#open starter for level 2

[nobuverse]

"Why does everyone else get to use their noble phantasm but me? You guys do know I'll come back , right?"

Really. It doesn't bother him at all to die again. Why must everyone be so unreasonable?

[showmeashadow]

The air would always stench when dullbloods came close to the veil - a sign for some fey to go into hiding, but for much more to gather like hungering beasts. Each had their own reason; Ptryx wanted to guide them away from the Feywild, away from Haüyne.

For a while they stood, watching this person poke and prod around with purpose around a Fae Circle; taking notes with one foot in the circle. With a simple gesture, they pulled out a spring of mistletoe from their palm and muttered a simple arcane word - berries formed as a result of the spell.

"You are putting yourself on a plate for the Fae by stepping in that mushroom circle, not finding more evidence of them." They spoke out, eating from the berries slowly.

[mustardyellowsunshine]

In today's episode of Shut Up Robin, Nobody Cares:

InuKag bickering is so good because it's deeply telling of how comfortable InuYasha and Kagome are with each other at almost every stage of their relationship.

For starters, contrary to seemingly popular belief, arguing does not inherently signal dysfunction. It can sometimes signal the opposite: it demonstrates a level of intimacy and trust in your relationship that you are able to openly disagree with your loved one. You are not afraid of conflict because you know it won't break the relationship. In my experience, at least, it's shaky relationships that avoid conflict at all costs. When there's not enough emotional security with each other to openly disagree without fear/anxiety, open conflict never happens. That's why "arguing like an old married couple" is a cliché: it's the people who've built trust and security who will bicker like that.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it doesn't feel great to be in conflict with a loved one, even in a secure relationship. But being able to navigate conflict together in a way that eventually leads toward understanding and compromise is the sign of a strong relationship. Arguing is often a step in that process.

Which is why I find InuKag arguments absolutely, lip-smackingly delicious.

When they first meet, their arguments have the distinct flavor of, "I don't like you and I don't care what you think about me." Which is an excellent vintage tbh, full-bodied flavor with refreshing tartness. 👌👌 There's something so intrinsically entertaining about watching early-series InuKag butt heads, all the while knowing they eventually get married. And because early-series InuKag doesn't especially care about the other person's opinion of them, they don't hold back: there's no politeness barrier between them, there's no equivocating or filtering. They just have at it. They're not afraid to be themselves around each other, even when they dislike each other.

Then when their friendship begins to form—stage two InuKag 😁—their bond is forged from the two-pronged fire of 1) having each other's backs in life-or-death situations, and 2) experiencing the humdrum quotidian moments that come with traveling together all day, every day for long stretches of time. I've talked about this before, but I love how they know all the dumb little things about each other that you only learn from prolonged proximity: they know the timbre of each other's snores at night; they know how long the other can go without food before hangry-ness rears its head; they know which posture signals irritation or exhaustion, which facial expression signals daydreaming contemplation or a playful mood; they know which jokes will get a laugh and which insults will get the sharpest glances; the little intimacies abound!

By the friendship stage, InuKag bickering takes on a slightly different flavor. There's still that unfiltered, no-holds-barred vibe about them (because they're so used to being blunt with each other), but it also has the tenor of easy familiarity. Friends falling into the same low stakes argument they've had a hundred times already. There's not often any real heat or tension to the bickering, it's more like rote muscle memory. And when they do have real arguments, with real tension and emotional stakes?? It's delicious precisely because there are emotional stakes now! Goodbye, "I don't care what you think about me," hello, "I care so much what you think and I hate it and you're going to hear about it." It's still arguing InuKag, but with different emotional fuel sparking the arguments. Now there's affection and trust underpinning their unfiltered way with each other. It's mmm mmm good! I can eat it up all day.

And as the series progresses, and InuKag begin to develop obvious romantic interest in each other—stage three InuKag, yes it's terminal—the flavor of the arguments gets deeper because now those emotional stakes? They're even higher. And yet despite the higher stakes and the messy complications, they're still not afraid to butt heads. They're not afraid to be blunt and hash things out. I love this example of InuYasha's hack-and-slash style of conflict resolution. If there's a wall between him and resolving the tension, he'll just punch his way through it. 😂 Another favorite of mine is this banger scene where Kagome bluntly calls InuYasha out on his jealousy.

But probably my favorite stage three InuKag fight scene is this one, from chapter 310:

(Full scene here.)

Man, it's so good! Kagome—after taking pains to save Kikyo, who then essentially taunts her for it—starts to feel angry and resentful and then wallops InuYasha with those feelings. (Before any haters pipe in: characters need to make mistakes sometimes. This is one such occasion. Let the 15-year-old girl character make a mistake ffs.) And what does InuYasha do? He sticks around so they can hash it out. The best panels in this chapter are Kagome thinking, "He probably hates me now," only for her to look up and see him right beside her. He can handle her mistakes and flaws, because he knows Kagome. They've spent 300 chapters building trust in each other, and we see the fruit of that here. InuYasha knows very well that Kagome cares for him—cares so much that she's risked her life for him many times over by now, and cares so much that she just saved her own romantic rival partly for InuYasha's sake (but largely because she's just a good person). I think that's why he handles this moment with pretty good composure. He knows Kagome doesn't actually hate him, briefly hurtful as that comment surely was. So he waits until she's processed her feelings a bit more, and they talk it out. (While we're here: I really like that he's sitting close to her but is facing away from her, like he's trying to give her the space/privacy she needs to process her feelings without actually leaving her alone... ugh I love it.)

Notice how, even in the midst of this fight, they start checking in with each other, putting the other person's interest before their own. Kagome sincerely urges InuYasha not to "hold back," the subtext of which reads to me: "Don't let my outburst tie you down, please do what you need to do." InuYasha responds in kind (his subtext reads to me: "Be honest, don't just put on a brave face for me") and also reassures Kagome's underlying anxiety. When he says, "You saved Kikyo, right? Then she'll be fine, I'm not going after her," he's speaking directly to the source of Kagome's insecurity—he's telling her in no uncertain terms that concern for Kikyo's safety was his only motive for seeking her out. Now that he knows Kikyo has been healed and isn't in imminent danger, he's not going after her. Again, he is intentionally addressing what he knows to be the source of Kagome's outburst when he says, "You healed Kikyo? Then I don't need to see her." To me, his message is pretty clear: "I wasn't looking for Kikyo for the reasons you think."

Like! Look at them! Openly and honestly communicating! Messily sharing their feelings! Resolving conflict and talking shit out! They've come so far. 🥹

These stage three InuKag fights feel different than their early-series fights, and they should! InuKag have built trust and love, but with that love comes vulnerability. It's the people we love who have the power to hurt us most. So even while InuKag have fundamental trust in each other, they're both aware that their feelings come with greater potential to hurt each other. And watching them navigate that tension and that duality together? MMM MMM GOOD.

Like truly, InuKag fights at every stage of their relationship are my favorite thing, it's all such good food.

[georgeweasleyslostearhq]

LET ME CHECK YOU OUT

Pairings: George Weasley x Fem!reader Summary: you're wondering around WWW to find a gift for your nephew Warnings: mention of flirting?

PART 2 HERE

you wondered around the shop, feeling a little cramped from all the people looking around, especially kids, running around with their hands full

you had been meaning to come to the shop ever since you saw it in the paper a few months ago, but you figured you'd go after the whole rush of the grand opening.

however your nephew's birthday was coming up and you hadn't got his gift yet, so you decided to go today, to the shop his mother wouldn't let him go to, to look for something to keep him occupied

you looked up from the ground and quickly ducked as a spark came flying around the room.

your gaze followed the spark as it flew up and exploded into a mini firework

as the bright, vibrant colours of the explosion faded away, you were left to make eye contact with a man on the second level staring down at you with a small smirk.

you felt your cheeks heat up as the man looked at you curiously.

you looked back down and continued walking through people to find something for your nephew.

-

you go on your toes to reach for a product on the top shelf when a little kid runs past you, bumping into your side, making you lose your balance and stumble backwards

you were scared you were going to bump into someone or break something but then you feel arms catch you and hold you up, putting you back on your feet

"you alright?"

still a little startled, you look up, seeing the man from before, smirking down at you confidently

"y-yeah, i'm fine" you mumbled

"we usually put the best products on the top to we can help the pretty ladies that can't reach them" he winked

"what if they just used their wand?" you pondered

"they never do" he shrugged with a smile

with his hand still on your lower back, he reached up slightly and grabbed a box with the big writing 'decoy detonators'

h smiled at the box before handing it to you

"is that what you wanted?" he asked politely

"well i'm not sure.. would you say this is a good gift for an 11 year old boy?" you questioned

"oh absolutely, unless this boy's mother has a short temper" he joked

"eh, she sort of does, kind of deserves it though, she needs to loosen up" you hummed

"i'm assuming this mother is not you?" he raised an eyebrow cockily

"it could be me" you defended, as a joke

"but it's not" he smiled, taking his hand off your back and stuffing them into his pockets

"how would you know?" you frowned

he chuckled softly before he answered "well for starters you look too young, there's no wedding ring on that finger of yours and no indent of one- indicating there never was a ring- and i think if he were yours, he'd be here to tell you what he wants, or you'd know. and if you were his mother, you would not be buying this"

he tapped the box as he looked at you

"ok so maybe he's not mine, that doesn't matter" you huffed, surprised by his response

"so, is this a birthday present?" he asked curiously after clearing his throat

"yeah, he's turning eleven, i want him to have something cool before going off to hogwarts" you sighed

he towered over you, leaning against the railing as you stayed on the second level

"i think that's perfect, especially for hogwarts, he'll definitely need it if he's planning on getting into risky situation like i did" he informed

you stared up at him in thought, deciding this was the gift you'd get

"alright, great" you smiled

"is that all or would you be interested in a love potion or two? the ladies go crazy for it, although a woman as beautiful as you probably won't need it" he winked again

"how come?" you raised an eyebrow

"you probably got a handful of men swooning over you without knowing it" he smirked

"oh yeah? how would you know?" you walked past him, beginning to walk down the stairs, him trailing after you with a cocky smile

"you might be talking to one of them" he shrugged casually

"pardon?" you stopped, looking behind you as he stood a few steps up from you

"i think you heard me" he snickered as he walked down, pressing up against you as he passed your frame on the narrow stairs

you took a deep breath, watching him as he continued walking down the stairs

was this handsome businessman really flirting with you?

you looked down at your feet for a second before looking back up, not seeing him anywhere

how could he just disappear?

you frowned and walked down the rest of the stairs before looking around the many shelves of candy

soon enough, your hands were full of boxes of fainting fancies, extendable ears, canary creams and fever fudge

you went to walk over to the register when a little kid ran past and bumped into you again, causing a box of fainting fancies to fall from your hands.

you knew you couldn't catch it, as all the other boxes would fall, however just as it was about to hit the ground, the man from before caught it

"ah, left you for a minute and now you're wanting to make a mess of my shop? didn't take you as that type of lady" he joked, leaning up, keeping it in his hand, knowing it was probably best for both of you

"well, that's quite the sum of products you got there" he raised his eyebrows

"you're probably happy about that. more money"

he scoffed "I'm not trying to take pretty ladies' money, i'm trying to put smiles on kids faces"

"well i think your successful in both of those categories" you snorted

he laughed before looking at your full hands "is that all or do you need an extra pair of hands?"

"i think he'll have enough" you said, cradling the boxes, making sure none of them fall

"perfect, let me check you out then" he smirked

your eyes went wide at his statement "w-what?"

he smiled, licking his lips

"get you checked out, at the register" he said obviously

"oh, right, yeah" you nodded

he shook his head in amusement as he turned on his heels, leading you to the front

you followed beside him as he still held one of your boxes

"if it makes you feel better, i've already checked you out multiple times while you've been here" he grinned smugly

before you could respond he left your side to walk around the counter

while he walked around, you put your things down and waited for him to scan them in

"he's gonna get in a lot of trouble with all these" he chuckled as he rang them in

"mm, i can already see him getting scolded by McGonagall"

he hummed and told you your total

"that doesn't seem right, it should be more than that" you pointed out

"i gave you a small discount" he whispered, making sure others didn't hear and ask for one too

"you didn't have to do that" you shook your head

"a pretty lady shouldn't be paying as much as the actual total" he shrugged

"so you give small discounts to every 'pretty lady'?" you raised a brow, not sure how to feel about it

"no, you're the first" he replied, leaning against the counter

you rummage through your purse and give him a little more than he totalled you

"there you go" you beamed up at him

he went through the coins and slid the two extra back at you before putting the rest in the register

you rolled your eyes before taking the two coins back.

"do you have a name? or are you just pretty lady?" he wondered, tilting his head

"pretty lady" you responded

you looked down as he handed you your bag full of products "thanks"

"you should come by more often, maybe i could check you out again"

you blushed as he winked flirtasiously

"i'm good...?" you stopped, realising you didn't know his name

"George"

"right, I'm good George..thank you for the help though" you stepped away, nearing the exit

"whatever you say pretty lady" he sighed, the handsome smile of his never leaving as he watched you leave

-----------------------------------------------------

[joelswritingmistress]

You Scare Me, Professor: Chapter 2

Summary: The reader is taking graduate classes at a local university in the wooded upstate New York. She is drawn to her professor, Dr. Joel Miller, though she is also inherently aware that he has something dark about him that she can't quite put her finger on. As the reader's attraction grows deeper, she has to decide whether to endure the danger or run away as fast as possible.

Eventually Pairing: Professor Joel Miller x f!reader

In jest, I quietly blamed Dr. Miller for wanting to fall asleep in the second class I was taking at the University the following evening. Dr. Stevenson did not have the immediate, gripping hold on me the way Dr. Miller did. Not only was I exhausted by the time the five o'clock class rolled around, but I was constantly comparing this stodgy, mundane individual to all of the lively traits his coworker possessed. It was unfair really.

I had made it, however. I managed to get through to seven o'clock without rudely letting my head fall flat on the desk in the stuffy, thermogenic confinement in the University's basement.

“Get me out of here,” I whispered to myself as I crossed into the hallway. My eyes sought out the stairwell at the far end of the corridor, though when the elevator doors swung open as I passed by, I couldn't resist the free ride.

A small group of students piled out, each on their own individual device and not seeming to care if they were in each other’s company or not. I felt for my own phone in my jacket as I entered and turned to hit the “1” button that glowed a pale yellow.

“Hold on..” A hand snuck its way in through the large, steel doors that threatened to close, and I stepped farther to the side to allow the stranger to enter. Only it wasn't a stranger - not really.

“Oh..” The one syllable left my mouth when I recognized it was Dr. Miller who was now standing beside me as the doors closed. The word was entirely misplaced and I knew I wouldn't have said that if any other human being had accompanied me on the elevator right then. Except maybe John Stamos.

“(Y/N), right?” His voice was made for phone sex.

The fact that I had that thought even remotely in the most hidden depths of my brain made me blush. I even contemplated what was wrong with me.

“Right.” I gave a small, closed-mouth smile and attempted to mind my own business.

“Who's class did you just come from?”

“Umm..” I drew a blank. His presence, and my instant attraction to him, took me completely off-guard. “Uhhh..” When my eyes lifted to hit his, I could tell there was amusement that lingered behind the surface. “Dr. Stevenson.”

“Mmm..” It was an obvious mutter of disapproval, though he didn't dare elaborate as he subtly rolled his eyes along with the brief, fleeting response.

“My thoughts exactly.” I gave a laugh and looked up at him again, shoving my hands into the pockets of my black, L.L. Bean winter coat. I hoped by agreeing to his subtle denunciation I didn't come across as the prissy, know-it-all type that undermined authority figures.

When the little bell chimed, indicating we had reached the first level, I wanted to make some excuse to stay there. There was nothing logical. Once the doors opened I would have to get out. Still, I wanted so badly to carry on a conversation with Dr. Miller. At the same time there wasn't one worthwhile conversation starter I could think of.

I opened my mouth to speak again but then quickly went with the generic, “I'll see you tomorrow in class.”

Dr. Miller gave a nod and I crept out of the elevator with a deliberate reluctance that I couldn't prevent. A look over my shoulder showed the elevator doors closing again and Dr. Miller’s figure was slowly stripped from my view like an actor on a stage at the final curtain.

I could breathe again. For a second. It suddenly dawned on me that I had never revealed to him my name.

(Y/N), right? I relived the simple, half-a-second question he had asked over and over again in my mind until it transformed from a quintessential expression to a resounding shout.

He has a class list, I reminded myself. With at least forty-something students, I added.

There was no way he could have known who I was without a little investigation. The thought flattered me. Surely, others might've been a bit uneasy over the revelation but not me. Not right then.

There was an unwilling pull at the corner of my mouth that I tried to fight off, though soon a wider grin made home on my face. I still stood there staring at the elevator for a moment and realized the down arrow was glowing.

Down. I stood there for a moment. Dr. Archibald had gone back down where he had just come from. Had he simply taken the elevator ride to…

I couldn't even finish the thought with any sort of realistic element to it.

Cocky, aren't we? I knew there wasn't a chance he had taken the elevator up one level and back down simply because I was on it. He most likely forgot something and went back down.

Big metal butterflies had suddenly made home in my stomach. I was so modest that I yielded any possibility that this could be true. Through my own eyes I was so incredibly customary that someone couldn't possibly want to go out their way to find out more about me.

I wouldn't mind him stalking me. The fact that this was my first naturally-occurring thought had to say something. The palpitations knocked at my chest cavity again and I swallowed hard as the down arrow suddenly stopped glowing.

Of course this was the thing, in all of my exhausted glory, that kept me awake again that night.

CLICK HERE FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER

@untamedheart81 @grogusmum @amyispxnk

[battle-acs-official]

I'm about to go on a rant about Sasquatch.

I'm not sorry.

So.

Sasquatch. Bigfoot. Big hairy thing in the woods. What is it, and why is it so fucking hard to find?

Honestly, the simplest and most effective answer to basically any question asked about it is: "It's an Ape. Duh."

Okay, what is it? It's an Ape. A Great Ape. What specific branch is unknown, but it DEFINITELY ISN'T A GIGANTOPITHECUS DESCENDANT!!! Giganto was an Orangutan relative and Sasquatch is clearly more related to Apes like Gorilla and Chimpanzee. Stop that. Just because it was big doesn't mean that that's the only animal Sasquatch could be related to.

On the point of bigness, first, Giganto is good precedent for Apes being able to get that big, so the argument that Sasquatch couldn't as big as it's reported to be is already dead.

Why would it get so big, though? Well, why did everything else that came across the Bering land bridge get so damn big? Bountiful resources, need to adapt, freedom for experimental forms to arise due to lack of competition. Everything in the Ice Age Species Exchange did 2 things: Got really fucking big and got really fucking weird, so an ape coming over would experience the same lack of competition and adaptive pressures.

So why would we have such a hard time finding them if they've been here the whole time? Well, for starters, we do find them. Often. You just stick your fingers in your ears, close your eyes, and chant "Hoaxes and Bears! Hoaxes and Bears!". So... That's a you problem. Also, let's put ourselves in the mindset of a Sasquatch for a minute here:

You're a Sasquatch.

You're probably somewhere between Gorilla and Chimpanzee levels of intelligence.

You're hanging out, doing your thing, walking through the woods, and you enter a clearing.

The clearing is full of dead shit, fires and screaming, hairless murderous cryptids that can kill basically anything it wants.

You recognize that this thing is a threat.

You also recognize that they usually stay in or near the plains.

You also recognize that they usually don't come out at night.

You also recognize that if they can see it, they can kill it.

You make the easy connection that the best method for not being killed by these things is to go where they don't (Deep forests and inaccessible mountains) and do your thing when they're inactive (Night).

Now, practice this habit for an absolute bare minimum of the last 10,000 years (the last time the Bering land bridge was accessible, but they likely would have came over on one of the earlier openings, which was up to several million years ago) and you have an animal that is very well adapted to seeing Humans as an existential threat and keeping well the fuck away from them.

Alright, well, if they're real, why haven't we found fossils? ... My guy, do you have any idea how ludicrously difficult it is to find ANY Primate fossils? We have functionally 0 Chimpanzee fossils. We have a handful of teeth for Gorillas. Orangutans, also mostly just a couple dozen teeth. Gigantopithecus, the guy that everyone points to (erroneously) as an ancestor of Sasquatch, is only known from a partial jaw bone. Most of it's anatomy is just speculation.

For all practical purposes, there may as well not be any Primate fossils.

So now tell me why you would expect to find any Sasquatch fossils?

Well, why are primate fossils so hard to find? Forests. For a fossil to be preserved, the animal needs to either be buried swiftly after death in mostly light sediment, like sand and silt, or have their bones picked clean and, still, buried in some form of sediment quickly (like burial in a grave).

Forests rarely ever have such conditions. Most bodies are left in open air, humid, bioactive, scavenger filled conditions with very few chances to be buried (unless they end up falling in a river).

Oh, and North American forests are possibly the worst possible forests for fossil preservation, if for no other reason than fucking porcupines. Little bastards actively EAT BONES. So, yeah, finding fossils in NA forests is nigh impossible for an already nigh impossible animal to expect a fossil from.

Alright, but that doesn't explain why we can't find them. Well, for starters, we do, you guys just call all the witnesses liars, drunks or idiots. And expecting that kind of reaction tends to dampen one's enthusiasm to tell people what you've seen...

... So that's your fault, when you really think about it.

Also, who's gonna fund a multiple years expedition into the most remote reaches of the continent, with people the scientific (ha, ironic) community has made a habit of condemning as quacks and hoaxers, with military grade search and reconnaissance equipment, trying to build an entirely new field of study from scratch, to find an animal that is deliberately, consciously, trying to not be found.

Oh, so you just conveniently just can't find any evidence, but it totally exists? We have hair, which is call hoaxes. We have foot, hand and full body prints, which you call hoaxes. We have dermal ridges (the stuff that makes your fingerprint, but they exist on your hands and feet), which you call hoaxes. We have photos, which you call hoaxes. We have videos, which you call hoaxes. We have audio recordings, which you call hoaxes. We have basically everything short of a physical specimen.

Well then get a physical specimen!

A) Again, they are actively trying to stay away from humans. They likely don't visit the same places twice when they see humans around.

B) Sightings are rare, brief and probably deliberate on the Sasquatch's part as a way to scare you off. You're not going to be running around the forest on your normal hike with a tranquilizer gun to quick-draw at a moment's notice and that animal is definitely not going to let itself be seen for very long.

C) Hunters usually have a habit of NOT shooting the upright, human-shaped things in the woods. Even if it very obviously looks like a Sasquatch, most people would likely hold their fire in case it's an asshole in a suit.

D) Even if you manage to shoot one, do you have a chopper to haul it out? No? Well good luck dragging a 6-10 foot tall, 400-700 pound behemoth out of the woods with nothing but your bare hands.

And finally E) I'd like to at least hope that most people would be hesitant to kill something that looks so much like a human. If you saw a mother and young, could you really bring yourself to killing them?

Any debate is welcome, just be civil.

[elvenbeard]

Exposing myself here a little and sharing the current rule-set for my CP2077 Discord I'm the process of setting up below the cut! Below the cut, cause this post it's a lot of text as is.

I think I got all channels set up how I want them for starters, but there will always be room for improvement :D First and foremost I want this to become a place of encouragement and sharing and fun... I really just want it to be an extension of my fandom corner on tumblr here and have a room to chat with everyone I love in one spacereally, that's the whole point XD

Still though, I think some basic rules are good, especially if I decide to open this up to more people down the line - but also, some might find a strict ruleset (or my specific ruleset) not to their taste, hence, before sending out invites, I wanted to put this here.

If we're mutuals, or if you're following me and like what I post, original content and reblogs alike, AND if you wanna be part of this server under the prerequisite of accepting the rules below the cut... Like this post or DM me or leave a reply etc. And I might send you an invite.

(I want to open this up specifically also to people I'm not mutuals with, since I don't always follow back for a variety of reasons. But I have a good memory for user-handles and will recognize you if you interact with my posts on a regular basis!) Important: If I don't send you an invite, please don't take it personally. I might not know you or your vibe well enough yet. Especially if we're new mutuals, or if I'm not following you. But I will check out everyone I don't recognize or don't follow who reacts to this post. I want to keep the server somewhat small in general and especially to begin with, but if all goes well, I might come back to this post here somewhere later down the line and send some more invites! I love you all lots, and especially with my semi-forced hiatus recently I missed interacting with everyone. Being welcomed back so warmly repeatedly by so many people in your tags and replies and all really meant so much <3

So yeah! Server-rules below, react to this post or get in touch with me if you're interested to join based on these prerequesites, invites will go out during the weekend most likely! :D

1. Don't be a dick and use common sense. Be kind to each other. Assume ignorance over ill intentions first and foremost, and when in doubt, stay civil and ask a mod or admin for help via DM.

2. Homophobia, Transphobia, Queerphobia in general, Racism and Hatespeech towards other server members will not be tolerated. Report any talk of this sort to a mod or admin asap if you notice it.

3. This is an adult/NSFW server. You need to be at least 18 years of age to participate and can expect respective content. This is not to exclude anyone younger than 18, but for legal reasons.

4. No 18+ content needs to be spoilered ||like this|| by default. If you choose to spoiler something, which you are always free to do especially in general channels, use a label/indicator describing the content you're spoilering (e.g. [explicit sexual content], [nsfw], [blood/gore], [xyz kink], [tmi]). No kinkshaming please, but also, note rule 5.

5. If someone asks you to spoiler a specific type of niche/extreme content (e.g. extreme kinks, dark and disturbing topics, (mental) health themes like self-harm or terminal illnesses, or any content that could fall under 4) please do so. Be mindful of each other's comfort levels with being exposed to certain darker topics. Being asked to spoiler content does not equal being kinkshamed.

6. Everyone's boundaries are valid and you are free to set them. Simultaneously, nobody should have to censor themselves or their creations either. Spoilering (extreme) content on someone else's request does not equal censorship but is part of being a community.

7. If someone forgets to spoiler a topic that has been previously asked to be spoilered, do not assume the worst and kindly remind the op to spoiler. If the same person keeps forgetting the same things though and you feel like it is on purpose or targeted, let a mod/admin know.

8. If a topic that makes you personally uncomfortable is being discussed in a group setting, stepping away from the conversation temporarily is an alternative to asking to spoiler something (also applies to rule 6). Simultaneously though, due to no blacklisting options on Discord, be mindful of what you post especially if others whose comfort levels you don't know are there with you.

9. Please keep discussions on the server civil. If you've messed up, apologize. If discussions get personal or touch upon server-external issues, please resort to DMs to resolve them. If you need a neutral party to listen, @elvenbeard is always happy to.

10. Do not post content that isn't yours without the explicit permission of the original creator (be it mods, VP, art, writing, etc.). This includes posting links to external works that aren't yours.

11. Start no arguments or spread negativity by discussing non-server-members and their activities.

12. Keep shippy content to the respective channels. Respect each other's ships and headcanons (exceptions: see 13), but also respect the source material(s).

13. If you notice headcanons that are queer-phobic, transphobic, racist, hateful or something similar, especially if they are being framed or discussed as positive, inform a mod or admin asap. Everyone is entitled to their own headcanons, but any falling under these categories will not be tolerated.

[valpohq]

Hello to all our Valpo baddies! WE’VE REACHED CAPACITY ! Isn’t that so fun ? The admin team is so happy and overwhelmed with all the love and appreciation you all have shown to our little group. As we’ve done in the past, the admin team would like to take a moment to offer up some little reminders and discuss some things we’ve noticed over the last few weeks, especially since we’ve been open for months and we know how easy it is to fall into a comfortable rhythm with those you’re familiar with. We want to take the time to recognize the effort we know everyone continuously puts into the group and let you all know how grateful we are that you do. However, we’d be remiss if we let what we’ve noticed tending to happen go unchecked. We love this group that we’ve created and we want to ensure that our core values are still at the heart of it. This is a long one so please read through it thoroughly and if you have any questions please reach out. Once you've finished it please respond with your favorite movie so we know you've read it.

Over the last few weeks we’ve noticed a heavy emphasis on ships and romantic plots to the point of characters being created to serve a certain ship, or plots being withheld from going to other characters in the group and being reserved only for a character a part of a certain ship. There’s been less plotting calls posted, less interactions with starter calls, less opens posted, and less responses to opens that are posted, and it seems to us that they’re being posted after plots have been made with preferred partners. As admins, we definitely aren’t shaming people for finding writing partners they’re comfortable with or even that they’ve begun making friends that go beyond the group, but we also want to remind everyone that this is a group rp, not a closed collective. We still anticipate everyone to interact with each other and not limit themselves to the same few muns. We expect you to give the same effort to muns you’re familiar with, new muns, and muns you’d don’t write with often.

As mentioned in our “On Collaboration” section of our guidelines: Giving equal attention to platonic/antagonistic plots and romantic plots: We love our ships, we love exes, we love love, and yearning, and longing—but not everyone's focus is on ships, and it's easy to feel left out if they feel they're not getting the same energy or development as a ship. We understand the excitement levels for a non-ship may not be the same, but your willingness to plot them out and dive deeper into the connection should be.

We understand that naturally, there will be plots where other characters will connect based on previous connections. We think that’s one of the most fun parts of this roleplay, seeing how everyone is connected and how it can potentially lead to other connections. However, we’ve noticed that there tends to be connections only made based on a ship, to further a ship, or connections made only with characters of your ship partner. Again, we understand that these connections can be fun, but at a point these characters start to feel like ship fodder or, even worse, NPCs being used for the betterment of a ship, which goes against our rules entirely. We’ve also received complaints from muns of their characters feeling like they’re being godmodded to serve ships, and this also goes against our rules. Please make sure you’re checking in with muns if you plan on mentioning them in text threads, dash threads, or even in headcanons and plots offered to others. Even if you feel like it is a small thing, it’s always better to double check with the mun first before making it canon.

We won’t be adjusting our rules based on this because we believe our activity rules have served us very well, but we would like to issue another reminder that while it is 2 posts with 2 different muns a week, we do ask that you venture out from the same 2 muns. We’ve noticed a trend in ships/ship adjacent plots or favored muns being the only 2 posts for the week for some characters so this is a reminder to please branch out with your interactions!

We’d like to reiterate that we are in no way shaming people for loving their ships, having fun with them, and forming bonds with muns over them. We do, however, want to make sure that those who aren’t a part of a ship or directly involved with a ship are having fun, too. We cherish platonic, antagonistic, and miscellaneous plots just as much as we cherish romantic plots here and do plan to re-enforce that notion. If we notice the prioritization of certain ships/muns repeatedly we will consider it a strike against you.

If you’re having a hard time with your muse or getting their footing please reach out to the admins! We’d love to help you learn more about your character or help you figure out if this is a character you’d like to keep in the group, drop, or revamp. If you need help with connection ideas there are tons of resources out there and we’d be happy to help you look.

[maskyish]

Banri's Birthday Rabbit TV 2023 - Episode 1 - "Banri's Wedding?!"

PART 1 | PART 2 | PART 3

Please note: I am NOT a professional and my level of JP is very, very basic. I do this for practice and to share with other fans for fun. Please take my translations with a grain of salt as there may be mistakes. If you see any, please let me know and I can correct them. If anyone else has this card and wants to translate this at any time then please feel free to do so!

*door opens* 

Riku: Manager! President…! 

Tsumugi: Ah, everyone! Thank you for coming! I’m sorry to have called you all so suddenly….

Riku: Is it really true that Banri-san is getting married?! 

Tsumugi: Huuh?! 

Tamaki: I didn’t hear anything about this from Ban-chan!! 

Sogo: Me neither…! 

Nagi: Is this why you’ve called us here today? 

Iori: If this is true, we could’ve made preparations to celebrate…! 

Mitsuki: Exactly, there’s no need to be a stranger! I would have made a cake or two! 

Yamato: Calm down, you guys. So…. is it actually true, President? 

Otoharu: Ahaha. This is pretty interesting, isn’t it? 

Tsumugi: Pr- President?! 

Otoharu: Well, if that’s the case and Banri-kun is getting married, what will you all do? 

Mitsuki: Of course we have to have a huge celebration! Not just with cakes, but a whole feast! 

Yamato: For starters, I’ll prepare the finest alcohol and we can have a drink. I’d like to stay up all night and hear the story of how he met his other half. 

Tamaki: ….. I’m….. kinda lonely. 

Tamaki: I love Ban-chan, and I’m happy for him, but….. 

Sogo: … I think so, too. I’d like to talk to Banri-san first. 

Riku: If he has a family, he wouldn’t be able to support us like he does now, right…? 

Nagi: Even so, we have to send him off with a smile. Just as Banri has always done for us. 

Iori: In the first place… is it really true? I just can’t believe he would keep this from us….  

Otoharu: Hmm, well, it’s not true. 

IDOLiSH7: Eh?

Otoharu: Banri-kun isn’t getting married. 

IDOLiSH7: Whaaa—! 

Tsumugi: I- I’m sorry, everyone! And President, please don’t say things that can cause them to be so uneasy!  

Otoharu: Ah ha ha. Sorry, sorry. 

Riku: Thank goodness…. I was thinking about if it was maybe with our manager or something….

Otoharu: What was that? 

Yamato: No, no, absolutely not. 

Nagi: As long as my eyes are blue, I will not allow it. 

Otoharu: I will also never allow it. 

Tsumugi: E-enough! In any case, it was just a misunderstanding. 

Mitsuki: So, what did Riku hear then? About Banri-san telling the staff he was taking time off for a wedding. 

Tsumugi: Well, that’s what I’ve called you all here to discuss today…. 

Tsumugi: Someone in the industry is holding a wedding ceremony, so Banri-san and I will be attending. 

Otoharu: Originally, I was going to go as the representative, however some work came up. 

Tsumugi: I’ve heard from the other companies that Anesagi-san, Okazaki-san, and Utsugi-san will also be going…. 

Otoharu: The wedding ceremony will be held in Karuizawa, so I thought it would be a good chance for the managers to take a vacation as well. 

Otoharu: It might be an inconvenience to everyone for a little while, but I plan to follow up with the other staff and give them my thanks. 

Tsumugi: I’ll be checking my phone from time to time, so please contact me should anything happen! 

Yamato: Haha. Well, I figured it was something like that.

Nagi: OH! But you seemed to be the most flustered, Yamato. 

Yamato: What is this guy even saying? 

Iori: I swear, you’re too quick to jump to conclusions upon hearing the word “wedding”, Nanase-san. 

Riku: Huh?! Even you froze up when I told you, Iori! 

Mitsuki: Jeez! The instant you guys realized it was a misunderstanding, your facial expressions relaxed! 

Sogo: I’m glad we know now. Manager, please don’t worry about us and enjoy your time off.  

Tamaki: Yeah! You and Ban-chan are always working hard. I got nervous when we got called to the office! 

Tsumugi: Thank you, everyone….! 

Otoharu: I’m glad. I hope all the managers can go and refresh themselves. 

Riku: Doesn’t Karuizawa have a famous gelato shop? Tenn-nii went there before while on location and said it was delicious! 

Yamato: That sounds nice. Go ahead and enjoy some sweets too. 

Sogo: I know of a few recommendations for places as well, I can tell you about them later. 

Mitsuki: Sweet! There’s a restaurant I wanted to try too, so if you’d like to go, you can let me know what you think! 

Nagi: Your happiness is my happiness. Please go and relax to your heart’s content. 

Tsumugi: Thank you very much…! I’ll accept everyone’s kindness and enjoy myself to the fullest! 

Tamaki: You absolutely have to try the local King Pudding flavor with grape mousse in it, no matter what! It’s seriously delicious! 

Tsumugi: I will! I’ll bring some back as a souvenir, too! 

Tamaki: Yaaay~! 

Iori: Yotsuba-san, please do not coerce her into buying you souvenirs so nonchalantly. 

Iori: Even though it’s already September, it’s still hot out, so please take care against the heat. 

Riku: Forget about work while in Karuizawa and just enjoy your time with all the other managers! 

Tamaki: Oh yeah! Since all the managers will be there, why not just have that party there? 

Sogo: That’s true, it might be the perfect opportunity! 

Tsumugi: ‘That’ party? 

Nagi: Banri’s birthday party! We all talked about having the yearly celebration! 

Yamato: It’s that time of the year, after all. 

Tsumugi: I see….! I’d love to help! Did you already have something in mind? 

Riku: Yeah! Actually…. 

—–––––

Anesagi: …. And that’s about it for next month’s schedule. 

Anesagi: On another note, I have my wedding coming up soon. So I’ll be away from the office for a few days. 

TRIGGER: Your wedding?! 

Gaku: Wait, wait. Are you being serious, Anesagi? Congrats! Let’s celebrate together! 

Tenn: Congratulations, Anesagi-san…. I’m really happy to hear such wonderful news. 

Ryuu: I’m happy too! She's getting married, huh…. It’s making me cry a little! 

Anesagi: W-wait a minute, you guys…. 

Gaku: So? What kind of person are they? I hope they’ll properly treasure you. 

Tenn: The entertainment industry is a unique business, so I can’t help but wonder if they have an understanding of the work you do so that it doesn’t put a burden on you, Anesagi-san. 

Ryuu: I think whoever she chose must be a good person, but there’s the smallest chance that’s not the case, right? So if you don’t mind, we’d like to meet them, too. 

Anesagi: Hold your horses! It got interesting so I figured I’d just keep quiet and listen for a while, but then I heard what you were saying about me. 

Anesagi: I’m not the one getting married, it’s an acquaintance of mine! I’m just attending the wedding! 

TRIGGER: An acquaintance?! 

Ryuu: W- what…! I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions…! 

Gaku: So you’re only attending! It was an easy mistake to make, huh! 

Tenn: Even though you were the first one to misunderstand, Gaku.  

Anesagi: Fufu. Sorry about that. Just as I was thinking you were happy for me, you guys suddenly got over-protective so it was fun to watch. 

Anesagi: But if I were to actually get married, you would be worried about me like this, huh. 

Gaku: Of course we would worry! If we’re to entrust you to someone, then they can’t be half-hearted about it. 

Ryuu: You’re our special manager. We want your partner to cherish you, too. 

Tenn: Just as you think about us, we also think about you, Anesagi-san. 

Anesagi: You guys…. 

Anesagi: Thank you. But for right now, my only love is my work so I promise you don’t have to worry about it for a while. 

Anesagi: The wedding will be held in Karuizawa, so I’ll be taking some time off and staying there, but feel free to contact me for anything. 

Gaku: Forget about work and just enjoy yourself! There’s a lot of good food there, right? Plus the air is clean! 

Tenn: That’s true. There’s a lot of quiet cafes to relax in too. Or maybe you can sit on the terrace. 

Ryuu: It’s too early for the leaves to be turning yet, but there’s still a lot of nature so please take your time and enjoy it! 

Anesagi: Fufu. Thank you. I’ll go and recharge, and when I get back I look forward to making the best work with you guys! 

—–––––

Rintaro: ….. Rinto will be absent for his wedding soon. So I hope you both will be able to send him off with a smile. 

Yuki: Sure, whatever you say. Don’t phrase things in a purposefully misleading way. Okarin is just attending a wedding. 

Momo: We already heard about it from him! 

Rintaro: Ehh–! How boring. I thought I’d get to see you guys panic, like, “What marriage?!” 

*door opens* 

Okarin: Please stop trying to get reactions from people for your own entertainment.

Rintaro: Gh, Rinto. 

Yuki: Instead of doing such nonsense, just have your own wedding. 

Momo: Aren’t you keeping your wife waiting? Hasn’t it been awhile since your registration? 

Rintaro: I can’t afford to leave a gap in my workload right now. 

Yuki: I wish you would just retire already. 

Okarin: Alright, come on now, Yuki-kun. I’ll be sure to pass along the congratulatory gift you two left with me. 

Momo: Thanks, Okarin! We wanted to go too since they’ve done a lot for us. 

Yuki: Could all our shoots be moved to Karuizawa? 

Momo: Ahaha! Even if the camera was rolling, we could take a nap under the trees with the sun filtering through. 

Yuki: I’d like to go for a month. 

Rintaro: Then, we can make it a job to have Yuki compose a song for my wedding and have the music video shot in Karuizawa. 

Yuki: Okarin, shut this guy up. 

Okarin: Idols shouldn’t furrow their brows like that…! You shouldn’t ever show a face like that on camera! And President, please stop messing around! 

Rintaro: I thought it would be nice.

Okarin: I’ll bring back souvenirs. Some sausage for Momo-kun, and some local vegetables for Yuki-kun! 

Yuki: That'd make me happy, but since it’s a rare vacation, I think you should just relax and go with the flow. 

Momo: Exactly! The managers from the other offices will be going too, right? I’m sure you’ll have lots to talk about, so just enjoy yourselves! 

Okarin: Thank you very much. There’s a lot I’m worried about, but I’ll take your word for it and just have fun.

—–––––

Shirou Utsugi: ….. So, that’s why I’ve called you all here. I’ll be going to Karuizawa to attend an acquaintance’s wedding, so I’ll be taking some time off. 

Touma: Eh?! You’re getting married?! 

Haruka: Huh? What are you talking about? 

Minami: He just told us he’s going to an acquaintance’s wedding. 

Touma: O- OH….. I see. That scared me….! 

Torao: This is why I told you that you drank too much yesterday. This guy’s head is foggy. 

Touma: Haha, my bad. Tora was drinking, and it got too lively….

Haruka: What, you two went out drinking together? This is the first I’m hearing about it. 

Minami: It seems like you two had work together yesterday, but isn’t it heartless you didn’t tell me? 

Shirou Utsugi: Umm… Are you fighting? 

ZOOL: We’re not! 

Shirou Utsugi: Is that so? Well, after a reaction like that, I look forward to seeing what kind of reaction I would get if I really got married. 

Zool: …………

Minami: He doesn’t really seem like the domestic type, but I could see him suddenly dropping a bombshell on us one day and telling us “I’m getting married"... 

Torao: Although he’s never shown us even a trace of a woman, he definitely seems to fall into the category of someone who would be popular with women…. 

Touma: I don’t know why, but it feels like he’d marry someone really famous….

Haruka: Utsugi-san is really kind, so maybe he’d be surprisingly family-oriented? I could see him cooking home-made meals on his off days….  

Haruka: ….. But, still…..

Haruka: …. It’d probably be sorta lonely. 

Shirou Utsugi: You’d be lonely? 

Haruka: No, not really, I’d just congratulate you normally!! It’s not like I wouldn’t want you to get married…! 

Minami: I understand. It’d be lonely if he had someone special besides us. 

Touma: I see… Well, when you put it like that…. 

Torao: Haha. It seems we’ve become quite attached to Utsugi-san. 

Shirou Utsugi: You guys…. Thank you. That makes me very happy.

Shirou Utsugi: My special ones are the ones who are in ZOOL. 

Haruka: …… Yeah. We know. (1) That’s why you can spread your wings as much as you’d like. 

Minami: We’re looking forward to the souvenirs. 

Torao: There’s some good stores there, I can tell you about them later. 

Touma: We’ll rabbichat you if anything happens, so right now your only job is to take a break! 

Shirou Utsugi: Haha, thank you very much. I’ll be sure to strengthen my friendships with the other managers as well. 

—–––––

End of Episode 1

TL Notes:

The word Haruka uses here has the connotation of like "we understand the feelings you're trying to convey"

[animehouse-moe]

Shangri-La Frontier Episode 1: What Do You Play Games For?

What happens when a gamer who only plays shitty games decides to pick up a so called god-tier game? Shangri-La Frontier is the answer to that and provides an insane opening episode for the concept. I'm just so excited to get 2 whole cours of this, and I really want to explain why.

Also, SiM's vocalist (MAH) on the OP with FZMZ? And Chico on the ending song? This series was made for me man.

First of all, C2C is an incredibly underrated studio considering the quality of the projects that they enjoy. This is one such project. Right from the start the quality is insane. 2D camera movement, detailed animation and character acting, the whole nine yards. Just look at this walking cycle! There's no 3D and their shoulders move!

It's just crazy to see the detail they put into these pieces early on. Walking cycles are super neglected due to how "plain" they are, but there's just something incredible about seeing that effort put into it with stuff like these examples.

And then there's this (sort of misleading) litmus test. Does your anime have really good art for a random cut? Odds are the production's doing really well. And, well, there's this really good looking beetle shown early on in the episode.

Anyways, to Shangri-La Frontier the game. The direction understands the assignment right away. This is a video game, we need to know it's a video game. So they show us it's a video game. First person perspective is our very first cut shown in the welcome screen and once we enter the world, setting the tone perfectly for what's to come.

But of course, a video game has more to it then just first person perspective, and of course C2C grasp that as well. Slow motion (which you'll see later), and more importantly camera movement are important in establishing that feel. The slow draw towards an endless expanse of world, the bird's eye view of a landmark or feature as the camera slowly rotates. It gets it, and it's able to create a living, breathing trailer for Shangri-La during the episode because of that.

And then, there's the fact that it's a video game. There's talks of skills and abilities and levels and whatnot, but I think most understand that that's a "staple" and that C2C/Shangri-La handle it quite well.

Let's talk about the good stuff, let's talk about action. C2C nails it. They put incredible effort into video game-styled choreography, and it pays off in spades. The slow motion, the harsh camera angles to accentuate the fight, the camera rotation, the way that attacks linger in the air. It's incredible stuff that's augmented by insane animation and visual effects. Seriously, pay attention to the fight and you'll see that they did an impact frame for a crit. Not in the traditional sense, but that the impact frame was the crit. This sort of stuff just makes me so excited because of how well it's handled.

And then there's the worldbuilding. The OP comes into play as well of course, but the details are super great. The enemies Sunraku faces in the starting forest are (mostly) beginner enemies. A goblin with a stone axe and some sort of large pig seem to be the "typical", but there's more to it than that. The Vorpal bunny is a "rare" enemy which makes sense, but the pig enemy only appears as Sunraku ventures closer to the second town rather than the first.

There's considerable detail and effort placed in the creation and appearances of these creatures in the world. The Vorpal Bunny featuring a better crafted weapon than the others that most likely came from somewhere else. Don't forget - we saw a rabbit in the opening.

It's just insanely cool stuff. The world is already shown to be more broad and deep than "it's a big video game world!". There's all sorts of little pieces like this peppered about, and it's just so damn good. Even the concept of Sunraku's "Wanderer" dropping him in a forest rather than the starter town. The detail to really sell this game as god-tier is so damn good.

But it's important to not forget, the god-tier part of the game is only one part of the puzzle. Sunraku here is famous for playing garbage games.

And it's a great way to offset the story and provide a fun angle, I'm serious. It allows them to add fun commentary and responses in regards to frustration from playing bad games, and at the same time provide a novel and excitable approach to a genuinely good game. The best of both worlds that sets the perfect stage for how they want to explore this story.

So, understandably so, I'm very excited about two cours of this and everybody else should be too. C2C is showing us they've got the potential to make the absolute most of Shangri-La Frontier and it's fun and surprisingly unique concept. Can't wait to see what they bring with the next episode!

[tidalskii]

It was announced yesterday that LittleBigPlanet 3’s game servers would be closing indefinitely, putting an end to the remaining online support the original LBP trilogy still had. I’ve managed to collect my thoughts and pay my tributes to the series before I part ways with it.

This game series means the world to me, and I am extremely proud and honored to have been apart of it’s community. I started playing the games in 2010 with the demo for LittleBigPlanet on PS3 and… I wasn’t impressed. I got stuck before I even played the game! I had a second controller turned on somewhere so 6 y/o me was presented with the “Select Profile” screen.

Having no clue why none of the buttons on my controller were working, I think I just turned it off and didn’t play it for months. Idk what got me to play it again, but I’m glad I did because I fell in LOVE with the game. Everything about how it controlled just… clicked with me. I thought it was genius, the sheer amount of expressiveness you could display; tilting the controller to move your head or your hips, using the D-Pad to change your facial expression, moving each individual arm with both sticks and the limb buttons on the back, it was all so intuitive and fun to do. Although, once me and my cousin learned how to slap each other in-game, it was over for my parents’ ears lol, we’d be screaming and yelling at each other. Sure enough that Christmas, I got the full game, specifically the special kind with some of the DLC pre-installed. That’s where the REAL fun began. Nearly every night after school I’d bring a couple of friends over and we’d try to play through as many levels as we could in one-sitting. The Metal Gear Solid DLC levels I often died immediately in and I would wait for an older kid I knew to get to a checkpoint and revive me. Regardless of how bad I was at the game, it was so much fun, especially now that we were able to experience the create mode. My mom actually started playing it, too. I don’t have any pictures of it sadly but she made a really expansive house with separate rooms and secret passages everywhere, it was really cool. I’d say I spent a good year or so playing the first game, then Christmas 2011 arrived. That’s when I got LittleBigPlanet 2.

LBP2 is my favorite video game of all time, it does what every good sequel should do: expand on what made the first game so amazing without straying too far away from its core appeal. For starters, if you already owned LBP the game will ask you right off the bat if you wish to import all of your collected items, costumes, and levels into LBP2. This absolutely BLEW MY MIND and in a weird way it kind of made playing the first game obsolete. You mean to tell me EVERYTHING I’ve ever made is already here, I can just… continue working on it?! I can still rock the same costumes I had, I can play music from the FIRST game in the SECOND game?!?! That alone made LBP2 so much of a gem in my eyes, it was LITERALLY the first game and MORE. But the fun didn’t end there! It was around this time I got a PSN account, so I was able to experience everyone else’s creations online and… wow. A whole new world just opened up, a whole community to engage and interact with. I met so many amazing people, some of whom are my closest friends to this day, over a decade later. It was through a group of some older kids that I often tagged along with that started getting into anime and comics more. 2011-2014 was a magical time to be on LBP, those years really felt like “The Golden Years” of the online community. Oh yeah and LBP Karting and the portable games existed too, I guess. I played LBPK, I thought it was fun… I still own it, but I’ve barely touched it after all these years. From what I’ve heard PSP and Vita seemed like a lot of fun, I’ve just never played them. Around early-mid 2014, it was announced that there would be a third LBP game for both the PS3 and the newly-released PS4. New characters, 16-LAYERS in create-mode (!!!), and a weird purple lightbulb as the new main-antagonist of the story mode… “Newton”. I remember being so excited for it to release. We were FINALLY getting a THIRD LittleBigPlanet, for a new console, too! We sure did, alright.

To this day, I’m still not sure how to feel about LittleBigPlanet 3, and it feels like the greater community more or less can’t ether. This game… SHOULD be better than the 2nd game, and you know what? Catch me on a good day and I might say that I prefer LBP3 to LBP2. Everything’s there, a new story, cross-compatibility with LBP and LBP2, a fleshed-out create mode, all of it’s there and what we have in the game is phenomenal, however there’s one big, glaring issue that distracts it from being superior to its predecessors… this game is BROKEN. I know people like to throw out that term a lot with somewhat buggy games but oh my god, LBP3 is DANGEROUSLY glitchy and exploitative. By this point, Media Molecule had moved on from the LBP series to continue developing new games, leaving Sumo Digital to oversee LBP3’s development. I feel so bad for Sumo Digital because it’s painfully obvious Sony rushed their time to complete the game for a holiday 2014 release date… and the quality of the final game reflects the time-crunch they must’ve gone through. Joining friends can take you up to a half-hour if you’re unlucky, it’s a gamble if the game will even function properly. Often you’ll be sent back to your pod after the game rapid-fires it’s loading screen (btw serious warning for anyone with epilepsy: DON’T play LittleBigPlanet 3, it does stuff like this all the time), but when the screen fades in, Sackboy doesn’t respawn, soft-locking the game. Fun! I’m not sure if anyone else suffered from this one specific, GAME-BREAKING bug as I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it, but around 2015 or so my game’s gravity just… freaked out, regardless if you were in hover-mode or not, Sackboy would float off to the left of the screen and phase through all of the walls. I tried restarting the game, cleaning off the physical disc the sink, but nothing would fix it, I literally had to reset my game progress. Very fun! Another weird thing I ran into is the inability to place down stickers with the PS Eye Camera Tool. It just stopped working entirely at one point, even in previous games like LBP2. No idea how THAT happened, very strange bug. Despite all this… I powered through, because truthfully I do think the content in LBP3 is superior to the previous games. The music is great, I found myself genuinely invested in the story and it’s characters, the DLC packs introduced in LBP3 were all very fun, and the create mode is a GODSEND compared to the first 2 games. Honestly, that’s one of the 2 reasons why I chose to stick around with LBP3, there is SO MUCH you can do with the tools it provides you. For those of you who don’t know, for the last couple years or so I’ve been building full working models of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters in LBP3, and that’s led to me gaining a humble but amazingly awesome following in the game. I love Thomas, I love LBP, I just wanted to put those two interests together and I’m very happy people seemed to have liked what I made, which is very wholesome and sweet.

I am devastated that the game’s online services are now gone for good, but it was kind of inevitable. LBP3’s lack of quality opened the door for a lot of nasty exploitation and modifications people made to their games. The servers were hacked in 2021, and that led to the termination of the PS3’s servers. It wasn’t hard to deduce that PS4’s servers were running on borrowed-time. Regardless of how unfortunate it’s closure was, this franchise was supported for 16 years. That’s not a bad run at all. I would say I’m surprised it wasn’t closed sooner, but then again… I’m not surprised. The LittleBigPlanet community is so amazing and passionate over these games. When the 2021 server attacks happened we all rallied together online to keep it alive, if just for a little bit longer. Even at its very end, a lot of us had so much more creativity to share with the world. To all those out there listening, I hope you’re able to channel that creativity outlet even further beyond in the future, whenever and wherever that may be. As for me, I’m going to attempt to learn “Dreams”, Media Molecule’s spiritual successor to the LBP games, released on PS4/PS5. From what I’ve seen and played of that game, it scratches that itch LBP left on me. It’s so good.

Rest easy, Sackboy. Thank you for some of the best experiences I could have asked for in a video game. Here’s hoping for a LBP4 one day, old friend. 🌎

[briarpatch-kids]

can you give me a brief overview of brewing ginger ale? im interested!

Yeah! Non-alcoholic right? (If you want the alcoholic one, I'll reblog the ask I got about that a while ago)

Okay so Ginger Ale is mainly made from something called a ginger bug, which is a little colony of yeasts and bacteria simular to a sourdough starter. I made mine by mixing about a tablespoon of grated fresh ginger (skin on, not peeled) with a slightly smaller spoonful of sugar in a little water. You keep adding ginger and sugar every day until it starts to bubble a lot of little bubbles an hour or so after you feed it. Mine took like a week to bubble good.

If it starts getting full of ginger, take out a spoonful of the old ginger and either eat it (tasty and kinda pickled) or discard it. If the water in the jar smells a little too sour or starts to smell boozy, take half of it out and put fresh water in. (I do it about once a week when I feed my starter more ginger) after that, give it a spoonful of sugar every day or two when the bubbling slows down and a spoonful of ginger about once a week or so to maintain it. You can maintain it forever as long as you feed it pretty regularly. Some people keep them in the fridge so it needs less care.

When you go to make ginger ale, you make a really strong sweet tea out of fresh ginger (to taste) and at least a cup of sugar per 2 liters of water. Cool the hot tea down to about room temperature, mix in a half cup or so of the bubbling water from the ginger bug, and put it in a tightly closed bottle in a warm spot for a couple days while it bubbles and builds up pressure.

Some people put it in glass bottles, but you run a huge risk of the bottle exploding if you let it ferment too long and that will send ginger ale and shards of glass all over the kitchen into the ceiling and everything you love. I use a plastic 2l bottle because you can squeeze it and feel how firm the bottle is to see how fizzy it will be. Also if it explodes it's just plastic and not broken glass everywhere.

Once it's got a lot of pressure built up, put it in the fridge and let it get really cold so the liquid can hold more carbon dioxide and stay bubbly like a soda. Be careful opening it, if there's too much pressure, it'll spew ginger ale everywhere and be sticky and you'll lose some of your delicious soda.

You can also do this with juice, tea, and whatever other drinks have enough sugar in them and you want to carbonate. I made a cherry lemonade out of a can of cherries and a lemon that turned out tasty.

Here's a tutorial if I did a bad job of explaining lol. Ignore all the BS about organic ginger and filtered water. Unless your water is like... Oakland pool water levels of chlorine it should work. I didn't bother with the fancy organic stuff and my ginger bug is happy as can be with white sugar and tap water.

[dreamcubed]

gorgeous | fleur delacour x reader

song; gorgeous [taylor swift] pairing; fleur delacour x gender neutral!french-speaking!reader genre; s2l, light angst, fluff word count; 1,3k timeline; goblet of fire warnings; swearing, (underage) alcohol consumption summary; you, like everyone else, were drawn to the part-veela fleur delacour when beauxbatons visited, only she thought that you hated her because you made it your mission to avoid her

a/n; i have no idea if fleur fanfiction is popular but she seemed like the only correct choice for this song!

a/n 2; also i think my favourite explanation for fleur's grandmother being full veela despite veela only being women (which opens the question of how do they reproduce), is that half of veela are transwomen, allowing for reproduction in a way that jk rowling would despise :)

masterlist

"you are so gorgeous, it makes me so mad."

————————————

Beauxbatons: the French school for witchcraft and wizardry, full of angelic students dressed in white and baby blue. At least, that was the impression you got when they first arrived at Hogwarts for the Triwizard Tournament.

Of course, one stood out more than the others - and that was before she was picked as Beauxbatons' representative in the competition. The part-veela Miss Fleur Delacour was a sight for sore eyes: her beauty was radiant in a way that no human could achieve, but you could live without that level of beauty as long as you could admire hers.

Her friendship group had taken to yours in the first weeks of the year, and you wish you could say that you hadn't given Fleur a bad impression. Except, you had, as all you did was avoid her: avoid her gaze, avoid her conversation starters, avoid her presence. Silence was your primary virtue as of late, and your friends were becoming both concerned and pissed with you.

"Y/N, stop being so rude to Fleur, what the fuck is wrong with you?" Pranpiya snapped as you sat in your house common room.

"Merlin, Pran, this is Y/N we're talking about, I'm sure they have a perfectly reasonable explanation," Darla said, sitting by you, "Right?"

You chewed on your lip, feeling your heart twist as the thought of Fleur's golden locks flashed across your mind.

In your silence, Pranpiya scoffed, "I never took you for a bitch."

Your eyes widened in alarm.

"Pran, tone it down," Darla snapped, "Y/N, I can see you have something to say. Please say it."

"She's so gorgeous," you mumbled, "I can't say anything to her face."

Realisation quickly dawned on both Pranpiya and Darla's faces.

"You don't hate her," the former said slowly, "You fancy her."

You nodded hesitantly, hating the aching absence of words that followed the newfound shared understanding.

"Well, avoiding her won't make her your girlfriend," Pranpiya said suddenly, "Talk to her, ask her out."

You shook your head hurriedly, "I can't. Her beauty is intimidating."

***

It was your charms class that was now taken up by a lot of Beauxbatons students, including Fleur. She didn't sit next to you, instead next to one of her French friends, though that didn't stop interactions from occurring.

You had gotten to class early and had been instructed to hand out the textbooks by Flitwick, finding yourself zoned out as you completed the task. Alas, you being mentally absent led you to bump into someone else, causing the stack of books in your arms to fall to the ground, narrowly missing your feet.

"Ah, pardon, sorry," that terrifyingly familiar voice exclaimed, crouching down to help gather the books up.

You remained silent, as the blood in your veins had ran cold with irrational fear.

"Here," she handed the stack back over to you, making you gulp as you fumbled to get the life back into your limbs.

"Thanks," you muttered, quickly walking away to continue with the task.

"Y/N," she called from behind you, causing you to freeze again.

"Can we talk after class?" you couldn't see her expression, but her eyebrows were furrowed.

You inhaled deeply, "Can't. Sorry."

***

The celebrations after the first Triwizard event were massive, including many secretive parties in the house common rooms. You were invited to one, and you were amazed to see people from a variety of houses all in one house quarters for the first time. Someone had obtained alcohol - you didn't know who, but you were grateful, since the party you were at was the same as the one Fleur was attending and you needed liquid courage.

"I mean look at her, why does she walk with such poise? Who does she think she is?" you slurred, the fire whiskey in your glass sloshing about.

Pranpiya side-eyed you, "I get you're hurting, babe, but you're being mean."

"I think we need to cut off the alcohol, we haven't even been here half an hour and you're twatted," Darla said, forcefully removing the glass from your grip.

"No, don't do this to me, Darla," you whined, admitting defeat nonetheless.

"I'm worried about you, Y/N, you-" but you cut Darla off.

"Oh, look! It's the Weasley twins. I'm gonna go talk to the Weasley twins."

Your friends couldn't stop you, and simply watched in amazement as your usually introverted self started chatting enthusiastically with anyone who looked your way. Anyone, of course, expect Fleur, who had been looking at you longingly from a distance.

Eventually, she had enough of your uncalled for silent treatment, and walked up to you, delicately touching your hand to get your attention. You jumped a bit, looking to see who the culprit was, only to make eye contact with the most gorgeous woman you had ever seen.

"Y/N, please may we talk?" she asked, and in your drunken stupor, you finally agreed.

She sighed with relief, and dragged you over to a quiet corner.

"Why do you ignore me? What did I do?" she asked, her face in a frown.

"You should take it as a compliment," you slurred.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Yes, you do, look at you," you replied, the little sober voice in the back of your mind screaming for you to shut up, "You're so gorgeous."

She appeared taken aback, "Merci, but why? Why does zat make you ignore me?"

"You intimidate me," you pouted, "You make me angry with the things you make me feel."

Her ocean blue eyes were pinned on yours after your confession, and you had this overwhelming sensation that you might be sinking and drowning in that moment.

"I do not get it," she sighed, "Je pensais que tu me détestais."

"I do, I mean," you scrambled to find the words, "You're so cool, it makes me hate you, I-"

She stared at you with widened eyes, "You understood me?"

You nodded, "Il n'y a rien que je déteste plus que ce que je peux pas avoir."

Fleur stood still for a few moments, "Why would you zink you cannot have me?"

"Well, 'cause- you're you! And I'm... me."

She shook her head, quickly darting forward to peck your lips. "Je te kiffe."

You remained in shock for a good few seconds, unable to comprehend what had just happened.

"You will come to ze Yule Ball wiz me, yes?" she asked hopefully.

With your brain still buffering, you slowly nodded your head, making her beam.

"Ah, perfect!" she grabbed your hand, interlocking your fingers, "You are so gorgeous, too, you know? You should not have zought you had no chance wiz me."

"But, I-"

"No, none of zat," she said dismissively, "I have liked you since ze moment I met you, it hurt so much zat you seemed to not like me."

"I'm sorry," you mumbled, "You just make my heart hurt."

"But zat can be a good zing, no?"

Hesitantly, you bobbed your head.

"I want to try zis wiz you, please let me."

"Okay," you said quietly, "Let's try."

———————————————

masterlist

written; 02/11/2022 —> 06/11/2022 published; 07/11/2022 edited; —/—/——

taglist; @workinatdapyramid

[cinamun]

The Collector’s Challenge is a multi-round gameplay challenge based on collecting items for each round and, ultimately, completing the household collection list. This Challenge is entirely based on the Collector's Legacy Challenge by @simdiv so all credit goes to them (thank you!!). I only modified this as a non-legacy version. If you’re into legacy challenges you NEED to try theirs out! 

*To find the household collections in-game, open your sims inventory, click the diamond in the top right of the box and boom, collections*

Rules: 

No cheating! The purpose is to enjoy the gameplay and find out new things you haven’t discovered before!.

You may start with a starter lot - use skills and your job (if the round requires it) to build/buy what you need. Remember, you can sell your house if you are moving in the next round!

You may use an existing Sim but their household funds should be no higher than 20,000 Simoleons.

Keep your collectibles! They can be helpful in other rounds and, of course, bring in some much needed funds if you get duplicates by selling them!

Aging can be on or off (aging on might add a little more of a challenge).

Some rounds require certain packs. If you do not have a pack, skip the round!

Use the hashtag #ts4collector so we can all see your gameplay!

Good luck and have fun! This is the MOST IMPORTANT RULE! Switch around the rounds, skip a round! Make the challenge work for you!

14 Rounds + 2 Bonus Rounds under the cut:

Round One: Frogs and Fishes

You love froggies, you love fishies.  So start collecting them!

Rules:

Collect every frog and fish

Complete the Angling Ace aspiration (optional) 

Have a room dedicated to your beloved frogs and fish (Mounted or in tanks)

Max the fishing skill

Become a part time fisherman until the next round

Note: Some fish need to be caught in Forgotten Grotto, which you need level 10 handiness to get into.

Round Two: Gardening Guru

Watching plants grow fascinates you so in this round, you’ll be… fascinated!

Rules:

Collect all gardening plants and all the Magic Beans

Have a garden/farm/greenhouse for your beloved plants

Max the gardening skill

Complete the Freelance Botanist aspiration (optional)

Note: You can obtain the magic beans through rare seed packets.

Round Three: Bits and Bobbles

You LOVE MySims trophies and holiday cracker plushies so get to collecting!

Rules:

Collect all the MySims Trophies and holiday cracker plushies

Have a display/room for your trophies and plushies

Live in an apartment in San Myshuno 

Round Four: For science!

Your passion is the study of metals and crystals. You’re about to geek out collecting all of them.

Rules:

Collect all the metals, crystals and microscope prints

Have a room/display for your metals, crystals and microscope prints.

Complete the element display rack

Complete the Scientist Career (optional)

Round Five: Meals and Memories

You love collecting postcards, you love eating weird foods. This round is all about you and your weirdness, friend. 

Rules:

Collect all postcards and take photos of all the experimental foods

Max the charisma skill

Complete the Friend of the World aspiration (optional)

Go to a restaurant every Friday with your friends and/or family

Round Six: A Bug’s Life

You always loved bugs and this round is all about that love affair, baby. 

Rules:

Collect all insects and feathers

Have a room dedicated to your beloved insects and feathers

Max the Herbalism skill

Round Seven: One small step for Sim, one giant leap for Simkind

What’s not cool about the unknown reaches of the Simverse? 

Rules:

Collect all Space Prints, Aliens, Space Rocks, and Geodes

Have a room/lab dedicated to all your space related items

Master the rocket scientist skill

Round Eight: Variety is the spice of simulated life

All you need to be happy is your decorative eggs, your childhood collection of void critters and your sugar skulls. 

Rules:

Collect all the decorative eggs, voidcritters and sugar skulls

Have a room/display for all your items

Paint as your main source of income

Note: To be able to collect the decorative eggs, seasons is required and you need to make a holiday (Like Easter, for example) and select egg hunting as one of the activities. 

To get sugar skulls, offer a skull to a gravestone and look for the Day of the Dead celebrator around the neighborhood.

Round Nine: Welcome to the Jungle!

The jungles of Selvadorada are calling you! Collect every treasure you can get your sticky little hands on.

Rules:

Collect all the ancient Omiscan artifacts, Omiscan treasures and fossils

Have a room and/or display for all your artifacts, treasures and fossils

Max the Selvadoradian culture skill and Archaeology skill

Learn to make at least 4 of the foods that you obtain from the food stand in Selvadorada

Round Ten: Exploring the Big City

Grab all the posters from around the city and collect all the snow globes you can find.

Rules:

Collect all the city posters and snow globes

Have a room/display for your posters and snow globes

Work as a part-time retail employee (Optional)

Round Eleven: Sand and Suntans

You are officially headed to Sulani to collect all the seashells you come across and all the buried treasure you can find.

Rules:

Collect all the Seashells and Buried Treasures

Complete the Beach Life aspiration (optional)

Have a room/display for your seashells and treasures

Have Kava parties with your friends every weekend

Round Twelve: Doin’ the Mountain Move 

Let’s go skiing, climbing, snowboarding and live on the edge in Mt. Komorebi!

Rules:

Collect all the Simmies and Spirit Dolls

Have a display for all of your Simmies and Spirit Dolls

Complete the Extreme Sports Enthusiast aspiration OR Mt. Komorebi Sightseer (optional but totally worth it)

Max your skill in Skiing, Snowboarding or Rock Climbing (Pick one or all 3)

Round Thirteen: Life on the Farm

You love the outdoors, plants, animals and a little friendly competition!

Rules:

Obtain first, second, or third place ribbons in each village fair competitions (Chicken, Egg, Cow, Milk, Llama, Wool, Oversized Crops, Garden and Pie.)

Have a display wall for your village fair ribbons

Complete the Country Caretaker aspiration (Optional)

Max the gardening and cross-stitching skill

Bake sweets with your family or friends once a week

Note: To complete the ribbon collection, you only need to win 1 ribbon from each competition that is listed above.

Round Fourteen: Bottles, Biscuits and Love

Collect all of the lovely messages you find from all over the sim universe and bake a pie or two!

Rules:

Collect and have a display/room for your messages in a bottle

Complete the Soulmate aspiration (Optional)

Max the Baking and Cooking skill

_______________________________________

*Optional Bonus Rounds*

For these rounds, you will need to complete the aspiration in order to obtain everything from their respective collections.

One: Casting Spells, Raising Hell

Who’s ready for some spellcasting?

Rules:

Collect all the magical artifacts

Have a room/display for your magical artifacts

Complete the Spellcraft & Sorcery aspiration 

Become a spell caster 

Master the spell book 

Become a Virtuoso 

Note: To complete this collection, you do not need to acquire all of the wand and broom color variants.

 Two: The Werewolf

Time to fluff your tail, sharpen your claws and pop a squat.

Rules:

Collect all of the Moonwood Relics and decipher all of them

Display your Relics

Become a werewolf by being bitten

Complete the Werewolf Initiate aspiration 

Join a werewolf pack and/or complete: Emissary of the Collective (OR) Wildfang Renegade (OR) the Lone Wolf aspiration after completing Werewolf Initiate 

Become an Apex ranked werewolf

Max the fitness skill

_____________________________________________

CONGRATS, You made it! You are now a MASTER COLLECTOR! And quite an interesting Sim too!

@geeky-simz @maxismatchccworld @sims-4-challenges-ideas

[weather-cluddy]

The idea that Mikoto must've murdered a lot of people because he seems so calm and practiced frankly confuses me. His actual level of skill in not getting caught was around the level of Muu's, who was literally not even trying. Possibly worse, to be honest.

For starters, train station with the trains still running is a pretty terrible place to commit a crime. People have to commute home, so it's one of the few places that will draw people even late-ish at night. Not only that, but they have surveilance cameras, some of which broadcast online 24/7, which is kind of a strong demerit when you're looking for a place to kill somebody.

He also didn't do anything to hide his identity, like wearing a mask or using gloves to avoid leaving fingerprints. His hair is pretty distinctive and the beanie doesn't hide it at all. (Contrast with Kotoko hiding her face, wearing men's shoes and confronting her victim in a side alley. So these things were most likely on the writer's mind.)

Speaking of the beanie, his evidence disposal is terrible. He dumped the corpse right next to a sign saying "This is private property! Do NOT dump your trash here! We will report you!", the only thing hiding it being a flimsy plastic bag that will very likely start leaking during the several days it'll take for it be collected. It's also very likely to be opened up so the garbage collectors can know what kind of trash this unlabelled, opaque bag is supposed to have. After all, proper trash sorting and recycling is a pretty big deal in Japan.

He then threw a beanie stained with blood right next to the bag which, besides being obviously suspicious as soon as somebody notices the corpses, provides DNA samples to the police. The blood proves it's related to the blonde guy, and any hairs inside links Mikoto to it. Even without any testing, just looking at them you can narrow the search to "people living in roughly this area who have half-brown and half-bleached hair". Mikoto walked home, after all. The murder scene can't be that far.

(Speaking of which, let me repeat that Mikoto walked home. Covered in blood. Which throwing away the beanie did nothing to fix, because his other clothes and his face were also bloodstained. So not only did he not have any contingencies for dealing with blood splatter, his belated attempts at fixing it only made things worse. He didn't even wipe his face before throwing the hat away!)

And if you try to include the bathtub scenes and the repetition of the train scene as evidence of multiple murders, then you have to add:

1.He killed almost a dozen people without getting caught first. A bath takes around a hundred liters of water, an average adult has around 5 liters in them, so if we assume half of the liquid in the tub is actually water then we need 50 liters. That's ten people, but it also requires we assume that he had some sort of pump that would drain every last drop of blood from their bodies. We must also at least somewhat discount the blond guy we actually see Mikoto kill, because clearly that murder wasn't very conducive to getting all five liters into a bucket.

More importantly, every murder had to be done in a very short time frame in order to avoid the issue of blood clotting, or else he had some sort of holding facility with refrigeration and anticoagulants that would preserve the blood. All for the purpose of, uhh, living out his Elizabeth Bathory kin fantasies?

2. He did all this while attacking people in the same place, with the same weapon, with the same clothes, at the same time of the day, under weather so incredibly identical that even the cloud shapes are the same. Talk about establishing a pattern.

You could point at his dettached attitude and claim it shows he's done it before, but honestly? He's far from the only prisoner to have the "wrong" reaction to their murder. For example, Haruka laughing as he murders animals. Or Amane indifferently standing over her mother's corpse. Or Mahiru joking about her boyfriend's suicide and saying Es might be next. Should we assume they're also expert murderers?

Really, the whole sequence makes much more sense if you assume each step got maybe three seconds of thinking each, instead of hours of careful planning. I can definitely see something like:

Something happens that convinces Mikoto that this guy must die RIGHT NOW. He grabs the first weapon-ish thing he sees and rushes to where he knows/assumes the guys would be at this hour.

Alright, he's dead! ...Wait, shit, the corpse!

Um, uuh, the stuff you don't want goes in the trash, right?

After wandering for God knows how long in search of one of Japan's infamously scarce trash cans, he finally finds somewhere the body will fit. By this point he's either too panicked to consciously notice the sign, or he's deep into the sunk cost fallacy and doesn't let it dissuade him.

Agh, he's got blood on his clothes. Well, taking off his pants isn't gonna help him looks less suspicious, but he can throw away the hat, right? Less blood = better!

Alright, job done, time to go home!

[snapscube]

i was super bad at final fantasy online but how much u love it makes me wanna try to play it again. do u have tips for someone chronically bad at mmos?

Sure, yeah! A few!

Make sure you read your tooltips (the descriptions of your ability icons) for abilities, and do not hesitate to look up what any particular thing means. This is gonna be a big help early on.

Combat might feel slow and not particularly powerful early on. That's okay, that's entirely intended. The combat later in the game gets SO flashy with all kinds of crazy particle effects and animation, but it starts off very slow and simple to make sure you understand the most important aspects of this game's combat, which are: 1. Positioning and avoiding area-of-effect attacks and 2. Chaining abilities properly, utilizing combos effectively, and making the most of your cooldown time.

There are SO MANY resources online, YouTube especially, that can help you with any single individual issue you might be happening, as well as just general guides to certain jobs or even just starting the game in general. Watch that starter guide I linked in my previous post and that'll get you going for at least the first few levels! And then past that, literally don't hesitate to look up anything and everything you might need help on (but be wary of story related stuff if you care abt spoilers! most people are pretty good about disclaimers for that though, since a large portion of the fanbase really values the story experience!)

Being "bad" at the game actually has so little to do with how well you'll be able to enjoy a majority of what it has to offer, believe it or not. It's actually SUCH a low stakes game for like 90% of it as long as you can push past the initial anxiety of "oh god am i doing (such-and-such) right??". The skill floor is extremely low, and you'll only ever get better the more you play as long as you, again, pay attention to what's going on, and also, feeding into my next point....

Are open to getting advice in-game! Like, from other players! The community is generally good about recognizing when new players might need some extra patience and/or guidance through a piece of content. ESPECIALLY if you open up a dungeon or a trial or what-have-you with a simple "hey guys! i'm new to the game/this content so let me know if there's anything i can be doing better"! I've actually met some very nice people and had plenty of extremely positive, fun, and genuinely helpful interactions by opening up dungeon runs this way in chat! Just be nice and sociable and generally people will be happy to help you :)

If you'd like, another option might be to look up a playthrough of the opening parts of the game to see if another player was able to intuit or discover some important stuff you may have missed, and that you can use in your own time with the game!

Also, you can pick up every single job (basically your classes, for those unfamiliar) in the game on a single character, so if you're finding that a particular job is confusing to start with or just isn't hitting right, once you hit level 10 (which you can EASILY do in a single sitting) you can pick up another one right away and see if it suits you better! You'll have to do a little bit of extra catch-up in order to get to level 10 again on that job (character levels are tied to individual jobs/classes) and be able to continue with the MSQ and such, but it shouldn't take too long. And hey, plenty of quick leveling tips for early game are out there too!