#it’s nerd rambling with Purpose with Structure

[mimiteyy]

writing my final paper for Anime Class about my favoritest manga this shits easy as hell

[demonslayedher]

A messy ramble about sword decor

Kimetsu no Yaiba was sleeping on menuki, man.

That came back to mind today while visiting a museum exhibit of very fancy sword mountings (like so), because I am me and admiring very realistic metal insects and tiny metal carvings of Tale of Heike battle scenes will always come back to my fandom brain rot. The menuki specifically were on my mind because they are decorative pieces on the handles that hide the mekugi, which are key structural elements--pegs where the handle is attached to the blade, and where some might say a soul is put into a sword.

And, a few years ago while KnY hype was at its height, I heard some people who seemed to try to talk down the hype, saying, "the swords don't even have mekugi! Those aren't real Japanese swords!" Which means a lot to most non-nerds, I'm sure.

True, a lot of the Nichirin-to don't include visible pegs in their design, which you could argue is just because they are covered up with other wrappings on the handles. But realism really isn't a concern since Sanemi and Shinobu would probably constantly stabbing themselves with those tsuba.

So anyway!! The tsuba! The handguards and what they say about the characters is a very, very nice touch, and I love wondering if the swordsmiths designed those fully based on their own imaginations and perhaps what crows told them about the kids (like "he was a charcoal farmer" or "he's a Rengoku") or if the swordsmen got any chance to put in their own requests on the regular ("I was a charcoal farmer, I don't know what to ask for" or "Sabito had one like this"). It's also fun to see the creativity involved in creating the scabbards for unique swords like Shinobu's and Iguro's.

But we can do so much mooooore!

I love the simplicity of the Nichirin-to. They are elegant and purposeful, with engravings being earned and standardized. But they are also beautiful, and the general idea must be "if those swordsmen are putting their lives on the line, we will give them powerful tools, but they might as well get to enjoy something decorative for the rest of their likely short life." The menuki would have been such an opportunity for this, though the details would be hard to spot in both anime and manga format. So instead I just want to ponder the possibilities.

Shinobu:

I was very inspired by all the metal inlay bugs and the butterfly motifs I saw today. I love the elegant engraving on the scabbard, and that her tsuba takes part of the traditional Shippou (Seven Treasures) pattern to make a vague butterfly shape. But I also saw one today that have a wisteria shaped menuki (and other bug motifs!!). But also, knowing her, she might be pleased to have a decorative little fish tucked behind the cords.

Sanemi:

I LOVE THE VIOLENT PINWHEEL. What a whimsical way to express wind! Speaking of bugs, why not give him a rhinoceros beetle, symbolic of fighting spirit? After all, I even saw realistic little snail ones today, anything goes. And while we're thinking wind--

Rengoku:

Wind chime??? Even the balloon flower pattern like was on the wind chime in that scene makes a lovely metal engraving pattern on other mountings on the scabbard. Totally unrelated, but today I say a brand of tangerines called "Shiranui" (the same name as the First Form of Flame Breath) for sale at the store, so heck, why not an apricot theme somewhere too? Orrrrrr you can also work with a "heart" theme to compliment all the flames. Oh, speaking of hearts--

Mitsuri:

Mitsuri's tsuba might look like four hearts, but this is actually an uncommon but traditional spin on a cherry blossom motif. Aside from all the possible ways you play with a cherry blossom motif, the traditional "inome" protective pattern is nowadays considered romantic because it looks like an upside-down heart. There's a lot of nice ways of using that shape, like a window in the a tsuba, or in her case, maybe to frame some other pattern used as part of an engraved piece. Speaking of "inome" though--

Inosuke:

"Inome" means "boar's eye," though it looks more like a boar snout. Kanamori could have done all kinds of things with this motif, or even used little boar-shaped menuki! Not that any of those efforts would have mattered.

Iguro:

Clearly the snake theme could be used a lot, but why not be more creative? He's actually a pretty sensitive dude, and my read on him is that he seems to like scenes that imply "purity," partly because he ses himself as so tainted and doesn't dare taint anything pure. Nature motifs like snow, or the elegant snow-moon-flowers triple motif suit his poetic soul nicely, and snakes are considered a water element (makes sense that his Breath stems from Water Breathing), so some water related theme could work too. In this same vein, snakes are generally considered as much as water element as dragons, so giving him a dragon item would also fit just fine with a snake theme.

Himejima:

Hard to think of this one in the same way as the others, but I'm sure there are methods for decorating it. Like, what does he even use as a scabbard? Maybe he has a nice strong brocade or woven cord for wrapping up the chains? There are so many ways you could work in Buddhist themes for him, especially the six characters used to write "Namu Amida Butsu" (but that's already all over his haori). There's gotta be good themes out there (both of Buddhist origin or general Japanese folk and/or poetic culture) to play on the idea of "strength." Oh heck, just give him a little Benkei-related motif, or a motif related to a famous demon slayer of the past.

--ON THAT NOTE--

Wouldn't it be cool if, like there are "Tale of Heike" themed menuki, there were menuki celebrating famous moments in Corp history? Maybe it was suddenly very popular to make menuki of Uzui vs Gyutaro once that momentous battle occurred? Uzui would love that. You could also have more subtle history, like motifs shaped like The Marks, which the swordsmiths have maintained in their traditions without knowing why certain symbols became associated with certain Breaths. If Yoriichi hadn't been disgraced, he probably would have been a common theme too.

Uzui:

ALL THE DECOR, but what about fireworks all over the shiny lacquer? Or the scene in Tale of Genji in which Genji stands in a storm at the beach (a hidden reference to the names of each of Uzui's wives)?

Muichiro:

GINKGO LEAVES, MAN. And the moon because it would be ironic.

Tanjiro:

What if he had a little SUNSHINE on a simple menuki?? Something nice and understated! Or even his fox mask!!! Or--oh, oh, oh---

Giyuu:

WHAT IF THEY HAD MATCHING FOXES

Also, it would be very nice if there was some useful of the waves and clouds pattern on the metal pieces of his scabbard.

Zenitsu:

There's already a lot of lightning and triangle on this sword, and I like how his matches Kaigaku's. I could see this being a situation of Zenitsu getting his sword polished and using the opportunity to ask for any number of cute and auspicious decorations and being flat out told, "no, this is what Thunder Breath swords look like."

Kanao:

Freaking flowers everywhere, but I also saw a crest today that had three butterflies in a circle around a flower, and it was repeated all over the sword, especially the lacquer of the scabbard. Wouldn't that be a cute reference to the sorts of people who inspired her to learn Breath technique and then sneak off to the Final Selection?

Genya:

He has such a very typical straightforward tsuba you'd actually see in real life. You one of the menuki themes I saw today? One one side, it is a "speedy demon" running off with a stolen stupa (which has the relics of Buddha inside), and on the other side, a Buddhist protective deity running after the demon with a sword. WHAT A FUN PAIR. Something like this would be such a cool way to reference his reliance on the Nenbutsu for Repetitive Action, too. But give that deity a glock.

I realize that a lot of this is very casually referencing motifs and hidden cultural details I've referenced elsewhere in various posts throughout this blog. I am far, far too lazy to go link those. Hopefully they're all properly tagged as "KnY Nerdery." Anyway, since you've come this far, here is an obligatory "SWORD BABY" photo because I always like photos when I get to hold tamahagane.

LOOK, A BABY SWORD, ISN'T IT BEAUTIFUL???

[pinkeoni]

Click to read my long and rambly complex feelings on Rovickie below

Wanting to defend Rovickie in any capacity is a little tiring because it always has to come with the disclaimer that the ship is underwritten and Vickie herself is greatly underdeveloped, because, well, this assertion is true. Rovickie is so poorly developed that Maya Hawke herself said she would have rather Robin’s story just stick to being about friendship and the majority of the fanbase ship Robin with someone she isn’t going to be wuth, and I can’t even blame any of them because of how poorly handled her actual love interest was.

But at the same I kinda can’t help but root for them despite their mismanagement. I like the energy Amybeth McNulty brought to Vickie despite her writing, and I also like the idea of Robin’s “dream girl” that she can barely talk to being a band nerd as awkward as she is. (yes Vickie being a copy of Robin is an issue, but at the same time I like the idea of similar people gravitating toward each other 🤷🏼‍♀️)

I remember reading a post that the Duffers kinda shot themselves in the foot with Vickie. There doesn’t seem to be a way to develop her without shifting attention away from someone else, but now that she’s here, it would be bad if they didn’t give her any development at all. This show has a problem with introducing more characters than it can carry and failing to give development to some of its OGs. Robin herself being one of these characters. Is Vickie a character that can only be remedied by going back in time and remedying writing mistakes of the past? (btw I’m not saying that Robin shouldn’t be on the show, but the show needed serious structural remodeling in season 3 in order to balance all of these characters, and it’s hard to imagine if it’ll be handeled well in season 5)

Earlier in this post you might have noticed that I threw a jab at the other Robin ship, which I have expressed my feelings on before. I don’t want to spend too much time dissing them here because I do understand that sapphic ships often get unnecessary hate for sheer fact that they are sapphic.

So I’ll just be point blank: I don’t think ronance is going to happen. I don’t think Nancy is queer, I don’t think that their interactions are romantic, but hey if you wanna read it that way more power to you. If the fanbase is far more into a ship that won’t happen more than the ship that is supposed to be intended to happen then this is a pitfall of the writers. And like I said before, I understand why people prefer ronance considering that rovickie is so poorly developed. They would rather Robin’s love interest be someone that she had more development with.

But I also wouldn’t want ronance to happen because I think it would be shitty to introduce a queer character to be a love interest and then completely give her the shaft. But at the same time Vickie’s writing is already shitty because of her poor development.

Sometimes you see people (milevens) on twitter saying that byler shippers don’t care wlw ships, and this isn’t an argument even worth appealing to because they are just saying this in good faith, they are saying this just to push buttons. Sometimes when an audience doesn’t engage with a sapphic ship the responsibility is placed solely onto the audience, and not the creators who have failed the sapphic ships of the show. (I’m not saying that people who ship ronance ship it for this reason, but I am saying that I don’t want to ship a wlw ship for the purpose proving that I support wlw ships)

So I guess I actually mourn Rovickie. It’s not dead, but it’s not as good as it could have been and it probably won’t be. There’s the slightest chance of the Duff’s proving me wrong, so maybe I’ll hold on to that tiny sliver of hope.

[kamsparadox]

I forgor (ramble #2)

I said I was going to ramble here, and I sort of forgot. Well, more specifically, I had this perfectionistic mindset on what I wanted to be posted since it's a far more public place, so I put off rambling until I found something I though was worthy of being talked about.

Anyway, I was planning on talking about history but as I rambled further below, I'm instead going to just vomit out some things.

Me when my mind

I'm not as big of a nerd (obsessive study guy) than I actually seem, and I often feel like I have to dedicate a large chunk of malleable time in order to push myself into studying things. This is because my specific way of learning things, the moment I start, requires me to learn every detail there is to something.

This also stems from a sort of perfectionistic desire to ensure that everything works out if I did put in effort into doing something, so I'm often left with the choice of either just half-assing or full-assing, and due to the constraint of the variety of my interests, I never want to full-ass in case I miss out on another interest of mine. It's a huge time sink, and I already have multiple projects I'm devoting some time into.

Perfectionism and poor executive control don't mix well at all

Recent obsessions

1. Urban Design

Recently I've been really into wanting to learn more about urban planning and city design as a side to another project of mine. Since the past, I've always been interested in exploring the idea of a city and how that affects its inhabitants. The cultures, history, customs, etc. have both such a clear but also vague relationship with the person inhabiting it. Constantly in my head I'm playing with the ideas of where farms will be built, how people will acquire resources, and how people will build communities based on these material needs. The way the population due to their history will affect the city, and how it becomes this system of perpetuation of the minds of the people is fascinating. But most interestingly, now that I think about it, is the way that these histories continue to put pressure on the psyche of the population by virtue of structures and layout being permanent.

Imagine if the statues of totalitarian dictators continue to loom over your now democratic nation, preserved for historical purposes. That'd be some fucked up shit. A population holding on to trauma for the fact that it's a portion of one's history. There are ways of preserving history that's healthy. Put it in a museum rather in a public place.

2. Chinese History (or, a very long ramble mostly about the Yellow River)

So i was reading up on Chinese history because, out of everything, that's basically the one I have the least clue about. It was going to be fun, I thought, but then it opened up a can of worms that's important but minimally to the understanding of Chinese history: The Yellow River

The Yellow River is one of the rivers in China that became the catalysts that started it all. All civilizations require access to water for farming purposes, and the Yellow River provided that. It's also used for traversing and trade.

Look at how yellow and murky that is yippee But my main interest wasn't the interaction between the Yellow River and ancient Chinese historical development. No, what I need to know is why the fuck is the river yellow?

Okay, so the yellow river wasn't originally yellow. It gained its name after it got its color. In the beginning it was just the river. What caused the coloration is the distribution of sediments from the Loess Plateau. Doesn't explain it still. Okay: Loess is a silt-like sediment. Silts are basically a granular material with the size between sand and clay. Not completely fine, but it's small. They're created through the Aeolian process, which is basically saying: they're caused by winds carrying small bits of weathered materials.

Aeolian Process Okay, but why yellow: because one of those small bits carried by the wind is Iron Oxide, which typically come in Yellow and Red forms. Additionally, there are just a bunch of various other silt materials there that interact with light in such a way that it gives off a yellowish coloration.

Iron Oxides

Have you ever seen what sand looks like under a microscope? Do you think they're just yellow particle grains all there under your feet being silly? Nope. They're

a collection of various different materials: quartz, rocks, shells, minerals, volcanic materials all smoothened up by their time under water. The yellow coloration is in part due to the interaction between these collections of materials and light when viewed from far away rather than their composition. That can help explain the yellow coloration of Loess.

And even more fascinating: the fact that this river has a lot of Loess running through it means that when rivers go on a very meandering, slow route, the loess sediment transportation slows down too, and, affected by gravity, falls to the riverbed. Accumulation of Loess begins and natural embankments are made. That embankment goes high enough, the yellow river will have to change routes because by that point, it becomes more energy efficient for the river to find another path to the sea.

The Yellow River has always been known for its turbulence, but I think the surprising connection of the yellow coloration and its turbulence is just very cool and exciting.

In the 2,540 years from 595 BC to 1946 AD, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely.

Not only that, but artificial embankments were made in an attempt to control the shifting paths of the river. That artificial embankment only helped to shift its path yet again, causing it to flood and displaced people yet again.

That's what I've learned about Chinese history. idk about dynasties or smth yet.

3. Cyberpunk 2077

Visually amazing. Great lore. Lots of attention to detail on the urban design, historicism, architecture and the various cultures of Night City. It feels alive and as if everything has its historical purpose. Each district is distinct and memorable. Constantly playing the game just to get on a car/motor and ride through it.

Extra thoughts

So earlier I talked about how I wasn't that big of a nerdy guy. Sorry I was wrong.

[maddilynmuse]

Nanowrimo Experience

This year I tried Nanowrimo…

As a total rebel lmao. I thought about trying to get through Book 2 and brought it up to my writing group to be met with a unanimous and resounding “FINISH BOOK 1!”

Well, I could try to argue with that, but naaaah…

So I aimed to edit more or less an hour or two a day instead, though ngl some days I more or less just used writing word count because I had to make scenes from scratch due to playing the Cupid shuffle with mu plot structure until it resembled something good.

Most notably, well, I had a scene from near the end that I really liked. Problem was, at this point that scene was a relic of sorts, no longer serving much purpose. So I looked at the parts I liked about it: a cool sea monster fight/introduction, and getting to show off Gayle (my amnesiac water magic user) being a fucking nerd… and maybe a few more things I can’t tell y’all because spoilers >:3c

So I was like, “hey, showing Gayle having an interest in books and history is good character set up actually” and moved that scene earlier, and while I had to change the context, I still got my sea monster fight later, just in a different place. Ngl not as fond of the new one, but maybe that’s nostalgia. I’d clung to the prior scene through quite a few drafts.

Of course, that meant I had to change parts of the beginning/middle of the book to accommodate, but that was honestly easier than expected. The harder part was basically rewriting, like… uh. Not exactly the last parts of the book, but a majority of the lead up and plot twists.

Also…

Guess who found out em-dashes DON’T have space on each side lskhcjlajdlal

Yeah I was doing them:

Like — this

When they should’ve been:

Like—this

That was a loooooot of cleanup ^^’ in retrospect, I maybe could’ve left it. I’m sure some people might’ve said it was artificial padding, but honestly I just thought they worked that way for some reason??? This thing got longer than expected anyways lol. Still on the shorter end for the average fantasy novel, but oh goodness many words.

But yeah. I am a lot happier with it now, though still a bit unsure about the ending. My previous editor(s) didn’t seem to like it much, but, well…

I’mma risk sounding pretentious but hold with me lol.

I don’t think they understood it.

Like, I really don’t. Long story short, well, it might’ve been a genre mis-match. I didn’t realize at the time, but the pair I had editing it don’t actually work in fantasy most of the time, and seemed to have problems with, y’know… magic showing up.

At the time I thought it was a me thing, but my beta readers who do like fantasy are picking up on things they never seemed satisfied with.

I won’t say they were awful. They did help me find some other relics/artifacts of previous drafts that I left scattered nonsensically all over the place, and do think they caught a few things that I had gotten so used to that I forgot to explain them—like character walking on roofs because the roofs are flat and connected and serve as makeshift pathways when storms and floods occur.

But yeah. Takeaways?

Iiiiiii need to plot better and also need to stop changing the plot midway through writing.

Em dashes work: like—this

Make sure your editors work in your genre

Kill darlings, but also if you really like something, figure out why and take those aspects and reuse them

And hey… gotta find a system that works for you. Not every day was equal. Some days I was chomping at the bit to put in the New Scenes, some days I basically just edited grammar, and some days I didn’t feel up to actually working on the manuscript (particularly the days I was feeling most critical of it and myself) but instead used that time to take a step back and figure out what I needed to work on next.

If you’ve read this, well, thank you. ^w^ I’m just rambling, feeling like a gramma on the porch with youngsters coming by aljxlalhdlaljs.

But hey, sometimes you just wanna talk

[aminiatureworld]

HI! Quick note: write this whenever you want and be sure to take care of your health first! Your works are amazing and masterpieces take time, I can be patient <3 Hope you have a lovely day! (also, 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠: trigger themes like attempts of suicide, probable hints to dissociative amnesia? I was inspired by it at least and some... Limb being bitten off as well as latest archon quest spoilers so readers be cautious!)

Anyway, I'd like to request for Xiao, Albedo, Zhongli, Kaeya and Diluc (if the number is too much you can cut off whoever from the list) with Traveller! s/o that like has no memory of their past but have clues through these... "Visions/Dreams".

It started out a little simple; every once in a while, Y/N would see these little figures floating around their environment. Shadowy wisps, sometimes ghosts talking to them. But in real life, people can't see them and only sees them talking by themselves (and some are a little weirded out). But then one day, while they were out adventuring in the ruins slimes or seelies... Whatever small cute creatures can exist in Teyvat suddenly gathered in Stormterror's lair and they grew curious cuz they heard... Music? Playing? It was echo-y and creepy but then they heard a very familiar tune that they KNOW is linked to their past so they followed and went into the vicinity

(As reference, or for some idea: https://youtu.be/JZ6buLNIgs8)

The moment they stepped inside and pinpointed where the music is coming from they bolted up the stairs (if there are any, which probs not but in reader's case there is) and suddenly the stairs lead them to a hallway from a tower/palace, and walking further, there were two huge doors that lead to a ballroom with more than dozens of ghosts waltzing and singing with the music

(No they did not question why would stormterror's lair have a hallway or how it even has a ballroom inside, nor why creatures would gather in said lair. Questions that break away from dreams are nonexistent)

So obviously they were happy at the wondrous sight and began waltzing along with everyone from strangers to... Unrecognizable but familiar faces? Until They danced with this boy their age. The more they looked the more they were enamored and the world around them was but a hazy dream (as vague and hazy the environment in their head can get) but the boy became more and more vivid and so did the music until they practically sang together. But then as the music stopped and s/o turned their back for a second; the boy sang: "And a song someone sings..." And wisps suddenly flew out of him and towards Reader, making them fall unconscious into their arms as the Prince of the Abyss sang in their ear. "Once upon a december..." Before Aether disappeared and he was but a dream.

And then all of a sudden Reader was yanked away from their dream; almost literally. They turned to see their lover holding onto their arm with concern all over their face and explained to them they were so close to the edge dancing away they could've fallen off of the third floor (which was already high!).

And that's when things get a turn to the worse.

Every dream gets worse than the last; anything that involved the abyss, or seeing these star pendants like what Paimon has on her hair or Kaeya's little decor on his clothes or involving Khaenriah or whatever Albedo's research is rn lure them into a dream vivid than the last and it gets even harder and harder to break them off their dreams. One night of going to bed they suddenly had a dream of their old family/friends swimming in the ocean and telling them to join them, and they wouldve if their lover didnt sweep them off their feet and broke away from another dream they didnt realize was 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛 a dream. And the realization that if they jumped off, their bones wouldve broken cuz a bunch of boulders and rocks on a steep cliff would make a nice floor for landing right?

But still, Aether and the abyss (which in their dreams were ghosts and just... this blond guy you knew but never realized it was your brother and the abyss) are recurring themes. Coming across any of the factors instantly puts them in a dream and reader cant tell whats reality and what isnt. Everything is too vivid they didnt see a bubble coming their way or an attack coming towards them and they were about to be thrown off. It got to the point Reader was getting claustrophic from the rooms suddenly shrinking as they were cornered by these ghosts that turned frightening and whenever they fight back they end up nearly murdering someone of mindlessly attempting to destroy one of The Seven statues.

It lead Reader to be.. Kinda suicidal. Not just because they hate themselves and their situation its cuz its the 𝑜𝑛𝑙𝑦 𝑤𝑎𝑦 they knew how to escape the dream and wake up in a bed in their lovers arms. And because reader cant distinguish reality from dreams sometimes even if their lover is present they see these ghosts and think 'this must be a dream I have to wake up from!' cuz in the long run theyve learned fighting back meant hurting someone so they.. Redirected the pain to themselves so theyre very confused to see their lover throw their dagger across the room and they end up breaking down no matter where they are (or in worse cases in the middle of battle). Reader grew dependant on them and panic attacks after these dreams became more frequent until they cant even trust their surroundings whether its a dream or not.

(I'm very sorry with how long this is and I rambled in grotesque detail you may polish it however you want :"DD)

This can be in any format you'd like! But I mostly prefer headcanons + scenarios? like the bullets then comes scenario etc. But ye write however you want sorry for rambling hope you have a nice day thank you

As a Romanov history enthusiast this request was both very interesting and very difficult. Mostly because I found myself veering off into “lore dumping” for lack of a better term. Still I hope the general feeling of your request was captured well.

I spread various aspects of your request around as best I could, depending on character, outline, fic structure, etc. The only thing I didn’t keep in was the suicidal ideation. This is for various reasons, some personal, but in a more general term I think that it can be very difficult to portray something like that in a way that isn’t excessively triggering and is worthwhile to read for a variety of people. The way one person would process through such emotions and put them to paper could be harmful to another. Overall I thought it best to steer clear from such a topic, with the knowledge that I didn’t find it necessary to the story and thought it would be an imperfect addition on my part. Not that I find never addressing such topics necessarily the right path either, only I think that in this case better not to. I hope I explained why adequately. 

I know that wanting to read and write about such topics does not directly correlate to being in such a mental state but I do hope you also take care of your own mental health. Though getting out of such crises can be difficult I want to tell you this at least. You aren’t alone in feeling this way, even if others in your direct vicinity cannot understand. And also sometimes finding a direct reason for continuing on comes later. Sometimes surviving is enough. And even if you cannot see the light at the end of the tunnel, that doesn’t mean you should take a step which you will never be able to reverse, the only step you will never be able to reverse in your existence.

I also leaned into the Romanov family dynamic, rather into that of the traveler siblings. Whether the reader is the traveler is kept vague on purpose, as I generally as a rule don’t write the siblings. I also found that in keeping them specifically canon compliant to the traveler siblings I’d have to cut back on the more historical illusions. Being a total history nerd I chose the latter option. 

Otherwise my fics varied in complete accuracy to the prompt, though I hope you find it enjoyable to read nonetheless.

Here they are in order of Albedo, Diluc, Kaeya, Xiao, and Zhongli. I hope you find them a worthwhile read and thank you for your request. I hope you have a lovely week.

[fluffyferalkacchan]

BNHA Headcanons #3: Kacchan is afraid of ghosts

Okay so pull Bakugou into a Battle Royal style situation, surrounded by villains? He'd just smirk while going Great Explosion Murder God Dynamight on their ass.

But ask him to watch a ghost movie, or go to a supposedly haunted place? He'd nope his way out faster than Hawks at full speed.

So whenever the Ashido or Kaminari invited him to a ghost stories night, he'd categorically refuse. On every friday night aka. "movie night" he'd ask whoever is inviting him (a member of the Bakusquad or Todoroki, absolutely NOT Deku though) what movies they were supposed to watch (thankfully after the First Movie Night Fiasco, Iida instated some rules which worked in Bakugou's favor) so he'd googled it and knew when it was safe to come.

Besides the ghost types of horror movie, he's actually fine with all the other ones, so no one picked up on the fact that he didn't like ghost movies yet. (He's definitely not asking Deku, because he knew that that nerd would notice the pattern).

Somewhere along the line though Kaminari and Todoroki ended up finding out about it. In totally different circumstances, though.

Kaminari

After coming back from his supplementary classes, Bakugou was dragged to movie and since he was tired he totally forgot to ask about the title. He totally should have though, because it became obvious ten minutes into the movie that this was going to be about ghosts. But at this point it was too late to extract himself from the situation.

Halfway through, Kaminari, who was sitting right next to him on the sofa, noticed that Bakugou had gone strangely stiff and that he was clutching very hard at his knees. One subtle peek at Bakugou tense face and wide-eyes was enough for Kaminari to understand. And he mentally went like "Oh shit."

So like three seconds later he went like "Eeeek!" and splashed the full content of his glasses on Bakugou's face. Predictably, everyone around them went like "?!!!!", while Bakugou was like "What the actual fuck, dunce face?!"

Kaminari made a super sheepish face and explained that he felt something touching his neck from behind so he got super jumpy. So he dragged Bakugou to the bathroom to try to help him clean up, all the while apologizing super loudly.

"Whoa you got strawberry milk in your hair! Hmm... how about you go wash your face, while I take care of your shirt, okay? Just take it off and hand it over, I'm really sorry, Bakugou!"

He was half-expecting the other teen to explode on his face and to bite his head off for telling him what to do, but Bakugou was oddly silent and just studying for a while. Then,

"You did that on purpose. What's your deal, dunce face?"

Busted.

"Hmm.... I just sort of feel guilty 'cause I'm the one who dragged you there to watch the movie? And you must really be super tired 'cause you didn't even ask what we were going to watch and.....now that I think of it you probably ask for that specific reason so -"

"Quit the fucking rambling you sound like the nerd!! Get to the fucking point!"

"Right, so like, I think it's really not cool to force you to watch something if you don't like it? "

"The hell? I was fine!"

"Dude, it was written all over your face that you were sca-"

"I WASN'T SCARED!"

"... that you'd rather go kiss an octopus than be anywhere near that scary ghost lady. Unless you want to go back there?"

"..."

"Yeah that's what I thought. Now give me your shirt."

.

.

.

"Don't fucking expect me to thank you for throwing milk at my face!"

"Yeah no, no, don't. t'was my fault, anyway!"

(Though if sometimes afterwards Bakugou tutored Kaminari with way more implication than usual, it was because that dunce face was even more dumb that usual and absolutely not because he was feeling grateful or anything.)

.

.

"But like dude, it's actually kinda unexpected... like you seem the type to go full on "DIE, DIE, DIE" on anyone even on ghosts."

"... ghosts are not corporeal, dumbshit. And they're already fucking dead."

"Oh, right!"

Kaminari thought right there and then, that it actually made a whole lot of sense that Bakugou would be afraid of things that he was defenseless against and couldn't physically fought off.

Todoroki

Todoroki actually figured it out on his own by noticing which movies Bakugou tended to avoid and how he'd react when sometimes someone in the class would talk about that or that rumor. So one day he just came up to Bakugou and bluntly announced. "You are afraid of ghosts."

Bakugou of course blew up a gasket trying to deny it, but then Todoroki just went and showed him a picture of Sadako up close and reaching out like she was about to come out of the screen on his phone and Bakugou swatted at the phone so hard that it nearly fell down on the floor. "GET THAT THING OUTTA MY FACE!"

So yeah, the cat was out of the bag after that.

At some point, class 1A went to an amusement park and they decided to do the haunted maze.

Todoroki, whispering: Do you want to take my at hand?

Bakugou, hissing like a feral cat: Ask me that one more time and I'll fucking punch you in your asymmetrical face!

(Bakugou is fine with haunted attraction, because when he was a kid he once punched a fake ghost in the face and it actually went down, so hunted attraction are (relatively) safe).

The Origin Trio

Actually, I think that Bakugou is not the only one afraid of ghosts. This probably extends to any of the Origin Trio. Like all three of them are super badass and used to harsher and more dangerous situations than any other hero-in-training were at their age (and even than some actual pro heroes)...

But put them in a situation where they might be confronted to a ghost, like an old 'haunted' place? They'd react just like any scared teenagers would and I think it's hilarious.

Like at some point during their week-end internship with Endeavor, they went to an old inn in the middle of nowhere. And Endeavor had left them there alone for the night, while he went ahead to some place he wanted to scope beforehand.

While being served to eat, Midoriya asked the owner if she'd notice anything strange going around here recently. He actually just wanted to know if the suspect they were chasing had escaped there, but she ended up talking about how sometimes at night there would be that weird low scratching noose, like nails dragged on the wall and thumping in room where no one was supposed to be... and cue interjection from other resident of the inn about local tragic deaths and ghost rumors.

Which of course caused Bakugou to turn two shades whiter. But aside from that they determined that it probably wasn't the villain they were looking for and put it out of their mind. Until they heard the exact same scratching the owner had been talking about in the middle of the night... coming from inside their closet.

Midoriya, looking uneasy as they are inching closer to the closet: M-maybe it's just wind...

Bakugou, looking just as uneasy, if not worse: Inside the fucking closet?!

Midoriya, mumbling, mumbling: well, depending on the structure of the inn, there might actually be some places susceptible to air leakage and because of the difference of pressure between the inside and the outside -

Bakugou: Oh for fuck's sake, shut up.

And of course the light chose that exact moment to malfunction. Then a loud banging noise came from the inside of the closet, causing all three of them to flinch and frantically using Todoroki's light and Bakugou's explosion as their source of light.

Midoriya, sweating bullet and voice shaking: I think it wants to come out. See? It's banging and scratching on the closet door as if it is stuck in there... maybe it is too weak to properly move the door yet? Or it has not realized that the door is a sliding -

Bakugou, swatting him on the head: Are you freaking dumb, don't give it ideas on how to escape, damn Deku!

Todoroki, who had kept his poker face until now actually started to feel scared as well: M-Midoriya, what if I burn the whole closet down, while it's in there?

Midoriya: No your fire probably wouldn't be able to affect it. Odds are you'd actually end up burning only the closet door... which would actually allow it to escape....

Todoroki: Oh.... I think I understand now why you're scared of ghost movies, Bakugou. Feeling this helpless is very unpleasant.

Midoriya: Wait, what?! Is that why you're avoiding movie night, Kacchan?

Bakugou: Can we fucking focus on the actual fucking threat trying to break through our closet door?!

Midoriya: But now that I think about it, it's really strange that the door managed to physically restrain it while it's supposed to be incorporeal. Was there some kind of seal on the door? Or is it actually linked to the way it died -

And then the "actual fucking threat trying to break through the closet door" mewled. Yes mewled. Because, turned out it was actually just a cat who had sneaked in at some point and got stuck in there.

(And when Endeavor came back some time later, they unanimously decided not to tell him about what happened.)

.

.

So yeah, while Bakugou is the type to be afraid of anything ghost related and avoid them as much as possible, Todoroki is fine with ghost stories and movies and so on, but he would be the type to be really scared when actually confronted to a "possible ghost encounter situation". Midoriya, while still scared shitless, is probably the one who would be the most level-headed in such situation, 'cause he's sort of used to be scared?

.

.

.

About ten years ago.

Kid Deku and Kid Kacchan were exploring some part of the forest and they saw an abandoned shack and Kacchan wanted to go look inside,

Deku: Kacchan, it looks like it's haunted. What if we meet a ghost? Aren't you scared?

Kacchan: I'm not scared! Even if there's a ghost, I'll just use explosion on it!

Deku: But ghost doesn't have bodies. I don't think you can touch or hurt it. But it can touch you.

Kacchan, going super still:...

Deku: So what if we see one, and it tries to hurt us because we went inside its house?

Kacchan, looking at Deku with wide eyes: ....

Deku: Or what if it follows us home and attack us when we're asleep? I don't wanna go in there, Kacchan. Let's go back?

Kacchan, close to tears: F-fine, but that's just 'cause you're scared! I'd totally go on my own!

.

.

.

Deku accidentally being the source of Kacchan's traumas and totally forgetting about it, since time immemorial.

[theonlygamergost]

Natural skills-Fd!au-Part 2

This fanfiction is based on the Family Dynamic au made by @antarctic-bay, if you would like to know more, go check them out!!!

Also please bear in mind that the things written in this might not be canon!

(Also English is not my main language! So sorry for any grammatical error UwU)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This idea comes from content shared by momtra in a private discord group, we are hungry for Fd! au content so she rambles a lot about it, plus it kinda became canon sooooo

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Part 2/4

<--Previous--Next-->

Enjoy~

"I'm home ya dickheads" Will swung the front door open, getting greeted by Tommy and Techno playing Smash Bros on the couch.

"Welcome back" "Took you long enough" were the comments of the younger brothers as he slowly passed in front of the tv on purpose. "By the way, I'm not putting this shit in the cupboards, you two are doing it" he placed the bags on the kitchen counter and took out the small plant.

"Sure ill do it after I destroy this nerd" Techno was casually laying back, his controller was emitting small vibrations every now and then.

"Oh no no no Techno! If you win, which won't happen, I want a rematch- HOW?!" Tommy got up and yelled as his character got comboed into oblivion.

"Get dunked on, casual" Techno got up and pushed Tommy back onto the couch as he made his way to the kitchen.

He was towering over the plastic bags as he noticed Wilbur 's new friend. "You bought a plant? I didn't know you liked them"

Wilbur jumped a bit after the comment but regained his cool instantly, "Well, since I am more than capable of caring for myself, I thought practising caring for this plant would help me understand how to care for the two of you better since you are both no-good kids than require constant supervision"

"But plants don't need supervision... and you need to water them once every forever" Tommy got up from the couch, "W-well... yes..." He looked around in panic "Maybe you can learn something from them then!" Wilbur kept digging his grave deeper, the other two rolled their eyes.

Wilbur actually couldn't care for himself at all, yes, he helped bring some money home sometimes with his part-time, but he was chaotic, VERY chaotic.

"Oh my, what an offence" Techno stated while bringing the back of his hand on his forehead to add up to the dramatic tone, Tommy started grabbing a couple of boxes from the bags

"S-shut up Techno! I'm sure you both wouldn't be able to keep it alive not even for one week!"

"Is that a challenge?" Techno looked over his shoulders "Everything for you is a challenge Techno!" Wilbur closed his door, leaving his brothers to put the groceries away.

"Now... where should I put you.." Will looked around his room looking for a good spot for the newcomer.

The only unoccupied surface was by the window... well.. it was technically occupied, but he could have easily moved those things somewhere else.

He would have placed it on his desk, but it wasn't very spacious and it was completely filled with textbooks and papers, too messy to clean it now.

He had always complained about how small his desk was compared to Tommy's and Techno's, but he did give up the bigger rooms for his younger brothers, Phil completely gave up on a room for himself so... the complaints were never "real" complains.

Diving onto the bed, he took his phone out of his pocket and checked at the many notifications: Ten from Instagram... too many on... tik... tok? Yea.. it was...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The air was warm and the sunset was breathtaking, he and his brothers were sitting down, feet dangling off of the pier, drinking some soda in comfortable silence.

At one point, Tommy started knocking on the old wood the structure was made of, but no one said anything. Which was weird in the first place since Techno got annoyed pretty quickly.

"Tommy? What are you doing?" Wilbur leaned back to look at his brother "Stop it kid" Yet Tommy was staring at... nothing... he just kept knocking and knocking and-

"Wake up lazyass, dinner's ready" Wilbur opened his eyes to find Techno, the bags under his eyes were deep and dark as always. "I was knocking on the door like an idiot for at least five minutes"

Oh...

"So... this is your new best friend?"Techno moved by the window and pointed at the plant "Oh wait, you never had a best friend in the first place" Wilbur rolled his eyes as he got up and stretched his arm, "Look who's talking".

They both left the room, closing the door behind them " Well, at least I have Skeppy, BadBoyHalo, Tapl..." Techno counted his friends on his fingers "Watch out everyone! Mister popular over here with his three friends" Wilbur spoke with a funny tone, Techno sighed.

"Who do you have then? Josh?"

"Fundy! Fundy is my friend! Also Jshlatt!" Techno looked over his shoulder, unimpressed "When was the last time you talked to Shlatt?" Wilbur opened his mouth to talk but realized that it was better if the conversation ended there, on Techno's face the grin of victory appeared.

As they entered the kitchen, Phil greeted them with his "Kiss the Cook" apron wrapped around his waist "Oh there you boys are! C'mon, dinner's ready".

They sat down and started eating.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Do you even know what type of plant it is Wilbur?" Tommy had told Phil about Will's plant while he was napping, part because he wanted to see how Phil would roast him, part because Phil definitely knew more about plants than Wilbur.

"It's a geranium... I think?" Techno almost choked on water "You think?" making Tommy laugh even more than he was already, Phil shook his head in disapproval. "You bought a plant and you don't even know what species it is?" Wilbur shook his head "No, I know it's a Geranium, I'm not dumb" Tommy got up to get more of the delicious soup Phil had cooked, Techno fetched him his plate to fill up as well.

"I bet twenty dollars that for next Sunday it will already be dead" Tommy chuckled in the background as Will gave Techno the deadly stare. "Too scared to lose, Losebur?" and now Phil was chuckling too.

A couple of months ago, Techno and Wilbur had bet on who would win a Monopoly game since both of them were really good at it, Phil and Tommy were only there to watch.

It was a very close game but Techno ended up winning, Will thinks it was luck, Techno sustains it was skill.

Either way, from that day on Wilbur was very sceptical about betting against Techno, so he started to call him "Losebur", which of course, he deeply hated.

In a few words, it was Techno's way of calling Wilbur a bitch.

"Ok then Mister "I-tryhard-everything" Blade. I'll prove you wrong" Techno rolled his eyes at the nickname and kept eating his soup.

The rest of the dinner was uneventful... for how much uneventful a dinner with the Pandel brothers could be, that is.

[bluephoenixdruidicprincess]

SPN 14x20, Moriah -- Review

It's with a heavy heart that I must come to terms with the fact that this will be our last season finale, next year will be the series finale. We're about to embark on our last SPN Hellatus. It hurts so much thinking about that. But as far as a season finale goes, what an episode this was! This might be my favorite SPN season finale (and yes, I say that even with Swan Song in mind). In a season that has been very underwhelming for me, this season finale was awesome. I remember some time ago, Misha had tweeted that this season finale would be epic and I originally hadn't put too much stalk into that comment because after all, as the saying goes, "PR is not showrunning". And I remember hearing similar things about the season 13 finale and talk about how surprising it would be and it turned out to be just a so-so kind of finale and I'd predicted basically everything that was going to happen in it. But this finale was amazing. Like, it's so hard to talk about it because I honestly don't know where to start. I'm so glad that I went overboard on blacklisting tags last night because shit went down in this episode that I would've HATED to have had spoiled. Typically, I don't mind if I'm spoiled but this episode had the kind of things going on where you just have a much better experience if you don't already know for certain what's happening. But I think I've rambled in this introduction long enough. Let's get to talking about SPN 14x20, Moriah.

As always, there will be spoilers so if you haven't seen the episode, perhaps skip this. Like I said, this is not an episode you want to have spoiled for you.

I love episodes with Chuck in them. They're some of my favorite episodes. The show gets really self-aware and super meta when he's around for obvious reasons. And I love that the writers aren't afraid to go all the way with it. The digs at other writers, the digs at their own writing, it's great. Especially, the dig at writing in general. Essentially, throughout this episode we have this theme running around that Chuck is a writer and he's trying to write this perfect story and everytime he fails, he tosses it in the recycling bin and begins anew. But we have our heroes pointing out that these aren't meaningless words Chuck is simply writing down, he's messing with people's lives, what gives him the right to do that? Words have the power to change us. And when you think about it, that's what all writers do (at least in fiction but this can also happen in non-fiction, too). They manipulate their characters into fulfilling a certain type of narrative as it makes sense for the story and with little regard to how that person will feel about it. So I enjoyed that bit of self-awareness and meta put into it. When analyzing this show, we're always talking about story structure and how "insert horrible thing" has to happen for the purposes of the narrative and we have our heroes confronting Chuck about this and saying, "screw story-telling, you're putting us through the ringer so you can have a rounded story? We're done with this shit." Possibly foreshadowing for Season 15? Perhaps a different approach and bending the rules of story-telling is in Season 15's future? I'd be interested in seeing that.

We also got some truth-telling in this episode but unfortunately, the truths that needed to be told didn't get told. But I didn't really expect it to happen anyway. Hopefully, it'll happen sometime in season 15. I guess the idea behind this particular plot is that lying is necessary in order to create a peaceful environment and while that may be true, I feel like what was going on in this episode was a bad example to make a judgement on if whether or not a fully functioning society can thrive on truth-telling. Out of the blue you just suddenly had people telling the truth when they're so accustomed to be lying and to be lied at. So if you're not used to telling the truth or hearing the truth, of course it's going to throw you for a loop. It's very possible a perfectly well-functioning society can exist based on not being able to lie but the society needs to be raised in it and that's clearly not what was happening here.

Also, thank you Chuck for being stern with Dean when he broke your guitar. My heart cried when Dean destroyed that guitar. I come from a family of musically inclined leanings. We revere musical instruments as if they were living in my family. As a child, if I accidentally dropped my harmonica or flute, or I accidentally tripped over my father's grand piano while I was practicing gymnastics, you bet I was apologizing to these instruments. This show will not be complete in my eyes if Dean does not apologize to that guitar. Music is the conduit to and from our souls and I never want to see Dean treat a musical instrument with such ill-respect again. I'm sure you all think I'm joking but I'm being 100% serious. I don't joke about music.

Also, good on Sam for calling out Dean for being a nerd. I'm so happy that Sam is at a point where he feels comfortable on calling Dean out on these things. Dean needs to be called out more. After all, how can he really progress if no one's ever honest with him? And keep in mind, that's not me saying I hate Dean or anything. I don't, even with these last few episodes in mind. I'm just remarking that he has a lot of character development and progression he needs to get through in season 15. So Positive Police, you can stow your torches and pitch forks.

Have no fear, everyone. Mary is still among us. There were so many shots in that cemetery of the statue of Mother Mary that it has to be representative of the idea that Mary Winchester is watching over them. Either that, or the real Mother Mary is watching over them. And if that's the case, that would be an interesting figure to meet in the next season but I doubt we'll meet her though. For the most part, SPN tries to stay away from the specifics in religion. When they use religion, it's usually in more vague terms. But anyway, the amount of times the camera caught this statue in a scene, it truly can't be a coincidence so I'm taking it as representation that Mary is still with our heroes and watching over them which is a nice sentiment and definitely something they need on their journey of healing. I like to think that Dean noticed the statue on a subconscious level and that was in a subliminal sense speaking to him in a way.

I really liked in this episode how Cas felt like he had enough autonomy to essentially go against Dean. He was actively trying to keep Dean from killing Jack and saving Jack and before they were interrupted, Cas was even contemplating running away with Jack. Jack means that much to him that he was willing to throw away his relationship with Dean and that's real nice because for so long in this show, everything Cas does is normally attached to trying to help Dean in some way but here, this was something he specifically wanted to do for himself. His love for Jack is not linked in any way to Dean and he was willing to go against Dean to protect that love. Cas, I'm so proud of you.

And Chuck, my man. I have a lot of thoughts on everything that happened in the final act of this episode (I mean, what a final act this was!) but I'll try and be as succinct as possible. Chuck had me a little confused in this final act. I did see the bad!Chuck part coming. It's something I've always suspected since season 11. But the thing is, I'm not entirely sold on if Chuck is really the villain that he was made out to be in this final act. My reasoning? Well, when you watch that scene where Dean is contemplating shooting Jack, it's very evident that Dean is struggling with it but when he decides not to, he drops his arm holding the gun and we cut to Chuck who gives this very brief half-smile, almost like he was holding his breath and exhaling in relief when he saw Dean put the gun down. Why would Chuck do that if his goal was to get Dean to kill Jack for his story? And then he completely flips when Dean throws down the gun. Again, why? Why didn't he do that when Dean dropped his arm? It was very apparent from the time Dean let his arm fall that he wasn't going to shoot Jack so why would Chuck give that smile, wait for Dean to drop the gun and then lose his shit? My thought is that he wanted Dean to not shoot Jack and everything else that came after was just dressing his story for the next act in the Winchester Gospels. Perhaps Chuck is organizing his own death. Perhaps his real aim in all of this is by them taking on The End, possibly even killing Chuck, he can finally prove to our heroes that they don't need him anymore. And what also got me is that he claims that it's now The End and I'm just asking myself, "why?" From the other worlds we've seen, it doesn't look like he did it to these other worlds. He just kind of left them in the dumpster to do whatever they want.

Or perhaps Chuck really is doing everything for the sake of the story he's trying to write and the polar opposite mannerism I described earlier was just a delayed response in Chuck not quite realizing at the time that Dean really wasn't going to do it. And if Chuck really is writing off this world as another failed draft, perhaps this is a lesson he's going to learn in season 15 where sometimes your rough drafts are the best stories ever written. I also receive a kind of perverse enjoyment in this idea of Chuck doing everything he's doing for the sake of the story and ironically to create this wonderful story he wants, he created characters that almost certainly would go against him. He created characters that view their connections to others more important than anything else so why is he so surprised that when it came to killing one of their own, they couldn't do it? When has TFW ever been successful in simply letting the other members go?

And the ending with all the souls being released? I loved that the first soul we saw was Constance from the Pilot. Basically saying, "This is The End" by having the case that started it all be the first one to pop back up. I also thought it was interesting that Constance is a Woman in White and we literally just had a movie come out about this particular lore. It's probably not connected but I thought it was interesting, regardless. And Bloody Mary showing up? AKA my favorite MotW episode from season 1? Sign me up for Bloody Mary Part 2. I can't wait to see that.

I noticed that there was also kind of a smile on Jack's corpse-face. A very maniacal kind of smile that reminded me of the Empty. So I'm interested in seeing what that's leading into. Also, Billie and the Empty. What's going on with them? I'm excited to find out.

And this season keeps on continuing its trend with unreliable narrators and it's lovely to see. If anything, I love that this season has really been honing in on the idea that because you may ally with someone, it doesn't necessarily mean that they're your friend or that they don't have their own goals and objectives.

Like I said before, I haven't exactly been this season's #1 fan. And that's not because I dont understand what this season has been trying to do with it's story-telling, I completely understand what it was trying to do. To me, it just had a tendency to miss its mark more often than not and it was doing a lot of things I personally didn't care about. While the season not being terrible but nor has it felt like it's anything really note-worthy, either. This is probably the season I'll re-watch the least. But despite the season's underwhelming nature, they really brought in a fantastic season finale. When I do re-watch this season, this episode is probably what I'll re-watch the most. Structurally, the episode dragged a little but content wise? It was amazing. I give this episode an A-.

Hopefully, my ramblings made some sense. I had so much to say but yet was having a really difficult time on figuring out how I wanted to articulate it. I can only hope I pulled it off. Tagging @metafest in case anyone there would like to weigh in.

And with the SPN season done, Shadowhunters soon to be done, I'm finally going to be able to catch up on my To Watch list that my lovely followers have been sending recommendations for. So definitely during this hellatus (our last one 😭) the bingeing will be in full effect for The Orville, The Magicians, Gravity Falls, AHS, etc. I haven't forgotten you all.

[fuckthisiwantanothername]

FFVIII remake is a big fucking deception.

I normally don't make rants like this, but I just have to get this off my chest. I'm a huge FFVIII fan, like, I'll buy anything related. Just shut up and take my money, ok? So, I was obviously thrilled when I heard of the remake and bought it as soon as it was announced. I've been waiting eagerly for 2 days to finally play it, looking up that Hyne damned countdown until the notification popped up and I was finally able to switch to the game.

I grinned like an absolute moron as the logo appeared and almost cried when the first cinematic played. Liberi Fatally is as beautiful as I remembered.... But then...

Is this a mother fucking joke? Look at that poor low res backgrounds. They're painful to look at. If they retextured the characters, why not the backgrounds?

You would think that's not all bad, I mean, I can forgive a lot for my favorite game. But what fucking nightmare is this????

Look at that ugly ass background! The PsOne version didn't look like this! Just look at those fugly mountains. Look at them!!!

And WTF is up with the Pause menu?

Why not resize it instead of stretching it all goofy like that? And, I'm sorry, but can someone explain me why there's no vibration option underneath... Or anywhere else?

But that's not all. Oh, no! I'm just an hour in (getting cards and AP because I'm a nerd and want to do everything, of course) and more things pop up. I'm pretty thankful for the options of avoiding encounters, quicker battles/in-game action and power ups during a battle and, while the purist in me squirms inside, they're optional, so that's fine. What is NOT fine is changing making limit breaks a lot easier to appear. In the original, Squall's Rough Divide didn't come up regularly (unless you knew how to manipulate the game).

Ah, Squall... My major reason for purchasing this remake and my most devastating let down. His appearance doesn't match the original AT ALL. Hell, he doesn't even match his menu portrait or the 3D model in the world map! I get that they are using the model from Dissidia and that's ok, go ahead, but at the very least change the portrait and the model to match what you're trying to accomplish, guys!

Like, seriously, the hair color and structure is not even the same in each portrayal of him.

Quistis looks so much better and matches both her portrait and model, so what gives?

Last, but not least (for now, because I'm absolutely sure I'm going to keep rambling about this absolute let down of a remake), can someone please tell if there's going to be a patch to add the voices they promised? Because if I remember correctly, Square was announcing the remake was going to have voices in Japanese and English. So, where are they? Did I dream it? Because I'm pretty sure it was announced at some point.

Seriously Square, you had 20 fucking years to remake my favorite game and this is the best you could accomplish? Low res textures, no vibration, weird design choices, no intuitive remapping of the controls, especially regarding world map navigation (seriously, why not improve them?) and very basic additions that, while optional, defeat the purpose of some GF abilities and junctions? The game was easy as it was, now it's laughable.

In words of the eloquent Headmaster of Balamb Garden: "You money-grubbing sons of a bitches!"

Fuck you, Square Enix. Fuck you.

[apileoftribbles]

Five things tag

tagged by the wonderful @thislovelymaelstrom (waves aggressively, hi!!)

5 things you can find on my blog:

1.Star Trek, all day every day, because clearly I have a problem

2. Star Wars aka my other space children

3. Fanfiction, other people’s and my own

4. Lord of the Rings, Wonder Woman, Harry potter, and other assorted nerd shit

5. Space aesthetics for days

5 things you can find in my bag:

1. Cute lil coach wallet with pink flowers I’ve had forever

2. Altoids (gotta stay minty fresh!!)

3. Piles of bobby pins and hairties

4. tissues and benadryl because ALLERGIES

5. Broken pens

5 things you can find in my bedroom:

1. Way too many stuffed animals for 19 year old

2. Piano (keyboard)

3. A bunch of random pretty stuff I’ve collected like a damn crow

4. Posters, art prints, and outdated pictures

5. A pile of unread books as well as several shelves of read ones

5 things I’ve always wanted to do:

1. See the northern lights (same, boo)

2. Work at the United Nations, even if it’s just as an admin assistant I don’t care I just want to be able to say I worked there its a DREAM of mine.

3. Get a masters degree in international studies (I’m working on my bachelors at the moment)

4. Wander around traveling with a friend/significant other for a few months and just see a whole bunch of shit and not wear makeup the whole time and LIVE

5. Idk not to get crazy or anything but it would be nice to get married to a nice person that loves me unconditionally and all that jazz??

5 things I’m currently into:

1. Star Trek (I know, you never would have guessed that)

2. Space in general, it’s just hella pretty. I could care less how it works, I just like to look at it.

3. Learning about feminist and queer theory (I’m also a gender and women’s studies major) it’s all just wild and blows my damn mind, I love it so much.

4. Leonard McCoy and my personal headcanon that he’s just as much of an anxious mess as me :)))

5. This TV show called Endeavor on Masterpiece Mystery, it’s just so good and the next season finally started and I’m very pleased.

5 things on my to-do list:

1. Pack to go back to college

2. Gotta get my hair chopped off again

3. Write the last part of Long Time Comin’ (actually so excited to be done with this and very proud of myself that I stuck with it)

4. Finish reading “Mostly Harmless” by Douglas Adams so I don’t have to drag the giant book to school with me

5. Get out of bed at some point today

5 things you may not know about me:

1. I think science is hella interesting and I have mad respect for people who can do it, but I’m TERRIBLE at it.

2. I’m a wild inter-sectional feminist hippie-liberal christian that lives in a constant state of annoyance at other christians that clearly do not understand what Jesus meant when he said LOVE EVERYONE, NO FUCKING EXCEPTIONS (that’s a direct quote)

3. I don’t do well when I don’t have some sort of structure to adhere to, it makes me really anxious when I feel like I’m floating around, meaning I LOVE being at school despite how stressed I get because it gives me purpose and tasks to complete.

4. I love to sing! I personally don’t think I’m very good at it, but I’m in an a cappella group at my school and I love it so much. (I’m a first soprano for anyone interested!)

5. The first “fanfiction” I ever wrote was in seventh grade, before I even knew what fanfiction was, and it was this bizarre combo of wizard of oz/wicked/lord of the rings I wrote with one of my friends. There are seventeen completed stories in all, and let me tell you, I’ve been re-reading them lately and they are fucking terrible.

tagging @anyakinamidala and @samwise-the-true-hero ! I’m sorry this was so rambly I just... can’t do one-word answers, apparently.

[ramblesandmumblesofanerd]

Rambling Reviews: Spider-Man Homecoming

WARNING: Lengthy Post Which Contains Minor Spoilers

We interrupt the poll for what Doctor Who story you guys would want me to talk about next to bring you a review of Marvel’s latest entry into their ever expanding cinematic universe: Spider-Man Homecoming. After his debut in the third Captain America Movie, Civil War, people really wanted to see what the fifteen year old superhero from Queens, New York could do in his own film. Marvel was quick to oblige, as the obligatory end credits scene teased the spider-ling messing around with his new costume made by Tony Stark. But how would this new film play out now that Marvel had the rights to use their character in a film? Would it be silly and over the top like the Sam Rami films, or would it be dark and edgy like The Amazing Spider-Man films?

Firstly, let’s talk about the plot of the movie in a spoiler free manner. The movie primarily focuses on a young Peter Parker after Civil War focusing on finding a balance between being Spider-Man and being an ordinary high-school student. Peter is ready to be the Spider-Man again, but Tony Stark been silent since they last met, but he has other responsibilities to address. Things grow even more complicated, however, as this unknown man flying through the skies is causing havoc across New York, and the Avengers are unable to address the problem. Now, it’s up to Spider-Man to find out who “the Vulture” is, what he wants, and how to stop him.

Now, what did I like about this film? Well, I liked Tom Holland’s portrayal of a young, determined Spider-Man. Throughout the film, he is trying to prove that he can be just as awesome as he was in Civil War if he was just given the chance, and you just want to root for him. You want this kid to succeed, even if some of his “heroism” ends up being less impressive than intended. You just want this kid to be happy, but the problem is should he be Spider-Man full time and neglect his responsibilities as Peter Parker, or should he metaphorically throw away the costume and just be a high school kid? Also, Micheal Keaton as The Vulture. Enough said. I have been a fan of this man ever since he donned the cowl of The Dark Knight back in 1989. He can be both warmhearted and almost fatherly in a way, but if you get in his way you better watch out. There were some scenes that made me scared for Peter just from the way Micheal was talking. An actor who can have that much range in their voice and overall acting is alright in my book, especially if they are playing a major character in a comic book movie regardless of alliance. I personally feel like he is one of the more relatable villains in the MCU thanks to his overall motivation for his actions, which makes you wonder if he is truly in the wrong or if Spidey should leave him be.

What did I not like, you may ask? Well, some side characters either had little to no purpose other than being part of Peter’s social structure, testing the limit of how many times one can say “penis” in a PG-13 film (yes, that was a reoccurring thing), or being absolutely unbearable at times. Peter’s best friend, Ned (played by Jacob Batalon), is a nerd who finds out about Peter’s powers (which is technically not a spoiler as it is in the trailer [poor show, Marvel]), and he becomes completely annoying afterwards. He may have been helpful at times (which actually made for a somewhat meta joke), but otherwise he was an overexcited nerd asking Peter if he had a spider’s ability to lay eggs. Also, while I would say that it makes for a more realistic movies experience, I would say that there was quite a bit of profanity. Now, before people start moaning and groaning and calling me a buzzkill, I have nothing against profanity. Any of my friends will tell you that I have a filthy mouth and mind, and so do high school students. But it gets to a point where you start to wonder if kids still watch these superhero movies before you start to look around and realize that they do and they are watching Spider-Man Homecoming right now. I’m only saying that parents should be prepared to tell their kids not to call someone “Penis Parker”.

All in all, I found Spider-Man Homecoming to actually be quite a fun movie with an even blend of comedy and serious moments. This is somewhat of a combination between funny high school movie and awesome superhero movie featuring one of the most beloved comic book characters of all time finally coming home to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

…OH, that’s why it’s called Homecoming

crickets chirping

… *Ahem* The film features Spider-man trying to figure out how to forge his future while dealing with his present problems, such as the horrifying Vulture trying to secure his own future through twisted means. The side characters can be helpful at times, but otherwise they can be a tad crude and annoying depending on your preferences. Throw in the occasional appearance from Iron Man and a few obligatory easter eggs, and you have yourself another solid entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It may not be as perfect as some might expect or want, but it is pretty good.

[chucksauce]

Chuck’s Super-Awesome Story-Building System

Have you ever sat down to start writing, only to find that the awesome Coffee Shop AU you had in mind now completely escapes you? Have you ever tried it with original fiction (which, for many fic writers is WAY worse)?

Here’s the thing. You don’t have to do this alone. I’ve got a system to you help you with that pesky plot (that I have lifted from my betters, and want to share with as many people as possible)!

Where Do I Start?

So, let’s say you’ve got a great little plot bunny in your head. In the picture above, I fiddled around with a Teenlock AU as an example. A lot of times, I’ll ramble on in a text doc or on paper, just to find a few bullet points I like. Usually it looks like this, by the time it’s done:

Okay, so like, Sherlock is a high-schooler and he’s been assigned a thing in English class with John (because TROPES. AND OVERUSED PLOT LINES IN YA! THAT ALWAYS INVOLVE AN ENGLISH CLASS GROUP PROJECT! I am supes original fuck yeah.).

Anyway, they do this project and then there’s UST and maybe AWKWARD PINING and plenty of ANGST to feed my soul. it’s gonna have a happy ending but Who knows wtf happens.

(Can I find a way to make them make out under the bleachers at some point because seriously i have needs yo)

As you can see, this is a really refined, nuanced summary, yeah? A lot of times, for real stories, I’ll also talk about images or moments I’d like to include, but have no set spot for, much like that bit about the bleachers.

SO NOW IT’S TIME FOR DEM STICKY-NOTES!

Now, I normally do these with actual sticky-notes on my kitchen wall. There’s something incredibly useful to me about the physical action of being able to write with pen and sharpie, to peel and stick and move the notes around the way I need. But! I know that sometimes people can’t do that, and for the purposes of this little thing, I can’t either. If you’re interested, I did this at Linoit.com.

If you look at the things, my columns are set up to reflect the acts in a 5-Act Story Structure. Some prefer the 3-Act Structure, but I really like having as much visible structure to follow through as possible.

(Click on the pictures in order to see the stickies in more detail.)

The first picture gives the basic structure, with the most common sort of example being that of a fantasy, etc, to explain each act. The second goes into a little more detail specifically for romances, since that’s what many fic writers are essentially writing.

(A little further explanation of some stuff!)

ANYWAY.

So, once you get your act columns done, you start filing them in with stuff.

Now, keep in mind, these aren’t chapters, or even scenes. These are purely plot points. Some people go really hardcore and break it down to chapters or even scenes, but I tend to not do that. I use the thing more like a set of hastily-scrawled directions taking you to your friend’s house based on passing landmarks. Breaking it down to chapters and scenes would be more like giving a set of directions with street names. As you can see, road trips with me are AN ADVENTURE.

Okay, what now?

Well, after that, I put it into a spreadsheet (I use ‘sheets’ on google drive) in order to keep everything. That way I can take the sticky-notes off my walls so that my company never has to come home and see stuff like, “Then S sees J’s monster dong and wanks 5-EVA” (which... yes. I’ve done that, lol.)

All right nerds, good luck!

[presidentsims]

Will... I Am Here Forever

Will… I Am Here Forever

I remember how it began and how it is supposed to end. I mean I did not come here to argue about religion or semantics. Shit I fucked up many of times and got diagnosed as bipolar and schizophrenic by doctors in two different states. I lost my drivers license and ride my bike everywhere but I remembered that I traded a physical car for a spiritual car with a dope Co-pilot that has followed every instruction written in time. I do not remember who you are but you remembered that I like to work and three’s and flourish when someone threatens a good time. It funny how religious scholars and just regular people who follow a religion, in general, think their “God” would come back performing magical shit to send the world over the edge. Imagine if you saw a guy walking around turning water into wine, blowing trumpets, and calling for their disciples to begin the process to destroy the world and start a new everlasting Heaven with Jesus or 72 virgins. I sorry but that is not how this story ends, quite honestly this story will never end if we do not learn to love each other for who we are and just chill.

There once was a kid that wanted to know why everything was so black and white, why their was good and evil. Why a good person goes to Heaven and a bad person went to Hell. So he dug deep and found the answer and started spreading shit he shouldn’t have. O the universe had to fix itself and he lost his mind. By the time he lost his mind it was too late, people started using the words he said to control the simple minded and gain power for themselves. Over time the world started changing and a small amount of chaos start to ensue in different parts of the world and humanity kept trying to fix it by building. They built rules, regulations, and governments. They built structures, industries, and culture. The more they built, the more they had to build to maintain i=order in the world they were creating. Now here we are in 2017 demolishing the system they built with love, understanding, and a little bit of humor. The thing is you can not destroy a civilization with politics, because that leads to war. War will lead to total chaos and total chaos will lead to well… The end.

Many people may be lost by the words that I am speaking but that is okay because if you keep reading you will start to understand the words that you read from these pages. This is not a biography, but it sure as hell isn’t fictional story. I mean you can believe it is, I would not be mad. I’ve lost my mind to many times trying to find the right words to find myself again. Yeah I am the kid that found out the purpose of good and evil. I am the kid that tried to figure this shit out. I am the kid that ruined the world trying to make it better. The thing is we are going to keep building until… Well we find a solution to something that is simple to fix. We are going to build something that will destroy the Earth before we can reach an enlighten stage and we are going to start all over and live this same life. Why? Well I tested a perfect system and I am suppose to learn a lesson. I have learned the lesson already multiple times but Man as a whole has not learned the lesson because I’ve always either killed myself before I wrote this story, shared the story, or I lived my in silence with my best friend secretly sharing the story with each other to ensure we both weren’t crazy. We both have anxiety problems. He takes anxiety medications to help him and I smoke cigarettes. We are the living breathing definition of fight or flight.

So what am I trying to get at with this story? Well I found my true love, with tattoos, art, music, and drugs I can now say I am ready to tell the story and fix the attempt to fix the world. I am down to the hardest part because I do not know if I have been here before. I could lose my mind again… If I do I will kill myself but if I can make it through this fall without ending up in the hospital again. I will know this is how it all begins again, this is how we make it to a happy heaven like place. The science and religious talk is going to get weird but I have taken enough time away. Plus my love looks good with his deer tattoo, lol I don’t even care if I have sex with him. We just chill, smoke, and talk. This religion built and created by “God” has trained the human psyche to group up find someone to love and marry them and have a family and kid with them. I but I never read that shit in my bible. Then again I never finished the bible in this lifetime. Anyways a majority of the population runs around looking for that person to love but in all actuality we just looking for someone to fuck or hold us and give us their attention when no one else does. That lifestyle may be for you but it’s not for everyone, you could say I am a lonely gay guy just writing of that fantasy because I will never find love but I find love in so many other ways.

This will not be your regular love story about how a two people find each other and fall in love with each others. This is a love story about a person who loves them self so much it blossoms into the atmosphere around them. I bet you’re tired of my rambling and would love to know where it all began? Well it all started with this nerd I had my eyes on from middle school through High school. It was the middle school field day and there he was, a tall nerdy 8th grader they looked like Harry Potter. It was love at first sight, I did not know what sex was, I was just attracted to him and I wanted to hangout and play video games and just talk about shit. Well I let that go because guys should not like other guys. I grew up in a very religious family. Well then boom out came all the middle school lesbians guiding me to being comfortable with the idea of being gay. Lol I remember I dated this one girl in middle school as a bread so people would stop calling me gay. By the time 7th grade rolled around I was the best wingman, I would stand in front of my friend and the girl she was talking to and blocked the teachers view so they could kiss on the playground. Then it began I started looking for someone to kiss, someone to like, someone be with.

Once I made it to high school along came another nerdy white kid in choir, the kid that outed and changed my life forever. See when I was a freshman my sister was a senior and my brother was a junior. We all went to the same school so when one person finds out you’re gay everyone does. Eventually my brother and sister found out but they pretended like they didn’t know, people at my church found out and they started making rude comments about being gay in bible study and hinting to my youth pastor that I was gay. Once that happened I said fuck it and started looking for someone to kiss and hold in public, not just a person to fuck me. Actually I don’t even get fucked anymore that whole situation just kind of ruined bottoming for me. Well along came my best friend. This cute little artist in my biology class, I mean he did not become my best friend until my senior year of school when he moved in with me because of person beef with his parents that I still do not understand. To be honest I could write a whole book on our friendship… But I mean ugh that is not what we are here for. Something’s have to remain a secret, but I love a good deer. Then along came my first real relationship, that nerdy kid I had a crush on in middle school… Yeah I went for him, I went the sweet route. I went to a football game with our mutual friends and brought him food from the concession. When that didn’t work I started texting him everyday. I mean he was a quiet kid but he was fun as fuck. Eventually I gave up the sweet shit and when straight for the kids heart… I offered him a blowjob :) Shit I got to stop offering guys blowjobs. Some guys think that shit is weird and call you a rapist.

So after I gave him a blowjob I played the waiting game. All the way up to prom, I noticed he was going to prom with his friends and I was going to prom with my girl that I will always love no matter how crazy she drives me. Well, my dumbass friend decided to wear some high ass hooker heels to prom and decided to leave 20 minutes into prom so there I was at prom all alone having a good as time and in comes Christian looking fine as ever. That was the night I asked to dance.The night we fell in love. Shit, I said this was not your typical love story but your heart is probably melting right now. Well, stick around because this is where it all begins. This is where I found out what the world calls love. Holy shit this story is about to get good fuck. Ambiguity begins for those of you who do not know who am I am. The truth is being told to my friends who know my story. Thanks to Will I am found again. By the grace of God I am here to stay forever. I am not a writer so feel free to edit..

[crazed-ramblings]

Crazed D&D Ramblings 1 - Creation

Think of the two most fundamental building blocks of nature. And when I mean fundamental, I mean absolutely fundamental. Not space, not energy, nor the strings that make up the rest of the things in between. No. The two most fundamental ideas are that of Everything and Nothing. It's best to think of these two demi-planes as two bowls. In one bowl, the Nothing. Literally nothing. Empty, vast, infinite, waiting to be filled. In the other, Everything. Literally every idea that ever has been, is and will be. The ideas that never came to be. The Ideas that never belonged. Even the idea of Nothing, the very consept of emptiness, contained within the Everything. Possiblity and Potential. One day, eternaty, and instaint, the Everything filled the Nothing. This compact infinity suddenly found a space to seperate, and it rushed out like a great waterfall (Or, outside of the bowl metaphore, you could say that this compact everything suddenly "boomed" into a vast, infinite space.) All ideas poured out into the newly created universe. Those with shape, form, logic, and understandability, tended to drift 'west'. Those without true form, without an idea to hold them together, raw, and limitless drifted 'east'. Some things mixed, not entirely seperated (We'll go more in-depth into that later). the 'west' world became known as the "Law" plane, and the 'East' became known as the "Chaos" plane. Some scholars and artists have refered to them by the names given to them by their inhabitants; The Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. The Astral Sea and all of the ideas that flowed out of it winded out like a river in the cosmos, dispensing stardust and stone into space. The dust collected, heated by preasure and speed, and became the Stars. Stones collected into many planets, moons, and collections of asteroids. And slowly, as these things came to being and the mindless but lawful universe was coming to shape, an idea flowed through the world. Late to this budding universe, it found home with the stars and energies and colieded with them, forming something spectacular. This idea's name was "Inteligence". It coilided with stone, fire, space, gravity, every lawful thing, and it slowly created Gods of these energies. Gods of the Suns, born with an inate understanding of their domains. And they florished, sharing these ideas, combining them, and reveling in their power. The Elemental Chaos and all of the ideas within it spread like an uneven fire, pouring out wherever it may chose. Yes, some logics and familiarities are found within, the most common that we can identify are the Four States of Matter (And their subsiquent traditional Elements); Plasma and Fire, Gas and Air, Liquids and Water, Earth and Solids. But while these are the most understandable and identifiable, we know even today how difficult it is to understand their exact formation and structure. Most of the energies in the elemental chaos had no form or even pressance, yet they changed violently into things with massive forms and an inescapable pressance that consumes everything it touches, sometimes even changing what it touches into itself, absorbing it into it's being, then flashing out of exhistance once again. An idea flowed into this realm as well, being quickly adopted by several energies and finding a new form in it, and an idea requireing a new word; "Voromniacy" Voro (l), Devour, Swallow, Greedily Eat Omnia (l) ; Everything, Completely, Perfectly Voromniacy (noun); A deep desire to own something, especially for the purposes of destroying or deconstructing it. Voromniac (informal noun); Someone possessed by voromniacy "The rich voromniac baught and burned a "Superman #1" before a croud of nerds." "The voromniac bought several unique watches online, disassembled them, and created a totally unique watch from the origional selection. He then stored the parts for later use. (In this instaint, the watches where indeed deconstructed. That is all that is required for Voromniacy, the search for an item to destroy it). The matter became semi-sentiant, possessed with the yurning to destroy everything they saw. Voromniacs by nature, they looked on, across the vast emptiness, and saw the Astral Sea. They wanted it. Needed its energies and materials. So they took lightning and made it into dowels. They took fire and moulded it into any shape. With Water they made rope, and with stones they made fixings. With their elements and of those we do not know, they waged war on the Astral Sea. The destruction was terrifying. Gods who were slain left their domains to their kin, or were lost all together, powers left without a ruler. Elementals who where slain had their foreign material adopted and forced into law wherever it could fit, or cast out if they could not. The gods took this chaos and wrapped it in law, and gave it the idea of "Serve". These being, chaos wrapped in law, became Angels. They, filled with Fire and Ice and Storm, fought back against the Elementals. But the elementals were too rabid, and their lines pushed further and further in. Soon, the gods needed something else, something greater, a different idea. So they took the bodies of the slain Elementals, and with as much law as they could muster, they focused on a single idea to hold back the enemies; "Control". And so, from this unholy union of the most powerful Law drenched in the most ravenous Chaos came a god of many names, though we shall refer to him as Asmodeus. Asmodeus, being a being born of Chaos, yet a servant to Law and Control, looked upon the Elemental Chaos the same way the Elementals gazed upon the Astral Sea; He wanted what they had. So he did what the gods had never done, and worked backwards from their creations. He took law, and instead wrapped it in chaos. If chaos wrapped in law makes an Angel, then taking law wrapped in Chaos will create a Devil. Devils waged war along side Angels, but they took whatever power they could, from angels, elementals, and even fallen gods. The lines were being pushed back, but as Asmodeus was reclaiming the Astral Sea, he kept a large portion of the Elemental Chaos and adopted it, creating the Nine Hells of the Astral Sea. This is his domain, where devils are born, raised, trained, and tortured into submission under their lord of control. The gods became worried. Asmodius was being too controling, even trying to order the other gods and take as many domains from fallen gods as possible. The gods conspired against him, and locked him in the deepest depths of his creation, the Nine Hells. The devils too where locked away, and thrown to the far side of the Astral Sea. Meanwhile, the elementals had pulled back parts of the Law and material of the Astral sea, and began experimenting. They took a large glob of the law, and gazed upon its wonder. They saw some pieces too bright, and flung them away into parallell space. They took the peices too dark and shoved them away too. What was left was the Material Plane, the Mortal Plane. Earth. The other two would become the Possitive and Negative Energy planes, worlds not of Chaos or Law. The gods saw this creation. They saw the potential. They saw greatness. They agreed upon one idea, one last decison. They would wage war on this plane, for whomever controls it controls all the planes. And so they dropped down unto the earth, and waged war. But the gods had a secret. They bent down to the dust and stone and trees, and different gods whispered different words to them, words of Power, words of ideas. "Sturdy" said Moradin to the stones, who became Dwarves. "Swift" said Corellon to the wind, and came the Elves. "Strong" said Grummush to the stagnant swamps and pools of blood, and came the Orcs. "Clever" said Yondalla to small critters, and changed they into Halflings. And to the dead god of men, who hath no name, and who's word is unknown, came Humans, known only for two things; Living short, but extremely potent lives. (Most smart men who know of these tales agree that the word is "Choice", but they know not who said it, nor to what. Men come from everywhere, and seek everything, worship whomever they wish. The scholars do not know, but druidic circles say that men, along side the rest of the animals, where a creation of Nature. But, as you will come to read, when nature forced the gods out, the primal spirits agreed to shout "Choice" as one, and so men sprung from every corner of the world.) As spoiled above, as gods fell and mortals died, their blood and tears sank into the ground. Finally, an idea came not from the gods, but from the spirits of mortals and animals. A word of power so potent, it changed the course of the war. For mortals do not believe in the power of a single word, or a single voice. They believe in the power of many voices, and many words. The primal spirits speak in poems. "BEGONE, FATHER CHAOS AND MOTHER LAW. LEAVE US ALONE. YOU ARE BANISHED FROM WALKING UPON THE EARTH. NONE OF YOU SHALL ENTER. GO BACK TO THE CORNERS OF THE UNIVERSE FROM WHICH YOU CAME. FOR WE HAVE WEPT, AND WE SHALL WEAP NO LONGER. *BEGONE* AND NEVER RETURN. " And so, the Gods and Elementals where Banished from the planet. And, for a still moment, nothing moved. Not the seas, not the wind, not the mortals nor the creatures of the sky, land or deep. All was quiet. The earth was free.