptual art or talk about it - honestly I think zines that could actually combine whatever your concept is with having room to talk about it, and they're easy to create both physically and digitally and share. maybe just don't have it be around "look at all these pretty pictures that I made with AI." similar to how people at the art book fair aren't going to be impressed with me being like "look at all these pretty pictures I found on Unsplash."

Sure, AI art is "real art," but it's not illustration or photography or whatever, it's conceptual art. Which means it's main goal is to incite thought and discussion about it. Like the D&D book's release that suddenly turned to being about the AI art they used. So if you want to be an artist using primarily AI, go ahead, no one can stop you, but the topic is culturally significant with the current fight between the entertainment unions to protect their livelihoods, so the discussion will be heated.

#ai art #honestly unimpressed with how transparent a lot of the arguments ive seen here are

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theycalledhimastar · 1 month

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>w< HELLO AGAIN, IF YOU HAVE TIME LEFT

Nikolai , price and ghost with So with likes video games books and all nerdy stuff OWO

Hallo >w<! Of course, I'm a bit of a nerd myself and I totally love the idea of at least Price having like a total nerd of a partner, it feels so cute! I wasn't sure if you meant like a soldier or civilian, so I left it mostly ambiguous <3

☄. *.

Various X Gn!reader

(prolly a little ooc, that's my bad lol. Put my entire soul into Nik's, can you tell?)

Nikolai ☄. *.

I like to think that Nik is a bit of a nerd himself, he feels like the kind of person to dabble in older, retro type video games. Like I feel that this man has a figurine collection, all in the box, mint condition, the works. So when he meets you and realizes that he FINALLY has someone else that he can talk about his interests with, he is over the moon!

He'll just be working on something, maybe some blueprints, maybe he's chatting with John about an upcoming plan. He'll ask you to sit there and tell him everything about that new game you got. Or the newest release from your favorite author. "I just adore the graphics, and the voice acting is amazing!"

"Sounds much better than your last purchase, you were distraught about that one."

"Oh, it's five times better, and this one was free too! I had to like fight fifty other people to try and download it when it released but it was so worth the lag, because-"

He might not always follow what you're saying, especially when you get really into your rambling about game mechanics and such, but he just loves hearing you so happy about something.

If you ever got him any kind of action figure or even something similar, he would actually potentially start crying because like... You got that for him??? You cared that much about him??? that makes him so happy, regardless of the fact that it was a bootleg version of one he already had, it's 100 percent the thought that counts. (Also the official one cost him like a small fortune, if you actually got him one, he would likely worry about your finances.)

He would be the type to cosplay cute little couples cosplays with you. Especially if it's something you both enjoy watching together, he might even be the one to suggest it in that case. Doesn't matter if it's halloween, comic con, or even just because you feel like it. He thinks that the idea is such a fun one, and he's never been able to do it before. Now that he can, there's no way he's gonna throw away the chance.

He probably met you when he was browsing through the game store that you worked at. Off duty, just looking to see if you had anything that he had yet to collect. (Which wasn't likely, but one could hope.) You were restocking the shelves and something caught his eye, although it wasn't the array of colorful plastic figures. It was the cute worker that had an armful of them. None of them were new, but he wasn't about to miss his shot to try and talk to you a little bit.

"Is there any new stock coming in?"

"Pardon me?"

"New stock, new figurines. I like to collect them, but I've already got the ones that the store has on the shelves." He explains awkwardly, thinking about backpedaling and just leaving.

"Oh! No, we don't have anything new, I don't think, sorry." You gave him that customer service smile, trying to be polite of course. Although you appreciate that someone comes here for something other than their child's gaming hobby. "Y'know, it's pretty impressive that you've collected all of those. We have a large selection, I can't imagine how expansive something like that would be."

He does a double take, his heart skips a beat for a moment. You're impressed? By him???

"Yes, I like collecting various pieces, this store is the best place to get them for a reasonable price..." the silence is incredibly uncomfortable, so he breaks it almost immediately. "Do you? Collect, I mean. Even just like cards or something similar?"

"No, my paycheck doesn't really allow for that. Although I have managed to harbor my video game addiction somehow." Your little joke makes him crack a smile and wow this guy is attractive...

"Really now? What do you play?" Maybe he would have to frequent this shop a little more often...

John ☄. *.

John probably dabbled a little bit in video games as a young man, before he enlisted, but he never considered himself the type that was worthy of the "nerd" title. He gladly listens to you though when you talk about the lore for Lord of the Rings for an hour straight. (don't ask him about anything you said the entire time, please...)

He's as supportive as the next guy, but he just does not understand the appeal of all those video games you play. In his mind, so many of them look repetitive. You scream at the screen more often than you seem to be enjoying yourself, even with the cozy games. He admires the dedication to the craft, but for fuck's sake, please step away from the keyboard. You look like you're going to snap it over your knee...

Books, however, he can get on with, same thing with movies. Newer ones, good old classics, doesn't matter. He's always down to sit and watch an entire movie marathon with you snuggled up next to him under a soft blanket. He doesn't mind, even when you start commenting on every little fun fact that you remember from the film documentary you watched a while back. "Did you know that the line right there was improvised by the actor? They thought it matched up with the character better than the original line." "Hm. I'd agree to that, mate knows the character better than the script does."

Takes you to game stores so that you can buy whatever you want with his credit card. What else is he going to be doing with everything he has sitting around from working in the SAS? Don't even worry about it, he wants you to be happy and what better way to show affection than getting you that limited edition signed copy you wanted?

He'd regularly take you out on movie dates, just to have an excuse to sneak kisses in the back row during the fight scenes because nothing important happens during those. Kissing down the side of your neck while the main character fights some minor side character, you're trying to focus on the screen but you can't help leaning into his touch just a little bit.

"John..." "mmh?" "What're you doing?" "Nothing... Just keep watchin' love. Someone's gotta watch and tell me what happened later."

Menace to the rest of the theatre, best hope it's a late viewing or something, because man isn't all that worried about being seen. Is it a crime to show some affection in public? He thinks not. You better get home before he decides that he wants a lil more than affection-

Simon ☄. *.

Honestly, he has no clue what the hell you're on about most of the time. Like he tries his best, but all he hears is utter nonsense. Not to say he doesn't listen, because he does, he straight up memorizes what you say, even if he doesn't know what it is. He won't ever tell you, but if he has extra free time, he tries to research and watch/read whatever it is that you love so much.

Sometimes he finds it intriguing, so much so, that he becomes a bigger fan of it than you are. (Low key what happened when you introduced him to farming games, man is an absolute beast at cozy games now and you're not sure whether you're proud or jealous of how much better his island is than yours in Animal Crossing.

"How did you get apples!? No fair!" "It's called being good at something, love."

Stares at you sideways if you ask him to play a FPS with you, like "I literally play that for a living, why would I do that?".

Lets you cozy up in his lap while you read your latest fantasy novel, nodding along when you make comments about what's happening in the chapter. He's not listening, he's too busy staring at you and thinking about how much he loves you, but cut the guy some slack, you're prettymuch giving him footnotes about a book he doesn't read.

Comments about the realism of the previously mentioned FPS when you play them. It'd be funny if you weren't in the middle of a ranked match while he was ranting.

"What are those muppets doing?" "trying to kill me, Si." "They're doin' a shit job of it. A proper waste of ammo." "Yeah, well, I'll let em know that."

Just about died when he saw you in cosplay of one of your favorite characters, stared at you with those big ass eyes and asked you kindly what the fuck you were wearing.

"It's cosplay, Simon. Like a costume?" "You look..." "Watch yourself, Riley." "Unique. Why again, are you wearing this?" He looked you up and down, holding his tongue surprisingly well. "Because it's fun, Simon. It's a character I really like, and I made most of this myself." You gave a slow turn so that he could see all of the detail and hard work you had put into the clothing. "Not sayin' it doesn't look good, just sayin' you look proper strange in a getup like that."

Bro says this all like he doesn't run around on the field in a skull mask like some edgy middle schooler. He means well, and afterwards, he'll admit that you looked plenty nice and you clearly worked hard on it. But don't just walk up on him like that.

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gffa · 1 year

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Okay, not to defend Gotham War or anything, but I think I'm talking myself into liking what I see it's trying to do. Starting with some great tags on this post:

#i get why people are hating on it i really really do. trust me#but TO BE FAIR... zdarsky has been making it overwhelmingly clear that bruce is SERIOUSLY unwell right now#like it's been nonstop Horrors for him for like. over a dozen issues straight. with no rest or time to process. and he doesn't have alfred#who was a HUGE part of his support system not to mention the finances etc etc#iirc there's even a panel that pretty much outright states that this is more of an issue of control than morality#and that includes the choosing sides thing like the batkids seem more concerned w how bruce is going off the fucking rails than#just the moral aspects#anyway (via @clownprince)

#Batman#Bruce Wayne#REAL#REAL REAL REAL#LIKE. Zur En Arrh is a LITERAL Defense Mechanism going Malignant at this point#Not only that but throughout Zdarsky's run there's been allusions to illnesses and Bruce Not Having A Good Time#Not Having a Good Time and Not Having Time At All to take stock of the sheer What The Fuck-ery that's been going on recently#Because it's been a CONSTANT steam of What The Fuck-ery nonstop#And the Worse is yet to come if one considers the future issues synopsis and the ''I am a Gun'' story by Zdarsky#(At most I'm a little bit concerned over how Zdarsky will try to wrap this up‚ but that's a normal concern especially about Comics)#(Especially Batman Comics considering how often Editorial likes to... do things) (via @kaosvrow)

I agree with so much of the criticism of Gotham War, especially that the arguments for or against Selina's plans are absolute garbage by characters who should be making better arguments and that the other characters are being used as bobbleheads instead of actually giving them their canon personalities--and, okay, I will also point out that in the VERY FIRST ISSUE, Selina's plan gets someone killed and so I'm willing to extend some grace that the story isn't trying to push forward that either way is actually right, I honestly don't think it's about that. I think it's a story about Bruce Wayne's mental state, because Zdarsky's been building this up for awhile now, like the issue immediately prior to Knight Terrors? Shows us Bruce's mental state is ALREADY absolute TRASH right then:

Zur-En-Arrh was already leaking through the seams of his mind, he was already feeling the impending doom of everything he cared about being burned away, that his mind literally couldn't watch his kids being happy and together and getting along without feeling like it was all burning to ash.

And then Knight Terrors happened, which was one more thing digging hard, boney fingers into his trauma, and he handled it pretty well in the moment, but it's such a giant, non-stop pile of stress on a mind that is already damaged to hell and back because of his trauma.

Further, the very first issue of the Gotham War storyline? The very first panel, the one that sets up the stage of what's going to happen, makes a very clear point about how this is about Bruce fracturing:

And then on the very next page, Zur-En-Arrh is literally stalking at the bars of the cage around Bruce's mind.

And then Bruce wakes up and it's immediately more establishing just how worried everyone is about him because so much has been piled on lately:

Bruce hides his missing hand from his family, just like he's trying to hide how scraped thin he is right now, and goes out on patrol.

Where his internal monologue is all about how defensive he feels lately, how he feels like the years are catching up to him, how nothing feels right but this, making it clear that Bruce is hanging onto Batman with a death grip because it's the only thing that feels stable to him right now.

And all of this is in the first TEN PAGES of the first issue, this is our set-up, this is our foundation, this is what we're being given to understand what this story is about. Then Batman #137 happens and it's literally ALL ABOUT BRUCE'S MENTAL SPACE, that Selina's plan is the catalyst, not the driving point behind all of it. Again, I'm in 100% agreement that the Batkids are acting like cardboard cutouts because you will never get me to believe that they didn't notice crime going down or that they wouldn't be pointing out that Gotham's wealthy are just going to start making their security lethal in response or that the Court of Owls won't step in, that this is not a long term solution to giving these people lives beyond crime, or even that a lot of them should be agreeing with Bruce, that they don't get to decide who is an acceptable victim. But the story isn't really about changing up the way comics deal with crime, it's about even the Batkids are framing it in terms of how it's about Bruce. Jason is really the only one who seems onboard with trying out Selina's plan, but even his confrontation with Bruce isn't really about that, it's about all their baggage, their fight immediately becomes about how angry Jason is at the way Bruce has treated him. This fight isn't happening because Jason's a true believer in Selina's plan, it's happening because he's angry at Bruce and Bruce is in a shitty mental place, after all the non-stop horrors AND feeling like he's been betrayed by the kids who he thought understood that people being victims wasn't acceptable, and so he lashes out at Jason.

When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that.

(And I'm actually okay with the way that fight happened because I can buy that, for example, Cass might be holding back against him, she's a stronger fighter than he is, but he's being ruthless because of the state he's in, while she might be feeling more cautious.) When they fight, it's not because they're siding against Bruce, it's because he's become unstable and dangerous. The why of it doesn't matter, it's not about that. Even further, when Bruce fights against his kids, he's wrong and biased, especially in the fight with Dick, who he thinks has a sloppy offensive and doesn't know darkness like he does--to which Dick just immediately cracks him in the face because, yeah, Dick Grayson does know darkness and Bruce isn't as untouchable as he's trying to make himself seem (because being Batman is all he has right now).

I think it's important that it's Dick who defies his expectations here, because this story is building off context of what happened between Selina and Bruce, that they were truly together for awhile, they were about to get married--Selina mentions that it the first issue, it's a major thorn in that conversation when she throws out how she doesn't believe that Gotham needs Batman anymore, it needs her.

She's giving him what he said he always wanted, she's giving him the thing that kept them apart, he should be happy, should they head to the church now? Saying that he won't because he wants to be Batman more than he wants to solve the city's problems.

The failed wedding between them is important in part because of what Selina's saying here, illustrating that both of them are bringing a lot of baggage to the table but also because of what else happened during that storyline, why the context is so important. Because that storyline dovetailed into one about Bane wanting to take over Gotham and he needed Batman unstable and distracted, which was working after Selina left him at the altar, he was a mess. But you know what was saving him at the time, bringing him back from the ledge? THIS KID:

Dick was the one poking and prodding at Bruce with jokes and warmth and care and it was working. He actually got Bruce to cry in front of him, to release some actual genuine emotion!

Dick makes Bruce more emotionally stable, to the point that Bane had to hire KGBeast to shoot Dick in the head just because he was so good at stabilizing Bruce--this is also why Dick's the one who says he'll go talk Bruce down off his moral ledge in Batman #137.

So, it's Dick that has to be the one to defy his expectations in the fight, has to be the one who breaks through Bruce's offense and knocks him down in what feels like a betrayal even when it isn't, because this isn't a story about who's right and who's wrong, it's a story about Bruce isolating himself because he's mentally fractured to hell and back, because he's not trusting his kids, he's still hurt by Selina leaving him, he's still grieving Alfred's death, he's run ragged physically and emotionally and mentally by a series of exhausting horrors piled on him, he's lost his family's fortune, he's not even living in his own family home anymore. (I focus on Dick here as an illustration of tying this back to previous examples of Bruce crumbling and important context that the storyline is drawing on, but Gotham War isn't really specifically about Bruce and Dick's relationship, but more about Bruce's relationship with all his kids, like Tim and Jason and Damian all have equally important moments. But it's a very direct example of how his children are a huge part of his support system and draw him back from the ledge of being just Batman and back into being Bruce.) That's why the issue ends with Bruce getting the papers telling him that the bank sold Wayne Manor to Vandal Savage, because it's one more thing that's stripping Bruce Wayne away from the character, and leaving him with nothing but Batman and Zur-En-Arrh. Gotham War isn't actually a story about a war for Gotham. It's a story about Bruce Wayne going out of control and everything is written to serve that. The characters' fights are catalyzed by Selina's plans, but they quickly become about Bruce's relationship with the characters. The narrative makes heavy-handed points about Bruce feeling like he's losing his grip, that he's hallucinating and talking to himself, that he is extremely mentally unwell right now. Everything Zdarsky's been writing (like especially the "I Am a Gun" storyline right before Knight Terrors) has been building up to fracturing Bruce Wayne.

#lumi.txt #dc #batfam #bruce wayne #dick grayson #selina kyle #gotham war #long post #feral gremlin length post

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cybertron-after-dark · 5 months

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You should write beast wars, can I have some silly predacon headcanons?

I should absolutely write beast wars. Silly Predacon headcanons coming up

-Megatron talks battle strategy with his rubber duck all the time. He considers it his most trusted advisor because it's never said anything stupid and never tried to kill him. Honestly, he's tempted to think of the little dude as his only real friend.

-Speaking of Megatron, the man is a WHORE for a good bath bomb. Lush addiction, 100%. He has a whole hidden stock of bath bombs, bath salts, scented oils, candles, decorative soaps, scented metal polish and flower petals specifically for spoiling himself when he feels like hes completely surrounded by idiots. Which is often. Has he ever tried to eat one of the decorative soaps that look like baked goods? It doesn't count if it's the t rex hand.

-the reason skorponok occasionally reverts into caveman speak for some episodes is the writers couldn't figure out what to do with him he knows talking like that pisses off tarantulas and he thinks his annoyance is funny even though literally nobody else is amused by the bit.

-skorponok actually kind of misses dinobot because he made his job a lot easier. Constantly pitching ideas, suggesting battle strategies, pointing out flaws in plans. He was useful, even if he seemed to hate skorponok. He doesn't really know how to be a good second in command anymore because a crucial part of the dynamic is missing and he just can't adapt.

-waspinator is perfectly capable of speaking in normal grammar and not in the third person but he's been doing it since he joined in with Megatron and at this point he thinks he's in too deep to knock it off. He thinks it makes him sound cuter because it's actually an evolution of internet uwu speak. Memes get weirdly translated from earth to Cybertron and back.

-waspinator is actually really good at baking but he'll get blasted to bits a thousand times over before he lets anyone other than terrorsaur know because none of his other coworkers deserve to try his cupcakes (and also because he doesn't want to get "promoted" to kitchen slave). Dinobot knew, but he didn't snitch. Wasp never found out that Dinobot would occasionally snag a brownie, he always thought he just counted wrong.

-Terrorsaur is not above attempting to seduce a maximal but all his flirting attempts go horribly awry. If they don't outright reject him they just have no idea what he's getting at bc Predacon flirting is usually a lot different than maximal flirting so everyone thinks he's just kind of being a dick like usual. Dinobot knows exactly what is happening and ranges anywhere from amused to disgusted by the cross-faction fling attempts. The flying weasel clearly has no principles.

-Every couple weeks or so wasp and terrorsaur will get together to watch terrible movies over a bottle of highgrade and it always devolves into bitching about megatron. They tried inviting tarantulas a few times but he'd always make things Weird by bringing in slashers with really good special effects and proceeding to gush about how tasty the gore looks.

-Tarantulas knows what just about every living species in the known galaxy tastes like, organic, mechanical and everything in between. If it's made contact with Cybertron, chances are he's he's tried their flesh (or lack thereof). If it's at all possible, he wants to find out enough about the Vok to figure out how to capture, kill and eat one.

-Tarantulas also thinks rampage is a total poser when it comes to cannibalism. He doesn't even look like he's having fun with it. Barely any torturing or teasing beforehand, only dramatic monologues about fear and anguish. Bah! Amateur...

-Blackarachnia has a trash tv addiction. She doesn't know WHY the Darksyde's datatrax has every season of Keeping Up with the Kardashians and like 30 TLC produced shows, but she refuses to stop watching them. Tarantulas fucking hates it. She does not care and if he complains she will turn the volume higher.

-Blackarachnia has incredibly mixed feelings on the story Cinderella. On the one hand, it gives her a degree of hope. A girl reduced to a work slave for terrible people that gets to escape and live it up with a guy that lives her? Great conceptually, but she only got to get out of it because she was a good person and nice to everyone. Blackarachnia? Not quite so disgustingly sweet. She's a bad girl through and through. And evidently bad people don't get to escape bad situations. Oh well. She can always try to fake it til she makes it.

-Inferno has always secretly hoped that when the war is over, his Queen Megatron will settle down with him and repopulate the colony together. He has wildly saccharine domestic daydreams of being with his giant beloved lizardy queen and their 3000+ kids. He has accidentally let this slip around Megatron once, who proceeded to pointedly ignore what he just said.

-Terrorsaur and Blackarachnia got Inferno to watch Drag Race but upon hearing the contestants being called queen, he took it a bit too literally and interpreted the show as the sad, underwhelming way human queens settle disputes between their colonies instead of just fighting the proper way. Lame.

-Quickstrike is so so very sad he can't play video games. He wants to play GTA and cause excessive and wanton death and destruction, but his fucked up hands cannot hold the controller. He forsakes Primus for building him the way he did. He keeps trying to get tarantulas to make him a usable controller but he gets brushed off every time.

-Quickstrike has attempted to ride inferno in his beast mode into battle. It did not end well but for about a solid 18 seconds it looked metal as hell.

-Rampage actually really likes depth charge and wants to be friends sooooo bad but he doesn't know how to handle that in a healthy way so he keeps trying to get his attention by playing up the cannibalism thing and hoping they fight again. Honestly he just kind of likes depth charge holding him, even if it's in a chokehold.

-After losing transmutate, Rampage projected a lot of his grief onto waspinator, which lead to a very strange period of time on the ship where rampage would get very cuddly and protective of wasp, who was incredibly terrified of what would happen if he shoved the crab off. Usually accompanied by Rampage being Incredibly Sad.

-every month the preds have a game night. Usually a board game or card game with Megatron's house rules. Said house rules are specifically designed to make a fight break out for his amusement. These game nights typically end with at least three people in the r-chamber and somebody missing at least one limb.

#maccadam #transformers #beast wars #megatron #skorponok #terrorsaur #tarantulas #waspinator #blackarachnia #inferno #quickstrike #rampage #dinobot #honorary dinobot tag bc he didnt get his own headcanons but he did show up in the others #ALMOST LIKE THE TEAM STILL FEELS HIS ABSENCE AND CANNOT FULLY FUNCTION AS A UNIT WITHOUT HIM HAHAHA AINT THAT CRAZY #god we shouldve seen more of his dynamic woth the other preds when he was on their side

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lakesbian · 9 months

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i like the early worm arcs so much because it's so interesting to see what the undersider group dynamics are like before they entirely reorganize around taylor. and by interesting i mean they make me explode and die (positive).

i think what it boils down to is that the undersiders sans taylor aren't really friends, but they are each others sole replacements for every single support system and human connection they're missing, and that's actually Significantly More Intense. they do all vary in why they're on the team (that is, in why they all have nowhere else they can go), which, alongside their general personalities, impacts the precise mechanisms of how they relate to each other. undersider relationship charts are very complicated diagrams.

brian is on the team because he needs the money to keep his sister from being entirely fucked over by the system (i.e. jailed or kept with abusive parents or in shitty foster care), and i'm sure there's an extent to which it makes his situation as a 17yo with terrible parents far more livable as well. it was pointed out on here earlier this month or the last that we don't really know anything about what his civilian identity is like--we see him interacting with taylor out of mask, but we don't know if he has, like...friends? or family he keeps in contact with outside aisha? or if he does anything with his free time other than trying to prove himself to be a capable guardian for aisha or improve his odds as grue?

and i think the reason we don't have answers to these questions are that brian (civilian) is a mask, too. grue isn't the side identity to an otherwise rich and detailed life--the brian we see speaking to the foster worker in the apartment is playing a barren role. he is 17 and concerned about getting new placemats for his apartment and sorting out school districts for the child he wants to adopt. that's not his normal, unfiltered self, that's a role he's completely stepped into because he'll see himself as a failure on multiple levels if he doesn't fill it. there's no way he has casual friendships or anything along those lines as civilian brian, because civilian brian is plastic. civilian brian can't be a real person, because people have broad ranges of emotions and experiences, and civilian brian is just supposed to be the platonic ideal of a stalwart and responsible family man. there's a reason why the foster worker observes that his apartment is devoid of personality. civilian brian laborn's life is a motherfucking ikea stock home.

i think the most genuine brian ever gets is when he's in the liminal space of the loft--not brian (goodboy civilian mode), but not grue, either. it's only when he's removed from both the obligations of the act he has to play as a civilian & the violent professionalism he takes up as grue that he's able to be a Kind Of Normal Boy. it's where he actually has work-friends to banter with, it's where he plays video games, it's where he gets to go on his dorky rants about martial arts. aisha & the other pressing concerns of everyday life aren't there, so he doesn't have to be Responsible about them--but he's technically still at work, which he attends for the purpose of helping aisha, so he can escape from beating on himself over letting his roles drop. he still intermittently engages in the Brian Behavior of being a little control freak, but also, he playfights with alec :)

which is an extremely compelling dynamic to me...he's not even particularly Close with any of the undersiders, but he's known them for like a year and a half, and they're a space where he can be far more genuinely relaxed than he can anywhere else. which is what makes it so incredibly sad to witness when aisha joins the team & now brian's entire life is about trying to fill that ideal of masculinity he's cramming himself into under the misguided hope that it will protect/care for her. he's breaking under the stress of trying to be a good leader, and he can't admit that the stress of the role is entirely self-imposed. he can't set it down because he won't let himself set it down. it leads him to become condescending and unkind to alec--someone he used to play video games and playfight and banter with--in the same way he is to aisha :( brian laborn my sad boy in torture chamber of his own making. i will write about lisa alec and rachel's situations in other posts to keep this one from being too long

#wormtime 2 #wormtime 2 arc 4 #worm spoilers #wormblr #parahumans #think about brian laborb with me.

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kfcdoubledown · 2 months

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I bought an 8bitdo Retro mechanical keyboard!

(Picture not mine, source from PC World.)

I wanted a plastic keyboard, I really do not actually use the knob on a Keychron board I have, it still comes in a scooped keycap profile, and it has a companion numpad with a calculator built in. Win/win/win!

This keyboard comes in four designs (not colorways, full designs) themed after the NES, the Famicom, the IBM Model M, and the Commodore 64 keyboard. The NES keycaps have multiple different fonts on them, the Famicom keycaps have Japanese sublegends, the Model M keycaps have a mock stepped Caps Lock key, and the Commodore 64 keycaps are an apparently off-the-shelf SA set from one of many, many, many keycap companies floating around China (I recognize their font and profile shape from Akko ASA keycaps and numerous other scooped profile keycap sets you can have cheaply off of Aliexpress and Amazon. Do check those out, genuinely, you'd struggle to find a bad scooped keycap set these days and I love scooped profiles over Cherry and OEM.)

The build quality of the actual keyboard itself is good, feels like a very similar plastic blend to what 8bitdo uses for its controllers like their Pro 2. Stabilizers are smooth and don't rattle, the legends on the keycaps are reasonably sharp and in NES-appropriate font, the keycaps themselves are MDA profile (I would prefer SA, but beggars can't be choosers) and are somewhat thin but still good quality, dye-sublimated PBT, no warp on the spacebar. Arrow keys are a separate color from the two tones that make up the main keycap set and made to resemble a d-pad. The keyboard itself is somewhat light, but my perception is skewed from using a metal keyboard for a long time, and this is after all a plastic shell, top-mounted keyboard. Even so I think I'll probably end up cracking open the keyboard and putting in some liquid silicone as noise-dampening and additional weight.

Two knobs control both wireless functionality and computer software volume, the wireless knob is heavy with only three options while the volume one is light with many individual steps. The volume knob can be somewhat unresponsive on individual steps. Bluetooth is very responsive and wants to pair with my computer the moment it's flicked over to, and 2.4ghz wireless comes with a receiver that slots into the back of the keyboard magnetically for storage. A power light on the right of the keyboard mimics the NES power light and pulses while charging, is steady while using wireless or when fully charged and connected over USB.

The underlying PCB is south-facing hotswap sockets (who the hell cares their orientation, this only matters for lighting, which this keyboard doesn't have). By default the keyboard comes with Kailh box whites, a very light clicky switch. I yanked them out immediately and put Boba U4T tactiles in because they're the king of all switches. They thunk nicely in this chassis, the Kailh whites weren't slouches either, they did pick a good stock choice for switch without resorting to Gateron or Outemu blue horseshit.

The NES version of the keyboard came with a two-button macro pad that hooks over TRRS cable (you recognize it as a 3.5mm jack or headphone cable) to one of four ports on the top-right of the keyboard. These are essentially just two keyboard switches with giant keycaps on a separate board and the buttons are populated by Gateron greens. The switches are nowhere close to heavy enough to approximate a button, and I gave them Kailh box navies. Still not enough, but better.

These keyboards also come wiiiiiith a companion number pad!

(Picture credit the 8bitdo store.)

While I don't actually have this one in hand just yet I do have it on order. It looks like it'll be about the same build quality as the main keyboard, and it caught my eye for four reasons and ended up making me purchase the full set as a result:

The numpad has a built in calculator.

Same aesthetic choices as the main keyboard (NES, Famicom, IBM Model M, Commodore 64)

Magnetically attaches to the right side of the keyboard to transform it into a more era appropriate full-size.

Far and away the cheapest wireless mechanical numpad with calculator on the market, sitting at $45.

An important note though is that the Famicom and NES keypads don't attach to their respective keyboards, simply because their respective keyboards don't have magnets inside the sides of the chassis to allow for it. I have some cheap button magnets laying around that I'll use for this purpose and probably see if they're strong enough to be placed on the inside of the board and allow for the numpad to connect to it. I also imagine there's going to be a repop or v2 of this keyboard in the future that has this done already, seeing as the Commodore 64 version of the board and I believe the Model M version of the board already have that.

I'll reblog this and give some actual definitive thoughts on the numpad once it's in my hands.

As far as the board itself is concerned, I quite like it. The keycap profile is agreeable, the nostalgia pandering targeted me with laser precision, the board sounds quite good acoustically (especially for being a top-mount keyboard!) and it has a volume knob I'll see if I can reprogram some day. While I normally hate TKL layouts, I'm putting up with it because it will eventually be a fullsize with the numpad. Worth $150 total? Don't know, can't answer that for you, it's worth it to me but I very specifically wanted a keyboard themed after an old Nintendo console with no setup required and no chasing down or commissioning GMK keycap sets. I also wanted a calculator numpad.

#look at my flop reviews boy #mechanical keyboards #keyboards #mechanical keyboard #keyboard #tech #gadgets #computers #nintendo #NES #nintendo entertainment system

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t-hal-mothman · 6 months

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CW: blood

Lately I wanted to work, but I started drawing… and BOOM, absolutely at random Rick and Morty in Centaur AU came up…

by this point, I have already come up with a pretty extensive plot around this, so I intend to develop this dimension a little in my head :D

I'm also absolutely thrilled with the dumb pink backpack, so I plan to write a fanfiction-oneshot for this art in the near future, just to make sure that enough attention is paid to the pink backpack.

number of times I fixed this sketch should have been seen... I break and change the poses/hands etc. of the characters

the idea WAS BORN QUICKLY, it was just so instant, "I need centaurs Rick and Morty, who are running from something by jumping into a portal!!!" and I sat down to sketch it quickly, so it's kind of just spontaneous :D

I would also like to show some work with the designs that I started picking at

when I was starting, I couldn't figure out what I wanted to see, and to my surprise, I stumbled more at Rick than at Morty coat, although I've always been bad at bay and buckskin horses, I'm better at dealing with palomino or gray coats, and here it turned out the other way around

But I'm glad that it turned out to be very pleasant and good! So have a look:

As a result, I got 2 versions of Rick - old and youth, a kind of azure handsome alien appearance, just for fun

I really think our looks kind of reflect our essence, don't ya'll think?

When we do not meet on earth such a coat (or hair colour) as Rick's, except perhaps shades of more gray-purple like grulla or blue dun, you will not find such a bright blue and azure and I just found it INCREDIBLY AMAZING in the sense that through his coat you can show a little more in terms of his "strangeness" than when he's just a human being

and about Morty's coat - there's everything much simpler, his usual hair colour in general easily falls on the ordinary most "common" horse coat, let's say so BUT I still didn't want to make him simple chestnut or bay, it was just for me it was meh

I wanted something closer to the chestnut dun coat, and it was quite difficult to make it so that it still fit Morty, but I also didn't want something overly ordinary >:( I wanted to add beige brown and a little crimson, just so that his coat didn't look like dirt - I wanted to show that he was actually a pretty cute young stallion with a cute look (if he would have cared about it a little more...)

I also really wanted to show the difference through their legs and hooves by adding dark stockings and hooves to Rick (Rick's stockings turn noticeably gray with age, as well as a bright dorsal stripe); and light hooves and white socks for Morty!

although I did have thoughts of adding a little more to the bodies, for example a little more ammunition, like boots or bandages to protect their legs

but I thought that Morty wouldn't really think about it in the long run - after all, it's pretty safe on Earth, and as for space it's possible that he doesn't really care, and Rick just doesn't give a heck about it as if losing an arm or a leg or getting a couple of open wounds - is a trivial matter

I've also always been delighted with Rick's cybernetics, so at some point I just took AND BIT OFF RICK'S LEG on art, because who knows what he faced protecting Morty and stuff they originally went for where they went, so I just added a couple of holes where you can see his gold-teal mechanics

#cw blood #my art #my talk #I REALLY talk a lot...#rick and morty #rick sanchez #morty smith #centaur au #centaur art #centaur #digital art #character design

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lucraven · 3 months

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how would Laios and crew cook the scarabs

OOOOOOO I LOVE THIS They're classified as insectoids which makes me believe that they're closer to a monster than demihuman despite their faces? Mastery over insects works on them too (which means they're similar to insects BUTTTT they're also sentient.... the party wouldn't know this though). I feel like Marcille and Chilchuck would be very hesitant to eat it. Laios obviously not at all, and Senshi may have some more knowledge about it.

I wish we could see the underside of them!!! I would assume that the face is the shell (the eyes/nose/mouth may be fake? no idea but I'll get to this later) and the underside is softer. Some of the limbs are more human-like than others, but we can assume none of them are actual human flesh. It's more mimickry like the barometz tasting like crab (not actually a sheep).

There must be some sort of flesh on the inside though, so I think you could eat the limbs. If they're like insects then the outside might be like a shell, but they look kind of fleshy. Basically, you can eat them but some may have to be prepared differently. They might taste different too!! Not sure what though lmao.

As for the shell/face, when you use 'devour' in game, it says that the shell was too crunchy for your liking. They also can't be skinned. I originally thought that they could be used as a plate/bowl as it's mentioned they are very sturdy, but now I'm unsure. Maybe you could harden them after removing the innards? Or they could just be eaten with the crunch.

Innards time!! They spray acid from the holes in the shell!! Definitely remove any toxic organs, specifically anything connecting to this point. I don't know what specific organs they might have, but if you cook them enough they might be edible? It would be safer to eat the parts closer to the limbs just in case though. Also! To test if something is acidic you could open an organ and place it upon something to see what it does?

Okay now for the actual preperation except I don't cook: Prep: Laios would suggest to eat it obviously, and the typical shenanigans ensue. Senshi would first take off the limbs just in case the acid spreads out when taking it apart (defense mechanism??) while it is flipped shell-side down (again, avoid the acid). Then open the inside (skinning doesn't work so I'm unsure of the details) and inspect the organs. While Senshi takes them out, Laios and Marcille check out the limbs. Marcille takes care of the less humanoid limbs, cracking them open. Laios cuts away the meat from the bone(?) to make it look less human. He gives Senshi the hands. Chilchuck meanwhile is with Senshi sorting organs. He suggests cutting open organs to see if they are acidic. By now the innards are stripped except for the ones connected to the "mouth/nose/eyes", aka where the acid comes out from. Senshi thoroughly cleans these while Chilchuck tests the organs.

Cooking: Senshi starts the meal by preparing a stock for soup. Previous vegetables/spices etc. For the meat he uses the hands that Laios gave him for flavor (think of adding bones to stocks). As that develops, He salts the organs deemed safe to add to the soup when some time has passed (do people do this?? idk). I think the insect-like limbs would be boiled like shellfish in water, or added to the soup to cook. Meanwhile, Laios works on grilling the human-like limbs after salting them. A few are just salted/peppered, and some have sauce on them. They're made like skewers with some previous veggies. Finally, the shell is delt with. These are thoroughly cooked in a way that would soften them a little, but they're still crunchy. It's broken in a bunch of pieces, removing the ones close to the acid sacks. These will be used as bread to dip into the soup!! The acid itself can be used as a weapon/tool/ or can be sold. The gang doesn't have anything to contain it except for the organ, so they might pass on keeping it.

Eating: I hear insects taste kind of like shrimp? I think the organs/shell pieces closer to the facial features have a slightly bitter taste to them. The human-like limbs are less shrimpy and have a texture closer to muscle while the insect-like ones are closer to crab/lobster. They don't eat the hands, but I'm sure they're very flavorful.

#sorry for all the words omfg #I actually love this so much what #dungeon meshi #delicious in dungeon #fear and hunger #funger #don't come for me Ive never eaten insects or human flesh #I also don't know how to cook at my grown ass age #I would not eat it ngl #I love the scarabs theyre so silly #text #not art #I would love to see art or fanfic of this idea though you are a genius #I typed this in one go so idk how accurate this is

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catgirltoofies · 6 months

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dragon's dogma's dlc isn't even remotely what people claim it to be

what people say: "you need to pay for fast travel! you need to pay for extra lives! you need to pay for character editing!"

the actual truth:

- you can pay for one mark location. this is an undeniable advantage, especially considering how early you're given it. the portcrystal is overpowered and i think it's the only dlc here that actually really matters

- you can pay for up to five extra lives. you can't buy more than the five dlcs, and getting wakestones is extremely, extremely easy if you want to bother to grind them. especially from the start of the game; every pawn starts with a quest where you get ⅓ of a wakestone for having them in your party for a day. if you really wanted to grind out wakestones, you could hire two fresh pawns, sit on a bench until a day passes, then dismiss the pawns and hire another pair. i don't even know why this dlc exists it's not even valuable and you can just. lose it. they're consumable. it shouldn't exist but not because it's an evil mtx, it's just weird.

- you don't need to pay to edit your character or your pawn. you can buy the art of metamorphosis for 500 RC, which you can get easily by simply playing online and having people hire your pawn, which they will do as long as you're online. I've been playing about 20 hours and have over 2000 RC, enough to buy 4 arts of metamorphosis. and even if you DON'T play online, for whatever reason, you can get RC as rare drops from enemies, so given time you can just build up a stock. in addition, following in the assumption it'll be like the first game, you'll be able to edit your arisen and pawn after entering ng+, which is probably a lot more investment than just fighting some cyclopes for RC.

- to discuss the other dlcs. you can buy RC directly, but there's not much reason to so far unless you want glasses or to change your pawn inclination.

- you can buy a makeshift gaol key, which will break you out of jail once, or you can buy one from a number of traveling merchants for like 1000 gold, which is a pittance

- you can buy the pawn inclination change items. these are more expensive to get with RC, clocking in at 2k RC, but inclination isn't really very necessary to change, and certainly not often.

- you can buy a pack of 3 harpysnare smoke beacons, which... do something? they let you grab onto harpies in certain areas and ride them to other places, but i don't know how useful this actually is in general, and I'm pretty sure you can just buy them from some general stores for a couple thousand gold

- you can buy a heartfelt pendant, which is a gift item that makes someone like you. the only relevance to this mechanic, as far as i know, is getting merchants to give you a discount, and for rp to have your beloved related to story events (assuming it follows the same as the first game). in the case of merchants, you can just look at their favorite items and give them Three (3) of their liked items and they'll be at max affection. in the case of your rp beloved, well, you should already care about them. you should get them what they love instead of just buying a pretty necklace. also if you want to search for every seeker token you can get the arisen's bond that way to max anyone's affection.

- you can buy a mod that changes music and sounds to be from DD1. to each their own

- you can buy a special camping kit. it's lighter than the normal kit, so it's helpful, but you can also just buy it for 6000 gold from some traders without needing to buy it.

- you can't even buy ferrystones. you don't even pay for fast travel you pay for a portable fast travel point, which still costs a very expensive ferrystone to teleport to.

- if you see the steam reviews, they're mixed. if you change the filter to only see reviews from people who have played the game for at least nine hours, that changes to mostly positive. the significant majority of negative reviews were made before even playing the game for NINE HOURS.

- there are other valid complaints about this game, this post is exclusively addressing the dlc. i will continue to defend this game because it's really really fun and I'm really annoyed at the review bombs by people who have no idea what they're talking about and are just parroting something they heard on twitter without actually knowing anything about what they're saying

- p.s. i want to be clear; i don't think microtransactions are a good thing and i genuinely believe none of these dlcs should be available as dlc, for various reasons (mostly detailed above). but the issues i have with them are generally the opposite of the issues people cry about, and i want to make clear that while there are problems with them and plenty of reasons NOT to buy the dlcs, the oft-cried reasons are misleading at best and outright false at worst

#dragon's dogma 2

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latibulater · 3 months

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Venture Bros Rewatch notes: Home Insecurity

Fucking hilarious that Underland is designed like a disney princess villain lair but actually with all the executions.

tiger balm....tiger....bomb.....makes me laugh EVERY time honestly all i can think of when i hear tiger balm

Knowing that there are many kids with amputations in Underland from the child mines, like that is crazy the child amputee rate must be one of the highest in the world. i get that its played for jokes and it was funny, but if we are gonna be serious about all of it this counts and is like. mind boggling

whoo! use of the r slur! the way ive had to fucking campaign in my family to get them to stop using it and then i turn on this show and theyre saying it like every other episode makes me want to hunt down hammer and publick

okay but thats a waste of tiger.....

ik we dont learn this till later but i have questions about underland apparently being located right next to michigan.....PLEASSSSE LET ME SEE THE WORLD MAP IK ITS SO FUCKED UP

Brock's blue shirt is so beautiful on him...wish I could unbutton it off him. Dean and his hover boots, honestly those boots should make a come back

Stupid ass racist costume!

I literally choked on my spit and coughed at the same time Doc coughed at Brock's fumes

Okay I think Rusty is just doing a bit with the whole "big man think you can take me on? i knew this day would come" like seriously, the twins are so fucking silly but rusty is so beyond sarcastic he really is just projecting his own issues onto his kids all the time.

HELPER!!!!!!!!! Him going to take care of Rusty and so comically seeing NEW ROBOT blueprints and packing up a knapsack including a pic of child Rusty and Helper, oh my god it is just the sweetest robot and makes me wonder if there is a similar situation like with the red Helper happening with the whole....human brain.

the henchmen fighting and getting distracted till doc wakes up an slides into the panic room LOL

also i do love the underland footmen look as someone who loved tmnt it looks very foot clan

hank and dean may be a little over the top but they did take care of the scorpion and tarantula pretty handily.

Dean and Hank in the panic room and not even knowing when it was built....like seriously how many memories are they missing, consider they repeated being 15/16 over 10 times

Hank choking out Rusty is SO FUNNY Hank is just trying to help!!!!!!! just send them both to a first aid class you will be better for it doc

Rusty lactating!!!!! Milky king!!!!!

The animation and storyboard in this episode flips between dynamic and very getty stock images which is pretty funny

Dr. Girlfriend getting insulted and telling the monarch to use the phone himself...him trying to get an outside line....god i feel so old.

bigfoot baby!

"GUARDO" you fucking idiot Rusty. "I fell asleep" Okay but have we considered the fact that you just don't have a head for mechanics and need to switch science majors

THE SNACKS FOR COMPANY. And Monarch apparently seeing the Baron for the first time since college and them trying to kill each other at first in a big dick measuring contest.

"how do you even mix it up! augh its like having my dad do the shopping!" ok i need more orphan jokes from the monarch stat seasons 1 he kills with this

its funny to see bigfoot and brock and steve summers meeting is so funny...considering that they all fuck when brock stays with them after he leaves the osi

"do you know how long 6 million bucks takes to pay back on a government salary!" fucking screammmmmmmmmmm

"lab partnership is a sacred trust" SSTILLLLLLLL want to know about how this happened

The Monarch fucking around struggling with his old ass computer makes me SOOOO nostalgic i remember we had a similar computer in the kitchen growing up.

Dean reading Helper perfectly and Doc going through a slumdog millionaire flashback before emotionally manipulating his mommy robot

One henchman became a hench after the plant closed and he only had a GED. one had a crack addiction and got off it. one (gary) got kidnapped) underland minions are drafted and then executed at 38.

"SASBURGER"!!! GOD "Sasquatch gave me a new life" Brock trying not be grossed out but like trying not to let it show (but only because he thinks Sasquatch is a woman at that point and he's bigoted but pro-str8 people always.

"Go team Helper!"

Jesus I really SSOOOOOOOOOOO would fucking fucking fucking kill for an expose episode on how henching works in the world as a job

all the army men are idiots very appropriate. brock getting SOOO weirded out. It is homophobic but also I choose to believe Brock has never seen a cock bigger than his own and got so horny and emasculated he got wigged out.

First mention of the Guild in this episode about filing paperwork on collaboration which i think is funny

Helper not letting Rusty out is SO funny me and my siblings would do that all the time. Truly, there is a lot to be said about Rusty and Helper's relationship. No other relationship has been as long for Rusty as Helper, who has been there sinvce he was a young boy and has always looked out for him.

Overall this episode is really fun and enjoyable, it does very well with having very silly concepts being treated seriously and then serious situations being treated clownishly. always love steve and sasquatch, altho the vbros design is so............he has a face only steve summers loves apparently. and the conversation on paying back the osi for the bionics was good worldbuilding/commentary on real world disability issues of how disability devices are often very expensive and only work at the behest of whoever made the device. my own cousin had a cochlear implant that worked very well but then he was told it was being recalled and he could get new one and now its works awfully for him

would rate this one like a 7/10. very solid but nothing too rib crackling funny or show pausing overly interesting

#home insecurity #the venture bros #brock samson #rusty venture #hank venture #dean venture #the monarch #sasquatch #episode analysis #latibulater

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