#not tagging every character bc it’s more about the game in general

[nyaagolor]

As much as I love AA4, the more I think about it the more I am just immensely bothered by the designs of Troupe Gramarye. Trucy having less melanin than either of her parents is something that’s brought up a lot, and yeah, fair, but what really irks me is that if you line up them up from good to evil (at least in terms of how they’re generally spoken about / viewed in game) it’s just light to dark:

[thatdeadaquarius]

Genshin Sagau (?) Isekai Brainrot - Language

I've seen like ONE small kinda related Genshin Sagau/isekai idea for this but I wanted more of it so BAD

It’s not the most interesting thing in the world, it’s about our modern vernacular vs. Teyvat's flowery speech

Pls feel free to expand on or add to this pLEASE TAG ME IF U DO IM STARVING OUT HERE :)))

So I saw someone write like one sentence abt this (can’t remember who :( sorry I’ll update if I find them ) or like a brutally honest version??

But I also took inspo from how fucking wordy and long conversations that are in Genshin, even with ppl like Xiao (the rude boy that he is) or even Tighnari who gets to the point pretty quickly

It goes smth like:

So, all of Teyvet, (esp ppl like Zhongli 💀 u know the ones) talk,, flowery.

Like, the whole Pride and Prejudice style speaking, euphemisms, metaphors, for some characters (or Npcs) its full on POETRY. 

Lookin’ at you Kazuha.

.

And going off of any variation of you being the Creator, (or otherwise an older mythical being?), they could have this thing where the older a deity/mythical thingy is, the simpler the speech. 

Kinda makes sense to them y’know? The older beings are serious, commanding, intimidating

And nothing says "I'm ancient as fuck and powerful as fuck" like simple blunt speech.

And being closer to the literal creation of the world, language would understandably be less complex (I’m assuming it’s the same as in human cultures in our world's history)

Like literally look at our fantasy typical stories, plenty of them have a dragon or ancient god that speaks in extremes, like so flowery its a metaphor, or so bluntly its startling (ie, "Be not afraid." "I am all powerful." etc etc)

And so, ancient powerful being = direct/blunt speech

..

…

...Y'know,, almost like our modern vernacular.

Like, part of some of our modern day comedy is purely based on a sentence being delivered bluntly for impact

Hell our ads and videos and content in general we always want to get to the point, to say things simply

So with this in mind, even if you try to deny being the Creator, they might still think you are, or at least a more minor ancient deity/creature

 .

(like the Seven Sovereigns/Phanes/Shades/etc. for example would sound eerily modern or at least easy for you to understand bc of this trait lol)

(Also I'm just assuming u know Genshin lore enough to know what I meant by that ^)

____

So, I love the AU where you just,, hitch a ride with the traveler like Paimon bc u start at the "beginning of the game",

And with every person you meet, you're like, "Ok, no, I promise this is just how my country/world speaks, it's not like that, I'm not some ancient deity…" 

And They're all like 🤨🤨🤨 "Well, fine traveler and companions, why does your speech sound so simplistic and sharp? Surely, you do not expect me to truly believe you.."

You: "Please I just talk like this, I'm a regular human."

Them: "Alright, if it is as you say,, you wish to not experience being "known" yes? Fear not, I will keep your secrets close to my chest."

You: "No, for the last time, that's not-" 

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And it just keeps happening, lol

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(srry I tried my best at emulate Genshin language + flowery speech idk how to do it)

.

Like maybe you would just sound weird or like a foreigner speaking y’know in simpler sentences bc they don't know the language as well as native speakers, at least that could be how you sound to NPCs and ppl who don’t know abt simpler speech meaning

.

...But the Adepti? Zhongli?? Barbatos maybe??? Even the Aranara??? Those who are old enough to maybe have heard how older beings speak or at least have knowledge of how they should speak/sound??

You couldn’t have predicted how shocked their faces were the second you opened you’re mouth… 

Sumeru scholars would freak tf out i stg, as soon as you meet Haypasia, she's already losing it, first the Irminsul progress, now this ancient being/Creator?? Girlie thinks its a sign lmao

.

(I’m an Aether lover, and also bc I think Lumine looks badass as Abyss ruler, so I’m gonna go with Aether for traveler sorry Lumine mains love yall T-T)

.

You, and Aether being equally confused at first pLEASE 😭 

lets say he speaks a little more fluffy than you at least, after all I’m assuming bc of the outfit that he’s from a fantasy-like place, and his replies can be a little fluffy like Teyvat’s residents, so he kinda fits in, kinda like everybody assumes he's just from another country when he gets to a new nation (at least that’s what I think happens??)

.

Like after (maybe Diluc?) Lisa, Kaeya, Venti, and Jean (who I think would all be knowledgeable, thru diff means, about this enough to maybe recognize the simpler speech = ancient god thing)

ALL reacted shocked as hell at hearing you talk, and would probably explain (or Paimon before then?) in that infuriatingly roundabout way, that you would usually skip a couple dialogue boxes just to avoid bc yOU ALREADY GOT THE POINT or alternatively WHATS THE POINT HERE?? JUST SAY IT, WHATS THE COMMISSION/QUEST FOR/WHAT DO I DO??

(Those blue highlights be savin my impatient life, and i actually like lore stuff 💀)

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Oh that’s also another frustration. For you.

.

It would drive me crazy if I had to wait like,, 2-3 minutes for ppl to explain what they ate for dinner or sm shit

Like, now imagine that’s everyone, about everything.

You don’t know how anything gets done in battles or wars, like you need faster communication for that right??💀

.

Anyway, you, Aether and Paimon decide you just gotta not talk when you first meet people or like,, make sure you're gonna be around that person for a while so you don’t have to possibly get someone over the shock of your speech every time you guys talk to people 😭 that'd be so miserable I can already tell,,

Like at first, every convo ya’ll have had with people who recognize that direct speech trait as a thing, would take at least 10 minutes to finish talking about it/being shocked,,

It got so old so fast.

.

(Like I already can’t communicate that good with ppl irl bc I misunderstand them, or they do me, or they just dont get what I mean, and as my friends put it, which I think would fit here for any language shenanigans we go thru in Teyvat, "A Shakespearean level of misunderstanding, hilarious but such a downward spiral to watch, it just gets more and more ridiculous as it goes on...")

.

On another note, making fun of someone would be so fucking funny,

I’d like to give myself the benefit of the doubt that many characters, after getting used to your speech, would generally understand you (even if they always notice it, like an accent) and would actually rlly love hearing insults or even just generally how you would put things

(like maybe treating this almost like those vids of ppl with non-native english speaknig relatives/parents and its the most hilarious thing to watch them, usually get pissed 😭, at their kid, if u dont know what I mean look up on tiktok or smth)

And You just come off like those insults where you dont even use cuss words, you just like, drag queen read them into never showing their face again, and you did it in so few words!! 

They're amazed and oh, 

you've become the John Mulaney of Teyvat 

(Bad examples include:

Fontaine inventor: "...And I shall call my invention, crocks!"

You: "I wouldn't even be cremated in those." ) 

*Aether crying laughing in the background bc he never knows what you’re gonna say next, and Paimon's jaw dropped so hard

JFC this post is so long sorry, I probably will spam with a Part 2 but let me know if you’re interested in hearing more anyway!!

Thanks for reading this rambling!!

Or send in asks abt this 👀

Cheers,

🌒🌊🌧Aquarius♒️🌌🌘

[scoobydoodean]

I have 2 spn accounts, a Deancentric blog that ships Destiel and another account that unintentionally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. So one blog follows majority Deangirl blogs and the other incidentally follows a lot of Samgirl blogs. And here's the major difference I've noticed on the different dashboards.

Deangirl dashboard: Great meta analysis. Beautiful art. Level 1 and 2 headcanons (largely based in canon). Pro-Dean. Stumble across reblogs of Deancrit. Bitter Deangirl blogging. Generally fair portrayal and discussion of the positive and negative traits and actions of Dean, Sam and Cas. Deanhater anons.

Samgirl dashboard: An entirely different pool of beautiful art. Whole lotta woobie!Sam art where Dean is his abuser. Deancrit about Dean being an abuser. Bitter Samgirl blogging about how people will find any excuse to hate Sam. "How can anyone be Samcrit he has done nothing wrong ever." Level 5 headcanons (you literally ignored canon to make that up). More about how Dean is Sam's abuser. So many posts about how awful Samcrit is. "Do Deangirls really think that Dean cries himself to sleep at night thinking that ppl thinks he doesn't know how to read." I have yet to see any actual Samcrit posts (not even links or reblogs from Sam defenders), not even after literally searching the Samcrit tag for it. The Samcrit tag is full of Samgirls crying about Samcrit and no actual Samcrit. "Samgirls are feral, but we need to be bc of the hate ppl throw Sam's way."

I literally have to block so many people on the incidentally Samgirl dashboard bc I'm not on Tumblr to randomly stumble across a post on how Dean is a toxic stalker who abused Sam by changing Amelia's number in his cellphone. Do you have any idea on why Samgirls seem to feel so attacked all the time even though I literally only ever see *them* attacking Dean?

If you dig deep enough into any fandom, you will encounter people who fetishize "helpless victimhood". Some fandoms attract more people with those particular proclivities than others. Supernatural and Sam in particular attracts people who hold those sorts of aesthetic interests because of his relationship toward accountability versus Dean's.

Dean is a character with an overactive sense of responsibility. He blames himself for the Lindbergh baby and unemployment and every child murdered by a shrtiga from 1990 to 2005 because he went to play an arcade game when he was 10. He also blames himself for things like Jessica dying and Sam not being in school. Other characters pile on this blame frequently. John blames Dean for Sam getting hurt (1.18). Ruby tells him (and Sam) that Sam is a weak baby who won't psychologically survive without Dean there to protect him (3.11). Meg alleges that Dean is "dragging Sam everywhere" (1.16). Sam rewrites reality from 1.05 to 1.21 to make Dean responsible for his burning desire for revenge. Cas and Zachariah and Gabriel blame Dean when Sam breaks the last seal because he didn't stop Sam in time. Sam blames Dean for him drinking demon blood first because Dean wasn't there to protect him and then—in a complete 180—because Dean is smothering (4.04, 5.05). Dean generally absorbs blame when it is piled at his feet because he has been blamed for things he couldn't control for most of his life and thus he feels guilty and responsible for things even when him being responsible makes no logical sense. He's never a victim of anything—everything is always on him.

Sam, on the other hand, tends to eventually deflect blame because he can't handle the gnawing bite of it for long. It reminds him too deeply of being left isolated and alone as a child and the feelings of otherness and wrongness he developed through that neglect. When his actions ultimately have consequences he didn't foresee and/or that he finds undesirable, it makes him feel ugly and unaccepted and he can't face it so he eventually finds a way to make what happened someone else's fault—usually Dean's fault. Nothing is ever on him. He's always at least a little bit of a victim and Dean always carries at least partial responsibility for his decisions (1.21, 1.08, 4.04, 5.05, 8.23, 11.01)

In other words, Sam has an under-active sense of responsibility and Dean has an overactive responsibility and that dynamic—driven by their childhood experiences—places them into a vicious cycle of blame being cast onto Dean for Sam's decisions and Dean absorbing it. Dean absorbing it reinforcing the narrative for samgirls with a victimhood fetish that Dean deserves blame and that Sam truly is a helpless baby. They never watch what actually happens on the show to see whether this narrative that Dean is responsible for everything and Sam is a helpless baby lines up with the actual events that occurred onscreen because why would they? That would ruin their enjoyment. Sam isn't interesting to them outside of his capacity to be mourned as some sort of helpless martyr. And yes—they will cry and moan about how horrible and unfair Sam's suffering is, but it isn't because they're having a bad time. They're having a great time. They love thinking about Sam that way. They wouldn't be here blogging about it day in and day out for the last 20 years if they didn't actually want to see exactly what they're seeing.

Related tags of note:

#sams motivations

#taurus sam in the flesh

#In which Sam is not a helpless little waif with his hands cast over his eyes being carried along by the tides of the immutable sea

#sam the hunter

#sams follower/leader false dichotomy

#parentification

[gold-rhine]

Inazuma Rewrite part one

This is bullet points rewrite for Inazuma general plot structure, bc I think it had so much potential, but was horrifically scuffed in game. If I keep something from canon unchanged, I’ll just say so without retelling the entire thing to keep the length down, bc it’s gonna be A LOT already.

Some disclaimers: I’m not trying to fix every single problem, just what I see as major structural failures. I will reference my problems, but you can read my explanations on them more in depth in my “inazuma ranting” tag.

This is also not envisioned as free for all fanfic where I can write whatever I want, but aimed to be actually feasible to see in game, bc it’d be unfair and I want to show that Inazuma could be improved in the same constraints that hoyo writers had. So please don’t ask why I didn’t do wildly inconsistent thing that would be cool, but genshin would never actually do.

I’m aiming to retain all relevant lore and achieve basically same worldstate in the end, including character arcs, for the most part, because I presume them to be integral to the larger strategic plotline of the game. Which means I can’t drastically change characterization and major plot beats like the decrees, rebellion, Raiden has to be a sympathetic ally in the end, etc. I’m also trying to keep genshin’s general tone and modus operandi, bc like, target audience includes 13 yolds and I can’t just “make Inazuma good” by turning it into like, a gruesome and complex power struggle of political factions like Fallout New Vegas.

List of main issues I want to address: pacing in general, rebellion pacing especially, lack of impact and continuity of effects of vision loss on people, lack of setup for the stasis vs transience aka ei vs makoto conflict, character arcs: raiden, ayaka, kazuha, kokomi, yoimiya, kujou sara. And more! 

Initially I wanted to make a single post, but it’s already 3k and I’m only up to Raiden’s first duel and I plan to cover post-archon quest content too, like Raiden and Yoi story quests, so I decided to split it up instead of posting like 20k monstrosity. So remember, this is for now mostly a setup.

EDIT: Part 2

Raiden’s motivations\Reasons for vision hunt

Ok, so one of the biggest principal changes is that vision hunt and sakoku decree are active Raiden’s decisions, instead of Fatui’s plot that she’s just passively allowing to happen. Raiden closed the country, but she’s ok with Fatui starting a civil war and selling delusions, bc it doesn’t “affect eternity”, like??? I honestly think that the current plot of her people dying in a civil war meant nothing to her is much worse than her starting vision hunt decree out of misguided plan to ultimately do better for people.

I mean ok, we have to have closed borders to reference Japan’s history, sure, but like, the whole point of isolationist policies like this is to prevent the outsiders’ influence on the country. So she should not be ok with Fatui schemes at any point.  

I mean, if it was fallout new vegas AU, I’d keep it to show that dictator doesn’t not care about foreign powers exploiting it’s people as long as it profits the empire and helps to keep people subjugated, but like. Then raiden can’t be uwu waifu. So we gonna give her good intentions and integrity, but misunderstanding of humanity due to closing herself off instead.

Now to why would she close the country and institute sakoku decree. I want to tie this in with another plotline that is just. Kinda floating at sidelines at the moment, but I think could work nicely in tandem. The Scaramouche destroying Raiden Gokaden, the five schools of weapon smithing, which were canonically highly valued by Raiden.

I’m not gonna recount Scara’s entire plotline, but basically he went on a misguided crusade against Raiden Gokaden and managed to cause fall of 4 out of 5 weapon-smith schools.

Game says that he like, tampered with the schools and covertly led to their ruin, which like?? They never found anyone guilty, like the most prized weapon art smiths of your country fall apart and you’re like oh well, I guess Yashiro commission is just bad at it’s job?

There is a plot point in this story where Isshin weapon smiths, unable to replicate a faulty design that was Raiden’s commission tampered by Scara, were scared of Raiden’s wrath and decided to flee to Snezhnaya. I want to change it to be that there is an event, where ALL weapon schools receive same commission at the same time, and Scara tampers with it.

Just as in canon, scared smiths, but now from 4 schools, not one, are manipulated by Fatui to flee to Snezhnaya, But we add a new NPC, the most talented blade smith who had a vision. Fatui frame him as the ring leader, as if they were running not to save their lives because of the tampered design, impossible to fulfil, but that this was a betrayal because of his ambitions.

After this, Raiden has legitimate cause to feel like her eternity is threatened. She sees weapon art schools, one of the most prized country’s traditions being ruined in a moment because of what she thinks is ambitious hubris of one vision holder, who colluded with outsiders. So she closes Inazuma and declares a vision hunt, to prevent this from ever happening again.

But ironically, in truth it was the fault of not just Fatui, but specifically a puppet without a vision that she herself created and failed to supervise. This brings the main idea of the plotline from “Fatui evil, Raiden passive” to “Solipsist goddess who doesn’t understand humanity tries to protect her people by locking them in stasis and taking their ambitions, but the real case of tragedy was her negligence and lack of empathy all along, and this is what needs to be changed.”

Interlude and plot setup

We start with similar plotline. Traveler tries to go to Inazuma, learns that it’s closed, talks to Inazuman NPC to learn more. Here we’re introduced to the general idea that Inazuma was closed off due to one traitor blade smith with a vision who sold off Raiden Gokaden to Fatui.

We go to Beidou’s tournament, which goes basically the same, we meet Kazuha and watch a beautiful cutscene about his dead friend who challenged Raiden to a duel, and now Kazuha tries to find someone who can reignite his vision. I will actually add changes to Kazuha’s storyline, but it be will later.

then we arrive to Inazuma, go through the same bureaucracy loops with Thoma on Ritou, to show the barriers to outsiders and also to illustrate how Thoma is the best fixer when he manages to drop a fee from 1 mil to like 10 gold by promising to have a dinner with government official.

But we’re cutting the second part of Ritou, with the boring plot about like merchant from Mond scamming people with the local police and then Traveler delivering love letter or whatever. I mean, we can keep this as an optional side quest, if like hoyo thinks the lore about love letter is essential for the Ayato’s quest or smth, but not as an Archon quest.

Instead, we put a part of Yoimiya’s quest there. I think Yoi’s quest is relevant enough to stay in the Archon quest, unlike Ayaka’s, but it’s slapped into a place where it ruins pacing. So instead, we’re cutting it up in parts and inserting it into main storyline.

On Ritou, while doing bureaucracy bullshit, we meet Yoimiya, and play the part of her quest about her helping a guy with a vision to escape from his former best friend, who is now a guard hunting him. It helps to show the rift that vision hunt brings not only with the outsiders, but with inside of the country as well.

Ghost of Makoto\Transience setup

another key point that I think is integral to fixing Inazuma is planting seeds for Makoto’s reveal from the start. I really like the Stasis vs Transience conflict from raiden’s second story quest, where raiden believed in eternity as lack of change, a perfect state maintained until the rest of time, while her twin Makoto believed in eternity as never-ending change, where people’s dreams constantly evolve, nature of them chasing these dreams never changes.

but it feels like it came out of nowhere and raiden just speedruns character development in like an hour, so a lot of people ended up feeling like it was just about Raiden mourning her sister, instead of raiden coming to understand makoto’s belief system and through that unlocking makoto’s final connection and then being able to let go.

so we need to first of all, introduce makoto’s ideas of transience from the start, and also empathize the conflict of them with raiden’s stasis.

and it doesn’t mean we’ll spoil the reveal about the second raiden shogun! we don’t have to ever use makoto’s name, just her title as a raiden and sprinkle her ideas throughout the land. We know hoyo area designers can do that stuff really well (guizhong’s relics being scattered all over liyue, rukkhadevata’s shadow in the aranara quest).

like, it’s strange that Makoto primarily ruled and shaped country by herself while Ei was just a warrior, yet we do not have Makoto’s influence visible. We need to add ideas of transience into fundamentals of Inazuma,

“Transience is the dream of the nation of thunder. We find the greatest joys in mortal life in fleeting dreams, for is life itself not like the shadow of the thunder? Pursue your dreams into the clouds if you wish, and enjoy the unexpected silence of the dim lamp-lit nights.” - Guide to Transience talent book.

add these ideas all over the place, esp near sakura. And let’s draw player’s attention a couple of times specifically to the internal contradiction of these ideas of transience being integral to inazuma and raiden’s current hatred of change.

like, we need even 13 yolds and twitch streamers to remember this, so lets make paimon say like

“Huh, this shrine to raiden shogun says that eternity is the pursuit of fleeting dreams, but doesn’t raiden shogun fucking hates dreams?? I wonder, what made her change her mind about them to the total opposite!“

this and more subtle puzzles\locations with focus on transience for people who pay more attention will add the much needed setup for makoto’s reveal

Kamisato siblings

ok, first things first, Ayato being absent without any explanation while his little sister is plotting treason and his malewife Thoma is about to be executed on the streets is unacceptable.

like I know it’s marketing or whatever and he’s not being released but we need his model, hoyo. If we 200% CAN’T have his model, we need to come up with solid excuse why he’s not here. Like idk, he’s helping the war refugees or smth

And we need hints at his presence\influence throughout the story. Like oh, here’s group of refugees who were helped by Yashiro commissioner, they are relocating to new homes, I guess Ayato is really busy. Oh, here is Fatui’s camp where everyone is slaughtered and boba tea cups are littered around, I wonder what is up with that.

and also, Ayaka is organizing resistance behind his back, and we never meet him bc Ayaka actively tries to hide traveler from him.

bc like, Ayaka doesn’t have a development arc in archon quest. She’s just kind of there, being perfect. Like in her story quest that hoyo makes you do at gun point, you like, go on a date, learn that she’s lonely and has trouble connecting with people due to the pressure of having to project an image of perfection and societal distance, do an investigation to uncover her late mother’s fox fursona roleplay diary which she used to cope her with own societal pressure. Which like. Ok, sure, but but this wet socks quest is not an archon quest material. It should be just a normal story quest.

no, Ayaka’s real conflict is wanting to prove herself to her brother, bring real difference to the world. This is her ambition, she literally gained her vision while fighting Ayato in a training, she wanted to show him that she’s strong enough to handle responsibility, he named her Shirasagi Himegimi after she won that fight

but during a civil war, watching people suffer, her role as a cultural figurehead is not enough. She wants to help, but she’s afraid to act, because this will undermine Yashiro Commission and her brother worked so hard to build it back up after Raiden Gokaden fall. so she organizes resistance behind her brother’s back in secret, to help, but without compromising Kamisato name

this basically tracks with what happens in game, but we spell it out and expand on this later.

Getting Traveler to help

next, let’s throw out the weird edging introduction where traveler is not allowed to see Ayaka the first time. like??? bro, we’re friends with 2 archons and heads of their governments, you’re not that important. and it can’t be to protect her identity, bc like. You go to Kamisato estate! You’re told who she is! If you wanted to betray her, that would be enough already.

another awkward thing is that Traveler, who agrees to do every stupid quest they meet, suddenly refuses to help the resistance.

I think we should reframe their convo a little, like Traveler says hey I’d love to help, but my primary goal is to get info about my sibling from an Archon, so I don’t want to go against her.

To which Ayaka says oh, I totally get you, you see, I am myself a culture figurehead and a nominal princess and I can’t speak up against the decree, bc that will hurt Yashiro Commission. But I’m not asking you to fight Raiden Shogun in a duel or smth, I’m just asking you to help people with the resistance, which we do totally in secret. No one will know! Also, how are you going to see Raiden? She’s locked up and doesn’t appear in public. But my big brother is a head of the Commission, if anyone can get you an audience, it’s him. So help me help people and I will ask him to help you see Shogun!

she secretly believes that after traveler sees ppl suffering, they will change their mind and help willingly, same as in canon, but she’s more subtle about it

Rebellion connection

my other problem with vision hunt is that the 3 quests they force you to do about meeting people who lost their visions are like. not good. The concept is interesting, but they are just kinda boring and meandering. They lack dramatic impact. They could do better. So we’re not doing these 3 quests rn, but don’t worry about it, we will get to the effects of vision loss

Instead, ayaka sends us to help Yoimiya and we do the same quest we do in archon quest - help her to free someone from prison dungeon. It goes the same, we get to the dude being mistreated by cops, Kujou Sara steps up and lets us go

But then it’s like, we need to get this dude out of Inazuma city. Cops know he escaped! They will just come for him again! There is only one place that will take him and it’s the watatsumi rebels.

Common complaint about Inazuma is that other countries feel like found families and Inazuma doesn’t, bc characters from resistance and rebellion basically don’t interact, and it’s true. And like, we can get them together! Thoma knows Kazuha, Kazuha knows Gorou, Gorou in canon went to recoinsanse missions to Narukami island.

So, Gorou visits the tea house to pick up the Vision Dude, and the gang has the hotpot meet up. Everyone is there (except Kokomi bc ok hoyo, we’re saving up for dramatic battle reveal, and i think her reveal would fuck up banner schedule). Ayaka, Thoma, Yoimiya, Kazuha, Gorou. and Teppei! Who is here bc he was recruited by Gorou. He’s actually from Narukami island, not Watatsumi, and he had nothing to do with visions, but he’s an idealist, he believes in freedom, so he joined rebellion. fun times are had, Ayaka tries to play srs bsns lady host, but breaks into giggling at The Shenanigans, Gorou is overly polite but adorable and apologizes to Ayaka about The Shenanigans in which everyone but him participates, Yoi is a life of party and the Shenanigans and later has to be bodily stopped by Kazuha from organizing fireworks right here, right now, Thoma and Teppei both get sick from eating Ayaka’s nasty cakes that she threw into soup, bc Thoma is just into oral stuff and Teppei is so earnest and eager to prove himself and impress ppl, haha comic relief, look how sweet and funny this guy is and all characters get along so great with him

bc like, I think Teppei has a problem of a) not having enough screen time b)not having any interesting characterization moments to make him stand out 3)not having other playable and already likeable characters interact with him

so this scene can serve not only to bring that “unlikely bunch of people becoming friends and working together” connection to life, but also to endear Teppei to the players

Vision Loss Effects\ Yoimiya and Thoma

ok, next Ayaka asks Traveler to do that one quest about martial arts master losing their vision. I think it’s the one quest from 3 about vision loss with most drama, but the real reason is that it introduces Yae Miko and we need to do this before leaving for the rebellion. Like, in theory, it could be switched to another, better quest that lets us meet Yae Miko, but honestly, this is not one of Inazuma archon quest problems so I can’t be arsed. Feel free to imagine a cooler intro instead.

when we go back to tea house, we learn that Yoimya’s vision has been taken away. She has been recognized in that last prison raid and the guards came for her later, and she didn’t fight bc there were kids and her old father around.

She’s completely changed. Her innate optimism, her belief in people and their dreams has been drained from her like a sunshine from a dark cellar. But she’s still Yoimiya!! She came here to warn you bc she still cares even if she had her own joy taken from her. She tries to smile and reassure you that it’s ok, she’s fine, but her smile is visibly strained, she’s never had to fake it before so she doesn’t know how. She wears a vision, but it’s a fake one, because her pops said that maybe having it here would help and she agreed, tried to pretend for him that it does help, bu. It very obviously doesn’t.

Ayaka is horrified. She apologizes to Yoimiya, tries to think of ways to help her, but Yoi just laughs humorlessly. “It won’t ever touch you, princess.”

She’s immediately disgusted at herself and apologizes, tries to take it back, this isn’t her, she would never say this, and not to her friend! But also, it’s so hard to care now and she can’t remember why it’s so important to care at all.

Ayaka is shaken. Bc it’s true! She is a privileged noble, vision hunt will not come for her! She is playing at the resistance from the safety of anonymity, while people like Yoimiya actually risk themselves and pay the price!

And this is when the news that Thoma was arrested and about to be 100th vision taken at the feet of the statue comes. Tenryou commission truly strikes back.

Ayaka is in uproar. She’s ready to go herself and fight for Thoma, especially after Yoi’s words. She’s sick and tired of being a perfect princess, she can’t allow any more of her friends, her family come to harm because they don’t have her protection. Clearly Thoma being a theatrical execution is a blow specifically against Yashiro commission and Kamisato family in particular, and if Shogun has beef with her, well, she can settle it with HER instead of going after her friends!

Traveler stops her. This is what they want. If Ayaka openly moves against the Shogun, the entire Yashiro commission falls. Even if Ayaka is in the right! No, it’s the Traveler who will go to save Thoma

But traveler needs raiden’s good will for the info, they can’t confront raiden openly, it was the deal from the start!

But at this point traveler has seen too much, the divide in the country, the change and suffering of their own friends, and they can’t allow all of Yashiro commission take the fall.

This is when the Traveler decides to take a stand.

ACT 2

[silly-honeybee]

What Blue Lock boys would get you for Christmas🎁

~🐝 Happy late Christmas my lovely sillies! I have been rlly busy lately so I haven’t had time to write💔 so I hope you enjoy this lil headconon on what the Blue Lock boys would get you for Christmas!

~~~

Characters: Bachira, Isagi, Chigiri, Nagi, Kunigami, Reo, Kaiser, Alexis, Hiori

Headcanon ~ Fluffy fluff ~ fem!reader ~ not proofread

Warning(?): mentions of bras and panties in Kunigami’s part. (don’t know if that makes anyone uncomfy or not so I’m putting this here)

~~~

start~~~🐝

Bachira Meguru

Silly things. He’d get you some silly and unnecessary things—

Like he’d probably get you a shirt saying “I love pizza” or something stupid😭

But he’d also get you some pretty cute things.

Anything matching, plushies, shirts, bracelets, etc..

He is indeed a goofball(we love him for that), but of course he knows how to give serious gifts(somewhat)..

The wrapping would be horrible, I gotta say that.. probably a bunch of holes basically revealing what the present was before you even opened it.. (he’s trying his best)

Oh well, whatever he gets you just know that he means it with a lot of love💕

Isagi Yoichi

He’d probably get you nice things for the winter, like a fuzzy sweater, scarf, boots..

Or he’d find a cute dress that he thinks would look nice on you, if you don’t like dresses then a cute pair of shorts or pants..

But, in general he would make sure to get you something he knew you liked, he thinks about you a lot, yk? ^^

(This is rlly short I’m sorry🙏)

Chigiri Hyoma

This man will spoil you.

You like Sanrio? Sanrio it is. You want makeup? Makeup it is. You want the full series of your favorite book? Books it is!

He never disappoints on Christmas, he knows what you like even if you haven’t told him—

Like he just noticed a certain detail of you having quite a few of this and that. He’d then proceed to Google about it and then find nice things from it🫶

Nagi Seishiro

He’d probably be a little clueless on knowing what you’d want.. (not in a rude way).

So what he does is probably look back on the comments you made on certain characters you two have played in a game or what not. And the ones you liked he’d find some merch of that character..

Kunigami Rensuke

He’d definitely be brave enough to casually walk into the woman’s section of Target and get you a brand new bra and panties.

Based on his sister’s at home, they always seem to complain about their bras becoming loose and slack after a year..

So he assumes that maybe that happens with you too? He wants you to be comfy at all times💕

(I love this man😭)

Reo Mikage

He’d also spoil you like Chigiri, but probably in a more *ehem* Reo way..

Like he’d get you tons of stuff, too much to count. This man has money💰🤑

Every. One. Of. Those. Gifts. Have been thoroughly thought through as he was buying them.

He wanted to make sure everything was perfect💝

Michael Kaiser

Probably getting you something fancy..

A fancy robe, shoes, dress, etc..

Would also treat you to a restaurant date, Egon or something idk 🤷‍♀️

Alexis Ness

He’d get you anything you want😭

He’s such a sweetheart about it too, he would wrap your gifts in cute wrapping paper.

Every one of the gifts having a little tag in the shape of a heart saying: “To my love, from Alexis💕”

He’s such a cutie istg😭🙏

Hiori Yo

You two probably played animal crossing at some point together, so he’d definitely get you a plushie of whichever one was your favorite character!

He probably would accidentally reveal the gift before you opened it.. oopsie💕

~~~🐝 end

~🐝 I’m so sorry if some of these were short😭 like idk how to write for Kaiser,I sagi or Nagi- and there is no Rin included here bc I have no idea how to write for him🧍‍♀️ anyway! I wish you sillies a lovely rest of 2023💕

See you guys next year😋🙏 (I’m so funny haha)

Also look at this Bachira plush I got for Christmas AAAAAAA MY BBY😭 MWA MWA💋💋💋

[butteredfrogs]

📩 simblr question of the day: any other simblrs that you love

i did something similar to this a while ago but i just wanna spread some love because there are so many amazing and talented people and i just hope you all know i appreciate all of you! (also this post is super long so i apologise i advance)

@squea honestly you are such a sweet person and you’re so so talented! you inspire me so much and you already know i appreciate you but i really do and i’m so thankful to call you my friend💛

@circusjuney june, you are so cool. not only are your edits amazing, you can make poses as well??? you’re so talented and also i love talking to you you’re honestly so lovely and so sweet <3

@youredreamingofroo you have such cool and chill vibes, and your renders are amazing!! i also love reading about your ocs and stuff or seeing the stuff you reblog that reminds you of them, i told you this already but i legit stalked roo and leo’s tag the other day because i wanted to find out more about them!

@druidberries you already know ily, but honestly i am so invested in the tjol gang i love seeing them pop up on my dash and hello the latest update??? i am so excited for baby 3!! also ofc butterberries is the best duo and no i will not accept criticism thank you💛

@sunyos jaci, every interaction i have with you is so chaotic but you never fail to make me laugh so hard! you are honestly so chill and i love seeing your sims so much and i just love talking to you!!

@fizzytoo i love your sims and your gameplay screenshots so so much! honestly your postcard legacy was one of the reasons i wanted to get the horse ranch pack bc you just made it seem so fun! you also just have such good vibes! (also i saw your posts about playing sdv, i’m expecting updates from your farmer butter!!)

@stellarfalls literally where do i even begin. i mean if you haven’t seen bree’s edits already i’m going to assume you’ve been living under a rock? just so talented and honestly you inspire me so much (although i don’t think my edits will ever be on your level)

@stinkrascal honestly again just such a sweet and lovely person!! also i just love your vlad so much and i love reading your story like i love learning more about your characters and their backstories!

@alelelesimz honestly where would we be without your cc free townies, thank you for your service🫡. but not only that the way you style your sims in general is amazing like their outfits are always so so good

@solargrove you are so so sweet! despite the fact we don’t interact much you sent me such a lovely ask after i was upset by that anon and it just really cheered me up! not only that but your builds and your gameplay screenshots always have such a nice warm and cozy vibe to them like they literally can i live in your game pls?

@folkbreeze your edits your gameplay are so so good every time! your screenshots are always so full of life and literally look like they belong in a photo album i love it so much and i just love the way that you edit them as well

@eljeebee such an amazing story teller! if you guys aren’t following lana you should be!!! you put so much love into your stories and it really shows they’re so good! also you are so lovely and have always been so nice and supportive and i appreciate it so much💛

@citrlet honestly i’ve said this so many times at this point but you are so lovely! also your screenshots are so pretty and soft and i love them so much! i also love seeing your stardew valley screenshots like i really love the fairycore/cottagecore vibe <3

@crazy-lazy-elder-sims i’m so sorry i sound like a broken record but you are so lovely!!! every time i’ve interacted with you you’ve just been super sweet or supportive and i really appreciate it! also in general just the fact you reblog so many posts and support so many people is really nice to see honestly i always love seeing stuff that you reblog whether that be sims or not!

@windslar honestly your gameplay screenshots and your edits are so good!! and literally where would simblr be without your psds we would literally be so lost like they’re so good and so useful

@orbitsuns your gameplay posts are so pretty. they have such a sweet and wholesome vibe to them if that makes sense? esp your secret garden screenshots they just feel very cozy and wholesome. also you have the sweetest vibes <3

@wildmelon you have always been one of my biggest inspo esp when it comes to fantasy! also even though you don’t just post sims i love your blog so much. it has such a whimsical vibe and i just always associate you with fantasy <33 (also your sims are STUNNING)

this is already super long so quick fire of some of the other people on here that i love and that you should go show some love to as well @glittermutt @simelune @cottageivy @thefunniestjester @flovoid @finnsim @kopimoss @futurelabs @velvet-disc @aliengirl @zleepyhollow and so so many others that i’m probably missing honestly anyone that i follow has inspired me in some way or another and i appreciate each and everyone of you 💛💛 also just anyone who has liked commented on or reblogged any of my posts i appreciate it so so much thank you all for being here 🫶

[mammoth-clangen]

Do you like Clangen and Sabertoothed cats? Great, me too!

My name is Pav and this is my clangen blog!

https://pencilpavlova.carrd.co/

Important Things

🧓 Im a '99 bby so please don't DM if you're a minor (actually would prefer no unexpected DMs period tbh, im anxious)

⛏️ I work 12hrs 7 days, week on/week off, meaning I will completely vanish 50% of the time and there's nothing I can do about it

🦘 I'm also an Aussie, so my time zone is weird even when I'm not at work (So if I don't reply, im not ignoring u! ;v;-b )

❔️Asks and Anons are turned on! Please read the FAQ below before asking to avoid repeats c:

😻 I read all the tags and replies even if I don't reply. Tysm everyone saying nice things, it makes my day ;v;

😵‍💫 My focus changes like the weather lately, so while I'm Hoping I'll be able to keep this up, please don't get Life Or Death Invested c':

FAQ

This will be added to as I get more asks and replies to go off!

Where/ when is Mammothclan set?

In late pleistocene North America, around 12ka ago, during the Younger Dryas!

What species are the cats?

They're Homotherium serum, a scimitar toothed cat.

How paleo accurate is this setting?

Relatively accurate? There's not going to be any species out of their time and place, but I'm not super bothered by, say, exact plant species and how realistic certain story aspects are.

Can I ask the characters' questions?

You can, but I can't promise to answer all of them!

Are we allowed to include characters as cameos/ draw fanart?

Yes definitely absolutely!!!!

You are also welcome to change them to regular cats if that fits better cx (please don't humanise them though, I find that specifically very uncanny)

What mode are you playing on Clangen/ what toggles?

Expanded mode, mass extinctions on, cheating on, "pregnancy ignores biology" off, unknown second parent pregnancies off (bc in my trial run every queen was constantly spawning kittens at lightspeed, no ty)

How far ahead are you from the pages you've drawn?

Currently 40moons ahead, cause I like playing the long game with foreshadowing >:3c

Where do you download Clangen?

https://sablesteel.itch.io/clan-gen-fan-edit

Could you elaborate on/ explain content of (page/panel/speech bubble) that confused me?

Sure! If something is unclear, but it seems like it should be explained, please ask and I'll make sure to clarify c:

Can you tell me about (character backstory/spoilers/ aspect of lore not touched on in comic yet)?

No! I don't want to spoil those kinds of things, I'd rather they come up naturally in the comic than dump them under an ask.

I'm a firm believer that if it doesn't happen in text, it's not cannon.

[time-is-restored]

by the way this is not gonna do the subject NEARLY enough justice BUT i do really wish there was more keeley appreciation in the main tags... like not only is she an Extremely explicit parallel for ted, but she's also at the heart of SO much of the show's themes - and you'd never know it from reading most of the meta that goes around!

[content warnings for sexism, sexual harassment, Locker Room Talk™]

okay, so like, in no particular order, here some of the criminally underrated + under-explored things we know abt keeley jones:

she has an almost identical social strategy to ted: being earnestly, and oftentimes defiantly herself, regardless of what assumptions it pushes other people to make abt her (i.e.: her description in the pilot, 'used to having her book judged by its cover'). and then, in spite of the ppl around her belittling her/writing her off, she STILL approaches them w genuine intent to connect + get to know them.

i think it was an EXTREMELY deliberate choice in episode 3 for both keeley and ted to give rebecca 'a compliment she's never heard before'. they're not merely skating by on small talk or doing the bare minimum to show their appreciation for killing the photo (which rebecca would be prepared for), they're subverting her expectations by going for genuine (if bemusing) compliments.

then ofc w keeley's s3 arc, you can see how she's trying (and slowly succeeding, judging by that nervous worker guy's attempts to start joking around with her) to get her PR firm's culture to the same, easy-going, more-friends-than-coworkers vibe of richmond. she even specifically asks ted for advice (and, again, i think its relevant that the advice he gives refers to his most effective team building moment - the ghost banishing ceremony). it's very important to her that ppl feel comfortable in her presence, and we can see her getting genuinely distressed whenever she struggles with this.

she says EXPLICITLY in that one exchange w sassy + rebecca that she freaks out whenever she thinks she's being abandoned - she delivers it like a joke, but she's visibly off-kilter and nervous while she says it, apparently still coming down from the anxiety of thinking she'd been ditched. and again, after the gala when she goes to (presmably) get back together with jamie, she says outright that she really struggles to ever break up with people - even people she's no longer interested in, like jamie! - because she second guesses her own judgement so much. on an adjacent note, imo the melt down she has when roy was crowding her was only as abrupt + extreme as it was because she had been repressing her feelings about it for so long. which is SO interesting in the context of her being one of the most upfront and outspoken characters in the show!!!! like. she literally contains multitudes!

and, also, while i do think there's some genuine critical analysis to be done abt the normalisation of what is, essentially, sexual harassment at richmond (it's... extremely uncomfortable to go on such a long tangent about how attractive a stranger's boobs are, even if ur also a woman), i think keeley's active flirtation + general horny-on-main behaviour is ALSO extremely under-explored. bc, in the context of her being a WAG, and also a model, keeley recieves completely unprompted + unwarranted comments abt her body all day every day. when sassy told her that her ex-husband used to masturbate to her photos, she's hardly shell shocked. it's pretty clear that that's something she's used to being known for, and being told about in gratuitous detail. in this context, you can really see how the way she leans in to flirtation, and talking about sex and the hotness of various ppl around her (ie: her entrance in the pilot, making a show + joke out of how she must Obviously want to see all of the footballers naked), is her way of pushing back against the way others don't respect HER boundaries. ie: 'if my body's fair game for everyone to talk about + sexualise, so is theirs!'. it's an extremely interesting coping mechanism, especially in the context of it leading to her oftentimes perpetuating the cycle of harassment herself. and then there's also how the locker room culture OF richmond involves a significant amt of talking about sex, past partners, etc - since she spends so much time in that environment, you can pretty clearly see how that'd influence her decision to go with the current, rather than against.

AND OFC. HOW could i get this far w/o talking about the sheer narrative weight that's given to her relationship with rebecca!!! not only is she arguably the first character to befriend rebecca (beating ted out by several episodes, at least by my count), she is ALSO the reason that rebecca ever tells ted the truth ('it would change how i feel about you'!!!!!!! AGH!!!!), and honestly i think keeley's disappointment in her is what leads her to finally accept that. sabotaging richmond is a cruel thing to do and she doesn't want to do it anymore! like. keeley's unabashed admiration of + love for rebecca, and rebecca's eventual reciprocation is quite literally the driving force for both of their arcs ('thank you for teaching this panda how to be a lion'!!!!!) and i just!!! i care them!!!!!!!!!!!!

tldr; keeley jones is a blorbo of absolutely apocalyptic proportions PLEASE let her into ur heart the next time ur writing analysis + meta....

[sunseed-leaf]

art dump timeee

lots of pokemon stuff i hope you like it :) this is a looooooooooong post

Originally these were just design mashups, at least, that was the plan for my "redesigns"... but it really made me realize how little they change Red throughout the generations. hence why he looks VERY similar to his canon design, i just added some things i guess. for Blue i could go absolutely ham with things i wanted in his design since there's so much to choose from. the fang idea comes from my friend. also, these are pretty much used for an AU based off of the RG project romhack by @shima-draws (i hope tagging is okay aaa) bc i played it with my friend and we really liked it and it converted him into a pokemon fan and namelessshipper :) In the end we made our own AU based off of it because other characters got thrown into it. we're continuing the timeline in soul silver :p

Here's a design for Leaf, she's Red's sister in my headcanon, i again went for the design mashup thing so that's why she looks like a mashup of Green and Leaf. i don't have much to say here....

Then there's some designs i can't show but it's for the reason that they are just human + trainer versions of sonic exes (not joking, i wish i was. my friend dragged them into our mini-roleplays, only two and they were Red's traveling companions and later Kris's too.)

Then here's a redesign inspired by other Daisy designs. dunno why but i just wanted her to be pink....

Eepy...

even more eepies....

then i made some silly redesigns/design mashups for Ash and Gary

And drew Red and Blue in alola. married dudes -w- Just in general my headcanon is that Red collects keychains, he probably has boxes worth of keychains and puts different ones on his bag every day, he even did this as a child he just didn't stop even into adulthood. Still a kid at heart with his silly keychains more headcanon rambles: Blue hates the cold but loves the warmth and Red loves the cold and hates the warmth. please put him into a freezer he can't handle the heat of alola- also yeah i know i messed up the number on Red's shirt, i learned how to draw 96 after this, i promise

And now we get to Pokemon Soul Crystal,,, which is just pokemon soul silver but with a patch that makes Lyra into Kris lol

Here she is!! i tried incorporating some bits from Lyra and her comfy outfit is based off of Gold i swear i love Kris's design in canon, the hair is a lil funky tho so i made the pigtails a bit shorter and poofier

then we got Silver here... again not much change, i love his design, i just wanted to add some moon details bc why not

I'll batch these together! here's some redesigns for the OG trio for Soul Crystal

Blue is supposed to look like he's been crying (sorry Blue :C) Red just makes me think of pokepastas im sorry, once he gets off mt. silver he'll get a haircut. Leaf is just. i dunno, i don't really know how to characterize her... she cares a lot about people but she's kinda bitchy about it. tough love i guess.. I think after soul crystal is over i'll get working on an continuation of that that isn't tied to a game where she gets more of an important role so i can work on her character. Blue is wearing lots of reds/warmer tones cause why not and Red is supposed to wear lots of blues/colder tones to give a little bit of a connection i guess.

Now, here's the final drawing before i show shitpost stuff, this was drawn with a drawing tablet rather than a mouse like usual

lines are a little funky but i like how this looks, i just need a bit more practice, i'm rusty on drawing with a pen

and now, shitpost:

i love Cinder the Typhlosion,,,, he's so cute

i know this is at the top of the post but i wanna put this here again and credit the idea for this: here.

that's all, goob bye i'll go back into hibernation

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

some of y’all might’ve noticed that like 90% of the shit i reblog lately is tagged just “#tag later” and this is bc my new job has me working three 12hr overnight shifts a week and this leaves me too exhausted to tag things correctly. i started doing this back in like october-november when i was working AND going to school and was basically doing 52 hrs of work a week and i started tagging the wrong characters and shit and ppl would point it out and i was like aw FUCK. so i started tagging shit “tag later” with the idea that when i stopped having to do these hellish 52hr weeks i’d be less exhausted and i could go through that tag and fix everything. however with my new job there isn’t rlly an end in sight, this is just my life now (and fwiw i rlly like it even if my tagging game is slipping, i love my job). i’ve been tagging stuff “tag later” pretty consistently and i’m starting to think that maybe Employed Jess just can’t keep up w the combo of 1. Having A Full Time Job, 2. my insane tagging system, and 3. my obsessive need to see Every Single Post On My Dashboard. so my options are:

give up on the tagging system altogether (genuinely can’t imagine doing this. reblogging stuff with no way to sort it into categories??? the fuck?????? that’s fucking insane to me. i think i’d get so anxious abt my blog being an infinite unsortable jumble of ofmd posts that i’d delete my whole blog in a panic one night)

simplify the tagging system somewhat (somewhat more doable but also the difference between my old tagging system and my new tagging system on different posts would still drive me fucking insane)

try to get over my anxiety about Seeing Every Single Post and just focus on actually tagging things correctly when i go to reblog them (this one is fun bc if i actually manage to conquer this neurosis then i can finally follow back the dozens of rlly cool ofmd blogs that im only not following bc i’m weird abt how i use tumblr. however i think what would be more likely to happen is i would follow everyone and then still be anal abt seeing every post, but now my dash would be functionally infinite and then i’d be wasting even more time scrolling on tumblr trying to catch up on my dashboard during work or when i’m supposed to be sleeping. and then i’d have to unfollow ppl to stop my life from falling into chaos and i’d feel rlly bad)

seriously limit my time on tumblr just in general and try to focus more on other hobbies in my free time (dgmw there would still be a lot of ofmd in my life i’d just be doing more, like, catching up on fics i’ve been meaning to read or something. maybe even writing more of my own fics??? that sounds fake to me but who knows)

just keep doing what i’m doing and maybe i’ll get better at the whole “work life balance” thing and i’ll be less exhausted all the time and i’ll finally be able to catch up on tagging everything

[eldrbraus]

TWISTED WONDERLAND BOOK 7 CHAPTER 2 SPOILERS. (summary, kinda. dont trust me a lot on literal translations its more of a general summary and i could be wrong with some things. also its kind of live reaction so. yeah. this shit is long btw. too much lore.)

no spoilers in tags, but beware that i will be spoiling the whole chapter for people who cant wait for the full translation/people who cant read it

we begin.

>lilia is asking malleus to use the dorm for a “im going away lol” party that apparently the whole dorm is organizing??? damn lilia way to make malleus sad lmao

>MALLEUS IS INVITED!!!!!!! HES INVITED HE GOT AN INVITATION AND EVERYTHING!!! SOBS. he even accepts it this is a glorious day for dragonchan

>uhhh something i dont fully understand but goes along the lines of malleus.. had gao gao kun.. FOR 17 YEARS??? AND WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENED TO THE TOY HE WOULD GO TO LILIAS HOUSE FOR HIM TO HELP HIM??? omg thats so fucking cute help

>basically more talk about how time goes away way too fast for malleus

>lilia comments how the more time you spend with someone the harder it is to say goodbye (bestie arent you going away like too easily then? sus.)

>lilia left and OOP. MORE MALLEUS BLOT. NOT GOOD. malmal is very confused??

>lilia goodbye party already??? wtf thats fast

>so apparently every single character is going to be here (almost...)

>hmh where the fuck is malleus? lol what

>trey says something along the lines of lilia having a hmmmmmm unique??? way of cooking LMAO. lilia thanks trey for his cooking advice (YOU DIDNT LISTEN EVEN ONCE WHAT THE FUCK LILIAAA)

>cater....... hes so sad about lilia leaving the music club :((( he thanks lilia for being friends and they take a pic together waaaaa ;;

>lmao leona appeared and lilia is teasing him so much bcs leona is glad to not see lilia again

>LEONA WANTS TO LEAVE BUT RUGGIE SAID “NO??? THIS IS FREE FOOD??? R U DUMB” HELP

>octavinelle time! lilia basically gives all of them advice (azul dont be too greedy or it will kill you wwwww)

>floyd says something like “why are you leaving actually” and lilia says something along the lines of “i dont want you to see the ?? me?” the what you i didnt understand that part what are you hiding little bitch

>KALIM BASICALLY SAID THAT IF LILIA GOES TO HIS COUNTRY HE WOULD HAVE VIP TREATMENT FROM HIS FAMILY HELLO? and jamil comments how kalim wanted to gift him an instrument but they needed a TRUCK TO MOVE IT???? tf were you giving him, an organ?

>now to pomefiore, vil comments how malleus restored his beauty at the end of book 6 and wonders if they can do a magic transfer (?) of the same type to lilia and he says nah

>BECAUSE HES JUST OLD

>pomefiore is like ? arent you the same age as us

>LORE BOMBSHELL, LILIA SAYS HES ALMOST 700 YEARS OLD??????? (way less than i expected?? lol)

>LMAO THEYRE SO SURPRISED. rook asked if malleus is as old as lilia and lilia said that malleus is younger??? or that hes as old as them??? i didnt get that very well but something along the lines of malleus being way younger than lilia basically

>lilias family members are supposed to reach 1000 years old but apparently lilia was to eager? well not that, like he fucked up by playing too many games and that somehow made him old very fast? what (i think this might be a misstranslation help because it doesnt make a lot of sense. but something along the lines of lilia being 700 or so and his family being much older usually but him not reaching that age)

>cant remember exactly where it was but lilia also coments about how the dragons usually live much longer and that 1000 years for them is like peak maturity, when they become adults

>IDIA IS CRYING BECAUSE HIS GAMER FRIEND IS RETIRING FROM GAMING BUT HE WONT FUCKING CONNECT THE DOTS AND REALIZE ITS LILIA LMAO

>HE FORGOT TO ASK HIM HIS CONTACTS HELPPPPP

>also apparently him and lilia were their own best and first friends in online games?

>oh malleus and silver time! theyre in the main road to the main building 

>malleus is throwing a mild tantrum (?) and he made snow??? apparently

>silver fucking crying because he wasnt able to do anything for his dad bruh malleus feels the same

>more malleus blot?? what the fuck thats fast

>UH OH MALLEUS HAS AN IDEA. that cant be good.

>back to the party, first years time

>basically all thank lilia for everything

>i think ortho knows about lilia and idia being gamer friends but wont tell them??? he just said that idia didnt want to come and hands lilia a list of everything idia is playing (and lilia is surpised because most of the games are the same BUT HE WONT REALIZE) so maybe they can play a match before he retires i guess???? theyre so close to finding out but they wont fucking do it im going insane

>idia didnt come to the aprty btw he is the only character that is not there because he was mourning his friend quitting the game lmao

>lilia thanks yuu once again for being friends with malleus?

>HUH? A DREAM???? BUT YUU IS NOT ASLEEP TF

>yuu asks lilia if they can do anything for him and lilia asks the first years to be friends with sebek because poor croc hasnt made a single friend rip

>lilia apologized for sebeks behaviour bcs ace i believe said that he was so rude and said to sebek to behave but sebek.... refuses? lol

>LILIA IS GOING ALREADY AND MALLEUS AND SILVER ARE NOT BACK YET STOP.

>apparently lilias card for nrc arrived 500 years ago but he didnt care back then? so when malleus received his much later he went along with him (and he thanks crowley for letting him enter the school 500 years later lol)

>LILIA IS GOING

>MALLEUS AND SILVER ARRIVED ON TIME!

>malleus is really happy everyone is there

>??? the party said that no gift was needed but malleus is brining lilia a gift anyways, a “blessing”. uhhhh. 

>m. malleus is like way too happy about this. hes saying something along the lines of “today we dont celebrate an end but a beginning” uh. not good.

>this bitch is way too happy tf

>BASICALLY MALLEUS PLAN IS THE MUGEN TSUKUYOMI HELP?

>ORTHO IMMEDIATELY DETECTED BLOT RISING

>crowley is fucking alarmed and he lets everyone use their magic 

>malleus regular battle HE HAS 300K HP AND REGENS 60K EVERY SINGLE TURN??????? BASICALLY AN IMPOSSIBLE BATTLE LIKE THE FIRST BATTLE IN THE GAME AGAINST THE CHIMERA

>you will lose this battle

>lilia tried to make magic to stop him but says something like “this body cant even do magic like that anymore?!” tf you mean “this body” do you have other bodies like dottore or what

>everyone is scared shitless HUH

>lilia is now insulting malleus calling him a dumbass or smth and saying that he doesnt know what hes doing and malleus screams that hes doing this to not lose him HELP

>sebek and silver are trying to calm things down, it obviously doesnt work

>malleus says something about grabbing his hand??? scary

>he gave his blessing! its a long ass spell btw. i think his “blessing” is his unique magic

>DAMN THAT LILIA SCREAM

>MALLEUS FUCKING OVERBLOTS. ALREADY???

>THE WHOLE SCHOOL WAS COVERED IN THORNS AND EVERYONE FALLS ASLEEP???

>malleus saying something about 1000 years will pass very quick wtf

>”you will become the heroes of the story”? malmal says something like that

>AND NOW

>AND FUCKING NOW

>WE RETURN TO THE TWISTED WONDERLAND LOGO. THE ONE FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE GAME. WHILE MALLEUS HUMMS ONCE UPON A DREAM.

WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT.

THE TIME LOOP THEORY? HUH?

[wildfangz]

Lil (long) simblr gratitude day post

I wanted to make a post shouting out some of my favorite creators, storytellers, and just general simmers from over the last year, mainly focused on ts4 since that's where my attention has been the most. Long post ahead so it's going under a cut. If you're not tagged please know I did wake up late today so it's not as complete of a list as I wanted it to be!!

@adelarsims - You are an essential in my mods folder!! I love how much realism and/or character your cc adds to sims, from things like the piercing holes to the wonky glasses to the mechanic overlay... Just so many little things that I can't imagine not having in my game or on certain characters now. Speaking of characters, your sims both original and premade are always so gorgeous, and I really enjoy your interpretations of wg and jeb. & Thank you for being WCIF friendly, I know it takes time to get that info but it's so appreciated, u've help me find some very beloved pieces of CC. Also the level of dedication u have to organizing your mods folder is incredible and you've inspired me a lot to get my folder's act together finally!! Which is SUCH a QoL improvement

@bearphase - I adore the bright legacy and I admire all the little details and effort you put into your posts, like fixing clipping issues, making icons and templates for custom careers or story events, ur creativity really shines through. You've also reminded me how fun NSB can be and inspired me to get back to it and my human enough gameplay and I can't thank u for that enough, it's got me sooo excited for future simming endeavors

@daisydezem - You've been a welcome addition on my dash back since POSE, which was a fantastic first community experience for me and so much fun, & I love your gameplay & love how much work u put into rainbowsin! (I adore Venus so much btw!!) I hope you're healing well and that u have a lovely new year!!

@divinedionym - CLAIRE!!! I was SO happy to see you dipping your toes back in the community I missed you on my dash! and while I adored ur vatores and their story and ur an incredible storyteller, I'm glad you've been able to pivot into something more enjoyable for u. I hope you have lots of fun in the coming year and I can't wait to see what Aspen gets up to… or into… especially with his vampire BF. Aside from that idk if you'll ever wanna run another sims server, but I did want to give you a late shoutout and props for that bc I know from experience it can be difficult and I really loved how you ran yours! I could just be an anxious bitch but I feel like its so hard to find comfortable servers.... and esp the storytellers one was so cozy and helpful, and ur management of it was *chefs kiss* I've also really enjoyed it every time we've talked, tho I'm sorry I'm so shy 😭😭

@earthmoonz - LONG TIME MUTUAL ALERT ….. ur sims are always so gorgeous. Love the Devereauxs and... Max and Lena… WOO. I support womens and nonbinary rights. and wrongs. Wifey has been SO good and I'm pumped to see where the rest of the story goes. U have a natural talent for storytelling and I really appreciate how much care u put into your characters. Everyone read wifey today rn

@hauntedtrait - Another mutual I enjoy every time I see you on my dash!! Your Lilith is drop dead gorgeous but honestly so many of your sims are. I love ur premade makeovers and Dakota is sooo pretty I'm obsessed. I can't wait 2 see who he ends up with! :]

@horusmenhosetix - I love seeing u on my dash and every time we've talked has been so lovely!! There's been so many times you've made me want to jump back into my projects for ts2 or even go back to ts3 once I have the space to download it. I love your s2cc and god ur sims …. its been a year but I still smile whenever I think about the vatore siblings you shared jhskfdh they're so perfect its got me inspired to throw together an s4 save whenever I get my mods folder sorted. & I'm so excited to go thru ur downloads tag and fill that baby UP with ur stuff next time I work on that !!!!!!!!

@myshunosun - One of my favorite CC creators, pretty sure my folder has all of your stuff in it bc I couldn't help myself. Always impressed with the quality and I love the variety. Thank u for sharing such incredible work with us!

@nucrests - I downloaded a lot of ur cc more recently but MY BOYS!!! U'VE CLOTHED MY BOYS!!! You make such good quality content and I'm always a huge fan of those that help me give my male sims some flair and style, thank u! :')

@oshinsimblr - Long 1 incoming... While I've never been a sims 4 hater, like a lot of people I've still struggled with the gameplay aspect of this iteration, so it's been really inspiring to watch how you go about your game and immerse yourself in it, see all the care you put into your sims. I have to thank you for the videos you've made on it, like the one on how to make sims you connect to, season 1 of Lovesick where you went basically vanilla with the specific intent to show people how much you can do with imagination and what that looks like in gameplay! It's been literally game-changing for me lol and helped me to have more fun with my saves, even if they're not one of the rare few that starts out off the rails, I get more enjoyment playing it out until things do start happening outside of my control. & YOUR CC RECS!! I've downloaded so many of the mods you've recommended and I love how much they fill out the game. On the topic of Lovesick, I have not been able 2 get enough!! I'm so hooked lmao. Watching this series has really taken me back to the days when I was a teen reading like those particularly juicy drama-filled sims 3 stories you can't help but to keep clicking "next page" on, except Lovesick is so solid writing-wise. SO excited to see where Lizbeth is going in her life!!

@simandy - Your hairs have been an essential in my CAS folder for so long, and I've been so impressed with the evolution of your creations over the years. I've always liked your work but GODDAMN the quality always blows me away these days!! & I really, really adore and appreciate the variety! @squea - ANOTHER SORT OF LONG ONE BUT ... Your sims just POP!!! SO much character, and your edits and art r phenomenal. Corn is one of my favorite little digital guys I've had the pleasure of experiencing on line in all my years in the sims community reading stories and gameplay. If Cornelius has a million fans I am one of them. If Cornelius has ten fans I am one of them. If Cornelius has no fans I am no longer on the earth. If world against Cornelius, I am against the world. So on and so forth TBH you've also helped me have a lot more fun with the sims 4 talking about how you enjoy your game, and have a healthier mindset about my place in the community and connect back with the reason I made this blog in the first place, which was just to have fun and archive something I love, regardless of whether it got any attention or not! I started going MIA a bit post 2019 after really getting involved in the community, for Life Happens reasons, and naturally the lack of consistent posting for a while meant less eyes on whatever I came back to share. For a while I let that discourage me esp when a lot of effort was put into something, but after you posted about just genuinely enjoying ur game and loving what you made regardless of notes it made me realize what I was doing and helped me get back to that state of mind. Now whatever I make gets to matter simply because it matters to me, even if I post it at like 3am bc I'm so excited and no one ever sees it bc of that DHKDHKHSD. & I feel like I have u to thank for that!! U turned da lightbulb on

@thefoxburyinstitute - I could not make a gratitude post without forgetting to include the foxbury institute!! I've been messing around more with making CC the last couple of months and your blog has been so incredibly helpful, and I highly recommend everyone interested in creating or just wanting to maintenance and mend their mods folder a bit check them out!

@tricoufamily - YOUR RENDERS ARE SO GORGEOUSSS and I love your take on the Villareals. I never ran into the original story so I'm really excited tbh to see whats up ur sleeve... also I love everything you've shared about two headed lamb so far, so eerie and offputting in the best way. Also everyone read this is the fall here

@void-imp I know we just followed each other a few days ago but ur trio is SO CUTE!!!!!!!!!! I love Jab's design so much and I rlly enjoy what I've read about aleksey so far. :-)

@warwickroyals - Ok so first off your clothing is a STAPLE in my folder for my more wealthy and/or fashion-oriented sims! And as for the Warwick Legacy? One of my absolute favorite simblr stories I've read. I still remember when I started it, it was pretty late at night so I was just planning on reading a handful of posts and then picking it back up the next day. That did not happen I could not stop. Straight up stayed up the entire night bingeing all the way to the latest post (which was the Big Phillip Thing. I had to get up from my computer to pace I was having a Moment LOL) I've got some catching up to do but so far I think that's been my favorite arc. Aside from that your editing is beautiful, and I've always been a character enjoyer so I'm in love with how much thought you've put into all of yours, and the fact we get to learn so much about them. I think you do a really good job of balancing the cast and I really dig your storytelling style in general.

@whimsyalien I know u post moreso on twitter but since u ARE technically also on simblr... I just wanna say I love the polaris legacy and thank you so much for all the poses and templates you share!!!

@windbrook THANK YOU for making so many fantastic builds and for sharing your saves, it's one of my absolute favorites. Also all the original sims u post are so striking, and ur cartoon-ish makeovers were so much fun!! Loving the recent builds/world pics u shared as well, and looking forward to whatever you create whether its in sims 4 or a previous game in the series!

@yooniesim Your cc is a more recent addition to my folder but there's so many things you've made and I'm sure will make that are essentials there now, like the teeth and body hair and god that necklace set for men is a necessity, but outside of that I love a lot of the other CAS CC you make you have some of the cutest hairs and I really adore the accessories! Thank you also for speaking out on certain issues within the community.

Finally,

To My Followers: thank u all for sticking with me even as I've been a biiit flaky over the years. My healths doing a lot better tho and I have so much passion for the game and I'm so excited for what I have to share with u all next, and I hope it can brighten ur dash up a bit, pull the heartstrings when appropriate, etc!! I also have a lil milestone coming up so im planning on doing some sim requests soon as a thank you when that hits. c:

[person4924]

new about me

my name is sam !! thats basically all u need to know but theres (a lot) more under the cut!!

i’m sapphic of some sort and ace

u can use any pronouns but they is usually the best !! (this is my pronouns page - it hasn’t been updated in like 6 months tho)

i’m neurodivergent of some sort (i don’t even know anymore)

a minor (don’t be weird)

my personality type is INFP-T

my theme will change like weekly prob bc i wanna change it with every new huperfxation i have!!

things i like (the things bolder r what i talk about the most)

harry potter (fuck jkr)

marvel

the marauders

boy meets world

it

osemanverse

paper girls

teen wolf

owl house

shameless

glee

stranger things

friends

andi mack

the last of us (i’ve only watched the show tho, but i know most of what happens in the games)

riordanverse

musicals

poetry

reading

cats

animals

fictional characters

music

movies

tv shows

art

writing

women

sitcoms

brooklyn nine nine

new girl

hamilton

grishaverse

stand up comedians

ocean animals (specifically sharks)

community

moths (and just kinda winged bugs in general)

greek mythology

dawsons creek

bojack horseman

halloween

the sky (like stars, the moon, the sunset, etc)

jelly fish

criminal minds

animals

ted lasso

scooby doo (the older movies from the 2000’s ish specifically but all of it too)

everything sucks!

the sun bearer trials

atypical

octonauts

spencer reid

bo burnham

dead boy detectives

will and grace

90’s movies

my fav movies are tick tick boom, my girl, dead poets society, breakfast club, the outsiders, hamilton, stand by me, cmbyn, lady bird, beautiful boy, luca, nimona, (500) days of summer, empire records, etc. i have a lot but this is just the first few i think of

musicals i like are hamilton, tick tick boom and the greatest showman

my fav taylor albums are folklore, evermore, reputation, 1989 and speak now but i love all of them really (please please ask me abt them omg)

my current hyper fixation is the marauders (more of a life-long obsession atp) and criminal minds

i’m currently reading nothing !! i just cannot

my fav music people (i’m really just giving a short list of many): conan gray, cavetown, current joys, queen, rainbow kitten surprise, the front bottoms, harry styles, noah kahan, taylor swift, phoebe bridgers, the fray, coldplay, olivia rodrigo, billie eilish, boygenius, gracie abrams, sufjan stevens, maya hawke, the smiths, lucy dacus, julien baker, the smiths, sleeping at last, mitski, bo burnham

i mostly post about whatever hyperfixation and/or character/person/ship has overtaken my brain, music and analysis things

i appreciate tone tags and i try to use them as much as possible

i’m always looking to talk to more people and i’m always bored (don’t be weird istg)

my fav books are any alice oseman book, the outsiders, the perks of being a wallflower, i fell in love with hope

child of athena (i think, idk how to actually figure it out)

i’m probably a reggie kin?? but it also changes with my varying mental state so i just say i’m marauders soup

biggest pandalily shipper you’ll find

i love love love making character analysis’ or song or movie or tv show or books or ships or whatever

i also write sometimes!! (i suck ass)

and i’m person4924 on ao3 but i can’t figure out how to link it

this is my spotify (my character playlists are my pride and joy and reason for living. i also have the best music taste you will ever encounter.)

this is my discord

this is my airbuds idk if anyone actually uses it but i thought it’d be fun to share music with mooties

please please please send me asks i have no hobbies or friends and im always bored please please please (im on my hands and knees begging please please please)

i have a tagging system!! idk how much ill remember to use it but yeah!! (its also new so only my new posts will have them) #sam shut the fuck up -> any original posts that don’t fit in any of the other tags #asks!!! -> asks #crazy? i was crazy once -> just any kinda longer fandom rants that i think r important

[ninjago-wip-telephone]

Fic writers as ninja

The Kai: getting the fic out there is more important than getting it perfect.  not the fastest writer but still is always working on something and somehow has a semi-consistent update schedule.  maybe like 75% of your fics share a common theme/plot but dang it its a good one and u know how to do it!

The Nya: opposite of the kai.  never actually publishes anything bc it’s not right yet!!! if u don’t have some fics published anonymously you’re at least seriously considering it just so u don’t have to look at them.  writes fics in dm with friends and is constantly talking about how you’re gonna edit and publish them!!! eventually!!!

The Jay: how does anyone have the patience to write over 5k.  seriously.  how.  if my characters aren’t in a situation 500 words in what’s the point of even writing.  also character development who?  these characters are here to have a time and by god u will enable them.  i bet u have like 12 published wips right now.

The Cole: longfic hell.  did this character reveal this secret to the other character yet?  u don’t know.  you’re almost too tired to check.  if only u could be rid of this fic but for whatever reason people love it and u just can’t give up on them.  you’ve been working on one fic for three years and you’ll still be here three years from now.

The Zane: introspective as hell.  are your fics fics or meta-analyses of the characters?  the answer is of course yes.  maybe you haven’t written as many fics as some of the other categories but man each one of them is a heavy-hitter.  this is bc you probably post once every seven months before dipping into the void.

The Lloyd: the spoiler.  like come on guys im writing for my and other people’s enjoyment why be secretive about it?  ask games upon ask games upon ask games and lives and dies for incoherent screaming in the tags.  you’ve made or at least attempted fanart of your fics and generally just have a good time participating in the writing community.

The Pixal: if cole is longfic hell then you’re in longfic heaven.  outline as detailed as your actual fic!  planning planning planning and yeah it shows in the way your chekov’s guns are all fired and your character arcs are all resolved and your plot points all come together so nicely.   bet u have one of those notes apps that lets you organize notes into folders.

[archie-sunshine]

So, What Now?(Rehabili/Cohabi-Tation)

Chapter 4: In Which The Party Adventures(But Not Really)

FIC TAGS: Eventual Whirl/Cyclonus/Tailgate, Cyclonus/Tailgate, polyamory, slowburn romance, mutual pining, slice of life, fluff, comedy, eventual smut(planned for later chapters), sappy mushy lovey stuff, polycue, May eventually have illustrations

The Lost Light has a brand new universe to explore! But everyone's still tired from the old one! In the interim between wacky hijinks, a solution is offered to those bored to death by peacetime- Why form a club about it or renovate your hab suite of course!

Whirl doesn't know how he feels about all the pep. And even worse, he doesn't know how to feel about Cyclonus and Tailgate wanting him to join in on their clean slate. 

Chapter 1 Here! Chapter 2 Here! Chapter 3 Here!

_________________________

Author's Notes: Ok so this one is a bit self indulgent bc i thought it'd be really funny if the gang played d&d. ALSO this is the big one that features a character that like. yknow. Y'KNOW. hes just there ok. hes just there, hes there. be cool ok.

ALSO! I might not write more about them playing this campaign, but TRUST that this game is ongoing throughout the whole story and beyond.

CHAPTER TAGS: comedy, not taking d&d seriously, bullying minimus, very sweet little end of chapter bit, rewind is whirl's friend i think, whirl spirals a bit at the beginning but its fine dw about it (other characters featured: Rung, Brainstorm, Minimus Ambus, Rewind)

That cycle felt so odd to Whirl. A nice afternoon of basketball, followed up by an evening chatting and reminiscing and planning for the next club they wanted to try out. The three of them laughed- though it was mostly Tailgate and Whirl doing the laughing- sipped Tailgate’s weak and bitter engex spritzers, and made conversation well into the end of the cycle. 

It was easy to lose track of time, awash with weak engex and endorphins from a few clumsy games of baskets ball. It was only in the lull as the time grew later that it occurred to Whirl where he was. He adjusted his legs a bit in the chair he was sitting in, setting the half empty energon cube on the low table in the middle of the sitting area. 

“Slag, getting kinda late isn’t it?” Whirl observed, starting to get up. He stretched awkwardly, twisting his waist side to side to occupy himself. 

Tailgate perked up a bit, glancing over to a clock. “O-Oh-! It is isn’t it-” He agreed.

“Do you need an escort to your hab suite, Whirl?” Cyclonus asked wryly, suppressing a smirk. .

Whirl’s optic fizzed slightly. “You couldn’t find my suite if it was 2 doors down.” He snapped.

“I’ve been to your suite multiple times.”

“Nuh-uh.”

“The amount is in double digits.”

“No its not.” 

“What do you mean ‘no it’s not’-” Cyclonus asked in disbelief. Tailgate snorted, breaking into stifled laughter. 

“I meant what I said!” Whirl strolled to the door. The mech looked over his shoulder one last time at the couple. Cyclonus squinted at him incredulously. Whirl cocked his head at him, satisfied in his confusion of the other mech. 

Tailgate waved at him a little bit. “See you later!”

Cyclonus hesitated a bit to join him in seeing Whirl off, turning his helm a bit to take another sip of his engex spritzer, making a bit of a face at the sub par taste as he raised a servo in goodbye. 

“Bye!” Whirl nodded quietly, beginning to plod down the hallway. 

The warmth in his core began to dwindle as he made the trek back homewards. Perhaps homewards was a bit of a generous term. Even with the stretch of time it had been since he had begun to call the lost light his ‘home’, his hab unit still didn’t feel like his. It didn’t matter how much rampant vandalism he committed on the walls, or how many useless pieces of scrap and junk were littered about every surface, it wasn’t his home. It felt more like a hotel. No… not a hotel. It felt like… 

Whirl didn’t want to think about it. 

He shook his helm, dipping down the last ramp onto his deck of the ship and turning towards his hallway. He counted the doors, 7 on one side, 6 on the other, until he found his own. He lifted a talon to his keypad, tapping in the combination with some effort. The stupid thing was fritzing, it had been for at least a stellar cycle, and it looked like a turbo fox had gotten at it, considering the claw marks. 

The door slid open with a quiet whoosh. Whirl shuffled inside. He sat on the edge of his berth, swinging his pedes a little bit. 

It didn’t take until Whirl was half asleep for him to receive a message from Tailgate this time. 

TG: R’s R&R Club meets in 3 cycles, see you there?-Tailgate

Whirl turns the message around in his processor, letting it tuck in neatly with the other comms Tailgate had sent him before. They’d talked about it earlier in their hab unit. He considered, albeit briefly, as he slowly reclined on his slab, how the day had made him feel, some sort of warmth growing in his chassis.

It must have been anger, maybe those jabs from Cyclonus were hitting some tender part of him. There weren't supposed to be tender parts of him. And there weren’t. 

Was it something worse? Jealousy? That felt worse than how he did, he’d become too acquainted with jealousy in his time, that wasn’t what this felt like. 

He shook his helm. He’d gone a long time trying not to think about how he felt, he wasn’t supposed to feel at all. He scrunched himself around a bit. He was NOT going to start feeling now, decidedly so. 

He offlined his optic, taking in a deep vent and trying to focus on how he would best be showing Cyclonus up at the next function they would attend. 

And who knows, maybe that’d impress Tailgate too.

Not that he cared. 

Not that he cared even a little bit.

…

“Frag, that sounds even stupider out loud.”

*

Unlike many of the other burgeoning clubs, this room hadn’t taken any renovations to prepare it for it’s club. It was simply an old meeting room, now with a much longer table and several more chairs. In the middle of the table there was a large flat sheet of draft paper, with one of Rung’s smaller model ships placed on it, along with a scattering of teeny tiny figurines of a few generic looking mechs placed around it. On the table in front of each chair there was a small box with a few polyhedral dice, and a glass of energon. To top everything off, there were a few bowls of various energon goodies to snack on as they played.

“Ah, Whirl, welcome in!” Rung called from the head of the table, behind a frosted tri folding datapad. “Oh, and Cyclonus and- Oh, wonderful to see you Tailgate.”

Whirl waved a bit as he sauntered around to the unoccupied side of the table. 

Minimus Ambus and Brainstorm sat across from him trading quiet greetings. It wasn’t until Cyclonus and Tailgate had gotten situated in their seats that Whirl jolted upon noticing Rewind once again sitting in a chair off to the side. 

Whirl cocked his head at him. 

Rewind shrugged, pointing at his recorder. “My job!” 

Whirl nodded, feeling a bit stupid.

Rung cleared his throat a bit, looking to Rewind for a moment, who offered a thumbs up as the little red light came on his visor to confirm he was filming. “Alright! Welcome, everyone, to the first meeting of the Rockets and Ruins club! As you all probably know, this is a tabletop roleplaying story and exploration game, meaning, you all will be playing as explorers and adventurers exploring and adventuring in ancient ruins on distant planets. There are a couple rules to go over before we-”

It was honestly a miracle that Whirl managed to focus for that much of the explanation before zoning out. He found it a bit ironic that they were pretending to do adventuring inside their own ship, which was fully capable of stopping at a planet and having an actual adventure at any time. He glanced around the table at the other faces, hoping to catch the optic of another bot who found the whole concept a bit stupid. 

Instead he found Cyclonus and Tailgate both focusing on Rung with rapt attention. He could sense a modicum of excitement in both their fields, and a wash of… relaxation. 

He supposed if it made them happy it mustn’t be so stupid. 

He trained his optic on the bowl of energon goodies then, slowly reaching for one with his pincers. He made optic contact with Rewind as the smaller bot focused in on his servo moving, and slowly brought the treat up to the intake chute at the underside of his chin. 

He gave Rewind a good look at it, lifting up his helm and munching quietly but grossly at him until he turned his lens back towards Rung. 

Whirl rocked a bit in his chair as Rung continued to explain, tapping his claws against the table. Oh- his datapad! He recalled the confusing night he’d spent a cycle before trying to learn how to put together a character file. He dug around in his subspace for a second before producing a smudged and scratched datapad and pulling up his character.

“Hey there handsome.” He mumbled to himself at the shoddily drawn portrait he’d put together to adorn his character’s file. He tipped the datapad towards Tailgate, showing off the character he’d put together. 

Tailgate peered down at it and smiled excitedly, before tapping at his own datapad and showing Whirl his character, a slightly better but still kind of bad drawing of a beefy looking bot with a tiny pair of spectacles and a pair of chainguns sticking proudly from his shoulders. Whirl snickered, reaching a claw forwards to start drawing spikes on Tailgate’s datapad.

“-with that all explained, who would like to introduce their character first, hm?” Rung asked as Whirl tuned back into the conversation mid shaft drawing. 

“I can start!” Brainstorm cycled his vocalizer, haughtily turning his datapad around to show off a crude drawing of a ‘handsome’, slender, visored bot holding a giant canon over one shoulder. “I’ll be playing Formula, the universe’s most genius scientist.” 

“Wonderful, and his class?” Rung prompted.

“Upper, but not in a kitschy way, you know?” Brainstorm said, turning the datapad back to himself to admire.

“I-I meant your character’s erm.. ‘Job’? Designation?” Rung chuckled.

“OH! Uhmmm…” He scanned his character file. “Heavy weapons expert!”

“Lovely, Minimus?” Rung shifted his gaze to the third in command. 

Minimus shifted in his chair, sitting up impossibly straighter and presenting a sketch of his character, a tall, broadchested but delicate mech with a mouthpiece and a brilliant orange and blue paintjob. “I will be playing Posthaste, a military liaison and ambassador, he is of the swordsman class.” He said proudly, making sure to tip the datapad briefly towards Rewind to capture the image. 

Whirl reached for another energon snack, quietly munching on it as Rung turned to Tailgate. 

“Tailgate? How about your character?” He asked.

Tailgate flipped his screen around to the others, showing off his masterpiece. “I’m playing Guncrusher! He’s an archaeologist who’s also a tank, and he’s ummm….” He quickly turned his pad back to himself. “He’s a brawler class!” 

Minimus leaned in to squint at the drawing in a bit of disbelief, Brainstorm doing the same in admiration instead. “Cool guns…” He whispered

“Yeah, super cool.” Tailgate said proudly. 

Rung glanced over to Whirl. “And how about you Whirl?” 

Whirl cycled his optics. “Me? Oh, I’m playing a scout, and you think Guncrusher’s cool get a load of,” Whirl flipped his datapad around, proudly showing off possibly the worst drawing of a mech with a hugely too kibbled helm and two big knives, “KNIFE!!” 

He jerked the datapad around, making sure everyone got a faceplate-ful of his glorious creation. His character jerked a laugh out of Brainstorm, Tailgate, and Rewind, while Rung held his back behind a servo and smiled. Minimus was entirely unamused, giving Whirl a look. 

Cyclonus let out a slightly forced vent, his equivalent of laughing hysterically when it came to one of Whirl’s machinations. 

Rung cleared his vocalizer. “Hah, alright, wonderful, and Cyclonus?” 

Cyclonus nodded a bit, picking up his datapad. “I’ll be playing Achord, a historian.” He turned the pad around delicately to show a lovingly rendered image of a black, red, and teal plated mech with a datapad in hand. “He is a medic class.” 

The bots at the table gave a collective noise of impressed awe at Cyclonus’s carefully curated character portrait. Whirl cocked his head a bit. He was no Knife, but Achord seemed pretty cool. He guessed. For Cyclonus. 

“Alright, with that all said- lets get ready to ‘roll out’ as they say!” Rung said, laughing at his own joke as he pushed his spectacles up his face. 

*

The rain pounded heavily on the steel roof of the bar. It was a seedy hole in the wall, something that hardly counted as civilization, as it was one of the few mech made structures that weren't ruins on this ancient abandoned colony planet. 

Slick with rain, Posthaste entered the bar solemnly, tossing a glance over his shoulder at the military shuttle that had dropped him off. He strode to the bar and took a seat next to the hulking (TG: Oo yeah, hulking is a good word!!)archaeologist that was to be his work partner for the foreseeable future. 

“Guncrusher, pleasure to make your acquaintance.” said Posthaste, offering a servo in greeting. 

*

“Oh- can i shake his servo super strongly?” Tailgate asked, turning his attention to Rung. 

Rung beamed, flipping through some files on his datapad screen. “Ah yes, Minimus, Tailgate, both of you roll the icosahedron I’ve provided. You may add your strength bonuses from your character files to this roll to determine which of you shakes hardest.” 

Minimus nodded, delicately plucking up the dice and tossing it into the box. He frowned, looking across the table at Tailgate as he rolled his own dice. “With my bonus that will be a ten.” He said.

“And with mine its a twenty one!” Tailgate chirped triumphantly. 

*

Posthaste’s digits ground together uncomfortably in Guncrusher’s grip. “Quite the strength you have.” He observed, rubbing his servo upon being released from Guncrusher’s vicehold. 

“Oh yeah, its like, one of my biggest features, I get to add 8 to every roll with my strength.” Guncrusher boomed. 

(MM: You can’t just talk about his statistics he doesn't know that he has statistics-)

From behind the pair, there entered a new figure, slender and strapped with a canon. “HAIL AND WELL MET GOOD MECHS!” Began Formula, skipping up to the bar. “Your FINEST cube of engex please.” He crooned to the bartender.

*

“Oh that CANNOT be your character voice-!” Tailgate giggled.

“Oh it can- hold on-” Brainstorm turned his datapad over to Tailgate, pointing at a spot in his character notes. “Sorry it says I can do whatever I want forever.” He shrugged sarcastically. 

*

“Only the greatest engex for ME, the GREATEST scientific genius in the entire universe.” Formula continued as the bartender exhasperatedly poured him a cube of the best engex he could muster, not that it was even particularly good.

“Ah, Guncrusher, is this another one of your colleagues?” Posthaste inquired. 

“Yep! He’s the greatest scientific genius in the universe which makes great timing since we’re gonna need some scientific genius to do all the archaeology we’re going to do.” Gungrusher confirmed. Formula nodded wisely, taking a sip of his engex. 

“...I see, so then is there anyone else that will be joining us?” Posthaste asked.

From over his shoulder, Posthaste could sense a sudden oncoming danger. Raising his arm up quickly, he was able to catch the stool flying for his head before it made contact.

*

“WHY- FOR WHAT REASON ARE YOU THROWING STOOLS AT ME!” Minimus balked.

Whirl looked over at Rung. “I’d like to roll to throw another stool please.” He said as Brainstorm cackled. 

“WHY!!” Minimus wailed. 

“Alright, roll your strength to throw the next stool.” Rung nodded, trying to wrestle his face into a neutral expression rather than smiling. 

“RUNG!!” The third in command whipped his faceplate around to look at him in abject despair. 

“There’s no rule that says he can’t throw furniture, Minimus.” Cyclonus observed as he scrolled through the rule document Rung had forwarded them. 

“I got an eighteen!” Whirl cheered. 

“Does that exceed your armour class, Posthaste?” Rung asked. 

*

The stool pinged off his back plating with a loud *WHOK* noise. 

“OW!” Posthaste shouted in indignation, turning around to face his assailant. 

Knife held up his servos, making crude gestures at the liaison for no discernible reason. “I’m the scout! I’m KNIFE! But you can call me anytime.” 

*

“Whirl you’re not taking this seriously.” Minimus growled. 

“Rung said the first rule was to have fun and be yourself!!” Tailgate protested. “You’re having fun, right Whirl?”

Whirl beamed. “I’m having oodles of fun! ANOTHER STOOL!” 

Minimus grabbed his own helm, attempting to massage his temples. “Rung may I engage Knife in battle please.” 

Rung smiled reservedly. “Of course, you’ll have to roll-”

“I’d like to use my defender feature to block Posthaste’s attack.” Cyclonus interjected. 

The entire table, excluding Minimus and Cyclonus, burst into laughter. 

“Using this feature I can use an item of 25 pounds or lighter to block an attack from an aggressive creature up to one size above medium-” He continued, biting back a smile. 

“Hehe-! Hah-! And- *ahem* and what do you use to block Posthaste’s attack?” Rung wheezed. 

*

Steel clanged against stool leg as Posthaste brought his rapier down upon Achords raised chair as he stood before Knife. 

“I’ll thank you not to assault my hired scout.” Achord said grimly. “It’s not a good first impression, ambassador. 

“Oh slag.” Formula murmured.

“Oh frag!” Guncrusher whispered.

“My apologies, Achord- I didn’t know that throwing STOOLS at people you have yet to INTRODUCE YOURSELF TO was a normal occurrence for your scout.”

“You’d better believe it!!” Knife cackled.

“He’s a bit tetchy, but you get used to him.” Achord shrugged. 

“Ah! The archaeological team appears to have gathered itself!” A stranger called, a broad shouldered beige plated femme with a goggled helm and blue racing stripes. “Let’s get to work then, if you’re all done throwing chairs and swigging engex.” 

*

**

***

“And with that, as you all make your way towards the ruins of Talavantor’s stronghold, we are going to end this session of Rockets and Ruins! Thank you all so much for attending.” Rung clapped his servos together. 

The whole table let out a collective excited, if disappointed, vent in response to the close of the session. 

“A wonderfully judged game.” Minimus complimented as he gathered his datapad. 

“Oh yes, quite stimulating!” Brainstorm agreed through an intakeful of energon crisp crumbs. 

“So fun, I can’t wait to see what happens next!” Tailgate chirped, picking up his datapad and climbing down off his chair. 

Whirl bobbed his helm. “It was nice! Usually nobody lets me get away with throwing stuff at them!” He laughed. 

Cyclonus nodded as well. “Thank you for the session, Rung.” He said formally, bowing his head as he tucked his chair back under the table. 

The bots all passed by Rewind as they exited, Tailgate lingering for a moment. 

“So do you think that you’d ever play a round?” He asked, beginning to walk down the hall beside the fellow minibot. 

“Oh definitely! I love this kind of stuff.” Rewind nodded. 

“So why not play for the first session?” 

Rewind shrugged. “I like to get the club stuff from an outside perspective first. Its a good taste tester. Besides, aren’t you three doing the same kind of thing?”

Cyclonus nodded a bit. “Yes, Tailgate is quite indecisive. Too many fun things to try, yes?”

Tailgate chuckled sheepishly, a little hint of embarrassment in his voice. “I guess so! I dunno! I’m just big on experiences, yknow?” 

Rewind laughed, nudging his shoulder pad against Tailgate’s. “You’re telling me.” 

Cyclonus glanced over his shoulder as they reached a fork in the hallways, one a fast track back to Rewind’s hab suite, the other back to the couple’s unit. He made eye contact with Whirl. 

Whirl peered down the hallway, frozen for a long second. He could feel that heavy feeling creeping at his spark when he thought about returning ‘home’. 

“You coming, Whirl?” Tailgate inquired, snapping Whirl out of his brief reverie. He looked back, the group having stopped to regard him. 

“... Yeah… Yeah, I’ll come.” He said with a bit of a shrug. “Just make better spritzers this time, yeah?” He jabbed, catching up with the group as Tailgate looked at him aghast. 

“What! My spritzers are great!” He gasped, punching Whirl in the hip lightly- or at least as lightly as the outlier could manage. The minibot rounded on Cyclonus. “You said they were good!!” 

Cyclonus quickly averted his gaze and quickened his pace. 

“Wha-! CYCLONUS!!” Tailgate shouted, jogging after him. 

Rewind snickered behind a servo. 

Whirl leaned down and lowered his voice. “They’re really terrible, just have the engex straight, I say.” 

“Oh, I know, they’re awful.” Rewind chuckled. There was a beat of quiet between them as they observed Tailgate chasing his speedwalking conjunx down the hall. “So… you’ve been spending a lot of time with those two, huh?” 

Whirl tensed. “And whats it to ya?” 

“I dunno, its just sweet is all.” He shrugged. “And its good to see you out more.” 

“Everyone keeps saying that.” 

“Is it unexpected? You were kind of hiding for a few deca-cycles, Whirl.”

“Not that-! I mean.”

Whirl thought for a moment, mulling over his words. Tailgate had caught up with Cyclonus, and was laying playful punches into his thigh as the taller bot pushed him back by the helm. 

“... I guess I didn’t expect people to be happy about seeing me.” 

Rewind was quiet for a stretch. Whirl peeked at him from out of the corner of his optic, his face inscrutable. 

“I think plenty of us have reason to be.” He said finally, absently scratching at his chassis, right over where his spark would be. 

There was that warm feeling again. Whirl mirrored Rewind’s motion, swallowing thickly. 

“... Gross.” He breathed, scrunching his optic a bit in feigned disgust at the emotionality of it all. 

Rewind laughed.

So did Whirl.

__________

Post chapter authors note: I DID NOT FORGET THAT WHIRL GAVE REWIND A LIFE SAVING ENERGON TRANSFUSION I DID NOT FORGET THAT! WHY DONT WE TALK ABOUT THIS MORE

[saltynsassy31]

no cus i totally understand your frustration, ive also quit splatfests for the moment until they get an overhaul

i suggest if you feel close to getting hateful to either shiver or shiver fans then maybe quit for a while for your own sake cus ive felt a lot better after doing so, im still really sensitive to negative comments towards frye or rude ones about shiver winning but taking some time for myself has made me feel infinitely better

ive been close to hating shiver before bc of how cocky and rude them and their fans can be but it doesnt really do anything but sour your enjoyment of the game more, so its really not worth it

i do have to say though, anyone who says "its just a game" reaaally needs to understand the frustration of people OTHER than them, sympathy is something a lot of people forget about when it comes to things that arent real life. just because it doesnt affect you doesnt mean everyone can shut off their attachment to the game or a character like a light switch; a lot of the time you dont know whats going on with them. i myself am really attached to frye cus i am hashtag autism creature and he brings me comfort, so anyone being rude to me about shiver winning really REALLY gets under my skin. its not entirely (if they were serious, if they werent then its not at all) their fault, but nintendo fixing the frustration of splatfests constantly keeling in one direction (which theyre supposed to do anyways but they havent) would definitely fix the issue. we need to find a way to have nintendo fix this, not attack anyone else for what bundle of pixels and text theyre attached to.

not everyone has really thick skin and if we want splatoon 3 to be more hospitable then we should try to cut down on the general splatfest bullassery in public spaces (being overly cocky and rude/blaming others in a way with no basis or truth behind it). its not something everyone can always do since we arent all perfect, but if we make steps in that direction then we could help more people enjoy the splatoon community rather than being eaten up by toxicity and spite

i didnt word all of this entirely correctly so like interpret ad best as you can cus im eepy but yeah.

a fye for u to enjoy (also ur anon is off btw)

u dont have to but for the sake of not being harrassed id appreciate if u didnt tag with public tags

👏👏 PREACH

I don't want to quit playing it, I do enjoy splatfests, to a certain extent, i like going with my friends and i made a lot of new friends through it, it's like, the online community that I'm having a problem with

I don't hate shiver, I thought I did but I can't, she is still a comfort character (tho Frye is like, my obsession besides being my comfort character cuz I am also part part the 'tism XD), in a way, I like her dynamic with the group at least, she annoys me, yes, very much so, but I don't hate her

And I don't hate people who like her either

Who I do hate is people being mean about it, I had turned off anon cuz of a stupid person who was going around every frye support account anonymously just saying mean stuff and praising shiver as the best, I just forgot to turn it on, so thanks for reminding me 😅

Saying that "It's just a game" is so annoying to, tell that to the football fans, they go just as crazy if not more so

Splatfests are ment to be fun! You should be able to enjoy the splatfest without having to worry about people fighting

I don't like fighting with people, I hate how angry I become, how mean I can sound sometimes, I usually just vent without interacting

At least she won in Japan, so that is one other win under her belt, I just wish she'd win more in the future 😔

Oh also I almost didn't participate in this splatfest either and I did only because I haven't had time to play and I haven't finished my catalogue yet 😅 I usually use splatfests to up my catalogue quicker lmao

Also, don't worry, I won't tag anything that could get you harassed, if anything does happen, please block for your health, I don't want anything happening to you, you seem very sweet ;w;

Edit: also YOUR FRYE PLUSH IS SO CUTE! I've been seeing people get her but idk where to buy her!!!! Where'd you get it? :0