#i have my own other dude but instead of fighting me in a robot it makes me draw postal dudes in random situations

[qwuilty]

Bro I found this book in a dumpster and what fucking bootleg characters are these 💀

[panlight]

I feel there's just so much wrong with the entire imprinting concept in the Twilight books.

The concept of never being able to say no or essentially make your own decisions because of the girl/whoever you imprinted almost sounds like a romanticized version of domestic abuse. Google describes it as "pattern incidents of controlling, coercive, degrading and violent behavior, etc". Now the threatening wouldn't be necessary because they literally don't have any choice or say in the matter. The entire idea of obsession and doing whatever pleases the person I've imprinted on sounds degrading, that you're now longer you're own person capable of making you're own choices. I find this ironic because SM literally tells us the underlying theme of these books is about choice. None of the wolves have a choice. They didn't choose to be wolves (shape shifters), they don't choose who they imprint on and they definitely don't choose what they get to do after imprinting. Did SM find it all romantic? Because everytime it's mentioned it just gives me the ick. The wolves are my favorite characters in the books and seeing them being forced into all this is so annoyinggg! They deserved SO much better.

Also, it shocks me that after all the success SM gained from tts that she didn't donate a penny to the Quileute tribe. It's super disappointing.

Oh, yeah, with you 100% on imprinting. I've never found it romantic. It reads as straight-up horror to me. Who even ARE you if you don't have free will? If you have to be whatever someone else needs? And beyond that it just feels fake and empty to me. Sam loved Leah. When he had a choice, he chose Leah. Magic overruled him and picked Emily instead. Why am I supposed to think his love for Emily is the 'real' love?

I get that the fantasy is supposed to be from the imprintee's POV, the fantasy of having this guy who is 100000% devoted to you, will never leave you, you never have to worry about cheating, he is there for you and will do whatever you want or need him to do. But that's not . . . that's not like a person who loves you, that's like a robot programmed to fulfill your wishes. For me, there's no real love without choice. This dude isn't choosing to show up for you every day if he has no other choice. It feels fake and arbitrary. Like a love potion, like Cupid's arrow.

And hell yes, the lack of choice with the wolves is a pattern and a really unsettling one given that she chose to make these characters Indigenous and tie their wolf-ness to that identity. They don't get to choose to be wolves, they don't get to choose who they love, within those relationships they have no agency and have to be/do whatever their partner wants, and then there's also the Alpha Order! They can literally be forced to obey, no choice there either. Again, this is straight up horror stuff. Loss of free will, loss of identity. That whole passage when Jacob imprints on Nessie is the stuff of nightmares to me. Everything that Jacob cared about, everything that made him who he was, is cut away and he is bound to a half-vampire baby instead. And now he has to keep phasing forever to stay immortal with her. To paraphrase Rosalie: this isn't the life he would have chosen for himself.

There are ways in which Twilight vampires get a raw deal too (when I'm sick and have a sore throat it's like, the Worst, so dealing with that forever and on a supernatural scale sounds horrific) but they still have CHOICES. Carlisle had the free will and agency to run to the forest and starve himself as a newborn. Rosalie had the will to kill her attackers without drinking their blood. Edward chose to leave Bella for a time when we're told Jacob spending any real time away from Nessie would be impossible because of the imprint. The vampires may have to FIGHT their nature sometimes, but SM lets them win more often than not. Carlisle can be a doctor; the Denali sisters can sleep with humans; Edward can resist Bella's blood; Bella can be the best newborn ever and not kill her dad. But the only time a shifter character is allowed to fight his nature is when Jacob defies Sam to break off and form his own pack, and that's only because of the loophole that Jacob was himself the rightful alpha. No one else has that option. Leah has to choose between allowing Sam or Jake to have alpha power over her.

Which is all why I thought Jacob's whole thing would be fighting an imprint. It would be so in character for him and such a good parallel to the vegetarian vampires fighting their thirst. I wanted to see Jacob say 'no, I don't care what destiny says, I will make my own path.' And you know if SM had had him imprint on literally anyone BUT Nessie or Bella she would have written about him fighting it! It would have been so cool! But no, because ultimately this is Bella's fantasy life, and part of her happily ever after is keeping Jacob around literally forever even though HE wouldn't have chosen an immortal life with the Cullens like Bella did.

[slocumjoe]

ways people write the companions that make me go hmmm

Gage excluded because I haven't seen enough portrayals of him

Cait; Poor Cait has such confusing, odd writing choices that I can’t blame anyone for doing this, but...when she’s boiled down to either Tough Irish Gal or Traumatized, with little dimension. Again, Bethesda does this themselves in text, depending on ??? so it’s not, like, a big deal. My advice for writing Cait is to remember that she exists outside of being Irish or Traumatized. She’s read/read about Freud, for example. So, she presumably learned to read, likely self-taught. If she read something psychology related, she must have taken an interest in it. That sort of thing. The best way to write Cait is to not take the obvious answer, because Cait’s depth itself isn’t obvious.

Curie; When people write Curie as a stupid, horny, smol bean 2 gud 4 dis world, i throw up in my mouth. Same as Cait, this is Bethesda’s fault. They have a habit of going for funny dialogue instead of sensible. There is no reason for Curie to say half the shit she does, she says it because someone thought it was funny, or worse, sexy. I’d recommend going through Curie’s likes/dislikes and dialogue even more so than I do other companions. Curie has a lot of edges if you go looking for them. Y’know Covenant? Curie supports Covenant. Also, she’s literally a robot in a human body. She’s 200+ years old, too. Make her fucking weird. Y’know how elves/fae are? Like that. Bonus if you make her friendliness off-putting. Being friends with a doctor gets annoying, speaking from personal experience. Also, being a doctor, she knows all about sex and sexual pleasure. She’s not confused what a dick is

Hancock; please acknowledge other aspects of his character beyond horny, sad, or high. He has them, I swear. Do you even know his parents’ names? No. You care only about ghoul dick or stoner jokes. He’s not even a stoner, he does the Fallout equivalent of meth/adderall. Much like Deacon, he does and thinks about other shit. I joke with Hancock as well, but you might notice that none of my actual reacts/headcanons open and close with shit like “he huffs some jet with one hand, fingers you with the other, and thinks about how he sucks”

Danse; i promise you, Paladin Danse is not hypervigilant of people’s asses/tits/dicks/whatevers. He’s not imagining having sex with your busty Sole every time he looks at them. That’s not just not Danse, it’s also very creepy and dehumanizing to both Danse and Sole. Is Sole not more than their tits? Other companions get the too-horny treatment as well, but I see Danse getting it worse of all. Sometimes he’s written as absolute manchild regarding sex, knowing literally nothing, same as Curie. I say Danse doesn’t know what jerking off is as a joke, but he probably knows. But Chronic Virgin Danse is usually a light-hearted joke, Hypersexual Danse is just fucking weird. It gets into unhealthy territory. Like...Danse wouldn’t want to fight people flirting with his crush. He wouldn’t even get aggressive if he was dating Sole. He’s not a hotheaded asshole. Annoyed at best, rude at worst. It’s giving Fifty shades/Twilight/After. 

Deacon; You guys know that when Deacon takes a shit, he isn’t dedicating it to Barbara, right? He isn’t dedicating it to his own redemption, or saving synths? He isn’t thinking up a cool lie to make about the shit-taking? When he has a drink of water, he isn’t like, “Barb used to drink water.” or “The U.P Deathclaws drank water” or “I’m gonna say I killed a behemoth with a water bottle!” Deacon has other thoughts and motivations beyond the meme or the sad. I can’t judge too much, because Deacon himself would approve of being thought of like this, but good god. Just let the dude be a dude sometimes. Let him shit in peace. 

MacCready; might be because he’s the most solidly written, but very few complaints with most MacCready stuff. Him being a little perverted is in character, he’s 22. However, I have seen people straight up forget Duncan and Lucy. It’s okay, though. So did Bethesda.

Nick; Also usually solid, the most common crime is that aforementioned After Shades of Twilight writing. Nick is not a possessive dude. He’s even less likely than Danse to get aggressive over his partner. Yeah, sure, he’s a cop, but is that really the fantasy you want? Really? 

Piper; I have...famously strong opinions on Piper, but good god. Blue this, Blue that, I’m gonna write about this, this’ll look good in my paper, I’m putting this in the news. Oh my God. You’d think Sole was a fucking SMURF with how many writers call them Blue. You’d think Piper dragged her writing press behind her like Sisyphus heaving his boulder along. Same as Deacon and Hancock, SHE DOES OTHER SHIT. People bend over backwards trying to work in the fact she’s a reporter. Same as Cait, the obvious is not interesting. 

Preston; fuck the settlement jokes, I hate it when Preston is turned into an UwU soft boy baby cinnamon roll 2 gud 4 dis world UwU sunshine sweetie pie cutie. Whenever someone does this, they don’t actually like Preston. They have no thoughts, no feelings, they just...I don’t know, want to be contrarion to Preston haters? “Imagine not liking Preston, couldn’t be me ;333″ you realize this is racist, right? Like, you know infantilizing black men is racist? Oh my God you don't know this is racist

X6-88; SPEAKING OF FUCKING RACISM. The highest discourse I’ve seen around X6 is calling it ableist to HC him as autistic, but that is NOT the biggest issue with X6 writing. X6-88 is best described as, like, a very expensive, very spoiled cat of a rich, Old Money asshole. You know the Evil Stepmother’s cat in Cinderella? That bitch. That’s X6 in a nutshell. That’s how you write X6. I’m not even going to get into the racist ass portrayals of X6 because fuck is it tiring, just gonna leave you with this; X6 is best when you see his character for the humor and genuinely interesting philosophies in it, and not when you see him as a BDSM hardcore porn big dick sex god dominant daddy who likes spanking. 

[son1c]

the value of the here and now

falling stars fic masterpost

Shadow’s hands were red and blistering from his fight with the Android. The heat of its metallic flesh had turned the white cloth of his gloves into a staunch black, and the scorched fabric was unravelling where his fingers met his palms. There was no fixing them--he'd just have to get new ones once they landed at Club Rouge.

So, Shadow peeled off the ruined gloves as he and the rest of Team Dark made their way back through the lower deck of the manta ray ship.

He was thankful for the hissing pipes surrounding them, because they covered up his own hisses of discomfort as he picked the stray strings off his paw pads.

Then, in a move that would surely sadden Captain Planet, Shadow dropped what was left of his gloves on the floor. But he couldn't bring himself to care about the fact he was littering. If anything, disrespecting an Eggman battleship with his trash brought him a sense of satisfaction.

Sonic glanced back at Shadow over his shoulder.

Tight-faced, Shadow kept his hands balled into fists during the rest of the walk back to the maintenance tunnel. He followed behind everyone else, and so he was the last to arrive at the foot of the ladder that led up to the hatch. His hands ached when he unclenched them.

It was going to be a long climb to the top.

“Hey, Omega,” Sonic said as Shadow reached for the ladder. “Mind if we hitch a ride?”

Shadow paused, his fingers brushing against the first rung of the ladder.

"REQUEST DENIED. IF YOUR FLIMSY FLESH LEGS ARE TIRED, THE INSUFFERABLE WASP MODEL CAN BE YOUR 'RIDE.'"

The buzzy bomber in Sonic's quills hummed in agreement. It started to beat its wings, but stopped when Sonic reached up and placed his hand on its head, a silent request. Then, with a click of his tongue, Sonic said, "I get it. Your rockets ain't tough enough to pull the extra weight. That right?"

Rouge raised an eyebrow. She looked over at Shadow, but he was staring intensely at Sonic.

Omega took a lumbering step toward Sonic. He hunched over the blue hedgehog, his shiny red eyes drilling into him like laser beams in the dark. “YOUR TINY BODY IS LIKE A FEATHER," Omega said. "MY EFFICIENCY WOULD BE UNAFFECTED BY YOUR ADDITIONAL WEIGHT.”

Sonic didn't match Omega's stare. Instead, he closed his eyes and shrugged his shoulders, sounding real casual when he said, "Sure, dude. But that's just me. I bet if you tried it with everyone, it'd be a different story!"

"CEASE, BLUE HEDGEHOG.“

Omega snatched Sonic up like the hedgehog was nothing more than a hot pocket. He dropped him onto one of his broad metal shoulders with about as much care as a 4-year-old who had just been shown their dad's prized Gundam for the first time. But Sonic didn't mind--in fact, he practically had to bite his cheek to keep from grinning.

Shadow was next, and the dark hedgehog could only grimace when his burned hands smacked down on the robot’s shoulder. But at least the metal was cool to the touch.

Rouge was last, but she had chosen to float up to Omega's other shoulder without the robot's help.

Then, Omega ignited his thrusters, and the darkness surrounding them immediately fled to the recesses of the lower deck. Bright orange and yellow light filled the maintenance tunnel while Sonic and Rouge gripped Omega's handlebars.

Shadow would've done the same if there was a third handlebar. Unfortunately, there wasn't, and he was too proud to grab onto Sonic's arm, so he had to rely on sheer force of will to stay onboard as the robot rose through the tunnel and up to the hatch.

Once there, Omega blasted the hatch open with his fists, and tore it off its hinges. The entire thing went flying, and slammed into the wall with a bang so loud, it startled all of the badniks in the cabin. Even Buggy jumped a little, and it was behind a closed door in the cockpit.

Rouge dusted herself off. "Ah ha! A fabulous display," she said. "Even if it was a little… extravagant."

Omega twisted his head around so he could look at Sonic. "AWAITING CONFIRMATION: YOUR DOUBTS ARE NOW ERADICATED?"

Sonic hopped down from Omega's shoulder. "You sure proved me wrong," Sonic said. Then, he smiled apologetically. "You're tough stuff, Omega! Sorry for sayin' otherwise."

Omega examined Sonic. While the hedgehog rubbed the back of his neck, the robot had to ignore every scanner telling him that he was looking at an enemy badnik. "APOLOGY ACCEPTED," Omega finally said. "NEVER QUESTION MY STRENGTH AGAIN."

Five minutes later, Rouge had resumed her storytelling session with Omega, and Sonic and Shadow were back in the cockpit. The desert below them had started to give way to a scattered assortment of buildings, but it was still a far cry from the densely packed Night Babylon. As the manta ray battleship passed by overhead, a few people on the ground looked up, but all they could see was a shadow racing across the clouds.

There was nothing Shadow could use on the ship to dress his weeping hands. He’d have to wait until they reached Club Rouge to clean and dry them, and he planned on keeping them clenched until then, because the pressure made them hurt less.

So sloppy, that fight! So careless, the way he’d ignored the orange glow of the Android’s stripes! The furnace-like heat that had burned him should’ve come as no surprise.

While Shadow stewed in his thoughts, his expression darkened. He recalled the claw marks now marring his cheek. Just like his hands, they would heal. But for the time being, he was forced to carry them around, and they stung.

But what hurt the most was Shadow’s ego.

The dark hedgehog returned to his spot on the dashboard. If there was such a place, he would go to a corner of the ship that was completely isolated. But the only place like that was the lower deck, and he didn’t want to be subjected to his poor night vision playing tricks on him. As it was, the face of the Android already haunted the corner of his eye.

Sonic pulled Buggy into a one armed hug. "Great job, bud! I told you I've never met a ladybug who couldn't fly!"

The motobug beeped. Its antennas twirled at Sonic’s praise.

"So what if you're the only ladybug I've met? You can fly, can't ya?"

The motobug beeped again. This time, it scratched the front of its face with its claw in a bashful imitation of Sonic’s nose rub.

“Uh huh. Well, don’t let it get to your head, hot shot.” Sonic gave the motobug one last squeeze before letting go.

After he straightened, Sonic leaned against the side of the pilot’s chair. At first he looked out the window, but it wasn’t long before his eyes drifted over to Shadow, and then fell down to the hedgehog’s clenched hands. A pang of guilt twisted in his stomach.

"You really showed that fake who's boss, Stripes," Sonic said. "Heh. Yeah, I bet Mr. Ivo's boiling mad about it! He was all full of himself when he showed it off, like there was no way it could lose. But it couldn't live up to the real deal!"

Shadow pursed his lips. "Can it really be considered a fake?" Shadow asked. His claws dug into his palms, and the pain made his heart beat faster. "The face it wears has no identity. Maybe the shallow imitation here is…"

Sonic's eyes flickered. Anyone watching (Shadow wasn't in a state to notice) would've said there was a deep sadness swimming among them at that moment, but it was gone by the time he'd pushed himself away from the pilot's chair. A second later and he was holding Shadow's shoulders, his gaze searing into him like a pair of green suns. Intense, but not unkind.

Sonic said, "You're not some half-rate fake. You beat that thing, for starters. And I'm sorry you had to do that, by the way. If I hadn't been in such a rush to split town, I would've mopped the floor with it myself!"

Sonic leaned forward, hoping his words would sink into Shadow's thick skull. "You wanna know why you deserve your face? You wanna know who you are? Well, I've seen it. You're stubborn, you're strong, and you've got enough grit to sand any discount robo-duplicate into scrap metal!

"So don't let Egghead get in your head, alright? Cuz that's what he's countin' on. Don't let him have it."

There was nothing else for Shadow in that moment. There was no wind rushing by the outside of the ship, no beeping from the control panel, no motobug chittering curiously a few feet away. Sonic's eyes were shining like twin stars. And Shadow was reminded again of his dream, and the visage of the golden hedgehog, overflowing with power.

He felt some of that power now. That confidence. It radiated off of Sonic in waves, and Shadow desperately wanted to reach out and grasp it, to take some of it for himself. But the uncertainty that was plaguing him wouldn't be shaken off so easily. After all, it had been with him since the beginning, and its talons were wedged deep in Shadow's heart.

"Flattery won't get you far, hedgehog," Shadow said. However, his hands were ever-so-slightly relaxed. "Your words can't distract me from the truth. The value of my past far outweighs whatever the present has to offer."

Shadow raised a hand, intending to push Sonic's off him. But he paused when his knuckles brushed against Sonic's wrist. He remembered their conversation at the Starfall Festival, which felt like yesterday and a million years ago at the same time.

"But…"

Shadow's hand dropped back down to his lap.

"Your support is… appreciated." he said softly.

Sonic squeezed Shadow's shoulders. "It beats havin' to crawl outta the woods yourself, right?"

Shadow couldn't imagine it. Waking up in the crater alone. Confused, with no clues as to who he was or what had happened to him. With Sonic there, he'd immediately been given a goal. A purpose. To help him. If he hadn't been there, Shadow could've gotten scooped up by the G.U.N. soldier, or trapped by the cowboy ghost, or taken by Doctor Eggman. And without Sonic, the Doctor could've easily gotten into his head.

"I suppose it does," Shadow concluded.

His reward was a smile.

And then Sonic went back to the pilot's chair, and squeezed in next to Buggy. Shadow watched him take the controls back from the little robot, but whatever he was saying to the motobug didn't reach Shadow's ears. They were still swimming from Sonic's words.

He thought about the teammates he'd acquired. The connections he'd made.

Would it be right to allow himself to exist in the present?

Shadow recalled the ghostly space station. The place he felt such a strong connection to. The feelings, though buried and shrouded in mystery, still so clear. And the longing to understand why he wanted to call that place he couldn't remember "home."

And then the obligation returned. He couldn't turn his back on the graveyard of his past.

Shadow rubbed one of his inhibitor rings with his thumb. He looked over at the pilot's chair and saw Sonic and the motobug were squished together, playfully wrestling over who got to press the next button on the dash. Through the door, he could hear Rouge's voice raise as she got to the climax of her story, and Omega's metal joints creak as he leaned forward, completely enraptured by the carnage she was describing.

Shadow allowed himself to experience it.

[kalcifers-blog]

So I had the idea that all of the JSE Egos get possessed by Anti at some point- but all of their possessions look and work completely differently in comparison to each other because rather it being based on what's possessing them- Anti is utilizing what they perceive as their own worst traits/the image they have of themselves (in an extremely /neg way).

It's worth mentioning that it doesn't necessarily mean that these perceptions are true or not- the only thing that necessarily matters is that the Egos themselves think that it's true.

I'm going to go through each ego, describe what their possessions are like and go into detail as to why they're like that.

Buckle in dudes this is gonna be a long one

Chase Brody:

Chase to me has the most unstable variation of the possessions. His plays on the fact that they're constantly questioning their reality and feeling like a danger to not just himself but to those around him. Right now it's unclear if Chase has been experiencing alcoholism or his unstable view of reality before Anti but I do think Chase's entire life has been nothing short of turbulent it's a constant crashing rollercoaster, with the carriages shaking uneasily and sparks flying everywhere and the only thing he's able to do is hold onto the ride and hopes he gets to the end of it unscathed. Chase's possess has ALL of this on full display- it's the closest thing to the original Anti and it's far from pretty.

Visually I think the closest thing to Chases possession is Jinx's Hallucinations in Arcane. They're made up of the faces of his lost family mocking and taunting him while everyone else can only see Chase as an extremely unstable individual with unnatural eyes

[This shot in particular with the glowing eyes is what I imagine P!Chase to be like]

Marvin The Magnificent:

Now I've already briefly shown how I imagine Marvin's possession- and if I'm being honest it's my favourite one!! Marvin would by far be the hardest Ego to possess out of all of them, he's the only one with actual knowledge on Anti and the only one with the power to fight back against him. With that I think that Anti would only be able to possess Marvin with the help of IRIS- be honest, IRIS would JUMP at the opportunity to see what effects Anti could have on an individual with magic the way Marvin does. However, Marvin's biggest flaw is definitely his arrogance and his isolation. His "trust nobody" mindset has left him cold and uncaring to others and in my opinion this is something that he doesn't do because he enjoys it- something about Marvin screams that he wants to be able to connect with others but can't at every turn and that's what is portrayed in their possession. They're cold, robotic and uncaring. Their magic has been locked away deep in their subconscious because Anti knows it's too risky to let them utilise it. They've been forced into a state that's far removed from who Marvin really is. In a way it would make sense with how much of Marvin's memories have been tampered with for god knows how long- at a certain point there's only so much of yourself you can lose before you become unrecognisable to yourself.

The inspiration for P!Marvin is Chipped Catra from She-Ra Princess of Power

JackieBoy Man:

Jackie was by far the hardest to come up with- mostly because I couldn't come up with something that narratively would make sense. But I came to the conclusion that Jackie's worst perception of himself would come from the idea that he's not a true hero and only hurts the people around him, that he's a danger or a monster. That his powers make him a threat rather than a saviour. I personally think this would be a lot more effective if Jackie was possessed after an experience that left him doubting his role as a hero- maybe he couldn't save someone or someone he was trying to save and ended up dying instead. His grief and self loathing would come together into being possessed into being a weapon.

P!Jackie is nothing short of a weapon made for destruction- something that was designed to destroy. Part of the horror would be for him to wake up from his possession, only to realise that the ones he cares about the most and the only people he has left are now afraid of him and wants nothing to do with him.

The idea for P!Jackie is Infected She-Ra from She-Ra Princess of Power

Henrik Von Schneeplestien:

Henrik was another one that took me a while to figure out but I did eventually get to it!! Henrik would come from his insecurities as a doctor, the weight of people's lives being on his shoulders day in and out would wear him down over time and the idea that he could be at fault for the deaths of many whether he could've actually saved them or not plays in his brain so much its unbearable. Henrik's possession would take form as moss- or a general depiction of something rotting, a walking contamination that he can't heal or fix and he knows he's the route problem and to keep everyone else safe he'd need to remove himself from the equation. For the most part I don't think he'd be aware of how far his corruption goes, at first he'd write it off as being unwell, overworked maybe, but he has seen the others get possessed and harmed by their own possessions and he would never let himself succumb to that. Doctors do make the worst patients after all.

The inspiration for this has came from The Corruption in The Magnus Archives and Belos from The Owl House

Jameson Jackson:

JJ's possession is the one I'm most proud of and it's the one that's the most loyal to his debut in 2017. However the way I perceive JJs possession is that he is almost the exact same. But it's not him. He's fully conscious and aware of everything around him but he's trapped in his own skin with movements that are not his own. He's forced to watch and able to do nothing when those around him drop dead by his own hand. And the worst part about all of it is that Anti is clever enough to make him continue his daily routine, to carry on as normal. To let JJ see those closest to him not notice that something is deeply and horrifyingly wrong, that the person they're interacting with and bonding with isn't who they think they are. And no one notices. And there's nothing he's able to do about it. It's a play on his fear of no one really seeing him for who is is, no one notices something's wrong because they didn't know him to begin with. The entire experience makes him think about how much he actually spent time with these people. How much of him do they actually see and how much of Anti has painted over that.

If anything I might tweak Chase or Jackie's possessions slightly because they are extremely similar to each other??? BUT part of me wants to keep the similarities between them a constant thing because I personally see them as being two sides of the same coin

JJs possession was inspired by The Stranger and The Web from The Magnus Archives

AND THATS EVERYTHING‼️‼️ FEEL FREE TO REBLOG WITH THOUGHTS AND ANY ADD-ONS YOU WANT‼️‼️

[not-goldy]

Ngl I hate people blurring out the other soliders faces. So many times we get leaked pics or videos everyone else is afforded basic privacy and the tannies are expected to be on display and then one time everyone gets posted and we play where's Waldo with jikook people jump in to hide everyone else's face instead of posting as is. They're all supposed to be equals right now either faces are allowed to be seen or not but these dual expectations blow me

Sigh. I welcome your thoughts and do feel free to share your frustrations and worries with me. It beats the "Jimin is strong and can handle anything tone deaf outta touch squad over there."

Apparently, "Jimin is so strong it's okay for anyone to violate his privacy cos he can handle it. He has a black belt, he's rich, he can protect himself you know💀

his brain is made of vibranium membranes what's a little privacy violation gonna do to him

Feeling gaslighted yet? Welcome to my life on these streets.

Tae must have been late on his wakadan taxes cos dude was low on vibranium the day he threatened to shoot poison needles at reporters who violated his privacy💀

Jungkook reporting those stalkers is crazy cos dude has enough muscles that only rivals that of Kangoroos- you'd think a guy like that would let a little privacy violation pass🥴

It's the dehumanizing that goes with that for me.

They are protecting those other people because they are civilians who have not signed away their right to be respected and treated as human beings. Something about them being civilians reminds them of their own sense of humanity.

However idols can be so- rich, so pampered, so privileged, so objectified, so commodified, so commercialized to feel human let alone be thought of as human in our subconsciousness.

It's why its easy to tear into them and call it review, constructive criticism, when we detouch them as idols we fail to remember they are people's sons, brothers, partners, friend, mentor- worse? They won't fire back. They won't fight for themselves tear into them right back, defend themselves because their station in life requires utta resignation of their personhood.

Why won't they block out their faces? Because THEY KNOW they can get sued for publishing their images without authorization, they can be held directly accountable but not these famous folks. They don't deserve a right to privacy because they have perpetually given those rights away as idols.

This level of dehumanizing of idols has become so normalized in internet spaces we don't even blink or think twice before participating in it.

Somehow we've come to the conclusion that being a public figure means giving up your basic fundamental human rights and that not only is it okay to consume them in ways that violates them, that somehow hyper scrutinizing their very existence, bringing them apart so recklessly and putting them back upside down is okay and all part of their work hazard.

That somehow fame is proof of their consent to be placed on a pedestal so out of realm of human possibilities because that's the only way we can adore them is if they are over and beyond us- beyond human beyond the stratosphere.

I've been trying to protect my own mental health by detouching from certain conversations around these boys because it cuts too close to home. And I don't want to hear she's projecting her queer traumas onto them as if breach of privacy, the blatant micro aggressions, dehumanization isn't a universal struggle- why do i gotta queer to know how that feels? Why can't I just be a fucking human being who relates to another human being?

Imagine a few of us expressing concerns over some of these mental torment they have to endure in there through no fault of theirs only for people to tell you in the face, these men are stronger than they look, they are not victims, they are not damsels in distress- WELL THEY ARE NOT ROBOTS EITHER SO WHICH IS IT?

As if we need people's permission to express concerns, as if there's a threshold of pain these boys, Jimin, is expected to endure before its okay to worry for them and only then would it be okay to worry for their mental health, breach of his privacy and other gazillion bs they are bound experience in there- the hyper masculinty, the toxic masculinty- these boys, Jimin, have gone through so much to discover himself, to break away from toxic gender ideologies, to be okay with who he is, to accept himself and all that is going to chip away at MS and these nutheads are out here telling us he's strong he can handle it. They lack context, can't even comprehend context or nuance IT'S EXHAUSTING.

It's the worst form of bigotry, policing, dismissiveness, anti intellectuallism packed as alternative view points, I've ever encountered in my life. They metamorphorizing, shape-shifting to hide who they truly are at their core.

If I hear anyone jubilate over an untwinked Jimin or untwinked anyone in BTS I WILL GO OFF.

And yes I'm sensitive about this, I've ever had a melt down over the fandom cheering because JM muscled up, I won't have a meltdown this time- I WILL BLOW THIS WHOLE THING TO THE GROUND WATCH ME.

But yea, go off Anon. Get things off your chest💀

[good-wine-and-cheese]

getting back at you with 2, 5, 12 and 24 for Ochanomizu and (Kenzo) Tenma!

Omg that's cute the other half of the ships....

Character asks

Ochanomizu

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

Dude he's such a good dad. Whether it's PLUTO's hug or how sweet and supportive and protective he is in the 03 anime or the lengths he goes to in the manga supporting Atom he's just such a good parent!!! He's a sweetheart but he doesn't take shit lying down, he has such strong will and will fight for his kids.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

So this is technically from Tenma's POV about Ochan but it's one that I do think of with respect to him a lot. Just on account that his smile is so powerful and yeah I too would yearn for that smile

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

I feel like he would be quick to forgive Tenma if he would only apologise. In my mind, despite how volatile things are with them, Ochan genuinely would be willing to start fresh if Tenma just asked. Hey babe I'm sorry will you take me back. like it would genuinely be that easy. He's making Tenma figure that out for himself though, otherwise it's not genuine.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Y'know I would say Kenzo in a lot of respects. They're both forces for such good, genius doctors in their own field, supportive adults (in my mind in a Tenma Swap AU Atom would end up with 2 of the best dads in the world LMAO)

In the interest of talking about some different guys: Picard from Star Trek the Next Generation! Is it partly because they are old men in their hair loss era? Maybe. But also again they are such egalitarian future-focused peaceful guys. Also Picard argued for robot rights in one of the best episodes of Star Trek period ("The Measure of a Man") so like they're the same guy basically is what I'm saying

Kenzo Tenma

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

His ability to inspire good and see the best in people. Honestly going into Monster I thought it would be more #edgy and dark, but because we have this sweetheart doctor protagonist it's instead easily one of the most hopeful stories I've ever enjoyed, truly teaching the sanctity and beauty of all life. Tenma is such a beacon of hope and he's able to spread that wherever he goes.

5. What's the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

Ah man, this was hard. A lot of the songs I associate with him are specifically Guriten-flavoured...but then I remembered this song. It's one that makes me think of Tenma's earliest struggle with figuring out who he wanted to be, and coming to terms that the hospital he worked at was just using him. It's unsure, it's hurt, but it ends with a hopeful step forward.

12. What's a headcanon you have for this character?

He has very poor anger regulation sometimes. We only see it very briefly, but Tenma is deeply repressing negativity and when it does come out it's a little explosive. I especially feel like he has this sense he has to be "perfectly happy" all the time as a foreigner and is afraid to "look bad" as it would reflect worse on him, but as a result he has these meltdowns sometimes. It comes out more potently when he drinks, so he generally tries to avoid alcohol when around others.

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Obligatory Ochan mention. But okay this is a bit of a weird one...Kaiji kind of?? Now Kaiji is a very different character, very scrappy very stupid very shithead. But it's the way that he has the ability to command such a powerful response from strangers and holds onto hope so strongly and cries and is so earnest...they are characters cut of a similar cloth despite how different they come off at first. Kaiji is just Tenma during his drunk era

[garnettfox]

Miracubots au: Akumas

Been a few days but I'm back!

Upfront, we don't have Akuma forms settled for everyone. SOME BITCHES *Stares at Chief, Dani and Kade* ARE SHOCKINGLY HARD TO DESIGN FOR.

So this isn't a complete list, hell if this ever became an actual fic some of them might end up changing.

Without further Adu, a very incomplete list of Akumas:

Ticket Master: Might as well get the Mr Pidgon equivilant out of the way, Don and his speeding tickets make him a weekly Akuma giving everyone in Griffin Rock headaches, especally the Heros. Everyone keeps begging Chief to just impound his car already but Don always pays off his fines so his hands are kinda tied.

Crawdaddy: So you know how there's occasionally a Dude who just has a Flobbster on a Leash? Ya, Ya he get's Akumatized over worrying about his pet's health. Don't worry the Flobster turns out ok.

Demolicious: Expect the spelling of this one to change a half dozen times because I hate myself and thought a portmantu of Demolition and Malicious was a great idea. Graham's Akuma form surprisingly enough formed when Graham just comepletly lost his temper after a stressful week and having to deal with a Karen of a tourest who decided to let her kids play in a derelict building he and Boulder where trying to safely demolish, and blamed him for the kids getting hurt.

Evilistratior: Alright this one was briefly mentioned and is something I kinda put in just for me. Being a very old OC of mine Dusk who I love very much. Think Bendy and the Ink machine meets Samarah from the ring and you kinda get the vibe of our Evilistratior, though instead of objects he creates ink creatures by drawing in his sketch pad as Dusk's an artist. As part of the self indulgent nonsence he becomes Graham's boyfriend. They even end up getting reakumatized into Demo and Evie together and are just an annoyingly sweet couple even when Evie's setting ink demons on everyone and Demo's trying to blow up the fucking island.

Glory Hog: Heatwaves Akuma caused by lingering stress over the entire Swallowtail situation and Kade falling back into his own glory hog ways. Glory Hog has the ability to 'Take away all attention and direct it to his self' Basically if you get hit by his beam, you kinda seace to exist for other people. They don't see you or acknowlage your there, your basically a ghost walking through your own life which is kinda horrorfying.

Emperata: Chase's Akuma formed after their reveal, Chase struggling with the sudden change in dynamic when he's become so acustomed to just the Burns family knowing. Coupled with the towns people not knowing how to treat him and just falling back on treating him like a robot when the more socal members of the team get readily accepted. Causes him to become Emperata, appearing as if Chase really had the horrorfic surgery done to him, and able to inflict the same on his brainwashed minions.

Halloweenie: More of a joke Akuma TBH, Blades after getting scared during Earlyween and getting upset at some teens tormenting some frightened younger kids, becomes the pumpkin fairy themed Halloweenie....Who makes everything cute. That's it. Cody and Frankie actually let him run around unchallenged for a bit because he is literally hurting no one, even if someone's wearing a scary costume and get zapped they can just, take the costume off no problem. And there have been a few occasions where letting the Akuma get it out of their system has calmed them down to be beatten without much of a fight.

Razorback. Boulders Akuma and it's a *bad* one. The idea I came up with was uhh....Graham and Dusk on a date off island when they run into uhhh....Anti-Anti-Fascsits if you catch my meaning. Resulting in Graham getting hurt enough to need the hospital and Dusk in jail needing bailing out for defending the pair of them. Boulder having never known about this side of humanity is just so blindsided and *angry* he's more or less a ball of walking distruction before he's calmed and deakumatised.

Defensor:....You saw it coming, don't pretend. Ya in this universe the episode where Cheif get's hurt and goes the hospital goes a little worse, not too much so, but the bots getting a nasty reminder of not only how fragile humans are but how short lived they are...What's more, their humans are emergancy responders, a profession that famously *shortens* those already brief lifespans....Ya, their pain and grief causes them to be fused into the group Akuma Defensor, who desides to take over the security systems Vigil was meant to once operate, they'll keep their family safe....no matter what....

[solarpunkani]

Sonic the Hedgehog and Solarpunk Ideals

Alright, it's June 23rd which means not only is it Solarpunk Aesthetic Week, but it's also Sonic the Hedgehog's 32nd birthday. Let's all say Happy Birthday Sonic the Hedgehog.

Overall, that means it's time for me to do something I usually don't do on this blog--talk about Sonic the Hedgehog, one of my favorite series of all times. Specifically, how I feel it embodies Solarpunk at least a little bit. Hopefully you'll see where I'm coming from by the end of this.

Real quick though, special shout out to @modern-solarpunk for being my beta reader 100/10 owe you my life.

Alright let’s make one thing clear. I’m a Sonic nerd. I’ve been a Sonic nerd since at least the 5th grade. Sonic the hedgehog is one of My Things. IDK if I’d call it a hyperfixation, but it’s definitely one of My Things, and it’s been one of My Things longer than gardening or even Solarpunking and all the other stuff y’all know me for has been. I am about to talk y’alls ears off. Buckle up.

With that in mind, I’m not going to pretend that the Sonic franchise is a perfect franchise made by perfect people working under a perfect corporation. Even ignoring the timeline disasters, retconning, and rushed projects (*cough cough Sonic 06 and Sonic Boom cough cough*), Sonic the Hedgehog is made by a corporation in a capitalistic world who has done some… iffy things in the past, present, and likely the future. We are, here, today, strictly talking about two things--the creation of Sonic and the creation of Dr. Eggman. There will be a super special third topic I bring up later, but that's gonna be its own post. I’ll bring up a handful of things from the shows, comics, movies, etc. If I finish writing and editing and posting this whole lengthy diatribe and someone ignores this paragraph and brings up some inane unrelated shit that the Big Corporation Guys did That One Time Months/Years Ago I might snap. Yes, corporations are bad. Yes, I like Sonic. Let’s establish that.

Ok let’s actually get started.

Sonic the Hedgehog the Dude, Tiny Rebellions, and Freedom

Alright, so Sonic the Hedgehog is a series of games, movies, comic books, TV shows--it's a whole thing, it's an entire franchise. The basics of what you need to know here is that a little 3’3” superpowered anthropomorphic blue hedgehog dude and his array of equally-animalian and equally-colorful friends are ruining the robotics-based evil world takeover plans of a 6’1” egg-shaped human dude on the regular. Occasionally, there are other villains, and other storylines, and sometimes the motivations change, but that sentence boils down the Sonic the Hedgehog storyline to its base essentials. 

The Sonic franchise was dreamed up in 1990 when SEGA needed a new mascot to compete with Nintendo’s iconic Mario. Personality-wise, he’s said to have been inspired by “a modern sensibility of wanting to get things done right away, righting wrongs as they presented themselves instead of letting them linger.” As we currently know him, with Sonic “What you see is what you get--just a guy who loves adventure.” He’s a free-spirited drifter who goes with the flow, valuing freedom above all else and wanting nothing more than to live by his own rules and whims rather than bowing to the expectations of others. He loves interacting with the many cultures on his planet (which we mostly see in Sonic Unleashed, but still), trying local dishes with friends frequently. Overall, Sonic is driven by a strong sense of justice and fairness, fighting for the ideal of freedom rather than the name of the law--and he always fights for the underdog. He likes to handle things on his own, but he isn’t above looking to his friends for help when needed--and acknowledges their role in his life and achievements regularly (if he can be a bit smug at times). He appreciates scenic views and nature, with a special fondness for places filled with plants--we see him do this lots in the series--and he hates when people destroy it for their own gain. He doesn’t hate cities, though, and finds they have their own beauty.

So what’s Solarpunk about this? In my eyes, a good bit. If you don’t know what Solarpunk is, it’s described on Wikipedia as ‘a literary and artistic movement that envisions and works towards actualizing a sustainable future interconnected with nature and community.” Aesthetically, I like to describe it as a mix between sci-fi and cottagecore, with a particular leaning towards some steampunk and some cyberpunk elements, but in a brighter, cleaner, more hopeful way. It's important to note, however, that Solarpunk is also a practical and political action mindset--as much as Solarpunks dream of a hopeful future and work to visualize it, we also work to learn the concepts and take the actions needed to make it a reality. I’m not going to sit here and pretend that Sonic is super politically revolutionary, I’m here to talk about how Sonic fits into the aesthetics of Solarpunk.

As such, lets get into the point--I feel like Sonic is pretty Solarpunk, personality-wise. He just fits a lot of the core tenants--wants to right wrongs ASAP, whether they’re his wrongs or wrongs of the past. He values freedom, traveling, and beautiful natural places--a big chunk of Solarpunk is learning to appreciate and protect the natural species around you, and plenty of people have dreamed up nomadic Solarpunk societies. Even Sonic living by his own rules instead of bowing to expectations fits in Solarpunk--A Solarpunk Manifesto states that “the ‘punk’ in Solarpunk is about rebellion, counterculture… and enthusiasm. it is about going in a different direction than the mainstream…” People in the Solarpunk movement care deeply about freedom, justice, fairness, and fixing the broken systems we deal with today--and often start the legwork by forming or taking part in community-based movements and initiatives. We lean onto those around us for strength and courage, to work as a group to think of solutions to problems, whether that be something small like trading DIY patch instructions to bigger things like planning and creating community gardens to even sharing news about unionizing and more. There’s acts a Solarpunk can do alone--like guerrilla gardening, or moss graffiti, or drawing and writing concepts of a brighter future--but we all know we’re at our strongest when we’re not just one, but many. 

But one of my biggest arguments to Sonic being Solarpunk actually centers around his nemesis--Doctor Eggman.

Doctor Eggman as the Antithesis of Solarpunk

After all, it’s pretty hard to talk about how a hero of a series is Solarpunk without discussing the people and forces he fights against, and most of the time that’s Doctor Ivo Robotnik--better known to most as Dr. Eggman. He was developed more or less directly alongside Sonic the hedgehog, and as such the notes about his creation not only influence his character, but the character and vibe of most of the franchise so far. So who is Doctor Eggman?

Doctor Eggman is often described as the World’s Vilest Person--he’s evil, mean, cruel-spirited, and a self-proclaimed genius scientist who only really thinks about what he wants and what he needs to do to get it--getting pleasure in crushing anything that gets in his way. His main goal is to establish his Eggman Empire across the entire planet and build his own version of a utopia, Eggmanland--usually taking the form of a polluted, smog-filled city or a robotic theme park. His plans have varied from excavating natural spaces and turning woodland creatures into robotic slaves (Sonic 1, 2, 3), using doomsday devices to threaten nations and blow up the moon (Sonic Adventure 2), tie down planets for his own purposes (Sonic CD, Sonic Colors), or even using cosmic forces beyond his comprehension to flood metropolises or literally rip the planet apart (Sonic Adventure, Sonic Unleashed). In the comics and some shows, he even takes it a step further--a common theme with him is Roboticization, wherein people are forcibly turned from organic beings into robot slaves. Sometimes its a machine fulfilling this sometimes-irreversible process (Archie Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog Cartoon, Sonic Underground), while other times its an all-consuming virus that grows out of his control and turns almost the entire planet into raving robotic zombies (IDW Sonic Comics issues #12-29). He’s fueled by delusions of grandeur, believing that all of the world’s problems would be solved if he specifically were in charge of everyone all the time and had things his way, and makes robotic inventions and weapons to obtain power. He’s overflowing with self-confidence and pride, highlighting his ‘scientific genius’ whenever he can. He’ll leave temporary allies to rot if it gives him a chance to take all the credit and power for  himself, he looks down on everyone else and sees them as insignificant, only interested in what benefits him. Fairness and community? With Doctor Eggman? Forget it, he’ll steal candy from a baby and then turn it into a robot if given the chance. And even with robotic helpers he makes himself, he quickly gets sick of them--Eggman doesn’t do friends. 

I’d compare him to Elon Musk, but at least Dr. Eggman is actually a genius.

A Solarpunk Manifesto was published in 2019, describing Solarpunk as “A movement in speculative fiction, art, fashion, and activism that seeks to answer and embody the question ‘what does a sustainable civilization look like, and how can we get there?’”. Eggmanland is not how we get there--Doctor Eggman is an embodiment of everything the Solarpunk ideology stands against, and not entirely by accident. Here’s a quote from Yuji Naka, one of the creators of Sonic the Hedgehog.

“Robotnik was created to be the opposite of Sonic, and to be the bad guy. At that time, there was opposition between "developers" and "environmentalists", and Robotnik was created to represent machinery and development.”

He represents it pretty well--his common motifs are imperialism and pollution, and his version of a utopia is often reminiscent of pre-EPA photos of US cities. Sometimes its done to a cartoonish level--but the point still stands. Whenever we catch glimpses of Eggman’s ‘Home Bases,’ whether its Scrap Brain Zone in Sonic 1, Chemical Plant in Sonic 2, Metallic Madness in Sonic CD, or elsewhere, we’re always seeing tons of mechanization, smog, pollution, and death robots.

Solarpunks aren’t opposed to technology--not in the slightest. But I feel its safe to say that any Solarpunk would be opposed to the over-industrialized, hyper-mechanized, pollution-riddled empire hellscape that Eggman would call heaven. (And you know damn well he'd be all over those Boston Dynamic robot dogs if he were real). To me, Eggman represents the grim-dark futures that apocalyptic stories tell us we’re barreling towards--the darker, less sunny side of the already dystopian cyberpunk genre. Solarpunk is the sun that burns away at smoggy futures, the light that reveals what we can have instead, the ideas that lead to actions to secure it. Its hope in a bottle--hope that we can enjoy and add to, a dream that we can help make into a reality. The ideals are chock full of resisting the real-life Eggmans who want to send humanity into a nose-dive of mechanization and energy-burning self-destruction for the sake of short-lived profits and smug ego-trips. 

Is Sonic a strictly Solarpunk series? I wouldn’t necessarily say so. But I think if the themes and terms had existed in 1990, it certainly would have been cited as a bit of an inspiration. Whether the Solarpunk community would have been chill with a corporation citing the term as inspiration is a whole other deal.

Stay tuned for this posts' sequel, where I talk about how I feel my favorite game in the series--Sonic Colors--is Solarpunk.

[samobservessonic]

Anyway, you all like Sonic vs Knuckles? Because we’re right back into that!

The force field also makes a comeback, along with the promised explanation about how it works. Again, I don’t remember it being used much later on, but it’s something else in Sonic’s arsenal

Sonic can also spin attack. Stick around and I’ll tell you more Sonic facts lol

But Knuckles isn’t fighting to see who’s the best between them. In his own mind, he’s trying to protect the emeralds from a thief and in true Sonic 3 style, he jumps on a switch to turn the island itself against Sonic

Knuckles and Robotnik make their escape, after which, Sonic reveals that he was only pretending to be trapped. I also like the confirmation that Tails and Porker talk about how messed up Sonic is off-screen lol

Oh, and Tails’s smile on that last panel looks so cute! He’s happy!

It probably isn’t too surprising to hear that Sonic’s reasoning is to give them a chance to catch Robotnik off-guard in whatever he’s up to here

The Temple of Chaos is a pretty important location in StC. We’re going to be seeing it on most visits to the Floating Island from now on

And it looks like I got it wrong last time when I said the multiple copies of the Chaos Emeralds thing has been brushed under the rug in a quiet retcon. Instead, they’re going with saying that there were seven emeralds, but six of them split into twelve and now they’re going to combine those twelve back into six by using a device Robotnik has, which acts similar to the Grey Emerald. In StC, the Grey Emerald is always going to be a bit more important than the others and is known as the Control Emerald, if I remember rightly. It’s also the reason that, to this day, when a Sonic game directly calls it the White Emerald (like Sonic Frontiers does), I still think of it in my head as being the Grey Emerald

It’s all a lot more convoluted than it needs to be, but the short answer is that from when this story finishes we’ll now have the correct amount of Chaos Emeralds for the rest of the comic. Which is a lot faster than Archie sorted that mess out

After getting the emeralds back together, Robotnik does exactly what everyone except Knuckles expected that he’d do and turns traitor. I do like that in this version he’s just absorbing the power into himself, instead of using it to power a big robot. Jimbotnik did that in the second movie too, but he did also pair it with powering a giant robot. StC Robotnik is like “All for me!”

Sonic is being his usual British self about Tails being turned to glass. I do like that they’re showing the power of the emeralds doing something though, even if it’s just for these two panels (Tails is fine in the next panel)

Hey, so it turns out this Knuckles isn’t gullible after all! He was lying about not having the Grey Emerald and now he can use it to neutralise the rest of the emeralds and depower Robotnik. You probably guessed this already, but I’m showing so much of these panels because I think they look so cool

He’s not dead, he’s just not Knuckles’s problem now

Knuckles explains that he wasn’t tricked, before refusing to leave the island to join the Freedom Fighters. Which I’m sure is a bit of a shame to Sonic, who seemed to instantly like Knuckles, even when they were on opposite sides. But Knuckles has his own reasons, which I guess don’t presently include the Master Emerald, which I only just noticed is absent. It does appear later, so I assume that’ll happen once Sonic & Knuckles comes out. Even if StC has already correctly concluded this story by saying that Knuckles would come around to Sonic’s side, but not join his team

Did you know that Knuckles was waiting for his people to return from the stars? Well, that’s StC’s best guess on it. In what I personally feel is the better course of action, StC remains very hands-off about Knuckles’s origin after this. We get one other echidna dude called Dr. Zachary turn up later on, who I assume most of you have probably heard of already (if not, then he’s the first of the white evil echidna guys, with Dr. Finitevus turning up in Archie a decade later and Imperator Ix in Sonic Chronicles after that) and then I don’t think they mention it at all until the Sonic Adventure arc at the end of the comic, when they suddenly have an excuse to talk about it a lot

Sonic and Tails head out with some sympathy for Knuckles being stuck here alone, even if he seems fine about it. But Sonic correctly assumes that they haven’t seen the last of Knuckles, as he’ll be coming back a lot in future. StC might not give him a massive sci-fi echidna family, but that doesn’t mean that they don’t have a lot of stories for Knuckles in store

…And that’s the Knuckles arc! At least for now. I haven’t looked ahead, so I don’t know if Knuckles is back in the very next issue for Robotnik’s Revenge, but these last four issues (excluding the poster mag) seem to have covered the entire Knuckles introduction and it’s been great! The art’s been amazing, all the fight scenes are fun to look at, we’ve got the beginnings of Porker’s character development and honestly, I just like that this version gave Knuckles a bit more agency. It’s not that I don’t enjoy the gullible portrayals of Knuckles as well, but I like that he was keeping his cards to his chest and letting Robotnik show him if he was trustworthy or not

I’d say this arc was on par with the Sonic CD arc and that both of them were strong game adaptations, so I look forward to seeing more. I know we definitely get one for Sonic 3D of all games, but we’ll cross that bridge later

[pixelgrotto]

Cool Cold War Ninja

Capcom's Strider series holds the distinction of starring one of the coolest ninjas in video games. Hiryu feels like he was designed to look as rad as possible, from the blue suit to the red scarf to the tonfa-esque cypher blade, and his appearance was partially influenced by Spawn (another hero engineered to radiate style) because Capcom character designer Harumaru saw some Todd McFarlane books one day. Even Hiryu's name (飛竜, "flying dragon") is cool, mostly because it taught me that 竜 is the Japanese simplified form of the Chinese 龍, a character in my own name.

But despite his coolness, Hiryu is better recognized for cameos in the Marvel vs. Capcom series instead of his own franchise. This is most unfortunate, especially considering that Strider's one of the earliest video game examples of a cross-media property. Way back in 1988, Capcom greenlit a Strider comic with the help of the Moto Kikaku mangaka group while also assigning two internal divisions to helm an arcade game and an NES title. The intent was to make Hiryu into a hero who would span multiple mediums and be recognized everywhere, from the printed page to the pixelated screen. And that sorta worked, but not as well as Capcom hoped.

The first and most famous Strider - the 1989 arcade release - begins with Hiryu gliding onto the towers of the Kazakh Soviet Socialist Republic in a truly iconic bit of spritework. Within three seconds, you're hit with an array of action as Hiryu strides forward, explodes enemies in half with his cypher, and does a signature flip where all of his limbs flail outwards in a mid-air cartwheel. The action and setpieces never let up, and over the span of the game's five levels, Hiryu fights a council of politicians who morph into a multi-limbed robotic centipede, runs from mountain avalanches, explores dinosaur-filled Amazon jungles, hitchhikes a ride on an airship, and battles robotic anti-gravity cores in the fringes of outer space.

Strider is a blend of a hundred different things that the developers considered cool. But beyond all of the set pieces, the factor that sticks out to me the most is the Cold War futurism that drips from every level, feeling original but somehow dated at the same time. What other games start with your character infiltrating the "Kazakh Federation" and end with them fighting the sorcerous Grand Master Meio, a dude who seems like a thinly-veiled stereotype of a communist dictator gone wild? What other games commit to their "born in a geopolitical era of tension" vibe by featuring speech samples in multiple languages, including Russian, Japanese and Mandarin? Strider came out right before the fall of the Berlin Wall, and you can feel it. On that note, I don't think Kazakhstan has appeared in any other franchise as much as Strider. Honestly, the world would probably be a better place if more people associated Kazakhstan with Hiryu's adventures instead of Borat.

Strider didn't receive a decent conversion for home consoles until the Sega Genesis/Mega Drive in 1990, and the NES "port" that came out around the same time wasn't a port at all. Instead, NES Strider is an early Metroidvania, and one that I actually enjoy a fair bit. This opinion goes against the norm, since while I can recall NES Strider getting lots of promo in Nintendo Power when I was growing up, popular internet consensus these days tells you that it's a broken game with controls that feel like they're stuck in a beta phase.

I can't refute that - NES Strider's controls stink, especially when you're forced to pull off a wall jump that's impossible to do unless you have perfect timing. (Thankfully it's only a mandatory move at two points.) The game's also got a weird glitchiness about it, with enemies respawning at an utterly aggressive pace and the edges of the screen flickering way too much every time Strider moves an inch. The bugginess of NES Strider supposedly kept its impending Famicom port from ever being released, making it a rare example of a Japanese game that sold in North America but not in its native country.

And yet, the ambition to NES Strider is admirable. The trend of backtracking through levels and using items to unlock previously inaccessible areas might be commonplace now, but it wasn't in 1989. The plot, while burdened by a messy English translation, also features far more of a story than any other game in this franchise thanks to its heavy basis in the Strider manga. (Which is pretty cool, by the way, and partially readable in English thanks to a fan scanlation of its first three chapters.) Instead of simply facing Grand Master Meio, Hiryu's got to dig out corruption from the ranks of his organization, and it's nice to actually get some insight into his companions, from a fellow Strider named Kain to a guy named Ryuzaki who left his Attack-Boots in China.

Strider never blossomed into one of Capcom's sequel-studded franchises of the '90s. The NES game was a bold but flawed experiment that didn't get much traction, and while the arcade game performed okay, many of its key developers left the company soon after its release. In the European market, though, arcade Strider received dozens of ports for home computer systems that really couldn't handle it, like the ZX Spectrum. Tiertex, a local developer behind a handful of these ports, got the rights from Capcom and made Strider II, a sequel with shockingly bad level design which also goes under the name Journey from Darkness: Strider Returns. Capcom effectively retconned Tiertex's work with an in-house Strider 2 in 1999, riding off of the wave that Hiryu received from his inclusion in Marvel vs. Capcom.

Released for the arcade and Playstation, Strider 2 seems to take place two thousand years after its predecessor, with the Hiryu the player controls a clone of the original. It's never entirely clear, as the plot was clearly just an excuse to have Hiryu fight a reincarnated Meio. Forgettable story aside, the game spans as many environments as the first Strider, and the opening level sees Hiryu fighting terrorists in Neo Hong Kong to the beat of some darn good music which sounds suspiciously like the Ozzy Osbourne song Shot in the Dark. There's also a rival Strider named Hein who wears an all-white uniform in a nod to Hinjo, the main character from Tiertex's Strider II, which is a polite ode to a game that Capcom has all but disowned nowadays.

My biggest issue with Strider 2 is that each level is divided into small chunks, with the player forced to sit through loading screens while the next segment loads. Most PS1 games released during this era suffered from long loadtimes, but it's annoying to deal with the same thing in an arcade game. Maybe the load screens are meant to give players a breather before the next spree of button mashing, but I feel like the game's pace suffers tremendously. It's hard to fall into the same "blaze through, slice 'em with the cypher, do a billion flips along the way" rhythm that the first Strider inculcated when you've got to wait five seconds after every major encounter.

Strider 2 released during a period when action platformers were nearly nonexistent in the arcades, and a 30-minute experience - which is about how long it takes to beat the game once you know what you're doing - wasn't going to really cut it on the PS1. And so the series went back into dormancy until 2014, when Capcom once again enlisted the services of a third party. Double Helix Games' Strider is yet another retread of Hiryu versus Meio, but there's a surprising ton of DNA from NES Strider present. These go from the music, which features an awesome remix of the NES game's level 1 Kazakh theme, to the decision to make Hiryu's journey into a full-fledged Metroidvania.

Double Helix clearly poured a lot of love into their work, and I give 'em props for that NES inspiration. But there's something missing from the experience, which is probably why you don't often see 2014 Strider on lists of the best recent Metroidvanias. Unlike the world-spanning levels of the other Striders, this one takes place solely in Kazakh, which is large but very samey. As a result, the game feels padded despite not being terribly long, and the in-game map is far too confusing due to different planes that Hiryu can jump across. While Metroidvanias are one of the few genres that tend to activate my completionist tendencies, I never felt the need to explore every nook and cranny or snag every ability. It's a shame, because Double Helix was almost there in melding Strider's disparate gameplay styles and finally bringing Hiryu back to mainstream stardom. But they didn't stick the landing, and Amazon Game Studios bought Double Helix right after Strider released, ensuring that the devs probably won't ever get the chance to improve on their formula.

It's been almost a decade since Hiryu got his own game. He most recently showed up in Marvel vs. Capcom Infinite, and Capcom threw Strider fans a bone with the character Zeku in Street Fighter V, who has a Hiryu-style skin and is said to be the dude who founded the entire Strider order. All of this is neat, but it's baffling that Hiryu - despite being one of the coolest ninjas in gaming - has never had a solo title truly take off since his debut. Some of this might be due to the fact that Capcom has to credit (and presumably pay) Moto Kikaku whenever Hiryu appears, and one could argue that the original arcade game's balls-to-the-wall action and high difficulty don't have a place in Capcom's catalog any longer, or at least aren't as money-printing as new Monster Hunters and Resident Evils. But I think you could easily make something like Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice starring Strider Hiryu, and I wish someone would. After all, we're talking about one cool ass Cold War ninja here, and he deserves to shine once more.

[popculturebuffet]

Dia De Los Muertos Special Part 2 of 2: el Tigre: The Grave Escape (Comission For WeirdKev27)

Hola a todos ustedes gente feliz! It's time for the second part of our day of the dead spectacular so I hope you lost souls are hungry as we dive into one roast beast of a show with El Tigre under the cut!

El Tigre was part of something that i'm endlessly fascinated from and will likely keep touching on on and off till the end of time.. or until my lifespan reaches it's natural end.. being devoured by geese: the 2000's superhero show boom, which was awesome as hell and I still have to get to Jake Long, Kim Possible (which I sorta count), My Life as A Teenage Robot and MANY more at some point. It was a grand time and i'm still shocked this is the second show from it i've fully covered but here we are.

El Tigre set itself apart from the already great pack though with it's simple but brilliant premise: It's the story of the tweenage Manny Rivera, better known as El Tigre, who's the son of the goody good super babyface hero White Pantera.. and Grandson of the ubervillian Puma Loco. And that my friends is the hook: Instead of being a straight up superhero or crimefighter like his peers, Manny is torn between being a superhero or a supervillian, exploring both sides of his heritage. Helping him out or sometimes just hanging around is his best friend, sorta love intrest and enabler Frieda, a wild spirit whose ironically the daughter of the local asshole police chief. And to the shows credit the cops are not potrayed as good guys just due to position, with Frieda's dad, while meaning well, not being the best guy.

It's a hook that simply slaps. Manny still fights supervillians and has his own rogues gallery of course, many of whom hate him in paticular, but instead of just fighting the good fight he can often be motivated by his own selfish motives and impulsivness. He can also fight dirty, with the most memorable bit to me being from when he ended up fighting a bunch of senior citizen supervillians he bonded with.. and collapses their retirment home on them. They surivive, this cartoon's heavy on slapstick and very light in tone, but it's still not something you'd see Danny or Jenny pulling unless the villian was REALLY that strong or terrible. It gave the series it's own unique flavor.

It's also one of the two thigns, the other being the flash arc the return of barry allen which i've just added to the giant pile of things I need to cover, that cemented one of the superhero tropes I love the most: Legacy Heroes. The sense that this mantle the hero is wearing has a long history before them and will after them and that whoever picks it up matters. While Manny's only the second El Tigre, we'l lme the first in a moment, he's the latest in a long line of super heroes and villians and it's hard to pick which side of his lienage to go with and which beloved family member to turn his back on. It also makes the lack of him making a choice for some time easier to swallow as it's understandable a 12 year old both dosen't want to pick between his guardians, and wants to really think this out.

So naturally having never seen this episode in full I was excited to plunge into the Grave Escape. In addition to being a Dia De Los Muertos episode from Jorge freaking Gutieerz, series creator and awesome dude, it dives into that legacy as Manny meets every previous rivera.

So I was expecting a bit of an epic.. and what I got.. was…

The Grave Escape isn't a terrible episode, but it's underwhelming espeically since the setup is decent: Manny as he's grown older has gotten tired of day of the dead and while he feigns excitment for his Dad and Grandpapi's sake, he has no real intrest in it. This works as a lot of kids get disillusoned with holidays and it's a classic trope for a holiday special. The only part of it that dosen't it is Manny not believing in the Land of the Dead despite his famlies collective deadliest foe being.. Sartanna of the Dead. Whose the villian of this episode. It dosen't help both Manny and his father get their powers from magic and it's heavily implied Puma's mech suit is also magic powered. So yeah he has NO reason to not belivie this is possible.

He's not the only one though as Sartanna, fittingly enough, has a day of the dead plan: create a giant monster from the forgotten dead. It's simple, but it works, tying into the holdiay's themes of rememberance and Manny's own mistakes without making him responsible.

Said colossus easily trounces our three main characters and frieda.. and sends Manny and Frieda into the land of the dead. The Land of the dead is beautifully drawn and designed, and it's awesome that Gorge got to really expand it with book of life. I especially love how he draws calevera's, with a real flair to it. We also get a LOT of good comedy from Frieda whose entirely useless marevling over how awesome it is being a skeleton bones while Manny has to keep reminding her that if it finishes she dies… which never really takes. I do agree with her that being able to store a bird in your ribcage would be dope though.

The problem is that while we get the grand occasion of meeting all the past rivera's who wielded the various powers, and as expected of Jorge their designs are dope.. their ALMOST all interchangable, half being good half being bad. I mean one of the is Manny's great Grandfather, Grandpapi's DAD. But other than a brief hug between the two when the rivera's head ot the surface there isn't a lot. The conflict between them and Manny, them being mad he ate their offerings but eventuallyc oming to respect him and Manny becoming contrite, works well enough, it's why the episode is again mor e

Than actually bad, there's just no real personality to them. I get that Jorge likely coudln't get the runtime he wanted and this would've worked better as an hourlong, so I can't fault him there, and that he assumed there'd be more seasons where they could likely have flashbacks, but even with the small time other than one of them being a pirate, there's really nothing special other than neat designs.

Thankfully while most of them have no real personality we do meet one whose actually intresting and if Jorge was going to just pick ONE and stick with it this was the one. El Tigre. No not Manny.. THE ORIGINAL El Tigre. The first rivera and the one whose belt Manny inherited. He's a neat glimpse at what Manny could be both in good and bad ways: the good is that he shows off new powers Manny likely woudl've gotten had Nick not been nickleloden and we got more seasons: extending his claws, a firey roar, and the ablility to summon an ancient tiger spirit, an abliity that could be something all rivera's could do with their respective animals if they tapped into it but as seen by their confusion something Papi and Rudlopho haven't learned of. There's a lot of potetial here that's sadly untapped thanks to teh series short run, seriously Paramount give it a revivial come on.. or at least put it on there COME ON.

The bad.. is that El Tigre I didn't pick a side.. thus he developed two personaliteis instead, one a hero, one a villian and flip flops between the two. It shows that if Manny dosen't pick a side or find his own path between them, it could destroy him. And the potetial is there: Manny's being asked to pick between the two people he loves the most and can't just pick both: while his grandpapi and dad will always love him whichever side he chooses will turn one of them into an enemy. It's a stark cautoionary tale while also showing that this man is damn badass, kind and the kind of cool masked vigliante Manny could be no matter what side he chooses. The two are also great togehter with El Tigre Senior easily accepting his younger legacy and helping tutor him. It's also nice in that while Pantera and Loco take intrest in Manny there's no agenda to push him to a side here. El Tigre I just wants to help and leaves Manny in the hands of his family to figure it out, knowing whatever he decides, it's his path and he'll take one unlike him.

The finale is also awesome. Naturally the two sides split off into heroes and villians and it takes Manny shouting them into working together to save the day? how? (Something out of my butt)

yeah while the "Rivera Super Awesome Macho Blitz" is well.. super awesome, it comes right the fuck out of nowhere. I checked it's wiki entry: it wasn't in any other episode before this. Manny just brings it up as a possibly suicidal super move. It is a neat one, as it's a fastball special but instead of just throwing a guy, each rivera accelerates like ar ocket, then slowly one breaks off leaving the last one as a human bullet, with Manny having to pull out the ancient tigert spirit which WAS actually foreshadowed , to get to the finish line. It's an ass pull sure.. but it's so gloriously cool to see all the riveras in one attack that's so neatly thought out it dosen't matter.

So the rest of the Rivera's head into the sunset, Manny has a newfound respect for tradition, and everything is good. This episode.. is as I kept saying okay. it's not at it's full potetial but it's still enjoyable, still has good worldb luiding and tha tfinal attack really is something great. It's just too short for it's own good but what we have is still pretty great. Thanks for reading, consdier joining my patreon and viva los muertos.

[pqrachel]

So I came across @spicymancer's "Rumble after Dark" fighting game OCs and it kind of inspired me to think about a fighting game AU featuring a bunch of my OCs from different universes. (Mine wouldn't be as NSFW but maybe a little never hurt, since it's just for art anyways...)

None of this obviously would be canon but just thinking about the fighting game archetypes as a method of character exploration has been fun. And most of my fighting game experience comes from platform fighters so my archetype knowledge is a little whack but if you'll excuse that then,

My initial castings are these: (Long-ass ramble with multiple OCs and no sketches yet.)

Blanksford Series: -Gabby (Would be a Hit & Run Mix Up character. Using their teleportation and skateboarding to move around in a unique way. Might have a playstyle similar to Bridget Guilty Gear.) -Madi (While she's doesn't have any powers in-universe and wouldn't be much of a fighter on her own, her TTRPG char KyoVee would be a fun ranged zoner character. Definitely a lil shit, think Pac-Man / Pichu from Smash.) -Taylor (Give him a bit of gym time and training and he could be a well-rounded rushdown type of fighter, nothing too gimmicky prob my most standard fighter on the list. To make him more unique he could double as the announcer because that'd be super in character.) -Aeri (Even though she has powers in-universe she avoids conflict at all costs, so instead her TTRPG char (who doesn't have a name yet) would be an excellent grappler. A big orc with an axe. In my head I'm thinking of that scene in Drawtective where Gyorik put the bad guy in arm jail, mixed with Loxodont from Rivals 2.) -Artemis (Might take her off this list as I do sketches but for now she's a ranged zoner. Using her bow to keep distance, might play similar to Green Arrow from Injustice, idk) -Ultra-Dude (Of course I had to feature this dude as a heavy. He'd just be great for it. And it's not like I've been using him in-universe for anything other than that asshole with the strength and healing powers.)

Colostle: -Correll [Pirate Arc] (I think Correll would be a fun mid-range zoner. Using her spear to keep distance and her ice magic as a fun gimmick to make her a bit more unique. -Ivy Reyne (Definitely a fast and fun rushdown character. Like imagine Maypul from Rivals but grounded. She's agile AF and hits harder than you'd expect.) -Gratt & Tic Tac (I thought this would be a fun duo-fighter. Since Aanya's not my own OC I wanted to keep my Colostle reps pre-Tic Tac's death as far as timelines go but Tic alone wouldn't be enough. I didn't want to pair him with Correll cuz I thought that'd be a little hard and honestly the thought of leaving Gratt out felt bad, and with Tic Tac's help they could actually stand a chance.)

Mystic Mysteries: -Emra Corvus (The OG MysMys character. While I haven't focused on her a lot in-universe lately, I think she could be fun here. Using different elemental magic as stances. Like a mix of Robin and Shulk from Smash.) -Tehl (My biggest OC excluding actual gods and monsters. Xe'd easily be a heavy. Probably with a playstyle similar to Sylvanos from Rivals, instead of forest powers though xe'd used alien tech to backup xir playstyle.) -Dawn Ronik (I think she'd be a pretty well-rounded fighter. Again borrowing some of Tehl's alien tech for support but mostly just beign agile and powerful. Nothing too strong in any category but very hard to take advantage of.)

And my random OC to finish it off: -Syble (She was originally design as a rivals workshop character before I realized how much effort making an actual workshop character really was. She'd play kind of similar to Maypul or Shiek but with her own teleportation gimmicks. I've talked about these when I designed her and I think they're still on my tumblr somewhere though you might have to check back a bit to find them.) -pqkR6 (Easily a fighting game character, it'd be a robotic shoto fighter. Agile and able to take hits but also quick enough to get in its own damage.) -Hackphlegm (As a goblin sorcerer, he'd be a fun ranged hit&run/zoner type fighter. Might be too similar to Emra in playstyle would have to differentiate them somehow but other than that he's a solid inclusion.) -Darcy (Not a character I thought I'd bring back but looking at the archetypes I thought I needed more heavies. Darcy's werewolf form would be a grappler who's pretty big and would be weird to design around but fits really well into a fighting game.) -And also I might need one or two new OCs to tie it all together. (Off the top of my head I think one archetype I'm missing is the enby with a scythe archetype. You know characters like Thanatos, Testament, & Sawyer.) -And for another... (I'm also somehow missing a swordie. Like where's my over-inclusion of Fire Emblem characters. Like I have bladed weapons but they're mostly daggers. Gabby's skateboard maybe could be used like a sword but they wouldn't be a "swordie". Again Aanya's not my OC even though she's in my stories so I don't want to use her. Maybe make a few origin changes and my Terrarian could fit this role. Or Drake is an OC I haven't touched since I removed him from Blanksford canon years ago, he might fit here.)

[nyx-fey]

ASK BOX RULES

For simplicity I will be referring to my character as squid-dude and using they/them in the rules list, but they have many nicknames (no actual name yet) and they use just about any pronouns because they are an extension of me and are just as gender fluid as I am.

Will be updated in the future if need be.

1. Please do not introduce squid-dude to lemons! They will be terrified ! This is a sfw blog and I want to keep it that way- They will happily accept hugs, pets, and forehead kisses though.

(If I am working on a /nsft project I will gladly talk about it in depth in my soon to exist /nsft side blog. They will only be vaguely referenced in a sfw manner here)

2. No hate! You will make them sad. Squid is pro LGBT+, BLM, feminism, and honestly any movements that try and combat systemic oppression. They believe everyone should be able to live as they wish so long as it's not hurting others!

3. NO HATE!!! Putting it twice because squids do not believe in hurting others! Squid-dude is anti-TERF, anti Palestinian genocide, anti war on Ukraine, and anti-nazi!

(do not try using current events to justify your islamophobia or antisemitism. That is a horrendous thing to do when war crimes are being committed on children in the name of colonialism)

3. Please go easy on the Politics! Squids can only understand so much! He does love talking about good news though! (This is 100% only for my own benefit, I can only stand to think about the dangerous mess of my countries politics, and the actual genocides going on right now for so long before it sends me into a doom spiral. I know it's selfish, because there are people right now who don't have the ability to step away from what is happening to them. But I also have a really hard time believing that anything I do online will have any positive effect in stopping the rampit suffering we are seeing unfold right now. It is not a brand of hopelessness that I can stand to dwell on very often.

I swear I am boycotting and donating and writing representatives and protesting in real life- but I really, really need a place where I can pretend that the real world doesn't exist for a bit and it's with squid-dude. Do not mistake my silence on this Tumblr blog specifically as a passive complacency with current events- please)

4. Squid-dude doesn't like fighting! They have a soft little body and would do terribly! They will not get into fannon discourse with you because fandom is supposed to be fun! (But they will talk to you about the things they like if you are nice to them)

5. Please be nice to squid-dude! They are trying their best! Using any slurs around them will get you kicked off the beach! (You will be blocked)

6. Squid-dude doesn't want broken robots rusting on their beach! Spam bots will be kicked out!

7. Squid-dude has many tentacles, but they can only write so fast! They will try to answer your ask as soon as they can, please be patient with them!

8. Squid-dude loves horror and spooky friends, but don't go making messes on their beach! Keep it sfw and don't do excessive gore!

9. Sometimes squid dude needs a break! And they will return to the ocean to takes naps at the bottom of the sea floor! (Sometimes I can get overwhelmed by nothing in particular and may close my ask box, it will be temporary I promise)

10. Squid-dude loves meeting new people but mean strangers can be scary! (If someone is being a problem anonymously I will turn off anonymous asking)

11. Squid-dude is not required to answer your ask if it makes them uncomfortable! They will hide in their shell instead!

12. Have fun! Spend time with squid-dude whenever you want! They don't follow a human sleeping schedule! Ask them about their collection of things, what they're working on, see their drawings, or just sit on the beach with them! They likes to be pet, given treats, taken on adventures, and just generally interacted with!

[nyamhk]

Seriously though, the Undertale OST is one banger after the other.

Like, each song does exactly what it's supposed to be doing. You listen to Heartache and it just feels like the first boss fight but at the same time you feel the GLORY of the battle of a character who you would later find out used to be the freakin' queen of the place. You listen to Spear Of Justice and you're like "wow this does feel like I have a chaotic heroic maniac (with a heart) in front of me!" and then Death By Glamour like "Wow I DO feel like I'm under the spotlights with a super flashy robot trying to kill me!" and the best part is that this would normally be a super specific description but, with Undertale, no, like, that's literally just how accurate it feels each and every time.

But out with the battle themes, are you telling me that "sans." doesn't feel exactly like the town goof who is just making puns and selling hotdogs for your entire playthrough? And how the game somehow makes transitioning from the dark quiet glowy Waterfall to the fast paced, technological McDonald's playplace that is Hotland seem completely seamless? And just how much of the feeling of these places is not only nailed but also created by the OST itself? Making all the different types of art in your game flow with each other is super hard and with Undertale somehow it never clashes, everything just plays into everything else in a way that augments itself, making everything feel even greater and truly unique. I could go into detail about every single song and how it achieves this.

And how he lands just everything in his sound design. He knows how to make things jarring and threatening but also lighthearted in a way that's not cheesy when he doesn't want it to be. I think we are overlooking how much Toby's style in sound design has contributed to modern gaming, dude just somehow perfectly captured the vibe of things using unconventional methods. Looking at just about everything about Undertale, it's clear how perceptive he is as a person and how he is able to incorporate this in a way that is so lighthearted without getting rid of the nuance that makes works personal and timeless. When looking back at all of the little details, I'm genuinely pretty sure that for every little thing in his game he went "how can I make this more interesting?". Either that or, even more impressively, they were just spontaneous, which would also say a lot about the passion put into this game.

So, what did I learn from this?

I think his work has personally shown me that, as an artist myself, I should not try to chase anyone else's style but instead follow my own vision no matter how different or out place it might feel, no matter what everyone else is doing. Things will naturally flow together with consistency because, if they all genuinely come from my own perspective and view of the world, and if I get to know myself enough to be able to clearly define them and put them all together, well...there is no way left for them to clash, the art direction of my projects would literally be myself and my core beliefs. Anything slipping through the cracks of the narrative I'm trying to build would still come from the same place the narrative itself originated from.

It is hard not being scared of people making fun of you in that really nasty personal way that is often seen here on the internet. So this kind of positivity really helps...

Summary

I don't know how Toby did it but it's honestly some of the most impressive communication in art that I have ever seen. Rant over, I just needed to talk about this to literally anyone who would listen

[ticklishtimothee]

our final night alive (simon kalivoda x reader)

summary: the reader and simon are in the bathroom together before it all goes down. and hey, since all their friends are going to “pound-town” as simon would call it, why shouldn’t they?

a/n: i just watched fear street 1994 on netflix and totally fell in love with simon, so i wrote this. i promise i’m working on the requests in my inbox as well, i just had to get this idea out while it was fresh.

words: 1,740

While Kate and Josh go into the girl’s bathroom, you and Simon figure it’s best to leave them alone. So, you follow Simon into the boy’s room, the clothes you’d snatched from the lost and found clutched tightly in your hands.

“Hey, I’ll trade you this Iron Maiden t-shirt for the cardigan,” Simon grins.

“You want to wear this thing?” you ask, raising a brow and holding up the blue knitted nightmare in your hands. You can already tell how itchy the fabric would be against your skin.

Simon nods. “I think it would really accentuate my shoulders. I’ve been told they’re my best feature,” he says, winking.

“Whoever told you that was a liar,” you reply, but toss him the cardigan anyway.

He catches it easily, then tosses you the t-shirt in return.

He wastes no time in pulling the white t-shirt over his head, and you’re thankful to see it gone. It was bad enough that he’d been wearing it for all that time, regardless of the blood stains. You avert your eyes as he strips off his jeans as well.

“Nice tighty-whities,” you mutter.

Simon snorts. “Sorry for putting practicality over fashion.”

“Says the guy putting on a girl’s cardigan to fight monsters.”

“Touché.”

You turn to face the wall, pulling your own shirt over your head, checking your torso quickly for any traces of blood. Finding none, you pull the new t-shirt on.

Out of the corner of your eye, you realize Simon still isn’t making an effort to get dressed. Instead, he’s checking himself out in the mirror, and you can’t tell if he’s goofing off or actually looking for any stains to wash off of his skin.

“You have some blood on your back,” you tell him. “Can’t tell if it’s Sam’s or yours, but better safe than sorry.”

Simon looks in the mirror, tilting his head to catch a glimpse, and furrows his brows. “I don’t see it. Help me out?”

You grab a handful of paper towels from the dispenser and wet them under the sink. “Turn around.”

He does so, and you find the blood in question and wipe it off.

He jumps under the touch. “You couldn’t have used warm water?” he asks, difficult as always.

“I could let this sink run for five minutes and it’d be warm at best,” you reply. “You think this place has the budget for hot water?”

He chuckles. “Yeah, I guess so.”

There’s a pause, and you’re still standing behind him, your eyes scanning over the pale expanse of his back, taking in each freckle. His shoulders were pretty nice, actually.

“You know you’ve gotta change your pants, too,” he says.

“Oh, right,” you say, cheeks burning. You go back to the pile of your things. When you look up, he’s watching you. “Am I allowed a little privacy?” you ask.

He smiles. “You could go into the stall.”

You roll your eyes. “Or you could turn around and not be a pervert.”

“Hey, you already saw me in my underwear,” he points out.

You scowl at him, then hook your thumbs into the waist of your pants and pull them down in a quick, fluid motion. You toe off your shoes to take them off entirely, leaving them on the tiled floor. “Happy?” you ask.

His smile fades. “What happened to your thigh?”

You look down and see the injury he’s referring to. Honestly, you’d been so caught up in everything going on, you’d barely noticed the shallow gash in your skin, but now that it was brought to the forefront of your mind, the dull ache began to settle.

“I don’t know,” you reply. “I guess one of those psychos grazed me.”

Simon takes another wad of paper towels. “May I?” he asks.

You nod, and he dampens them under the faucet. “Come put your leg up to the sink.”

You do as he says, wincing at the first contact he makes with it.

“Sorry,” he practically whispers. “I don’t have anything to bandage it up with, but the least we can do is get it clean, okay?”

“Okay.”

His face is close to your bare leg, making goosebumps rise where his nose and lips brush the skin. He’s gentle with you, one hand holding your leg steady while the other dabs at the wound tenderly, and you watch as the red mess slowly begins to clear up, leaving the wound still open but no longer bleeding.

“There, that should be better,” he says. “When we find the others, maybe they’ll have something to patch you up with.”

“Thanks.”

You place both feet back on the ground, standing before Simon, both partially undressed (him more than you) and trying to hide the feelings of terror in both of your chests.

“Do you think Deena and Sam are gonna make up?” you ask. “Oh, I think they’re probably fucking as we speak,” he replies.

You give him a light smack to the back of his head. “You’ve got such a dirty mind.”

“I’m serious! Kate and Josh are probably doing it, too. The whole last-night-on-earth thing gets people horny, don’t you know?”

“Oh, so we’re all gonna be killed by some freaks, so we should be banging?” you ask.

“Are you asking in general, or about us?”

You pause. “Both.”

His cheeks flush pink, and you swear it’s the first time you’ve ever seen him embarrassed. “In general, yeah, I think it’s human instinct to seek out some pleasure before the end. As for us, well...If you’re down, I’m down.”

You stare at him for a second. “Really?”

“Only if you want to, I mean—”

You grab him by the shoulders and kiss him, effectively cutting off his rambling.

In no time, he’s pushed your back against the cool, tiled wall of the bathroom, kissing you back fevertently. You thread your fingers through his blond curls, and he sighs against your lips.

“Can I touch you?” he asks, breathless.

You nod, and he brings a hand between your legs, fingers running over your underwear teasing, making you shiver. 

“Can I be honest with you?”

“Yes,” you reply.

“I’ve never done this before,” he says, unable to meet your eye. “But I have a pretty good idea of what to do.”

“Me either,” you tell him. “It’s okay. We’ll figure it out together.”

He nods and pulls you in for another kiss, this time rubbing you through your panties. You whine softly into his mouth.

“Does that feel good?”

“Try doing it a little gentler—oh, yes, like that…”

You can feel his hard cock against your belly as he reaches his hand down the front of your underwear. “Is this okay?”

“Yes, yes, it’s fine.”

Carefully, he finds your hole and presses one finger inside, making you clench nervously at first.

“Hey, hey, it’s okay. Do you want me to stop?”

You shake your head. “No, it’s fine. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Try to relax for me,” he all but coos in your ear, and you do so.

He lets his finger slowly curl and uncurl inside you, stretching you out.

“Do you want to…?” you ask.

“I don’t have a condom,” he says, knowing exactly what you were going to ask.

“Well, if you get me pregnant, we’ll probably be dead before it’s even got arms and legs.”

He chuckles, and you appreciate that he’s able to find humor in the fucked up things, just like you.

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

He yanks down his underwear, and while you’d teased him about it before, the tight, white fabric didn’t leave much to the imagination. Simon wraps his arms around your waist and hoists you up, bringing you over to the sink and sitting you down on the brim of it.

“There’s no way this thing is gonna hold us,” you say.

“If we break it, we’ll be dead before they make us pay for the damages,” he replies, and you laugh.

He makes quick work of pulling your panties down, and they fall to the floor as he parts your knees. “Please tell me if I hurt you,” he says. “I want it to feel good.”

You nod. “I promise.”

He lines himself up with your entrance, pushing his hips forward. He misses the first time, sort of poking the head of his cock into the crease of your thigh, and you both chuckle awkwardly at the mishap. The second time, he gets closer, but his cock slides upward and between your folds, making your legs jerk in surprise.

“Sorry, sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

The third time, he succeeds, and the initial stretch of his head entering you makes your breath catch in your throat.

“Should I stay still for a sec? Let you adjust?”

You nod, and so he does.

“You can move now.”

Slowly, he rocks his hips forward, and you manage to take more of him. Without you asking, he waits again, letting you get used to the feeling.

Your nails dig into his back. “You can go, I’m good.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Simon, I’m sure,” you reply.

“Alright, I’m just double-checking!”

He fucks you carefully, his own movements a bit robotic at first, but when you pull him close to lock your lips together once again, he falls into a rhythm, and your ass hurts from sitting on the stupid sink, but he feels so good, his hot breath tickling your neck as he fucks you.

“Oh, fuck,” he breathes. “I’m sorry, I’m already—”

“It’s fine, don’t apologize. You can come, just try to pull out,” you say.

He nods, and you can see him scrunching up his face, trying to gain some control and keep from cumming. It doesn’t make him last much longer, and he pulls out just in time, and you scoot to the side in a hurry, his come landing in the basin of the sink.

“Jesus Christ,” he breathes. “I’m sorry, I can try to finger you again, or something.”

You laugh. “Simon, it’s fine. Some dudes would have come just from seeing me in my underwear. It’s fine.”

He nods, and his forehead is slightly sweaty, hair sticking to it, and his cheeks are flushed.

“I feel bad if you die and I didn’t give you an orgasm,” he says.

“Well then let’s both try our hardest not to die, and you can give me one another time. Deal?”

He grins. “Deal.”