#i really should sleep lol

[darkopsiian]

i stumbled into my old emo playlist back when i was in school so i returned to form and drew an edgy spinda.

all because i made this fucker in showdown.

[katyspersonal]

Okay so, this evening I said that I am not going to bed until I make a progress in Elden Ring because I've abandoned the quest to finally beat it

.....it is 5 AM now 🙃 fhghfhh

Okay, but I actually went SOMEwhere? I let Melina burn herself (oof..), met Maliketh (Val warned me to not kill him just yet), went all the way down to Erdtree, finished Milicent's quest and met Malenia (even get to her 2nd phase xd) So yeah, night well spent! Three things though:

1) I had no, I mean NO fucking CLUE at ALL that Gowry apparently was something like Shabriri; the guy that transcended the bounds of having a body and now switches 'vessels', and has no balls capacity to "fuckin do it yourself then, if you're so darn smart" about the power they preach, but does try to pitch a Lord/God for it in someone else. Incredible. I want to thank everyone who never talked about Gowry, because I appreciated the plot twist :')

2) The flower before we find Malenia is confusing, because, yeah, the clothes set found near it is the same as the one five sisters wear.. I am more leaning towards the idea that there was another person like Milicent that bloomed 🤔

3) I kind of expected a bit... worse, from her fight? Honestly, that slashing swords attack (Waterfall Dance, if I am not mistaken?) could have lasted just a bit less long, but I think otherwise she is manageable? I tried a few things and figured to keep her at enough distance to reliably attack with Starcaller Cry (Radahn's swords), since it will also often throw her off her feet, and for the second stage I summon a spirit ash for distraction and start spamming glintstone spells and pray she doesn't notice me gfhhhfjh Basically, it depends on my luck whether she will slash in stage 1 or not and on my ability to react at her moves fast enough. Can't say whether strength+int built is simply good or I am too tired for gamer rage though 🤔

But yeah, hopefully I will get through this battle in the next episode of fucking around and finding out xd

[bacchuschucklefuck]

typical tavern scene

[voidedjuice]

had a dream i was in a grimdark magical girl yuri setting, so when i woke up i made it real (and bug themed)

bonus details under the cut:

So basically, a small town was secretly holding onto a box containing an evil god, that the local group of magical girls accidentally stumbled on and opened. The thing inside it wasted no time in starting to destroy the world, and for an unknown reason, one of the magical girls even joined forces with it. The rest of the girls managed to beat them, saving the world, but ended up dying from the curse it left on them soon after.

After dying, butterflies girl looped back in time before the box got opened, and decided to keep the box for herself, to make sure its evil influence (box thing yapping at you to let her out) wouldn't get to her beloved friends. Box thing constantly draws in her allies to the town to break her out & tries to convince butterflies girl to please let her out.

Also here's a really rough relationship chart for your interest:

[amelia-yap]

AUEGH

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Four was honestly surprised how many people were here. It was his first big trip, and it was definitely overwhelming. He was usually a loner, but he had to admit… he was thankful he’d asked a friend to come along.

Legend laughed as he texted someone, face glowing with glee. He elbowed Four mischievously. “We should definitely send pictures to Wars.”

“Is that who you’re texting?” Four asked with a smile, enjoying the cheer from his usually grumpier friend. Legend adored education conferences - his friend was nothing if not a lover of learning and exploring new things.

“Oh absolutely,” Legend replied, showing his phone. “He’s upset because I went to the emergency medicine conference and then went to this one. Personally, I think he’s just jealous because I have a cert he doesn’t.”

“Wait, Wars doesn’t have his CCRN?” Four questioned, confused. He figured Warriors, who had everything in his life in order, would have his critical care nursing certification. It was fairly common for nurses in ICU and ED settings.

“Nope!” Legend quipped with delight, obviously ecstatic that he had something over the military nurse.

“Okay, but important question: where are we going to get dinner?”

“Somewhere it doesn’t cost half our paycheck.”

Four glanced around at the skyscrapers. “Uh… not sure we’re going to manage that. I didn’t think the Hebra Mountains had cities like this.”

“Well, then we can contemplate Brugada Syndrome and complicated EKG rhythms while we starve,” Legend supposed.

“Oh, don’t be like that,” Four laughed. “This is a trip, we shouldn’t worry about the cost too much.”

”We don’t make Time’s salary.”

“But we make decent salary.”

Legend bit his lips, stubborn. Four narrowed his eyes analytically. “This isn’t about how much the food costs; it’s because you’ve blown your budget on coffee, isn’t it?”

His friend immediately flushed, guilty as charged. “They charge ten rupees for coffee! Ten!! This place is ridiculous!”

“I told you your caffeine addiction would come back to bite you someday,” Four smiled. “Or, well, more so than it already has.”

“I swear, if you bring up the SVT episode one more time—”

[like-the-rest-of-la]

Happy Little Accidents

The last thing Eddie Diaz expects to come out of his trip to Buckley’s Plant Nursery & Landscaping with his son, is to develop an honest to god schoolgirl crush on the guy who owns the place (and not notice that that is what’s happening for an embarrassingly long time).  

The plan is simple. Get in, have Christopher pick out a couple of succulents or whatever he needs for his school project, and get out without infesting any of the gorgeous plants in the shop with his bad plant karma. 

But then, the first thing he’s greeted with is a hunk of a man, carrying two heavy packs of soil on his broad shoulders. Eddie swears he can see a drop of sweat running down the man’s face in slow motion. His t-shirt looks like it’s one strategic muscle flex away from bursting at the seams and Eddie—Eddie feels nervous all of the sudden. And he’s gaping like a fish. 

“Hey,” Hunk-man says as he hoists the soil on the counter next to him with a grunt, “What can I help you with?”

At least Eddie has enough self-awareness to close his mouth.

Or: the one where Buck owns a plant nursery and Eddie stumbles through his crush (and has no game during all of it)—oh and also, there are a lot of Bob Ross references.

Read on Ao3

(With a banner by the wonderful @theladyyavilee thank you so so so much <3)

[todayisafridaynight]

[wp100]

[chibishortdeath]

Alright I’ve thought about, I’m gonna actually start posting some of my criticisms of Netflixvania starting with the first season. I actually have a notepad document on my computer somewhere that’s just various rants about it that I’m gonna take from lol

Rant under a cut cause it’s long, spoilers, and also cause uh tldr I do not like the show 💀

Ok let’s start from the beginning of the show, episode one.

The first episode isn’t terrible, it’s a bit rocky, some red flags here and there for what was to come, but that’s kinda expected of animations like this. It usually takes them a couple episodes to pick up and grow into their own, so I was skeptical, but not gonna knock it entirely when I first saw it.

My biggest criticism of this episode was the complete missed opportunity to introduce certain characters from this section of the series’s story. Imagine if they had shown Isaac and Hector in the background of the castle or something at this point for foreshadowing later, as they would’ve already been studying under Dracula at that time. Imagine if that old woman Lisa helped ended up being one of Lyudmil’s family members, cementing them as friends of her for later. Alas, Netflix just decided not to use most of the already written backstories for most characters. But eh, that’s getting into nitpick territory.

And then the second episode happens… I honestly genuinely hate the concept of the Speakers and it’s because they completely replace a much more interesting (especially for the tone and themes they were going for) group for Sypha to be a part of: The Church. In the game, Sypha is a witch, something that’s currently not very good to be at this time, however the church employs a bunch of male wizard soldiers. This is already a perfect opportunity set up and ready to go for them to make their points of the church being hypocritical, add some intense dramatic irony with maybe the audience getting to know Sypha is a witch before anyone else does and seeing her interact with a bunch of people who would have her dead if they knew, and create a super conflicted situation where these church soldiers all die during their encounter with the cyclops, but yet they scrapped it for uh random group of magic users that kinda exist entirely for a plot that didn’t need a new device to work. And Sypha just being all hood down and no hiding just takes away something interesting about her character, making her kinda bland in the process. Like it’s one thing to have the Girl™️ who owns the braincell trope and another to have a character with some actual immediate conflicts. They totally could’ve played up the “oh no if Trevor knew would he kill me” dynamic, especially with witches being commonly lumped in with ‘monsters’ in a lot of other media and Trevor being ya know a monster hunter. And already just from this one design choice she completely loses her symbolic putting the hood down scene for much later in the story to show that she actually trusts people and feels safe enough to not need to hide anymore because she’s got people on her side now.

Also the lack of Grant is just a crime in itself. Grant could’ve worked perfectly as like the everyman of the group. Hell, with his background of being a former noble turned thief presumably after hard times to straight up losing his entire hometown to flames and leading a revolution about it, Grant literally has like almost every common not magical vampire hunter person experience. He could’ve given the group any of those perspectives and been told the perspectives of the vampire hunting life he hasn’t had, ya know? And he’d help differentiate the personalities and humors of the group in general. I literally can’t think of a negative to having Grant in the group.

So we were robbed of character development for Sypha and the existence of Grant, what’s next—

The Bishop character is someone that could’ve been interesting if he was written with any kind of nuance, but instead he’s extremely on the nose and blatantly laughably evil. Otherwise this guy is pretty forgettable besides how lame it was that they used Blue Fangs to kill him instead of ya know an actually recognizable enemy. Like the Blue Fangs design wouldn’t be bad if it was in literally anything else, but compared to the designs of most Castlevania monsters it’s just really lame. I’d’ve even accepted a Warg or something, idk. Personally I think having Death walk in taking the form of Zead and going through that speech while eventually turning into the skeleton form we know him as woulda gone hard but for some reason Death isn’t a thing until seasons later which sucks.

I also absolutely hate Alucard and the Cyclops being in the catacombs! Hate it! The Cyclops kinda had like a courtyard area for it and made sense being there since it was standing guard on the way to the castle. Literally what it is even doing in the catacombs 💀💀💀. Standing guard for… eepy Alucard? Why??? And the whole sleeping soldier thing or whatever they called him is just so obviously an excuse to have him appear faster and make it seem like it tied into the plot. Alucard absolutely should not have been introduced to the main group this early on because again that robs him of a bunch of opportunities for background and character development. He got maybe the one oh no dad don’t commit mass death that’s bad scene and nothing else when they had plenty of time to show him initially following his fathers orders and eventually growing to stand against him. And again??? Missed opportunity for anything radio drama related??? Like if there’s any opportunity to get any of that story more known it’s in an animation? And besides, it’s less work to just use whatever materials and supplemental materials already existed for the game!

Dracula’s Curse and CoD have:

Two games

Two manuals

Three manga (TokyoPop and Preorder)

A couple game guides

Flashback sequences in a radio drama

Flashback sequences in SotN AKA: the game everyone knows

A ton of references in later games cause IGA is a big Dracula’s Curse fanboy

Pachinkos

That is plenty of material to make an animation based on, especially because most games don’t get half of that, especially not NES games. They were literally handed like the NES game to adapt lottery and decided not to scratch like half the ticket 💀💀💀.

Alucard also being able to levitate kinda negates a lot of things. Like what the hell is the point of having a bat/mist form and a double jump then? If he can just be flying vampire Jesus immediately or whatever people call him idk. And you can’t tell me Alucard wouldn’t be painfully embarrassed if someone ever saw him shirtless come on this is the guy that wears like 5 layers of clothing in every game he’s in to the point that even in the modern era he’s choosing a suit over casual clothes. Every action he makes in this introduction to him is obviously fanservice for the sake of fanservice with very little thought behind it, except I’m not feeling very served right now. And having Trevor kinda lose that fight is a reoccurring problem this show ends up having: putting down other characters just to make certain ones get the cool fanservice moment. Contrary to what the writers of this show may believe, it actually doesn’t make me go “oh wow, Alucard is so cool and much badas”, it just feels weird and uncomfortable that Trevor is getting cheated out of one of his canon achievements because the writers preferred one character’s tits more than him.

So, basically, the show starts out with missed opportunities, concepts and characters getting cut out, watered down versions of characters that did make it in, cheap fanservice, poor explanations for things, etc etc. this all culminates into a resounding m e h + dread for later seasons being worse (boy was I correct on that fear lol).

Here’s some other things for the first season I didn’t know where else to fit:

None of the humor hit for me at all, like not a single joke. The humor was either a no response at best, but definitely a physically wincing from secondhand embarrassment at worst. Related to this, I feel like most of the dialogue reads like either someone who just learned what swear words are and thinks they’re really cool and funny or genuinely forced. At times most of the characters talk with the same delivery, cadence, personality, etc, it’s really obvious they were all written by the same person or group. And that even goes for background and side characters, too. This is a criticism I’ve never seen said: I really don’t like the voice acting in this show. I’m sure it’s no fault of the voice actors at all, but there were times in this where I either could not hear characters properly or could not understand characters properly and I had to watch it with closed captions on. The clearness and volume of the characters voices varies A LOT even just between scenes sometimes. And that combined with all the characters having really similar speech patterns, there were a lot of times where if I looked away from the screen, I genuinely could not tell if it was Alucard or Trevor speaking cause it sounded like it could reasonably have been either of them (and in some cases it literally didn’t even matter that much which character was saying what). It’s an absolute tragedy that the color schemes in this show are not remotely similar to Dracula’s Curse too. I understand why some color combos wouldn’t make it for eyestrain reasons, but the pixel artwork in all the NES titles is beautiful. Same goes for music, like I am never going to forgive this series for using Bloody Tears for a Dracula’s Curse ‘adaptation’ and not Beginning or Aquarius or Dead Beat or Ghost Ship or Clockwork or— ya know? These are two things that the series are really known for so you’d think with some of the fanservice they did they’d be all kinds of ready to use stuff like that for more of it.

Anyway, past season one is when I started watching the series primarily through clips/episodes reposted on YouTube or elsewhere cause I had completely lost any interest in it. I’ll probably go through synopsises online again for season 2 just to try to better remember what happened in that one because I do remember having very little good to say about season 2 as well and I gotta do that research so I can hate things properly :3.

There’s a certain part of this where I just kinda blanked on things to even say, partially because Season one is kinda bland in general, but partially because I started getting sleepy while typing. So if I feel like I missed anything season one specific I’ll just put it in the beginning of the season two post. d(_ _ )

[anxiouspotionofgloom]

Day 1 - A Memory In Amber (Cooking Together)

[Hi! I've decided to try the @hot-scarian-summer-2024 ! Can't promise I'll do all days, and I'm really sorry if I mess up anything: it's my first time trying to participate into an online thing, and it's making me really anxious but we persevere! Also please forgive me it's a bit rushed, things just keep happening to me T-T. Awesome day/night to you all!]

-

"Grian-" The words are breathless, almost on the run, and he can feel the tell-tale signs of Scar flying a little too close - a loud woosh followed by the sounds of crushed gravel. 

With a practiced ease, Grian steadies him, rolling his eyes as Scar dusts himself off. As distinguished as he wants to be, he couldn't really fool anyone. 

"Just the man I wanted to see!" His eyes sparkle as he smiles, and there's that familiar feeling in his stomach - a roll and a twist all at once, a rollercoaster ending right into the vulnerable flesh of his belly - and Grian already knows he'll fall for whatever scam the other is preparing.

- 

"You want me to cook for you?" Grian can't erase the incredulity out of his tone, and Scar winces in turn.

"No! Not really!" His hands dance, waiving in and out of his space as if he could convince him further by speaking with his whole body instead of only his words. "We would be cooking together."

The grass crumples against his shoes when he wordlessly starts to walk, and Grian doesn't have to wait for the tip tap of Scar's cane to know the other will follow. The two of them are like that sometimes, human-sized stars waiting to collide.

Still, the whole ordeal fails to make sense in his eyes - and even if it's Scar, there are not many of his ideas that so completely escape his sense of understanding. "You want me to help you cook... for you and someone else?" 

"Well..." The word trails off, and in the ill-fitted silence his mind tries to picture this nebulous person, the one worth this much effort on a Friday night. 

If Grian's honest with himself, in the quick second it takes to remember Scar's earnest face as he'd asked for help, he's just the tiniest bit jealous. And pissed. The two emotions mix in his guts and leave him with an acidic aftertaste.

Scar fumbles through an explanation all the way to his base. 

-

"So. What was your idea?" 

"For?" 

Grian can already feel himself grow irritated at his future cooking assistant - big green eyes blinking in confusion at him. There's something he does not dare name stirring in his chest: it feels awfully like drowning. "For cooking obviously. Unless you need me to clean the place too?" 

It sounds defensive. Scar is quick to pick up on it too, and Grian tries not to let the analytical look resting on his back win. 

"Are you okay? You look... tired." It's a kind way of describing his frown. Feeling the tiny claws of culpability sink into his heart, Grian swallows any leftover irritation and clears his throat, just to be sure. "Sorry. I'm assuming you have a meal in mind?"

It's only when he turns to speak face to face that Grian realizes - Scar is close, skirting the edges of his personal space, and there's a hesitating hand stretched his way. It hangs in the air for a heavy moment, and in the time it takes for an unsteady breath to rattle his lungs, it retreats back to its owner. Grian shudders all the same, and hopes the weather is cold enough to justify it. 

Continuing as if nothing happened, Scar answers. "Well, at first no, but then I asked around for the best dish to make for a date and-"

Grian almost chokes. "You're having a date?"

Right here and then, the need to turn back and bury himself at the bottom of the sea is almost strong enough for him to run away.

-

"You had to ask my help for pasta?"

Scar smiles, a sheepish expression on his face that would be cute if Grian could stop picturing the very same face lit up by candlelight, smiling at someone that wasn't him. He hates, hates the situation this impossible man has put him in, and yet his heart softens as Scar speaks. 

As much as he despises what's happening, there's no denying that Scar is hard to hate. He's annoying, sure. A bit careless, definitely. But at the end of the day, when the dying sun hits his face just right - molten gold staining the brown halo of his hair, emerald eyes looking at him as if Grian was something precious - well. There's only so much a man can handle before his fingers shake with the need to reach out and touch.

(Nobody blames the sea for kissing the white sand of the shore: nobody stops a volcano from erupting. Those things just happen.)

Grian only tunes back in at the end of Scar's speech, something about judging people and trying out new things. Half of it derails from the original point, but Scar smiles confidently through it all. Even then, Grian kind of wants to punch him in his perfect little teeth, for giving him a taste of something he will not get to have.

-

"Void help me, if you put this spoon into your mouth, I will kick you out of this kitchen."

Scar pouts. "I don't see why it's such a big deal, the water is boiling, so it's gonna get disintegrated anyways!"

Unyielding, he does not stop glaring until the aforementioned spoon is well away from the steaming pot of pasta. "I don't care about disinfecting the  spoon, it is disgusting, and I'm sure that your date will agree with me here."

Something in Scar's eyes shines, and his stomach twists unhappily at his own reminder that Scar won't be alone tonight. "You think?" It sounds happy, and Grian hates himself for the burning need to twist the knife deeper.

"Do I know them?" 

There's a second of confusion on Scar's face, before an easy smile overtakes it. "You can say that, yeah." 

Frustration bubbles in his chest. If only Scar would stop being so damn deliberately obtuse about the identity of that mysterious date! It's not like he'd do something drastic about it. Too much of a coward to willingly expose himself like that.

I don't want you to date anyone, he swallows back again and again as the meal shapes itself together. I wanted to be the one you chose. None of the words pass the airtight wall of his teeth. Instead, all that comes out of it is a forced "Let's work on that sauce."

He'd said it himself: Grian was a coward.

-

He feels dumb, standing in the middle of the kitchen as they wait for the food to cool down. 

Untying the knot of his apron - aiming for nonchalant and landing quite a few meters away, right into something like dread, Grian asks. "So. When are they getting here?" 

For the first time of the night, Scar's face morphs into something anxious, like he's not quite sure of where to go from now on. 

Gently, he sets the plates on the table, watching Grian in the corner of his eyes all the while. "About that."

There's a hopeful smile on his face, looking slightly strained around the edges. There's a hopeful smile on his face as Scar looks straight at him.

A horribly promising realization starts to tickle the back of his head. All at once, the dots connect, as fast as it takes for the electrical impulse in his brain to reach his heart and make it skip a beat. There are a million words fleeting through his mind, an entire vocabulary flying out the window, and all that comes out of his gobsmacked mouth is "You."

"I thought. You know. You, me, and a meal I-" Sensing the murderous intent forms before his eyes, Scar corrects himself. "We cooked, I thought it would be a good idea?" 

Grian stands still, eyes flickering in between the two plates set on the table and Scar. Truly, there's no words to be had. His hand grips the back of the chair a bit too tight, and Scar grimaces. "It doesn't have to be a date, of course, it could be a totally platonic dinner with candles in between- friends." 

It's enough to snap Grian back into reality. "Oh no you don't! You- Yo made me cook a meal for an hour-" Cutting Scar short with an accusatory finger against his chest, he continues. "Don't pretend you were anything remotely close to useful." 

Getting closer, he tries to muster all the damned annoyance and self-control it took to go this far. Scar doesn't look very assured. Good. "You made me miserable, and now you're trying to back out?"

The other's face does some strange gymnastics then, but Scar had always been quick to understand the underlying thought in his words, and Grian, despite the way fury ran through his veins, couldn't help but mirror the slow smile on his face.

Hesitancy fading away as Grian gripped the front of his shirt, Scar held both his cheeks in his hands, as gentle as he'd imagined it to be, in the dark of the night, burning from the embers of a forgotten dream. 

The smile on Scar's face looks awfully close to a confession, and the raw feeling in his chest melts into something much more pleasant. "I'm sorry. Let me make it up to you?"

"You better."

[shepards-folly]

WHO NEEDS GOD WHEN YOU CAN BE WORSHIPPED LIKE ONE?!

[taxi-cab-to-slowtown]

Got on the Barbie and Ken mug-shot wagon with Jason and Roy. (I don't know how I feel about Jason's high collar but I had to cover Barbie's hair somehow).

[sparkleresthold]

Dr. Viktor my beloved 💜💚

[blitz0hno]

Speaking of trial 2 going into trial 3 I think the best possible thing they could do with John is have him TRY to disappear and essentially just "become" Mikoto again, and get incredibly frustrated because he cannot do that; despite having "agreed" to it he cannot just make himself leave, which gets Mikoto to realize that This DID Thing Is Real and that he's John's alter as much as John is Mikoto's alter. If that makes sense

[stuffyflowers]

Oh no pressure or rush or anything, but I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on Starlo's family and his relationship with them because truly no one talks about them despite Starlo being the fandom's darling, even though I find the way his family feels about him and the Wild East fascinating 👀

writing this at 3 in the morning sorry if it SUCKKKS lol

YEA YEAHHHHHH I love how each of them have their own unique perspective on star n the wild east.. though I do think there’s a pretty depressing through line that.. they kinda look down on what he does in one way or another

ok so. orions the most blatant abt it. he’s condescending as fuck towards clover after assuming they’re from the wild east. and it’s more him projecting his jealousy n resentment of stars life than anything else, seeing himself as the one burdened with “real” responsibilities

crestina is a bit more subtle, seeing the whole thing as something he needs to overcome so he can live a “proper” life (probably expecting him to follow in her and her husbands footsteps)

Solomon is the only one who really acknowledges the wild east in a positive light, but even then it’s bc he’s able to justify it as starlo using it to save their farm (even tho afaik there’s really no hard evidence that was his intention)

i see a lot of people joking about how weird it is that star never talks to his family when they live like. 3 ingame rooms across from his town but honestly? I can totally understand why. his family does love him (just look at how devastated they are when he “goes missing” in neutral) but they don’t seem to really consider that this life he’s built for himself is how he finds fulfilment and feels happy about who he is. like. every time kid star is talked about before he found those westerns he’s anxious at best and miserable at worst, they should all know star wasn’t happy living this life

I do like that we see them all setting up for the markets w/ the wild east residents in the pacifist credits: the implication that they’ve come to terms with who starlo is, no longer looking down on his accomplishments, and r finding a middle ground w him. joyous. more people should talk about these guys I love them