#ignore that they’re all basically doing the same pose

[iwasarob0t]

fishies

[thesuperiorgenshinaddict]

Vox N$FW Alphabet

AN: yeah i never thought i would actually post on tumblr but boom here i am. sorry for shitty layout because i just want to pump my hcs out and get it done w/ kekw also i think i made him a bit more of an asshole than ppl usually do so sorrryyy maybe idk Pairing: Vox x GN! Reader Warnings: Sexual content, Top! Vox, Mild degradation, not sure what else idk A = Aftercare (what they’re like after sex) Lets be honest, this dude would NOT do aftercare whatsoever. He'll just go take a shower or something (yes he's waterproof if you say otherwise you're wrong L + Ratio) and when you blankly stare at him like 'wtf bro' this dude will not catch on until you straight up tell him to help you out. Once you successfully got the dude to consistently do aftercare, he'll get you a towel and clean you up and shit.

B = Body part (their favorite body part of theirs and also their partner’s) This man is a raging narcissist. Probably looks in the mirror, fixes his ugly ass bowtie and does twelve different practiced poses every morning to make sure the public knows he's fucking sexy. He probably loves every part of him besides his side profile, or maybe he would like it because it's 'sleek, modern, state of the art' or some technology bullshit. Loves his claws though. He'd probably be really into ass. Thighs too, but slightly less. I have no clue why but I am convinced he fucking loves legs and all of that. I think he'd like your expression too, mainly because he feels like a god knowing that he makes you feel like that. Don't do mirror sex if you want him to focus on you though, because he's looking at himself more than he's looking at you.

C = Cum (anything to do with cum, basically) It glows blue. Same shade as his claws and is electric. Don't put it next to fire, it'll burn the fuckin' tower down. Tastes mildly salty and has the same effect as pineapples where it feels like it's biting back. For body parts he likes to cum on, he probably would do it literally anywhere. Inside, on the stomach, on your face, ANYWHERE. Maybe not bukkake because he doesn't want it to get too messy and have to clean it up, that's too much work for a quick jizz.

D = Dirty secret (pretty self explanatory, a dirty secret of theirs) Secretly finds you attractive romantically. Is it even a dirty secret? He'd just be too scared to do anything besides flirting and sex and shit for a long time. Maybe appeal to him enough and he'll take you on a completely romantic and sweet date that doesn't involve him blowing your back out afterwards. Christ, why the fuck is that somehow more appealing than having a one-nighter with him? Maybe I'm tweaking. Ignore this if you want. Go on and live your life with sweet husband Voxxy dookers buddy, I'm not judging too hard. Probably.

E = Experience (how experienced are they? do they know what they’re doing?) Pretty experienced. Unless you have some wild ass kink, chances are, he's probably smooth as fuck with it. Go wild.

F = Favorite position (this goes without saying) Mating press. I originally thought I was just biased as fuck since I love the whole thought of mating press and shit, but apparently a good amount of people agree with me. He probably loves being close to you and mating press lets him fuck your brains out. Wants to be as deep as physically possible in you, and you're vulnerable to him and he's looooving it.

G = Goofy (are they more serious in the moment? are they humorous? etc.) Definitely is leaning on the more serious side. If he's joking around, it wouldn't be in a 'haha funny' way, it'd be more of a condescending way where he's making fun of how pathetic you are. Or horny, or something along the lines of that. I feel like he'd do makeup sex, so if that's the case, I can assure you he is not cracking jokes. Maybe cracking your legs apart though. Fuck, that wasn't funny.

H = Hair (how well groomed are they? does the carpet match the drapes? etc.) No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. No hair. He wouldn't grow hair there. Uh. Anyway, I don't want to have so little shit written here, so when he was alive, he probably was pretty well taken care of down there. I think a bit more hair than trimmed, but not the whole ass Amazon forest, ya get what I mean? Why the fuck did I say that? Okay. Regardless, I think of him being like dark brown hair when he was alive. Probably was a few shades darker on his dicky wicky cocky okay seriously I have to stop wtf

I = Intimacy (how are they during the moment? the romantic aspect) He'd be physically close to you, but if you're a one night stand, expect NOTHING emotional from him. Nada. Nothin'. On the other hand, if he was dating you or married or whatever your delusional ahh comes up with, he'd be just hardcore fucking you with a ton of horny ass compliments, but you'd be able to look into his eyes and just kinda tell he really loves you past all that horndog shit. Not really intimate sex for the most part imo, but if the both of you guys are in a shitty mood and it's not hate sex, he might say a few really sweet compliments and all that jazz. Fuuuuckkk I read that and he sounds kinda assholey (he is one though cope seethe /j don't get mad at me pwease) so if you're upset I half meant that in the 'he won't be bawling his eyes out during sex out of sheer love' way. Boom

J = Jack off (masturbation headcanon) He has cameras everywhere in Hell. Did you even think of the mere possibility that he's not jerking that shit constantly? Kidding. I feel like he'd be busy working a lot, but if you're not there to help him out after work and shit, he'd jerk it. Maybe a few times a week normally. If he had time and he was lonely though... Bro's going ham on his poor footlong. He has a lot of videos and whatever to look at. I think he'd thrive just off his imagination too.

K = Kink (one or more of their kinks) Dry humping (receiving), Mild degradation (giving), Voyeurism, Shock play (giving, duh), Hypnosis (gee i sure wonder if it's giving or receiving woahhhhh /s), Power dynamic, I definitely have a lot more but it depends heavily on your relationship to him :p

L = Location (favorite places to do the do) Desk. Now. Besides that though, he's probably fine with a lot of places. I feel like he'd be somewhat against public or semi-public sex because it could make his reputation worse, but anywhere else is fine. His office isn't really risky because he knows when people are about to enter using his lil' cameras.

M = Motivation (what turns them on, gets them going) A lot of things. Many, many things. For the most part though, if you tease him by wearing some revealing shit or acting like a bitch, he's getting a hard on.

N = No (something they wouldn’t do, turn offs) Anything that puts him in a situation where he has little to no control. He's not willing to show that much vulnerability, no matter how well you know him. You can try domming, sure, but just know he has the full ability to do a 360.

O = Oral (preference in giving or receiving, skill, etc.) Receiving. He'll occasionally do giving, but if you start calling him your submissive bitch or something, he'll spit and fucking leave. But regardless, he shoving his dick down your throat. Face-fucking is probably his favorite. Solid 6-7/10 in terms of skill, bonus points since his tongue is long.

P = Pace (are they fast and rough? slow and sensual? etc.) Definitely rough like a good 90% of the time. The pace depends on his mood, but he'd go with medium to fast for the most part. Maybe slow if he magically has a break (That'll almost never happen. Poor dude loves his work so much, probably chronically online just because of how much time he has to spend with computers). Don't piss him off though, he doesn't have a speed cap on this type of shit. Random thing I wanted to add in, his typing speed is fucking insane. 300 something and higher when he's arguing on the internet. Would definitely participate in those arguments of who's the goat of sports or whatever. Also random flex but my typing speeds at like 200 wow I'm so cool everyone clap

Q = Quickie (their opinions on quickies, how often, etc.) He barely has time to do anything, so quickies a lot of times end up being the only option he has to get off. Hella often. He enjoys an occasional slow sesh, but speedruns are his go-to.

R = Risk (are they game to experiment? do they take risks? etc.) Hell fucking yes. Always willing to try new shit out as long as it's not too risky. If it won't destroy his company, he's down for it.

S = Stamina (how many rounds can they go for? how long do they last?) This dude consumes more caffeine than humanely possible. He could probably go forever if it wasn't for his job, but he'd probably settle for 4~ rounds on a normal workday. If he's feeling excited though, expect more.

T = Toys (do they own toys? do they use them? on a partner or themselves?) Definitely owns quite a bit. Probably only his company's products though, he wouldn't want to support other businesses. I don't think he's one to use them all that often since he'll normally just call you over to suck his dick, but piss him off and he'll shove a dildo in you and leave for a few hours, just to see how long you'll last.

U = Unfair (how much they like to tease) He's such a brat. Taunts and makes fun of you constantly. Poor you, he loves to see you overstimulated and sobbing your eyes out.

V = Volume (how loud they are, what sounds they make, etc.) I feel like he wouldn't be that loud himself, definitely some breathy groans and shit, but on the other hand... If you're not loud enough, he'll make sure you're screaming out his name until he's satisfied. Maybe a little glitchy sounds. Before he comes, he probably becomes a little staticky.

W = Wild card (a random headcanon for the character) Willing to fuck you with his aux cords. Would find it fun as hell, especially he can shock you easier.

X = X-ray (let’s see what’s going on under those clothes) I think some of you guys don't remember that this man is 7ft. If he was human, it'd probably be around 7 inches, but he's tall as fuck. Expect it to be 9 inches minimum and probably larger. Average girth with thick veins running down the side. Pretty sure I said a good amount about it earlier.

Y = Yearning (how high is their sex drive?) Insanely high because he's always pent-up while working. Gets hard from the slightest bit of teasing. I have no clue what to write, but I want to write more so he's the type to get hard when he's comfortable. Cuddle with him and he's probably hard just because he's feeling cozy and shit.

Z = Zzz (how quickly they fall asleep afterwards) He'd sleep a few minutes later, depending on how much he trusts you. If he doesn't trust you much, he's leaving to a different room. If he likes you though, he'd just go nighty-night. AN: hope you enjoyed thanks like and follow for more banger content /hj

[splatsvilles-fashionista]

Salmon Run tips for beginners

My last post about Salmon Run, the one about Explosher, was kind of a hit, and I had some other advice that I wanted to share with people new to the series. Salmon Run gets pretty intense and stressful as you climb the Grizzco-rporate ladder, so hopefully some of these tips will ease that burden for you all just a bit.

That said, here’s some things I would suggest new players keep in mind! People who have played for a long time will probably not need me to tell them these things, but you never know, sometimes a reminder is nice.

Killing bosses is more important than collecting golden eggs. This might seem contradictory at first, after all, collecting golden eggs is how you win waves. While this is true, you also need to survive the wave, and the thing most likely to lose you the wave is not having too few eggs, but being overwhelmed by bosses. Boss Salmonid control vast amount of space with their size, damage, and paint output, and leaving them unattended for too long, even the more passive ones like Drizzlers and Fish Sticks, can very quickly spiral out of control as more of them spawn and completely take over the stage. This isn’t to say that you should ignore eggs entirely and run towards a boss at every given opportunity, but I’ve seen people basically pretend bosses don’t exist and instead try to ferry six eggs from the shoreline to the basket on their own, and this can cause far more harm than good. Move around stage with purpose and pitch in eggs where you can, but never sit idle. Time is precious and it’s on you to use it well.

Adapt to the weapon you’re assigned. All weapons have their own strengths and weaknesses, and you should act in accordance to them. If you get a Charger, park yourself up on a ledge and support your team from afar. If you get a shooter, move around the front line mowing down regular Salmonid, and so on. Far too often I see people approach all situations the same regardless of what they’re armed with, and it usually ends in disaster. Chargers and Exploshers rushing in to gather eggs who get themselves trapped and dogpiled, short-range shooters that try in vain to shoot down Steelheads or Slammin’ Lids, getting tunnel vision in the progress. I know not everyone can be good at or even like all weapons, but you should always try to use whatever you’re given to the best of your ability.

If possible, drag bosses to the basket. Okay, so when I said you should kill bosses as soon as possible, I was actually lying. There are a lot of boss Salmonid who don’t pose a threat until they’re right on top of you, like Maws, Scrappers and Steel Eels. So why go through all the trouble of dragging all of the eggs you’ll get for splatting one of them to the basket when you can make the boss itself do it for you? This was common knowledge in Splatoon 2, but it’s something I see a lot of people disregard in 3 now that we have egg throwing, but throwing eggs come with a hefty ink cost every time you do it, so it is usually more efficient to pull the boss to the basket first. Trust me when I say that doing this will save you a lot of time and effort, and having eggs around the basket when things go south is often what saves an entire run.

Use the Squid Roll! Squid Rolls are one of the fancy new things in Splatoon 3, and its something a lot of people forget about, but it has a lot of useful applications in Salmon Run. One of the simplest applications is to start doing them as you pick up eggs, immediately shifting your momentum in a different direction and letting you get back to the basket faster. Squid Rolling also gives you a bit of ink armor, letting you tank some extra damage. If you haven’t used Squid Rolls much up to now, experiment with it for a bit, I think you’ll be surprised by the ways in which it might help.

Don’t forget about bodyblocking. Did you know that your body can block bullets from your own team? This is most commonly an issue with Shooters and Splatlings, and can cause some serious headaches if you or your teammates aren’t cognizant of it. It can especially become a problem in Glowfly waves, where the whole team is usually huddling together and guarding a single pathway. Don’t be the one who loses your team the wave because you soaked an entire charge’s worth of shots from your Hydra teammate.

And that’s all I have for now, I think, don’t want this post dragging on for too long. Hopefully this will be useful to someone out there!

[compacflt]

you're a legend for referencing lauren berlant and michael warner in relation to your top gun fic and I'd like to think that they would say the same!! the stories that you've created are beautiful explorations of some of the biggest questions posed in queer theory: who are we in public? who are we in private? where is the line that separates the two (spoiler: there is no way to actually separate the two, no binary) and what are the structural forces bearing down upon all of that bullshit! I for one would love to see your questions about privacy and respectability explored with rooster and ice and mav. especially considering the generational cliff between them, with the aids crisis in the background of rooster's childhood when they were all the closest, in your world. anyway! you are an incredible writer and it's been a privilege to read you work :)

thank you so much for this ask!! yes i have spent so much time thinking about this. In March i started working on a new-yorker-style interview that tried to address a bunch of these questions. Since I didn’t do wip wednesday yesterday (sorry) here’s some relevant sections of that wip related to your ask. I don’t think it’s spoilers since I’m not sure id ever post this anywhere—you can see for yourself how entertaining the writing is and it’s overly political and didactic. Just a lame hegelian dialectic where im interrogating my own characters (at least, my own interpretations of them) on their politics. And I’m not an expert on any of this stuff (currently on the slow uphill climb out of the valley of the dunning-kruger graph—trying to learn). Nor am I fact-checking it & that feels irresponsible to post For Real. so just take this post as a fun (for me) exploration of what i (20y.o., ignorant, no editorial oversight, smooth-brained) think Might be some political implications of my fics, trying to write from a lib-moderate pov (tough!)

talking points I wanted to address:

The politics of ice’s career, both internationally & domestically (some wild navy scandals happened under his “tenure” [fat Leonard most pressingly—would LOVE to know how actual TGM’s ice & mav felt about that bc it was SO FUCKING CRAZY, navy officers & admirals having wild sex parties paid for by a singapore defense contractor (the details are so fucking crazy i can’t even say them here—one anecdote involves 7th fleet officers using WWII/Korean war general macarthurs historical memorabilia during sex acts—go read about it) a couple PACFLT RDMLs were charged with actual crimes, 60 admirals (of the navys total 160 admirals) were under investigation & both my and TGM’s ice & cyclone would probably have been two of them, basically if you were a pacflt officer in the mid-2000s-2010s you were under investigation it was so fucking wild]) —and another geopolitical look at the implications of both top gun movies (reagan weighs in from beyond the grave)

Ice and mav who can’t win—they want their relationship to Not Be A Big Deal. leave us alone. We’re Normal. we’re not Weird or anything. —but can’t understand WHY their relationship is so sensational/political—yes, boys, it is a big deal, sorry!! mavericks probably the last Ace the world will ever see & ice is the secretary of the navy and they’re married, fuck yes that’s newsworthy!!!

my version of Ice acceding to SECNAV at the intersection of a couple crucial contextual moments for the navy/military as a whole: 1. Recruitment is currently fucked. This interview takes place in 2020/early 2021, and things were bad then, but the numbers just came out for the Navy this year, and hoooooly shit they are so bad. And blame is falling along partisan lines like always: Ds blame low recruitment numbers on lack of benefits etc, Rs literally i am not shitting you are mostly blaming low recruitment numbers on the military going Woke. The USN has long been seen as the most obnoxiously woke/gay (derogatory) service to conservatives & there’s a lot of political baggage that comes with having a SECNAV who, while not openly identifying as gay, is openly married to another man. especially with a recruiting crisis like this one. 2. Withdrawal from afghanistan obviously. kind of a shit way for ice to end his career ngl. It Did Not Go Super Well. 3. rising tensions in eastern europe pre RU-UA invasion in 2022, what that means for the MIC and procurement, etc. 4. The joint chiefs openly declaring they (& by extension the military as a whole) would not support trump’s coup attempt post-J6—the end of that extremely politically polarized presidency—what does it mean for the following Dem president to then have a gay secnav after that? It’s HUGE. SO no matter what, Ice as SECNAV is going to go down in history. He just wants it to be for his actions, not the fact that he’s gay.

Icemav’s relationship with their identities. We really really don’t want to be known for being gay. “Ask me what my proudest achievement is, I’ll tell you without a second of hesitation—my family. Without a doubt. But does any military man really want to be best-known for his marriage?” We want to be known for being the BEST at our jobs, which we are. We’ve earned that title! There’s so much more interesting stuff about us than who we got married to.

AND how that is a liberal-moderate-conservative median-50% meritocratic WET DREAM of an ideology. an interview like this one is a straight fluff piece pre-ice’s confirmation to secnav—it lets him prove to the moderate liberals that he’s left-leaning enough to protect social justice interests in the USN, AND prove to conservatives that he’s right-leaning enough to not let identity politics/“woke bs” get in the way of the navy’s mission of providing a lethal maritime fighting force. the merits of this ideology are up for debate.

maybe helping the conservative viewpoint of that ideology: The fact that the Kazansky-Mitchell-Bradshaw-seresin family is so not-stereotypically gay. Like, look at these four guys. 9-to-11 combat kills between them (11 in my universe where ice gets an extra 2, 9 canon confirmed) in a period of history/modern warfare when ANY air-to-air kill is/was massively historically significant. Extremely macho & tough. They present themselves about as traditionally and toxically masculine as you could possibly get. Theyve KILLED PEOPLE. They’re not “soft” by any stretch of the imagination. Physically & emotionally they ARE extremely conservative, and there’s something to be said about the politics of that too—molding yourself into the shape of what you think a man should look like, just to avoid persecution, and then performing masculinity BETTER than even the men who would want to persecute you…!

Related to your ask: the modern/young ppl inclination to make sexuality SO political and public. When asked how he could reckon with joining a DADT-ruled navy, rooster answers: “hope I could do something to destroy it before it could destroy me.” When asked why he DIDNT use any of his considerable power to influence the repeal of DADT, ice answers: “it was better than the blanket ban that came before it. And maybe I’ve always wanted neither to tell nor to be asked.” the conservative respectable opinion that your intimate relationships ought to be PRIVATE, doesn’t matter if you’re gay or straight—just do your job, and preferably do it well. yeah, don’t ask and don’t tell. It’s not anyone’s business. ice doesn’t have a philosophical problem with DADT, because he agrees sexuality should be private & secret. —is it anyone’s business? whose business is it? How much of your personal life do you owe the public if you’re a public-facing individual like the COMPACFLT or SECNAV? all good questions!!!!

[princess-of-the-corner]

MHA the Entrance Exam Assassin.

Just something I thought of:

The villain points and the rescue points are the same, but there is one more gimmick added to it worth 100 points; The Assassin.

The assassin is a pro hero, either a teacher or a pro hero from an agency connected to UA, with a screen attached to the inside of their forearm that displays the five applicants with the highest villain point counts. They enter the zone 1 minute after the exam begins

The assassin’s role is to harass, annoy and generally get in the way of whichever student has the highest amount of villain points in their zone. The assassin is only allowed to restrain applicants if they directly attack them, but they can be restrained for however long they want so long as it doesn’t get in the way of harassing their target. The assassin can also restrain their target if they have a lead of over 25 villain points more than the second place, the assassin can restrain them for a minute in or until they are overtaken and only   twice in the whole exam.

The assassin has a large, bright pink disc velcroed to their chest. If that disc is taken from them, they are out of the exam.

After the exam, if the assassin is taken down, the 100 assassin points will be spread out among all the students who attacked them, with more or less being given to people depending on how well they did. If they got in the way or used excessive force, they can be penalised up to 25 points.

Probably the biggest problem with this mechanic is how complex it is. The other two are literally “attack this robot, points depend on type” and “we’ll decide as it goes”. This one instead has a number of rules and regulations both for the examinees and the examiners. The examiners need to take into account who attacked the assassin and how, and decide how to grade them as a group. The examinees have to remember all the rules and think about wether they should team up or not.

My favourite part of it is the risk/reward decisions that examinees have to make. Do they attack, knowing they could be restrained for the whole 9 minutes? How much force can they use without being penalised? Are they confident in their ability to take down a human being instead of however many robots? It also makes getting all the points kinda risky, since it’s possible to get sabotaged too heavily if they’re not careful.

On the other hand, it’s 100 points. The highest score in the canon entrance exam was 77 and the 10th highest was 56. Even divided into 4 people, if you and your team successfully work together to take the assassin down and get the average amount of points on top of it, you basically have a place guaranteed. It’s a really good bonus if you can pull it off.

It also brings up how canon characters react to the challenge: I think most of the canon hero course would ignore them when possible, but Bakugo would probably try to fight them immediately and get severely sabotaged, Shinzo might successfully get into the hero course if he can find them. Ida would probably get harassed (he had 52 villain points in canon), but I’m not sure how he would react. There might be more exceptions.

-

Honestly I think this would work best a hidden challenge like the rescue points. Someone posing as a student to mess with the others and see how they react to a supposed hero/ally sabotaging the competition. Do they sabotage back? Do they call them out? Do they ignore it assuming the teachers will deal with it?

Like. In /general/ I think the Entrance Exam needs a complete remaking to actually give various Quirks a fair ability because, as shown /in canon/, not all Heroes are direct combatants. Yes, all of them have to be capable of direct combat either with their Quirk or support items or hand-to-hand. But you have Heroes who focus on rescue or undercover work. And even the Sports Festival being a second chance still only works for Quirks that work best in Combat.

[russilton]

Shoutout to you for the way you treat Alex and George’s relationship when you talk about George in context of gewis. So many people in cases like this with less popular ships turn vitriolic towards anyone who they think could pose a threat to their ship and just… don’t. Your approach of they’re besties your honor is great and sparks a ton of joy

Wow, thank you!

I have to say this message surprised me a bit because it’s something I’ve really had to work on, to the point I used to get some very angry anons about the way I generally ignored or forgot about Alex. Basically the opposite of this one hahaha! but I’ve also started to warm more to Alex this year than I did last year, though I still wouldn’t call myself a real fan, it’s nice when he does well.

I have… a complicated relationship with Alex as a driver and person. On one hand, he’s George’s best friend, I couldn’t change that even if I wanted to, and it’s a truly sibling like relationship I suspect George needed given how much older his actual siblings were. They support each other and that’s a thing they both need.

On the other, I’ve been watching since 2020, and Alex WAS a Red Bull driver, and he spent the entire first year of when I was watching the sport, getting into incidents with my favourite driver while being generally being very… accusatory. His role in RB during 2021 didn’t help either, and it just generally left me very mistrustful of the guy, probably unfairly, but with 20 drivers to focus on you don’t tend to get past first impressions unless you really stick about.

When he moved to Williams it was all under the fan fair of Horner crying that Toto didn’t approve of the move because he thought Alex was going to spy for them, and at the time it was hard not to sit there and go “well… are you?” Because post AD Redbull had more than proven they were willing to do anything to win, even if it was George’s influence that got Alex the Williams seat. It now truly delights me to see how that has in fact backfired on Christian as he lost a genuinely talented young driver to another team who will better respect his skill if he’s willing to be patient, though you won’t catch me calling for Alex to Merc…ever, or at least, any time soon.

I also struggled with the way he did talk about George a lot! It’s banter between brothers but it often felt like at the time the only way I saw Alex referring to their relationship was to poke or complain about George- especially showing off his body. Every single post George made showing even a little skin- the comments would be full of people waiting for Alex to show up and say something mean, and slowly the content from George dropped off, a coincidence probably given the ramp up with his duties at Merc, but it was hard not to link those things y’know, especially with my OWN, not Alex’s problem, views on body image.

So yeah, it was a tough grind, NONE of it helped by the prevalence of Galex as a popular ship and the tendency of popular ships to get very… expectant, of you to like them. I had the exact same issue with Sewis, though I will always adore Sebastian, because for a while it really did feel like it was being shoved in my face every which way and I couldn’t escape them, and no one enjoys having to wade through things they don’t like. Lots of posts with a general vibe of “what do you MEAN you like gewis when galex exists and clearly has more evidence” that just didn’t sit right for what I felt or what I was seeing. There was also the fic that will not be named that gave me a slightly… traumatic response to Galex and Sewis in relation to Gewis, and I all but stopped mentioning Alex at all if I could avoid it. Which as mentioned at the start… some anons sure took issue with!

I spose what changed my relationship with Alex was reframing his relationship to George (and by proxy redbull), when then things he started saying became less about George’s body and more about what a pain in the ass best friend he was. That’s a relationship I understand, the best friend who you love beyond all belief, would defend from wolves, would kill for, but if you had to date you’d kill each other in a couple days. A psuedo sibling bond I have with a lot of my own friends, people I would say I love you too knowing I have 0 intention on dating them.

Then it became easier to see all the ship stuff because I could go, cool I get it, but to me that’s his brother, that’s the guy who watches George pine and makes faux gagging noises, but would also go behind George’s back to tell Lewis how George felt if he thought it would make George happy. That’s the guy who George complains to when he’s struggling with balancing his feelings with his job as a teammate, and who hugs him when he’s feeling lost.

I have to credit Niamh for saying it one of her fics- but Alex is George’s Valtteri. The guy who has his back even when they’re fighting, and who’s bond goes a little deeper than skin, different to romance but no less strong.

So yeah, I will still always probably grit my teeth when it comes to getting galex shoved in my face, (no I haven’t forgotten synths poll, so many of you were v annoying to me ((this is a JOKE)), I’ve certainly started to completely detach that from Alex as a driver, and short of a nuclear melt down, I hope that relationship just slowly improves. Not that any of that matters to him of course. But this is the blog where I talk about myself.

Sorry for the ramble! That was useful to get off my chest I think hahah, cheers for the offload, now I can move on from it.

[lineralangohr]

Here are my thoughts on Actor Mark in ISWM. I’ve seen a lot of discussion about Head Engineer Mark and whether that’s actually him and if he’s genuine and in which scene you can see behind his facade, and I mean yes, obviously he’s there in the meta scene of part 1 and I’m not saying that there is no connection between him and the head engineer...

...BUT what I believe is that these parts are more like traces on the character than “the true self showing through the cracks”. Mostly because he’s not the hero in his own story.

We’ve gotten to know the Actor as a narcissist who’s obsessed with the idea that he’s the hero. The leading role in his own stories. And both AHWM and ISWM start out with him posing in the spotlight, us just trailing behind him like a sidekick. But that quickly changes.

He gets dirty, he faceplants, he gets tossed around like a ragdoll or punched through brick walls, he’s whiny and scared and he’d definitely rather stay out of danger than play the hero.

He basically becomes the adorkable sidekick of the story. I really don’t think it adds up with what we know about the Actor.

So what I believe is: Assuming that the Actor is still behind all of this, the stories and characters do start out as his own, but then quickly get away from him. He probably believes that he is in control in “his world”, but he never really was - it has its own mind and his story never really turns out the way he intended. It takes it’s own course with us as the protagonist.

And the character he plays? Well, Head Engineer Mark wouldn’t exist without him because yeah, it’s a role he plays. But what if as soon as those roles come to life, they become their own separate being. What if a character in a story becomes self-aware and doesn’t even know they were made up or played by someone else. And yes, they will still have some traits of that person, but that doesn’t mean they’re the same individual. They become something on their own and experience further character growth the longer they are around (and Head Engineer Mark has been around for a LONG time by the end of ISWM).

And if we assume that the theory about Dorene being Celine holds any water, the way she interacts with the head engineer only proves this. The last time Celine and the Actor met, she didn’t even hesitate to throw an axe into his chest.

She doesn’t react like that with the head engineer.

Unless those cookies were laced with arsenic, she is just polite and friendly towards him. Only when she needs to remind Mark for the second time that she is no longer married she gets a little harsh for a moment. And when she tries to jog our memory during the third time we summoned her, she just ignores him. He’s just not that important.

Because he’s not the Mark she’s after. There is no mask she could tear off him to reveal the Actor. It’s head engineer Mark and he’s probably not even that important from her point of view.

Edit: I originally wrote this post before the explanation stream and now after it I’m sticking to this concept of a role turning into an individual after its “creation” more than ever. The beauty of it is that we can have the Actor still be a defining factor in the grand total of it, but also just take the story for what it is (which I strongly believe is what Mark wants us to do above all).

[dokidokitsuna]

Working on Magical Friends: Doki’s animation “pipeline”

…Since this is still an incredibly basic 1.5-man operation, it’s not much of a pipeline. ^^; But I wanted to put together a little thing to show the public how I do what I do, and if this sounds doable or interesting to you, I’m always on the lookout for more volunteers! dokianimara@gmail.com is my official ‘art business’ email, just FYI~

So let’s start by taking a look at this GIF preview of a finished scene:

I chose this sequence because it’s probably the longest and most complex one I’ve done so far. The character rotates, the scene pans up, I got some spinny light effects in there, lots of weird stuff I’ve never done before. (●u●;;) But it came out alright in the end, so let’s examine it.

So before I start thinking about animating, I refer to the work of my storyboard volunteer, Greytan. They actually gave me just one simple shot:

Which I extrapolated into…what I did. ^^; I don’t mean to ‘ignore’ their boards, and I hope they don’t feel slighted when I do things like this, it’s just that they are genuinely a much more skilled and more professional animator than I am, and our brains just don’t work the same way so sometimes I have to diverge a bit. :P Or, y’know, sometimes I come up with a great idea of my own that I really wanna try, which is probably what happened here.

Anyway, my first step after looking at boards is to grab a pencil and paper and draw the shot: a picture that lays out what the scene will look like, with either the starting frame or a key frame, and the background included. As you can see, I doodled some of my ideas for how the sequence would progress, which is good, because after drawing this I wouldn’t return to this shot for like 6 weeks. ^^;

When I finally did get back to it, I grabbed a second piece of paper for Step 2, which is the actual ‘animation’: using the shot as a base to draw the rest of the frames that will go into the sequence. This is where my lightbox comes in handy, although usually I can see through the paper well enough to just draw wherever. ^^ [Fun fact: in my early days, I would just scan the original shot, erase it, and replace it with the next frame, drawing each new frame on the exact same piece of paper. I am…very glad I don’t do this anymore]

Now, animation is mostly guesswork for me. ^^ I mean, my guesses are pretty good, but they’re still guesses, which is why I call myself an amateur. It’s not me downplaying my skills, it’s just me admitting that they aren’t based on solid expertise or experience (yet).

When I animate a shot, I try to make sure each frame looks like it has movement in it all by itself. Gesture drawing, dynamic posing; those are things I’m already good at, so when I animate I make ‘em work hard for me. >:3c

The end result comes out looking kind of like a sprite sheet:

And I do use these drawings kind of like assets; Step 3 is to scan them (along with the initial shot) and use them to ‘construct’ the frames that go into the video editor. This is the step that takes the longest, where I clean up the sketches and color them and paint the backgrounds (separately, if necessary). It’s not as difficult as Steps 1 and 2, but it’s a lot more tedious.

So naturally, sometimes I like to make sure my sprites actually work before I start all that…work. ^^ So I throw together a test animation based on what I have:

And this did help-- it assured me that the first half with Mago would probably look fine, although the second half with the magic light-thing probably needed to have a cleaner sense of direction and more frantic movement as it ascended. When you’re working with a low frame-rate, you generally want things to move a LOT or hardly at all; you don’t want any of that in-between stuff. So I took that into account when preparing the “finished” product. I put “finished” in quotes because I’ll probably adjust the timing of the frames a little when I move to the video editor (Step 4, which I’m not going to talk about here). But yeah, that’s pretty much it. ^^

Generally when I think about adding artists to the team, I’m thinking about them doing Step 1, Step 2, Steps 1 and 2, or Steps 1-3 (so basically, completing a full sequence of frames that I can just add in). For me to hand sketches to someone and expect them to do Step 3 alone would require a level of trust that I’ve never had in any fellow artist before…but idk, anything can happen in the future. ^^;

[thetaekookcloset]

I have never seen JK more snapier with anyone than he is with Taehyung. He is critical of Taehyung's work, doesn't shy away from raising his voice, hits him when Taehyung makes mistake, become a brat, ignore him, rolls his eyes, demand things from him, take him for granted, you name any bratty behaviour he might have done that with Taehyung. Other members see parts of these behaviours towards them, not a whole picture. Then you see him pouting when he can't get close to Taehyung, doesn't leave an opportunity not to compliment him, supports and encourages Taehyung and his work, walking dictionary of Taehyung's whereabouts, indulges Taehyung and his demands, follows him through his eyes, shares the most awesome telepathic connect, have star struck eyes looking at his bae, shows his bias. You see all these extreme behaviour is for Taehyung, not in bits and pieces but as a full package. You can be disrespectful towards your hyungs if you are super close to them. He is a child and a man with Taehyung. This makes me think they are real. Not one part of the spectrum but the whole rainbow.

Do you have your fav moments of JK being a brat with Taehyung and him indulging Kookie in return?

Yes yes yes to Jungkook simultaneously being the freest with both his annoyance and his adoration with Taehyung!  I agree that this is one of the things that really makes the possibility of them being a couple seem likely to me.

At first I wasn’t sure I’d be able to come up with favorite moments for this, but they’re actually popping into my head pretty easily.

I think the most obvious example is the time from a V Live with Taekook, Jin, and Jimin several years ago, when Jimin brings up the fact that Jungkook had scolded Taehyung at rehearsal earlier that day.  It easily could have been a tense moment, but instead, Taehyung was all about it lol, he encouraged Jungkook to talk about it and clearly thought it was funny and kind of cute.

I’ve also noticed and agree that in general he is really critical of Taehyung’s work, like I don’t know if it’s that he feels a sense of connection to him, so he feels at some level like Tae’s work reflects on his own, but there are a lot of examples of him scolding Tae for messing things up, or just holding him to a high standard.  One is during the Dynamite MV shoot when Tae missed the cue for his pose and Jungkook got annoyed with him and smacked his shoulder.

I don’t know if I would say Tae usually indulges him necessarily in those moments, but he does seem to listen to him and try to improve, like when he wasn’t understanding the jacket thing during the rehearsal for their Grammy performance recently.  Jungkook was frustrated and trying to explain, and instead of getting annoyed back, Taehyung just kept trying to understand and do his best.

Peak Jungkook-being-a-brat-to-Taehyung behavior is, I think, the 2019 to 2020 New Year’s V Live.  I don’t know what was going on there, but Jungkook was pouting when Taehyung talked about going on a healing trip by himself, snapping at Tae to tell him what he wanted to say wasn’t important -- and yet Taehyung looked so fond through the whole thing.  When Jungkook essentially told him to shut up (not that aggressively, obviously, but still, it was noticeably snippy), he just did it, and yet continued to make heart eyes at Jungkook through the whole live.

Bonus: An example of the opposite would be the post-AMAs group V Live when Jungkook was clearly feeling a bit on edge after the way everything had happened.  He basically fully yelled at Yoongi to stop talking over him, but when Tae did the same thing two seconds later, he just shut right up and listened to him talk lol.

Like you said, he’s brattier with Taehyung, but he’s also sweeter and more indulgent.  I think the way I’ve described it before is that his sharp edges are sharper with Taehyung, but his softer bits are that much softer too, and to me, it definitely seems like further evidence that they’re extremely close, because we’re the fullest versions of ourselves with the people who know us best and love us most.

[adamwatchesmovies]

Rocky III (1982)

Rocky III is not on the same level as the first, nor the second. It’s a bi-product of being the third chapter in the series. Based on what you’ve seen before, you can basically figure out how the story will end. This also makes it a tremendously entertaining and satisfying second sequel. In many ways, it wraps up all of the character arcs just about perfectly. If you ignore all of the other follow-ups, this would be one of the great trilogies.

Three years after defeating Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) and becoming the heavyweight champion of the world, Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) is living the dream. However, his manager, Mickey (Burgess Meredith), worries a hot-headed new contender, Clubber Lang (Mr. T), may pose more than a passing threat to Rocky’s title. The Italian Stallion dismisses his warnings until the two meet face-to-face.

The biggest difference between Rocky III and the rest is the villain. Clubber Lang receives little screen time. Mr. T has plenty of presence and you "get" his character immediately. He’s rude, he’s strong, he wants to get to the top and doesn't care how. Anything else? No. This isn’t a flaw once we learn what this film is really about. At this point in his career, Rocky is the champion. He won Adrian’s heart (she’s played once more by Talia Shire). He went the distance and lasted 15 rounds with Apollo. In a rematch, he beat him and proved he wasn’t just lucky. He’s become comfortable in front of the camera, he’s managed his money well and built a beautiful life for his wife, son, and friends. Clubber Lang is a version of his past self. As Apollo reminds him, Rocky has become comfortable at the top. He no longer has the hunger, that “eye of the tiger” which allowed him to become a champion. He’s lost a piece of himself. Clubber Lang has that hunger. He’s got nothing to lose and everything to gain. To be a true champion, Rocky must preserve the fire that brought him to the top and use the lessons he’s learned to stay there. The film’s antagonist is not Clubber Lang. It's Rocky. Do we dig deeply into the Italian Stallion’s psyche? You bet we do.

The payoffs are what make this film so good. Once, Adrian was so timid she was afraid to even ask for the things she wanted. Now, she’s strong enough to meet Rocky head-on. Through their mutual dislike of Clubber Lang, Rocky and Apollo become more than rivals who respect each other, they become friends. The relationship between Rocky and his trainer, Mickey (Bergess Meredith) reaches its bittersweet, logical conclusion. By now, you know the characters so well that even when they don’t radically change, like Paulie (Burt Young), it’s ok. That’s just the kind of person he is and for better or worse, you love him for it.

You can’t talk about this film without discussing the incredible use of music. Eye of the Tiger is such a strong and memorable tune those who haven’t seen the Rocky franchise probably assumed it came from the first movie. Actually, Survivor wrote is specifically for this film and it shows. The lyrics fit the story so perfectly and that final moment before the end credits hit when the tune plays once again? It’s one of the greatest endings ever.

As before, the fight scenes will have you on the edge of your seat. They’re well shot and choreographed. More than the physical strength of the characters, it’s the drama that surrounds them that makes the blows impactful. The performances are strong, even from Mr. T (unjustly nominated for a Razzie that year). You want a bad guy you instantly hate? You got one right there.

It may take more than one viewing for you to truly appreciate Rocky III. Take a good look at the way it handles its characters and how it brings everything full circle. It’s a great sequel and contains so many memorable, iconic moments. If you’ve seen the first two, you can’t afford to miss it. (On Blu-ray, June 19, 2020)

[a-very-dramatic-wedding]

*the following is a transcription of a reception toast. 5 identical brothers walk in front of the bride and groom’s table. the announcer introduces them as Karamatsu’s groomsmen.*

Hey, I’m Osomatsu, the eldest brother. I’m Choromatsu, the third eldest. i’m ichimatsu, the fourth eldest. JYUSHIMATSU MATSUNO, NUMBER 5! And I’m Todomatsu, the youngest brother!

So we’ve known Karamatsu for a pretty long time-

Uh, of course we have, we’re his brothers.

Well that just proves my point, haha! So of course we saw all the times he failed to get a date-

probably because most of those times were when we all failed to get a date.

Geeze, what’s with all of you interrupting me already? Well because you’re already saying stupid stuff. We’re at a wedding Osomatsu, our brother’s wedding. Shouldn’t we be taking it a bit more seriously? Eh, but weddings are supposed to be fun too, you know!

*Todomatsu takes the mic*

I’m sorry about them, let me just take the mic here.

Like the rest of my brothers, Karamatsu struggled greatly with getting… well, anybody. He’d always pose at them and say some really painful line, and they’d just ignore him. So when I saw him and Freedom talk for the first time… and when I saw that she didn’t immediately die from cringe at his presence… I knew there was something special about those two-

And you weren’t happy about that either. You just wanted his money because it was a bet for him to talk to her.

Excuse me-

But we’re happy that they got together anyway, right?

*the brothers all pause for a second*

Yeah… yeah I guess so. The first time Freedom came to our house and asked for him, we all immediately thought that he somehow got a girlfriend behind our back. It’s not like that would’ve been the first time. Yeah… but the last one was… unpleasant. Basically, we were all ready to kick his ass. But when she said she was only there to drop something off for him, man were we confused. She was there to drop off some art that she promised to him during the bet… which wasn’t any better for us! Like, she made you something herself?? That’s practically dating already!! So we still beat him up, haha!

those two were always hanging out together. even before they started dating karamatsu wouldn’t stop talking about her. Pfft, yeah, and he was always trying to flirt with her too. But he got friendzoned so hard that she started doing it back to him purely platonically! Well… I wouldn’t be surprised if she fully meant them. True; despite how obvious Karamatsu made it that he liked her, she was still scared to confess to him. And now look at them! Karamatsu, I know you’re barely resisting kissing her. Just do it! You’re married now-!

OSOMATSU-!

Now those two somehow bring out the best and worst in each other. Right?!? Like, they’re obviously obsessed with each other. Karamatsu’s really brought out a lot of confidence in Freedom, and Freedom’s… made him less dependent, oddly enough. I don’t think I’ve ever seen them frown when they’re in the same room either, unless one of us was pissing them off. But then they’re also so cheesy. Freedom started dressing like him, and I almost had to disown her as a friend. And Karamatsu talks about her nonstop. Like, we know you’re hopelessly devoted to her, talk about something else! Well you’re one to talk Totty. Eh?! And YOU’RE one to talk, Choromatsu-! But hey, what a problem to have, right?

Wait, guys, we’ve been talking a lot. Maybe we should wrap it up soon. Eh, we’ll get there. Basically, the fact any of us got married is a miracle. But the fact Karamatsu got married before the rest of us?? INCREDIBLE!! CRAZY!! We STILL can’t get over it! But, they do make each other happy, you can’t deny that. So Freedom, thanks for taking our brother in. You probably don’t need us to tell you how much he loves you-

But take it from us, you might be the best thing that’s happened to him.

Well, “might’s” a bit of an understatement to say at a wedding, Osomatsu-

Well, to Freedom too… welcome to the family… it’s nice to have you here now. Oh yeah, huh! Wait, does this mean we have a sister now?? That’s crazy-!

Osomatsu, we need to wrap it up.

Okay, okay, yeesh.

Karamatsu… nice job! You officially scored a girl! Congrats! You’ve officially gone up the social ladder! …nice, Karamatsu. HOME RUN KARAMATSU! Heh… congratulations Karamatsu.

HE’S OFFICIALLY LEFT NEET STATUS! NEET NO MORE! HUZZAH TO KARAMATSU! HUZZAH!

But also…

*the five brothers walk behind the bride and groom’s table, standing behind Karamatsu. they wack the back of his head in sync.*

HOW DARE YOU GET MARRIED BEFORE US?!?

*the brothers start laughing as Karamatsu’s silent from shock. he eventually starts laughing along with them. the 5 brothers return to their own seats, and their toast concludes.*

[retelling-of-ragnarok]

I’m not sure if I should ask this to you, or Auren’s admin. But: Has Gwen ever talked about other characters before? If not, hypothetically— How would Auren react to Gwen talking about any of the other canon characters/ocs?

❆ You can ask either of us!!! I decided to do Richter, with the addition of Ryuuto ( @fruit-of-infidelity ) bc not only does Gwen have different ways of talking about them— Auren’s DRASTICALLY different reactions to Gwen talking about them are hilarious to me. 😭

Gwen basically uses Auren as their talking outlet. So y’know. During their regular visits to Vibora territory,Gwen just sorta rambles about all that’s happened. So they’ve likely gone from COMPLAINING about Richter. Y’know being grumpy about the way he acts, how cruel he is, how they wish for some piece and quiet and whatnot.

And Auren ALREADY doesn’t like him, (which the reason as to why is fucking HILARIOUS) so its expression is just: “🙄😐”

But don’t think it didn’t notice that slight inflation in Gwen’s tone when they started talking about his kid 🤨. Like Gwen of all people being interested in someone? ENTERTAINED? BY SOMEONE ELSE? 🤨 Auren really whipped it’s head around like:

“say sike rn.”

especially since it’s Richter’s kid bro. like the same man gwen was just complaining about 🤨 eye rolling, slumped posture, not a vivid expression in sight? oh but NOW all of a sudden they’re posing some interesting conversation, being expressive and engaging 🤨 AND FOR WHO? THE MAN’S KID? Wack 🙄✋

Nah but again. Auren already (jokingly) dislikes Richter bc they think he’s boring, too serious, AND he has no pizazz to his wardrobe. AUREN THINKS HE’S DEPRESSING 😭✋. So hearing Gwen talk with so much interest about Ryuuto really gave it whiplash 😭 (it would def also get really jealous. bc why can’t gwen talk about IT like that 🤨 even though they do but auren’s ignoring that point—)

ANYWAYS I HOPE THIS ANSWERS YOUR QUESTION!!! But also feel free to ask @sincerest-aa , if you’d like a different POV 💪😎

BUT THIS IS ALSO *IF* GWEN WERE TO TALK TO AUREN ABOUT THESE TWO TOGETHER. Gwen already rambles on about Richter since both they and Auren know him. I mainly added Ryuuto to give some perspective on diff characters 😞💪 (and auren would have the funniest reactions to these two. such DRASTICALLY different emotions for characters who are literally related is hilarious to me. )

and ofc Ava im so sorry for the random tag pls forgive me 🙇🙏🤲 i hope you don’t mind me using your boy for reactions like these— IF ITS A PROBLEM THOUGH DONT HESITATE TO TELL ME. ❆

[terraxcloud]

White & Yellow Flowers~

Starting with Advent Children, the flowers in Aerith’s church or in any field became yellow & white.

Yellow & White...

Yellow & White...

Yellow & White...

Yellow & White...like, seriously, there’s far too many yellow & white flowers in FF7R.

If you give three of the same type of flower to the orphanage in FF7 Remake, you get a different picture on the wall.

Three yellow flowers makes a Chocobo. Yellow flowers symbolize “Reunion”.

Three white flowers makes a Moogle. White flowers symbolize “Loyalty”. Notice the use of stars. This means that Cloud is loyal to a...moogle?

Three foxtails makes a Cactuar. Foxtails represent “Surprise”, because that’s what Aerith says when Cloud starts picking them...I mean, they’re grass. Imagine being given a basket full of GRASS when you expected flowers, wouldn’t that be surprising!? Cactuar appears with the Tonberry in the orphanage chalkboard, so it can’t be a good symbol (or character, because the Tonberry is obviously Sephiroth).

Cloud represents the chocobo, let’s leave it at that.

If white flowers represent Moogles, then we should have a hint in Advent Children about that? We do! There’s “Moogle Girl”, who carries her brother’s stuffed moogle all over. Are moogles important in FF7′s world? I can hardly say that, so their appearance is a bit strange...rather forced.

Oh yes, the most ignored character in Advent Children! Her hairstyle is actually that of the girls from FF6, although her bangs are more...bangy, and quite a lot of other characters in FF have them (Eiko, Sherlotta, Lilisette, Deuce, Shelke, etc). These characters represent story elements cut from Terra in the original FF6.

Since Terra’s story in Mobliz is basically the story of Advent Children (she’s even given Fenrir’s magicite there), what’s not to say this isn’t some sort of “ancient ruse” to give hints about Terra in just about every game Cloud appears in? I mean, isn’t his story Terra’s story too? That’s something we all know! I literally found it in Wikipedia once!

“Moogle Girl” appears in FF7 Remake. She’s the girl with three white moogles cats who gives Cloud a “Maiden’s Kiss” for finding them way before it’s ever needed! She represents Terra because she does Terra’s signature pose...

You see? Flawless Evidence. Factuality.

Honestly, how many female characters obsess about moogles? Eiko? Serah? They’re all designed after Terra! There’s a cutscene in DFFOO where Terra hugs moogles around 4 times, and there’s only two moogles in the scene!

Take a look at this wagon in Crisis Core, it has a moogle drawn on it for some reason (bottom-right corner)!

This is the wagon where Zack explains to a lady that he and Aerith share a dream to fill Midgar w/ flowers.

No different from what happens an year later...it’s almost like these characters are mirror images or something.

“If there’s no Aerith, then it’s Tifa” is the wrong way of seeing this. Fandom Fantasy VII is stubborn. They could literally claim she’s Cloud official love interest in some random game and it’ll be completely ignored because it wasn’t in the “FF7 Compilation”.

They could literally put her in FF7R and I bet there’ll still be people who can’t accept it because “she’s an FF6 character”, or “she appears with Zack in some alternate timeline, so it doesn’t matter”, or “she’s a third-party”.

I said that the chocobo represents Cloud. That’s because in the “Inside FF7R” interviews, the chocobo is replaced by Cloud while he sits with the moogle, cactuar, and tonberry.

Actually, he sits by the moogle all the time. You telling me that Moogle doesn’t represent someone we know? FF7 is deficit of living moogles, so they’re literally aliens, like Jenova, who’s probably based on Terra too. The more you know...

Get the hint.

[comradevo]

I wonder if one of the factors impacting the collective west’s view of this war is Ukraine’s repeated victories and Russia’s massive fuckups. like I think a lot of people went from overestimating the threat Russia poses to underestimating it - that because Ukraine’s military and civilians have been performing so fucking amazingly and punching so far above their weight that the perception has turned into ‘oh, well, it looks like Russia really isn’t a threat at all. Ukraine can handle it fine.’ and the sense of alarm has gone away. it feels like Ukraine is being punished for hypercompetence, basically. and now, when we potentially have one (1) accidental friendly fire incident, people are holding Ukraine to the same standards you’d hold the US military - ie, to the standards of the wealthiest and best-equipped military in the world, and that is deeply unfair. “how did Ukraine hit Poland??? it couldn’t have been an accident, they’re trying to drag NATO into the war!” my man, they’re using Soviet technology. it’s not like getting HIMARS and intelligence from the US means all your weaponry instantaneously turns into Israel’s Iron Dome. (and even the Iron Dome isn’t 100% accurate!)

also if anyone is going to drag NATO into the war, it’ll be the US, not Poland or Ukraine, and I think that should be clear. like idk if yall realize how many acts of war that NATO has been committing that the Russians have been ignoring because they simply can’t afford to do anything about it, but the whole thing has been the most extreme game of chicken in modern history. not that I think NATO is in the wrong, btw. I personally think the US should be even more brazen and I’m kinda pissed that Germany hasn’t been matching us blow for blow.

[vonkarma2]

🙉 for Rocio, 📸 for Angel, 🔪 for Jacinto, 🎀 for Gloria, ☄️ for Lucia + 🌙 for anyone you want to

This got pretty long so I’m putting it under a cut :)

🙉 for Rocio

🙉 HEAR-NO-EVIL - what is the worse thing your oc could hear from someone?

I literally don’t know I’m so sorry. Second time in a row I’m not doing the Rocio one. This is hard bc there are so many potential answers and idrk what the worst one could possibly be. Ok MAYBE if someone told her like it was all for nothing but she would probably just ignore them and not care it would only be bad for her if she believed it. Maybe if someone told them like exactly what happened to their parents and how they’ve like been dead all along thus confirming their worst suspicions. Even just anyone else suggesting the idea would be enough to haunt them so I think if we are talking specific things people would say that’d be the worst.

📸 for Angel

📸 CAMERA - do they enjoy having their picture taken? what's their go-to pose? do they like taking photos? what do they take photos of?

Well it is 1940 but it’s also fantasy 1940 so first let me check what level of camera technology they had back then. Wow this person on Quora knows an insane amount about cameras <my level of rigorous research and fact checking. 

Ok I like the idea of there for the most part only being old timey flash cameras + although anyone COULD own one most people wouldn’t or at least would only use it on special occasions. Angel probably wouldn’t have one (and if he had he wouldn’t have been able to get them developed anyway). So if he DID get his picture taken he would probably be pretty excited to see the result cause he thinks it’s like a cool thing. Lucia definitely has one so she might take his picture for him if he asked. If he got his OWN camera he’d definitely enjoy it and take pictures of anything he thought looked cool, he has in the past wanted to be an artist but he gave up because it was too difficult. So photography would feel to him like being able to capture something perfectly without having to draw it and he would really enjoy it.

🔪 for Jacinto

🔪 KNIFE - how do they react to injury / misfortune befalling their loved ones (significant other, family, friends)? do they put themselves at blame?

Honestly they do blame themselves regardless of whether or not they could have done anything (except in like very extreme cases, but they feel like they shouldn’t have let other people get into dangerous situations in the first place. And even if they didn’t know about it they count not knowing as a failure on their part as well.) This is because personal connections with other people are incredibly rare for them (you really have to get to know them and they really have to get to know you, so you’d both have to be extremely mutually interested in doing so, and there typically is no reason for this to happen, so they’re pretty much entirely isolated :P oh well) so they view it as their responsibility to protect other people and keep them out of danger, since they see that as the main thing they can contribute to other peoples’ lives. If they fail this they feel like they have offered absolutely nothing to the other person and get very guilty over it.

🎀 for Gloria

🎀 RIBBON - how would they fit into other worlds / aus? what aus would you like to try out? what fictional world would they fit / not fit into?

She is in a couple of aus, not doing particularly great in either of them:

-Star Trek au (yeah yeah cringe and all) she’s a Bajoran who was able to escape off the planet during the occupation, pretty much exactly the same personality except slightly more mature and significantly more traumatized. 

-in the alternate universe where Tiago lived and Jacinto and Kyungsun were killed,

So I guess she would be the best off in the universe where Kyungsun lived. Actually if all of her parents lived that’d probably be the best. She would do the best in an au where everything was fine she’d flourish there basically. As for other fictional worlds ummm I think she’d be a good Pokémon trainer. Pokemon world is pretty much a utopia that is threatened with destruction every few years but she wouldn’t care so that’d work out as well. And then taking care of animals with superpowers would give her something to do. 

☄️ for Lucia 

☄️ COMET - what do people assume about them? are they right?

She’s pretty shy and awkward (I know I’ve literally said the opposite of this in the past I basically changed a lot abt her character but do not worry her current state of existence is permanent) and when talking to people she is very sincere. She comes across as smart or at least knowledgeable to a lot of people which is pretty much true but she gets easily frustrated during arguments so it makes people think she’s pretentious or arrogant when she really is not at all (she’s actually very insecure it’s just that 1) when she does believe in something she believes in it really strongly and expresses it immediately 2) she gets frustrated easily and whenever she gets frustrated she gets emotional easily. It’s very embarrassing to her).

🌙 for anyone you want to

🌙 MOON - what is your oc's greatest wish? how far are they willing to go for it?

For this question I’m going to do some side characters I don’t talk about as much so I can spend some time developing them as well :)

Salem: She doesn’t really know and is deeply frustrated by this. She wants to be able to do whatever she wants without being controlled by other people or any kind of rules at all, but she also wants someone to understand her and feel bad for her. And also forgiveness for all the bad shit she’s done. So basically all these things at once, and she wants them really badly. The problem is that she WOULD do anything to achieve them, but she kind of can’t either because they’re impossible or because she wants them to be genuine and as such can’t force other people to do them.

Tiago: Actually very straightforward, just to not be alone. Like with a positive close relationship with someone else not just literally being around people, he’s had shitty toxic friendships and familial relationships in the past and does not want to repeat any of that. He tends to give up on individual attempts at this pretty easily though, like he doesn’t have a lot of social skills and he doesn’t want to bother anyone or get them to hate him, so he tends to stay on his own. If he did meet someone he trusted though he’d really commit to them he’d make sure to be helpful and really nice to them, not just out of a fear of them leaving but for the most part just to express his appreciation or whatever.

Joseph: During the story what he actually wants is for everything to go back to normal. He is literally 13 and feels like he has to prevent a war/coup/series of illegal and unethical experiments/arms race singlehandedly, so he feels like he HAS to do this bc no one else can bc no one else has the information that he does and he doesn’t know if he can trust anyone/whether he’d be putting them in danger. But what he wants is for this to have been a dream and none of it to have happened in the first place, or even just to get amnesia and forget everything so whatever happened wouldn’t be his fault.

Victor: During the story his greatest wish is just to survive, he would LIKE to escape and he would LIKE to be supported or helped by someone else, but all of that is secondary to the desire to stay alive. It’s almost compulsive how often he is thinking of this. He would do almost anything (short of like killing a child but he’d kill someone his own age) even though he would not want to at all and he’d feel really bad about it, he’d be able to justify it by saying he needed to do it to accomplish his most important goal, that being not dying.

Laura: Hmm probably to be respected or to be taken seriously, when she was younger it might have been to change the world for the better but as she got older the need for respect became more powerful and kinda drowned that out. She would go very far including lying to and betraying people, and would even consider killing someone if it was necessary (although it like. Probably would not be), but she wouldn’t hurt anyone she considers to be innocent, at least not directly.

[chopper-writing-stuff]

Schrödinger’s Coffee

“40 Minutes to go.” Said Jake. His head was still down and eyes remained fixed on the second hand of his watch.

“For the love of principal this is our last lesson, why wouldn’t they cancel it along with history?” Victoria decided to stare at the blue sky instead, with her upper body hung over the bench’s backrest. “Hell, I’d do it myself. If I’d known earlier.”

“I knew.” Luke simply stated. “And that’s why I didn’t tell you.”

The three psychics were spending their canceled lesson in the park next to the high school, trying to think of something to do. They had to endure five long minutes before the reinforcements arrived, under the form of their friend carrying a cup of coffee.

“Lilith!” Victoria screamed as the girl was passing them. “What have you got. Let’s talk about it for the next…” Her dangling head turned roughly in Jake’s direction.”

“It’s a-”

“NO!” Jake rapidly straightened up and pointed a finger at her, like he was trying to physically stop Lilith from saying another word. He held the pose until the stars cleared his vision. “I want to test something.” He declared.

“You hang out with Vic too much.” Luke, as previously, didn't even take his eyes off his homework.

“I think I know what.” Victoria ignored Luke.

“You can prevent something from happening,” Jake nodded “Luke can change the probability of something happening, and I can make anything happen.”

“How will they interact?” Victoria also sat straight. “Lilith, present the cup!”

The girl held the cup forward, observing her friends with growing interest.

“So it’s a game, huh?” Luke finally closed his notebook. “Okay, let’s make some rules.”

Victoria and Jake flanked him with annoyed faces.

“Oh yeah, make me your villain. I can’t raise a probability to 100 and Jake’s Superposition can make that cup full of anything. Let’s have some balance.”

“Whatever, I’m going for an iced latte, you guys decide what you’re trying to do.” Victoria said before going a few meters away and closing her eyes to focus.

“Guys, I’d still want to drink what I like at the end of this…” Lilith chimed in.

“Losers go buy Lily a new coffee!” Jake shouted, and turned to Luke.

“I’ve chosen frappuccino.” Luke said.

“Because it’s the most probable choice, huh?”

“It’s because I can’t recall any other coffees you can get in Strap Packs.” He blushed.

“Hmph.” Jake giggled. “Same. I’m going for black.”

“So the basics. I bet Vic has al- wait…” Luke furrowed his brows. “Percentages for frappuccino and black coffees are staying the same.”

“They should, until we open the cup.” Jake was confused.

“That’s how it works for us. Victoria’s Block is instant.”

“So maybe she assumed we wouldn’t pick the basics, because they’re too obvious, and focused on all the combos and add-ons?”

“The battle’s between you and me.” Luke agreed. “When the cup opens we’ll know if we’re in reality where Lilith ordered a frappuccino, a normal drink, or black coffee, noone’s choice.” He grinned.

“You’re shifting realities, number boy.” Jake responded with a bigger grin. “I make stuff appear. If it looks like it can have black coffee in it, then it does.”

“You done?” Lilith asked. A subtle smile raised a corner of her mouth.

“It’s on!”

After Jake shouted these words, everyone gathered around the cup. Lilith unceremoniously reached for the cap with her left hand, opened it and took a sip.

“I saw latte!” Victoria raised her eyebrows, smirking.

“A regular hot latte with a shot of cappuccino.” Lilith nodded. Her smile widened. “The one I ordered.”

“Luke, Jake? You neither?”

“Neither black nor frappuccino.” Jake sighed.

“Yeah, I blocked those. Didn’t think of regular with a shot, that’s on-”

“No, you didn’t!” Luke was confused. “I saw percentages for those. Didn’t change to zero. They always do.”

“Did I do something wrong? Or… Or-!”

“Or someone was watching!” A string of smoke quickly crossed the sunlight, from under the cap to Lilith’s bag. A pair of blue dots blinked under the partially open flap.

“Thanks, Ben.” Said Lilith. “I won!”

Note: Not really a proper introduction of Jake, but. hey, it's a sketch, not a complete novel. I'm still figuring out the ins and outs of his ability but I wanted to do a quick proof of concept how the main cast and their powers would interact with one another. I think the concept is there, but needs a lot more proof