crystalkris

[cherry-extraordinary]

[cassynite]

thoughts on rogue trader companions so far (got to the end of act 1 last night in yet another ill advised late night gaming session):

--

Abelard: I, the player, have such a soft spot for old men who take on mentor-like positions to my pc (blame it on being raised my grandfather ig).

But Wren actually finds Abelard pretty stifling at first and is furious when she finds out he'd been keeping an uprising from her and trying to take care of it on his own, because she's an awful micromanaging boss who's got to do shit herself and thinks everyone who does things without her direct knowledge are going to either fuck up or betray her about it. They're getting along a little better since then and she does ask for his opinion on things, even if she rarely follows it lol.

--

Idira: Wren warmed up to Idira pretty quickly, considering she introduced herself by revealing she knows about Wren's past and her deepest hurts (I know that the actual dialogue is referencing the torture hook in her background but I'm interpreting it as Idira knowing about what happened between Wren and her sister).

But after Wren made a very open "you tell anyone about that and I make sure you get spaced" threat, she starts to rely on Idira's divination skills to help her navigate tough situations. She's not threatened by psykers or Idira's powers otherwise, and senses that she's relatively open and isn't trying to pull the wool over her eyes because of how tenuous a grasp on her own powers she has--ironically, by being on the verge of madness, Wren trusts her to tell her what she's actually hearing.

--

Argenta: Wren tends to view people who are overly dedicated to the Imperium with distrust and disdain; she grew up kind of on the fringes of society to begin with and spent the majority of her adulthood as a crime lord with a dim view of the Imperium, since she spent a lot of her time either in direct opposition to those people or manipulating their systems to get what she wanted. Because of this she's written off Argenta as a space-Bible-thumper and ignores her views. She's the first person who gets kicked off the team once they get a full roster.

--

Pasqual: She has slightly more respect for the knowledge-pursuing Adeptus Mechanicus than Argenta's Adepta Sororitus, but any limited respect for Pasqual turns to pretty severe distrust when she finds out he sold out his mentor to the Imperium. Wren's super clannish in her thought processes, and doesn't believe in a greater good; Her People are all that matter to her, and people who backstab, no matter the reason, are to be viewed with distrust at best and as the enemy at worst.

The only thing keeping Pasqual marginally in her good graces at this point is his relationship with Abel, which Wren has already projected her childhood relationship with her sister onto. She's not telling him shit about what she does with her business unless absolutely necessary though and has probably created contingency plans to space him if he tries to pull the same shit on her.

--

Heinrix: Lol. Lmao. Hi Inquisitor guy, yes of course I'm a loyal servant of the emperor, nothing to see here<-former crime lord who would have scattered at the word inquisitor a month ago

Wren was absolutely hoping never to actually come across this guy she was supposed to play courier for, like "Oh gee I guess we never found him, shame," so running into him while trying to clear up the mess on Rykard minoris was a bit of a disappointment, but she's decided that she can play good Rogue Trader while he's around. At this point he's brand new, she's sussed he's kind of into her, so she's playing into that and making herself seem friendly ("you seem lonely, if you want someone to talk to I'm not the greatest conversationalist but I am a great listener"). She's sure she'll be totally fine dumping him when needed and will not get attached, even though she's said this about the last like three people she's integrated into her crew and it's never played out well for her yet.

--

Cassia: Sweet child. Wren absolutely thinks that Cassia would not survive a day on her own, extremely powerful navigator or no, and is kind of condescending to her because of that. She was the quickest and easiest person for Wren to trust and consider one of "her" people on the new ship and she plans on doing what she can to secure a permanent position for Cassia as her navigator. Wren's got a real soft spot for her and takes her everywhere. (Also I, the player, stan Cassia like no one business and wouldn't dream of keeping her out of my party. Lidless stare is too OP.)

[waveridercrewmember]

Legends Among Us

Thank you friends for feeding my Among Us addiction. So here we go. 

Sara suggested the game as a team bonding activity. It quickly overtook the entire Waverider. Sara, to no one’s surprise, is super good at the game, both as imposter and at sussing out others as crewmate. She is dubbed the Queen of the Vents. No one ever sees her coming. She always kills in the most isolated areas, and normally three people are dead before one body is found. 

Ava is an amazing crewmate, but an utterly bad imposter. Her favorite part of the game is completing all her tasks. She’s very good at tracking people and catching imposters lying. However, as imposter she overuses sabotages and people start grouping. It seems like whenever she kills, someone runs around the corner ready to see her vent away. It infuriates her to no end. 

Gary is actually surprisingly good at imposter. This is because no matter if he is crewmate or imposter, he always sounds super nervous and suspicious. People just assume he’s crewmate, and never see it coming when he stabs them in the back. He’s also good at marinating because he never likes to be left alone, especially when fixing lights. 

Whenever Mick is an imposter, there’s always a bloodbath. His style is the most amount of bodies in the shortest amount of time. He’ll kill anywhere. His imposter rounds always end in either the imposters winning before a meeting is called or someone sees all the bodies and Mick gets voted out first. As a crewmate, he hates doing tasks and spends the entire round watching cams or admin table. 

Zari is a force to be reckoned with in Among Us. Her lying skills are unparalleled. She’s the player who knows how long it takes to do download and will call the button when she sees the imposter faking it. She can randomly accuse people of venting and everyone follows her lead. Whenever Sara, Astra, or Nate are imposter, they always try and kill Zari first. 

Astra is the wild card player. She’s an average crewmate and imposter, but every couple of games she will pull a crazy genius move and everyone is astounded. She absolutely loves 50/50s. Often, she will self-report a body or purposefully kill in front of someone and blame the kill on the other person. She never finishes her tasks, and Simon Says is the bane of her existence. 

Nate is a solid crewmate and an okay imposter. He often gets marinated and unknowingly plays the third imposter. He is good at providing alibis to people and works his way through tasks until he gets distracted, then follows other people around (namely Behrad and Zari). His favorite place to kill is med bay, and he loves pulling the reactor sabotage. Nate is always one of the first people to vote. 

Behrad normally only completes a few tasks, then spends the majority of his rounds following his fellow crewmates. He seems to get imposter the least, and he always seems to die first. Behrad is the master of throwing lots of suspicion on other players when he’s imposter, so that most people are deciding between two crewmates to throw out. The chaos makes him laugh. His favorite part of the game is ghost chat, and he is disappointed when the other ghosts won’t reply. 

Mona as imposter loves picking a room, luring other players in, and creating a stack of bodies. As crewmate, she is normally among one of the first people to finish tasks. She loves emptying trash and diverting power. She noticeably talks more when she is imposter, which can get her voted off quite often. She loves haunting people as a ghost. If she sees someone vent in front of her, Mona will keep it to herself until there are 3 seconds left to vote, then yell out who she saw venting. 

Constantine is by far the worst Among Us player. The others find endless entertainment in this fact. Although, the Legends have to be careful how much they kid with him about it outside the game, because they will find themselves cursed if it goes too far. Imposters will try not to kill him so that he’s left as the deciding vote in 50/50s. He always votes wrong so that the imposters win every single time. When they start playing with proximity chat, everyone can just hear Constantine muttering curses in the background. He normally gets caught as imposter because he’ll be the last person seen with the body or he’ll be exiting the area when someone else walks in and finds the body.  

The best imposters are any combination of Sara, Mick, and Zari. They are all excellent liars with high body counts. Additionally, they are amazing at communicating with each other and love to speedrun their wins. 

The worst imposter duo is Ava and Constantine. Neither are good at talking their way out of a kill. They can never coordinate enough to get double kills in, and Gary can uncannily tell when both of them are lying. 

And if you are wondering where Ray, Nora, and Charlie are, they decided to make their own lobby with other past Legends and those deemed honorary Legends. Stay tuned for more information. #legends among us

EDIT: Part 2 here. And an image of the part 1 lobby here. 

[fictumlibrary]

🤲🤲🤲🤲 im requesting an info dump on the new hq girls whenever you have the info to share... (i know i know some about them but this is for the World to see also im nosey)

haruhi oikawa

oikawa's little sister because i love causing problems for oikawa skdfjsldfks. she's a first year at seijoh.

she's a big bookworm and is part of the literature club at school, mostly because it's a place she can read her books in peace.

she's very introverted and just wants to be left in peace skldfjskl

she has no interest in volleyball but knows everything about it after growing up with her brother and iwaizumi.

she.........does not like her brother. like she loves him but she does not like him rip.

a lot of oikawa's admirers will come up to her and at best ask about him upfront, but a few have tried to befriend her to get closer to him. she can usually suss that out really quick but it doesn't hurt any less.

she hasn't told him anything about this though because she feels pathetic about it.

she definitely has trust issues as a result of it too rip

she's definitely jealous of oikawa's talent and while she's aware it comes form hard work, she doesn't always like how she uses it.

oikawa isn't aware of any of this though like he knows he and his sister are distant but figures it's just because of their different personalities and interests. for someone very perceptive he's very bad at perceiving his little sister.

iwaizumi perceives her but he keeps it to himself sldfjsldk

she went to kitagawa daiichi for middle school so she knows everyone from there, or at least those in her year. she wasn't super close to them then, but nowadays she does often talk to kindaichi and kunimi because she. doesn't really have any other friends sldfjsdlkfs

she is OVER the oikawa-kageyama beef she has no interest in that shenanigans

despite all of this, she does come to seijoh's games. she sits far away from the cheer squad though

she wants to be a manga artist and is pretty good at it, but she has never shown anyone. she already has an inferiority complex when it comes to her brother she doesn't want it to get worse.

laura kamiyama

my ONE oc so far that isn't the sister of a canon character ?? unbelievable

she's an inuoka love interest because i love that guy

she and inuoka are childhood friends since their fathers worked closely together and they were like "hey, our kids are the same age, why don't we put them together for a playdate and see how they go?" and they absolutely hit it off

she goes to nekoma and is a first year. she and inuoka were all "pRAYER CIRCLE THAT WE GET IN THE SAME CLASS" and they did.

she's a dancer, or at least it's a hobby of hers. she is still figuring out if she wants to do it as a career, but she's being doing it since she was young and it's something she's very passionate about. her favourite genres are jazz and contemporary

she's on the school's dance team and when she's in her third year, she becomes the captain

she goes to all of inuoka's games and he goes to all of her dance recitals

someone insinuates the two of them are dating and one of them will be like "oh, we're not together!" and the other will be sad even though they would've said the same thing

she gets along well with the team and while it's clear she's there because she's besties with inuoka, she does support all of them

she and kuriko get along too well it's a concern tbh

erina miya

she's the older sister of the miya twins and, like them, is a menace to society

she's a third year at inarizaki and is captain of the girls volleyball team

she was interested in it after watching a game in person as a young child. her mother was high school friends with someone who became a professional volleyball player and erina was just so enamored that she begged her mother to let her play

she's her team's setter, though in the past she's been a decent spiker. the setter position is simply where she's the most comfortable.

cue her and atsumu competing over who the best setter is and forcing osamu to choose between them.

her goal is to become a professional volleyball player

she's in the same class as kita and omimi and they're like "can't you do something about those two?" and she's just ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ as if she isn't the exact same as them

the twins hate (they don't but they say they do) having her at their games because she's always yelling at them from the stands

like the twins, she's known aran since they were all in gradeschool. the two of them only met briefly when she went to pick up the twins from the volleyball camp they went to and for a moment aran thought she was the level-headed one of them all until he watched her get into a fistfight with atsumu as they were going home. then they saw each other in their first year of high school and she was like "OMG I REMEMBER YOU"

she started dyeing her hair in high school and the twins got their hands on her products one night and dyed their own hair without her knowing and wasted all of her stuff. she was PISSED

now she does their hair when they need a touch-up

you know that thing atsumu does when the inarizaki cheer squad is doing their brass band thing and he puts his hand up and brings it down and they just STOP and there's total silence? the first time he did that there was silence for a second and then this loud snort and even louder laughter because erina thought it was the funniest thing in the world (derogatory). now she still sometimes fills the silence by yelling at him

[imo-chan-imagines]

『 Haikyuu!! Week 2020 | Day 7 』

· Oct. 1st → Fly! ·

Characters: (teams) Karasuno, Nekoma, Fukurodani, Aoba Johsai, Shiratorizawa, (indiv.) Miya Atsumu, Miya Osamu, Aone Takanobu

Prompts: A. free choice!

Tags/warnings: Haikyuu!! (anime), Among Us (video game), PG, fluff, crack, video games, video game violence/death, headcanons, HaikyuuWeek2020

A/N: Among Us is a bit of a hot meme at the moment (great game. Go and play it/watch other people play it if you can. Get a feel for the game if you somehow haven't already.) So I thought, 'Hey, why not?' I mean, I do need to heal my heart after my Day 6 post, so...

What an amazing week it's been! Well done, everyone! All of my Haikyuu Week 2020 posts are SFW, but there's a little treasure trove of NSFW on my blog, too. Please peruse to your heart's content. Thanks for reading! Please enjoy! ♡

Haikyuu boys / playing Among Us

☆ Karasuno ☆

Literally the loudest games you'll ever witness

You know that grainy, electronic crackle that happens when everybody yells on Discord at the same time? Yeah. That

Kageyama can't lie for shit. It's so obvious when he's lying that it's a genuine miracle if he doesn't immediately get ejected

And he stands in all the wrong places when he's faking doing his tasks 😭😭

But he sounds super suspicious when he's telling the truth, too 😅

Noya and Tanaka buddy up no matter what, and go around trying to clear or murder people together

They also end up fuelling each other's incorrect assumptions

Asahi is way too timid to murder anyone right away, so if nobody dies in the first two rounds, you know it's him or someone trying to frame him...

Daichi is the host and tries to keep order in the lobby...tries someone help him

Hinata: Guys, please stop swearing! Natsu is watching me play!! waahhh 🙈 so cute 😇

Hinata always has to be orange. Don't touch his orange

Ennoshita is the king of self-reporting and getting away with it it just be like that

Kageyama goes around called 'Milk' 🥛

Tsukki tries to big-brain the shit out of it 🤣

He's also hella manipulative as an imposter and refuses to kill Yamaguchi 😭

Suga likes to take out the oxygen/recator and lie in wait for the people who come to fix it he will giggle adorably when it ends up working, which sounds kinda pshyco, ngl 😂

But totally screams at his screen when someone he suspected sneaks up on him and kills him

Yamaguchi low-key prefers the mini games to the actual game 😭😭

And Yachi loves being pink and wearing the little flower in her hair ngl, she nearly fainted the first time she got killed

She doesn't play with them often because it's so loud 😬

☆ Nekoma ☆

Kenma streams the gaming sessions on Twitch, and now they kind of have a cult following 🤷‍♀️

These fans be thirsting hard, too like us

Check out my smut headcanons, y'all 🙌

Kuroo is the closest to a genius player you're ever going to see

He does his tasks fairly efficiently, he's good at remembering layouts and people's movements, he calculates the timings of his kills with terrifying accuracy, defends himself pretty well, whether he's lying or not, can gaslight the entire lobby into sussing an innocent person, and pieces together other people's lies with surprising ease

Do not cross Kuroo. He's scary at this game. He's not the Scheming Captain for nothing, y'all

Lev is the kind of person to vent right in front of someone by accident, which is so awkward, but so funny 😂

The entire team must wear the bear ears hat. Yes, that is a rule

It's the closest to cat ears they have right now....

Kenma is pretty quiet when he's playing. He doesn't normally play online games, but his streams took off on Twitch, sooo~

Kenma also has radar ears and can somehow detect when people are lying, but waits until he has proof to accuse them he smart 🤓

☆ Fukurodani ☆

'Whoever Talks the Loudest is Right' mentality 😂

And Bokuto will defend himself at the volume of an air raid siren

Akaashi stays as quiet as possible so he doesn't give anything away

When Bokuto starts sussing people, it turns into something out of Ace Attorney like, chill tf out, man 😂

But his guesses are normally completely wrong

Akaashi sets good parameters for the games, because he's sensible

If Bokuto is given the chance to host the lobby....he will set one task each, put everyone at 4x speed, give the imposter zero cooldown time, and sit back and watch the chaos

Whenever somebody doesn't have an absolutely airtight alibi–

Bokuto: That's hella sus, bro

Lots of childish nicknames, because...well, they're all mentally six years old

Except Akaashi, who has a higher mental age than all of them combined

Let me just say that when Bokuto and Kuroo play together, shit gets so funny

When one of them is an imposter, they will literally vent in front of the other one and trust them not to out them 😂😂

☆ Aoba Johsai ☆

Iwa-chan can always tell when Oikawa is lying, and constantly calls him out on it

Iwa: That's his lying voice. Shitty-kawa is lying. He's the imposter. Vote him off

Oikawa: IWAAA-CHAAAN D:<

Because Iwa's right about Oikawa when he is the imposter, it makes it easy to frame him when it's actually Iwa who's the imposter

And no-one believes Tooru 😭😭

Kyoutani has no chill as an imposter

He just murders everyone on sight, right in front of people, too

Kindaichi tends to accuse people with very little evidence, but his instincts are weirdly accurate

Oikawa gets killed almost immediately every game, so if he isn't dead two emergency meetings in, he's 100% an imposter 😭😭

He then goes around as a salty ghost when he's killed off, mumbling to himself about injustice as he refuses to do his tasks and watches the people who voted him off get murdered one by one

Not that anyone's holding a grudge 🙄😂

Oikawa refuses to be purple and always kills whoever is purple first because it reminds him of Ushijima 😭😭

☆ Shiratorizawa ☆

Ushijima refuses to play if he can't be purple give it back. N O W

And it takes him a long time to get used to the game and the rules

'Why are the lights off? What are these tasks? Why is that one flashing at me? Where is med bay? Why can I use this vent? What's this big, red button for?' etc.

You get the idea. Toshi = big noob

He doesn't really understand the concept of lying, either...

He keeps forgetting to mute himself and ends up saying some very incriminating stuff over the mic which has everyone in literal tears from laughter

Tendou is a sneaky S.O.B, using those vents like a pro and gaslighting perfectly innocent people he's a little bloodthirsty, too 🤫

And his initial guesses about who's the imposter are almost always 100% correct Guess Monster, y'all

Goshiki goes around trying to clear people by watching them doing their tasks, especially Ushijima

But then he gets called suspicious for hanging around people too much

The first time an emergency meeting was ever called, Ushijima literally asked "Why is my name in red?" much to everyone's amusement

Everyone's scared of Ushijima when he follows them, but it normally turns out that he just doesn't know where he's going

Shirabu tends to lose his shit when people start accusing him and he's innocent, and will never EVER trust a word that comes out of Goshiki's mouth

Speaking of, Goshiki and Shirabu – boy, do they bicker like eight year-olds, wasting entire voting rounds just arguing with each other 🙄😭

So everyone else decides to vote off one, and then the other at the next meeting 😭😭

Misc.

☆ The Miya twins ☆

Atsumu puts 100% trust in Osamu not to kill him, even if he is the imposter

How could he? He's his brother. His twin. His other half. They share a unique bond–

And then he screams in betrayal when Osamu slaughters him mercilessly 😂😂

Osamu is unaffected by the sudden outburst from his brother's room

Put them together as an imposter duo, though, and you're in for some trouble

They often win by executing a perfect double kill

And they're both pretty good at lying, but Osamu will not hesitate to throw Atsumu under the bus and vote him off if he's being too suspicious or the lobby has turned against him 😂

Ah, the bond of brotherhood 😂

☆ Aone Takanobu ☆

Aone doesn't talk very much

But when he does, his voice is so low and even that nobody ever suspects he's the imposter

I'm thinking like Corpse Husband, if you've seen him playing with Pewds and the gang

It doesn't really occur to people that he could be lying. He seems so trustworthy and honest

Finds it very hard to blame anyone else, though

Is fairly decent as doing his tasks as a crewmate, but it takes him a long time to remember the layouts of the ships

Almost never gets voted off the ship

© imo-chan-imagines 2020

[albatris]

ok ok alriiiight ok so the plot of ATDAO

this post is not, like........... well, it’s not gonna be a blurb or a summary or a nice neat synopsis, this is not Professional Writeblr Business, this is, this is, uhhhh

this is like drunk house party logan rambles

works best if you imagine ur just like “hey man how’s it going” super casual and I grasp you firmly by the shoulders and look you dead in the eye and just ramble all of this without taking a single breath

could I have explained in a nice neat concise "elevator pitch" sort of way? probably. mind ur business. that’s not how we do things here at albatris.org

anyway the purpose of this post is “hey people seem to know a lot about the characters and the worldbuilding and the premise but have no clue what happens in the actual story” so I’m not going to be talking about said characters and worldbuilding and premise in depth

in terms of rambles, that stuff’s been covered! this post assumes you know what Ports are, n what the nature of the ATDAO apocalypse is, vaguely what the MCs are like as people......... though I can fetch this info for you if you like

but yeah if you are coming into this post with zero prior ATDAO knowledge........... deeply deeply from the bottom of my heart: sorry

also if this is your first time experiencing One Of These Rambles

also @safe-in-the-steep-cliffs​ and @siarven​ I am tagging you because you said you would like to be tagged and also hi and also I hope y’all knew what you were in for

anyway without further ado

(visual representation of my approach to this rant, not of how complicated my plot actually is)

(my plot is not that complicated)

ALRIGHT

there are two viewpoint characters! and two plotlines which converge near the end of the story, but honestly there’s a very real possibility I will decide these are two separate books meant as companion stories to each other because I love making things difficult for myself yeehaw

ATDAO’s co-protags are Tris and Noa, best buds four years and counting. their friendship is one of the single most important aspects of the story, n the ongoing love and trust they have for each other despite the way unfolding events force their relationship to change is integral to the themes and making the heart of the story what it is. I will now proceed to not mention this friendship for the entire remainder of this post. they’re bros. that’s all u need to know. listen. listen. I have a lot to cover

so yeah, ur first key player is Tris Greer, whose parents are dicks but whose siblings are chill. most notably of said siblings there is Jacob, older brother by thirteen years, whom Tris believes is just about the coolest person on the entire planet. this plotline kicks off when Jacob gets caught in the midst of a freak car accident that kills a dude and wrecks a street corner and also somehow causes Jacob to just kind of................. blip out of existence entirely and without a trace?

n Tris is understandably horrified and distressed by Very Much All Of This, but hey, at least there are responsible adults who can look into this obviously Port-related weird disappearance and figure this mess out, right?

INCORRECT

the relevant interdimensional authorities are brought in to suss out the situation and these authorities are kind of like “hmmmm idk about this” but are all set to take Tris at least somewhat seriously until they learn the following:

that Jacob had already been reported missing to police in his home state three days earlier

that Jacob was in the midst of several ongoing personal crises and at least one nervous breakdown

that Jacob was allegedly tangled up in some real weird shit that would more than account for a disappearance under suspicious circumstances

that Tris is schizophrenic, prone to hallucinations, confusion, memory issues and quote unquote “letting his imagination and anxiety get the better of him”, and precisely zero people can actually corroborate his story that Jacob was even there are the time of the accident to begin with

and after some back-and-forth and Looking Into The Evidence pretty much everyone in any position of authority comes to the conclusion that this is just Ordinary Regular People Crimes and whatever happened to Jacob had nothing to do with weird apocalyptic energies, and that Tris is (at best) stressed out and delusional or (at worst) lying through his teeth because he knows more than he’s letting on

so Tris is forced to hop pretty quick from “I’m sure someone will handle this” to “no one believes me but I’m sure if I can find some concrete proof they’ll listen and someone will handle it” to Well Fuck I Guess That Someone Is Me

cue bizarre reality-hopping fantasy quest, which is ten times easier said than done when most of the time Tris is terrified enough just, like, going to the supermarket

he enlists the help of his new classmate Shara, amateur paranormal investigator and professional weird-bullshit enthusiast, who agrees to help him puzzle out what the fuck happened to Jacob in exchange for his assistance in mapping out Adelaide’s interdimensional “fault lines” as part of her ongoing quest to track down the source of the apocalypse

she’s got big fuckin dreams, ok, go hard or go home

slso worth noting at this point that there HAS been an uptick in Ports and their related reality-bending strangeness in Adelaide recently which is why this is of particular interest to her currently. gotta find out What Makes The Weirdness Tick, gotta find out Why The Sudden Extra Weirdness

..........and also Kai is there

Kai has no nice neat reason to get involved with the plot, Kai just likes drama and being all up in people’s personal business. Tris brings them on board for one single afternoon like “hey I will pay you some money to come to my house and fix my fucked up phone so I can listen to an interdimensional voicemail” but forgot the apparently key addendum “and then leave”

their first three chapters of knowing each other is basically Tris being like “stop inviting yourself into my house we are not friends” and Kai being like “that’s a rude thing to say to your friend. also your sister gave me the netflix password and I used your kitchen to bake pastries feel free to help yourself”

but yeah so Tris’s story mostly focuses on his quest to figure out where Jacob got yeeted to and how to get him safely home (y’all probably know a bit about The Unreality already maybe?), whilst also dealing with rising family tensions, whatever shifty stuff Jacob was involved with prior to his disappearance, and his own creeping doubts about his perceptions of reality

n I’m also saying flat out it’s not a plot that’s going the “oh the whole thing was just a delusion all along” route because ew

his psychosis is a fairly involved part of his character but the explorations around it are more to do with, like......... the difficulties he has in trusting himself and whether he has the luxury of letting himself get swept into some Big Weird Implausible Adventure when this has extremely different implications for him than it would someone else. n eventually to how his success and survival is not ~in spite of~ but specifically because of the different way he understands and interprets the world and the skills he’s developed

THAT TANGENT WAS A PERSONAL RANT IT WAS NOT RELEVANT I just have words to say on the subject of how psychosis is treated in fiction and didn’t want people jumping to the “none of it is real” conclusion anyway ok moving on

ur SECOND key player is Noa Yun, who has rather a lot on her plate right now. she’s broke as fuck and her mum is sick and her car is making Noises and she’s not getting enough hours at her job at Not-IKEA and everyone is on her back about her failing studies as if that’s a thing she has the energy to care about. feeling rather backed into a corner by life’s bullshit and her financial situation, she blatantly lies her way into a field job at the Department of Interdimensional Instabilities, because A) surely it can’t be THAT bad, and B) what does she have to lose?

so more or less what she’s doing is the equivalent of emergency services for Port-related weirdness, it’s going out and dealing with highly unstable otherworldly energies head on, navigating Weird Phenomena and bendy patches in reality......... it is, among other things, a job that’s relatively easy to get into because no one wants to touch it with a ten foot pole unless they absolutely have to

n the DII is a whole other post, this shit has lots of different functions and levels and branches and corruption and secrets and a tendency to view workers who have to go out and deal with the brunt of the apocalypse head-on as vaguely expendable and I’ve talked about it a bit before and in more Serious Words

things kinda kick off for her when in true Noa fashion she hurls herself into a dangerous situation to help out a coworker, n enters a pretty standard issue “overlap” where the barriers between universes are a little fucky, but hey, she seems to come out of it with nary a scratch, so it’s reasonable to assume everything is fine, right?

INCORRECT AGAIN

she basically gets some whacked-out otherworldly energies latched onto her that are now following her through her everyday life, and it turns out she’s starting to bend the reality around her the way certain types of Ports do, which is! obviously not ideal! she’s not exactly a Port herself, because she’s pretty sure that’s impossible, but it’s clear capital s Something happened to her in that overlap, and she doubts it’s good news. and to make matters even more disconcerting, she’s now being dogged at every step by strange visions of a child who speaks in an unfamiliar language and who seems Real Fuckin Pissed at her

so her thing is basically “I acquired fucked up reality-bending powers against my will and they might be lowkey killing me ‘cause Ports are notoriously unstable like that and also I’m haunted for some godforsaken reason” which all somehow ended up being, like, the least interesting part of her plotline for me lmao

oh and Noa also enlists the help of Shara, Because Ghosts

anyway yeah so her search to find out what’s happening to her re: Weird Children, being a Port-adjacent something-or-other, and whether there’s a way to stop her own unravelling leads her to (rogue computer programmer? mad scientist? general shifty bastard?) Laurence Marrick Thiele, who claims to have suffered a similar affliction in the past and now does some real interesting research on the subject. n this guy. well. he’s got some fuckin stuff going on

he definitely knows more about the nature of Ports than he should. also is he actually researching what he says he’s researching? also what’s with all the weird tech? also did he just straight up murder that guy Avery? all will be revealed later, maybe, if I feel like it

but yeah at about the same time as Noa goes “actually fuck this you’re shady as hell I’m out” she stumbles into, like, The Actual Reality of what Marrick is up to re: manipulating Ports and interdimensional doorways for his own gain, and the various ways this spells bad news not only for her but potentially for the entire city and anyone unfortunate enough to get caught in the crossfire, and she shifts gear to “actually you know what I’m gonna kick your ass”

there are various reasons for this, but first and foremosterly you have to understand that Noa’s got a fuckload of pent-up rage and she will bring it in full force the moment you say some stupid shit like “some people are expendable” or “it’s inevitable for the greater good”

(there’s also a fun ongoing subplot with her work at the DII where she and her team are investigating a string of strange illnesses with bizarre symptoms that appear to be spreading via obscure radio stations so that’s. happening. I guess?)

but yeah the main story here mostly follows Noa’s attempts to undermine Marrick, bastard supreme, and find a way to fuck him up before he goes, like, Full Cartoon Supervillain, n also like........... her attempts to keep up her work at the DII despite her rising paranoia that the teammates she’s growing to care about will notice her increasingly unstable state and the fact that she’s all tangled up with the very forces they’re meant to be thwarting. n along the way discovering the reality of what happened to her in The Aforementioned Overlap Incident and about her visions and such

so that’s all that. did that make sense

n she’s got a whole arc going on about trust and learning to lean on others, like, she comes into this story as a very standoffish person with lots of paranoia, she’s spent much of her life feeling like she can only rely on herself, n she’s. well. yeah, like I said, she’s got a lot of anger at the world and at the various systems that have failed her and her loved ones, n the story puts her in a position to become even more isolated

and her plotline isn’t so much “you have no reason to be angry or afraid” or her learning to Not Be, It’s more, like........... yeah you have every fucking right to be furious and of course you’re afraid! but there are people around you who love you and who will jump at the chance to defend you and who will help you carry the weight of your anger and grief and none of this needs to be yours to bear alone which is extremely cheesy

which applies to both her Weird Supernatural Goings-On as well as her regular ordinary life goings-on

I feel like Alice and Jet deserve a mention for Noa’s plotline but also this went on and on too long already so. well. Alice and Jet exist! yep. they work with Noa at the DII. I have things to say about them. I will not be saying them today

and uhhhhhh

in general, for Tris, his plotline, you wanna think, like, fantasy/adventure vibes which veer pretty sharply into horror, and for Noa you wanna think...... kinda, sci-fi mystery conspiracy vibes with a dash of some superhero bullshit maybe except not really

and that

pretty much is it I think

also the fact that Kai just invites themself into the plot for funsies and then is dragged kicking and screaming into caring about themself and making positive changes in their life means there was no convenient place in this post to be like

"oh there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop"

but there's also a whole major subplot about a time loop

goodnight! thanks for coming to....................... whatever this was! have a nice saturday everyone

[zackmartin]

kt and maya hcs?! (not to put you on the spot or anything)

okay i'm sorry this took forever, i had a bunch typed out on my phone and then when I tried to post, tumblr glitched and deleted everything so I had to take time to be bitter about it sldkf

anyway, I was literally thinking about them when you sent this like same brain asldk

- okay, neither of them really strike me as characters that get flustered when someone is flirting with them? so basically, they don't babble or fall all over themselves and whatnot when they're flirting, but they still get kinda blushy - like, KT will tell Maya that her hair looks pretty that day and Maya can easily say thanks and compliment her shoes, but she's still twirling her hair and blushing, and kinda giggly cause the pretty girl complimented her, ya know? and KT def does the same thing

- i'm like, probably contradicting myself here but they're kinda disasters at the same time just in the sense that they're both super sweet people so they genuinely can't figure out if the other is complimenting them in a polite way or in a Gay Way, so they're trying to like, lowkey suss it out alsdkjf

- like, they'll be chilling doing homework one night and just listening to music or something, and a Hayley Kiyoko song comes on and KT will just casually be like "oh, I love this song!" so then Maya is wondering like "does she love it cause it's a bop or is that in a sapphic way?" and KT is thinking like "okay, does she have Hayley Kiyoko on her playlist cause her songs slap or...??"

- shoehorning zack in here because he's my boy and you can't stop me aldskfj but he's watching this all happen and it's painfully obvious to him so it becomes like that scene in mean girls when he just says to Maya "why don't you just ask her if she's into girls?" and Maya is just like "omg, zack, you can't just ask someone if they're into girls" -zack: "i don't get women." cody, from somewhere in the background, completely deadpan: "shocker."

- Maya actually curses like a sailor, but nobody really finds out until like two weeks after she moves in because she's really careful in the house since Victor will throw you in detention just for loitering in the hallway laskdjf and nobody really expects it out of her anyway, since she's got such a soft voice and sweet demeanor, so when she gets mad one day, she very loudly lets out a rage-filled f-bomb and KT's just like 😳👀

- also, symptom of coming from new york, maya is super fast-paced whenever she's going anywhere, like they have places to be!! and she's great at dodging people, so KT has to struggle a little sometimes to keep up

- KT sort of gets her to chill once they start dating because she's basically like "if you want to hold my hand while we walk, you're gonna have to slow down cause you're dragging me like a dog on a leash" laksjdf (she's not really doing it on purpose obvs, it's just her nature, but she wants to hold KT's hand, so she's really conscious about slowing down every time after that )

- I think KT likes sports, but I don't think she's like, super invested like she can watch a game when it's on and be entertained but she won't seek them out, but Maya is super invested so she eventually gets KT into it too, and whenever they go home for breaks, they make a point of going on dates to games together, and KT steals Maya's hats with her favorite team's logo, and they get sick on footlong hotdogs and popcorn and they yell at the players to get their shit together when they're losing alskdjf (also, kiss cam 👀)

- they also have dates where they wear their cutest pajamas and they order a bunch of takeout and they take turns showing the other their favorite movies and they swap secrets they've never told anyone else

[itsbenedict]

Kingdoms and Koopas: Ep. 10

K&K is a Fate Accelerated campaign set in the Mario universe, which I’m running for three players:

Bee @thebeeskneesocks​, playing Kandace Koopa

Jovian @jovian12​, playing Cozmo Naut

Malky @sleepdepravity​, playing Dr. Chevy Chain

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Previously on Kingdoms and Koopas, the party went and heroically crashed a spaceship into the ocean! They snagged a macguffin and a good time was had by all. Now, though, they find themselves on the roof of Kam Ekademy, amidst a brewing underground war between the two rival magic schools.

Which they promptly ignore to go shoot a movie with Zip Toad!

So the party, once again, falls out of the cloud of Ted, the Storm God, the location to which Kandace’s teleportation circle goes. Before anything else happens, Princess Opal, uh, has some business to attend to in the Magic Kingdom what with the alien invasion that was happening, so she leaves right away and I totally didn’t forget that she came through the portal with them for the entire session and this isn’t a retcon shut up.

So they see the unconscious body of Waluigi lying there, and pretty much ignore that, because who cares about that. What they take notice of is Ted the Storm God, who seems pretty dejected for some reason.

Apparently, Ted is feeling left out, because Kam Ekademy and Kammy Koopa’s Academy for Young Witches and Wizards have, y’know, gone to war in the secret tunnel system connecting the schools underground, but the other students at Kam Ekademy thought he’d just be a liability and wouldn’t let him come. (Kandace is briefly shocked, not by the war, but by how there were secret tunnels underneath the school and no one told her.)

As they’re debating getting involved, Chevy does what she does best whenever anyone proposes getting involved in anything, and just sort of rolls away. Off the roof of the castle. And crashes through a ceiling.

She falls into a classroom somewhere in Kam Ekademy, and notices the door leading out has a can of green paint precariously balanced on top, waiting to spill on whoever opens it. It was probably meant to fall on someone coming in from the outside, but since she took an... alternative entrance, the trap isn’t much to worry about. She knocks it down and proceeds outside.

...Where the hallway appears to be filled with swinging blade traps except instead of blades it’s big versions of those toy sticky hands.

She barely manages to dodge, when from behind her, the result of a failed spot check she made earlier begins to berate her. Iggy Koopa, who was lurking in wait in the classroom to ambush his would-be victim, is super upset that she ruined his ambush, and begins to attack! He also sounds the alarm, and more Koopalings come running.

Chevy attempts to escape, but here’s the thing: Chevy successfully escaping would be at odds with anything actually happening. Her driving motivation is to get out of all this nonsense and just go home, and splitting the party is no fun. So... this isn’t going to go her way. But in what way is it not going to go her way? That depends on what the rest of the party decides to do.

Let’s go check in on them.

Back up on the roof, another Lakitu arrives, having spotted them on the roof of Kam Ekademy from a distance with his camera. He tells them that shooting is going to start soon on Zip Toad’s new movie, the one Cozmo was hired to act in. So, Kandace and Cozmo have a choice to make: they can go investigate this underground magic war and be late for shooting, or they can go shoot a movie and let this underground magic war sort itself out.

Obviously they go for the movie. They get Ted’s phone number and promise to help him get involved in magic war later, and then they’re off- Kandace ferrying Cozmo on her broom.

So, that choice made, we can resolve what happens when Chevy tries to escape. What happens is that Larry, Lemmy, and Iggy all combine their magic to create a giant explosion, which blasts Chevy into the sky- directly in the direction of the party, as luck/contrivance would have it! 

So Chevy gracefully lands on the broom, and the three of them-

-wait, no, that doesn’t happen. Chevy is a chain chomp who’s just been launched by an explosion. She’s basically a cannonball right now, and this is really not what anyone wants to have flying directly at them while balanced on a broom.

So Kandace tries to fire off her spell, the one she’s used before that makes things all puffy and lightweight, so Chevy’s bulk is reduced and they can catch her out of the air. She, uh, whiffs. So Chevy hits them and knocks them off the broom. But all is not yet lost! Chevy rolls to try to chomp onto the broom in a last-ditch effort to grab hold, and rolls a 6! So she chomps down extremely hard on the broom. Which, uh, almost breaks it in half, like you might expect. The broom is pretty badly damaged, now, and that in combination with Chevy’s additional weight, and the weight of her two compatriots who managed to grab onto her chain, means that the broom is now slowly sinking to the ground.

...Sorry, did I say ground? Let’s double-check something. They started at Kam Ekademy, they’re about halfway to the shooting location, and the shooting location is World 8-1, The Part That’s Supposed To Stop Mario But Doesn’t- a twisty bridge over lava leading to Bowser’s Castle. Let me take a look at the map...

Okay, yes, the broom is now slowly sinking to the lava. That’s a more accurate way to put it.

Thankfully, they’re not alone- there’s the Lakitu cameraman there with them! Now, he’s got his fishing line, which he could use to haul them up and slow their descent enough to glide to safety up on the bridge, but... well, it’s got a big expensive film camera attached. Someone’s going to need to hold onto the camera and hold on to Chevy’s chain while dangling over lava, which sounds difficult. Plus, the natural Approach to use for such a feat would be Careful, a stat which neither Kandace nor Cozmo (the only party members with hands) have in abundance. In fact, I think it might literally be 0 for both of them. ...Yep. 

So this would likely end in disaster, except that they have an advantage: the GM is weak to puns.

Cozmo, see, has a very high Flashy stat. And the object in question is a camera.

So he rolls Flashy, he does well, he doesn’t drop the camera into the lava, and they actually make it to the set for Zip Toad’s new movie! And, given that I didn’t exactly plan this option out in detail (my pages of notes for the underground magic war will need to be adapted), I let them decide how this movie was going to go. 

The basic outline: it's a fast and furious type racing movie. Cozmo is the gruff and stuck-up career street racer, while Zip Toad is the fresh-faced rookie trying to prove himself. But when a giant chain chomp (played by some toads in a papier-mache prop) starts chewing up the other racers, they have to work together to put it down and save street racing! 

Everything else? Up to them.

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The racetrack. Under the ash-choked skies of the Lava Kingdom, the Outrageous Racing League carries on their sacred mission: to totally shred. Blargg’s Oven, the most dangerous course in the league, is the site of the Outrageous Championship- and there’s only one man intense enough to take home the cup.

Racer X, the mysterious masked daredevil on his tricked-out ebon dirtbike, refuses to lose. It seems as though he’s falling behind- but then, with a burst of speed, he zooms forward and bumps another racer off the edge of track into the burning abyss below. Surely that was an accident, right? Where’s the ref to make the call?

Ref? What ref?! This is the Outrageous Championship! Racer X smashes three more racers off the edge to their fiery dooms. He’s going to win... at any cost.

This scene reflects off the cool shades of another racer. An extreme closeup of his determined expression fills the screen. 

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Kandace is wearing a lot of hats today- she’s part of the crew running special effects, using her magic, but she’s also got a brief speaking role. And now, she’s filling in for the safety crew, as one of the Stunt Guys plunges towards the lava and the Lakitu trying to catch them fumbles their rod. She telekinetically saves the stunt biker, and now has a little blackmail on that Lakitu. No one has to know they messed up, right?

...Also, there’s the sound of an explosion from over by the schools in the distance. It’s, um, probably fine.

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It’s after the qualifying race, and finally, our hero is here. Ace McQueen Junior Jr. (don’t blame me, I let them name the characters) is sussing out this Racer X. He starts by trying flattery, asking how X pulled those cool stunts- and then smoothly transitions into questioning. He didn’t mean to knock those racers to their deaths, right? 

“Tch.”

X claims he didn’t even notice he bumped anyone. They’re just that far beneath him- he isn’t about to take stock of each and every greenhorn he spots when his eyes are on the prize. Pure focus.

We see Ace McQueen Junior Jr.’s eyes narrow behind his shades. Racer X is a liar, and he’s clearly more than willing to fight dirty to win. He tosses off a cool one-liner and heads off to prepare for the next race.

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Filming is interrupted by a sound from the direction of the school. This time, it’s not an explosion- it’s the sound of music. Kandace, actually, recognizes the tune, though not its full significance. She remembers one of her teachers, Professor Wizzerd, humming a few bars of it while teaching one of the basic spells in a Magikoopa’s arsenal. The spell in question was the Invocation of So’nee- a useful cantrip that calls on the power of the ancient sealed horror So’nee, a being anathema to this world. The Invocation of So’nee fires a magical structure shaped like So’nee’s unholy symbols (the Cross, the Halo, the Plane, and the Mountain, shaped like an X, O, ◻, and ◁), which serve as a base for all manner of other magical effects that can be stacked on top of it.

Why a song invoking So’nee is coming from the direction of the schools... is unknown. And probably fine! They have a movie to shoot!

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An indistinct shape beneath bandages lies on a bed in the infirmary. This poor soul is being treated for his horrible burn wounds, and we see a crying figure leave the room.

Racer X is suddenly slapped across the face- a koopa in a pit crew outfit has struck him. It’s confusing- he’s not racing right now, there’s no prize to win. What idiot would waste their chance to strike outside of battle? She’s crying, she’s telling him that her brother will never recover, never walk again, and how could he be so horrible?

He blows her off. Who cares if he destroyed her brother’s life? He was in the way of Racer X- and anyone who does the same will suffer the same fate. He stalks away, unconcerned. She’s not one of his opponents.

The camera pans over and around a corner. Ace McQueen Junior Jr. heard everything.

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Chevy, meanwhile, is waiting down by the trailers, at the base of the bridge supports out of sight of the cameras. She’s waiting for this to be over- since no one’s actually gotten injured yet, thanks to Kandace’s quick thinking, this impromptu set medic gig has been pretty boring. There’s a brief earthquake from the direction of the schools, but that’s probably fine.

Then someone in a nearby trailer starts demanding things from her, like she’s some kind of errand boy. He wants three full buckets of garlic, and he wants them NOW!

Chevy doesn’t care. Chevy ignores him. He won’t be ignored, and escalates his verbal abuse. Chevy responds by bodily ramming into and knocking over his stupid trailer.

The man who, furious, climbs out of the trailer... is a short, heavyset fellow with a big pink nose and motorcycle gear, who- holy cow, picks up and swings the entire trailer at her and knocks her into the lava. Chevy is, however, made of metal, so it’ll take at least ten minutes in the lava before she begins to melt. She swims back to shore, uncomfortably hot and glowing red for her trouble. She keeps her distance from the freaky-strong trailer man.

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It’s the semifinals, and Ace McQueen Junior Jr. and Racer X are neck-and-neck. It’s almost a dead heat- and then Racer X makes his move. We zoom in on his handlebars, and we see his wheels kick up dirt as he veers sharply to the side. They’re approaching a dangerously thin stretch of track, and as they do so, Racer X closes in, meaning to ram Ace McQueen Junior Jr. off the edge.

And then Ace McQueen Junior Jr. does, to Racer X, the unthinkable: he slams on the brakes. He slows down, on purpose- an impossible maneuver which leads to Racer X throwing himself off the edge of the course.

Just as he goes over the edge, we see one impeccably-manicured hand shoot over the edge and grab Racer X’s glove, saving his life. But not so for his chances of winning- the ebon dirtbike calls into the lava and melts, in a visual callback to the first Metal Mario movie. It’s unclear how they’re going to edit in the bike giving a thumbs-up in post.

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Then there is a sound. The inhuman, robotic singing voice in the distance halts, and a deep, magically amplified voice bellows “HATSU, HATSU, HATSU”. Dead silence falls- the rumbling is over, the music is over, the probably-apocalyptic situation has been probably-resolved. Or something,

Finally, it’s time to film the big climax. The giant chain chomp needs to show up- and first, the producer- well, the "production assistant", but the real producer, as opposed to Zip Toad who just puts his name on everything, Mauve the Goomba- begs Chevy to be in the film, because the papier-mache chomp looks terrible and she really wants this to be a hit. Chevy agrees (taking her Rich up to 5), on the condition that they add a scene showing that the monster chomp used to be a normal person. She films a brief scene in the FX trailer, where the unnamed chomp scientist (breaking stereotypes!) suffers a lab accident with radioactive chemicals or something, with some camera trickery to imply that as she falls unconscious, she is beginning to grow. Soon, there’ll be a giant rampaging dog-beast destroying everything (un-breaking stereotypes! whew, close one.)

There's a problem, though: the prop chomp had a special compartment for actors who were "eaten" to hide in, but no such compartment exists inside a real one. Enter Kandace with an idea: hey, she can teleport people, right? So she scribes a teleport circle on Chevy's tongue, and then Chevy eats a Mega Mushroom, growing her and the circle such that the devoured stunt guys are harmlessly teleported away when she eats them alive.

Problem, though: wouldn't that alarm Ted? So they call him up, promising to explain why this random-crap-portal stuff has been happening to him. Kandace lies through her teeth, claiming that it's just stuff that this giant chain chomp eats getting teleported to his digestive system and coming out his mouth, because of magic stomach stuff. He's like, what? It doesn't come out my mouth, it comes out my cloud. And she explains, no, it's your magic digestive system, y'know. Ted is not smart- he has a clever of -1, actually- but it’s not a very good lie, so it’s not hard. Maybe he'll get a good roll!

He believes this harder than anyone has ever believed any lie, ever.

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“We need to stop this thing! If we don’t...!”

“...Illegal street racing... could be done for!”

Ace McQueen Junior Jr. and Racer X, both on standard-issue bikes, are speeding down the hill as the giant monster chain chomp pursues them. Teeth snap at their back tires, and they just barely manage to keep ahead. But as they flee, they see a gap in the course, where the giant chomp previously emerged from the lava.

“...Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“I don’t think. I do.”

Ace McQueen Junior Jr. and Racer X speed towards the gap at high speed, then fork in two different directions, going straight up a couple of natural ramps and backflipping into the sky. They come down on top of the giant chain chomp- and now, as it rolls onward, large enough to clear the gap, they’re right on top. Their engines rev as they match pace with the chomp’s rotation, keeping their balance on the monster’s head.

“...X, watch out!”

The chomp’s mouth is coming around as it rolls, and they need to jump it! They pull it off once, but the second time Racer X seems to stumble, his bike slipping and flying off the side. He gets snagged on a tooth, cutting his arm open a bit, but Ace McQueen Junior Jr. reaches down a hand and pulls him up. This was definitely in the script, and not the actor messing up. Luckily, good camerawork captures this inspiring moment.

Racer X gets on  Ace McQueen Junior Jr.‘s bike, and the two of them work together to do one last sick stunt! They fly up into the air, there’s an inspiring slow-mo closeup, and then... the camera spins and wheels around, obscuring exactly what it is that just happened that led to their stunt causing the chain chomp to go flying into the lava. But it happens! And it’s incredibly rad!

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Now for a problem: when Chevy does her stunt fall into the lava, she, oops, gets a bunch of lava in her mouth. And into the portal in her mouth. So that a bunch of lava sprays out of the portal. 

Ted subsequently proclaims himself the Volcano God and nearly incinerates some Stunt Guys, until Chevy spits out the lava and ends his fun. Booooo. With that, and some medical attention for the Guys, the movie is over!

...so, anyway, I’m about to spring a moderately apocalyptic situation on everyone, when I realize: Kandace still has the Music Key taken from the Orbital Doom Casa. She never handed it in to Kammy Koopa. So... as was the case prior to the filming of this movie, Kammy Koopa does not possess all four Music Keys. And so... nothing bad happens. Yet.

So after they wrap filming, Chevy pays to fix Kandace's broom out of her stunt wages, and then they're off to the school war to investigate the aftermath. (Cozmo’s going to have to miss the afterparty, sorry.)

Next time: something big happened while Chain Chomp Run was being filmed, and now it’s time to figure out what it was and what to do about it. 

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[atopearth]

Liar! Uncover the Truth Part 1 - 1st to 5th Liars

So I’ve always wanted to play this game because everyone says it’s unique, interesting and fun with a great heroine so let’s go! The boyfriend the heroine first starts off with is the biggest jerk ever though like whaaaat. Glad she caught him out and dumped him. Too bad that since she’s promised she’d show her boyfriend to her mum, she’s now gotta go to a matchmaking party to find one before the meeting in a month, otherwise her mum is going to get her a country bumpkin lolll. As for the potential men, the doctor guy was pretty smooth haha. Anyway, fortune teller guy tells her that she’ll come out of this party with ten guys to choose from but nine of them are liars, so you gotta sweep through them to get to the true love!

1st Liar Ooh so there’s two guys that are potentially lying every time and you gotta find out and choose which one you think is lying from the evidence. Omgggg that the soccer player guy that earns like whatever million yen in a year is a mama’s boy! Oh goshhhh, I would die if I had to deal with someone like that. No please, legit no. Just the thought of having a bath with him and his mother irks me to no end like gg, heroine may be judgemental and a bit shallow at times but, yeah definitely no mama’s boys omggg. I’m so traumatised by him lolll.

2nd Liar Can’t tell whose the liar since it seems blatantly obvious that the pastry chef guy would be the one but I feel like if it’s obvious, it’s probably not him? Lol. I mean, if he’s got anger management problems and there’s holes in his wall, shouldn’t someone care..? Although the other guy did seem like he wanted to flip the table at the waiter loll, but maybe he’s just hot blooded rather than requiring anger management haha.

Kinda disappointed that it is Toya though (since it was the obvious choice and there’s heaps of evidence lol) but I guess I don’t want a guy leaving me heaps of messages and missed calls just for not replying him within a certain time frame anyway lol. Good that it’s not Itaru though because I like him, I’ll be sad if he’s a future liar though🤔 It was nice that Itaru was there to protect her, like, I read Toya’s true ending and you can see why he’s such an angry person that never got healed since his first girlfriend cheated on him with a classmate when he went to Paris for half a year but seriously, he needs to get some anger management before he really hurts someone. The girl is terrible though, half a year and she’s lonely enough that she just finds another one, sigh. But yeah, good that the heroine caught on, otherwise her possessions would be broken and need a claim for damages in the future! Since it seems like as long as things aren’t going his way, he gets pretty angry. I wonder what type is next?

3rd Liar Pop idol obsessed? Hahaha! Oh no! I think everything in moderation is good so we’ll see how everything goes. The Foreign Affairs guy seems like a fan, with like those pink glowsticks lolll but we’ll see. Designer guy seems okay but OTT. Omggg when she got kidnapped, like whaaaat. Then all the guys came to her rescue because she posted an SOS on her chatting app. I was about to say, what kinda guy puts on slippers when you’re rushing to save the heroine, so dodgy! Yes, Joe, you’re dodgy lol.

It’s cool to see that he was obsessed with Nanyami (the pop idol) because she was cute and because she was his first customer when he first started out his brand that no one acknowledged, so really, she’s rather special to him and not just an idol. But yeah, crazy that he wanted the heroine to be his personal Nanyami doll since she looks so similar to her. Lucky the guys saved her, kinda slack for the guys to blame Itaru for not having protected her properly though, it’s not his fault… Anyway, next guy~~

4th Liar Wow, marrying a gambling addict would be the worst. Anyway, I know that this game is about sussing out liars but sometimes I feel like the heroine is so unnecessarily suspicious about every little thing the guy does? Like, I know it’s so the reader will think about whether the guy is dodgy but like seriously, it was so obvious it was Keima this time around considering how he had so many chances to use her hanko (official stamp to sign legal documents etc) and how he was acting. The only problem with the doctor guy was how hasty he was in wanting to marry her and domesticate her? LOL, who tells a guest to clean their work table for them, seriously, no consideration for the lady and dude it’s your own desk! The younger guy is rather pushy but okay I guess? And lol just because he likes horses doesn’t mean he likes gambling heroine! That’s so slack LOL.

Keima is legit the worst though, I knew he wanted to use the heroine as a guarantor but omgg for 3 million yen, and then he said she’d easily be able to pay it back with her body?! Pay back your own debt, you jerk! Like, I feel sorry for him that he got into gambling through his client taking him to an underground casino, but he was the one that kept going back because he liked the thrill etc so he’s got no one to blame but himself, especially since the moment he laid his eyes on the heroine at the party, it was all to get her to be his guarantor! Yeah, worst guy for sure lol.

5th Liar LOLL that the fortune teller guy ended up going with that guy crying to his mum that he really liked the heroine at the party, how nice….. Right now, I’m the least fond of the author so I hope he’s the liar with the family hahahaha. Although Haruichi is such a natural flirt that it really just might be him. Tbh though, I feel like the heroine is pretty easy to impress🤣 When Kunio brought her back to his apartment to share fresh oysters with her and she was thinking about how he was such a great catch because he’s hot, loves to clean and can cook, I was like cook?! He’s just preparing fresh oysters by sprinkling pepper and lemon on it!!! Heroine, don’t get fooled by these men that say they can cook but really can’t! Oooh, he boiled some oysters and some with gratin too, I guess that’s better loll.

Imo, I think the guy with the family is Kunio and he and Shinya are both players that went to the matchmaking party to see who could pick up the most girls or something. Kazumi’s supposed possible wife seems more like his editor cooking him meals or something lol. And yasssss, the dodgy one is Kunio! LOL that he lied to her before that he had to leave because his mother was sick but then forgets he told her that lie, sigh, such a no good liar. He is so crappy though, he’s been using an alias this whole time! Player! Super glad to ditch this one! Shinya (the friend he went to the party with) was pretty shitty though, he lost on that day since Kunio grabbed the hottest girl of the night (heroine) and so he seems jealous or whatever and just told Kunio’s wife about this bachelor apartment and him being a player etc. Not saying that Kunio doesn’t deserve it, but dang is Shinya such a petty piece of crap too. Now we’re getting into the last few guys that even get their own lovers routes! Let’s see if my favourite Itaru will be her destiny~

[recentanimenews]

FEATURE: 5 Anime Characters Who Could Deliver Gifts Faster Than Santa

'Twas the night before Christmas, and while no one was stirring throughout the house, good ole St. Nick was preparing the sled to deliver gifts to all the good boys and girls. Clearly, this jolly good fellow has a large team and a top-notch system to be able to deliver presents all in one night, but I could think of a few characters whose diverse skillset could be helpful in assisting with the largest responsibility of the holiday season. And maybe even get the job done faster! Here are five anime characters who could deliver gifts faster than Mr. Claus himself.  

Tenya Iida - My Hero Academia  

Speed plays a big part when it comes to getting gifts to everyone around the world in one night, that's obvious. So who better to give out toys than Tenya Iida? With his quirk, Iida can run at impeccable speeds, and thanks to his training, he also has the capability to keep up his pace. Not only will Iida's speed get the gifts delivered fast, but it's also thanks to this class representative's personality the job will be completed with great success. Iida is dedicated and disciplined. If there is a task in front of him, he will be sure to get it done, safely and correctly. So when assigned such a mission, Iida will make it his duty to make sure all of the presents are in their rightful spot by Christmas morning.

Bulma Briefs - Dragon Ball Super

    Excelling in science and technology, there's no doubt Bulma would be able to create the most impressive invention to expedite the speed at which presents are delivered. Bulma naturally works quickly and is no stranger when it comes to the element of speed, so with her skill and knowledge, it probably wouldn't take her that long to crank it out! Technology is Bulma's expertise and she can even work with materials she may not be familiar with, which further displays her talents. Not only could Bulma create something so impressive, but this invention would be so well-crafted, it's something that could be used for years to come!

Hinata Shoyo - Haikyu!!

  Delivering presents can be very taxing, so someone with excellent endurance would be a great candidate to keep the gifts rolling out as quickly as possible. Luckily, Hinata Shoyo is used to physically demanding activities. In addition to the energy provided by volleyball, this star player also finds himself biking up mountains every day going to and from school, which really helps with increasing his stamina. On top of his resilience, Hinata wouldn't even need to shimmy down a chimney to get the gift to their proper place. Thinking outside the box, and thanks to his stellar volleyball skills and precision, Hinata could get those presents underneath the tree with a good ole spike, saving even more time.

  Hange Zoe - Attack on Titan

  Now Santa may have a foolproof setup when it comes to delivering thousands and thousands of presents in a single night, but Hange Zoe is a mastermind when it comes to creating action plans. Hange is a clever leader who can skillfully execute complex ideas and missions. So much so that I'm sure Hange would be able to suss out any obstacles that may stand in her way and have a contingency plan should the course of action take a different route. Hange has also partaken in her fair share of investigations and can decipher information brilliantly. So not only would she be able to come up with an expert plan on how to deliver all these gifts quickly, her naughty and nice list would be highly organized and accurate, making the delivery process that much more efficient.

Goku - Dragon Ball Super

  Santa may be quick, but there are still some moments while delivering gifts that can be time-consuming, like parking the sled and placing all the gifts orderly under the tree. Delivering presents could go way faster if teleportation was a factor, and with Goku's help, much of those small, time-consuming duties can be reduced. Using instant transmission, Goku can travel long distances in a matter of seconds, speeding up the gift drop-off time. If traveling the universe was not a problem for Goku, going house to house should be one of the simpler tasks. There's no doubt using instant transmission would change the game, and pace, when delivering gifts. Goku would just need to make sure not to get distracted by all the yummy food left out!

Who do you think can deliver gifts the fastest? Let us know in the comments!

      Veronica Valencia is an anime-loving, content-creating, hot sauce enthusiast! You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

  Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: Veronica Valencia

[aparoxysm]

3,5,7,8,9,12,15,18,19,20

✿  Does anyone in real life know about your RPing hobby and what, if anything, have they said about it?

My parents know, because for as long as I’ve been on the internet, they’ve known that I like to write and write with friends overseas. My dad still calls it fanfiction somtimes to other people, like he’s proud of me or something, and that’s enough to make me want to never talk to him again out of embarrassment, ha, but I deal with it. Because I truly do love writing more than anything. Other than that, my boyfriend knows, but he doesn’t care about it / ask questions and I don’t really like to tell him about it either. I’m not as embarrassed about RP as I used to be, but I still feel like it’s just something for me that other people wouldn’t really understand the mechanics of. The only times my boyfriend and I do acknowledge it is when I start talking about an RP friend he hasn’t heard about before like a real life friend, so he’s like who dat and im like oh, new rp friend from > insert country

That being said, he actually did surprise me the other week and I have been holding onto it for fear life. We were complaining about a friend who literally just sleeps and watches Netflix all day when she’s not working, and he’s like “I don’t get how you can do that” and im like “Well I have friends online who claim to do that a lot. Me, personally, I’d get too bored.” and hes like “I just don’t get how people can do nothing all the time? Like at least with you and your online stuff, that’s still doing something. I just feel like that’s actually a hobby.” and I kind of didn’t hear whatever else it is he said because he actually ??? referred to my RP addiction as something valid and worthy??? and all this time i’ve assumed he didn’t get it and thought it was dumb??? IDK, it made me feel good.

✿  Have you considered writing professionally or do you have plans to?

Always. But I never will, I don’t think.

✿  How do you handle the toxicity sometimes found in the roleplaying community, particularly in fandoms?How has roleplaying, specifically, impacted your life?

I use tumblr savior to blacklist a lot, because it really gets too much for me to be exposed to it a lot, and it makes me feel shitty and not want to rp with certain people because of how they behave, or makes me feel guilty for how I behave… I usually drift away from things that give me major negative vibes, otherwise I become in great, exponential danger of saying something i’ll regret. I’ve hated Tumblr RP a lot in this last year. It’s nowhere near as relaxed as it used to be, and I know there’s a lot of political debate on the topic of equality but I am not comfortable in a space where I have to edit everything I do and say or just not do or say it at all. When it gets like that level, a good dose of the unfollow button and keeping my mouth shut is what I find the most helpful.

✿  How has writing improved your life and do you see yourself sticking with it?

When I graduated high school, I went to college for art and animation, and it basically ruined my creative life. Before RP, I used to be an avid drawer, I sketched every day, I improved my skills and motivation so much, everyone knew me as the girl who drew in class instead of did her work, the girl who was going to grow up and be a famous artist, and when I went to college, it killed that for me. My ego took a big blow because the tech side of the course absolutely annihilated me, i couldn’t do it. so after that (and that was 2 years ago now) i haven’t really drawn since. but the silver lining was that I took on RP more dedicatedly after that, and found that I truly adored writing. Try as I might, I’ve never really comitted to a personal writing project, and it’s only in the recent times that I’ve taken the pressure off for me to do it, but. RP makes me happy, it makes me feel like I’m doing something good when I reply to people or make new friendships, it makes me feel like I’m wanted and needed, that my characters and plots are valid and that other people would care if I’m here or not. It was a big boost for my self confidence, and it’s also made me so much more privy to the creative world, which i needed after that. so yeah, i see myself sticking with writing.

✿  Is there a quote from a piece of literature that holds great value to you? What is it and why is it important to you?

She stood in front of her closet mirror in her T-shirt and twisted this way and that. What’s wrong with me? She wondered. There was nothing the matter that she could see. She was tall and leggy, like her mother, with full breasts, small waist, and slim hips that curved enough to show she was female. Her skin was gently golden; it was always golden, sun or not, and her tawny hair was thick and long and wild. So why was it that groups of girls stopped talking when she approached them at school and answered her openings with tense words that killed the conversations she tried to start? Was she too good-looking? Was that possible? Was that the threat they saw? 

Legitimately, this was the first and pretty much only female protagonist I had ever read about who fully and whole-heartedly loved herself where it mattered. Sure, she still had her shortcomings and moments of weakness, but god damn, Vivian was so proud of herself and what she stood for, and that was so refreshing to see during that period of young adult fiction. It’s why she became my first favourite character from a book. And has pretty much inspired me to write feirce, aggressive, self-assured female characters ever since. I was just so inspired by her way of thinking as a young girl, it appealed to me so much and so that moment in the book plus a whole lot of others, really stuck with me.

✿  What do you typically look for in a roleplay partner?

Cliche, but chemistry. And not always in the writing kind but a lot in the OOC kind. I like people who I can talk to super easily, who write in the same tumblr language I do, who reference memes and are not afraid to hit me up with IMs and head canons, etc. I just love it because it makes me feel comfortable with a person, and like I’m not being a bother. The better I get to know a player, the better I get to know their character away from IC interactions. Likewise, I adore it when players get to know me so well that they read the patterns in my characters easily, and I don’t feel like I have to explain them all the time? It’s like they just know, and they know what path I want to put them on. I also look for honesty, people who are down to tell me what they’re feeling about a situation or whether something bothers them, or is able to voice if I’m doing something wrong. Most importantly though, I look for decisive people. Not overly decisive but it’s just so important for me to have someone who is like “yes that sounds good, i can start a thing for you if you want” or “i dont think that really fits, how about this plot idea instead?” I really cannot stand sending IMs to people about plots and characters and them just agreeing off the bat the whole time, but never really deciding on anything either, and so it makes me feel like i’m just paddling in a circle until i make all the decisions for us. To me, that’s not what RP is about. It involves teamwork, and effort, and to me, that’s not putting in effort. It gets me really frustrated.

✿  What made you want to join the roleplaying community?

I kept seeing bios in celebrity tags, and so when i sussed out what group rp was on tumblr, i was like holy shit there is a name for the thing i have been doing with friends over email for so many years???? and you can use PICTURES? i gotta get on this.

so somehow, i found a group rp that allowed mythical creatures, i wanted to be a peter pan mermaid, and the rest is history~~

✿  What one piece of literature has been most inspirational/life changing for you? Why?

(( Blood & Chocolate, by Anette Curtis Klause — because of the main character, as per mentioned. She’s inspired me to write full-on, aggressive, assertive, don’t-tell-me-what-i-can-and-cant-do female characters without apology. ))

The Truth About Forever  by Sarah Dessen — it’s hard to explain exactly why, and it doesnt even just involve ONE of her books either, but they’ve kind of shaped my whole general character story directions?? her books always follow a pattern and i really admire that pattern, even if it is repetitive, and i am secretly a hopeless romantic so i really like how her love stories evolve. it’s always slow burning, the boy is usually a direct surprising love interest, and the girl always gains new friends and family out of it, and the stories always involve a nice little reoccurring theme. In the Truth About Forever, it’s a game that she and a boy plays throughout the entire book, which eventually leads to a shift from friendship to something more. THAT PLOT HAS APPEALED TO ME EVERY SINCE. the example of a teeny, tiny, otherwise-completely-average moment greatly impacting the rest of a characters life with someone else… i am weAK for this concept ok. her females are always usally feircely independent too and that gets me ♥

✿  Who are your top three favorite fictional characters and why?

Vivian Gandillon (Blood & Chocolate) — i swear i could go on repeat forever haha, but i’ve basically already mentioned why.

Jace Herondale (Shadowhunter Series) — back when the first like, two books had only been published, i super fell hard for this series and it was straight up because of the commentary done by Jace and his ability to senselessly bicker with everybody in his path. his comments to me, were always absolutely hysterical. i was so in love with his wry and witty comments, especially the way he kept at ease and casual through super distressing situations, and i really wish id kept reading the rest of the series as it was published, but i seriously fell behind. then the movie came out. then the netflix series. now i’ve grown too far out of it and having to see the cast on my dash every second of every day makes me want to burn the books.

Shane Collins (Morganville Vampire Series) — this is an oooold old series that i used to read religiously, and it was more in the style of anita blake and buffy vampires~ rather than twilight and true blood -esque content. it got really weird and complicated though so i gave up on it, but for a time, i adored it. and i loved shane because he was hilariously human, he hated everybody except his housemates (though sometimes that could be questioned) and nobody held a grudge better than him. he had a knack for getting in trouble, usually on his own accord, was feircely protective and spent most of his time just being a genuine nuisance and temper tantrum thrower. i saw a lot of me in him, and idk. i just like people with tempers, i think it makes them super fun to read. 

[survivormyanmar-blog]

Ep. #9 - “Liars and Snakes” - Keegan

Returning from Tribal Council, where Brett was blindsided, Keegan and Tommy were left on the bottom.  The Immunity challenge was announced it would be Crack the Code.  Tommy ended up solving his code in an impressive 3 guesses and won Immunity for the second straight round.  In The Cave, Ashley was able to find the Hidden Immunity Idol and Jay found a challenge advantage.  The girls alliance started planning a split vote, with the help of Linus and Sam, to take out Keegan with the plan being to split the votes 5-3-2 with 5 on Keegan, 3 on Sam, and 2 from the minority on Christian.  Sam and Ting Ting had other plans though.  They wanted to use this split vote to their advantage and team up with Tommy and Keegan to take out Christian bringing the vote to 4-3-3 and theoretically send Christian home.  Their plan would have succeeded but Leah accidentally voted for Keegan instead of Sam like she was supposed to.  The vote ended up with a tie of 4-4-2 between Keegan and Christian with Keegan being sent home on the live revote.

There’s some snakes in this game.

LOOK WHAT WE JUST PULLED OFF. Saved Christian AND got rid of freaking Brett. This is great. Keegan going around saying we got some snakes… yeah you, buddy. Byeeeeee

hmmmmmmmm there’s some fishy business in the leftover ladies. not so leftover anymore huh. time to #staywoke

stop talking keegan like sometimes the vote doesn’t go your way

ANYWAY i am READY for this challenge i’m gonna get it DONE.

I’m not liking my chances anymore. With Jay and Linus (supposedly) flipping, that leaves Tommy, Sam and myself on the outs. Wow. Liars and snakes.

I’m so disappointed in Linus. Jay is still a lying skeeze but she wasn’t always on my side so whatever I guess. Linus flipping made me lose every bit of respect I had for him.

you know this is just a time where a winner shows what they’re made of. i’m just gonna have to put my head down and be more social.

If Jay wanted to flip, I don’t get why she’d take Linus with her? Like it was fine numbers wise for one person to do that. Maybe I’m underestimating Jay and Linus’s relationship. Maybe I’ll need to get rid of it sooner.

Okay, hold up. CAN WE DISCUSS HOW TOMMY IS GOING TO GET IMMUNITY YET A FUCKING GAIN? Literally all that boy is good at is getting lucky. I am so annoyed. I took 15 freaking moves to get those colors in order and he comes hopping up in my PMs like “ Oh I did it in 4, Trevor and Owen freaked out” YEAH CUZ YOU GOT LUCKY BETCH. Literally if we have an immunity that actually has to do with skills coming up he is going down. Because sweetie, yo luck about to run out.

Well, today sucks. As expected, I woke up with people being pissed at me. Keegan and Tommy are giving me the third degree about flipping and Sam is either ignoring me or not on. Not entirely sure. Hopefully I’ll be able to patch things up and keep my game moving forward. Only two more votes until I’ll have advanced my placement. I just want to survive until then.

I can’t trust any of these snake mothafuckas NOBODY LIKES SUSHI?! uh uh. not on my watch. guess it’s just me and ting ting against the world right now.

Well I just found an immunity idol everyone…. This is rather exciting. Last time I had one of these I never got to use it. I am hoping to literally not tell anyone and keep it to myself. When my gut tells me I will use it. I just hope I dont fuck this up.

Me when Tommy got 4 moves and i had 6: http://68.media.tumblr.com/bc124db1202342df51aada860dbc837a/tumblr_o2ckgbOV6I1uwwhj6o2_400.gif

Oh shit waddup I got an advantage in the cave. I’m hoping the ‘oh shit waddup’ meme will be dead by the time everyone’s reading this, but just remember that it’s still relevant now and I have an advantage. It’s just a generic challenge advantage, but I’m hoping it’ll help me survive next tribal and advance my placement in the game. I’m kind of nervous at this point because nobody has said anything about the vote to me, but it’s only, like 10:00am my time, so maybe it’s okay. Paranoia is just my only way to live.

okay so it might be time for myself and tommy to part ways, but he doesn’t need to know that yet. it’s just a very big gamble to take because i might swing over with the girls to take out keegan as a set-up for tommy next round. but at the same time, if it’s a flashy move, then tommy might be on to us and do all he can to keep his ass off the block because I know that he’s a savvy player. if i stay with tommy he’s just going to make the target on me bigger, as he’s stuck up for me more than once and people might get sus about it. i said earlier that i needed to play the game fore me and now it’s my chance.

That’s right, another confession .8 seconds later. Sam came to me this morning because a couple of the girls were, in his words, 'sussed out’ that him and Tommy were getting close and he basically threw Tommy under the bus as hard as a person can physically be thrown under a bus. He said that his relationship with Tommy was totally one-sided and proceeded to lay out Tommy’s entire plan to get me back for voting out Brett last round. He wants to make me paranoid enough to flip on the girl’s alliance and piss them off, then get me next round. Which would be the same placement as I got in Transylvania. Dick move, Tommy. I’m not going to be a ninth place flop again. Fuck that and fuck you. I’m hoping that by the time episodes are getting released, we’ll be alright and at least on speaking terms because this is just a game, but for now I’m here to fucking win it and nobody is standing in my way.

Ok let’s just talk about the girls alliance for a sec because it’s going to blow soon and i don’t want to be caught in the aftermath of it. Like these girls are good at the game, most of them are actual favs, which makes me super nervous. and this vote is either going to be a total flip/ blindside or it’s going to go badly and this game will be fucked. Amanda: ok literally haven’t talked to her that much so i’m not sure how much i can trust her right now. like with the steffen vote it got super flipped and she had a part in that. Ashley: idk about her right now. tbh i haven’t talked with her a bunch since the steffen vote but i feel like i can trust her. a lot of people apparently think that i’m funneling info to her (which i’m not) so like wtf… Christian: sorry but she needs to go. this sounds bitchy but i know that she cheated and i just feel uncomfortable with her still in the game. and truthfully i haven’t talked with her like at all so there’s basically no trust there Jay: i trust her enough right now. which is something. i hope that she doesn’t totally blindside me but we’ll see Keegan: ok i feel really bad for keegan. like his closest ally was voted out and i frankly don’t know either him or brett so it’s difficult for me to vote for him. tommy, keegan, and i are trying to flip the vote this tribal to actually keep this game somewhat fair and fun to play. Leah: truthfully i haven’t talked to her a bunch but the time i did she was hilarious and i want some trust there but idk Linus: ok linus. his decision making skills are a little off. like can he not see that the all girls alliance is targeting guys. he is probably going to voted out soon if he doesn’t wake up like seriously. Sam: i know you’re saving yourself but seriously…. ^^^ look at what i wrote for linus Tommy: let’s make it to the end. Owen: fuck the cave Trevor: fuck you and the cave

I’m about 95% sure I’m the vote tonight. Ting Ting told me that Linus and Sam have jumped ship and that I’m the target. She said she’d maybe work with me and flip the vote, but im not getting my hopes up. Tommy and I are doing everything we can to shift the votes onto someone else. He’s my closest ally now, and the only person I fully trust.

Last tribal I deadass thought I was gone. But when Amanda messaged me and let me know that my name was going around for the vote that night, and then the girls decided to band together with Linus and I ended up staying 7-4? Whew. When the votes were read and Brett left? https://68.media.tumblr.com/7eff5ed231e3df9d02c9b91e458b220b/tumblr_oiib4pQ8wh1ulaj3eo1_400.gif

Side note: never should have called me a goat, because now I have a fire lit under my ass. :) I’m woke and playing the game like I said I would. Lay low and seem nonthreatening then at merge start making moves. Tommy messaged me today for the first time in over a month, and we’ve been having a really nice convo. But why now? Why not try to message me before you decided to write my name down last tribal. Funny thing is, I’m actually glad he decided to come to me first and not me coming to him. It would look better towards the girls alliance, making it seem like he’s messaging me in case he doesn’t win immunity the next round and just to save his ass in general. Because honestly, I kind of need Tommy in this game. I want to make a move(yes I would actually flip on the girls alliance, because there are a couple threats *cough* Jay *cough* Ashley), and I can use Tommy as a number to take one or both of them out. I’m thinking next tribal or the tribal after. Stay tuned.  ;) https://68.media.tumblr.com/538035f57e848c860abf66afdadf716e/tumblr_oiib4pQ8wh1ulaj3eo2_r1_400.gif

Tommy, Sam, Ting Ting, Linus and myself might be working together. We might be tying the vote. I really hope I can count on everyone and that this plan works out. I need some kind of plan to work out, statistically it has to happen, right?

I’ve been wrong on so many things today. The girls are splitting the votes, 5 for me, 3 for Sam. However, Sam and Ting Ting, who both have said they’d vote with, are supposed to be writing my name down. If they both keep their word, Christian will be voted out instead. I hope this plan works. I’m not ready to go yet.

I’M AN EMOTIONAL BEAN. I’m a wreck, I’m on the bottom. I literally cried on call with Sam and then Linus. I just feel really tired it has been a stressful day and I don’t feel like talking much. I’m just taking a backseat on this and relaxing with my second immunity necklace <3. I’m gonna just pray.

okay so here’s what happened today i woke up i ate breakfast i talked to jay about securing my spot, went very well i called tommy to kind of put him off, but i really wanted to gun for him the next vote i went to practice I WENT TO THE BEACH i ate 2 hot dogs and 3 cheeseburgers while talking to a crackedt keegan about a plan, when i really wanted to vote for him i came back from the beach i called with tommy and found out he was upset because some of the girls were calling him annoying (which actually fuckin sucks by the way like even if you don’t wanna play with someone lay off the personal stuff) ting ting tells me she wants to flip the vote TING TING WANTS TO FLIP THE VOTE?! so yeah. she actually does, and since the girls are planning to split, it could end up being a 4-3-3 vote for christian. and in that case, jay gets #shook and the girls alliance could be on its way to crumbling. the best part is i’m still in the game, and so is tommy. if it works, though. i need for this to work like there is so so so so so much riding on this please make it work

Calmish round. We are splitting the vote. Sam is jumping. (Important notes that dont really need a writeup and are self explanitory) I’ve actually realized I may just be in about the perfect position (Hopefully haha). Basically Im on the outside of the majority alliance, but Im in the affiliate position where they arent going to vote me out since Im voting with them. An alliance always turns on its self before cutting everybody on the outside, which means if I lay low I should be relatively safe until the girls alliance cannibalizes, and at that point I will have some control in the game ^_^. Tommy and Keegan tried to flip me back over, which would have been something to consider but their story of how the vote would work was completely ridiculous and basically boiled down to “just vote with us…. It will work out…. Trust… We cant tell you how but it will work…”  Ooops :P . As always wish my luck at tribal, and hopefully Im not a complete moron in the assumption that eventually the girls alliance will turn on itself and if they do and I do get the the end, Ill be able to make a serious case of a utr game :D .

Keegan came to me wanting me to flip and vote Jay and its SOOOOOO tempting omg but i cant do it this week. I lowkey hope he somehow stays and Sam leaves and then we can vote out Jay next week or the week after cause honestly at that point id prob be down. I just cant this week the numbers would be off too much. But she def needs to leave soon

[ts-caymanislands]

TJ’s Jury Question

Alright, well first, congrats to your both on getting here. I tried warning several people along the way that you two were close, and I could never get the move across that I wanted so well done to you both there.

Now both of you played great social games, but I'm trying to wrap my head around the idea that you both can claim that you have played the best social games when both Ahrre and myself were deemed the biggest social/jury threats and had to go. So here are my two questions to both of you to hopefully help me differentiate your two games and understand why one of us jurors are not more robbed:

1. How do you think the tribe swaps helped you maneuver through this merge?

2. What was your move? What was that one move that the other cannot claim any credit for and why you should get my vote as the Sole Survivor?

1. The tribes swap helped me form a some type of relationship with almost every single player. When we merged the only person I didn’t know was joey.

2. I do think my move that nick can’t claim to was flipping and voting Nolan. For two reasons. One, he was already against him and he wasn’t the one taking a risk aligning himself who has voted him out previously. 2. I do think I was more of a driving force since I was the one to message him, and create the alliance between us three. He wasn’t in my ear trying to convince me to do it

1). I addressed this kind of in my response to Ahrre. I think being on 3 tribes premerge really put me in a weird spot because coming into merge, There were 3 people I never had the chance to communicate with. BUT during those swaps, I was able to create my really really close allegiances with Bryce and Daniel. THEN got super close to you as well. Hell, when we swapped for the first time, we were literally in 2 different alliances with each other and then swapped together again with Daniel and Kiler. So coming into merge, I had you, Bryce, and Daniel as really close allies and had the 6 person alliance based on our 2nd swap. That gave me the ability to get through the first few votes at merge and really put me in a good position. It also allowed me to have connections with people who were on the other side, keeping me safe from their vote and who would later flip to our side and help me get to the end. So if your kind of sussing out how our premerge affected our merge games, you can see that all the connections I made before merge were strong and lasted so far into merge, that the 3 people I was closest to before merge, made it to final 5 with me (AND were actually still voting with me and keeping me safe), showing that my pre merge relationships were strong and helpful.

2). If we’re just comparing it between me and Daniel, Nolan, Vilma, Ahrre, and Kiler were all my moves. I’m not gonna steal full credit from Daniel on them. His vote was needed in the Nolan vote  and the Kiler vote. But I definitely made each of the votes happen. (I’ve explained these votes a lot so I’ll make this one a little shorter. But if it’s not a sufficient explanation, look at my answer to Joey). When Nolan left, Daniel was 100% down with it and we definitely needed each other’s votes for it to happen. BUT, we also needed Bryce and Kiler to do it. Me/You/Daniel all tried to get Kiler to do it. But I ended up getting Bryce. If you go look at that week in our team Zwooper chat, you’ll see that I was the one who kept saying I think we had Bryce while Daniel kept saying he didn’t talk to Bryce and was questioning if we could trust him to vote with us. It wasn’t until 2 hrs before the vote that Daniel was sure we had Bryce (and that happened after me and Bryce talked about voting Nolan). So I definitely think I was the one who got that completely together even though it did start as a group effort.

The entire Vilma vote Daniel was paranoid af that he’d leave and that Vilma was using an idol. I went to Vilma and convinced her that I was voting Daniel and was the person who got you and Daniel to vote her out instead of Bryce. If it wasn’t for me, Bryce would’ve gone that week. (Again, all of this is in the Team Zwooper chat)

Daniel wasn’t really around for the Ahrre vote. Me and You brought that up to him and Kiler. Not the other way around.

And then when Kiler left, Daniel was actually wanting to vote Bryce. I disagreed with this (for reasons explained in Lexi’s answers). And definitely didn’t want it to tie 2-2 on Bryce and Daniel. Cause if Daniel lost that, Bryce wouldn’t trust me next round. So I told him I wanted to vote Kiler. So he simply had to do that. And he didn’t do anything to get Bryce to flip his vote. So he didn’t have any control over that.

I apologize if this came off as cocky or something. I’m rushing this cause I’ve wrote a lot before and know you were present for these situations so you don’t really need ALL this detail. I do believe that Daniel was a massive help in everything and that without his vote, it would’ve been really hard to get here. However, I think I should get your vote as the sole survivor because I truly had a lot of influence over each and every vote. I was very proactive in pushing names and ensuring we got the votes. I kept myself safe and made sure that every person who would keep me safe would stay in the game longer. And while Daniel and I voted the same way for most rounds, I personally believe I had more control over who left, keeping me safe and keeping other people as threats in front of me.

[goodgameposts]

Nintendo Switch March 2018 Announcements

Nintendo Switch March 2018 Announcements! For your convenience, I have listed all announcements in a chronological video with the video. 3DS Headlines First! Warioware mini games on the 3DS. 300 micro games. (Yes 300!). Uses all features of the 3DS such as gyroscope and microscope. August 3rd 2018 Warioware Goal Dillion’s Dead Heat Breakers – Tower Defense style game playing as animalised characters. Coordination matched gameplay to take down monsters. Release date May 24th 2018. DS post Mario and Luigi Broswers Inside Journey now on the 3DS. RPG style based gameplay, game takes place in Browser’s stomach. Browser Available 2019 Detective Pikachu – old cop style pikachu who loves coffee. Pokemon in the game’s story behvaing oddly. Available for pre purchase Available March 23rd 2018 Amiibo coming on the same day 3DS Remake of Luigi’s Mansion! The GameCube classic is now coming to the 3DS. The 3DS keeps on giving! New boss battle mode and map screens. Available this year. Not bad 3DS! Quickly got through it to see the Switch stuff too. Kirby Star Allies coming out next week. Characters such as King Dede and Metaknight can be played as via co-op play. More ”dream friends” will be added for free. Characters are from the older Kirby games. A ”dream come true” surely! Available March 16th. First update coming March 28. Free demo available by the way! Okami HD on Switch! Very suitable. Okami HD has always been compared with Zelda Twilight Princess. The Switch version allows touchscreen controls in handheld mode and motion controls in the TV mode. Available this summer. Sushi Striker The Way of Sushida. Food style game in unique setting where.. sushi is banned. Gameplay consists of matching sushi colors and eating them. Multiplayer mode available. Available June 8. Project Octopath more details. Two new main characters. Tressa who is a mechant sets off for adventure. Her unique ability is buying other items from townsfolk. Alfyn’s journey is to heal others. He has the ability to suss out info from townsfolk. All characters start off with an default job (Final Fantasy and DQ like) but can equip another one. Available July 13th 2018! Release date finally revealed. Pop up book, map, OST CD, replica coin included in special edition. Travis is back! Travis Strikes Again No More heroes. Action, racing and puzzle game styled. 7 different game types. Boss fight at the end of each game. Seems less bloody than before but gameplay looks intensive. Available this year. Dark Souls Switch – remaster of one of the best games of all time. Hopefully the remaster fixes the framerate issues as that was the game’s biggest issue. Before launch, a beta(?) is coming! Awesome. Solaire of Astoria Praise the Sun Amiibo! Not a fan of ambiibos but this is excellent. Available on May 25th. Reminder that gold points can now be used to get Switch discounts on the eshop. Mario Tennis Aces focused on now. More than 15 characters with different playstyles. Up to 4 players multi-player. Variety of shots available regarding gameplay. New features such as Zone Shot which allows motion controls to aim where to shoot. Rackets can be damaged and be broken. Instant KO if you have no more rackets. Perfect timing pass backs can avoid this. Slow motion movement available via Zone Speed. Energy gauge allows offense and defense tactics. Online play is available including tournaments. Standard match making. Participation bonus such as characters and skins. Motion controls possible via Swing Mode. Wow, quite the information loadout. Available June 22nd. Pre-launch online tournament coming up. Another beta test? Captain Toad Treasure Tracker being ported to Switch. I’m sure there will rumours about this one coming. New levels from Super Mario Odyssey such as New Dong City. Can be played with a friend via joy-cons. 3DS version coming even! Available July 13th. Undertale coming to Nintendo Switch – ”eventually” Crash on Switch! Perfect, works so well. I have not played it yet hoping it would come to the Switch so really pleased with this one. Available July 10. Puzzle Platformer suspense style. Looks really unique. Two seperate adventures, 8 chapters, story based on going through childhood fears. Complex puzzles and dynamic lightning for atmosphere. Available May 18th. South Park coming to Switch! Another prediction made correct. South Park The Fractured But Whole is a very succsefful RPG and fits very well on the Switch. All DLC needs to be bought seperately. Available April 24th. Hyrule Warriors Definite Edition – which was previously announced- now has a release. Available May 18th. New update for ARMS. A new tournament is available. Based in US and Canada, online battles, taking place March 8 to 18th. Finalists will continue on March 31st. Play for the game for free on the March 31st. Splatoon 2 update. Version 3.0 is coming. More than 100 pieces of new gear being added. More levels, 3 in total. Rank X, higher than S+, can now be achieved. Splatoon 3? New video from the developers… (I won’t change initial thoughts noted here!) Single player focused version of Splatoon it looks like. Yes, looks like it with different level designs and environments. Splatoon 2 Octo – DLC for Splatoon 2. Single player focused DLC coming. Play as new character ”Agent 8”. Wakes up with no memories in test facilities (Portal much?). Got to love the developer from the development team’s gestures… Available Summer 2018. And that’s it… nope, one more video! A lot of ink – another Splatoon announcement. NOPE, Smash Bros is coming to the Switch! Pretty clear that Splatoon characters will be joining the roster. Releasing in 2018. Well I must say, I got it completely wrong with my Diablo 3 prediction! Oh well. Hope you enjoyed it all! My favourite announcement was Crash, what’s yours? GG The post Nintendo Switch March 2018 Announcements appeared first on Good Game Posts. http://dlvr.it/QKHbrq #gg #gaming

[choupetit]

GOT recap: Stormborn

Airdate: 7/23/17 ; Season 7, Eps 2 

Last night’s GOT served up a combo meal of reunions, first meetings, sexy hookups and an adrenaline-filled battle …yet still, I’m left wanting a bit more. It was a decent episode - didn’t love it, didn’t hate it, the most exciting part for me was that it set the scene for things to come. Let’s dive right into the recap of “Stormborn”. 

Loyal-tease

 It’s a dark and stormy night at Dragonstone and we get a little origin story as to how Daenerys got the kick-ass middle name Stormborn…the night she was born, there was a raging storm. Huh. It seems so obvious that I now feel a bit dumb for never having considered it.  

Queen Dany is underwhelmed by her homecoming and ready to start taking back the seven kingdoms. Her team lays out the situation, noting Cersei has very little support left in Westeros, especially now that House Martell and Tyrell are on Dany’s side. Daenerys grills Varys about his loyalties to the previous rulers of the Iron Throne, noting he’s been a fickle advisor and has repeatedly conspired against those he was serving. Not to mention, he helped orchestrate hitmen to kill her while she was exiled. Varys defends his actions saying he was serving kings to the extent that he felt they served the common people, and when they failed, he turned his efforts to better candidates. Also, at the time of that whole assassin recruitment thing, he didn’t know that Dany was such a cool cat and he was just following orders. Tyrion throws in a few good words for Varys and Dany decides to pardon Varys for his past, on the condition that if he ever feels she is failing the people, he should say it to her face rather than his usual MO of secretly plotting against his ruler. She warns that if he betrays her trust, she’ll have her dragons turn him into a human shish kebab. Varys is totes down with this and happy to be an official player on Team Dany. 

Next, it appears the Mother of Dragons has a visitor: Melisandre in the hizzy, y'all! The disciples of the Lord of Light have been supporting Dany for a while, so it’s a pretty safe move for Mel to visit Dany, plus, it’s a familiar place for her. Also, she truly believes that Jon Snow and Daenerys are a key to the prophecy to fight the whitewalkers, so she is hustlin’ to make this thing work. She speaks in Valerian to Dany about the “Prince who was promised”, and Missandei points out that the word for "prince" is actually gender-neutral. Could Dany be the Princess that is promised to lead all of Westeros out of the coming darkness? Melisandre may have been banished by Jon, but Dany doesn’t need to know that. Mel touches briefly on the things Jon has done up north to prep for the impending whitewalker threat. Tyrion vouches that Jon Snow is a stand-up guy and a likely ally for Queen Daenerys in her bid for the throne, since House Stark hates the Lannisters. Dany sends out a raven requesting Jon meet and bow down to her. Day-um, Jon Snow is getting all these queen pen pals lately, jonesing for his loyalty. Play on, player! 

And with that, we see Jon, Sansa and Ser Davos having a powwow. Sansa worries the invitation from Daenerys is a fake, but since the letter was penned by Tyrion with a throwback to a conversation he and Jon had at the Wall, Jon thinks it’s legit. He asks Sansa for her opinion on Tyrion, since she knew him during her stay at King's Landing. Oh yeah, she used to be married to him! Not sure if Jon knows that detail. Even though Sansa thinks Tyrion is cool, she still thinks it’s too dangerous for Jon to leave, but Davos points out that dragons would be super handy if Whitewalkers ever cross the wall. 

We take a quick glimpse at King’s Landing where Queen Cersei is in her throne room talking to a group of nobles and asking for support to fight Dany and her army. Some of the men are pledged to house Tyrell, which is on Dany’s side, so Cersei paints a picture of Daenerys as the boogeyman who will be sending her army to mercilessly slaughter and rape everybody in Westeros, without regard for the folks who are loyal to the Tyrells. Samwell Tarly’s dad, Randyll, is in the group and asks just how they’ll defeat three dragons. Our favorite mad inventor, Qyburn, pipes up “Yeah don’t sweat it, we’ve been working on a solution.” Omg, he created Frankenmountain…has Qyburn been creating some dragon-zombie-hybrids à la Jurassic Park in his gloomy lab? 

 Jaime Lannister takes Randyll Tarly aside trying to suss out whether he will be fighting for the Lannisters or the Tyrells. Jaime sweetens the pot saying he’ll make Tarly his general and once the wars are won, he can be he Warden of the South. I mean…it’s all good and well, unless Cersei loses. Randyll doesn’t make a commitment either way. 

Doctor, doctor, can you help me, help me?

 On to the Tarly we like best! Sam and Archmaester Marwyn are examining Ser Jorah, whose greyscale has advanced to an alarming degree. Sam says he’s seen a case - Princess Shireen - where the infection was halted, but the archmaester knocks him down a few pegs saying Sam doesn’t know anything about that case, or the circumstances or really anything about treating greyscale. Jorah’s case is beyond hope and he really just needs to be killed and put out of his misery rather than slowly waste away like the Stone Men. He gives Jorah one last day to live and get his affairs in order, and then it’s presumably Kevorkian time. When Sam offers to send word to his family, Jorah reveals his name but tells him he’s already dead to his family. Sam is taken aback when he realizes this is the son of his old Lord Commander at Castle Black. 

 Back at King’s Landing, Cersei and Qyburn are walking though the basement of the Red Keep, where the skulls of the deceased Targaryen dragons are stored. Turns out, that solution Qyburn has been working on is basically a giant souped-up crossbow on steroids. He gives Cersei a demo of his innovative weapon, using the largest dragon skull as a target, and it pierces the eye socket and shatters the bone. Ruh roh. Going into this season, I’ve been fearing that we are going to see a dragon die, and this scene pretty much sealed the deal that it’s gonna happen. First they came for our direwolves…and now this. Are no magical animals safe in this world??? 

We’re back at Dragonstone where Dany is meeting with all the key players in the war room to plot out their strategy against Cersei. Yara and Ellaria think they should just storm in, dragons a'blazing and go full scorched earth on King’s Landing. Tyrion argues this would cause unnecessary civilian casualties and Dany has no interest in being “queen of the ashes”. Lady Olenna counters that her daughter was beloved by the common folk, and it got her nowhere. Dany lays out the plan: The Greyjoys with the Martell and Tyrell armies will lay siege around Kings Landing, waiting it out till Cersei and her army run out of food. Meanwhile, they’ll send the Unsullied to Casterly Rock - home of the Lannisters, the true seat of power in Westeros. 

 Dany has a quick private chat with Lady Olenna, and the older woman tells her she has managed to live as long as she has by ignoring the advice of others. She suggests Dany do the same, telling her that peace is never really possible and Dany should rule like the dragon that she is. What does that mean, exactly?! 

With the Unsullied shipping out the next day, Missandei pays Grey Worm a visit and the two finally admit their feelings for each other and have a hot and steamy love scene, ya know…and the guy just happens to be castrated. I’m not gonna spend too much time wondering how it’s supposed to work other than say that Missandei is getting the better deal out of this and doesn’t have to worry about birth control. Get it, girl. 

Weird Science

Back at the Citadel, Sam has done some research and found a treatment for advanced greyscale. The archmaester tells him the procedure is too risky and is forbidden - the maester who discovered the cure ended up contracting and dying from greyscale. Jorah is in his room writing a letter to Daenerys. My best guess is that it’s something along the lines of: “Khaleesi, do you like me? Circle yes, no, or maybe.” There’s a knock on the door and Sam comes in with a book and some supplies, determined to try out that greyscale cure. Considering his only alternative is death, Jorah agrees to let Sam have at it - it’s incredibly painful and grody to the max as we see Sam slowly cut away at Jorah’s crusty pus-filled epidermis. This is gonna take a while so… 

 We turn to Arya who is enjoying lunch at the inn where her old pal Hot Pie works. He asks her if she ever met up with Brienne and then asks if she’ll be heading to Winterfell. Arya tells him there’s nothing there for her, since it’s been taken over by the Boltons. When Hot Pie reveals that’s not the case and that Jon Snow reclaimed Winterfell, Arya is stunned. Whoa, whoa, whoa!!! This changes everything - revenge can wait, she changes course and sets out for her family home. I want to get super excited for her, but every time Arya thinks she is about to meet back up with family, things go south, so I’m tempering my expectations that this will actually work out for her. I do so hope she finally has a Stark family reunion, though! 

Jon Snow receives news from Samwell about the giant mound of dragon glass at Dragonstone, which seals the deal: He’s gotta go meet Dany. He tells the Northern lords he’s accepting the invite and going to get access to that dragon glass. Sansa objects to him leaving, saying it could be a trap and tells him to send an emissary instead. Everybody in the room protests his leaving but Jon can’t be talked out of it. The good news is, he’s leaving Sansa in charge. Brienne smiles with pride for her mistress and Littlefinger makes his usual scheme-y face with extra scheme sauce. Jon pays a quick visit to Ned Stark’s grave in the family mausoleum when Littlefinger pops up and tries to ingratiate himself with Jon. When Littlefinger tells Jon that he cares for Sansa, Jon goes into protective big brother mode. He roughs Littlefinger up a bit and tells him he’ll kill him if he ever touches Sansa. 

Arya is making camp somewhere in the north, it’s terribly cold and you can see her breath. Her horse becomes skittish and I’m freaking out thinking it’s whitewalkers approaching - maybe they’ve managed to breach the wall already, but it’s actually a pack of wolves. Well, crap. Arya picks up her sword as the pack surrounds her and then the leader appears - a giant Direwolf…it’s Nymeria, Arya’s wolf which she sent away in order to save her from being killed by Joffrey’s guards way back in Season 1! Nice work, Nymeria, you’ve got yourself a posse!! The wolf recognizes Arya and the whole pack steps down. Arya asks Nymeria to join her on her way home to Winterfell, but the wolf just looks at her and then leaves, followed by the rest of the pack. As she watches her walk away, Arya says “It’s not you.” Does she mean the wolf, or herself? Has Arya changed so much that her wolf wants nothing to do with her? Or is it the other way around? Is it a metaphor for Arya in general - has she realized that maybe she can’t really go back to Winterfell because she can’t go back to how she used to be? Is she doomed to be a lone wolf, never to find a pack of her own??? Oh, the hidden symbolism!! 

Let’s get Kraken 

 Moving on, we see Yara and Theon’s fleet, on their way to Sun Spear with Ellaria where they plan to pick up the Dornish army. Yara and Ellaria are below deck getting flirty, cause what else are you gonna do on the long trip? Suddenly, their ship lurches and we hear screams from above. They’re under attack by Uncle Euron and his fleet! Euron makes a crazy entrance from his ship onto theirs and mayhem ensues. Two of the Sand Snakes are killed in battle, Ellaria and her youngest daughter are captured and Euron has a tête-à-tête with Yara. He gets her in a chokehold with a knife at her throat and calls to Theon to help his sister. Paralyzed with fear, Theon stares at his sister, her eyes pleading with him to step up. “You can do this, man!” His true nature takes over as Theon goes full “Reek” and jumps overboard to save himself. Euron cackles with laughter and pulls Yara away, while Theon clings to driftwood looking up at the wreckage and carnage around him…and the credits roll. 

 The battle scene was intense, and my heart was pounding for sure, but I’ve gotta be honest, I didn’t really care that much about the characters involved. I mean, nobody likes the Sand Snakes, so no loss there. Ellaria is pretty annoying - and I’m sure it’ll suck when Cersei gets her revenge on her when Euron delivers her to her doorstep like a cat with a dead rat, but again, not really that sad she got captured. In the grander scheme, however, it’s bad news for Daenerys. And now that we know about Cersei’s secret dragon killing machine, it looks like things are gonna be a lot tougher for Daenerys if she ever does engage her dragons in battle over Kings Landing. Meep! I’m really going to lose it if they kill a dragon on this show. I’m thoroughly enjoying characters we all know meeting each other for the first time. Pretty sure Sam will successfully cure Jorah. It’s very cool to see Melisandre back in the picture and I’m looking forward to the big Dany and Jon meeting. Wondering if Daenerys will believe Jon and lend her help, putting her Westerosi domination plans on hold. That seems like it would be the smarter move - but of course she doesn’t know what’s up Cersei’s sleeve, so she may very well change her strategy andnsend her dragons to their doom. Looks like Arya is going to just miss Jon, but hopefully she can have a reunion with Sansa at Winterfell. I feel like she and Brienne could become besties. Anyhoo, the groundwork has been laid for some big events, so here’s hoping that next week things will really take off. See you then!

[austindailyglobe-blog]

Soldier Adopts Dog Who Saved His Life

When a U.S. soldier witnessed a military dog take on a hail of bullets for him and his brothers in arms during a tour in Afghanistan, he felt indebted and resolved to give her the best life possible (video below).

U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Julian McDonald was serving in Afghanistan when an enemy combatant opened fire on him and his fellow soldiers during a routine mission.

Layka, a trained Belgian Malinois, took the brunt of the ambush.

“We got there to kind of assess the situation a little bit more,” McDonald told ABC News. “That’s when the guy… started to shoot. He shot [Layka], about four to six controlled rounds at her.”

Following the mission, Layka was rushed to a hospital where she was operated on for seven hours. While the military canine managed to pull through, her front right leg had to be amputated.

McDonald was compelled to take care of the wounded dog and repay her for saving his life, Shareably reports.

“On the day Layka got shot… instantly I felt a sense of urgency to fix her,” McDonald said. “I owe this dog every moment that I have from here on out with my son, with my mother, with my family. I owe her everything.”

McDonald added that if a military dog “puts in the time for the country, then the country owes it to them to put the time into them.”

The soldier had been advised that Layka would be too aggressive after serving in war, but he adopted her anyway and brought her to his home in Columbus, Georgia.

Rebecca Switzer and her husband, who met both McDonald and Layka during an event, were moved by the canine’s story and helped pay for her physical therapy through online crowdfunding.

“We love animals and we help a lot of animals, but she’s a hero, she saved our troops,” Switzer explained. “She didn’t ask to go in, she was trained to go in. We’re just enamored with her and what she has been through in her deployment.”

Meanwhile, McDonald discovered that Layka would fit in just fine with his family, the dog striking up an affectionate bond with his young son Liam.

“I unhooked her and, from there on out, her and Liam were the best of friends,” McDonald said. “It was super cool to see.”

Thousands of trained military dogs served alongside U.S. troops and their allies during the War in Afghanistan. The canines were used to suss out explosive devices, serve as therapy dogs and accompany soldiers on the front lines, according to The Atlantic.

McDonald concluded that Layka’s resilience after her devastating injuries have helped him cope with the emotional scars of his service.

“Just seeing that she could just transition so easy into the civilian world — and I told myself, ‘If she can do it, I can do it,'” McDonald said. “She is kind of my rock.”

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Soldier Adopts Dog Who Saved His Life was originally published on Austin Daily Globe