#maybe it's not so bad to me because 1) i'm very easily pleased and 2) i'm not the biggest vil fan ^^;;;;

[merakiui]

MERAAAAAAA, WE DIDN'T GET THE SLEEPWEAR WE WANTED ON VIL'S BIRTHDAY CARD 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

💕 anon

I've seen the devastation of the Vil fans and...........

🫣 is it bad that I think this isn't such a terrible sleepwear? Somehow in my mind it makes sense for him to wear a silken jumpsuit (unless it's two pieces???) to bed. I feel like it's a refreshing look!! A lot of his cards depict him in very flowing outfits with sleeves and breezy fabrics,,, but this sleepwear also feels very Vil to me. The color is throwing me by surprise slightly, but I like it!!! It's giving widow who has become rich from the inheritance received after her husband dies under mysterious circumstances. >:D

Either way, I think he's still looking so beautiful in it. >w< the seductive expression....... the bedroom eyes!!!!!! (;𖦹ㅁ𖦹)

[sports-on-sundays]

hii can u write smth about hector and reader being best friends bc their parents are very close friends, and him realizing that he is down bad for her after having a small talk with his mother.

Please and thank u, love ur written btw 💝

mama's boy / Héctor Fort / Part 1

Summary: Héctor x best friend!reader - Héctor being a stupid little adorable idiot in love. Link to part 2

Warnings: censored cuss

Requested?: Yes.

"Why don't you two go out on the front porch?" your mother suddenly brings up. Though, yes, you and Héctor are seventeen now, and should be able to sit through an adult conversation with your parents and stay respectful without being antsy, everyone knows that's not true.

But still. Being asked to go out on the front porch? That can never be a good sign.

"Why?" you demand. "The weather is so gross out."

"Because Mama told you to," your father pipes in sternly. "Now, go on. You can go with Héctor. We adults are allowed to have a conversation without your ears listening."

You're about to protest further, but then Héctor, sitting next to you, gives you a little nudge. "Oh, come on. You're so disrespectful to your parents. Just come on out with me."

You frown but stand up dramatically, following him outside.

The truth is, it's embarrassing having to sit alone with a boy like Héctor.

Not because he's creepy, or not nice. No, it's because he is nice. He's nicer than every other boy you know, and you never know how to react to him.

You plop down on the porch swing with him. He starts using his long legs to swing the two of you back and forth, and you tuck your (shorter) legs up, sitting criss cross.

"It's beautiful and sunny out. What's gross about today?"

You pout a little. "So humid."

"Oh, come on, now. It's fine."

You cross your arms and stare out at the sunny view behind Héctor's house, and the bright colors make it easy to forget your grumpy mood as you ask with a soft giggle, looking to Héctor, "What do you think our parents are talking about?" When you look to Héctor, he immediately looks away from you.

But you caught the split second of his big brown eyes staring at you.

But he shrugs casually. "Probably just boring stuff."

"Do you think it could be about us?"

Héctor smiles, chuckling a bit at the question. "Maybe, but I'm not going to worry about it."

You shrug. You sure want to think about it, but since Héctor brushes it off so easily, you suppose you may as well do the same.

You sit together in silence, swinging back and forth.

And for you, this just feels like a normal, nice breezy day, sitting with a family friend.

But for Héctor, deep down inside, this feels like more.

He watches the way your eyes seem to glimmer in the sunlight. The way your hair gently tosses in the warm breeze. How the sunlight seems to light up your face. He wonders what you're thinking about as you look out. He looks at your smooth hands, sitting in your lap, and all at once, it hits him.

He blushes deep red, looking away.

She's gorgeous.

"Y/n-" he suddenly says, not knowing what to say, but knowing he has to say something.

"Yeah?" you look over casually.

"You, uh... You're... I think your- uh."

"Yeah?" you lean in expectantly.

"Your shoelace is untied. You should tie it. Don't want you to trip," he quickly comes up with.

You shrug and lean down, tying your shoe.

"Was there anything else?" you ask once you finish, looking at him again.

But then suddenly, before he can come up with some other awkward response, the screen door behind you opens, and Héctor's mama walks out. "Hey, you two," she smiles. "Héc, Y/n needs to go now with her parents. So say goodbye."

You grin, glancing to him and giving him a playful nudge. "Bye, Héc."

He rolls his eyes, but he feels his face flush. "Only my mama can call me that."

"If you say so. Héc," you say with a giggle as you stand up. You wave to him, thank his mother, and walk into the house to go to the front, where your parents will be waiting to go home.

Meanwhile, when Héctor's mother is about to go back into the house, he suddenly says, "Wait. Mama. Can... Can you sit down next to me? Just for a few minutes?"

She smiles a bit and sits down next to her son on the porch swing. "Of course." The two sit there silently for a few minutes, before Héctor's mother finally says, "So... You really like that girl, don't you?"

Héctor swallows. "I... I don't know. I guess... I guess she's just really pretty. And I've known her for so long."

His mother smiles, giving his shoulder a little pat, and teases, "Does my boy have a crush?"

Just at those words, his heart rate quickens. "Crush?! I don't know if it's a crush..."

"Sounds like it to me," she chuckles. "And it's looked like you've had one on her for quite a while now, but you're just too scared to admit it..."

"Mama..." Héctor sighs, putting his warm face in his hand.

"Yes?" she smiles.

He's quite for a few seconds, before muttering, "I think you're right..."

"About what?" she grins.

"That... Well, I don't know. I kind of... I love every single second I get to be with her. It's like I'm down bad for her. F*cking mad for this girl."

"Hey, young man," she chuckles. "Watch your tongue."

"Right," he rolls his eyes, but then comments, "But do you know what I mean? Like, what I'm saying?"

"Oh, Héctor," she chuckles. "Of course I do. Can't get her out of your mind, can you?"

Héctor seems to just flush even more at this. "I guess not..."

She smiles, patting her son's shoulder a bit as she stands up. "Well, even if you don't think so, I bet she likes you back."

"She doesn't act like it."

"Oh, come on, now. How d'you know? Girls are different than guys. She'd be a good girl for you. I mean, your mama approves of her," she adds with a chuckle.

"So, what are you saying?" Héctor asks slowly, looking up to meet his mother's eyes.

She smiles a bit as she opens the screen door to go inside. "I'm saying that you should think about asking her out on a date sometime."

And she goes back inside, leaving Héctor as a flustered mess of swarming thoughts, to think over that decision on his own.

"Hey, Y/n," Héctor says immediately when he sees you next, which is, this time, a visit at your family home, to have some dinner. It's like he's made a beeline toward you and now stands in front of you. "Dinner won't be ready right away, right?"

You shake your head slowly. "No, I reckon not. Why?"

"Could we... like, I don't know... Go to your room or something?"

You shrug and nod, leading him there. "Sure. I don't see why not." When you make it there, you sit down on the bed together. You lean back against your pillows, but Héctor sits there very stiffly. After a few seconds of silence, you say, "So... what's up?"

Suddenly he turns to you, takes your hand, and blurts, "Uh- Friday? Evening? Would you be free for me to take you out, for, like, dinner someplace?"

You stare back, eyebrows shooting up. You glance at your hands. "Like, on a date?"

Héctor feels the soft skin of your smaller hand. "Yeah... Right, like on a date."

"O- Oh... Yeah, sure... I guess so. Yeah, we can do that."

He seems to let out a long breath of relief as you ask, "Where to?"

"You choose?"

"Surprise me," you grin. "But not too fancy. Don't go overboard."

Then he mutters, "Maybe I'll just ask my mama what she thinks."

"What?" you ask with a chuckle.

"Nothing!" he blushes.

"I heard you!"

He glances away, shifting, but holds your hand tighter.

You grin and comment, "You like me a lot, don't you?"

He drags his hand over his face, clearly very embarrassed.

But even as you teasingly smile, your cheeks are heating up a bit, too. "You've always been so sweet with me... Now it makes sense. So, what, did your mama finally help you figure it out? That you like me, and I like you back?"

"You do?!" his head shoots up, his eyes shining like stars.

You grin and nod a little, but say, "You never answered my question, Héc."

He sighs, glancing away, but chuckles, "Maybe..."

You grin. "So, in other words, 'yes.'" You grin and suddenly lean in. You grin press your lips to his blazing warm red cheek and murmur close to his ear, "You've always been your mama's boy."

He just buries his face in his hands, an embarrassed, adorable, overwhelmed-with-emotions mess.

But honestly, maybe he's not so bad.

He might even be a little cute.

[lala-blahblah]

I absolutely cannot sit down and write a nice version of this bc my brain says no, but i would like to let you all know I'm thinking of a fanfic where older Edgeworth is moving back to the US (or japan, whichever universe you subscribe to) and runs into Nick in the store while buying mass produced art to hang on the walls of his new house.

And Nick is like "dear god do you want your house to look like a dentist's office. Please do better" (in a friendly way, they are too old for rivalry at this point) and so Nick invites Edgeworth to come over and take any of his old artwork from college, since it is just sitting in a portfolio in a closet somewhere. And Edgeworth agrees to come over and look through Nick's old stuff together. There are themes of 1) growing older and like reflecting on the past and 2) Nick's character trait of finding meaning in challenges vs Edgeworth's tendency to stick with what he does well. In my head I imagine that Nick was good at art and it came somewhat easily to him and that bored him, and he was drawn to law in part because it was hard and it excited him and made him want to try harder. And i think tying that in with fatherhood, like it being unexpected and hard but something he thrives at because he feels good when there's a challenge. Potentially also touching on how like, when he lost his badge he felt very listless and depressed because he wasn't being challenged anymore, there wasn't anything to drive him and motivate him. And I think Edgeworth would be impressed by seeing Nick's old pieces (I assume he hasn't seen much of his art before) and wondering why he didn't choose to pursue art further. He also thinks about how art had always put him off personally because he couldn't get it "right" right away, and on the other hand how the structure and logic of law came easily to him, which led him to become a lawyer. I think he measures his self worth by his success in his field because he never had the support to believe he had intrinsic value as a person and maybe wasn't so good at making emotional connections with people. So that big contrast between them is so interesting... I think Edgeworth would be jealous of Nick's bravery in pursuing something he was bad at without giving up and Nick would be jealous of Edgeworth's success in law, but in a subdued way as they've grown older.

A far as actual scenes in the fic, I think I would use Nick's art as a conduit for my own agenda to have them talk about topics that are of interest to me... I would like Edgeworth to feel out of his depth for once and for nick to be the confident one as he talks about something he is well versed in, and for edgeworth to have to face that discomfort and also be a little impressed intellectually with Nick. I think I would do that by having them look through some abstract art Nick did (my intro painting classes were all abstract so we could focus on color mixing and getting comfortable with the medium). Edgeworth compliments Nick on a painting with a bunch of colored squares in gradient clusters and then gets embarrassed when Nick tells him those were just color mixing swatches. Alternatively, in my mind they are both asexual and I think even though this feels like a hallmark cliche I would have Edgeworth flounder and be very embarrassed over Nick's old figure drawing piece. I feel like Nick would be like "no you don't understand it's all very professional and normal when we draw them, like it's just about learning the shape language" and Edgeworth would be like "this is very improper and I don't know how to react can we please not look at naked people!". I don't think i would do both, but something to upset the power dynamic for a moment would be interesting! Nick is always the awkward one I want to see him shine for just a moment enough for edgeworth to go "wait what... i've known him for so long but perhaps i don't really know him at all..."

I would want Edgeworth to end up taking a series of 3 canvases Nick did in an oil painting class that were still lifes of objects the teacher had set up around the classroom. I headcanon that Nick actually far preferred drawing people to objects and rebelled against the assignment by hiding his reflection in one of the objects in each drawing- the top of his head is hidden in an ornament on a christmas tree, his eye is reflected in the shine of a china vase, etc. So it's a little secret, and Edgeworth kind of likes that... it is sweet in a way to see a much younger Phoenix captured in time like that. Something Edgeworth will be reminded of when he sees the paintings but nobody else will catch onto

I would want to layer this with a fatherhood storyline... I think i would frame it as nick inviting edgeworth over to dinner with him and Trucy and Edgeworth stepping into this domestic family life as a visitor and witnessing how its transformed Nick, like seeing him from a different lens. I think after they pick out paintings and have dinner they sit around talking. Trucy had been sitting with them, earlier she showed off some magic tricks and gave Edgeworth a picture of hers from the fridge to add to his new art collection (it's a rainbow dolphin and a sea turtle wearing top hats. Nick says she's in her Lisa Frank era). But she's been quiet for awhile and Nick realizes she's fallen asleep and it's like 11. He's like, crap, i screwed up i should've paid attention and gotten her put to bed, I'm a bad father and I have an audience for this failure. And on top of that, I already failed at being a lawyer, no matter what I try I always disappoint everyone. It's an unexpected moment of vulnerability there... like he's seemed so put together and grown up to Edgeworth this whole time like a whole different person, but he's not a different person he just has different sides to him. And this moment is one where edgeworth can be like hey, no, you're a great dad, and I'm impressed by you and everything you achieved. And I think that could lead into vulnerability from Edgeworth about his relationship with his dad and how he misses him/how he feels like he hasn't really been loved by anyone since his dad died, and how Trucy is lucky to have someone like Nick in her life.

Nick excuses himself to carry Trucy to bed and Miles starts cleaning up the kitchen. I would give a moments pause here to talk about the strange intimacy of going through someone else's kitchen cabinets and drawers, you feel like a stranger there trying to put yourself into someone else's shoes to understand how they live in this space. Maybe he guesses the right drawer for the silverware first try and he feels a little spark of connection. like "we are different in many ways but we are alike enough that we look in the same place for our spoons". Details on the kitchen too about the kid safe plastic bowls and knives that indicate a child is part of the household, that the household has been built around the child, in fact. Edgeworth lives alone and I imagine things are kind of fancy for him (he's a man who wears a cravat so he probably has fine china right). It's completely different from this shabby mismatched cutlery that Nick has, but this kitchen has personality. Maybe he wouldn't mind having a kitchen like this so much. This is a hint at him being lonely, being included in this family unit just for a day has given him this curious sense of longing, for what he isn't sure... does he want kids? Does he want Nick? Does he just want to be part of a family? These are confusing questions and he would much rather not feel anything at all, but unfortunately it is late and he did have a glass of wine with dinner so emotions are Happening.

He hears Nick sigh tiredly as he comes into the kitchen, and Edgeworth starts to ask him where his tupperware is when suddenly Nick is wrapping his arms around him and Edgeworth is Very Tense because he's never good at knowing how to act in situations like this and he and Nick have never been on a hugging level before and he's not sure what this is even for. Then Nick is like "I keep thinking about what you said earlier, about feeling alone ever since your dad passed away. I didn't know, that's such a long time to feel alone. I don't want you to think you're on your own". Edgeworth relaxes a little bit because now he knows what the hug is for and what he's supposed to feel from it. Its very kind of Nick to worry but its unnecessary and he says so. He has colleagues he's friendly with and people from law school he keeps in touch with, he's alright. And Nick says he knows but he also knows it's difficult living the way they do, and what he means is single and in your thirties. Because everyone else is getting married or living with a long term partner or at the very least dating and their lives are focused on that relationship as the center of their being. And when you don't have that, not only is it harder to relate to the people around you but it is harder to feel like you matter in people's lives, because they all prioritize their partner before their friends. And maybe their situations aren't exactly the same (Nick has a daughter while Edgeworth lives alone) and maybe their choices were made for different reasons (Nick used to date and didn't mind it but didn't see a need to prioritize it. Edgeworth found himself unable to distinguish with certainty whether or not he was actually romantically interested in people, and rather than make the wrong choice he decided he would rule out error by choosing no one at all). But regardless, they both know first hand the isolation that comes with trying to carve a path for themselves that does not include a life partner in a world where everyone else comes in pairs. And Nick is reaching out across that emptiness saying hey, we might both be building different lives, but there's room for you to be a part of mine if you want.

Outloud, Nick says "Really, Miles. You aren't alone in this." and Edgeworth says "Well, Phoenix, neither are you". And he stands there and lets his friend hug him, and it doesn't feel like butterflies but it does feel solid and warm and good. And he doesn't even worry about whether he's supposed to let go by now or not, because it's nice, not being alone.

They stand there in comfortable silence for a long moment before Nick speaks again. "hey, remember when you used to hate me? And look at us now." Edgeworth turns his head sharply. "I never HATED you, Wright. I simply thought you were foolish and a waste of my time." He realizes a little too late that this is probably a rude thing to say to the person that just gave you a pep talk, but Nick just laughs, his head still resting on Edgeworth's shoulder. Looking at him from this angle, face almost fully hidden, Nick could be any age at all. It's easy to imagine for a moment that he's the same nervous version of himself that stood across from him in the courtroom for the first time all those years ago. The only thing breaking the illusion is the subtle streaks of silver that cross his temples. Not entirely sure why he does it, Edgeworth kisses the top of Nick's head. He feels odd about it the moment he does so, realizing it comes across not as a platonic or romantic action but as a gesture suited for a dog or pet of some kind. Nick looks up, looking confused but not displeased. "What was that for?" "It was a thank you I suppose". Miles steps away now, still uncomfortable with perceived failures even if those failures are just in social interactions, and begins to gather his things while Nick gets down a tupperware from a cabinet. "Thank you, for the dinner and for the paintings." Edgeworth continues. "I'd like to repay the favor once I get settled into the new house. Trucy's invited too, of course". As he says it, he realizes he genuinely is looking forward to seeing them again. Nick walks him to the apartment door and they say their goodbyes while Edgeworth tucks the paintings (and Trucy's dolphin drawing) under his arm.

He gets halfway down the hallway when he hears Nick calling after him. "Hey! Miles! Take an art class with me sometime" Newfound friendship or not, Edgeworth just looks at him in disdain. "what, so you can show off your superior art skills? No thank you, Wright" "No, for fun. You can make things of your own to hang on your walls. We can do something I've never done before so we're evenly matched. Like printmaking? Origami? Um, pottery?" Edgeworth bristles at the suggestions but takes a moment to acknowledge why he's feeling that way; again, it's that fear of failure. But he's enjoyed himself today and deep down he thinks it could be fun to try something new, not with the goal of being perfect at it but with the goal of spending time together. Nick surprised him today. Maybe he can surprise himself. "... I would consider pottery" Edgeworth admits. And Nick looks really happy about it. "Great. I'll book us a session then. It'll be fun, you'll see. Edgeworth shakes his head, but there's no malice behind it. "Have a good night, Phoenix" "You too. Get home safe Miles".

Edgeworth gets home a little before midnight and props the three canvases against the moving boxes still stacked up in the foyer. Tomorrow, he'll figure out where he wants to hang them. Right now though, he walks over to the bare fridge and carefully pins up Tracy's dolphin drawing. There's a lot more work to do, but it's already starting to feel like home.

[bookwyrm-art-stuff]

A treatise on liufang

(Liu Qingge x Mu Qingfang)

Because omfg did this get out of hand

This whole thing was written in messages to a mutual (shout out to @mamaclownhunter for listening to my ramblings) and is just my entire brain spilled out on the table. Please tell me if I manage to indoctrinate you, they have Consumed my Life and yours may be next!

Now, treatise:

First point: The existence of the ship itself. I know, logically, that the reason this ship exists at all is that people felt bad leaving LQG alone with their bingqiu (and sometimes qijiu) happy ending, seeing as he (to my mind, clearly) likes SQQ. This is rather inevitable, and not uncommon whatsoever; nor are these ships. The thing that makes this one stick out to me is, like… it makes fucking SENSE. The biggest barriers to it are a) LQG likes SQQ (easily explained away, he's emotionally fragile and his rival who he respected as such (maybe more) suddenly added affection to the equation. Also he's gorgeous. Understandable, but darling there was no chance. Etc.) and b) they have little to no canon interaction, and none that I can recall providing any insight into their relationship. (Again, easily explainable; LQG's a side character and MQF's a background character and gods know they're not gonna be interacting much, let alone enough to provide insight into their relationship.) This lack of walls or flaws in the ship is relatively and disarmingly rare when it comes to ships born of what can be called the "leftovers" once main ships are paired off.

Second point: Why it works. First of all, the setup for shipping between peak lords is just… automatically ideal. They're coworkers, and their position mandates that they have grown up together. They also live very conveniently near each other and forced proximity via that and meetings is SO a thing. And, by mandate of their positions, they're all incredibly powerful, and you KNOW we are ALL suckers for power couples in this fandom. Now, when you move down to the ship specific givens it just gets better. Because Mu Qingfang is the Qian Cao peak lord- the head of the medicine peak. And Liu Qingge is the lord of Bai Zhan- the WAR peak. So, by requirement of their roles: 1) MQF can boss anyone around and deal with a lot of bitching (*cough*), 2) Liu Qingge fights a LOT and cannot come unscathed from all of it, 3) LQG's disciples are even worse off on the injury front and probably go to QC for care/supplies very often. No ignoring each other. Also, by virtue of his deeply affection-starved character, if LQG is shown care that takes even the tiniest step into personal/emotional care and affection he is GONE. Basically if MQF likes him (not hard to orchestrate) he is SCREWED.

Third point: Why I like it (analyzing myself and losing my semblance of clinical manner one scenario at a time.) To preface: my taste in ships trends very mainstream- basically nothing I ship can be considered a rarepair. So of course, I had to thoroughly dissect this one. One of the main draws, as I see it, is the characters themselves. I love Liu Qingge. I am deeply invested in his character and struggles and I both want to give him a hug and study him under a microscope. He is darling and severely fucked up, so I'm already in the same boat as the likely creators and patrons of the ship; wanting him to have someone now that his crush has run off with his own disciple who is also a demon lord. I think Liu Qingge should be happy, and I'll be honest, I don't think he'd be happy alone. Now, as for the other half of the ship, and arguably the more interesting one in this context: I am a sucker for medic/healer characters. I think they are a severely underexplored as a trope at large, and the effects that kind of responsibility and work can have on a character are just- chef's kiss. They are also incredibly cool people, a product of the skills they have to learn to y'know... do medicine, as well as those to treat wayward patients. This facet appeals to me in particular because, while I do think LQG could be darling and gentlemanly paired with someone beautiful and elegant like either SQQ, I honestly would LOVE someone who could bring out the feral side of him and has one of their own. (Shen Jiu does this but that is as adversaries.) Mu Qingfang is a doctor. He deals with all MANNER of bitchy, bratty assholes and he would not take ANY shit from LQG. I also think that since he's the peak lord he has a wide range of medical knowledge, including mental health, so basically: he could fix him. Tying this back to my love of power couples: SJ and LQG bring out each other's insanity in opposition. LMY and LQG bring out each other's insanity in play and sibling competition. Now, I raise you: MQF and LQG bringing out each other's insanity in mutually tempered tandem.

(More of) my ideas, headcanons, and scenarios. (Elaboration.) I still have many more, less structured thoughts. Like how therapeutic sparring must be for them; LQG having someone to spar with who can match him and won't hold back but who he also deeply loves and trusts (pause for delight) is the obvious half, but I bet Mu Qingfang would LOVE to just punch someone after a long shift of NOT punching awful patients. Like oh GODS is it nice to punch his husband in the jaw and then watch him heal the bruise HIMSELF with his FULLY FORMED GOLDEN CORE (*sobs in Bai Zhan disciples.*) And also: LQG patching him up. This one works with anyone you deign to ship MQF with, but I think LQG especially would revel in it. MQF getting off a long-ass shift, coming straight to BZ, sparring full-force for half an hour, and then afterwards him leaning on LQG and letting him slide off his robes to clean and properly wrap an injury sustained extricating a fucking dumbass (NOT from BZ for once) from a demon's clutches (they underestimated the situation but everyone got out alright.) How nice it feels when LQG tenderly rewraps the slice on his arm, the release of pressure after having his own hasty, makeshift, and uncomfortably (though not damagingly) tight bandage on for a few hours because he was busy making sure that IDIOT didn't die. The surge of affection LQG feels when he hears how it was sustained protecting the injured disciple, and the gentle kiss he drops on MQF's bare shoulder before getting up to prepare a bath. The happiness LQG feels hearing MQF's exhausted monotone and seeing him slouching against the wall (or, preferably, LQG's shoulder;) not because he wants his husband to be tired, but because he feels safe enough to show it. The way, after a while, that Qian Cao disciples will point LQG to MQF as soon as they see him on their peak, and and vice versa. After battles, instead of off running unnecessary patrols like they're accustomed to, finding LQG in the infirmary, doing simple tasks and intimidating his own disciples into lying still.

[the-sinful-voice-witch]

MY REASONS TO LOVE💜 STEPHANIE BROWN

All in purple because is my favorite color and it's her color 💜:

1.She is literally the Batfamily Sweetheart, a bubbly chatty sunshine (even more than Dick Grayson) and characters like this tend to have a very high emotional intelligence due to be very open with their own feelings and that's something the Bats really need because they need to balance their EMOness and seriousness and that doesn't mean she can't take things seriously. It's just a very nice contrast, I wish she stayed longer as Robin because that brightness was all Robin was about.

2.She has the advantage of being easily underestimated which ironically is something that the first Robin also used by wearing a goofy outfit, Dick Grayson own words: "it makes bad guys think I'm just some goofy kid", "Their understimation gives me an extra element of surprise" and this strategy actually works most of the time. Being underestimated is a strong weapon and she should embrace it and take advantage of it.

3.Mentioned by two (maybe more but I didn't find it) characters: Dinah Lance and Damian Wayne, they described Stephanie as BRAVE, specifically Dinah said when she thought she was dead that she was endlessly brave and heartbreakingly hopeful (I'm literally crying, we were robbed of more time of them together) and Damian stated the other Robin's qualities and said that Stephanie is the bravest Robin and also in the time they first met Stephanie explained to him that sometimes things weren't always about vengeance but about hope and also her bravery and unbreakable spirit is seen when she fought off Scarecrow fear toxin and kicked his ass.

4. She was the first Batkid that became a vigilante without any influence from Batman and became Spoiler with the whole purpose of messing with her villain dad evil deeds. (I'm kind of upset they made her later became obsessed with pleasing Batman and the whole Batfamily when she started so independent from them, it was harder to see how much they rejected her)

5. If I didn't love so much the color purple I would totally demand the green corps to grant her a green lantern ring because I think this girl willpower is deserves one, I have to give it to the writers who undoubtedly hated her, because by insisting so adamantly in making all the fucking family of Bats being mean to her, discouraging her, intensely reject her, knocking her unconscious so she doesn't bother them... They made a character with an iron willpower, she didn't yield, they couldn't stop her... They could only stop her killing her and they still had to bring her back. I once saw her, Damian and Babs wearing rings but she was wearing the blue ring of hope... It also fits her perfectly anyway I bet Hal Jordan would like her because of how she gets on Batman's nerves and would take her under his wing just to spite him.

6. She brought light to the Batgirls, first said by Cassandra: Stephanie was the only one who was able to make her feel like a normal girl and enjoy things outside the vigilante life and she also helped Babs who became bitter after having to use a wheelchair, Cassandra as Batgirl is an excellent crime fighter but their backgrounds were too different but Stephanie reminded Babs about herself and somehow Stephanie's hope gave Barbara hope as well.

7. Told by Bruce and Cassandra, she is unpredictable, she always turns the tables in the way you least expected.

[fuck-customers]

I'm sorry this isn't exactly what this blog is for, but I was hoping it could slide. I have something at work that I'd like the opinions of mods and followers, if possible please.

I was wondering if I should ask for/pursue a promotion to store lead, as several people in my life, including friends, family, and a very persistent (annoying) coworker, have been pressuring me to do so. But I have several cons and pros about it. And since all the people in my life are blindly telling me to apply to be a lead, they won't listen to what my concerns are and say that I'm just being stubborn and difficult without listening to why I'm hesitating. So here's why

Pros:

•it would look good on my resume

•get paid $2 more per hour

•I'd get paid for training. Yay

•it may force me to get better at responsibility, as I'd be in charge of keys and codes

•I'd get slightly more hours per week (more on that below)

•I would get to freely move around the store as I'm doing my tasks vs. being trapped at the register area as I've currently been, which is great for me personally, because I hate being trapped at one station

•I may be able to fix some things around the store that have been driving me nuts as a result of being free to move around (such as changing the godawful music)

•it would probably be a needed confidence booster

•I have several ideas of things we could and should be doing that would greatly improve the store and maybe my manager would actually listen to a lead vs. a regular employee, as she currently refuses to listen to my suggestions (which, for the record, are things like "hey maybe we should put price tags on the products" not only does she refuse to listen, she actively goes out of her way to undo the work I do and tear down price tags/signs)

Cons:

•store leads ≠ full time and current leads get the same amount of hours that I do, give or take 3 hours or so (for example, this current week I have 9 hours, the lead who has been pressuring me to become a lead has 10 hours, and other leads have between 10-15 hours) I would already be a lead if it was a full-time position, but that will not happen. I'd even consider it if there was a significant increase in hours while still being part-time. 1-3 hours more is not an increase in my opinion

•the store is severely understaffed by design and leads have to do several tasks alone at once, such as: run the service department alone, unlock anything customers need throughout the store, fill online orders, backup the cashier when needed (the only other employee in the store) get yelled at by angry customers who demand a manager and do a daily checklist from the store manager that consists of 20 or so tasks to do in a 3 hour shift.

•store leads have nearly all of the responsibilities of the store manager, except they can't hire or fire anyone and they get paid less than half of what the store manager gets paid while having to do all of the same tasks, minus the fun ones (hiring/firing people)

•there are many signs that the company may shut down in the near future, but the company and my store manager are pretending like everything is fine and refuse to discuss it with employees

•leads are also expected to go to the bank for cash deposits for the store/to get change, etc. and I do not have my own car or license (which is not something I want to mention to my manager, as I'm required to have reliable transportation to work there, I just don't have to specify whose transportation it is) and that is a job requirement of a lead that I straight up cannot do. And the public transport in my city is lackluster and taking the bus to and from the bank would easily be an hour long trip or more, when it takes someone with their own car 15-20 minutes.

•I have a very bad memory and I am not confident that I could remember all of the procedures and passcodes that managers are required to remember. I could technically write it down, but I don't want to draw attention to my terrible memory, as I've been successfully hiding it for years. Nor am I confident that I could be responsible for keys and not lose them. And realistically, I'd lose the book/accidentally delete the notes app I made notes on.

•I've been able to hide it for now, since as a regular employee, I am not watched very closely, but I cut a LOT of corners and there are several store policies that I think are extremely stupid and I either straight up don't follow them or have workarounds for them. Obviously as a lead, I'd have to stop doing that, but some of these policies strongly go against my morals. This is just a whining bulletpoint lol

•I'm not great under pressure, and I'm even worse when someone is yelling/swearing at me or talking down to me. I've seen leads get talked to like they're trash by customers and they have been able to successfully stay calm and collected. In situations where I have been yelled at or talked down to, I call a manager to back me up, but that doesn't work if I am the manager. And I don't mean that I'll cry, because in some situations, that may help. No. I mean that my natural response to stress, especially someone yelling at me, is to fight back. I will cuss them out, yell back and I have been known to physically attack. Not at work, obviously, but that's because up until now, I've been able to push aggressive customers off onto my managers. I've also successfully hidden my anger issues from management and coworkers to the point where they think I am always happy and never get mad. It helps to have someone to back me up/deflect off of, but if I am the backup, no one can defend me.

•There are several things wrong with the store that are completely out of the control of any of us employees at the physical location and are the fault of corporate, but customers blame the employees personally and as a lead, I'd have to answer for the fuckups of corporate that I genuinely cannot answer for. (Such as return policies and inventory inaccuracies)

•My manager is very shitty at communicating with her team. I've personally witnessed several incidents that were caused by her not properly communicating with her leads and I don't want to wind up in a position where I'm responsible for resolving the conflict she caused by not communicating. Also

•I have nearly zero respect for my manager. I think she is an absolute moron, but I've been able to hide it as I don't have to work/interact with her very often. As a lead, I'd have to work with her more and it may slip.

•I don't wear a nametag. I very strongly believe that nametags are a great danger to the employees, especially employees like myself who have a very uncommon name with a very uncommon spelling. Yet as a manager, I'd have to "lead by example" and wear a nametag. I would ideally wear a fake name or have several fake nametags to rotate, but my coworkers obviously know my name and would call it out.

•I'd have to double-check on this one, but I think leads, as members of management, are required to watch potential shoplifters and confront/track them down. I'm not sure if this is a requirement of a lead or if the particular leads at my store are going way beyond their job requirements/have been coached incorrectly by the store manager. I know I, as a regular employee, am not required to chase after thieves and I actively refuse to confront/chase thieves for my own safety. But I am not sure if that would change with becoming a lead. My work does not have a security guard.

•I have several ideas of things we could and should do to improve the store, but my manager is very arrogant and refuses to listen to constructive criticism or constructive feedback in any form. It would drive me insane to have to keep doing things the wrong/difficult way just because she won't listen to suggestions. And this isn't just an assumption by me. I have personally suggested things that she blatantly ignored and so have other leads.

Posted by admin Rodney

[ouroborosorder]

Do you have an instance of Arknights VFX that gets frequently praised that you as a VFX artist think is mediocre or bad?

EBENHOLZ' SKIN "EINE VARIATION" IS A CRIME AGAINST ME SPECIFICALLY.

Look. I love Ebenholz, a lot. His effects are really strong, too! Some of my personal favorites. But this skin. Jesus Christ this skin.

I have seen so many people praising this skin as having good effects or being better than his original and it genuinely makes me wonder if half of the effects are actually rendered in some sort of shrimp colors that everyone but me can see.

There is not a single part of this skin's effects that I don't hate. Not just because I find them ugly, uninteresting, and unclear, but because I think they fundamentally misunderstand who Ebenholz is.

You asked for this.

Part 1 - The Colors.

The actual art for his skin has a beautiful striking blue and light gray background, with the light pink Arts accentuating it, and then the blood red and pitch black of his outfit meant to draw the eye to the center. This works perfectly in the art, so what's wrong?

First problem. Ebenholz doesn't have the blue background in gameplay. Meaning that his effects are red (not pink, like the art, they are red) and his skin is red. So there's extreme monochrome happening, with absolutely no interesting contrast between him and his Arts. His Elite Charge is blue, at the very least, so his signature gimmick stands out uniquely, which is quite nice! That's a great decision that won't cause any problems down the line at all.

"Oh, but Keys, it's so that the red Arts stand out when he uses his S3 and summons that giant goat spirit in the background!" That's a great point, person I just made up. Please remember this excellent point for later.

Part 2 - General Effects

The effect starts with a deploy animation wherein Ebenholz is surrounded by sparkles like some sort of magical girl. The deploy effect is genuinely bad in so many ways, mostly related to timing and motion, but this rant is going to be long enough. And I'm gonna need to focus and talk about the sparkles.

The biggest thing to know about Eine Variation is this image. Get acquainted with it. If there was a recurring visual motif in Eine Variation, it is this piece from the original art.

And yeah, as an effects artist, I'd be amped to work on this. This looks fucking sick as shit. It's dynamic, it's chaotic, it's got harsh lines to contrast the flowing music staff, it's great. So let's see how this texture looks in g- okay what the fuck.

In the game, it looks nothing like the art. It's literally just the stock glimmer effect. It's not even a new texture. This thing's been in the game since release. It looks. Bad. It's way too simplistic. Because it wasn't meant to be the center of attention, it's meant to appear for an instant and then fade. Like, you know. A glimmer.

What you just saw in the screenshot above is one of Ebenholz' Mystic Caster charges. And it is easily my least favorite part of the entire skin.

Ebenholz (Original Flavor)'s Mystic Caster charges has one of my favorite visual touches in the entire game. Ebenholz fights using artifacts from the Witch King whose power he inherits - a wand and a set of five Originium dice. So he wields the wand, and has die rotate around him as he fights. In-game, they represent this by his charges being the dice, rotating around his hand. This is, as we say in the vfx industry, fucking badass. So naturally they removed the dice entirely in Eine Variation.

Fuck.

Fine, alright. Maybe it's him... moving further from the Witch King's influence, then? We'll go with that hey stop looking at his S3 what are you doing don't get ahead of me.

Now, I know what you're thinking. "hey, Keys, this is unfair. You're asking us to judge an animated effect based on a static picture of it." Well, my dear reader, I have bad news. You just saw the entire charge's visual. The whole thing.

They are a glimmer of light that does not pulse or twinkle. They just. Sit there. Floating. Again, it's just so simplistic, it's not even interesting to talk about.

The only good thing I can say about it is that it's way easier to tell how many charges he has since they're bigger, more spread out, and not moving. Also the Elite charge is WAY more distinct, since it's bright blue now to contrast with the red normal charges. Which is nice! A good decision! It would sure be a shame if it bit them in the ass later!

Part 3 - Attack and Skill 1

Did you think I was kidding when I said that the sparkles are the sole visual motif in this skin?

I hate these attack trails. Not only are they too simplistic, they're just too cute. I joked about magical girls before, but dear god, this just doesn't fucking look right. This skin is literally described as him being apathetic and miserable as a noble, so why are the effects so... Colorful and cute? Ebenholz isn't a cutesy goofy music-themed magical girl, Ebenholz is a sad gay goth kid who would create a fake My Immortal confession for attention.

I also hate the musical notes. I know I complained about the glimmers being too one-note (pardon the pun), but they just don't interact with the rest of the effect at all. There's nothing else musical about what is happening here. They feel added to remind you that he is casting music.

God I fucking hate the sparkles so goddamned much. I also find it really funny that one single musical note bursts forth with each hit. These shapes are just... So boring, so simple. But put a pin in that for a later.

His S1 uptime comes with an awful aura. he glows red. There is only red and white. this is all there is. This is all there will ever be. That's all I've got about S1.

Part 3 - Skill 2

Oh jesus go back to the red and white

First off, I find these goat so fucking ugly. The synths are a truly terrible choice, because synths and digital music don't come up in any capacity throughout the rest of the effects. So. Great work. This doesn't make sense.

Anyway I hate the color here. The original has a great two-tone black smoke with bright blue glowing eyes, contrasting with Eben's orange Arts. In the skin they slapped an awful blue glow haze over them. This makes them just completely draw visual attention, while they don't match up with Ebenholz' aesthetic at all. if you could see the black, there would be a clear visual link between them, but... Nope. It's ONLY blue, motherfuckers.

Also, they passively emit triangles, which is the only time in this entire effect that the Arts = Geometric Triangles visual idea appears in the entire skin based around an arts caster. Yay for recurring game-wide motifs!

Shockingly, I hate the explosion. It's passable, it's fine. But the timing is absolutely awful. The original's feels like an explosion that is pulling the target in, but the skin's feels like an explosion followed by absorption. It makes it feel less like an explosion and more like a contrivance. Also, it spawns only like, four notes total, which is just so low. Please have more notes, you even have the musical staff, you're so close to having this look like musical arts. I also hate the random swirl of red. The goat didn't have any red in it. Why does this have red. Monochrome would have actually worked better, this is just a summon.

Part 4 - Sound of Silence

Eine Variation S3 features Ebenholz getting hoverhanded by a goat.

I wish I had any other way to put it. But he gets hoverhanded by a goat for the entire uptime of this attack.

What even is this thing? Obviously, it's the goat behind him in his splash art, but what is it? Is it the Witch King? That would make sense, but why is the Witch King's avatar blue? The Witch King has literally never been blue, he's always been associated as being red. Unless this isn't The Witch King, in which case, what the fuck is it then?

I hate this effect more than anything else in this game. The ghost looks absolutely awful. it is very blatantly just the art from the actual skin, slapped behind him with no regard for aesthetic consistancy. Or even regard for if the image is readable at the distance Arknights is played at. The goatghost.jpg is not animated at all, but the hands move up and down, which weirdly only further reveals how static the ghost is. Also the hands aren't animated outside of going up and down which is just so uncanny and uncomfortable. It just reveals how desperately they needed to have some animation to make it not look like absolute hot garbage, and they still failed.

After an entire skin of absurdly simplistic geometric shapes and basic ass textures, suddenly they think they can pull off some shit that looks like a granblue render. This doesn't even look in-line with the rest of the skin's effects, let alone with the chibi artstyle.

Now. Why I truly, truly hate this attack.

When you activate S3, all of Ebenholz' Charges become Elite charges. Meaning they all become blue.

The charges all finally become blue.

In the only part of the skin where you have a blue background.

I just. I can't figure out how you'd fuck this up this bad. If the Elite Charges were red, it would look like the fucking skin art, with the red notes on the pink staff. They'd stand out, or at least look fucking decent. How many charges does Ebenholz have? Oh I don't know THEY'RE FUCKING BLUE ON BLUE.

WHY. WHY ANY OF THIS. WHY ALL OF THIS. I'M IN HELL. THIS WAS MADE TO TORMENT ME PERSONALLY RIGHT

anyway I will give credit where credit is due. I actually quite like the trail when he casts his stocks in S3.

The slight orange two-tone and complicated trails add a lot of nuance and depth to the effect, and the glimmer is toned down to the point where I can see the diamond shape hidden underneath. There is one singular silver lining to this cloud. It could use more musical touches and less fucking sparkles but at this point I need to compliment something.

Finale - Why Do I Give A Shit

Eine Variation launched as part of the Bloodline of Combat skins that came out with Lone Trail. It released alongside Specter the Unchained's Born as One; my personal favorite skin in the entire game. It is a skin that perfectly conveys Laruntina's love of natural beauty and Specter's love of poetry and recitation, bringing them together into poems reflected in a starry lake. The effects are serene and dreamlike, peaceful yet chaotic. It conveys who they are going into the future, who they are together.

Born as One is Bloodline of Combat at its best. Bloodline of Combat is at its best when it tells you something about who this character is at this part of their life. How they change, how they grow, how they look at the world in this point of their life. This is the story that good effects can tell.

So I ask you: What story does Eine Variation's effects tell?

If this an Ebenholz who is growing further from the Witch King's legacy into his own man, then why does the avatar of the Witch King appear behind him? Why does the flavor text describe this as clothing worn by every Graf Urtica? Why does it not lean further into the synth aesthetic to separate himself from the classical music of Leithanien?

If this is an Ebenholz who is currently stuck within the confines of nobility, why is he not wielding the dice associated with his title as Graf Urbica? Why do his fucking goats have synths instead of traditional instruments? Why is the Witch King the wrong color?

And most importantly to all of this: Why are all the shapes so simple?

Yes, Arknights' Arts are geometric. They're usually represented by simple triangles. This is true. But think about who Ebenholz is.

Ebenholz is not a simple and elegant person. Ebenholz is a man who nails complicated, difficult, strange flute solos, but who fails to do simple rhythms and scales. He excels at the complex, the elaborate, and the detailed, and fails at the simplistic. This is always how Ebenholz has been.

So a skin full of simple shapes, easy language, and flat colors... Isn't how he'd fight. It's not who he is. It's not how he'd act. It doesn't just feel wrong, it feels like it's not made for him.

I don't just hate this skin because I think its effects are bad. I mean, I do, and they definitely are.

I hate this skin because it just... Fundamentally does not understand who Ebenholz is. And it definitely does not understand why he is so special.

[mrrpkie]

i don't know how to introduce this AU, but, it's been infesting my brain ever since i made it and I'm going to go INSANE if i don't share this. say hi to

AXOLOTL'S MESSENGER AU

more info under cut;;

this idea came to me in a dream. quite literally. the brain is a wonderful organ (is it bad that i created a whole au because of a dream. Is that something i should be concerned about)

anyways,

meet PISCIS ROSEUS .

which, PLEASE correct me if im wrong, translates to pink fish in latin! as the name of the au suggests, Roseus is basically The Axolotl's messenger. kind of?

the au takes place after weirdmageddon, and instead of Bill being in the theraprism, The Axolotl decides that he should be revived and put back into Gravity Falls. just... under supervision, that is. Roseus is The Axolotl's creation (is NOT the Axolotl themself), and is essentially Bill's guardian. The Axolotl can view through Roseus' third eye and communicate with them through it, seen here

Bill, on the other hand, is very much irritated that he constantly has to be baby-sat by a pink, frilly salamander— let alone their creation that, for some reason, looks like him. The Axolotl thought it was a good idea to make Roseus have a similar appearance to Bill so they could connect with each other more easily. (Bill absolutely DESPISES it)

The Axolotl gives them insight on what to do, maybe some advice or guidance.

what makes it even worse for Bill is that his powers have been revoked, and can only float around... with some limitations.

additional information can be seen here: [1] — [2] — [3]

[maddeningsixkness]

My opinions on the Devil may cry anime

Vague? Spoilers below. I don't mention specific plot points or go in depth but I do mention some end of season stuff so if you don't wanna know then DONT KEEP READING!!

I will mostly be talking about characterizations and the whole metaphor about demons they included, not specifically the story itself.

Starting off with the metaphor... it falls apart so quickly. The idea that the demons represent immigrants or civilians of middle eastern countries America loves to poke a stick at is... odd? Number one, we're comparing civilians and immigrants to demons that need to drink human blood to survive. That's probably not flattering. Number two, the majority of the character arcs in the main games (Dante, Nero, Trish, and Vergil sorta his is a little different) all revolve around the idea of 'overcoming the darkness that is being a demon'. They have to acknowledge that yes they're a demon, and yes they can still be a good person. THATS WHY SPARDA IS A LEGEND, IT WAS SUCH A REVOLUTIONARY IDEA FOR A DEMON TO BE GOOD.

So when you look at the metaphor and how they're trying to say "all demons are innocent! Humans are the bad ones!" It completely goes against any kind of themes the main games had going on. It is called Devil May Cry because it's the idea that every demon has a choice to be good or bad. And the majority choose bad.

Im all for making fun of America and authoritarian governments, I mean you could argue that's what Dante and Vergil are a metaphor for in the main games. Dantes sword is literally named rebellion. And I mean dmc4 is all about corrupt church and how religion is used to control people's ideas and actions.

This metaphor also feels weird coming from a Trump supporter but what do I know, right?

Now the characters... I'll talk about Dante first cause I feel that will segueway into talking about the other two easily. Only talking about existing dmc characters here, I have no opinion on the new ones

What was the power inconsistencies for Dante?? He is shown saving MULTIPLE people, moving faster than like people can see from a truck in episode 1? Maybe early episode 2 I cannot remember off the top of my head so forgive me. But as soon as lady steals his necklace, he is as slow as a human? Maybe it's cause he's in shock, fine, but then we watch him lift a motorcycle and swing it like a baseball bat. Yet he can't break out of handcuffs. Compared to original dmc3 Dante? Or even the manga it's based off of... it just feels like they had to nerf him to keep the story moving.

And also, it felt like he was just there. I do appreciate when writers can make a world feel like it doesn't revolve around the character, that takes a lot of skill. But the whole plot of the show revolved around Dantes necklace and Sparda. So shouldn't he be more of the focus than lady. I know you lesbians want your lady screen time but from the way she was written... she didn't deserve as much screen time IMO, I'm willing to take criticism on that.

Also, Dantes design? Have we just decided to make him dress boring now? Look at dmc3 Dante, there's details on his coat, the whole tiddy strap (okay maybe I just want more shirtless dante who cares), even just the loss of leather pants. It feels very plain. Looking at lady, who got a whole new outfit, it feels lame just seeing him in his dmc5 outfit. Also his hair. He just has dmc4 neros hair cut. Not really a complaint, just an observation. I wish they had done something more creative for his outfit though, it definitely felt very boring. I do appreciate them drawing him in Chun lis outfit though

Onto lady!! I'm so glad they got vivziepop to write her!!! (Vivziepop fans dni please I hate her and her shit ass shows.) Her writing was, meh, to say the least. Her cursing was very unnecessary and added to the feeling of wannabe edginess the show carried. She's 19, so I'll give her a little bit of a pass, but I still have other problems with her. Like making her a cop/soldier. Why? They got rid of her scar and signature weapon, and now she's a cop. Very lame. She felt very wattered down compared to her original version in dmc3, and maybe that's because of the situation. But even by then end of dmc3, she over comes her hatred of demons and befriends Dante. I understand that they're setting her up to be better next season, but I felt like the only shift in her character was that she was a little sorry for injecting him with the.. sedative? Whatever it was.

Her brand new design seemed very.. okay? I guess, I'm glad she's got a new outfit, but i feel like they could've at least incorporated more concepts from her designs in the games. Less blue and more white, or just emulating the silhouette of the outfits. Whatever. 5/10.

Onto Vergil. He has very little screen time, like I think 2 minutes so this will be quick. Why is he working for mundus? Now I could misinterpret this line, so feel free to say something, but the line 'it was mundus who freed me from my own bondage' and his devil trigger being nelo Angelo feels as if he is willingly working for mundus? This has to be one of the most flawed and maybe worst characterizations. He has hardly any screen time yet is the complete opposite of who he was. 2/10, i want to call him a block head. I hate this interpretation so much.

Anime gets a 4/10 overall, did not like it as an existing dmc fan and most of the community is torn over it. Share your opinions with me PLEASE I love getting asks ❤️

[dr-spectre]

I've had some time to go over my initial thoughts about the switch 2 and I wanna discuss them.

I do like the bigger joy cons but I'm not sure how to feel about an all black look with coloured highlights on the connectors and control sticks. It reminds me of those RGB lights that some pc gaming handhelds have and I always found them kinda tacky. Also why is the red now orange? I don't like it, make it a nice hot red instead. It's common knowledge that red on black is one of the most pretty colour combos of all time. I hope the other colours that eventually come out do change the entire controller and not just change the highlights.

I am worried about the sticks due to well, you know, and i am praying to the gods that the joy cons have actually good control sticks that don't break down easily. How the hell does my Wii Nunchuck from 2007 have no stick drift, yet controllers made 10 years later break down so easily?

I love the chunkier look of the Switch 2 because I always thought that the Switch was a bit too flat and it didn't have enough grip to it. An 8 inch display sounds lovely even if it's gonna be an LCD panel.

Although there are these annoying bezels UGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHY NINTENDO WHY!?!? YOU GOT A FAT ASS PANEL! USE ALL OF IT DUMMY!!!

Now about that backwards compatibility... I got a few questions.

1. Will the system transfer process be easy and will it transfer EVERYTHING?! I'm talking saves, miis, photos, games, etc. Everything. It better be easy and stress free as possible, i wanna be able to put my Switch 1 to rest and not have to pick it up ever again.

2. Will we be able to use Switch 1 joy cons with backwards compatible titles and have all of their features intact? There are some experiences like Ring Fit Adventure and Labo that will be unplayable on Switch 2 unless you can use Switch 1 joy cons. Nintendo, i swear to god, if you lock us out of those titles and not give us the option to play them i will be very VERY mad.

I am very relieved that backwards compatibility is a highlight of the console and that Nintendo is actually not gonna abandon their old hardware like they've done time and time again. They can be very stubborn and stuck in their ways, it's actually really frustrating that it took them until the Switch to realise that MAYBE HAVING A PROPER ACCOUNT SYSTEM THAT CARRIES OVER TO OTHER DEVICES INCLUDING PURCHASES IS A GOOD FUCKING IDEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NEXT! Let's talk about the elephant in the room, new Mario Kart.

Firstly, oh my god the models are so lovely omg I'm so happy they changed up their looks.

Bowser and DK looking extra silly, we love to see it.

The animation and details look really good too. They got that nice squash and stretch.

I will say, i don't know if it's because of youtube's shit compression or how the gameplay is shown, but the graphics don't seem to have had a noticeable leap in quality, the game looks like it could run on the Switch 1 with ease. It seems like they are going for a different art style and i respect that. Then again i cannot make any major judgements on the footage shown because it only lasted for 10 seconds.

What really interests me about this new Mario Kart is that there isn't going to be just 12 racers, but potentially 24!!!!!!

If you're gonna evolve Mario Kart then this is not a bad way to do it, it's gonna increase the chaos and expand the track design. And it looks like the tracks may be actually expansive and larger in scope but we'll have to wait and see.

24 racers means that the character roaster has to be pretty damn big in order to reduce repetitiveness. However, i don't wanna see another Mario Kart 8 situation where a lot of the roaster could have easily been alt costumes, so i wanna see some changes...

MAKE THESE GUYS SKINS FOR BOWSER JR! I DONT CARE IF THEY HAVE DIFFERENT WEIGHTS! THESE FREAKS SHOULD NOT TAKE UP NEARLY A FULL ROW!!!

Make them costumes that don't fill up character slots... please... Nintendo don't be fucking stupid for once in your existence.

Leave these babies behind in Baby Park.

Don't get rid of her... Please. She's my goat, my MVP, my smingus chungus, my bingus smungus, don't get rid of one of the best non Mario characters from the series.

Add these creatures as optional costumes too.

Speaking of these fellas... Since i talk about Splatoon a lot, i can't help but bring up the fact that now we have a new console on the horizon and due to Splatoon's massive popularity, i wouldn't be surprised if Nintendo shadow drops a Splatoon 4 announcement this year or the next. Splatoon 2 did get shown during the Switch's reveal and released in the launch year so maybe by the end of the year, we could have something on our hands...

Then again, certain elements of Splatoon 2 such as the hero mode THAT I DESPISE WITH ALL OF MY HEART AND SOUL!!!!!.... and content did suffer due to Splatoon 2 being rushed. So maybe don't announce Splatoon 4 this year, please? We can wait, we'll be patient.

In terms of a first party launch lineup i wanna make some predictions and copium picks.

New 3D Mario game

Metroid representation, either a cross gen release of Prime 4 and or a bundle of Prime 2 and 3.

F-Zero representation, a new game FINALLY after the positive feedback from 99, or a GX re-release.

A Wii Sports/ 1 2 Switch like casual game

A new IP

A new Kirby, either 2D or a follow up to Forgotten Land

Something Fire Emblem related

The last thing i wanna talk about is the third party support, I'm not gonna say much but i guarantee a lot of third party companies are gonna be HUNGRY to port their PS5 and Xbox series games to a much more powerful handheld, so I'm gonna list off some games that i would absolutely love to see on the Switch 2.

If Nintendo wants to repeat the magic of seeing Skyrim on a portable tablet then i think one game in particular would fulfill that same shock or even surpass it.

And that game is....

If they can do it, if they can somehow find a way to make it run on Switch 2 and show gameplay of this thing... oh my god, it'll make peoples jaws drop. It's launching on the damn Xbox Series S, I'm sure with some programming magic it COULD run on Switch 2.

[itwoodbeprefect]

Fic Writing Review 2024 🌈

i did this last year and tagged a bunch of people, and this year i'm going to continue the tradition but not tag anyone, i think, because i'm very late. but if you're reading this and you've posted anything to ao3 in 2024, consider yourself tagged, and please tag me if you still do it! i'd love to see other people's lists!

for me this was, uh. probably my least productive year since i really truly made the switch to english fic (2018), and it's definitely no 2019, when i posted 56 fics. but not every year can be a 2019 (or should be one, frankly), so that's okay.

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Words and Fics (on ao3) 📚

words posted: 18,404

fics posted: 12! of which 2 were technically late crossposts from starsky & hutch fandom events in 2023 (though i also wrote a 2024 s&h advent calendar fic that is yet to make it to ao3, so if we really do the math we maybe get to 11 finished works. but i'll stick with those 12 posted within the timeframe for the rest of this, for convenience's sake, and because 1 fic per month makes a nice round average.)

first fic: With every guitar string scar on my hand, a bad buddy pat/pran fic, on jan 24th

last fic: By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol), a thame-po heart that skips a beat fic (which is, well. thame/po), on dec 28th

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Ships and Fandoms ⚓

according to ao3:

Starsky & Hutch (5)

แค่เพื่อนครับเพื่อน | Bad Buddy: the Series (TV) (3)

Hawaii Five-0 (2010) (2)

เธม-โป้ Heart That Skips a Beat | Thame-Po: Heart That Skips a Beat (TV) (1)

บ้านหลอน ON SALE | Peaceful Property (TV) (1)

the most shocking thing here by far is that there are only two (2) h50 fics on this list. it doesn't even feel that way! i still spent a really good chunk of time thinking about h50 fic, it just didn't amount to much in terms of actual finished products. starsky and hutch is still going strong (relatively speaking, at least), and last year i noted that i wished i'd gotten any of my bad buddy projects posted, which clearly sort of worked out for me this year, though there's still More. the other two are two thai series that took me by surprise, which, hey, fingers crossed that will keep happening, because i really need to start writing some fic again about things i'm actually currently watching. it's good for the soul i think.

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Top 5 Fics by Kudos 🏆

Ain’t no other that can sweep you up like a robber [h50]

Meet me at the edge (I’ve already fallen) [h50]

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) [bad buddy]

With every guitar string scar on my hand [bad buddy]

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) [thamepo]

h50 is easily outpacing everything else, with both of those way at the top here. what i like is that the ink/pa bad buddy fic extremely comfortably landed the third spot, with almost double the kudos of the pat/pran fic that's in fourth place. the world craves femslash i guess! along with a host of other, more likely factors (it probably has a more catchy description, it's tagged for both ships because patpran still show up, possibly more people in 2024 were looking for fic for characters played by milk and love because they're still actively working together, etc), but wouldn't it be nice.

the thamepo fic (which is thame/po. it never stops feeling a little goofy to explain the ship when it's in the title, but you could of course be writing other things anyway) taking the fifth most kudo'd spot came as a bit of a shock, but honestly, i've written for so many Smaller Fandoms in 2024 that it's not actually very odd. it's my most recent posted thing but this show is currently airing and seems to be getting a decent amount of traction, so it has the benefit of being current.

my kudos total for all 12 fics i posted this year is as of writing this at 1,235, and there's a stark contrast in this being about ~700 kudos below 2023's How to build a triangle (ted lasso, jamie/roy/keeley) all by itself. i did NOT hop into any ted-lasso-at-its-peak sized fandoms in 2024.

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Top 5 Favorite Fics 💖

well! the upside of writing 12 fics is that i can put, like, over two-fifths of them on this list. in no particular order:

By Heart (or: Memorization hacks for the smitten idol) - i mean, i think today's episode of, uh, Thame-Po: Heart That Skips A Beat may have pushed this fic a little farther from following canon than it originally seemed (apparently thame was not aware of his own lurking romantic feelings for po, at all. oh my god) but i had a fun time writing this! it's short and not very specific and i enjoy the repeated number thing. (this kid was really rushing across the city to ask to memorize the number of a guy he apparently assumed he was just trying to be friends with. i do love him very dearly already, gosh.)

The name of the game - this is starsky/hutch and i think it's sort of sneaking in here! i was just happy this was a Complete Fic when i posted it (it had all the necessary parts, so i was sending it off), but then people were SO sweet about it in SUCH overwhelming numbers that it's probably a huge part of how i fell back in love with it myself. that's always a little magical to me. also: the sisyphus line about starsky may be my favorite thing i posted in 2024.

Rest your heart easy - also starsky/hutch! but less of a surprise. this was written for the ShareCon 2023 zine, and i don't reread it very often, but when i do it's like, yeah! i'm glad it was this fic of mine that got to participate in the zine. it's nice, it's warm, it flows.

Sun down and I’m feeling lifted (Downtown, cherry lipstick) - the bad buddy ink/pa fic! this sounds so silly when saying it about a thing that took over my life for a few months and still makes me drop to the floor when i see one (1) scene for whatever reason and am immediately attacked by the memory of how much i love it, but i'm REALLY still figuring out how to write these characters. they are my best friends and i have no idea who they are, apparently. but i like the attempt i made here, and i think i might like it more than both of the finished pat/pran focused fics, though that could be purely because i reread those far too many times in trying to Get It Right before hitting post. also. i like ink and pa! and they deserved to kiss. (and on that note, it's 2025, why is there still such a strict dividing line between GL and BL in nearly all cases? let the girls and boys hang out together, please. i won't pretend that if bad buddy could do it then everyone can (those are entirely unrealistic standards in most cases), but they could at least try.)

Home goes where the heart is - this is a peaceful property fic that is only vaguely peach/home shippy. (peaceful property being, on all levels that count, not BL.) in hindsight, i think i should have gone with one of my alternate title options and called it Pang pang! It’s a Home invasion! (because one of the characters is called pangpang and another one is called home), but hey, this slightly more serious title is fun too. i'm not even sure this is necessarily one of the best things i wrote in 2024, but it just makes me happy. there's a second peaceful property fic of which i wrote most on the night that the finale aired, but then it got longer than intended and it ended up stuck in limbo. but i still have hopes that i may give it an ending one day, because these characters in their weird kind loud ghost & cooking show that made me cry several times really deserve it (and i think there are some funny lines in the wip, and if there's one thing that makes me want to see a fic finished, it's a joke that the world should be able to read).

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Fandom Fic Events 🤝

it's not on ao3 yet (i may do that soon-ish), but my fic for this year’s Starsky & Hutch Advent Calendar, The Simple Things! if starsky and hutch is your jam, don't forget to look at the rest of the calendar too!

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Projects for 2025 👀

hmm, well. hmm.

2024 was an incredibly chaotic year for me, writing-wise. i'm not entirely sure what i was doing or where i was going, and i wasn't extremely motivatived to figure it out, because i was doing other things. (like figuring out how to write thai letters, for example.) i think if i want to write more, then part of my 2025 has to be to read more fiction, because it's truly just, like. words need to go in for words to come out.

i REALLY want to get a flip-flop state of mind finished up for real this year. i want to get better at/allow myself more slack to just type up something short and quick and probably not too deep, rather than feeling some need to turn every single wip idea into a months or years long project. those are great too! i love chipping away at a fic for an eternity, and the beauty of hobby writing is that there's no reason not to still do that, too! but i also need to keep things moving a little bit so i don't get stuck in a loop of looking at the same words which don't inspire me anymore and not adding anything, which also doesn't get me anything new to jump off from tomorrow.

so. write some h50 fic. write some starsky & hutch fic. write a bunch of thai series fic (and allow myself to play some jazz when it comes to character voices, because i still keep getting stuck on that too often. it's fine if they're My Version, that's what fic is). maybe something else, if i feel like it? my project for 2025 is Fun, and it would be really neat if i could get 13 fics (or more) posted (to get that yearly number moving back up again), but if not, that's also fine.

honestly maybe what i need in terms of fandoms is something in thai which is also queerbait (or queercoding), because that's where i'm at currently + what historically is best at getting me to write. i've heard a lot about high school frenemy, and i only keep dodging it because it has high school in the title, but hey, who knows! maybe watching two men who are 26 and 27 play high schoolers in some sort of feud who are obviously in love but don't kiss about it will fix me.

[wandringaesthetic]

OVERTHINKING 30 SECONDS OF ALUCARD CASTLEVANIA:

I deliberately spoiled myself for whether he would be showing up before I started watching because I didn't want to disappoint myself if he didn't. So I saw this screenshot out of context and was like "no, put him back." He looks a bit too smooth and cherubic. Doll-like and a bit too feminine.

In context it's not so bad, in profile the change isn't so drastic and I think it's more that they have him exceedingly pale and that flattens out all of his shading than that they changed his facial shape much. Some of this is also just the slight difference in art style. Lines are lighter and more sketchy here and we don't have as much dark dark shading.

I expected that he would probably have white/gray hair a la Symphony of the Night and he does. A lot of the Ayame Kojima artwork he looks more pale blond but I most people playing the game interpret that sprite as having gray or white hair.

Also like Symphony of the Night, he's got a cravat. All laced up to the chin versus loose, low necked shirt or walking shirtless scene in Series 1

I always guessed that they had his first appearance like this to confirm beyond a doubt that the long haired pretty person was male so foreign language markets wouldn't be tempted to change his gender. And also I guess let's show off that scar.

ANYWAY. I always interpreted Alucard's silvery SotN hair as an expression of age/weariness/grief. He's canonically been taking a dirt nap for a while, right? An expression of the fact (?) that he hasn't been feeding. Homeboy is anemic.

By the way, it's never really made clear in Castlevania the animation whether Alucard needs to drink blood. I always assumed that he did at least sometimes. In part, because of this:

He has a confidence here that says to me that this is not the first time he has lunged after someone's throat.

Also it looks like the coffin apparatus he rises out of when he's introduced is feeding him blood somehow.

[He also eats food obviously, from his foraging and cooking montages in S3. my fanon interpretation of this is that he needs some of both but not as much blood as a full vampire would need and not as much food as a full human would need. He can survive a long time (probably a very very long time) without either but he'd suffer for it]

Some Castlevania vampires have more inhuman features than others. I'm speculating on this being more true the more old/powerful the vampire. Drolta's black sclera, Dracula's ridiculous height, Olrox's glowing eyes, etc. So the white/silver hair (and the 'is he glowing or is he REALLY white' complexion) might be an expression of Alucard aging and coming into his powers. Because a lot of our Castlevastle vampires are paper white but not all.

Him being laced to the chin versus tits out implies a more closed personality. Maturity, perhaps. Less emotional and sexual availability.

(In the first season he just woke up so you can't blame him for not wearing a shirt. In season 4 the shirtlessness is a Choice.)

I would say "please, someone fuck this man" but we all know how that went.

IIRC, in games canon he went immediately to sleep after Castlevania III and then didn't wake up until Symphony of the Night. This implies some self hatred and maybe depression. Feeling like you're something that shouldn't exist but being unable to easily self terminate and/or sticking around just in case you need to fight a monster worse than you.

Animated Alucard doesn't seem to have that level of self hatred. In series 1, he seems to identify more as a vampire than as a human (his comment about being less than excited about the Belmont hold because it's a museum dedicated to the extermination of his people) and doesn't seem to think that existing as a vampire is wrong in and of itself. In fact he seems to have some pride in vampires as preservers of knowledge even after the events of season 2. ALSO, his relationship with his father seems more positive in the animation than in the games. In the animation, he loves and respects his father up until the point he decides to exterminate all humans. In the games it seems like that father son relationship was more fraught and possibly more distant.

HOWEVER. If his kill count really is in the thousands, that makes me believe that not only has he been awake most of the last 300 years, he's spent most of that time killing vampires and that he may have started killing vampires generally rather than just those making problems. Even if he hasn't come to the conclusion of "all vampires must die and then when I have finished my grim work I shall die too" if he has been hunting and killing vampires for SO LONG he has to have started seeing them, and the parts of himself that are like them, as the problem.

I don't love that kind of moral absolutism, but. In Castlevania we have (correct me if I'm wrong) two morally ambiguous vampires (Dracula and Olrox) and the rest are evil. Castlevania the animation seems to not come down on the side that vampires are soulless monsters, but the overwhelming majority are evil. I think it would go against the series core to argue that vampires aren't people or can't be good people, or that you get one choice and that determines your whole life and impact on the world going forward (how Christian of you--also, a lot of them didn't get a choice!) But the fact remains that vampires have a strong incentive to view human beings as not really being people.

Alucard MIGHT be choosing to abstain from blood and that MIGHT be why he's so pale he glows. Drink your juice, Alucard. Take care of yourself.

I don't love the idea of Alucard being so self hating because I love him and I want what's best for him, but I have to admit that this kind of self hatred is what makes Symphony of the Night Alucard and most notable dhampir characters compelling. A monster fighting worse monsters. A cursed, bastard existence that nonetheless gives you great power. Choosing to do good even though you yourself are damned. Being constantly on the verge of a fall, of awful temptation, of becoming the thing you hunt. Fighting for a world that has no place for you in it.

LASTLY. As a Trephacard shipper. In animation canon he probably AT LEAST stayed awake for more or less a human lifetime. With Sypha and Trevor, in whatever capacity. Undeniably, he loved them. But there are ways that might contribute to the self hatred. It would have distanced him from the vampire part of his identity. I keep thinking of the fact that Trevor corrects Alucard ONCE when he refers to Dracula as "my father" and Alucard refers to him as "Dracula" for the rest of the series. I keep thinking about him staring at the cabinet of vampire skulls in the Belmont hold and Trevor and Sypha both seeming to not really notice. It would be tempting to minimize or fight against that part of his identity. He might feel like he has no place with them if he doesn't.

(AND THAT'S NOT EVEN GETTING INTO THE FACT THAT DRAC IS ALIVE NOW. I have no idea how they're going to choose to deal with that, but I have trouble imagining Alucard and Dracula having a positive relationship going forward. That might even contribute to Alucard feeling like he had to choose.)

[pixie-felix]

I’ve woken and realized there was a much easier way to accomplish my point last night and that it was unnecessary to begin with. The first three questions would still be cool if you want to answer those but you can just delete everything after that lol

- 🥝

Okay, so I'm giving you a very gentle flick on the forehead right now. And a big sister squeeze. And then getting down on my knees and apologising for being so bad at replying to things.

There all there in my inbox, waiting. I read them as soon as you send them, and then it's just a balance of trying to find the time, energy, and privacy to reply 😅😭. I promise I WILL respond to them all🫶

Other than what you sent last night, the most recent messages I have from you are one that's a response and elaboration on the "please don't edge me" reblog, and then one from about a week ago filling in our Chan sidequests :)

Please do feel free to check in any and every time you're worried about glitches and things, because I don't want to miss out on any of your words! I've got the house to myself from tomorrow I think, so writing will be a lot easier.

I think you and I are quite similar in a lot of ways. The way you write your thoughts down is a lot like how I think in my own brain. So please believe me when I say this is a safe space where you can type out all your thoughts 🫶 because I am really, really honoured that you feel comfortable enough to share them with me 🫶

I promise I'm never ignoring you, I'm just disorganised and overwhelmed by life recently. Also, it may not seem like it because I'm really friendly and chatty, but I'm actually extremely introverted.

For example, this week I have three in-person commitments, on three consecutive days... and I know it's going to knock me out for at least a week, more likely two. To be honest, I'm already quietly panicking.

Usually I max out at two per week, with at least one days rest between them. All three of these commitments are with people I know and love, but it's still going to be a bit of a struggle.

Maybe that was a bit of a ramble, but I think you understand what I'm trying to say. Low energy, easily overwhelmed... it's not that I don't want to reply.

So please, send me as many messages as you want, and you can always poke me if there's one you want me to reply to especially- I won't post the one where you ask, I'll post the original one you sent. Does that make sense?

Now, onto the q&a... (omg I've never been asked to do a q&a before, I feel special. Is that sad? I don't care 😁)

1. What’s your favorite color?

I like sunrise/sunset colours :) pinks, oranges, yellows, reds. There aren't any colours I don't like tbf. Bright colours and shiny tend to get my attention. I'm basically a magpie. Or a crow.

2. Random show, movie, book, artist you like?

One of my favourite books of all time is Heartless by Marissa Meyer. It is best summed up by it's tagline on Goodreads: Long before she was the terror of Wonderland—the infamous Queen of Hearts—she was just a girl who wanted to fall in love. It's... it's just wow. I'd recommend reading it after you've read the original Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass so that you can catch all the little references and homages. It's incredible. Oh, and it will absolutely obliterate your heart. The first time I read it, I read it seven times in one week. It wasn't until my mum said "Do you think you keep reading that book because you're waiting for the ending to change?" that I was able to put it down. And go ugly cry in a corner.

3. Are you a morning or night person?

When I'm healthy, I'm awake during the day. Which is an interesting way of putting it, and I guess answers the question pretty well. But I'm gonna keep typing anyway. I like being up in the morning. But yeah, I'm naturally a night owl. I find it easier to be creative when it's dark outside, when everyone is asleep and I know that there will be no distractions. Also I love sleep, but I just really hate going to bed. Luxurious sunshine naps all the way.

Okay, I think that's everything for now.

Oh! Tell me which which ask you want me to reply to first :) there's some brilliant older ones, or would you rather I answered the new ones now and get to the older ones when I have more energy? Or do you want me to answer them chronologically? Let me know 🫶 love you Kiwi 🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝🥝

[yourgamemasterthewhiterabbit]

Wow are my dreams fucked up sometimes. But like maybe that's the adrenaline.

Maybe that should have been another indicator. The Raynaud's. See, when your adrenaline levels are high, it can make your blood vessels snap shut really easily on exposure to cold.

My circulation tends to be big and relaxed and puffy and that's part of why I have low blood pressure, and I am a non smoker, AND YET they thyroid levels driving up your adrenaline levels had caused me Raynaud's, especially in my feet, enough and often enough, I was formally and enthusiastically diagnosed with it, and told it was because of my thyroid, directly to my face by 1-2 whole doctors.

Now it doesn't always act up, especially since I learned to avoid iodine, but for a lot of people with the condition and compounding factors like smoking, it puts them at high risk for frostbite. For me, the frostbite in my toes, fingers and tips tends to be self limiting, because once they start to get frost bitten, they swell up and get warm and full of blood again, which stops the thing that's causing frostbite. BUT ALSO, my blood pressure is so low that it isn't just my tips, it's my skin, ALL of my skin. Any exposed skin for me loses circulation and heat FAST in the cold, because my little blood vessels snap shut, and my blood pressure is low enough not to fight it to get all the way into my skin. When I complained about this they checked my cryoglobulin levels bout wouldn't help me address the low blood pressure, like they didn't believe I understood what was causing my numb skin in the cold symptom...

But mainly my point is that it happens when my thyroid levels are pretty high, EXCLUSIVELY and it FUCKING HURTS. You feel the blood vessels clamp shut and you still get the pain of that flesh getting cold FAST until you lose circulation for long enough that it actually goes numb... And then you feel all the blood vessels unclamp when they get warm enough an feel the throbs of pain from warmth getting back into the -now very distressed- tissue.

Picture the pain of a migraine, but in your feet, twice, because you stepped out bare foot onto a cold surface.

If that sounds normal to you, please understand I mean that for me those reactions happen in SECONDS sometimes and the speed of change does tissue damage and really hurts. I'm not talking normal loss of circulation after normal amounts of time in the cold.

So this winter, I stepped out onto the metal plate on my step -in northern canada- to reach my mail, as one does, and I thought "Jesus fucking christ that fucking hurts" followed by "I guess that problem is acing up again, because that was fucking fast"... And then just never made the connection it probably meant my thyroid levels were high???

Because I was too exhausted.

Historically being dangerously hyperthyroid has come with at least being full of energy. Like actually feeling quite manic. Like doctors had been trying to diagnose me as bipolar, but having highs and lows that last 3 months at a time made no sense. Because usually when your thyroid is driving up your adrenaline and cortisol and even androgen levels and your metabolism is burning hot as hell... You feel kind of peppy? At first, until problems set in, you feel like super you. You're stronger and faster and think faster, and you are alert AF, and maybe even recover faster... And the the consequences start. But apparently having 10+ "feels exhausted" disorders has finally caught up with my ass. Point being I guess a multivitamin will always have too much iodine for my body to be trusted with. Do they make multi-vitamins that don't contain any iodine? They should. Maybe i should be looking at ones for men and just watching the doses? I need one meant for a "oh for the love of all things decent do not have iodine" diet

Either way, we've proven thoroughly that both regular sleep and a multivitamin are bad ideas for me personally and there's a good reason I don't do them.

And I guess regular exercise and sunlight are already off the table from the CFS and sun allergy... I drink about 2 liters of water a day. I was considering drinking more. Doctors keep trying to tell me to drink more instead of addressing my -still- low blood pressure or looking for a cause... But do you know what I found out with all this experimenting to make the symptoms stop? The average adult with healthy kidney function CAN only process about 2 quarts, or just shy of two liters of water per day. Drinking more than that is literally more than your body can use or process out and can lead to over-hydration in most cases, EVEN IF you fully manage to have enough salt and potassium for processing... Which is way more than you would think with the way we vilify salt... Some of the worst days I had are when I managed to drink 4-5 liters of water, because it made the swelling so much worse. I found I can process up to near about 3 liters, personally, if I really push it, but more than that and I start retaining water, not from a lack of organ function, but because it's just too much water. So drinking more water will not improve my ass either. I do tend to be a bit potassium deficient and iodine is the devil [negative] ig. I don't smoke or do drugs, mostly due to allergies and a weird metabolism, and also the cost and also they don't have the intended impact on me and I am prone to cancer and growths.

I don't drink much at all and don't notice it missing from my life. And TBH if I was drinking real beer instead of the dealcoholized stuff with added vitamin d from the dollar store these past couple times I felt like beer... I would have fewer extra bones? I can't even use canned milk products instead of freezing cream over winter, because the canned milks have way more iodine in them and that's part of how we got into this mess.

This experimenting with stuff I haven't tried yet to improve my quality of life stuff is coming up... Dangerous, actually. It's almost like I was already doing what I was doing for a reason T~T

Literally the best thing for my quality of life would be to get back on all my usual bullshit.

And you know, I'm not all better yet or anything, that's supposed to take months, but my symptoms did START instant improvement when I stopped having any iodine, and that's the kind of result I was looking for to tell me I had figured it out.

I'm still getting better every time I wake up instead of worse again, but my muscles hurt and I CRAVE protein and I am just having the hardest time finding it without any iodine.

The things highest in protein while being "low iodine" are actually fresh beef, fresh pork, and egg whites [no yolk, yolk bad]... BUT:

Bird flue is infecting all those animals and I am not up to doing spring groceries yet

They don't contain no iodine, they are just considered 'low' iodine.

The fact that the muscle pain is on it's way out is encouraging and might mean it will be more important soon to have protein than avoid all iodine, but even plant sources of protein tend to be high in iodine and it's just a very annoying problem to have.

Also I am CRAVING dairy like someone who's bones want the calcium and phosphorus and who's thyroid -wants- the iodine, and I can't let my stupid body have any or it will try to kill me with it.

I'm not used to saying no to food cravings because usually, other than iodine, they're a good indicator of what my body actually needs. This is stupid and I hate it. I wanted to sit here and play games like I'm not sick, but my mouse and keyboard are broken still and barely any of my games use the 360 remote.

My options are sons of the forest, which my cpu and gpu hate me building more stuff in, firmament, which I played recently, Mass effect which I want to play on stream, or Forbidden West which I already broke down an played through off stream. Don't really feel up to streaming.

All the kinds of games I like -puzzle exploration or crafting- do not get made to work with gamer controllers...

I might see if I can set up my switch at my desk like I was going to because I at least have totk and haven't played since last year because the living room got upended before I got sick.

[lunari162]

Vocagathering BETA thoughts from a producer's POV (mostly good!)

So, Vocagathering BETA is over, and I'm happy to report I ended in the top 70! My highest position was 33rd, and my final ranking is 51st. (My entry, if you're curious)

That's a miracle considering I was one of the unlucky few whose video wasn't appearing in the hashtag page (which was Vocagathering's only list of "all" entries, something I hope they change next year now that it's been proven that it doesn't actually include all entries). When the #1 place for you to get exposure doesn't include you, it's hard to get exposure. Rankings are all about popularity and exposure, so if you're a small/medium producer who lacks popularity, you're relying on getting exposure... you can probably see why entering the rankings is unexpected in this scenario ^^;

TLDR: Please share songs that you like because they might have little to no chance of being found otherwise! I hope what happened to me (hidden from search results -> less exposure) doesn't happen to anyone else in the future.

---

I also screwed myself over by not posting much in the past 2 years. YouTube doesn't like inactive channels. But I just couldn't think of anything to post. I've also been thinking about the direction of my channel; as I've gotten older, I've wanted to focus more on original songs than covers. I'll poll my YouTube community on what they'd like me to do, but in the end, I'll probably do what feels best to me and just hope some of my audience follows me on that path.

TLDR: I theorize that my channel's years-long identity crisis might've deterred people from subscribing. I should've decided if I was focusing more on originals or covers before Vocagathering began.

---

The biggest critique I have is that the rankings are easily predictable by knowing which popular producers plan to enter. That's probably the most common complaint, so I won't go into it too much. I'm lucky to have ranked myself! But gosh, I feel so bad for the smaller producers who were on the rankings early in the event and then got bumped off the list. It can hurt. I would've fallen off too if the top 30 hadn't been expanded to top 70. I took a look at Vocacolle (Vocagathering's inspiration, an event that's been running for a long time) to see if this happens there too... and yep, Vocacolle seems to have the same problem. Maybe it can be helped somewhat by making categories based on subscriber counts and a category for new producers separate from that one?

TLDR: Rankings are indeed popularity contests (though there were some exceptions! My top 10 list has a few small producers who ranked, and I'm super happy for them.)

---

I sound negative about this event, but I overall enjoyed it! I found a lot of really great songs, and my entry resonated with a few people in ways I didn't expect. I'm mutuals with one of the team members, and I believe they had pure intentions with this event. I think that's why they called it "beta": some things aren't going to go well, but you can learn from them to make the final product better.

I hope to see Vocagathering back in the future as an even better festival! I'll finish this off with my initial reaction to the final rankings on Bluesky:

"A song about feeling worthless found more love than expected. I even got 1 new sub! Thank you very much to everyone who watched, liked, commented and shared 💛"

[fisherrprince]

hi. rolls up wearing a "Terra Fan #1" t-shirt. FOR the character ask game, 1, 2, 12, 14, 18, 21 (or 22, optionally), and 25, all for Terra!!! feel free to skip some if that's a bit Too Many At Once i'm simply the world's nosiest little beast :3

squints and carefully puts “Terra fan #2” shirt away (I can’t compete with my irl who loves Terra more than me it’d be foolish)

He’s BIG hes TEDDY BEAR and he has SO SO MANY PROBLEMS and he was three people and a terrifying armor ghost for years I love Lingering Will I think lingering will is the coolest thing ever. Wayfinders are my favorites when they’re vengeful ghosts

coughs. Lingering will. But actually I love that he’s a very polite boy I think a lesser medium would have made him edgier. He’s very polite and asks for things nicely and says please. good boy. 12. oh no I’m in a list wait

12. I think he’s very bad at cooking. I think he’s just downright bad at it it’s not that he doesn’t want to he is just bad. After kh3 he tries to get into it because aqua likes to bake as stress relief but he is not good at it however he CAN!!! make a KILLER kebab. because he just piles everything he likes to bbq on a stick

14. I. Honestly his normal aesthetic is so good for him. Samurai fantasy tech warrior is so good. And I don’t think athletic wear quite fits him? Put that boy in climbing gear maybe. Plenty of carabiners

18. Ummmmnnnnnhhhh UHHH ACTUALLY YOU KNOW WHAT i don’t quite know about this one bc all of his relationships are either sad or very brief I think he should interact with sora more though. I think they would get along well. I hope he chats with riku more too….. it’s so cute… maybe that’s the answer to the actual question. Wiku

21/22. Can you believe I’ve written him like once? Unbelievable. He’s just hard to do for me I think. I like it when ppl make Terra the lets go lesbians let’s go guy I love it when he’s just a woodworker he’s in a trade of some kind and lesbians just love the guy. It’s a trope I’ve seen like three times and every time it’s so funny to me. Who would have guessed. the big gentle himbo. But I also don’t like it when fics make him Too Mean?? You know? This is a problem with both Terra and Aqua I think people assume they’re older and therefore stricter and more entrenched in master eraqus’ teachings and completely unwilling to go near the idea of accepting darkness and while I don’t think that interpretation is wrong or not easily supported, it just feels… too harsh… like they didn’t also go through a big darkness revelation and have to deal with it all by themselves and maybe they wouldn’t find Riku to be comforting, if not a major relief. idk. You can make them as complex as you want (personally I have thoughts about how unintentionally bad they are at emotions and communication ALL THE TIME) but i get sad if they’re one dimensionally mean :( I get it you want a bad guy in your vanitas redemption. But cmon :(

25. I (thinking) I basically watched kh backwards. Sort of. So my first impression was actually,, Terra giving his friends a big hug and crying!! So I always knew he was a sweet boy. Now he is a complex sweet boy who made bad decisions and his whole arc can be taken with different readings beyond even the effects of manipulation into cycles of power and relapse or su(i am dragged offstage by a comically long cane) HEY