#not that being a giant 10-year-old is a bad thing

[pudding-parade]

After his workout, I sent Andrew to the festival lot to make sure the stuff that I added to it works and such.

He seemed to enjoy the carousel. Because even though he doesn't have the childish trait, he's still a giant 10-year-old. I already know this about him.

[drmajalis]

"Le standard rpg moralistic choice™️" is one of the most boring tropes in western rpgs imho.

What I prefer and what I think pretty much everyone enjoys more are choices based on ideology and how you want to do things, not "do you wanna be good? or a mass murderer?"

I'm talking "choices" like disarming the nuke in Megaton in Fallout 3, or, fucking nuking the entire town. Or more recently, do you save the tieflings and the druids from the goblin army bent on wiping them out? Or do you decide to just slaughter them all?

Like, Bioware had data from the Mass Effect series which showed that less than 10% of players went Renegade on a first playthrough, when all you do is offer people a choice between being good, or bad, most people will just choose good, because that's usually what makes most sense for the story.

Compare that to (take a shot) Fallout New Vegas, just one quest, that being fixing the Helios One solar power plant and deciding who should get the power.

Should you distribute the power equally among the region, even if that means nobody really gets a lot?

Should you send it to Camp McCarren and the Strip since they are vital to protecting New Vegas from the Legion?

Should you send it to the slums in Fremont and Westside since that might help their situation the most?

Or should you use the power plant to fuel a giant space satellite laser, just for yourself!

New Vegas is filled with actual choices like this, and, if you can't even do that, you coulds try what (act surprised) Knights of the Old Republic II does and make meta comments on the futility and bizarreness of binary good/evil choices.

Early on when you arrive on Nar Shaddaa in KOTOR II a beggar asks you if you can spare some credits, and no matter what your choice, give them to him, and he gets mugged later, refuse him, and he goes out and mugs someone else, with Kreia commenting negatively on either choice you make.

Anyway I'm just really sick and tired of the boring binary morality choices and wish we had more actually intellectually debatable issues, the very fact that even 13 years later people argue over what the best ending to New Vegas is should be proof enough that it's way of doing things is objectively better.

[lunar-years]

Peanut gallery social media commentary on Challengers is sooo funny to me.

“Art was the victim!” Did you miss the part where he started stirring shit up between his best friend and his best friend’s girlfriend in the hopes they’d break up and he could get with her instead? Or how he chose to cut off his best friend entirely to side with Tashi because Tashi blamed said best friend for her injury (literally he doesn’t even talk to Patrick about the argument? Ever? Just kicks him out of his life because Tashi wants them to LMAO)?

“Patrick was the victim!” Did you miss the part where Patrick spends like 13 years willfully reinserting himself back into a relationship he no longer gets to be a part of all because he’d rather ruin them and come between them and repeatedly hurt them if it means he knows they still think about him, rather than taking ownership of his actions and coming to terms with the fact that they no longer think about him at all? Did you miss the fact that he’s a giant flop on top of being a giant asshole?

“Tashi is an evil cold manipulative bitch who doesn’t care about anything but tennis and comes between them!” Okay what we’re not going to do is 1) act like those two losers weren’t active participants in the vast majority of what was happening to them so that we can blame everything on the woman 2) forget that Tashi spends the entire movie both being incredibly horny for yes tennis, but tennis very much including Art and Patrick specifically, as well as bringing a wrecking ball down on her own life repeatedly because she physically cannot go on without having all three of them in her life.

“The three of them are ALL terrible, bad people!” Are they or they neither good nor bad but a secret third thing (messed up, regular people)? Are they or they all three simultaneously the one’s holding the gun and falling into the graves they’ve dug for themselves?

“The movie promised me a throuple and then didn’t even deliver!/it was just a regular boring old love triangle” Did you miss the part where Patrick was the person who taught Art to jerk off? Did you miss the part where Tashi encourages them to neck her until they’re close enough for her to back away and leave them kissing each other as she watches with horny amusement? Did you miss the fact that they’re both playing for her number? Did you miss Art molding himself into the person who could obtain the glory that Tashi was denied? Or how he saw his fiance/wife kissing her ex boyfriend who also happens to be his ex best friend in Atlanta and then spends like 10 more years doing absolutely nothing about it? Did you miss “Don’t I matter?” “Not to the most obsessive tennis fan in the world” “I’m not talking about tennis” followed by an Art who has stopped caring whether he wins or loses caring, by the end of the match, more than he’s ever cared before, because Patrick DOES matter and because he’s STILL playing for Tashi’s number? Did you miss the part where for about 15 seconds there they were actually playing tennis and they understood each other completely and so did everyone watching and it was a bit like they were in love or like they didn’t exist and they went somewhere really beautiful together? HUH?

“They’re incredibly toxic!” Well, yes! but you see, that’s part of the fun!

[hayleylatour]

Finding Peace 🕊️

content warnings- none really, cocky Noah, talks of sex but none as of right now.

Summary- Mia is a 24 year old new bookstore owner who got pregnant by a one night stand with Bad Omens front man Noah Sebastian. Deciding to stay friends and raise their daughter together. What hardships and challenges will they face?

Parings- Baby daddy! Noah Sebastian x OC Mia

Chapter five ~ Mia’s pov

~ 3 days later~

Noah never had to call the guys, with the tour canceled they were able to come home. Jolly called the next morning to tell us they were coming home and to ask how I was and how the baby was. Noah and I decided to take the opportunity of the guys being out to lunch to set up the reveal. We were telling them that we’re having a girl, Ophelia. Noah was hanging a pink banner above the fireplace pink balloons scattered around the living room. the white cake sitting on the kitchen island. they should be here soon and are going to walk into a pink wonderland

“I think it’s enough angel, they’re going to get the surprise. Theres a giant pink banner that says it’s a girl” Noah says stepping down from the ladder.

“Everything has to be perfect. We’re telling them her name tonight too right? Or should we wait till shes born?” I Fidget with the hem of my shirt. Running my hand along my belly tapping my fingers as I go. Ophelia kicks in response. Shes already so loved, she has a whole family that cares about her so much and she doesn’t even know it. I’ve stayed in Noah’s room since the accident. He is still on edge that something is wrong with her, even though my doctor assured him she’s fine and is right on track for a 20 week pregnancy.

“Whatever you decide, I’m sure that they will love her name. It may keep them from calling her a little bean” Noah says pulling me to a hug.

When the guys arrive the excitement is clear on their faces. A choir of voices can be heard throughout the house. This is what family feels like.

“So Mia, do you guys have a name picked out?” Jolly asks sitting down next to me on the couch. I’ve been thinking all night if we tell them her name now or wait till her birth.

“We do but I think we’re going to wait to tell everyone for just a little bit. One surprise at a time.” I laugh as jolly nods. I make eye contact with Noah from the kitchen. Smiling he grabs my cup and makes his way to the living room.

~10 weeks later~

Everything hurts or is starting to hurt. My clothes no longer fit, living in oversized shirts and sweatpants is completely horrible and it doesn’t make me feel any better, as sweet as Noah is to me it continues to piss me off. He doesn’t quite understand that I can do things for myself. He doesn’t understand that his daughter is kicking me in the ribs and bladder at the same time. I can’t look in the mirror without seeing a different person. None of my clothes fit so I look like a slob most of the time. And god dammit I’m frustrated, sexually speaking but emotionally speaking too.

“Noah I really need you to stop fussing over me. I am fine please let me be.” I sigh pulling the glass of water from him and setting it on the counter. He huffs. “I’m grown I can get up and make myself a glass of water and my own lunch. I can walk upstairs without you right behind me, I’m not a child I need you to stop babying me! Christ Noah I’m pregnant I’m not dying!” Tears welling in my eyes.

“Alright what is your fucking problem lately? You’re really starting to piss me off!” Noah says pulling at his roots.

“You wanna know what my fucking problem is? Huh! My problem is I’m so frustrated and tired. My feet are swollen my hips are killing me. I’ve got a foot in my ribs and your daughter is head butting my damn bladder! I can’t see my feet anymore! I’ve got stretch marks in place i didn’t know I could get them! I’m horny beyond belief, and I can’t just ask you to fuck me because god know that you can’t find this attractive anymore! None of my clothes fit right and maternity clothes look like they were made for old people! God Noah I’m not trying to be a bitch but i don’t feel like myself anymore! I cant look in the mirror anymore. I mean fuck man!” I say tears now streaming down my face Noah’s features soften

“I’d still have sex with you, i just didn’t wanna hurt her or you. I find you incredibly attractive. Angel I will have sex with you. Will that make you be nicer to me, you need me to make that attitude change with some dick?” He says stepping into my space as his hand cup my face sliding one hand into my hard. His lips so close I can taste to mint on his breath. Whimpering I close the space enveloping his lips. His tongue swipes across my bottom lip and I immediately grant him access. I don’t fight him for dominance, at this point id gladly give it up for him.

Pulling away he smirks “that’s all it took for you to be slightly nicer. Huh? I’ll have sex with you angel all you have to do is ask baby. I still find you sexy as hell Mia.” He says before lowering his lips to mine once more.

“Upstairs, please Noah” I whisper as I step away pulling him to the staircase. Laughing he scoops me up bridal style taking the steps two at a time before kicking the door shut and laying me on the bed.

[vacantvisage]

My portrait at Mi Vida Trans

A project featuring portraits of Chicano trans mascs put on doors with our stories taped to the side, red carnations left at our doorsteps

I did my story as a poem:

MI VIDA TRANS

I had thought about my gender at an early age. About 5 or 6. Kindergarten.

I wasn’t like the girls.

I wanted to be like the boys, but they told me I was gross, that boys don’t play with girls.

I never really felt “like a girl” even when I knew a “girl” could be a lot of things.

I didn’t feel at home in my body.

.

When I told myself I was going to be a boy, I was 10 years old.

In the small, rural towns full of white folks, I was the Weird Kid and the Mexican.

Eventually I became the Queer Kid, too.

I told my friends I wanted to be a boy.

They told a teacher. That teacher told the principal.

The principal called me. He said “we don’t talk about that here.”

I was given detention.

I looked up “girl becomes boy” and “how to become a boy” and so much more until I found a website with a big, ugly gray background and giant red letters that said “ TRANSEXUAL”

It talked about people who had surgery and lived lives as a different sex.

Girls that became boys. Boys that became girls. Neutrois who did what they wanted.

I printed it, 25 pages, front and back, a hundred times until the library ran out of ink.

I passed out the packets.

I was given detention.

I was called a tranny-fag-dyke. I was 15.

Girls were afraid of me in the locker room, boys spat on me, my teachers gave me failing grades.

Everyone and everything was trying to confine me, trap me, I wasn’t allowed to explore my identity without being pushed from all directions. It made me realize I will always be a pariah to my peers. I had to own it or die trying.

I came out to everyone, everywhere, all the time. I was given detention, kept after school, my parents yelled and screamed at me when they found out. It was a monsoon of rage and sorrow, I was trapped trying to be free.  

Alternative subculture became a new home to me. I could find peace exploring different standards of beauty, masculinity, and femininity. Goth and metal subculturas helped me stealth both as a trans man and a Latino, where white people think celebrating the dead is evil, morbid, and grotesque.

My mother said if I was “really” a boy I should get rid of all my clothes and makeup and live like one for a year. I put everything in boxes. She called me a rat.

My father said if I was “really” a boy I should cut my hair. I cried, but I did. I cut all my hair, 5ft of it. And I cried. And cried. Our hair means so much, it carries our soul. And he called me a cunt.

I told my best friend. She said she could never see me as a man. We’re no longer friends.

I told my teacher. She told me to tell another teacher. They both told me to tell the nurse.

The nurse told me I was brave and if I ever needed help I could ask her.

They fired her.

I heard all the words for what I was, good and bad and everything between. Transexual, Transgender, Tranny, Fag, Dyke — Patlache.

I hunted for more, more knowledge of these secret lives that people lived, and even more of the open lives that people lived – people like me who found peace in their souls and friends among peers.

I started college.

Without my parents looking over my shoulder I could finally play with the names I wanted. 

I made friends with a trans girl who showed me how to be a boy, and I showed her how to be a girl.

I did her makeup, she tied my tie.

I gave her my dresses, she gave me her vests.

And I finally started to feel at home in my body.

.

I have long hair again.

I say “dear” and “darling” and all the things I heard from gay men growing up.

As a girl I was taught to be loud, to have my voice heard.

As a girl, it’s encouraged, to fight against oppression.

As a new-man I’m told to shut up and sit down.

No one wants to hear more men speak up, even when we’re drowning.

But I’m feminine for a man, so people call me a girl.

And I’m masculine for a girl, so people call me disgusting.

It doesn’t matter anymore.

I will never win this silly game of life. I can only live it the best I can.

And I’m so close to feeling at home in my body.

But still — not yet.

[obsidiancreates]

Out Of The Shadows and Into The Neon (Part 12)

“For the last time, Mikey, I’m not putting a cottage cheese monster in our comic!” Raph pulls the paper away from his little brother. 

“But Raaaaaph!”

“No! It’s totally lame!”

“Not as lame as a big bug!”

“Hey, bugs are dangerous! Remember what your dad said about how the totally-unknown-evil-scientist-guy used mosquitos to make mutants!”

“That’s different!”

“IS NOT!”

“IS TOO!”

“YOU-!” Raph growls, and then closes his eyes. Mikey blinks, and scoots away as Raph times his breathing to calm down. He opens his eyes again and calmly says, “You’re just saying it’s different because you’re mad I’m not putting in the monster.”

Mikey crosses his arms and looks away. “I think it’s cool.”

“... Fine. But you gotta draw him!”

Mikey lights up. “Alright!”

Leo passes a page with a messy drawing of a New York street to Donnie, who starts sketching a vehicle (a sort of modified van) racing down the road. Their styles clash- Leo’s, while still being the uncoordinated style of a child, bears a striking resemblance to traditional Japanese painting styles. Donnie’s, however, shows that he clearly draws for Blueprints more often than he does for Fun. When he finishes up the sketch he passes the page to Raph who, with a skill that’s extremely impressive for a 10-year-old, adds in two figures in the little windshield and two crouched on top of the van. Finally Raph passes the page to Mikey, who gleefully and not-quite-as-skillfully adds in his monster.

“This can be a dream,” Leo says, watching Mikey work a white crayon down to naught but a nub. “And then we– I mean, they, can… um…”

“Fight alien robots?” Mikey looks at Leo with wide, watery eyes, clasping his hands together. “I had a dream we fought alien robots! Just like our dads!”

“Hey, I dreamt that too.” Donnie looks down and starts sketching. “And they all talked funny.”

“Talked stupid.” Raph leans over Donnie’s shoulder. “Lemme add the brain thing in the middle.”

“What about ninjas?” Leo looks through the papers, and holds up a drawing he did before they all agreed to make One Big Comic together. “Robot ninjas!” 

Mikey gasps, eyes sparkling. “How about both?!”

“No way they can fight both!” Donnie looks at the one finished page, the four small totally-not-self-insert figures facing off against the cottage cheese monster. “That’s way too many bad guys!”

“Nuh-uh!” Mikey springs up and does a backflip, landing in a defensive stance. “They can totally do it!”

“The numbers are totally against them!” Donnie chews on the end of his pencil. “... Unless… we give them friends?”

Raph smirks. “You just wanna add your imaginary friend in.”

“Well she was in my dream about the alien robots anyway!”

“How about we can all add one friend for them in?” Leo flips the page with the robot ninja over and starts drawing. “I’m going to give them a wise sensei.”

“Fine. Then, I’m giving the coolest possible human friend ever.” Raph starts his own design. “If Auntie Cass and Uncle Casey were one person!”

“Then I’m adding in Leatherhead!” Mikey gets to work, the drawing coming easily, as he’s drawn the character dozens of times before.

Donnie just sticks his tongue out as he draws a red-haired human girl. 

Mikey laughs and kicks his feet in the air. “This comic is gonna be awesome!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Draxum sits, stewing, as Angelo delicately places the last band-aid on his forehead. Angelo chuckles and taps the cartoon unicorn on it for good luck, then slides away.

“Maybe next time you will call instead of dropping into our sewers unannounced,” Splints says with barely-hidden amusement.

“Maybe next time you will not leave four rocket-powered skateboards blasting around your sewers!” Draxum snips back.

“Hey! Enough fighting for the day. Raphie’s taking a nap.” Raphie is, indeed, taking a nap on his giant beanbag, his mask turned backwards to cover his eyes. He has truly become A Dad.

“It would also have been nice to know my grandson is grounded from our chemistry lessons before I made my way here.” Draxum glares at Donald, ignoring Raphie’s demand for peace.

“Of course, let me just install a ‘Grounded Alert’ on your phone so you know every time he is unable to make it!” Donald says, tossing his arms up and rolling his eyes. He pauses, and holds his hand out. “I did mean that, actually, let me install that while you’re here.”

Draxum hands over his phone, and Donald gets to work. “I think it’s ridiculous you grounded your boys for being warriors.”

“For doing everything we told them not to,” Leon says, rubbing his eyes. “You know, no offense Barry, but I hate when you weigh in on our parenting decisions. … On second thought, full offense.”

Draxum shrugs, pursing his lips. Unbothered. “Perhaps I’d have less to say if you agreed on sending them to my school.”

“For the last time, it’s not happening! We dealt with enough weird mystic lunchroom situations when April went to school there!”

“I have it under control! Joseph is a fine young meat-man now!”

“Not! Happening!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Okay, now draw my character going like, h-wahhhhhh!” Mikey demonstrates with several flips, landing with a chop. “And then, HYAH!” He pretends to whip his ‘chuck chains around Raph’s legs and pull. 

“I’m adding one or the other, not both!”

“Then add the flips! Nothing beats backflips.”

Donnie pauses coloring in the graffiti on the buildings. “Why do I feel like we’ve had this conversation before?”

Mikey shrugs. “Because… backflips are awesome?”

Leo passes Donnie another finished background page. “I get that a lot too. Feeling like we talked about or did something before.”

“Done something,” Donnie absently corrects. “It’s called Deja Vu. … Maybe it comes from whatever our Ninpos will be?”

“Wait, you think we’ll get those?” Raph passes his page to Mikey so Mikey can add the bad guys. “But we aren’t, you know. Blood.”

“But we are Hamato, aren’t we?” Donnie takes the time to draw in his added character, the human girl. He’s calling her Red. He adds yellow waves of power around her. “And it’s a spiritual thing. Not really a DNA thing.”

“How do you know?” Mikey licks a lollipop and uses it as ‘glue’ to stick the new page to the rest of them.

“... I guess I don’t.” Donnie sits up, putting his hands on his head. “I don’t! Guys… I’ve never looked at our DNA!”

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“They are warriors!”

“They’re kids!” Angelo puts his hands on his hips and uses his powers to rise above Draxum and glare down at him. 

“They’re their father’s sons,” Draxum argues back. “Carrying on a great legacy of battle and triumph, from all sides of their creations! … Except the turtle part, I guess.”

Raphie sits up, twists his mask back around normally. “They’re not ‘their father’s sons’ in terms of power, Barry! We did what we did because you designed us to be weapons! They weren’t made for that!”

“We don’t know what they were made for!” Draxum pulls a stone out of his apron, and it levitates up and breaks apart. It shows a strand of DNA, unlike any DNA elsewhere in the world. “A decade has gone by and we still have yet to even begin to discover what substance created them! Perhaps this drive for battle is something natural, ingrained, and repressing it will only harm them!”

Donald smacks the stone onto the ground, much to Draxum’s shock and appall. “Or perhaps you are just as stuck in your, warring warrior scientist past, as we all worried you’d be!”

“It’s hard not to harken back to it when it seems to continue being relevant!”

“ENOUGH!” Splinter jumps up, breaking the eyelines of his family’s intense stares. All eyes follow him back down to the floor as he lands on his butt and hops onto his feet. “Draxum! If you want more time with your grandsons, just say so.”

Leon laughs. “Okay Pops, cute theory but– huh?”

Draxum stands, sagging with his eyes watering and lip quivering. He quickly wipes his eyes with a mystic vine. “They are trying to become warriors and I haven’t been a part of it yet. Even if I was… on the wrong side of things, as your four grew into your potentials, I was still there to see it happen.”

“But… Donnie has weekly lessons with you.” Donald checks the calendar in his wristpad. 

“That is one grandson of four, and it is not battle.”

Angelo blinks, and lowers back to the ground. “Guys… he’s right. And maybe not just about him.” Angelo looks around. “When was the last time we shook things up? Had any one-on-one time with the boys who weren’t our own sons?”

Everyone considers– and slowly grows horrified to realize it’s all been Group Activities or Sons Only time for years now.

“No wonder they’re acting out!” Raphie hits his fist into his palm. “Remember what all those parenting books said? Enrichment, and wide social circles! We need to spend more time with our nephews doin’ stuff we don’t do as dads!” He side-eyes Draxum. “And, grandpas too, I guess.”

Draxum grins. Not without an edge to it. “Perhaps I could borrow the boys for a lesson on the basics of mystic weaponry?”

“Aw, Barry. It’s sweet that you care.” Angelo wraps an arm around Draxum’s shoulders– and then tightens it, smiling with dead eyes. “But if you take our boys near any armories, a visit from Dr. Delicate Touch will seem like a reprieve from pain.”

Draxum swallows as Angelo slips away. “Maybe just a visit to the Hidden City’s best sights, then. … The ones that are willing to welcome me.”

“And we can all plan something with our nephews.” Raphie looks around. “Like uh… Angelo can take Raph wall-painting!”

“And… Leon can take Mikey out for some basketball!” Angelo tosses a ball to his brother.

Leon watches it and smoothly transitions into a dribble. “And maybe Donald can take Leo out to an Observatory!”

“And Raph can take Donnie out to… hmm.” Donald pauses, a robotic arm scratching his head while he thinks. 

“I can take Donnie out for some wrestling or something!” Raphie scoops Donald up and gives him a gentle noogie. 

Draxum raises an eyebrow. “Are these not activities you can do as fathers as well as uncles?”

“I mean… we sort of stay in our lanes.” Leon tosses the basketball from hand to hand. “We’ve all got our thing.”

“Doesn’t sound so well-rounded to me,” Draxum mumbles.

“Barry? Again, no hay comentarios sobre cómo los criamos. Got it?”

“Not even slightly.”

“He means shut your mouth on our parenting skills. They’re for us to agonize over and question if we’re doing right, not you.” Raphie pulls out his phone and starts scrolling. “Maybe there’s some kinda scientist wrestler I can take Donnie to see!”

“And I know the perfect building for Raph to decorate with me!”

“I am so busting out my signed basketball to play with Mikey!”

“I bet I could take control of the observatory telescope to show Leo WHATEVER HE WANTS TO SEE IN SPACE!”

Splinter reaches up and pats Draxum on the calf. “Perhaps your visits are not all bad after all.”

Draxum frowns.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The four boys all stare down at the drawing.

“I dunno why I drew it.” Mikey sniffles. “Or why it’s so…”

Raph pulls Leo close as Leo’s breathing picks up. “Erase it, Mikey!”

“It doesn’t look like the stories they told us,” Donnie whispers. “But… it does?”

Raph covers Leo’s wide, unfocused eyes. “I said get rid of it!”

Mikey rolls up the drawing and fumbles around for something to destroy it with– finding a mystic nightlight candle. He taps it to light it up, and puts the paper over it.

The smoke only makes the twisting in their guts worse as Leo lets out a sob.

—---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The whole living room goes quiet. 

Silent.

No-one even breathes.

And then, again.

A soft, muffled sob.

All four fathers and both grandfathers burst into Mikey’s room.

The thin layer of smoke clears away almost instantly with the door open, but the mood does not. Raph is holding Leo protectively, pressing his older brother into his plastron. Mikey is wiping his eyes, shoving all his gray crayons and markers and colored pencils into a box to never be used again. Donnie is leaning over Raph and Leo, rubbing Leo’s back– and for some reason, his leg.

“What happened?” Leon goes to pick Leo up, but Raph won’t let go. So he picks both of them up at once.

“I didn’t mean it!” Mikey cries, hiccuping. “I-I was just drawing villains and-and I drew– I drew–”

“It didn’t look like the stories we heard but it-it was.” Donnie is still reaching up, putting pressure on Leo’s leg. He blinks, looking at his hand, and then takes it away with a confused expression. 

“What stories? Has Auntie Cass been telling you scary stories again?” Raphie rubs both Leo’s and Raph’s shells, and they both start to relax. Leo raches up and pulls his dad into an almost choking hug.

Draxum takes in the abandoned gray crayons, the sniffling faces, and the reluctance to say the name. He bends down and picks up the comic, flipping through. His face falls with each page. “... Perhaps… you four were right about them being too young, to be warriors yet.”

“What?” Donald grabs the comic and flips through himself. He stops on one page, the green leaching out of his skin and leaving him almost gray. “Oh.”

“What?! What is–! … Oh, no.” Angelo looks at Mikey, and gets down to the ground to scoop his son and cradle him. “Hey. You guys know you have nothing to fear, right? We beat the big bads.”

Leo’s grip on Leon tightens. “I don’t want him to get you,” Leo whispers.

Leon’s eyes go wide, pupils shrinking. “Leo… he’s gone. We’ve talked about this, he’s gone. For good.”

Leo’s grip doesn’t relax. Leon feels tears on his neck as Leo pulls himself closer and starts to shake.

“Leon.” Raphie looks pale as Donald hops up the comic and points. “I don’t think it’s just about–”

“He got Pop-Pop,” Leo whispers. “He got Pop-Pop and he got me and I-I couldn’t protect anyone and–”

“It’s just a nightmare, Lee.” Leon pushes the comic away without looking at it– he can’t afford to right now. “It’s just a nightmare.”

“I can’t do it, I can’t save everyone–”

“I’ll save everyone.” Raph hugs his brother with a fierce growl. “I’ll save you and Donnie and Mikey and everyone else! Because we’re a team!”

“Dad.” Donnie pulls on Donald’s battleshell. “I-I think Leo is having a panic attack.”

“He– right, he– um, everyone clear out.” Donald picks Donnie up. “Let’s leave Leo to calm down. Uncle Raphie and Uncle Leon have this handled.”

“I’m sorry Leo,” Mikey whimpers as Angelo carries him out. “I promise I’ll never draw The Shredder again.”

[ash5monster01]

Truths of Our Past Part 1

Pairing: Older!Charlie Dalton x FemReader

Warnings: mentions of suicide, depression, depressing thoughts, past trauma, facing trauma, romance, understanding, fluff.

Summary: You had met Charlie in University, were married shortly after, and had become accustomed to a beautiful life together. When you receive a wedding invitation to one of Charlie’s previous classmates weddings you discover that Charlie had a dark past, one he had been trying to forget. In the midst of it all you try to help him through it while finding out that he’s not the guy you thought you married at all. Maybe he’s even better.

word count: 2.6k

Intro ←→ Part 2

Masterlist

10/3/69

Day 1/8

You loved the drive to Vermont. You and Charlie did it at least two times a year and it had never gotten any less beautiful. There was something magical about the scenery turning from giant skyscrapers to deep forests. You always told Charlie it was so romantic, poetic, and all he could ever do is smile at you when you said it. You knew he was uneasy, like always, but a small part of him was still comforted by it. The sad thing about reminiscing was it always held the good with the bad. So every time you made a trip out here you made sure it held more good because even if it didn’t erase the pain maybe it could somehow make it less.

"Recite me something darling" you asked sweetly, sliding across the front seat of the car to be pressed against his warm side. Charlie smiled as his hand curled in your own, resting on the plaid of your skirt.

"What do you want to hear?" he asked as you flew down the country roads, orange leaves spiralling up behind you. You loved the countryside. Especially in the Fall, it was so much more magical.

"Something about the season, how everything is so pretty this time of year" you told him, head coming to rest on his shoulder. You felt his lips brush softly against your forehead.

"O hushed October morning mild,

Thy leaves have ripened to the fall;

Tomorrow’s wind, if it be wild,

Should waste them all.

The crows above the forest call;

Tomorrow they may form and go.

O hushed October morning mild,

Begin the hours of this day slow.

Make the day seem to us less brief.

Hearts not averse to being beguiled,

Beguile us in the way you know.

Release one leaf at break of day;

At noon release another leaf;

One from our trees, one far away.

Retard the sun with gentle mist;

Enchant the land with amethyst.”

You hummed in contentment as he recited this to you, the golden sun kissing the tops of the trees as you reached the town of your destination. The beauty of it painted exactly like the poem.

"Robert Frost, how lovely" you told your husband and a small laugh fell from him as he took the familar route to Knox and Chris' large white house on the edge of town, miles of field behind them.

"I love that you know old dead poets" he told you, shifting the car into park, and you leaned your head up to smile at him.

"I love that I married a dead poet" you told him earnestly and his lips met yours in a soft kiss. You only pulled away when you heard the screen door on the porch slam shut. That could only mean one thing. Charlie was out of the car in an instant, helping you out beside him as the six year olds feet thumped fastly against the hard ground.

"Johnny!" your husband bellowed as he squatted down to meet the height of the small brunette boy.

"Uncle Charlie" the boy was squealing right back before launching into his embrace. You laughed as he lifted the boy to his feet, spinning him around and tossing him into the air.

"Careful Charles!" Chris was already calling from the front porch and you snickered lightly at the fact he was already in trouble. It had only been a minute.

"Sorry little man but your Mom would not hesitate to suffocate me in my sleep if you get hurt" Charlie said as he placed the boy down to the ground but the six year old didn’t care before he was already barreling over to you and wrapping his small arms around your legs.

"Hey kiddo" you said, hand ruffling through his hair and he smiled up at you.

"Aunt Y/N! Do you want to see my new toys?" he asked sweetly and your heart instantly melted.

"Of course I do" and then you were holding hands with the six year old and walking forward towards your husband. Johnny reached for Charlies hand as well and you were both swinging the small boy between you as you moved the rest of the way to the porch.

"I hope the drive went okay" Chris said once you were up the short three steps and you smiled, letting go of Johnny to give her a hug.

"Beautiful as always, Charlie recited a poem for me" you grinned and Chris chuckled as she looked to the boy, his hair shorter than the last time she saw him.

"Our boys, such charmers" she grinned and Charlie was leaning over, pressing a sweet kiss to Chris' cheek.

"You tease but I recall a poem or two that Knox wrote you and won you over" Charlie said and she just laughed at the fond memories as Johnny curled his hand back in your own, tugging you towards the house.

"Knox is inside finishing up some work, save him Charlie I beg" Chris said, putting her hands together to convey her seriousness and Charlie chuckled as he let himself into the home and made his way to the study. You and Chris followed Johnny to the living room where he did indeed show you all of his new toys.

"Hey Mr. Lawyer man, work is over" Charlie’s hands clapped down on the shoulders of the boy who sat hunched over his desk, pencil danglng from his lip.

"Charlie, you made it" Knox was turning with a wide smile, meeting Charlie in a hug. No longer concerned about the extra work he needed to get done in his week off for the wedding.

“Yeah well, Todd is getting married and I had to come check for myself that it was actually happening” Charlie said and Knox laughed, reaching to tug his tie loose.

“Yeah, it’s shocking honestly but we’re happy for him” Knox responded, shuffling over to the bar cart and pouring out two scotches for them.

“I hope me and Y/N aren’t intruding. Todd did offer a room if we needed” Charlie said as Knox handed him the crystal glass half full of amber liquid.

“Nonsense, we all want you here. Chris and Johnny would’ve had me hung if I didn’t offer it to you first” Knox said before taking a sip from the glass.

“Either way it’s good to see you, good to be back in Vermont” Charlie said but Knox didn’t miss the way his eyes nervously darted around the study, a shaky hand reaching the crystal to his lips.

“Since when did you start telling me half truths?” Knox asked and Charlie sighed, dragging a hand down his face, gold wedding band glinting from the desk lamp.

“Sorry, it’s just. It’s Vermont, I wasn’t given much choice in leaving and I didn’t have much control of what happened either” Charlie said and Knox gave him a tight lipped smile, hand falling on his shoulder.

“I know, you get used to it though. Take the week and you might find it’s not as hard anymore” Knox said, him and Todd being the only ones to stay in the neighborhood but that was mainly because of family. Charlie stayed in the city after attending Columbia and Meeks and Pitts had an apartment together somewhere in Boston.

“I heard Chris wants Johnathon to be a Welton blazer boy” Charlie said, directing the conversation in a different route.

“She suggested it. I’ve been considering. It’s tough because I know Welton is the better school for him and he’s crazy smart for a kid, but when I start thinking about all these successful things I want for him I worry I’m turning into my own parents. Forcing a kid to conform who just wants to enjoy life the way it is” Knox explained and Charlie nodded knowing exactly what he had meant. Getting older made you realize you didn’t give your parents the benefit of the doubt at the time. Maybe they really truly wanted what was best for you and not just them.

“Listen, as the guy who did not survive Welton maybe give it a shot. I heard that old bag Nolan isn’t in charge anymore and maybe you can attend classes, see the curriculum, determine if they’ve changed the last ten years” Charlie offered a suggestion and Knox’s eyebrows rose.

“I’m surprised Charles, you hated Hellton more than the rest of us” Knox exclaimed and Charlie just shrugged, sipping more of the scotch that made his insides buzz.

“If anyone can be different Knox it would be you. You wouldn’t force him to do anything, if he said he didn’t want to go to Welton anymore you’d let him leave in an instant. You’d actually have him come home on weekends and for holidays. It wouldn’t be like how it was for us” Charlie said reminiscing one too many lonely winters where his parents had yet again sent a gift instead of bringing him home for Christmas.

“I know, which is why I think we might enroll him next Fall” Knox said and Charlie gave him a smile.

“At least you can trust he’ll make good friends” Charlie told him and Knox realized he had agreed with his decision. It was possible Welton wasn’t a soul crushing machine anymore.

“Lifelong friends at that” Knox told him before clinking his glass with his own.

“Boys, dinner!” Chris called for them and Knox gave Charlie a grin before finishing his drink and heading for the door.

“Let’s go Nuwanda, Chris made meatloaf” Charlie was chuckling at his friend, finishing his own scotch before following him out the door.

Vermont made Charlie feel uneasy of course but the five of you sitting at the dinner table felt like the safest place in the world. Even if it had been months it felt like the most natural thing, easy conversation, bottomless glasses of wine, and collectively keeping Johnny from spilling his milk. Charlie realized it was the first place since Welton that made him feel comforted like that. It was funny how the worst of places could be the ones you felt the most comfortable in. So after a short prayer you were all digging in, catching up as if you didn’t call each other at least three times a week.

“Y/N dear, please tell me you brought some copies of the times. I so wish to read some of your latest articles” Chris was saying as she passed the potatoes to Knox who scooped them onto Johnny’s plate. Charlie was the one to catch the milk glass when Johnny hit it with his fork.

“Of course I did, and I brought my famous blondies for Knox” you said, pointing to the man who just smiled wide.

“That’s why you’re my favorite” he told her and the group was laughing again.

“How about you Charles, how is Wall Street, you know stocks, and money?” Chris asked, everyone laughing again at her confusion over Charlie’s work.

“It is so good Chris, our company is doing very well” he informed her and Chris smiled widely, pouring some wine into your glass.

“I’m so glad you all could get off of work for this week, we have so much to prepare” Chris said, starting to dig in to her own meat loaf.

“In layman’s terms that means the girls decorate while we do all the heavy lifting” Knox explained, reaching for a napkin to wipe Johnnys chin that had gravy dripping down it. Charlie leaned over, pointing to his own mouth to which Knox just rolled his eyes.

“He’s exaggerating. Tomorrow my mother will come over and watch the kids and we’ll go over to the Anderson’s to build centerpieces. I think the boys are going over to the venue to start setting things up” Chris explained to you, hand patting your own, and Knox chuckled.

“See heavy lifting” but Chris rolling her eyes at him was enough to shut him up.

“Kids?” you questioned and Chris suddenly beamed.

“Yes! Todd’s older brother Jeff has two, Michael who is eight and Clara who is five. She’s going to be the flower girl, isn’t that so sweet” Chris grinned, eyes blown wide at the thought of so many young kids. After her own complications during Johnathons birth she had been waiting before considering more children but you all knew she wanted at least five more.

“Wow, I bet she’ll be adorable” you tried to beam back but Charlie could see the uneasy look on your face, how you both hadn’t been able to conceive yet. It wasn’t that you were necessarily trying but you were never that careful either.

“Either way I am so excited, the whole week has been planned out. I haven’t been in a wedding since yours and Ginny Danbury’s” Chris smiled, clearly excited, and feeling the love in the air.

“We’re excited as well, I mean Todd. Forget the blushing bride we’re going to be having a blushing groom!” you teased, pivoting the conversation from children as quickly as you could.

“I’ll drink the that” Charlie said to his wife, raising his wine glass, and the group just laughed.

“I’ll serve breakfast at eight and then we can ride together to the Andersons after” Chris told you and you nodded quickly, eager to agree with any terms because she was so kind to have welcomed you in her home.

“This will be a wedding for the books” Knox said before shoving a large bite of meat loaf in his mouth that made Johnny incessantly giggle at the goofiness of his father. This also cause Charlie to follow along and when Johnny went to try himself Chris stopped it, muttering about choking hazards, and you were so thankful for Charlie allowing you to be apart of this life.

“I’m glad we’re here” you told him later that night in the guest room, hanging your dresses in the closet after folding all his dress pants into the dresser.

“Me too, Johnny has grown at least five inches since we last saw him” he said, now propped up nicely in the bed wearing an old Columbia sweatshirt and plaid pajama bottoms. You admired his wife rimmed glasses tucked on his nose and the way his thumb kept his place in his book despite his attention being on you.

“You ever miss it, the countryside?” you asked curiously, closing the now empty suitcase, and reaching for the curlers to put in your hair.

“Sometimes, I forget how quiet it is. I like the quiet” Charlie said and you were smiling, sitting beside your husband. A man of many trades and attributes. Gentle but overconfident. Teenage him must’ve been relentless.

“You do not like the quiet, I think you like that this is still home” you told him, hand resting on his knee from your spot on the edge of the bed.

“Well that’s where you’re wrong dear, because wherever you are is my home” he told you, permanent flirtatious smirk on his face, and you hoped one day he could share everything about this place. The good and the bad, because all of it shaped him into the man you loved today.

“Sweet talker” you teased, leaning forward to kiss him but before you could pull back he was tucking you softly against his chest.

“Only for you Mrs. Dalton” he told you and you couldn’t help the butterflies that flapped in your stomach, there permanently for the last six years.

“Keep it that way Mr. Dalton”

Comment if you want to be added to the taglist :))

[yall-hate-kids-tourney]

Loser Round 7: Ken Amada (Persona) vs. Mabel Pines (Gravity Falls)

Propaganda below the cut

Ken Amada (11):

y'all are all for "murder and revenge plots" until is a 10 y/o boy who watched his mother die and started to become conflicted after realizing his moms killer is a secretly kind traumatized teenager to the point where the 10 y/o boy attempts to kill himself by giving himself up to assassins.

bro he's 10.

----

ken amada is such an interesting character with the unfortunate circumstances of having little screentime and atlus deciding to ruin his reputation forever by giving him a romance choice in the fem protag route. ken is a child who lost his mother at NINE. nobody ever believed him when he said that she was murdered, and that he saw who killed her. hes miserable, and all everyone around him does is give him sympathy while hes suffering and was forced to grow up before even going into middle school. hes angry and determined to get revenge on the person who killed his mother, and he doesnt even see the own value in living anymore beyond getting that revenge. hes more mature than most of his peers, and is desperate to be seen as an adult.but at the same time, he is still a child who likes superhero shows.

----

OH GOD WHERE DO I START

First there's the normal "The fandom hates kids" complaints of "He's so whiny" "he's so annoying" "oh my god kid just SHUT UP" y'know, the typical fandom stuff that makes you wonder if these people have ever talked to a child in their life

Second, there's (spoilers)...

October 4th, and the ENTIRE FANDOM is calling this kid a murderer.

For context, the moment in question doesn't necessarily paint him in the best light but its still understandable. Your team is going on a mission while Ken and another character named Shinjiro are away. In an alleyway, they have a talk where it is revealed that on that night a year priar to the game, Kens mom was killed in that allleyway by Shinjiro's Persona (Which, by the Rules of the Game Lore, basically means By Shinjiro). Ken tried to tell the authorities, the authorities didn't believe him because Magic Reasons and the death was ruled an accident.

Of course Ken is Fucking Pissed and wants revenge

However, because of Talk, he ACTIVELY CALMS DOWN, and realises "Hey, I probably shouldn't kill someone. Despite them, y'know, killing my mom"

HOWEVER REVOLVER JESUS COMES IN AND RUINS EVERYTHING BY SHOOTING SHINJIRO. AND LIKE, IF YOU PLAY P3P YOU CAN /AVOID THE DEATH THING/

AND EVERYONE BLAMES /KEN/. AND ONLY KEN.

And third (yes, there's a THIRD) IS THE FUCKING FEMC ROMANCE THING. WHICH JUST...SHOULDN'T HAVE EXISTED IN THE FIRST PLACE. BUT NOW HE'S "SHOTA BAIT" BECAUSE WE HAVE TO BLAME THE CHILD FOR THE AUTHORITY FIGURE COMING ONTO THEM 😒

Mabel Pines (12):

I literally saw a tiktok today about how Mabel is a bad person. She’s 12! Like yes, she has made some mistakes and bad choices, but so has everyone else. And I never see any of the other characters in the show criticized the way she is. Everyone in the show has made mistakes (Grunkle Stan commits crimes practically every episode ffs) but because Mabel is a 12 year old girl and acts like it, she gets the most hate. Mabel deserves to be loved 🩷

----

girl gets so much flack for being... immature and kind of selfish at age 12? like she had whole video essays made on why she is a horrible person who deserves punishment. god forbid girls be silly

----

!!! Spoilers for Gravity Falls last 5 episodes !!!

This has gone down a lot but when the Weirdmaggedon arc was happening, the finale of the series, a big part of the fandom started hating Mabel because she accidentally caused the Weirdmaggedon (basically an apocalypse + bizarre shit like the water tower becoming an eight-legged monster with a giant mouth).

For context, in the episode that starts this arc, "Dipper and Mabel vs The Future", Mabel is really excited to the end of their summer vacation at Grunkle Stan's house, since it will be her and Dipper's 13th birthday and they will enter high school (her idea of high school of course coming from teen movies). But then this whole idea starts to shatter when Wendy tells her that high school isn't like a Disney musical, but it's okay, she will get through this since she will be with Dipper, her twin brother...

Except, that Dipper receives an invitation by Grunkle Stan's scientist brother Ford to become his apprentice after summer ends, staying in Gravity Falls, without Mabel. When she discovers it, she gets really mad at him and in a fit of rage, she accidentally picks Dipper's bag instead of hers and runs off to the woods.

When she gets there, Blendin, a time-travelling friend of theirs finds her and tells her that he has a way of making her brother stay with her, and make the summer take a little more to end, and that he just needed a little thing that Dipper has in his bag. That thing is a dimensional rift that Dipper and Ford contained to not cause the Weirdmaggedon, but Mabel didn't knew about that and gives it to Blendin. Blendin then breaks it and it's revealed that Bill Cipher was controlling Blendin to get the rift and release the Weirdmaggedon. He then traps Mabel in a bubble, starting the final arc of the series.

So, a few episodes later, that bubble she's in is revealed to be a world of fantasy that she controls, and that she didn't want to leave that world, as she was scared of growing up etc.

Context given, A LOT OF PEOPLE HATED HER FOR THIS. Suddenly people started seeing Mabel as just a selfish girl who wanted things only her way, when she was only a 12-year-old scared of growing up without her twin brother (they do end up going back together at the end but still).

The worst part is that apparently the people behind it took note of this, and on the comics that where released after the finale, she is a selfish spoiled brat. I haven't read the comics though so I'm going off what some people said about it.

[dysfunctional-doodle]

now i WOULD go rest after the whole ypi business HOWEVER. is there any way to convince you to watch it because OH MY GODDDDDDDD THIS IS MY FAVOURITE SERIES EVER!!!!!!!!!!! it’s certainly not the best written tmnt series out there (ESPECIALLY with the romance…. shudders)

HOWEVERRRRRRR there are a lot of awesome things about it i really like….. i think one thing i like the most about this iteration (besides the very obvious obsession about sunset duo) is THE VOICEACTING. in a tmnt voiceacting teirlist i would put almost every rise character in s tier and yet STILL, despite the fact i put donnie in b, 2012 IS MY FAVOURITE VOICE ACTED SERIES. the original ask includes the giant navy battleship line and. yeah. sean astin’s delivery makes it a kajillion times funnier to me. IDK MAN THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT SPLINTER’S VOICE THAT IS SO SATISFYING TO ME. AND THE WAY SHINIGAMI LAUGHS???????????????? HRGHHHHH

also a big fan of the dynamics between the turtles…… the absolute brothers of all time. sobs (again it’s very obvious which duo is my favourite hfhdbsjbsdj)

also this might be a slightlyyyy controversial take but mikey’s adhd is written really really REALLY well in my opinion. like ok donnie said he hasn’t matured since age six and infantilisation is a big problem with neurodivergent people HOWEVER. a big part of mikey’s character is that he doesn’t like being underestimated and wants to prove he is capable but also. as a person with adhd. YEAH I TOO FEEL LIKE THE PERSON IN MY BRAIN IS A SMALL CHILD. the reason i peaked in primary school is because, back then, i was only slightly less mature than my peers. now as i’m in secondary school i realise i am like a TWO YEAR OLD compared to these people. when i was in s1 i would call myself the twelve year old toddler because that was essentially how mature i felt i was. SO THE STRUGGLE IS REAL. maybe there are times he feels slightly stereotypical but hey, everyone has their stereotype moments, right??? (as cliche as it is i feel like everyone has had a “hey, look, squirrel!” moment in their life). yeah i just relate to 2012 mikey on a spiritual level. like every time he’s on screen he does something and i think WOW. that is LITERALLY me (which is why i’m surprised that one poll i have more people think i’m like sonic than mikey?? but i’m not complaining, sonic is super cool)

the 3d animation is cool (the increase in skill is very obvious as you progress further through the series) and the fight scenes are just. MWAH. SO satisfying.

also SOME of the romance is pretty ok! raph and mona lisa are great. also arguably raph and casey (but we’re not ready for that conversation i think).

i have a full disc set of all five seasons that included a list of all the episodes and whenever i finished an episode i REALLYYYY REALLY enjoyed i would highlight the name in pink sharpie… here are all the episodes i marked :3 (i might need to rewatch some of these)

the pulveriser

cockroach terminator

parasitica

the good, the bad, and casey jones

plan 10

a foot too big (i’m actually not too sure about this one right now, might need to rewatch it)

journey to the center of mikey’s mind

revenge of the triceratons (this one is only half highlighted for some reason)

bat in the belfry

tokka vs the world

requiem (sobs. sobs so so hard.)

end times

when worlds collide: part 2 (i think this one is where the giant navy battleship line comes from)

it’s ok if you don’t want to watch it or you’re not able to watch it but if you can and you don’t end up liking it THAT’S OK I TOTALLY GET IT THERE ARE A LOT OF PARTS THAT SUCK

erm anyways that was my strange ramble. sorry for invading your ask box 👍🏼

(oh yeah, the comics are pretty cool too)

(guess who michalina’s favourite character + duo is challenge (impossible))

Ok I will say oddly enough I’ve read the comics for 2012. Weird, but I pirated found them and enjoyed reading them, they were fun.

I have watched a few episodes - I did like the speed demon episode (I love the dynamic of 2012 donnie and Casey mirroring the 90s movies even down the name insulting scene where they are going through the alphabet) and I like parasitica a lot. I have watched others like journey to centre of Mikey’s mind, Buried Secrets, and the usagi episodes, and also the final episodes of the Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (? I cannot remember the name, but the one with the insect guy as the villain who’s name I can’t spell and can’t be bothered to Google lol), that one where Donnie becomes dumb, the vampire ones, but that’s it.

What puts me off is the romance and the (in my opinion) partial butchered character Donnie has due to it. He’s genuinely creepy and it makes watching it uncomfortable and wildly out of character compared to what I’m used to. I’ve never been a fan of romance, and I expect ally despise the whole “main character has a crush on someone else but is so nerdy they don’t know how to approach them” trope. The whole love triangle and the poorly written “love at first sight” which most the romances in the show are just put me off completely. I genuinely have tried other episodes but I cringe every time the Donnie/April romance happens. It’s a shame because when they let Donnie move on from April or not be simping after her I really like his slightly sarcastic, blunt yet sensitive nature.

I’ve heard they kind of throw away the romance at season 3 but it’s having to watch this until then tbh. Maybe one day I will give it a go if people really say it’s worth the suffering of my least favourite trope. You seem to like it a lot so maybe :)

[jackie-gremlin-ghost]

Today marks 7 years since the reawakening of my Captain Underpants hyperfixation, which had been asleep for a very, very long time.

I had first discovered the books much like any kid in the late 90s/early 2000s; at the Scholastic Book Fair. If I remember correctly, the first one I had found was the second book, Attack of the Talking Toilets. I remember thinking how silly the cover looked, and it drew my little elementary school self in like a moth to flame.

I had quickly read it and absolutely loved it, and like discovering a new favorite treat for the first time, I immediately wanted more.

I was able to find the first book in my school’s library so I was able to get the full story on the two best friends who pulled the ultimate prank by hypnotizing their grouch of a school principal, and how it immediately became the worst decision they ever made.

And I loved every second of it.

As the years went on, I eagerly anticipated the Book Fair’s arrival at my school and would beg my mom for a few dollars extra, just so I get my hands on the newest adventure.

I devoured every single story I could find and bought as soon as I could, and each one was more entertaining than the last. From alien lunch ladies and zombie nerds, to a megalomaniac professor with an incredibly silly name in a giant robot with charts that you could use to give yourself a silly name (mine is “Poopsie Bananachunks” BTW), to an insane hypnotized woman with Medusa hair that gave atomic wedgies.

The more I read and reread these stories, the more I couldn’t help but think that it would make a pretty fun movie, or at least a tv show.

These stories had been with me through a lot of ups and downs in my life, the biggest being my parents’ divorce. They were there to remind me that even when times could be tough, you can make it through and still be able to laugh at even the silliest of things, no matter how old you got.

By the time I was 10, I got my hands on the latest book in the series, The Big Bad Battle of the Bionic Booger Boy Part 1. I loved it as always, but was shocked to see it ended on a cliffhanger. This had never happened before. I was anxious to see what would happen and how George and Harold would get out of this mess.

But… it would be some time before I got those answers.

Time went on, and my attention went to other things. I found new hyperfixations over the years, and while I didn’t have the 7th book at the time, I was eventually able to get answers thanks to the internet.

Eventually I entered middle school, and I found myself drawn to new book series that I grew to love, but Captain Underpants remained a big part of my childhood and some of its happiest memories. And for a while, I thought that was all it would be; memories to just fondly look back on.

But that all changed the winter of 2016.

It was the halfway point between Christmas and New Year’s, and I was gonna be 24 in less than a month. I was spending my downtime between holidays like any other bored 20-something year old; scrolling through Tumblr, of course. It was during that time that I stumbled across this post by @mondentertainment. It was photos of posters from a Licensing Expo, showcasing upcoming animated projects, be it films or series.

Among them were a few that sounded promising, others not so much.

But what caught my eye was this.

A poster from DreamWorks with a very familiar face on it.

I could barely believe what I was seeing, and from the comments and reblogs on the post, neither could a lot of other people.

It was like a door that had been long locked in the back of my brain finally burst open, and all those memories came flooding back, particularly of a reoccurring thought that ran through my young mind whenever I would look at those illustrations every time I turned the page.

Could it really be true? Was one of my favorite childhood books finally getting a chance to truly come to life on the big screen?

It had already happened once before after I read Coraline in middle school, so there might be a chance.

As you could probably imagine, I poured my thoughts of hope and excitement into the tags as I reblogged the post.

And when the trailer finally dropped three months later, it was like meeting that one childhood friend you never truly forgot all over again.

So much happened after seeing the movie on opening night, including meeting Dav Pilkey himself!

And all the great memories and friends I’ve made since rediscovering the fandom all lead back to that one moment on December 28th, 2016.

And I couldn’t be more grateful for that.

[buckrecs]

2022 Bucky Barnes Fic Rec 3

masterlist | req masterlist

All of them are COMPLETE Series.

✨- fav fics

Status - Completed

1. The Two of Us by @bucky-bucket-barnes ✨

Bucky x Avenger!Reader WandaVision AU

You and Bucky go to investigate the phenomenon happening in Westview, New Jersey. While attempting to understand the issue, you yourselves are sucked into Wanda’s world of pretend. Now, you believe yourselves to be the happily married Mr. and Mrs. Barnes; in real life, you are most definitely not a happy pair. It is up to you and Bucky to piece together what’s happening while dealing with one another inside the hex.

2. Wordpeddler by @heli0s-writes

Bucky x Reader Social Media AU

An online petition for the Avengers to be interviewed turns into a series of misadventures with the so-called wordpeddler.

3. Almost Had Me Believing It by @tuiccim

Bucky x Reader

An undercover operation playing Bucky Barnes' wife is a dream come true. Playing house in the suburbs while trying to take down a drug ring brings you and Bucky closer but a nosy neighbor causes trouble in paradise.

4. Who’s She? | The Long Run by @itsapeterthing ✨

Bucky x Doctor!Reader (2 parts)

when sam gets injured during a mission and isn’t able to go to a hospital, bucky brings him and natasha to his own home to get cared for by his girlfriend, y/n, who he’s been keeping a secret.

5. trilogy by @buckycuddlebuddy

Fuckboy!Bucky x Reader College AU

he was toxic. most of the time you were with him, you were used for pleasure only, you knew that, and he wasn’t hiding it. maybe it was how good he made you feel that made you fell in love with him, or maybe it was the fact that he somehow made you feel like you were someone ─ but you fell in love with him. although you knew in the beginning that you shouldn’t have, it was way too late for that, now. you were in too deep.

6. I’m With You by @wkemeup ✨

Bucky x Reader Modern AU

When two strangers meet on a layover in the Charlotte Airport, they are sent on a whirlwind weekend filled with cancelled flights, painful questions over giant checkers, an ex-boyfriend’s wedding, and a confrontational graduation. They find that a lifetime can sit in the span of three days and it doesn’t take very long at all to fall in love.

7. Cheek to Cheek by @wienerbarnes

Bucky x Criminal!Reader

Mentions and descriptions of kidnapping, torture, and being held in prison, crime stuff, warnings will be more specific depending on the chapter

8. Tinman by @indyluckycharlie

Bucky x Prosthetist!Reader

Bucky survives the fall from the train and comes home, hoping to return to his old life. But he’s not the man he was before. He’s not sure he’ll ever be.

9. Say It by @sgtjbuccky ✨

Bucky x Reader

In where you loved Bucky unconditionally, enough to sacrifice your life for his happiness, now Bucky tries to save yours.

10. Peach Scones by @sgtjbuccky ✨

Bucky x Reader

In where Bucky has it so bad for you, he cannot find the words to confess his feelings. After an entire year of failed attempts, plus a declaration of love for scones, he decides it’s about time the words come out of his mouth. Only Bucky knows himself and is certain it’s gonna be one hell of a challenge.

11. Hostage of Your Eyes by @sinner-as-saint

Mob!Bucky x Reader

You accept an unusual offer made by a very familiar, but dangerous mob boss. And despite the rather bizarre situation and all the troubles which come along the way; old flames rekindle – and you find love again, where it wasn’t supposed to be.

12. No Such Thing by @sanguineterrain

College!Bucky x Reader

You’ve been assigned to write a column for your school paper on the team’s spectacular running back. You don’t care very much for your university’s football team; you just can’t understand the hype, okay? Turns out your distaste for football bigheads was exactly on point: James Barnes is insufferable.  

13. Take it Back by @allandoflimbo

Bucky x Reader Modern AU

About five years ago, a one night stand with Y/N tore Bucky’s life apart. It was also the night before his wedding. Now he’s married to her sister and she needs a place to stay.

14. Who I Was Looking For by @soopranatural

Bucky x Reader Soulmate AU

Even after you started wearing cuffs, the words are engraved in your mind as well as your wrist. You know you’re not destined for love as soon as you learn how to read. How could you? When the words “Sorry, you’re not who I was looking for” are written in black ink on your skin.  

15. Tinder Match by @sunflowergirl522

Bucky x Reader Social Media AU

You look at the older people on Tinder joking about finding a sugar daddy. That’s when you stumble upon a man claiming to be 106. Intrigued you swipe right and match with him.

16. Bucky Barnes x Rogers!Reader Collection by @itsapeterthing

40s!Bucky x Rogers!Reader

You’ve known your brother’s best friend Bucky Barnes since before you can even remember. As the two of you get older, your relationship grows from one of teasing friendship to an everlasting love. Despite all odds and decades apart, you never fail to find each other every time.

17. Love You Forever • 2 | Where’d All The Time Go • 2 by @coffeecatsandcandles

Dad!Bucky x Reader

Bucky reunites with you after the blip, only to find out he's now a father.

Bucky's daughter comes home to tell him that she's lost her first tooth.

18. Ladykiller by @mymoonagedaydream

Bucky x Reader College AU

By now you were pretty skilled at recognising players, but for some reason you just couldn’t fucking stay away from them

20. A Certain Romance by @wienerbarnes

Bucky x Reader Fake Dating AU

With the threat of yet another bad date at the result of Sam Wilson’s meddling, Bucky’s desperate to find a solution. As are you, another victim to Sam’s failed matchmaking. The two of you come up with a genius plan: pretend to date each other in order to escape the poking and prying nose of the Falcon.

21. Much Ado About Nothing by @wienerbarnes

Bucky x Reader

As Steve, Sam, and Bucky return home from a grueling mission where Steve has a near-death experience, he makes the last minute decision to propose to his long-time girlfriend, Sharon Carter. To pass the time until the impulsive wedding, the team decides to play a game: Get Bucky to fall in love with their residential tech expert, also coincidentally the bane of Bucky’s existence - You.

22. Flashing Lights by @pellucid-constellations

Paramedic!Bucky x Reader (2 parts)

Bucky’s worst fears come true when he’s called to a scene. If he’s the one with the dangerous job, then why is it your life that’s hanging in the balance?

23. Teach Me How to Love by @buckyismybicycle

Dad!Bucky x Teacher!Reader

Natasha leaves behind her precious daughter, Yelena, and with her dying breath asks Bucky to look after her.

24. Secret Confession by @buckysmischief

Bucky x Reader Social Media AU

After an unexpected break up with Bucky, you change a few things. Your hair, your number, even your schedule for the upcoming semester. But after weeks of dodging the topic, your roommates (MJ, Peter and the Twins) and your close friend Natasha decide it’s time to help you move on.

26. The Rumor by @sidepartskinnyjeans

Bucky x Agent!Reader

there's a rumour going around the compound about you and Sergeant Barnes, which is ridiculous because he's an avenger and you're a junior agent. How would a rumour like that even get started?

27. Our Home to Heal by @subwaysurf45

Bucky x Reader

working at the VA, you’ve found your place. helping people in the sobriety unit as well as cooking for the food bank, the VA had everything for you. Bucky Barnes has a not-so-good first impression but after dealing with a dark recent past he finds you to help him heal.

28. Sixth Sense by @buckybarnesowl

Bucky x Enhanced!Reader

Bucky struggles to find his place after Team Cap returns to the compound. People are still wary of the ex-assassin, including some of the Avengers, but you know better. You sense his goodness despite, and you’ll do anything to make feel what you feel.

29. A Half-Naked Nurse and Wrong Ideas by @urimaginespimp ✨

Bucky x Reader (2 parts)

you’ve gotten sick and Bucky takes care of you

30. This Love by @urimaginespimp

Bucky x Witch!Reader

A multi-chapter fic between the reader and Bucky in different settings of the MCU, starting with them meeting during Civil War, up to TFAWTS.

31. Sweeter Than Honey by @foreverindreamlandd ✨

Mechanic!Bucky x Assistant!Reader

It's your first international trip working for bestselling author Tony Stark as his new personal assistant, and you're desperate to prove yourself worthy of such an incredible opportunity. But when things start to go wrong whilst staying in Dublin, and suddenly you're stuck in the middle of the Wicklow Mountains with a flat tire, you're convinced that you'll be fired before the day is over. Luckily, a handsome, blue-eyed mechanic with an accent that makes your insides melt comes just in time to  save the day.

32. Solace by @winterdrag0n ✨

Bucky x Reader Modern AU

After years of living abroad, you’re finally back to New York with a failed marriage and a flashy new job at Art Gallery. In your cousin Steve’s wedding, you meet Bucky again. Your relationship with Bucky had been complicated, to say the least. He had been your childhood enemy, friend with benefits and drinking buddy. But this time, with new circumstances, the two of you might find solace in each other.

33. Keeping Me Up by @writing-for-marvel

Neighbor!Bucky x Reader

When Bucky moves in next door, you seem to get much less sleep than when your previous neighbour lived in apartment 4a.

34. The Name of the Game by @matchamunson

Bucky x Reader College AU

Bucky Barnes doesn’t do love or relationships. He does nights of meaningless sex and the occasional date before ghosting his latest victim. When his roommates bet him $200 he’ll never be able to get a girl to fall in love with him, he’s all in. Enter Y/N Y/L/N, seemingly good girl next door that Bucky knows he’ll be able to make fall for him. When she finds out about the bet Y/N only has one thing in mind: beat the bastard at his own game.

35. Paws and Pins by @matchamunson

Tattoo Artist!Bucky x Reader Social Media AU

In which Bucky runs into the owner of the animal shelter across the street from his shop.

36. Amaranthine by @kashimos-hajime  ✨

Bucky x Reader

a boy and a girl went off to war. they fell in love and the devil laughed.

37. Nightmare by @petertingle-yipyip

Bucky x Hydra!Reader

You were only in New York for a recon mission. Seek out and assess the threat. But when you get distracted by a handsome soldier, plans change.

38. Heartlines by @buckyskorpion

Bucky x Reader

When Reader moves into Avengers Tower to finish her PhD in safety, the last thing she expects is to have something in common with the shy insomniac Bucky Barnes.

39. Reset by @lunarbuck ✨

Winter Soldier!Bucky x Reader

The government has fallen, Hydra has taken over. You were an agent of SHIELD long before the reign of terror began, and became a member of the resistance when they needed you most. Everything changes when the Winter Soldier captures you from your safe house.

40. Long Black by @evanstarff

Bucky x Agent!Reader

After a disastrous HYDRA coup goes wrong, Bucky Barnes is forced to go under witness protection at a coffee shop – with you as his highly trained ‘bodyguard’. Is something brewing between you or is he just tall, dark, and bitter?

[crystalelemental]

As I've mentioned, part of what got me replaying Pokemon games was a stream series I've been following. During the course of one of their other streams, their cohost made the comment "Who cares about the story in a Pokemon game?"

This was a fascinating comment, because generally speaking I think the response would simultaneously be "everyone" and "no one." Story is an often discussed aspect of Pokemon, but at the same time it feels like stories are often skipped. There's a giant rift between those who seem to really engage with the story of Pokemon, and those who are just here to play, and that discrepancy tends to inform preference for the games. As they become more story-centric in modern generations, the more gameplay-aligned grow less and less attached, though the complaint is more often that the story is bad, rather than the gameplay-story ratio is out of balance. It seems like story is often wanted, but to be more "serious" like some nebulous older days when they cared.

With that, let's talk about that nebulous time: Gen 5.

Okay so real talk! Like, super real and earnest, and kinda deviating from what I usually do with the Pokemon write-ups. I don't really care too much about story in games like this as long as it's out of the way.

I think when story is discussed, people often expect "good story" to mean the most complex and thematically potent thing released. But that's not really true. A perfectly serviceable and sensible story can still resonate well, and adds a bit of flavor to the world you explore. This is often what Pokemon aims for, even now. The stories are never that complex, but they can be engaging and fun ways to rope the player in to whatever is going on around them.

Gen 5 is heralded as the strongest story, in large part because of what it discusses. The question of whether Pokemon are being oppressed in our current society is a fair one, riffing on a long-standing joke about Pokemon being slaves and doing whatever players tell them to etc etc. Thing is, the story never really challenges anything. The people advocating for releasing Pokemon are entirely framed as misguided at best and overt lunatics at worst. The decisive answer given is "No no, this is fine, don't think about it." It's a story that pretends at strong themes and exploration of a conflict, but it doesn't really exist.

The same is true of characters. A lot of characters are presented as really deep and complex, but that...also isn't entirely true. Cheren and Bianca have their own things going on, but they're not necessarily more complex than, say, Silver or Wally. They just show up and talk more often, waxing philosophical about their inability to determine what they want for their futures due to being roughly 10-14 years old. I'd be willing to argue that even N is not particularly complex, and offers less depth as a child of abuse than SuMo Lillie and Gladion did.

This isn't to say you can't like these characters. I certainly do. But I think it's odd how much emphasis gets placed on Gen 5's story and cast despite them not really being more complex than anything that came before. There's more time given to the leaders and rivals and such, but they're not more fleshed out, just more present. Which is the point. You don't know more about them. You're around them in the gameplay longer.

What this suggests is that there's a good gameplay-story balance within Gen 5, which is...possible. Gen 6 onward do feel like you're being stopped every route to have people talk at you. But having just played it...Gen 5 does the same thing. And in some ways...Gen 5 is legitimately worse.

I talked about this a few weeks ago, but Gen 5 is the first game I've replayed that I put down for a while, because it was driving me crazy. The game has a lot of trouble in the early acts, due to EXP scaling. Your level is universally below your opponents, and every single fight feels like a shitshow as a result. You're constantly in need of healing, and opponent movesets are expanded and much stronger. Compare Lenora, whose Watchog has access to Crunch, to Gardenia, whose Roserade has almost exclusively Grass moves. Despite Roserade being stronger statistically, Gardenia is easier to beat because they offset the stats with a movepool that can be counterplayed.

This is the crux of Gen 5's...I won't call it issue, but I'm thinking it. Difficulty has been a hot-button topic with Pokemon for a long while, and the Gen 3-5 era is the main draw for those discussions. Gen 3 was challenging because it had a lot of good strategic play from opponents. Gen 4 introduced really strong opponents and restricted movesets. Gen 5 turns this up with scaled EXP and expanded enemy movepools, without giving players the same. For example, my Deerling didn't learn a damage-dealing Grass move until level 32, which was 9 levels above what I caught it at. We did not have a Grass move for Clay as a result, but don't worry, his Excadrill has Steel, Ground, and Rock-type attacks.

Your solution to this is meant to be Audino farming, which is a huge spike in EXP, but you have to run around doing nothing until the grass wiggles, then hope no other encounter intercepts before you get to it. It's a slow, tedious process that really hinders the flow of the game, and this continues until you get the Lucky Egg from Juniper in Chargestone Cave.

On that note: this was the second fastest clear of any game I've played, losing only to Blue. The game feels long, but was one of the shorter experiences.

This game, more than any other, feels hindered by flow in the early game. Past that Lucky Egg, my team was able to actually stay above the level of opponents until the League. But getting to that point feels so wildly tedious because of the EXP scaling. There are tradeoffs. Using a strong Pokemon like Durant late in the game results in rapid levels, getting even two in a single fight. But the problems that arise tend to involve sharp spikes that cannot otherwise be overcome with any reasonable ease.

I got locked in this game. My team could not outspeed Ghetsis' Hydreigon, and it one-shot everything except for Emboar. Yes, even Zekrom, who rolled a -Sp Def nature and must've gotten crap Speed IVs. My solution at this point was to take one of two options: go back and somehow farm levels past 50 using enemies in the mid-30s, or find a way to reroll events until Ghetsis missed Fire Blasts or Quick Claw activated. I opted for the latter. It was Not Fun.

This then blends into the immediate post-game experience of being in the low-50s, and having to immediately face opponents in the mid-60s in every direction. I despise this part of the game. While you get more EXP for them being higher level, trainers tend to be not fully evolved, which sharply reduces the EXP gained. So it takes forever to break through that ceiling as well.

Gen 5 lacks for a clear level curve, instead having awkward spikes that are impossible to keep up with. Lenora's nigh-impossible to keep up with if you have more than your starter in use, and that's a dangerous prospect in itself. Elesa's impossible to keep up with due to lack of Audino in the desert, and the obvious Sandile doesn't evolve until it's at her level and cannot statistically hold up against her team. The post-league hunt is a mess of opponents being much higher level than you for a long while.

These kinds of jumps are not new to the series, but this is also the first game where it feels like there's no actual response to what the opponent brings. When Norman is a huge level spike with no real room for training, you at least have the possibility of Aron or Rock types that largely block his attacks. When you have an opponent like Whitney who is huge, there's a ton of extra routes beyond her that can be used to level. Gen 5 has little to none of this, or at least not enough.

Let's take that example earlier of Clay. Clay has Ground types, weak to Grass, Water, and Ice. Around him, you have options: Deerling, Swadloon, Ducklett, and Vanillite. Great! Except Deerling doesn't learn a Grass move until too late, and can't evolve so it's statistically worse than his entire team. Swadloon evolves via happiness, which you're sure not gonna have, and is weak to Rock, which he has a ton of. Ducklett has similar evolution problems to Deerling, you don't have Surf yet, and it is also weak to Rock. Vanillite also doesn't evolve until late, and is both weak to and does not deal much to Steel. Essentially, there is no solution to Excadrill nearby if you haven't already trained one. And if you do pick them up, you're wildly below his level, and better hope you can handle all the fights nearby enough to clear.

Add to this, the change to reusable TMs was a double edged sword. Unova allows you to put your big moves on everything as needed, but in compensation, all the good moves are postgame locked. This results in tragedies like Seismitoad, who can't learn any Ice moves until post-game and is useless against Iris, and doesn't get a good Ground move until postgame when you find Earthquake. I can't say it even feels like they're restricted for reasons like Gen 4, where boosting was BP locked because the game wasn't balanced to respond to them, leaving only a few options. Like every Psychic learns Calm Mind, it's not a big deal.

At a guess, I think the design intention here was one aiming for difficulty. I was not super attentive to fandom around this era, so I may be offbase, but I wonder if arguments about difficulty in these games escalated around this time. It just feels like the type of game that tried to do things solely to make it hard, that...well, it didn't, it just made it tedious. I can't think of any other reason for movepools to feel so awkward, good TMs to be so scarce, boss fights to be so constantly above your level with tremendous movepool coverage, and even random encounters having serious threat potential while having a million of them. It just feels like something that was designed not to be fully its own adventure experience with your Pokemon, but to be actually challenging. And if I remember critical reception, the game bombed. I kinda wonder if that's not a huge cause of it.

To be honest, it feels like I'm mostly complaining at this point. There were a few points of fun, specifically around getting my new additions leveled up, like facing the League to get Deino to evolve and start contributing. But on the whole, this was...the least fun experience I had with the series thus far, from a gameplay perspective. Maybe I'm just burning out a bit after all this time, but even coming back there were times I felt like progress was just too slow and frustrating. I'm not sure how the next sets will go. I've been a long-standing hater toward the EXP All era, but I'm going to give this an honest try, and see what I feel about the games moving forward.

[melancholy-marionette]

Hi! How are you today?

You've likely already been asked this, but what do you use to make visual novels? How did you learn to do it? All the ones you make are so cool!!! 💖

Heya! I would say 'tired' is probably the main way I feel today xD I’ve been staying up until 4am again recently and forcing myself up again at 8:30am trying to make up for lost time on the jam that I’m currently taking part in with Lazy Polar Bear x3 (otome/josei jam)

We even tried our best to plan some stuff in advance so that we could have a chilled-out jam for once, but the world had other plans it seems, haha. We've both been hit by a fair bit of bad luck, so I’m pushing myself in the hope we’ll still be able to release a demo in time for the end of the jam. Energy drinks are very much my friend atm x3

I’m so sorry it’s taken me forever to answer anyhow! I’m still majorly behind on pretty much everything >.< so most of my replies are at snail speed, haha. It doesn’t help that my PC died at the end of April, and trying to get a new one has been a nightmare :( 

I knew it was on its way out for a while, so I’d been saving up + making sure to regularly backup data (thankfully, I don’t think I lost too much!) Managed to scrape together enough to get a new one, but when it was delivered, something was wrong with it >.< The first time I powered it on, there was a super loud scraping sound from a fan or something, and it threw up some BIOS error stuff instead of booting Windows.

I contacted the company, and they arranged to collect it & rebuild it for me, which took a while to do. Just had the rebuilt one delivered this week, but there’s still something not quite right about it :( It takes over 1 minute to boot up from pressing to power on (for reference, my PC that died was over 10 years old and booted up in about 10 seconds!) The 4th time I powered the new one on, it lit up inside, but never displayed anything. I gave it 5 minutes, but still nothing, so had to hit the reset button on the case.

Aaaand, one of the hard drives scans show it’s temperature is 68 degrees while the PC is idle, which doesn’t seem good >.< Neither does how hot the processor and graphics cards are showing on temperature readings when idle. As far as I can tell though, all the fans are working fine! 

Still in contact with support trying to find out what is going on :( Which is not what I need while trying to work on a jam project, haha.

Anyways, I’m so sorry for the giant ramble there!! To actually answer your question x3 I don’t think I’ve been asked it that much actually! Maybe only like once or twice :3 The first couple of VNs I made were made with Tyranobuilder cos that was the first thing I came across that seemed easy to use, and it was :D I did try Ren’Py first, but after completing a few tutorials and making a demo project, I hated having to do code stuff so much that I knew it would make me not want to make a full game if that was how I had to do it >.<

I got Tyranobuilder in a Humble Bundle years ago, and it claimed you could make VNs from scratch without writing a single line of code because it used a drag & drop system, so I figured I’d give it a shot! It definitely did what it said on the tin :3 I made my first-ever game with it (Solipsism Reigns) + another one after that (Impostor) before switching to something else. (well, there was also the CiQ demo too, but that's irrelevant now that the game is being made in Nani!)

I think I read a couple of basic tutorials for Tyrano, but it was honestly all really easy to get going with by just poking around in there and seeing what did what, haha.

Besides those first couple of games, everything else I’ve made has been using Naninovel in Unity. I’d say Nani took longer to get started with, but the tutorials are vast and very detailed, so that was a big help. I also managed to get it while it was on sale, so that was a relief since it’s quite expensive full price.

I switched for a couple of reasons. One being that the drag & drop system in Tyrano was fantastic for a beginner like me, but also quite slow, so once I’d grown a bit more confident with how things worked, I figured something like Naninovel with an easy-to-understand scripting language would probably allow me to work faster!

The other big reason was because of how buggy Tyrano seemed to be >.< There were a lot of issues in it that didn’t seem to be having fixes worked on by the software devs at the time (I believe they have since updated it though!) And it was just frustrating to discover there was the odd bug in my game that I couldn’t fix because it was caused by something in the software itself that I hadn’t even touched.

I’ve stuck with Naninovel because it’s definitely easy to use, has a tonne of brilliant guides, and the support on Discord has always been exceptional whenever I’ve needed help on how to do something :3 There’s still a lot about it that I don’t know how to use or little gripes I have with it here and there, but overall, I do prefer it to Tyrano. Nothing is ever gonna be perfect.

It does make collaborating difficult sometimes though because Ren’Py is still the most commonly used tool for making VNs I guess. So if you want to work with people to do code and stuff, and 1 only has knowledge of Ren’Py while the other only has knowledge of Nani’s scripting language and what Nani can do, it’s like you’re speaking two completely different languages when it comes to trying to understand each other x3

If I didn’t have to write code, I would probably use Ren’Py xD It’s just, while I still dislike having to type thousands of lines of Naniscript, I find it at least manageable without getting the world’s biggest headache, haha.

I’m glad that you think the stuff I make turns out cool though! :3 That means a lot ^-^ I always kinda feel like an impostor when it comes to everything I do in game dev just cos I never had any proper training or education >.< I guess a lot of VN devs are probably self-taught though! It is fun to figure things out yourself by trial and error, but I’m sure I must be doing heaps of stuff wrong xD or at least in ways that aren’t exactly the most efficient x3 I muddle through though :D 

Hope you are well + that May is turning out to be a marvellous month for you! Or at the very least, that you have had better luck than me lately, haha.

[8beats-per-minute]

TALES OF THE JEDI SPOILERS ⚠️

THEY REALLY CUT FROM AHSOKA TRAINING WITH THE CLONES TO RIGHT BEFORE REX AND AHSOKA WALKED OUT IN FRONT OF THEM ON THE SHIP

AND REX SAYING “Jesse really tagged you” “Sorry commander!”

THAT HURT SO BAD. THEY JUSY HAD TO MAKE IT JESSE???

I’m not okay

And the end of the last episode with Ahsoka getting into the rebellion with Senator Organa???

(Kinda disappointed we didn’t get her saying “Fulcrum” but whatever)

AND SHE WRECKED THAT INQUISITIOR IN LIKE LESS THAN 10 SECONDS

Omg this was amazing

Also imagine your like 1-year-old gets taken by a giant predator animal and comes back RIDING THE DAMN THING

Kinda sad we didn’t see Plo but he was watching Ahsoka train

Omg Ahsokas dad being so happy and calling her little Soka? I teared up

Also it’s now confirmed that Plo is dad because he calls Ahsoka the same thing her dad did

OMG U ALMOST FORGOT BABY KANAN/CALEB AND MASTER BILLABA WATCHING AHSOKA TRAIN AND CALEB BEING SO IMPRESSED I ALMOST CRIED

I have so many feelings

[connectionterminated13]

Blood

This story takes place in my AU death swap, Basically a lot of the deaths are swapped Charlie is alive Sammy is dead, Michael gets his self grabbed by circus baby and Elizabeth does Michael's role in sister location and gets herself scooped. Now Evan who survived the bite and became a murder guy just like his dear old dad. Is tricking Charlie and Cassidy who Are trying to hunt down scrap Michael who's a giant metal fox because it's cool, Into thinking Michael not just a scared wet cat But actually a killer monster. You know to help his dad with evil stuff!!

This is for the prompt haunting not actual haunting more like haunted by your past kind of haunting :3 @and-stir-the-stars

TW: blood, animal death, manipulation, implied human death, hallucinations

God did Evan hate blood. Sure yes, when it spilled everywhere and the person screamed it was fun. but then after that when the blood was dry and all over his clothes he hated it.. If Evan ever got to talk to God, he would have a long discussion on why Blood was a terrible idea.

But of course Evan did not believe in God..

God did not come to comfort him in those horrible hours before operations or another month or four in the hospital. God did not come to banish the thoughts of blood and death from his mind no matter how many times he begged him.

And now God wasn't going to help him with the gruesome task of spreading this stupid dead Rodent’s, stupid Blood and Guts all over the place. 

Honestly it would have been so much easier if Michael had just mauled something…

But Michael, despite shoving Evans' 6-year-old head inside of a mouth filled with sharp spring locks and sharper teeth, couldn't seem to stomach actually killing something. So Evan had to fake the evidence of Michael being a monster. Which was going to be harder.

For example he was going to have to change out of his now blood covered clothing into fresh one before Charlie or Cassidy woke up. Then he would have to lead them back to this spot and be all sad and dramatic about his brother killing something so brutally. 

Sure he was good at faking emotion, he learned that from his father but it was harder when he liked the people he was doing it too.. And he likes Charlie and Cassidy. They were nice to him but.. Michael was a liability. A liability that needed a bullet through the head and a good place to rust at the bottom of the river 

Evan shouldn't call it Michael, it would be harder that way. No it was the insides of circus baby turned into some horrible mangled monster thirsting for the blood of poor innocent stupid Utah People. It was easier to think of Michael like that, easier to just think of him as the monster that made his life a never-ending Hospital trip..

Don't think of the good parts of Michael, don't think of when he was nice, think of the Mask, of the blood, of the doctor saying you only have a week left to live. Evan stopped, well lost in his thoughts he realized that he had done a pretty good job making the Rodent look like it had been torn apart by an animal. He cared for Charlie, she was like a big sister to him but she didn't know the first thing about animals.. Or the mechanical beasts his father created 

“You're going straight to hell when you die Everett” Evan muttered the words under his breath staring down at his handiwork. There was a light snowfall. The poor creature's blood soaked brown fur tainting the snow that fell around it a sickening red.

Something wild had done this. something that wanted blood, something that would wear his own sister's skin, something that would hang two technicians, Something that was a giant metal and a wire trash fox that still thought it was Michael Afton 

“You're doing bad things again” And of course there was something else wild out here. Evan turned around, he was right fredbear laid on the ground snow Falling on his faded body. Of course Fredbear wasn't there.

The original plush that he had carried around until he was 10, had been burned for the agony by his father. This was a hallucination brought on by brain damage, some mental illness undiagnosed or weird ghost things. And a frustrating hallucination at that. 

“I know you're supposed to be a conscience, but could you be a conscience later I'm doing something” Evan grumbled looking away from the plush as he pulled coils of wire out of his backpack.  “You could still fix things with your brother. You could help him.  You know he won't hurt you, you know he's scared and sad and lonely. Why won't you help him?” 

Oh and there was another reason why Evan hated blood so goddamn much. Every time even a drop of it spilled, this stupid bear came to lecture him…

“Because I'm not fixing things with the giant walking murderous liability that tore out my sister's insides! Now, If you would please leave I'm faking a monster attack.” Evan granted, looking down at himself. There was only a little bit of blood, mostly coating his hands and arms with small splatterings on his shirt. 

Honestly he might not even have to go through the trouble of changing clothes… Maybe he just ran into this creature and tried to help it… it wasn't dead yet and he had tried to save it but failed.. He would cry, Charlie would comfort him and tell him it wasn't his fault. This would be good!

“Why won't you help him? Why do you lie?” Evan rolled his eyes as the little fredbear looked up at him seemingly transported directly to his feet.

Evan pulled out his flip phone beginning to dial Charlie's number. 

“Why do you hurt people Evan?  Why do you hurt innocent little animals? Why are you like this? Why don't you get help? Do you think this will make Dad love you? He only sees you as a tool. You're nothing but a Killer Beast on a leash to him” Fredbear's Voice seem to come from everywhere Evan ignored it looking down at the dead rodent.

“Hi..oello..” Charlie's sleepy voice muttered through the phone.

“Hey Charlie I found something in the woods.. Hurt rodent.. really badly hurt. I'd say it was mauled. I tried to help but it was beyond saving… Charlie I can see its organs.. I-I saw it's little oh God” He let out a pitiful little whimper as Fredbear stared up at him judgingly. 

He cared for Charlie. She was a good kind woman but she still saw him as that same scared little kid, something he could take advantage of.

“Damn! Sure it wasn't a Coyote or something?” She was awake now her voice was panicked, he could hear Cassidy stirring in the background. 

“Why are you doing this? You know she loves Michael, you know you're just hurting both of them so much..?” Fredbear's voice made him momentarily stop sniffling before immediately going back hoping that Charlie wouldn't catch the mistake.

“No Charlie there's wires, it's The fox thing..” Now a full fake sob came from Evan's throat. He hated this, he liked Charlie, he hated that he had to do this. Why couldn't Michael have just stayed down in the facility?

“Okay if you could tell me where you are we'll be there in a couple minutes!” He could hear the commotion of the two women getting up in the hotel room.

“I'm about a 20 minute walk south in the forest. You'll probably see my trail.” Evan spoke quickly he wanted to get the call over with. So the stupid hallucination, of a stupid bear, he owned when he was stupid and small to stop staring up at him.

“All right, see you in a couple minutes.” The call hung up.

“It's not too late,” Fredbear spoke again. “You can still be a good man Everett, you don't have to keep on doing this, you could leave anytime you want..” 

“It's not that easy” Evan muttered kicking a rock looking at the dead animal on the ground that he had mutilated and killed. “Father would come after me..”

Fredbear did not say anything else that seemed to have finally shut him up. Or technically speaking Evan had shut himself up. So he sat on a nearby Fallen Tree and waited for Charlie to come. He also waited for this whole situation to be over so he could be away from the blood that stained his clothes and hands.. Which even if everything went exactly to plan and they killed Michael and fixed Elizabeth's zombie situation he could never ever truly, Escape

[charleecat-bat]

"So, what's the scariest thing that's ever happened to you? What happened?"

Tiberius' Story- Summer Camp Sighting

Okay. I haven’t really spoken about this to anyone but, what’s a better time to finally get it off my chest better than now, right? 

I just hope no one gives me shit for this story. I’m not trying to fake nothin' for attention or exaggerate and all that bullshit. This happened. 

I was around like... 9? 10 years old? I wasn’t TOO young, but not a tween yet, pre-pubescent. Anyway. My parents had decided to sign me up for Summer Camp. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be into the whole thing, but my gramps had signed my dad up as a kid, and while he hated it at first, he wound up loving it and going back to it for years. So I guess my old man hoped the same would happen for me. 

If only it turned out that way...

I’m embarrassed to say, but… I wasn’t as popular as I wished I was as a kid. I was picked on a lot for a lot of bullshit reasons. Especially to do with stuff I couldn’t help, like my fur colour or how small I was. I hated it. I was a huge target for a lot of the big kids. And for those asking ‘What about the counsellors?’ Well, you know those typical teenager-20-year-old counsellors in horror movies? That were less focused on the kids and more on smoking, drinking and putting their tongues down each other's throats? Yeah, those were the type of counsellors I had, and the few decent ones- well, just didn’t really do much to help me. 

What made it worse was that despite this, I was so desperate to seem cool to most of the kids. I did a lot of shit that wound up just making me look stupid or getting me hurt. Kids can be fucking cruel.

Anyway, not important.

It was evening time and just about everyone was sat around a giant bonfire, just doing their own thing. Honestly, due to how most of the counsellors were focused on themselves, I'm shocked that I don’t remember a lot of the kids sneaking off. Maybe they did. Wouldn't surprise me. I don’t remember quite what happened at this point, but a bunch of the little shit ‘cool kids’ that I wanted to be friends with so had just finished doing another hazing ritual to me. I even don’t remember what it was, but I do know it was embarrassing and upsetting enough to make me come up with some excuse to leave.

(imagine illustrated by @btm-txt)

I remember announcing that I was gonna ditch this place and go into the woods alone, and as a plus for me at the time, a lot of the kids thought that was ballsy since it was getting dark and not really recommended for any of us to be out there after dark. Didn't stop me, though, and probably didn't stop other kids doing it either. I didn’t care, though. I just wanted to go somewhere to cry alone without being picked on anymore. As pathetic as it sounds, this wasn’t the first time I came to the woods to cry. In fact, I was caught doing it once, but that just made me go deeper into the woods to avoid getting seen by the other kids. 

I was trying really hard to like it there, but I didn’t. I hated it. I hated it SO much. I wanted to go home so bad. So, out of my embarrassment and homesickness, I just started to bawl my eyes out.  I must’ve sat there crying for a good 10 minutes maybe, until a sound made me go quiet.

SNAP

The break of a stick.

I immediately sat there in dead silence as I quietly began looking around. Now, my first thought would’ve been it was more kids that found me, but you know as much as I do, kids aren’t that sneaky. You’d be hearing giggling and a lot of movement. Hell, a lot of kids I knew at that camp would’ve just barged through to laugh at me, not hide from me. And if it were a counsellor, they’d immediately be approaching me, not hiding either. So… the idea that someone was trying to sneak up on me was already really fucking creepy. 

I didn’t see anything for a bit, no matter where i looked there was just nothing around me except more woods.

Until I turned my head towards another crack of a branch. This time it was closer and louder. I quickly turned, and I saw this... figure. This tall, lingering figure; just standing between the trees in the darkness. it was hunched over, and its arms were long and dangly. It just… wasn’t normal. The one thing I could see clearly were its eyes. At least I think they were. These small white glowing orbs just staring at me. 

(Illustrated by @btm-txt)

You know those times when you’re so scared you just can’t move? That’s what happened. I wanted to scream, I wanted to run but I just couldn’t. I was frozen I just stared at…whatever this fucking thing was. 

I don’t know how long i was locked in a staring match with the thing for. But eventually, it just vanished from my sight. I don’t know where the hell it went, but as soon as it left. I booked it. 

I just ran in a random direction into the woods, which looking back now, was a dumbass move; I dunno why I didn’t go back to the camp, but I guess I just wasn’t thinking. I was just a scared kid who wanted to get away from whatever I saw. After running out of breath and hiding under a fallen tree, I just curled up, trying to catch my breath and calm down. That wasn’t easy, considering I was JUST crying, holding my breath in fear and THEN ran for it. So I may as well have sounded like an asthmatic. Eventually, my breathing calmed down, but I just stayed in that spot. I was too scared to move as you could expect. The woods were eerily quiet except for a few of the typical noises but that didn’t make me feel better. The coldness began to get to me, too, so now I was shaking both out of fear and the cold. 

(Illustrated by @starlitskvader)

“Tiberius?”. I heard someone call my name, I looked up and around but still didn’t see anyone. “Tiberius? Where are you?”. I heard it again; this time the voice was clearer… it was my dad's. My dad’s voice. I had no idea how it was possible but my kid brain didn’t care. I was happy, and I crawled out of my hiding place immediately. I started calling out for him. “Dad?! Dad?! Where are you?” “Come here, Tiberius. I can’t find you”, the voice spoke out again in a weirdly calm tone. If I wasn’t in such a stressful situation, I maybe would’ve picked up on the strange way my dad was talking, but like I said, I didn’t care at the time. I was just relieved that my dad was here and thinking I was gonna finally get out of there and go home. I started going through the woods, following the voice that sounded like my dad but my excitement started slowing down and it started to hit me. The more closer I got to the voice, the more I realised it sounded... off. The strange calmness was still not a warning sign for me, but what was is that the voice just sounded so… shaky? Fake? It sounded like my dad but something about it just didn’t FEEL like it was from him. More like someone trying to do an impression of him, but how was that possible? He was back on the island, ages away from here. No one here would possibly know what he sounded like except for maybe one or two counsellors but that was way too much of a longshot. Why would some counsellor be doing an impression anyway, it made no sense...

I soon stopped when I saw a figure again, the dark outline approached slowly and as it got closer it started to look like my dad. I smiled but… something felt wrong, really wrong. Something in my gut was screaming at me that I needed to run, but I didn’t know why. It was my dad; it had to be, I thought. The figure of my dad stopped, I could see some of the details, the salmon pink fur, the long curled spines, even the clothes, the hiking boots, and all the gear he wears on him. It had to be him, It was uncanny!

But something still felt wrong... “Hello, son. Come here, let's go home”, it stretched it's arms out. My smile vanished… now that I was right there, I really picked up how weird his voice was… something was really wrong with it. ‘Till this day i still can’t pick up on how it was exactly. You just kinda had to be there to know. You could just tell it wasn’t right, and listening to it made you feel like something was crawling up your spine. I didn’t move. “Tiberius? What’s wrong?” it spoke, taking a step forward. I started to notice this-this thing. Its arms were way too long for the body, and 'my dad's hair was starting to move, almost like tentacles or some shit... I couldn't understand what I was seeing.

(Illustrated by @starlitskvader) Stupidly, I spoke up out of nervousness. “W-...who are you?”. “It’s me, son. Come here, give me a hug”. The long arms stretched out even further and closer to me and the figure took a few steps forward, coming completely out of the darkness of the trees showing its face… it was not my father. That face. I don’t know if I could begin to describe it. The smile was huge and unnatural, going all the way to the cheeks, full of uneven teeth that made me think of a fucked-up shark. Rows upon rows of these janked up teeth. The eyes were open wider than I thought possible, the pupils tiny and barely visible. Staring into my fucking soul. And to this day the gaze of this thing, pretending to be my father, has haunted me.

“Come here, son. Come to me”, it spoke as it started approaching me. The voice fell apart and sounded more unnatural. It started moving with a strange twitch and making these strange sounds. After being frozen in utter fear this entire time, my legs finally moved, and I booked it. Just running back as fast as my little legs could take me. The entire time, I could hear a slurry of noises. The best I can describe them was like a bunch of demonic feral sounds, along with fast, savage movement coming after me from behind. I knew it was chasing me; whatever this thing was, it wanted me. I had no idea what it wanted to do with me, but I knew it’d probably result in me being fucking dead. 

I only looked behind me once… and the image of this thing, still trying to appear like my father, running around like a fucking animal. Running on all four of its distorted limbs and it's fucked up face looking up at me. It was at this point I started screaming my lungs out in terror; I didn’t even care if I was crying anymore. That was the least of my worries.

When I finally got out of the woods, I scrambled my way to whatever was closest, which was the stairs to a cabin, I think. I don’t remember how many people approached me at first, but i remember hearing a lot of voices, and eventually, a bunch of counsellors came running over, trying to calm me down. I was screaming, crying and thrashing around for ages. Not even the little shit kids were laughing; everyone was wondering what the fuck was wrong with me.  It took me ages to finally calm down enough, but even then, I just couldn’t explain. I tried to, but it came out as nonsense. I was a scared kid who saw something that was worse than any horror movie I’d heard of at the time. 

Eventually, the adults kinda gave up on trying to get an explanation from me after they kept asking me to ‘stop lying’ or to ‘make some sense’, but I wasn’t. They just assumed I'd get over it after that night or so and I'd be fine.

I was the furthest from it. That night I didn’t get a wink of sleep. I laid awake, shaking and hiding underneath the covers. I don’t remember speaking much, if at all, after that. I just shut down. I didn't do any of the activities. I barely ate. I was practically a shell of a person. I didn’t know how to process what the fuck I just saw.

(Illustrated by @btm-txt) After a few days. Yes. I know. DAYS. My family was finally called, and the counsellors told me my dad was coming to get me ASAP. I couldn’t even be happy about it. I think at that point they just made sure to have a counsellor with me at all times. Dunno what for exactly, since I wasn’t really doing anything and it's not like them being around made any difference to begin with. I guess I just made them super fucking worried.  When my dad got here, with my mom and grandpa, they all rushed towards me. My dad quickly hugged me and picked me up, but I don’t even remember reacting much other than curling up a little into him. Meanwhile, my mom and grandpa went from fussing over me to yelling at the counsellors at the blink of an eye. They were furious. I don't remember what went on with that conversation but I could only imagine what went on.

(illustrated by @btm-txt)

I didn’t hear much else about what they talked about, as my dad just put me in the car with my things already packed. He sat in the back with me on the drive home, just holding me as I laid my head against him. When we got home. My family, mostly my grandpa, wound up suing that summer camp over what happened to me and not helping me much at all during the whole time and not even seeing me go into the woods at all. The camp wound up being charged with gross negligence and closed down not long after. I don’t even think I said anything on the drive home or when I got home. I don’t remember when I started talking again, but I didn’t talk about this that’s for sure. It was hard though, I had nightmares and apparently night terrors for weeks, I’d apparently wake up screaming and when my parents would come to comfort me, I’d fall back asleep and not remember the next morning.  Speaking of no memory, I actually didn’t remember this for a long time. I guess I tried so hard to forget most of this nightmare that I eventually did. Well, most of it. I still remembered two things. One. I always unconsciously remembered something bad happening to me in the woods, so it made me permanently uncomfortable with the idea of going into any woods, forests or any of that shit. To the point I was even terrified of letting my daughter go camping with my dad. I couldn’t even give an explanation as to why I just said I didn’t like it but I didn't stop them. I just made it painfully I didn't like it. I'm not surprised if my Dad was a little disappointed at how much I grew to hate the forest. I know he loves the outdoors and camping, and I knew he was really sad he couldn't share that with me I could see it with my daughter too, how she'd beg me to take her camping to let her try it and I just refused At least they had each other. I always felt bad that I was so against any sort of activity to do with the woods without even having a proper reason for them…until now at least. They never held it against me though, and I'm grateful for that.

And two, even after all of that… I had never forgotten that face. I think after a few years, I thought it was some messed up dream, but it’s imprinted itself into my brain. That horrible fucking face. 

Now that this is fresh in my memory, I actually decided to look up stuff on the area of that camp and that forest… and it turns out. Some weird shit has happened in those woods at night. A lot of people have had stories Stemming from being stalked by an unseen pursuer, being chased by a weird animal, or even like me, having some… thing… look like someone they know approach them and talk to them. After doing more research, a few people think that it’s not a paranormal occurrence or some weird spirit or demon doing this. Instead, these people believe it’s a shapeshifting creature; it goes by many names, but it all means the same. It takes the form of animals and people in order to lure people toward it so it can kill and eat them and or then take their place as their doppelganger.

I don’t believe that entirely, but… I know for sure now that something definitely happened to me in those woods. It wasn’t just a nightmare or a fucked up scenario I imagined. It was real. I honestly don’t know what scenario is worse, if it actually was a dangerous person after me that went way too far, if it was something paranormal or… if there really was a creature in there. Something dangerous. Sometimes, I wonder if… despite all of these years, it’s still there. In the woods. Waiting to lure another person… Not like I’m ever gonna find out for myself, though. I am never EVER going back there. Never. 

If you read this far. Thank you and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!