#im hoping that if i put it to tumblr it wont happen lol

[bottombaron]

sneaking suspicion that the series finale is going to be Guillermo leaving everyone and the house for good, not out of any bitterness, but because he's ready to move on. at the end, this really was just a job, fulled with the faux-importance of a kid thinking this was his dream, where he was meant to stay. but Guillermo is human, and to be human is to change and grow. he will, inevitably, grow out of needing the vampires. he'll have one final moment with Nandor, a teary hug (maybe Guillermo will boop Nandors nose). and then. Guillermo will just...walk out of their lives forever. only a small, fleeting moment in their ever expansive existence. just like Nandor always knew he would.

[fanofthelamb]

So I went dumpster diving in my tablet for the first lamb I ever drew and WOW... I found a lot of sketches I really don't plan on revisiting. I am jsut gonna dump them below the cut for people to see!! Some of it is lore related, some of it is shit I ABSOLUTELY FUCKING HATE, but IDC!!! I will post it anyway for the tumblr users who I keep an eye on my notifs for. (yes, i see you guys. even if i dont always interact I see you and love you guys)

Anyway, here is the earliest drawin I have of me drawing the lamb!! I am going to write a comment under a lot of these to add context to them.

A cute little baby <3333 but I struggled a LOT of figuring out what the lamb was wearing, I eventually figured it out though. (I hope)

if you know, you know. (RIP VAL)

for my BTG AU. I decided I no longer wanted chemach to make the [spoiler] for the lamb, though, so I scrapped this

vaaaal,,,,,, i was still learning how to draw him, i wish i put pants on him but do those even exist in COTL? (yes)

I haven't been able to do much with them because I'm putting other stuff first, but Brear has two kids, Notre and Brejul who Narinder absolutely ADORES. he is the one who babysits.

fun fact but the lamb being touch repulsed is a projection LOL. i hate it when people touch me it feels so tickly and makes me want to bite their faces off. (but i am touch starved and i LOVE to show affection to other ppl, esp thru back rubs)

yes, they have a hoop for personal space. no, ill never use it.

drum corcl,,,, i love the little dancing guy that comes from the drums

more narinder and brear. they're not romantically interested in each other, but he is absolutely head over heels for brear, their brother, and the kids. they even call him dad sometimes.

[no context]

kallamar and leshy before their crowns. the scene i have related to this isn't happening anymore, but it was leshy begging to be taught to swim.

another "the one who baby sits" doodle. the bishops all came into the cult with a very good repuation thanks to narinder. he likes to tell the kids of the cult stories about how amazing his siblings were. at first, it was just to nobre and brejul with stories about leshy(he missed leshy a lot even though he was still mad at him, and the two reminded narinder of his time with leshy), but then it escalated into him hosting storytimes with larger groups after they started repeating some of the stories he'd tell them.

unfinsihed stuff about with the lamb and thier mom. their mom wasn't afraid of the bishops at all, but knew that they were a still a threat to her and her child's life. the lamb did NOT care for anyone thier mom didn't approve of/enthusiastically liked. they were much more afraid of the bishops than their mother.

i do not actually know if i posted this.i dont think so, but i giggle every time i scroll past it

brear and nobre <333

im still workong on BTG shit, and i post a little bit of the characters on here even tho the comics are going to be posted elsewhere. they have a "crownlike" beak, but a body part. there's different creatures who became gods through different ways; crowns are one way but their power is stuck with the crown and they are considered extremely weak compared to other gods. i wont blabber on about it tho.

so many sketches has random lines through em because i work with a tablet,,, i hate it. anyway, narinder and kallamar everybody!

sketches i made but didn't bother to finish of me and merbre,,,,,,,,, my husband #1 <3 them w/ narinder + merbre arent gonna be considered "canon" but damn it ill self-ship with them until i get a follower i can WORK with

i come back to this every few weeks and im never happy with it, i dont know if ill finish this but i think about them........ before the divorce </3

unused from an ask

heartstealer. menace. you can rip my heart out anytime, leshy <3

dreshy. he LOVES dresses and being pretty and cute and pretty. he sucks narinder into a lot and heket will sometimes join in if he demands asks her to <3

another unused drawing from an ask i'll eventually answer. (mildly offended at being called a mutton cube.)

.... aaand WOW! I think that's everything guys!! things are still kinda wild but they're calming down a little bit. idk how much longer it's gonna last like this but I have some energy so I made a way-too-long post showing off art I wasn't supposed to post! Awesome. :D

[onejellyfishplease]

i have a question purely for my own benefit lol. How do you get motivation for writing and drawing? Inspiration is no problems for me (I have so many ideas omg help me) but I can never just sit down and make it happen? So what drives you to completing your works? (You need not answer this if you wish not to, much love for you and your work <3)

oh I get you so much! i also had the same difficulty with just getting started on a piece of art/writing. And i can tell you what works for me.

the thing is, if i dont have the motivation to do something, then i probably wont do it. However, if i really what to write/draw something but just can't get started (say im scrolling on tumblr or something like that) The best thing to do that works for me, is to just sit myself in front of my drawing/writing tablet, and open the app.

the start is normally really slow for me (especially when it comes to writing) but stick through it! I write those awkward, ganky sentences down, because theyll provide the acceleration for me to get into the flow of writing again. And you can always go back and edit them.

this is what works for me though! my trick is to just get started, put down my phone/music and tell myself. screw it. we're writing now. and evntually ill get into the flow of it.

i never really wrote any fics down before Open Your Shell, purely because i didnt start any. (as stupid as that sounds)

wow that was a lot of rambling! i hope that kinda makes sense. and again, this is what works for me! so what works for you might be completely different

[moefongo]

Sorry for using an ask, but my app wouldn't let me make a submission for some reason. Writing through the block is always the best method, take that crap head-on. If you feel like it, what about how the various bachelor's react to the supposed death of builder (after they've been romanced) from the new update.

If you feel like it, no rush, and even if you don't, thanks anyway! Have a lovely day!

Don't worry anon, tumblr is weird like that. And yeah you're right I've even worked on really old asks i had half way through because i couldn't bring myself to write anything and its worked so far! And this is right up my alley since I do love some angst, though i wont write for Fang since I have a whole fic dedicated to this and Justice since I have something related to this for him as well, so I hope its ok w you!

Oh yeah and if you want a whole fic about any of these im down to do it lol

The bachelors (romanced) reacting to the builder's death (Part 1)

I'm putting this under a cut for spoilers!

(Also trigger warning for suicidal thoughts and mentions of suicide its nothing too explicit but i just want to make sure to tag things properly! If you want me to add any other tag let me know, thanks!)

Arvio

They had told him the night before that they had an important mission with the Civil Corps early in the morning and Arvio had a terrible feeling about it ever since they told him. He barely slept that night, he even prayed to the Light to keep them safe. Which is something he never does since Arvio isn't really a man of religion, but he really wanted them to be safe.

The next day, everything was normal and he hoped everything went well with the builder so he went to work as usual since he had no choice but to wait for them to visit him after the mission was over. They never really told him what it was, just that it was related to Logan. The morning passed quickly, but there was an unpleasant atmosphere in town that day. It wasn't even 1 pm when Justice told Arvio the terrible news. He had been the first to know and the town followed suit when Arvio's screaming and crying could be heard all over Sandrock. 

Arvio wanted to die in that same moment that Justice finished talking, he just wanted to run and jump off the same cliff they fell from and join them. He couldn't bear to accept the fact that they're gone. 

Things got so intense with Arvio that Fang had to go and sedate him. Fortunately the builder came back relatively unscathed aside from a few cuts and bruises and found out about what happened with Arvio and decided to stay with him until he woke up. 

Once he did, he swore that it was the builder's spirit visiting and since he was still a bit loopy he broke down to cry again despite the builder hugging him so he could feel that they were there with him. Then when he came back to his senses, Arvio refused to leave the builder alone and forbade the Civil Corps from taking them to dangerous missions again.

Burgess

This surely had to be a bad joke, Burgess knew nothing could happen to the builder. He had been praying all morning for their well being so it was impossible for them to have passed.

But no matter how many times Matilda or Miguel explained it to him, the poor soul always remained optimistic on their return, hoping that the builder would prove them wrong and come back to Burgess's side. 

 However deep down, way below that denial, Burgess knew that his prayers went unheard and that the Light abandoned him just when he needed it the most. He prayed and prayed for a safe return and all he got was condolences. 

 Burgess did cry and uncharacteristically questioned the Light's reason for their passing and no matter how many times Miguel or Matilda told him that it had been the Light's purpose, Burgess refused to accept it. In fact those words angered him, how could such a loving and benevolent deity let something so awful happen, especially to someone as good as the builder. 

But since the Light works in mysterious ways, the builder managed to scramble back to town before sundown. They were exhausted, roughed up and dirty and all they wanted was to nap with Burgess for a while. And despite everyone's concern to stay home they made their way back to the church where Burgess was still praying. 

 It was kind of dramatic, the builder swung the church doors open and surprised Burgess turned around to see who it was and as soon as he realized it was them he ran up to them, enveloping them in a gentle hug. Still wrapped in his hug, the builder couldn't help but to break down in tears as they apologized over and over for making him think they were dead. But he didn't care about that anymore, the builder was back and the Light was true to its word and brought them back safe and sound. 

Then they spent the rest of the day being taken care of by Burgess, who helped them get clean and comfy and then settled in to sleep with them. 

Ernest

He really hated this Podunk town and its lack of basic commodities, but the only one who made the stay worthwhile was the builder. He had high hopes of convincing them of ditching Sandrock and moving to Atara with him; he wanted to make sure they had everything their heart desired, including the best work opportunities. 

Unfortunately this silly little dream of his would be crushed when he found out the builder had died. Ernest was dumbfounded at the level of incompetence of the Civil Corps. He wasn't angry, he was fuming and it was damn sure that there would be hell to pay in Sandrock. 

By the time Unsuur left his apartment, Ernest was already writing a hefty letter, reporting the Civil Corps for their ineptitude.  It was a hefty letter, spanning at least three pages. Once that letter was done, he packed his bags hastily as he fought back tears.

For the first time, someone liked him for who he was and not for his wealth. They were kind, sweet and genuine, and they made Ernest a better person, and most importantly, they became that light in his life they were looking for and now that light is gone.

He spent less than an hour getting everything packed and made his way to the train station. He had finished buying the ticket for the next train to Atara when he saw the builder running back to the town. At first he thought it was his mind playing tricks on him, but as they approached, Ernest was able to recognize their form and instinctively ran to them, leaving his bags at the station.

Ernest ran as fast as possible and stopped the builder dead in their tracks. They looked like they had seen better days, but that doesn't matter now, they were right there in front of him and a sense of relief washed over him as he grabbed their hand and ran back to the station, he was now intending to buy a ticket for them and take them to Atara. He wasn't going to let them get hurt again in this town. But thanks to the builder's persuasion he ended up staying in Sandrock for now. However he was still going to send that letter after he edited out the parts where he stated that the builder was dead.

Miguel

Out of all the members of the church, he had to stand on the stage alongside Matilda, who gave out an eulogy for them. Miguel had to do his absolute best to keep it together as per Matilda's request but if it were for him he would've searched for their body instead. Miguel felt absolutely horrible at that moment, feeling as if his heart had been ripped right out of his chest, but perhaps it was the Light giving him the strength to stand there.

Though occasionally during the eulogy, he managed to catch on to comments others said about how he doesn't look devastated to know that his lover is dead. Fools they are, Miguel loves the builder more than anything, except the Light above. If they knew the pain he is going through right now, that ignorant bunch wouldn't dare to say such things. 

Thankfully, the Light performed a miracle in front of his eyes and the builder came in running towards the stage. Once up there they stopped to catch their breath since they had been running the whole way back. But before addressing the concerned citizens they hugged Miguel as tight as possible and in return Miguel let go of his typical decorum and simply broke down in tears as he held on to them for dear life. He didn't care if it made him look unbecoming of a minister to break down like this but his beloved builder was back and that was all that mattered.

 However he made sure to give the Civil Corps a stern lecture on safety procedures as well as on rescue procedures since he didn't want this to happen again.

Owen

How the hell did Justice allow something like this to happen? If Justice promised to keep them safe out on missions and he couldn't even do that? It was a simple request and Justice fucked it up. That day as soon as Justice came by to tell him the unfortunate news Owen broke down. He didn't know if he should cry or be angry. He didn't even let Justice finish talking and he was already screaming at Justice to leave the Blue Moon. It was rather rare to see Owen like this and even Grace who witnessed the whole thing. 

It was only a matter of seconds before Owen would start throwing things at Justice but luckily he ran off before Owen could throw a salt shaker at him. 

 Once Justice was gone, Owen dropped to his knees and began to cry inconsolably. Grace on the other hand was at a loss, she didn't know what to do with him at that moment since she obviously knew the builder was alright and she had to go meet up with them soon. So Grace suggested that they close the Blue Moon for the day since Owen wasn't in any condition to handle customers today. Somehow she managed to convince him and accompany Owen back to his place. 

Owen was silent on the way back to his house, except a few sobs here and there. Though it was a short walk he wanted to pretend he hadn't cried just moments ago, despite looking like a mess.  As soon as Grace shut the door she could hear Owen screaming and throwing things around his house. It devastated her to see him in this state but she couldn't do anything to comfort him for now. 

About half an hour later, Burgess knocks on Owen's door and surprisingly Owen opens the door telling the poor Burgess to leave without even hearing what he has to say. Still he insisted Owen came by the outdoor stage because Matilda would be giving an eulogy for them soon. Owen remained quiet as he closed the door on Burgess's face. 

After some consideration he washed his face and fixed himself to look presentable enough and headed out. Matilda's eulogy was lovely and Owen couldn't help but sob the whole time. Coincidentally Grace came back and stood next to him. She tried to cryptically let him know that the builder was on their way but he was too distraught to catch on and simply dismissed her comments as words of comfort. 

Thankfully the builder didn't take too long in coming back to town, and they were going to head to the stage but before that, the builder felt a pair of strong arms take hold of them and wrap them in a hug. It was Owen, and he was crying of joy seeing that the builder was there with him. Him being happy was an understatement, Owen was beyond ecstatic. He was holding the builder in his arms and refused to let them go, despite the builder trying to break free from his grip. 

Still though he was mad at Justice for what happened and if it weren't for Owen's busy schedule he would've gone and accompanied them in future Civil Corps missions just as a safety precaution. Or more likely Owen carried the builder so they don't get tired or hurt in any way. But he has to handle the Blue Moon so that only can happen in his dreams.

[scarletsxnss]

hiii if you're seeing this, i'm sorry for having so many accounts. tumblr keeps shadowbanning me and i think i finally found the solution, even tho it's stupid. i wont bore u w the details but i'll put my fix under the cut if you're curious

regardless, i'm gonna slowly do all the stuff i had going on in hopes to get this hobby back up n running! ty for ur patience and dealing w this chaos

so it seemed like whenever i logged into tumblr on the ios app, it would ban me then? idk why specifically, but it seemed to do it every time that happened.

SO instead of depraving myself of the app bc i love scrolling thru, im making the blog one last time (idk if i have more attempts in me) withe the word 'sins' censored from the url lol i cant really avoid the other trigger words on my replies so im hoping posting incest, smut, and dark themes, wont effect the ban

on top of that, for good measure, im actually using an oldddd blog lol this is a recycled one from 2019 if you could believe that. so hopefully this works itself out and i dont need to do this all over again

i mean, pls tumblr, dont shadowban this 4+ year old account

[howellsj-archived]

I think it's awesome that you can't relate to the adults finding books they like thing! My problem is that if I have to put that much research into learning about the book, then I don't enjoy reading it nearly as much. Reading is so much about the journey of the story. But I have a question: I also find that reviews and opinions are biased by nature and I often come out with a thoroughly different take. What kind of research do you trust to be accurate to your tastes?

☝🏽first of all i'll say that im not an adult 😅

very much still a teen, but the reason i said that i don't relate (what i actually meant was that i probably wont relate) to the struggle in picking books when the transition from reading YA to adult fiction happens, is because i've always tended to find out as much about the book as i can before actually buying it (i try to avoid serious spoilers, but i sometimes i don't really care, and i don't avoid getting exposed to content from the fandom) so that i am sure that the investment of my time and energy into reading it will be worth it.

so i find that i actually can't just pick any book off the shelves of a book store from the YA section whenever i want to read something; i have to know about it in order to be interested enough to start reading. thats just the way i am i guess.

now obviously, reviews and such are going to be biased and i don't find them very helpful. so whenever i have a book in mind i want to try, i might try to get a snippet of what the plot is about. sometimes i'll look in the tags of the thing on tumblr and try to piece together (some of) the plot based on fandoms talking about it. sometimes i might just like, google it and try to find a sort of summary. i also need to know the genre, of course, because i heavily lean towards fantasy and sci-fi.

after that, its about the writing style. sometimes i just give up after this stage and either buy it or forget about it, but if i need to i'll download a sample on kindle and if im at this stage i'll probably buy the thing anyway (unless the writing is absolute garbage lol)

for me i generally only read the books i already have in mind that pique my interest, so the problem of choosing books doesn't arise. i also have a nice long tbr of books i already know some stuff about, so i know i'll like those things, but before buying i usually do go through all this research, just because i don't think i'd be motivated to read something i don't have all this information about.

(this doesn't always work; sometimes i still end up unsatisfied with a book/ series but that can't always be helped. sometimes i do also buy stuff on impulse when i see it in a store, but i NEED to read the blurb. if you don't put blurbs on the back of books i hate you)

this is just my experience, and i know I'm not an experienced reader by any standards compared to some people, but i hope this helped!!! have a nice day/night <3

[justasopearchive]

uhmmmm.... 👉👈 im still curious about your thoughts on why you think sope has kind of drifted apart these past few years. ive been watching the two closely since 2017 and kind of went mia last 2020. only got back in the fandom late last yr so im curious about your perspective on why you think so... ive seen some sopies share the same sentiments and i wanted to get more context as to why yall arrived with almost the same idea. i already asked you this before but i noticed you still havent answered it yet. if you wont reply to this, i guess ill just take that as a hint to never ask about this topic again hehe sorry if these ever came off as delusional or anything but im honestly just curious about what happened 🥺

Oh, of course; sorry about that, my entire Tumblr is on a queue, so I’m rarely actually ON Tumblr (except yesterday) and most asks I get are lowkey toxic shipping stuff, so I ignore it 😩

It’s not delusional at all; and if it is, I’m also delulu lol. In terms of Sope in particular, I always got the feeling that Suga had a thing for Hobi…a demonstrable thing, crush, feelings, confusion, call it whatever you want. Yes, BH feeds into the madness, but I don’t think they can fake every second on camera and he (Y) was just demonstrably happier, softer and overall more energetic with him (H).

But we stopped getting damn near any interactions a few years ago. Like. At all. Even the 2021 and 2022 memories were bare bones for us Sopies.

My theory? Sometime in 2019ish something happened and one or the other said something pretty bad to the other or feelings came to a head and someone, IDK WHO, put them on ice (I tend to think it was Hobi who wanted to chill out…idk, he just never seemed as into it). And they just haven’t been the same since then. We know they used to see each other outside of work in the past because both of them have said it and there’s photo/video evidence. Now, J-Hope says he sees Suga “in the office”; a far cry from two dudes who went to concerts together or sat around and drank at their new office.

Even Yoongi being the only one not at the JITB release party. That wasn’t sus to y’all? And, yes, I know they said he “felt sick.” But come on…he turned around and performed, in outstanding health, at the Psy concert right after that. That just looked…strange.

Anyway, I’m choosing to remain delulu and force myself to believe that they love each other and Sope is not divorced and they’ve kissed (don’t worry, I know this is all jokes and fantasy…I actually believe 5/7 of Bangtan are in or have recently been in, hetero romantic relationships).

I’ve literally never “shipped” anyone else in my life and BTS is the only group of strangers I actively enjoy keeping up with (I don’t even watch reality TV 🥴)—so I’m just gonna hold on to this as my OTP for awhile lol

This is all just conjecture and gossiping on MY part.

Hope that answers your question 🙃

[diah-the-demon]

yeah the vibe is different </3 it now feels less like a personal chat and more like a personal chat in a public space but what else can we do when tumblr keeps being homophobic TT-TT

yeah I hope so too!! I'll bring it up to her soon as we still have Sci-fi cons which we regularly attend bcs I think that'd be cool!

and aaaw that sounds adorable!! The Sci-Fi cons that I visit always have lots of kids that age running around with their plastik lightsabers and usually clone wars masks of Anakin and Obi Wan and it's the cutest thing to watch them run around and play out their ideas

yeah she probably won't ksjdlsk it's just that we're both so used of someone bitching at us for buying even the most necessary shit so we gotta get used to that no longer happening slkjdlsk I'll probably bring it up to her soon, maybe tomorrow after uni! Hell I can even pay for it myself, I still have a lot of unused money from the past few cons since I barely bought smth aside from postcards / small prints

ksjdslk you're going to have the sickest bookshelf if that works out! and I hope it does skdjsl But yeah that sounds like a solid idea as to where to put them!!

ooh I think with the shows coming out there should definitely be a spike on tutorials for them!! Though I highly doubt there weren't some to begin with with Star Wars being such a huge franchise!! (and yeah I think that could probably be a solid start!!)

Yeah that's also always what I have noticed (it's probably also one of the most comfortable options ngl skldjsk) I think attaching them is going to be the most tricky part but I bet there are tricks to do so very easily!

yeah it feels way more out in the open, like speaking into a microphone instead of like just a casual conversation sat at a table in the corner of the room.. we could switch to discord or insta dms if we want it less open but idk, feels weird when its not on tumblr

ooo that sounds like fun! i need to try going to a sci-fi con, i know they have some in edinburgh occasionally throughout the year so il see if i can maybe go there eventually

it was!! it was so fucking fun, i remember around that age me and my sister would have lightsaber duels occasionally, too bad the sabers were bad quality so i accidently broke mine when i hit it too hard </3 thankfully it was after halloween so i still had the saber for halloween, just imagine like an 8 or 9 year old with a darth vader mask and red lightsaber walking down a dimly lit street dsjdsslkdj

i remember when i went trick or treating later that day i used my vader helmet (well its more like a mask tbh, its only the front half of vaders helmet lol) as a bucket to keep my sweets and candy in dlskjdslkjds

thats fair i cant rlly blame you or her, it will probably take a long time to get over that (i know the feeling cause my mother is like that sometimes, its so fucking annoying. she does it less to me now cause i have my own money but still)

i hope it goes well when you talk to her about it!! i doubt she wont let you buy it but wishing it goes well anyways!! if you dont do it tomorrow tho do keep in mind the sale is i think only lasting 1 more week? (or until everything sells out) so dont leave it too long slksjdlskd

IK ITS GONNA BE SO COOL, id say my bookshelf is already pretty cool because ive got 2 shelfs of books (one is mostly manga and star wars books, other is recipe books and other misc books) i could put them in 1 shelf but ive done it that way so theres space on the shelf next to the books, so i can put the helmets next to the books!! thinking about it now i can prob get 2 on the bookshelf and then the other 2 could go ontop of it maybe, idk il figure that out when i get them dsjlkds

Edit: heres a pic of said book shelf, forgot to mention the (fake) plant that hangs infront of my manga!!! skdjd Ignore the basket on the second shelf of books btw thats just where i keep my socks rn lmao (and random clothes in the shelf below too sldjslskssjk, im working on it so ignore that)

Anyways i could totally fit a helmet or 2 in here, one where the origami book is and one where the basket is, then the rest can go ontop of the bookcase idk lol

oh yeah its def gonna be trending, i saw one for storm trooper armour a few months ago, not mandalorian but tbh they are close (i mean storm trooper armour was based on the clones armour which was based on mandalorian so it is connected lmao) even if there isnt im pretty sure i could probably figure it out on my own if i had to

i think the way il have to attach it is maybe velcro? cause pins could fall out and if i try to put it back on it will be in a slightly different area probably, so what im thinking is having small velcro patches put onto the body suit and some on the armour pieces!! probably wont work out how it is in my head when i finally do it but i can atleast have ideas until then lol

[theclo4ked1]

(The post I wanted to put is most likely far too long for Tumblr, a mircoblogging website-- what? who said, what a dick! Anyways, here's a condensed version, as best as i can, of that post. there are spoilers below, so play the complete game before reading.)

the final horizion update was finally released last night at about 20.10pm (it was late, it left players confused on wtf was taking so long), and i almost fell asleep playing, again, but thats not the point. i use the nintendo switch to play Sonic Frontiers, and i have 110+ hrs of game time, and my save file had 75+ hrs on it. we've been hungry, "hangry" even, but i assure you, we shall all feast such a divine one. except for me, i wont be fully enjoying it yet. my plates in the fridge marked "plz dont eat :3" back in february when i finally got the game, for $50 lol, i remember spending the whole month on this game, hours spent every night i played, being one of the lucky ones, veterans now, who've waited through the year, hungering, yearning for the next updates to come for. lemme tell you, the Sonic Team "grill masters" (- someone on twitter, 2023) cooked, and that moment when the update finished installing, and i saw that glorious "Another Story has opened up on Ouranos" booting up the game was an exhilarating feeling. it was weird that Another Story was a proper noun. i didnt know what to expect, but I was excited anyway to see where I would go from there. unfortunately, the mystery and wonder was kinda removed due to the prior knowledge of Tails, Knux, and Amy (my girl returneth!) being playable again, the final boss changing, and now something huge is happening with Ouranos, which is the access point to the Another Story portion of the game via a giant ring (they bought the warp ring back!) however, before entering the ring, the game prompts you with a long warning message that game progress will be halted, and recommends completing the game first before returning here as it uses your current save slot. the way i see it, the AS acts like a parallel universe; the game's timeline splits after Rhea. the normal timeline is Sonic going about collecting the emeralds again, and eventually fighting Supreme and The End (ive never heard Vandalize in-game before cuz ive only played on hard mode, a small price to pay for being a chad gamer). this new timeline, the AS, is where after teleporting to Ouranos, Sage pulls a godtier move and is like "ayo lemme pull this godtier move real quick" and frees Sonic's friends, though still in their mid-dimensional forms, so they can collect the Chaos Emeralds (which are in different places than the vaults of the prime timeline). there are also more towers that just appeared on Ouranos, so my first thought was "oh my god they recombined Kronos, Rhea, and Ouranos, so thats why the towers are here", but no, it's apparently reserved for something relating to the four Titans; "memorials" as Sage put it in the release trailer. my reaction is still mixed on this, but i understand why they made a split like this; to keep the old and merge the new without changing much. i thought they would completely change the last fifth of the game to just be the AS portion, but no, it's just... Another Story. another book to read after this one that details specific and canon events that arent told in the first material. i played until i got to Knuckles' first time around the island. here the game mentions that you'll be able to swap characters later which im hoping this function is relegated to the dpad. its right there, four buttons, four characters, they couldn't have missed an opportunity as such. playing as Tails will be lit, but somethings that bothered me were

Amy jumps like shes in Cyberspace so turning is fucked, and

the controls for input feel slightly delayed; Amy's Card Attack combo is the weirdest thing because to execute the third attack, the spin, youre required to press your attack button consecutively AND in a consistent three beat tempo.

i was stuck trying to figure this out. a button pressed counts as the button comes upwards, after being pushed down, to make a click sound (for my gamecube pro-controller which was what i used during my time through the game). it requires a "full A press", not a half. Sonic, in the last update and the short time I played as him before Another Story, didnt have these problems. update 10/1/23: spoiler alert, i made the executive decision to can my save data ("dad-uh") just so i could start again. its an extreme compared to, yknow, just starting a new save SLOT, but i wanted just ONE save slot, and only one. im ocd like that, but im not diagnosed. its a joke. im sure, until a doctor says something that it. btw i started fresh. im about two hours in and Sonic still controls just fine imo the Cyberspace jumping makes some sort of sense because Amy is still between dimensions. still sucks to control though. the input delay i will not understand and im not sure they'll go back and fix this any time soon. so that just leaves me: only able have to eat the scraps and leftovers and cant eat with everyone else who finished this portion the day of. an exaggeration probably, but people have told me "oh yeah i finished that game in a day", the base game, casually. look.

kronos island time of completion (b4 moving on to ares), 7:58:54 ares island time of completion (b4 moving on to chaos), 20:00:28 chaos island time of completion (b4 moving on), 36:15:54 rhea island time of completion, 37:00:26 ouranos island/end time of completion, 48:50:33

my intrinsic explorative gameplay style caused what was about ~20hrs for most other people to be almost 50hrs for me my first time, again spread through a month. the game was said to be 20-60hrs so i guess they were right, but if this new game section takes ~3hrs, it would take me 10-20. more accurately im a completionist type of guy. when i wasnt in Cyberspace i was going around the islands solving puzzles, fighting Guardians, experiencing Starfalls (Starfall+ goes WAY too hard, btw whats with all the + signs, there are new guardians, i saw a Spider+ which is white coloured and shot lots of missiles at me) so i could go fishing with my man Big, which also bumped up my game time, and finding Koco around the map which were probably the biggest contributor why I capped my adventure at 48 hours.

(^ my intrinsic explorative gameplay style likely caused by who else?) they werent necessary for 100%, even Update 2 doesnt list them as needed but i went for as many as i could just because i wanted to. as for my time in post-game, it was spent fishing, rerunning Cyberspace stages, particularly 4-2, finding Koco in places i missed when I thought id been everywhere (and i mean EVERYwhere). all other time was just spent running and rolling by the time Update 2 came out. im a bit bummed that i lost my first ever save. i wont be able to look back and show people "this was the file i sank all my time and love into because i only played through the game once and never looked back", but going through again is both refreshing and will be unsurprising since i will know the events. it wont be like majoras mask not playing for eight years. its like kid icarus uprising, where I never knew what was happening next, and i would send my friend who loaned me the game accurate memes relating to the chapter i just finished (big surprise, chapter 6 is my most played chapter). i was all like "wooooah, that happened and oooooh" thankfully, i still have my scrapbook, i.e. the photos and videos i took via the switch's capture button, stringing together my first moments ("you. leave. immediately." - Sage) to the end ("so... that was fun!" - Sonic). i should compile them into video form. maybe this will be good. God knows im far too late and cant recover anything, so heres to a clean slate to new Frontiers.

(also you still cant manually delete saves. i tweeted to the game director Morio Kishimoto about it, hoping something that i said could change something i want to be better)