#pokemon direct 2020

[kafus]

ok i've decided i want to infodump about vee and nova a little after all! because uhh not only am i impatient because autism but i also. want to dip my toes into talking about this. just days ago i was still terrified but now i am Tentatively Brave... if i can talk about it here casually like this then i should be able to write a more formal summary later some other time

i've tagged this post appropriately (at least i think i have, feel free to suggest if i should add more) but also a heads up here too before i keep talking that while i'm not going into graphic detail on anything there are STRONG themes of organized sexual abuse of a child, sexual abuse of animals, and grooming! (there are no disturbing visuals in this post, just text)

IF YOU CAN'T READ THIS POST THAT'S OKAY I STILL LOVE U

takes a deep breath alright so the deal with these two. back all the way in 2021, i decided i wanted to make "vent ocs" as in i just wanted some concrete/consistent designs i could use in vent art drawings that weren't a direct reflection of what i envision myself to look like or whatever. i was going through a lot in 2021, in december 2020 i had just gotten my first big repressed memory back and my life was in a whirlwind of change and heavily increased PTSD and DID symptoms, so i was using art a lot as an outlet. in the end i settled on this drawing, based on the design taste i would have had as a young person (god the quality is so old now LOL i've improved a lot but anyway)

i was intending for these two to be just visual designs and nothing more than that but i got attached and actually ended up giving them a whole storyline and everything, which is something i admittedly hadn't done in a long time up to that point so that's cool.

the reason i preface explaining the premise of the storyline with this is because i think it's important to acknowledge that these two are intrinsically tied with my real life and the feelings i experience as a CSA/OA survivor. not because i think someone has to go through awful things to write or draw about them necessarily, but because i am passionate about expressing myself. it's important for me to be seen in some way, to be heard after years of silence. it is not safe for me mentally to share the exact details of my abuse online rn (and please don't ask for them!) but i also don't want these two to be removed from the message that i survived something and this is me making art about that in an abstracted and magical way with a fictional universe that brings me a lot of comfort. i hope this makes sense lol

oh and also with that in mind if you think for even a second any of this is a weird sex thing for me or some shit please stop reading this post and go do something else with your time. this is my trauma expression and i don't need to be compared to the people i was abused by when i was a literal toddler thank you!

AANYWAY so! premise! gonna be point blank with it! vee (not her original name but shh) is born as a normal 100% human girl, aka without the eevee ears and tail. she is groomed from a very young age (like, toddler age) and eventually abducted by her groomers which happen to be members of... well right now it's team rocket because i haven't spent the time to worldbuild a new villainous pokemon organization yet. roll with me here. she is taken to a remote facility out in the middle of fucking nowhere and is never returned to her previous life or family.

Why? well i'm glad you asked! the org is running a bunch of different experiments in this facility and one of them happens to be trying to enable humans reproducing with pokemon. this doubles as both a money thing and a power thing. they seek out a child as the victim of these horrible experiments because children are easily malleable. way easier to control a child than an adult who already has a firm identity/self.

vee is the child they chose. surgery is forcibly done on her to give her working eevee ears and tail, and also like, fuck with her body chemistry and stuff. she's biologically part eevee now. yes this is bullshit pokemon magic science LMAO but she is kept in this facility and chronically sexually abused for a few years by pairing her with various mons and trying to get eggs to happen.

the experiment isn't working though so they hypothesize that giving her a dedicated partner, especially of the same evolutionary line, would help, and they raise nova from birth as an eevee to take on that role. eventually the two of them are paired together. despite the acts they are forced to commit on each other and the abuse they endure, they actually become inseparable very quickly cause like. they don't have anyone else. and also they just genuinely care about each other. additionally at this point nova has evolved into an espeon and has telepathic powers, so him and vee can communicate linguistically with each other, so you know that helps

generally my current focus of this story is in the early years, when vee is 12 and younger, before they start realizing that shit is fucked up and they need to escape (up until that hypothetical point they have been successfully groomed into believing everything happening to them was not abuse/was normal). i have left out a metric fuckton of detail here just to get across the basic premise. i am constantly exploring vee's psyche, nova's psyche, it's like an in depth exploration of the mind of an abused child in horrific circumstances and god it's cathartic. i love these two so fucking much

btw i guess this art has more context now huh haha after i infodumped off the plot to my sister they looked at this art again and was like. OHHH THIS IS EVEN MORE OMINOUS AND HARD TO LOOK AT WITH CONTEXT. AND I WAS LIKE YEAH!!!! YOU SEE THE VISION!!! THE SYMBOLISM!! ETC!!!!

uh yeah if you read this far thank you and i just wanna say i've been building up the courage to talk about these two for GENUINELY two years, it has been over 2 full years since that initial drawing, and i am nervous and jittery posting this but i do not want to die without having shared my work with the world and i'm willing to take the risks to get my voice out there. so you reading it is very much appreciated ur like my first step into being more confident as a survivor lol

oh and fwiw despite these guys being so correlated with my trauma it's not offensive to make headcanons or ask me questions about them or compliment darker art of them however you want, in fact i love that shit!! please i've been holding these guys back for two years i have so much to say that hasn't been said. as much as i am nervous i am EXCITED

[pridepoisoned]

CHARACTER NOTES: JUPITER/ERIS EVANS

[I've been meaning to do this for a while and I have it on the brain right now, so why not? With the information below, I'm hoping to open new doors for interaction while also clarifying some of Eris's motives and the core influences behind the character. She deserves a deep dive. 😊]

Pokemon Platinum is my favorite main series game, I love my supporting characters, and I wanted to try a villain, which is why I initially picked up roleplaying JUPITER around 2017 in a closed Tumblr group. However, the experience left me feeling bitter--the Cyrus player at the time was very possessive, and Jupiter and I couldn't escape his shadow (or the community's view that Jupiter was a mere Galactic lackey, victim of the 10,000th spacesuit joke.)

ERIS EVANS was born from the ashes of that blog when I went indie in 2020, inspired by the questions: what would a post-Galactic Jupiter do, fully independent and freed from Cyrus's influence? What if she was 'worse'? and what would today's unethical sciences, corrupt politics, and greedy corporate behaviors look like within the Pokemon world?

Four main themes inform Eris's portrayal: (excess) hunger/greed, masks, poison, and resilience/survival.

More than anything, Eris Evans has an insatiable appetite for knowledge, willing to cross almost any unethical lines to satisfy her rampant curiosity. This hunger has been present all her life--from when she was gazing at the distant stars, entranced by Cyrus's fantastical vision for a new world, searching for her father, and even more so now. (Her hunger for knowledge is all-consuming and spills in every direction. If you have something cool, she'll want to figure out how it works. Take it apart. Tinker and probe.)

Importantly, Eris does not want to usurp any existing leaders or organizations...

The spotlight is stifling, and she is most at home working away in the background shadows. Above all, power, influence and control are things Eris craves because they allow her the time/resources to experiment as she pleases. While she's currently under Devon's employ right now, Eris will happily work with/under anybody who can provide her with freedom, resources, and a lofty goal to work towards.

With this being said, Eris's appetite is designed to lead her into trouble. She's woven an intricate web thus far (which I am pumped about), flitting back and forth between various conflicting organizations--a day will come when her multilayered façade all comes crashing down.

So, how does Eris manage to survive under the spotlight, juggling all her connections? She's an expert mask-wearer, ultimate deceiver, interchanging her personality to best fit the mood and get what she wants. She can't help herself. With her disarming looks and unmatched charisma, Eris excels in the world of big business, concealing her darker side underneath. A total wolf in sheep's clothing.

I made Eris a poison-developing expert because it fits in with her curiosity and the idea of soft power, an advisor whispering shadily into a leader's ear. Poison corrodes, corrupts, and is often used in deception, which makes it Eris's perfect symbol of choice. She uses poison in many forms--ranging from the sadistic physicality of her 'enforcer' Seviper, Anje to the gentle suggestion of her mind-warping Kirlia, Felisa. Eris and poison are all about damage over time, infecting and collapsing bigger foes from the inside...

All of this being said, Eris's endgame is unclear right now, even to her. Galactic gave her an ambition to sink her claws into, and Devon is currently satisfying her with full access to Pokemon bioenergy development, but she's always on the lookout for the next big step, always working, worrying about her legacy. Survival.

She helped leash Dialga and Palkia atop the Spear Pillar, spat at them. Soon after, Cyrus disappeared, just like her father had aboard the Sea Mauville all those years ago. That fateful encounter (and abandonment) helped her realize that time and influence are fleeting. In order to thrive in this new, post-Galactic life, she must fill the void with as much knowledge as possible, as many answers as possible. Rules are restraints. Above all, she must survive, no matter how terrifying/twisted she may become. Mortality hangs over her head like a hungry serpent, always demanding tribute.

Always demanding more.

TIDBITS

ERIS is the second (not first) largest dwarf planet in the solar system, maintaining Galactic's cute planetary roots. Eris is also the goddess of discontent and discord (not that Discord.) EVANS was chosen because I wanted an unassuming last name for her to blend in to society following her expulsion from Sinnoh. Also, alliteration always goes hard.

I chose DEVON as Eris's landing spot because they are very similar. Smiling exteriors, shady interiors. I view Devon as the consummate too big to fail company of the Pokemon world, doing whatever it can to maintain PR and get ahead of the competition. (Once again, Eris is looking out for herself and isn't beholden to Devon, though the corp does spoil her...)

[mirroredranger]

Character notes:

Looking back, the major theme in Valerie's character that has remained consistent through the years is exploration.

Originally, around 2012 when I designed Val, it was for an RP group (which has since dissolved). While that group had a developed the pokemon interactions and the human interactions separately, there wasn't much going between the two besides the main plot (a war arc). This was soon after Gen 5 was released, when I had fond memories of Pokemon Rangers. I created Valerie as a way to open an avenue for others to make rangers and explore those interactions.

After the group died and dissolved, I left Valerie to rest as a "dead woman".

After the release of Gen 7, my partner and I looked into joining the PRPC on tumblr, with her bringing Mohn. With SuMo "reviving" Anabel using the faller plot, I thought that was a great way to revive Valerie. Again, her theme was exploration. She was to explore a new life as a faller, fresh with no memories. This also opened a path to explore her past, filling holes.

Reviving her again in 2020, I tried again with the exploration theme. I decided not to have her initially know that she was a faller, finding out through a series of events. I also wanted to keep the idea of a dead person with her. Like a specter you see in a mirror instead of your reflection. This has lead to a lot of stumbling, but I feel like this is how Valerie has been able to develop and move. Explore a future shaped by the past.

Sven and Styler both represent these, growing more as symbols of Valerie's development from the start. Sven is a ghost of Valerie's past, grounding her and helping her understand herself. Valerie has scars on her from saving Sven and raising him. Styler has been what propelled Valerie to explore and meet others. The rotom's pranks keep Valerie connected and helps her change. Losing either one feels like a symbolic disconnect from either direction.

Personality wise, from the start, Valerie has always been caring and positive. The ranger occupation, as portrayed in the games, has you facing the worst of humanity and Pokemon, and coming out still caring. I wanted Valerie to represent that still. Her willingness to go back out is her own, part of the identity she clung to when she fell.

Thank you everyone who helped me invest in Valerie as a character. I look forward to developing her future as a free ranger and trainer, with the specter coming up with her.

[sinnohlunarfestival]

SINNOH ZODIAC

Here are the members of the Sinnoh Zodiac, if one would question the locals about it. Apparently every region insist on a different set of Pokemon, but the general theme runs the same, more or less in every version. Sinnoh says the origin of this Zodiac astrologycame from Sinnoh itself.

Bidoof (1984, 1996, 2008, 2020)

Charming, yet aggressive, people born under this year bear a calm exterior that hides restlessness. They are opportunistic and secretive, but are also creative and great advisors.

Bastiodon (1985, 1997, 2009, 2021)

Those born under this sign are known to be quiet and patient people. They tend towards being idealists and inspirational. They can become good leaders, but may be hardheaded and not accept new ideas or concepts.

Luxray (1986, 1998, 2010, 2022)

Rebellious souls who follow their own path, those that are born under the Luxray year are oddly enough ones with a natural air of authority as well. Not easy to trust, but generous when befriended.

Lopunny (1987, 1999, 2011, 2023)

A Lopunny born person is ambitious, friendly and a bit of a know-it-all. Some may expect to have a sense of refinement and virtue, yet may shy away from real intimacy with others.

Garchomp (1988, 2000, 2012, 2024)

Direct, courageous, yet also stubborn and tactless, many under this year tend towards standing by their convictions wholeheartedly. They are ones to complete tasks, showing intelligence and giftedness.

Steelix (1989, 2001, 2013, 2025)

A Steelix born person can exhibit wisdom and tremendous charm. Appealing to people, they often shoe good will and humour in everything they do. They're people who actually follow through with their promises.

Rapidash (1990, 2002, 2014, 2026)

Social and physically appealing, those who are Rapidashes are upbeat and funny people. They are super ambitious, however, and often trample people who stand in the way of them.

Girafarig (1991, 2003, 2015, 2027)

They tend towards loving nature and are often looking for 'greener pastures'. They terrible procrastinators, though, who have a habit of losing track of time or things. However, they are marvelously kind with wonderful manners.

Ambipom (1992, 2004, 2016, 2028)

Playful, mischievous and full of energy, those born under this sign are very social with a great memory and really great ingenuity. However, they tend towards drama and vanity.

Staraptor (1993, 2005, 2017, 2029)

Staraptor people live their lives boldly, looking for adventure. However, they fall to the trap of pride and fall prey to flattery easily. They are the brutally honest types.

Houndoom (1994, 2006, 2018, 2030)

While pessimistic and pretty defensive, they are also very loyal and dutiful. They can't stand injustice and may even be the type to sacrifice themselves for those they care about.

Mamoswine (1995, 2007, 2019, 2031)

Obliging and indulgent to a fault, they can be very sincere. Those born under this sign can be pretty naive at times, but balance that out with a strong will and hunger for knowledge.

[azuremist]

✧ — My favorite original posts

Any type of queer person can enjoy any queer fiction

“It’s up to interpretation” isn’t a bad response

On the subject of humans and kissing (Alien Stage)

“I’m Trying (Not Friends)” edit (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Ivan is autistic (and masks heavily) (Alien Stage)

How to talk about Amane and Fuuta respectfully (MILGRAM)

Subversion of the “predatory queer” trope in VIVINOS’ work

“Egg prime directive”

Rin and Len being one bigender person (Vocaloid)

“Yaoi vs yuri”

On how I ship Rody and Vincent (Dead Plate)

Dead Plate 3DS theme

Web weaving (Dead Plate)

Cohost sucks, too

On Marina in “Suffer No Fools” (Splatoon)

Pearlina as a princess x knight dynamic (Splatoon)

Haruka has an intellectual disability (and why that matters) (MILGRAM)

Needy Streamer Overload anime

Marina’s Dev Diary #8 (Splatoon)

“TME” and “TMA” are intersexist

Marina’s Dev Diary #1 (Splatoon)

Let Agent 8 rest (Splatoon)

Papicoco’s wedding armor (Flip Flappers)

Trial 2 thumbnail scenes (MILGRAM)

Papika in episode 7 (Flip Flappers)

The balcony scene (Cherry Magic)

Papika really loves Cocona (Flip Flappers)

Guilty Kotoko propaganda (MILGRAM)

All references in Shiver’s Frostyfest dialogue (Splatoon)

Intermission animation (I’m In Love With The Villainess)

Kieran being 14 years old (Pokemon)

Hopeless romantic aromantic Mahiru (MILGRAM)

‘Alterhumanity and Autism’ follow-up survey

Kieran never hates the MC (Pokemon)

Bisexual Pokemon characters (Pokemon)

Kieran’s eye shines return (Pokemon)

How you would fall if you were an angel

The parallels for each prisoner pair (MILGRAM)

Lumity x “My Love Is Mine All Mine” (The Owl House)

Doki Doki Literature Club’s twist would have been better if Monika was a male character (DDLC)

Amane, Kazui, and how your childhood follows you (MILGRAM)

Panels from “The Bravest Prince” (Adventure Time)

Gumlee development (Adventure Time)

Princess Bubblegum vs Prince Gumball vs Gary Prince (Adventure Time)

Bubbline and Gumlee parallels (Adventure Time)

A resource for making your personal site accessible

“Bubbline vs Gumlee” (Adventure Time)

Analyzing ‘(Not) a Devil’

Crowley’s wings (Good Omens)

What did Neil Gaiman mean by this (Good Omens)

‘Alterhumanity and Autism’ panel script

Irony and the Barbie movie’s feminism

Vote against KOSA

The great implosion of ArtFight 2023

Bakugou is a funny character concept (BNHA)

Masterpost of art made about and during the AIDS crisis

Autistic bullying as portrayed in Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken

The hidden message of Swadloon (Pokemon)

Gen work June fanfic recs

Sun Wukong and Macaque flashback (LEGO Monkie Kid)

The original meaning of hanahaki

Autistic people writing robots / AI

AO3’s old racist mod

What is and isn’t menhera

Transphobe / TERF blocklist

Hunter and the ‘curing the disability’ trope (The Owl House)

Ships that are just teenage boys are good

My list of “internet archeology for old fandom drama / events” video essays

Every OT3 has… (LEGO Monkie Kid)

A compilation of every time that DBK and PIF are bad parents (LEGO Monkie Kid)

“Non-man” is a bad phrase

My guide to tumblr etiquette

Courtney analysis (Dead End: Paranormal Park)

The Golden Guard as a metaphor for masking (The Owl House)

My problem with “Thanks To Them” (The Owl House)

Bisexual Hunter is canon (The Owl House)

The androcentric desire hypothesis

Analyzing the themes of ‘Bad End Theater’

Canon autistic representation in cartoons

Male/female multigender advocacy

Religious themes to describe queer experiences

On the 2020 Moomin revival

Being a grimwalker as a trans metaphor (The Owl House)

Disability education resources

Character proportions (The Owl House)

Red Son and his parents (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Shadowpeach and songs (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Sun and moon bigender flags

Red Son is autistic (LEGO Monkie Kid)

Shadowpeach web weaving (LEGO Monkie Kid)

“Galar’s friends” card art edit (Pokemon)

Bambi bisexual flag

Gundham Tanaka is autistic (Danganronpa)

MLM/WLW flag

Digitalized Bede Pokemon Center art (Pokemon)

Bede character analysis (Pokemon)

Brown-eyed Goh edits (Pokemon)

Randall Ascot skintone edits (Professor Layton)

Mousier Scarlet story rework (Bug Fables)

That one time I predicted that Entrapta was autistic and made an analysis post on it immediately after season 1’s release (She-Ra)

[maddy011901]

hi 🍂🩷🌙🧣

(previously known as omfgdany)

ao3

sims 4 gallary id: maddy011901

💌 a list of things you might see on my blog (this is a fandom blog, first and foremost)

sims 4 posting (builds, cas, challenges, legacy, etc...)

tubbo

hex haywire 🖤❗️

redacted audio (gavin is my favorite)

hermitcraft!!!

aesthetic posts

yuurivoice (alphonse, by beloved)

hermitcraft (season 9 is defiantly my fave lol but 7 and 8 will always hold special places in my heart)

traffic life series (scar, my beloved <;3)

the last of us (ellie is my ride or die)

genshin impact (only got into it bc of venti, he's my baby)

anime (my current top 5: banana fish, fruits basket, psycho-pass, black butler, & )

other mcyt (it is still mostly tubbo)

one direction (I'm not a larrie anymore but my faves are harry & louis)

taylor swift (die hard swiftie since debut ~ top five albums in no peticular order: evermore, speaknow, ttpd, reputation & folklore)

high fantasy books (idk how to read /j)

fnaf (I've been a fan since around fnaf 2! freddy is my fave)

stim boards

barbie movies

bratz dolls (I've had a fixation on them since i was a kid)

obey me (I'm in love with asmodeus and beelzebub)

music & musicians (i'm not particularly picky about music so expect all kinds of stuff)

the scream movies (HUGE fan of the 1st 4...i feel realty neutral about 5 and 6)

sanrio (i like cute, sweet things)

pokemon (i like fairy and grass types but my favorite pokemon is Ditto lol)

birds (one of my special interests from when I was a kid that has recently resurfaced lol)

game of thrones & house of the dragon (i have complicated feelings)

good omens

the narnia movies (idk how to feel about the remakes but i am hopeful!)

resident evil games (i like the stage plays too!)

the mcu (loki stan, bucky stan, wanda stan, peter stan)

other roleplay asmr (this is something very personal to me so i don't really talk about it lol)

2000s and 2010s "nostalgia"

dragon ball (the og anime, my bf introduced me to it and I fell in love)

anime tiddies

fanart (i love reblogging fanart)

fanfic (i write & reblog fanfic!)

🐰 about me 🌷

i don't really retire from fandoms (unless i have a negative experience) so i blog about an endless number of fandoms

all pronouns means i am comfortable with any and/or all pronouns being used for me!! (i think i'm agender?)

Dany is not my real name, i started going by it online in 2019/2020 :) my real name is Maddy, idc which i am called ~ i have also gone by the names Kitty, Raye, & Bambi online

my favorite color is #f3859f

my special interest is a fantasy world i created when i was a little kid and i am currently writing a fantasy book series based on it

I'm a capricorn

I am in a relationship <3

my favorite characters are almost always "the blonde one" (they're at least "blonde coded")

my favorite number is 19

i'm a tumblr veteran (my first ever tumblr account was made in 2013/2014)

I've been writing fanfiction since i was 10 (i was writing it before i even knew it was a thing lol) my first fanfic was a walking dead fanfic i also made edit tv/movie trailers for lol

age regressor but I don't really post about it online

I am active on other social media (Instagram, tiktok, Twitter, reddit, pinterest, etc...)

My blog speaks for itself for the most part. I'm a chronic reblogger

i've been writing as a hobby since childhood, including original fiction/fantasy works and fanfic and poetry

🎀 other info 🧸

i was diagnosed with "level 1 autism" in 2020 but i think i am actually more like level 2 tbh

i use my queue for reblogs (most of the time) so i don't clog up feeds and stuff :)

if you feel the need to block me, for whatever reason, that is okay

if you appear to be a bot (no pfp, no posts/reblogs, no bio, no recent activity, etc) i WILL block you

my asks are closed because they make me anxious

i don't have a dni list because if i dont want you to interact with me i will just block you

i am not comfortable sharing much about my personal life. that being said might reblog/like/follow things related to myself or my personal life

i am queer (for now I'm going with agender bisexual, but that is subject to change)

i frequently use tone indicators

💘 tags 💭

tags stayed the same post name change lol

dany rambles - exactly what it sounds like, just rambles

dany's diary - personal posts (this is a more recent tag, older posts won't have it)

dany vents - vent posts (i also tags these as "vent" and "vent post")

dany writes - posts about my writing but not my wips/fics/etc themselves

dany's q - posts from my queue

simming with dany (sims 4 posting lol)

💬 socials 🍓

tiktok (shitposting&theonlyglimpsyougetintomypersonalife)

twitter (taylorswiftstanaccount)

pinterest (fandomfaves&myaesthetic)

spotify (music!!!)

[lilycutesmith]

Top 25 Formative Games/Series For Lily Cutesmith, Dipshit Game DevTM here's a long ass post about these and my thoughts if that's something you're interested in

anyways I made a long ass thread about my choices here so I'm formatting it better here under a readmore (games are done in no particular order really)

7th Dragon Code VFD is a fun game that's probably the weakest in the series but it is the only one that came out over here and while the others have fan-translations i havent gotten too far in any of them. They're good games imo! VFD just sorta came out and was there when I needed it. It's not good once you play the other games and find out the developmental history of VFD is "the company making it went under and SEGA basically finished it for them and its a fucking miracle it even came out this side of the pond." The 2020 games (there's two) for the PSP have Hatsune Miku in them and you can unlock the Miku version of the OSTs by saving her in a side mission in those games and they have some REALLY cool environmental art direction/design so I think they're worth checking out. The series was started/directed by the director of the first EO game and you can very easily see the shared DNA in the series, despite the different design direction it took. VFD is VERY easy to break once you reach a certain point in the game so its by far the easiest, and in all of the games the random encounters are only really threatening for the first few levels, but the real meat of the combat is in the Dragon and Boss encounters. The party size is a more standard 4-members in 1, with a row system too and it plays largely like what one may consider a standard rpg combat system with the React Turns being kinda there. 2020 takes the React Turns and turns it into a genuine part of the game's action economy once you get access to the buffs that grant them upon fulfilling the conditions. This is vital due to the game's 3 Member party size! Its cool. I like it a lot and would love to explore the design space of that further, because i think its a much more interesting system then SMT's Press Turn System. It's something that's really got my brain juicing.

It was a bloody battle between Link to the Past and Link's Awakening but I think the randomizer specifically pushes LTTP to the finish line for me. I really like both and other zelda games though so tough choice. I like a lot of zelda games to be fair and am a known Zelda 2 enjoyer (ill beat it one day…) but like, Link's Awakening sticks to me because a) played it a lot as a kid, and b) man it's story is pretty good and I read someone's take on it as being a farewell to the like, more simple stories of a hero vs the dark lord that most adventure stories had at the time as they shifted to being much more in-depth and grown-up in a sense? And I think that's neat. However, Link to the Past won over it for me here because like, man, I did 100% the GBA version including the four swords content/bonus dungeon, and also like, I spend a lot of time with the randomizer and I've really come to appreciate the like, toolset and layout of the game. It's cool as hell. I don't really have strong opinions on the 3D games frankly. I like the setting of the series though, its a p huge influence on me, and I would be loathe to not include a representive on this list.

I'd probably put Pokemon Scarlet here instead but i didnt see it in the fucking thing and apparently Pokemon Ruby wasn't there either (was not into the remake) so Red version it is (i played yellow but lol) realistically this just represents the entire series for me tho. So you might go "lily why the fuck Scarlet?" and like, man, its probably the most fun I've had in a mainline game and the story was a lot of fun to go through. I havent played the DLC and tbh I'm probably not going to but I like what I've heard of it. The ost also fucks but that's pretty much the standard for pokemon, there's always bangers in there. ANYWAYS, the point here is that pokemon is hugely influential on me and that's why it's on the list baby!!!!!!! I have a million thoughts on the design of pokemon games but that's something for an Ask and another time.

Kirby Super Star is also here bc I played it a SHITTON as a kid and the cart we had was faulty so we often had to do the entire game in one go typically but the nature of the game made that mostly fine and it was fun so like!! Like, I would probably rank Planet Robobot or Forgotten Lands or even Star Allies higher then KSS, but I think in terms of like, once again, influencing my Entire Identity And Existence, KSS takes the cake!! I don't think I have much more to add to this point tbh, I just really like Kirby games!

Fairune Collection is here partially bc I did really like it and it kinda made me think about what a game IS. Also i really like the games by the dev and the worlds they've built so it goes here. This point also includes Kamiko and Transiruby by the same dev as well. I really like how their pixel art looks and the overall visual direction of their works. Also cute girls. That's vital here. I think if you like, puzzle adventure games, the Fairune Collection is a good pick up. They're funny lil games.

you dont play Fall Guys to win, you play it to be the Biggest Clown in the show, and sometimes that gets you the win. I play with a friend only though so the clowning IS twofold. But also like, honestly, the game controls in a very specific way that sucks but Purposefully So? It feels good to play. It's a very interesting game design-wise in that way, and the level creator really lets you explore that and that's cool. The like, """kaizo""" level potential is honestly really high and we've seen some cool stuff in that regard too. Obviously I am obligated to say that it is a F2P game with microtransactions for funny outfits and animations, so obviously if that's bad for you then don't play it. I DID drop money on it for the miku outfit and concert emote myself bc like, miku. We also discovered that you can grab-cancel emotes and if they make a sound at the start you can beep very aggressively and its VERY funny. It fucking rules to beep around someone and then they figure out how to do it and join us and like, the game really stands out when you do the classic "jump and emote at someone to communicate in an mmorpg" activity.

"Why no souls games?" I enjoy souls games but they weren't ever particularly like, influences to me? Code Vein however is where I got my current sona/vtuber design idea from and its a fucking unhinged 6-7/10 game ever it rules. Like where do I even start with this game really? It's a mid to bad story with pretty fun combat and systems and a very funny character creator and its impossible to take seriously with most of the level design being Whatever with the exception of the Cathedrel of Sacred Blood which is a huge fucking part of the game that actually tests your observational skills outside of the enemy encounters, and the game is fucking FUN as hell! incredible game changed me as a person, made me feel like I was starting to really understand video games as a medium when i finished it.

Shadowbringers is specifically the expansion and not like the entire FFXIV game; its an incredibly strong story about fighting for a future you may not even see and that's extremely resonate to me. makes me want to make an rpg. I'm not gonna lie, I kinda soured on FFXIV after Endwalker for a variety of reasons (shoutouts to the raid series though, Scream is a banger song), so I dont really play it anymore. Shadowbringers is still in my heart though, and like, man, its hard to describe. Ardbert is fantastic, the conclusion with Elidibus is incredible, going through whats left of the First really drives home the despair of the situation while showing the resilience of the people still remaining, emet squelch is there. And like, really, I think the story as a whole just very much resonates with me especially with gestures at the world as a whole going on so like, idk maybe I'm saying the wrong words then what I mean too. I'm into it. Shoutouts to Eden 8's pre-final phase with Gaia being Gay As Hell. That part in conjunction with the song live rent-free in my head, esp as inspiration for one of my pairs of OCs.

Zero 2 is here bc its a fucking good game that greatly influenced my tastes in gameplay and aesthetic. why arent people making MMZ-style games where are you people. Anyways I don't know how much I could add or explain this because really the "MMZ-Style Games" bit doesnt make sense unless you're familiar with how the games feel to play lmao. There's a niche for incredibly tight movement + combat in a 2d Platformer with levels that you can play for Rank to test yourself and i am just not seeing them tbh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Iji is the first game to make me cry as a teen. one of the strongest standouts from the early western indie game scene by far. I dont think I particularly cared for the gameplay thinking on it, but I also think that's like fine because its a very unique game and it plays well enough for exactly the kind of game it needs to be. The fact this is one of the first games to go "hey, you don't actually need to kill anyone, and in fact, you probably really don't want to anymore once you get the fuller picture of what's going on because god DAMN the situation is bad" is really important to me and like, man, maaaaaaan, the game's good. Shoutouts to Asha, worst funniest cockiest dipshit ever 10/10.

An Untitled Story is just a solid game from celeste dev who is responsible for the game maker platformer engine I eventually adapted into my own form. I think the game itself is like fine and I really like that one of the MAIN upgrades you get for progression is straight up hatching from an egg. Ultimately, the game is on here because it greatly affected my game dev trajectory. "Why not Celeste tho?" i havent played it and really just havent felt like playing it, its not the time yet.

I picked Double Dealing Character as the touhou representative because while Ten Desires is the first touhou game I truly got into and beat repeatedly, DDC is like, the one that REALLY got me into the series and made friends during. I think if you're looking to try playing any of the mainline touhou shmups this is a good starting point; there aren't any like, game specific mechanics you need to worry about and there's some really fun/funny spellcards that'll trip you up, the challenge is just in the right spot I think. Touhou as a SERIES is a huge inspiration for me (I literally made several fangames at this point) so it resides in a special place in my heart.

tetris attack is a game that i wish i could play against other people like i straight up plan on implementing online into touhou panel date pon for this explicit reason i crave violence that only swapping panels can sate. i really dont need to add more to this, but I also enjoy Dr Mario and Tetris. I don't think I'm MASTERFUL at them but I fall into a weird spot of "Not Pro but Super Not Casual" for them so its hard to play Versus in these games (not that there's easy ways to play falling block match 3 versus games that aren't Tetris or Puyo but i mean…)

the probably big ???? here for most people who are familiar with it is Mystic Quest and a) dude that game's soundtrack FUCKS b) I played it a lot as a kid whenever my family stayed at my aunt's house and it was so much fun. S/o to Shining in the Darkness for the same reason (and is probably why i latched onto EO in the first place tbh). Listen, FFMQ is the most baby shit rpg ever but it is a vital piece of my soul as a game designer/developer/person. You have to respect it, if nothing else for the OST.

La-Mulana, Baba is You, and Ittle Dew get the same entry on here as they are more or less on here for the same reasons. They're all puzzle games on wildly different axis and really made me think about what challenge means for a video game. La-Mulana (this includes 2 for the record) because the game asks you "ok dipshit, how good are you at taking and using notes and remembering what verbs you have? Also here's some slapstick jokes for your enrichment lol". Its great. You have to respect the game because it WILL throw a banana peel in front of you and you WILL slip if you aren't paying attention. Baba Is You is just a phenomal take on sokoban. Rules are fake actually as it turns out. Ittle Dew I struggle to remember any actual puzzles from (granted its been a Hot Minute since I played it) but I DISTINCTLY remember that both 1 and 2 do the funny joke of "hey if you know how to do weird shit with your tools you can get into Places You Shouldn't Be In" and that owns. It's similar to Baba Is You in that regard but it feels like a very different angle, imo. These games helped me sort of like, come to terms with and grasp the idea of games challenging you from different angles? Its not ALL about execution, after all!

shoutouts to crocomire jumpscare, got me good when i was like, 8-9. Super Metroid really sticks in my mind as a result of playing it a lot as a kid, but especially because of that part. I picked Super Metroid specifically bc its the game I probably played the most of when I was younger, though realistically that title might actually belong to Zero Mission bc I did nearly everything in that game except for the Low% Runs bc jesus christ those are hard as hell. Anyways I really like Metroid Primes 1 and 2 (didnt particularly care for 3? wii-mote aiming doesnt do it for me either) and most of the games and like, I've talked about how the gamefeel of the 2D ones is very unique and I dislike the term metroidvania bc there's usually way more emphesis on the -vania part then anything like Metroid lmao. But yeah, samus cool and gay. Would love to see people make metroid-style games with a slower n more methodical gameplay style tbh. I should also make that at some point.

Etrian Odyssey V is my pick for EO because imo its probably the most solid one in terms of the team figuring out how to design the games and just has REALLY fun class and encounter design. I get why ppl might shy from it bc its different aesthetic from the others but its good. Each class has a Base Set of Skills that sort of gives you an idea of how they'll play but then you unlock the Master Sets and you have to pick one for each class (each class gets two) and that allows you to really focus your characters and the teambuilding aspect really pops off at this point. The FOE puzzles and dungeon layouts are fun and the random encounters will explode you for fucking up, its great. Just a really strong and focused entry to the series, and I feel like the one that really delivers on the EO experience. I don't really wanna talk about the other games otherwise we'd be here all night but I do want to make a note that if you're looking to play the first 3 games, the HD Remasters are probably your best bet as the QoL shit (+ slight balance changes to how some skills work/they behave properly now; Beast notably still works the same but is better now due to the Provoke changes; "but Loyalty still sucks?" welllllllll there's quirks to how you can use that to your advantage actually; remember these are team building games!) really helps make them easier to play and get through. Anyways big fan of EOV, its decidedly my favorite after getting thru most of my second replay (i need to get back to it lol). Recommend if you're itching for an RPG with teeth that's not overwhelming you with a bajillion numbers and has a lot of depth to how you can build your team.

Order of Ecclesia is here bc gender. also bc its my second castlevania game (i started with Dawn of Sorrow) and i managed to 100% somehow. idk its a fun game and i think it might've been one of the first games where I REALLY started to understand the concept of game mechanics, because idiot baby me finally realized that "oh enemies have RESISTANCES and WEAKNESSES and my weapons can HIT those weaknesses for MASSIVE DAMAGE" after trying to genuinely master the game for the hitless medal rewards (unhinged btw, but i mean you also got the Death Ring bc well if you're using that you HAVE to do hitless lol). Anyways I dont care much for Castlevania as a series tbh, but OoE (and by extension DoS) were formative games for me so they go on here. Shanoa is also Gender so like, lol lmao

I dont actually have much to say for Knytt Stories. I cant remember as much as I would like but I feel fondness recalling it and I think it definitely influenced how I think about games. This goes for Knytt too, the first one. I think if nothing else, these games were probably the first games I played where the primary focus was simply area atmosphere and VibesTM and they were cute and fun to play.

dragon's dogma is on here bc i think its one of the first games where I actually thought about my character's gender and tried out the name Robin for a bit there. also its a fun fucking game and I liked how wild it gets past a point. Really just, primarily hoping that 2 has a much larger enemy variety pool. Clambering around on shit and stabbing it was hella fun. But yeah this is really just on here for the gender reasons lmao.

Wonder Girl 3 The Dragon's Trap (the remaster/make/whatever) is the game to bring up whenever "does animation affect game feel" as a topic comes up because its THE shining example of it doing that imo. its also just a good fucking game I think about a lot. good ost to boot. Like, I think about the game itself and its like just a really solid fun action platformer with exploratory elements and minor ""rpg"" elements? but it really vibes with me aesthetically. It's an inspiration for me, because frankly I love making these sorta games? I wish there were more like it.

ok last game. Potato Flowers in Full Bloom is such a good fucking game. its cute. its good. I would kill for Chief, love her. she just wants to feed the world dude. 10/10. its kind of like a puzzle rpg in a sense? I really like it. DRPGs are a niche genre, and I think PFiFB is a very unique take on it, and like, I really recommend it if you're juicing for something that's a bit different. Last I checked you can cheese a lot of it by building an evasion character turbo hard but like I think that's fine, there's plenty of variety in terms of how you can build characters and its fun. It's cute. It made me rethink how I approach game design? I think? Idk. It's just a game i really enjoyed and I think you should try out if you like RPGs.

I forgot to talk about the X Series since the thing didnt have X1 on there for some reason so the Collection is there (for the PS2). The series quality is all over the place but damn if it aint a formative series for me, in much of the same vein as the Zero series.

In conclusion you need to have played at least 75% of this list if you want to stand even a chance of dating/fighting me.

EDIT: actually I have a couple of notes I want to talk further about to.

a. "Why no Mario games? Sonic games?" So While I Do Enjoy Mario Games, none of them are what I would call necessarily formative for me? They're all more like, games I take inspiration from rather then affecting my brain on the level the other games did. As for Sonic, I just have not play the games LOL.

b. "Undertale?" Man, I like Undertale a lot, its just not on the list for a similar reason to the above.

c. I did try to stick to one game per series/developer but that sorta fell apart as I racked my brain for games lmao. shit's hard when you have a lot of thoughts and poorly processed words.

[geminixdreamer]

-- Let’s Talk 2022 // Restrospect Talk

Let’s be honest; this year was mixed. It was a hella of a ride for some people or just eh. There was no in-between, but to be fair, at least it wasn’t 2021, which, by far, was the worst year since 2020. As for me, this year I felt like I discovered a bunch of myself that I didn’t realize and it was mostly thanks to the people that came and went from my life this year and those that stayed ( and some experiences that I would chalk up to as pure... what the hell or fate. There is again, no in between. )

I think some of my best experiences were being able to discover Genshin Impact and Final Fantasy 14 as well as leaving Red Dead Online behind except for the few small occasions and the introduction of a new generation of Pokemon on top of that ( although to be honest... the games are a lackluster 5 out of 10 with how badly they perform. The rest is open for opinion. ) Also getting the chance to reconnect with some people and tackle some new problems head-on... yeah, it’s been I don’t think i’ll soon forget.

But let’s get to the meat and potatoes; I want to talk about the people.

First off, I want to talk about my family. My IRL one. So it hasn’t been the best ride in the beginning... but towards the latter half? Things have been better. It’s been stable, and that’s all I can say on that. Although some people are a bit worse than others... 

Second off, let’s talk about some specific people, with coming in first, I gotta give to the guy who’s stuck with me through it all ( it feels like ) and is stubborn enough to pull me to my senses; @dimensionhoppinghybrids ... you’re basically the brother i’ve never had. We may live worlds apart but you are my brother. I’m happy that I got to meet you and that you took a chance on me ( and my characters ) even if i’m a bitchy mess tbh. Thank you for sticking with me and I really hope we get to have many more fun years talking together and one day I swear I will visit your homeland and bug you to take me out for archery and show me all the cool places! ( get it, cool, caus you live in somewhere below zero, ha... no? ok. )

Second, I want to throw out a shoutout to @missninetails and @night-gladion-and-their-ghosts​ . I got to reconnect with you guys and i’m happy I did. I’m proud of you sis in particular for achieving one of your many dreams and hope you get to achieve even more in the following year. Wolf, i’m glad we got to talk and write together and I hope that you get an even better year then the last.

Third, i’d like to throw out a shout to those that i’ve known for a little while who put up with my writing and things I send them even if we don’t talk that much ( which I need to change orz ); @aotoreiki​ @xxyumeno​ @thebloomingrosefamily​ @ammako​ @yugenronin​ @multiverseofmischief​ @kurisu-uzune​ @starikune . You guys are gems and I look forward to talking and or writing with you guys more in the future. Thanks for sticking around and my infrequent replies or not talking to you guys as much as others. /swt

Fourth; It’s time for those new great people that I met this year but are already absolute gems for putting up with me; @aevisong​ @pokemon-experiments​ @electric-ecclectic​ @moonlitsorceress​ . Y’all are awesome and I hope we can plot and write more together in the following year! I’m excited to get to know y’all more as well.

And a special shoutout to @moonlit-maiden​ for being that one person who has been pushing me in the right direction with tips and everything else on my weight loss journey. I hope you get to publish your book soon and when it is you bet your ass i’m buying me a copy!

This has been long and obnoxious I am sorry but I had a lot to say and I just... I just really love you guys okay? Anyway, have a good one and try not to overdo it on New Years ( but also drink one for me yeah? )

[doorbloggr]

Inktober Part 2

Motivation and Stress

Sunday 20/11/22

(All art in this post are my own creations)

Linktober 2022 Day 25: Zelda

As an artist, a constant struggle is finding the time and effort to sit down and just do the thing. Be it motivation or inspiration, it is difficult for creatives to start (or finish) pieces of art. This applies to writers, visual artists, musicians, and any other type of creative.

This year in particular, I had multiple months where I produced maybe one or two pieces of art if I was lucky. This is because art is a hobby for me, and there is no revenue in it. Maybe it is because of my motivation that there isn't? But from experience is past years, I know that nothing gets me in the mood for creativity like a deadline.

But that mood isn't always a good one...

Linktober

I first participated in Linktober in 2018, where I just did the regular challenge. And as someone who doodled sporadically in my spare time, it was a refreshing change to have structure to my art. The first issue I usually have when I want to sit down and commit to illustrating is... what do I draw?

Linktober, as discussed in my previous post, is a variation on the Inktober format. For every day in October, artists will post a drawing. Each year the folks at Linktober will cook up one or more Calenders of prompts to follow, so that I have a direction to follow for each drawing. Each prompt is still up to interpretation for what specifically you draw, but it's something.

Linktober prompt listsfor 2018, 2020, and 2022

So there's two aspects of a month long challenge that help my artistic drive. 1) The direction, and 2) the quota. Now for a while, in particular last October, I have thought of Point 2 being more "Deadline", but I think it is better to think of it as a Quota, and we'll get into that soon.

Direction

So a lot of the struggle to start doing art is to do with inspiration. In 2020 I had a fairly consistent inspiration for art since that was the year my D&D group played the most regularly. But this year, adult scheduling has meant that we haven't played as much, and as a result, less D&D art happened.

And it wasn't just that I could call on D&D as a loose concept to do the art, since these "session arts" were pieces based on highlights from our sessions. Before I did Linktober, I did a month long Pokémon drawing challenge, where each day gave me a Pokemon Type, or category of Pokémon (e.g. starter, eevee, legendary). Now sometimes when I was in the mood, I would draw Pokémon anyway, but with this challenge, I was given instructions for 31 drawings.

POKEDEXY, a Pokémon drawing challenge I did in 2017

All this to say, although good art can happen spontaneously, I personally found that I have the best artistic drive if I already know what I'm drawing.

The Quota

Again to use the D&D session arts as an example, part of the reason I was so consistent with my posting of those arts was because I wanted to get last week's art out before we had our next session.

Session Arts for Chapters 9-18 for our D&D "Everift" campaign.

Part of the artist's motivation problem is... why finish? Sure if you have the direction for a piece, you know what you're making. But when will it be complete? Unless you have a client, most artists are not working to a strict deadline, so it is up to the artist when (or if) a piece is completed, and when/if it's shared to the world.

The pro of a month-long challenge like Inktober is that you are given the when. For Inktober, it's October. You'll be aiming to finish and post your artwork during October, and if you're on schedule, that'll mean you release your first drawing Octover 1st, your 10th drawing by October 10th etc.

The Struggle

I've highlighted the benefits of a monthly challenge to an artist's drive, by they can also be detrimental if approached in a suboptimal way. I wanna discuss how my relationship with Linktober has changed.

When I started Linktober in 2018, Breath of the Wild had come out the year before, and a combination of DLC and challenge runs meant I was still playing the game regularly. The Legend of Zelda has long been one of my favourite fandoms, so of course the next year, I did it again.

In 2020, Age of Calamity came out, and I was playing competitive Smash Bros all the time, with Link as my main, so Zelda was still regularly a part of my downtime entertainment. So 2020, I doubled down on Linktober, and actually made 31 days of art for two separate challenges (occasionally crossing over). I was able to keep up that year because that time of year, I wasn't working a lot, and always prepared ahead of time.

My Linktober 2020 (left) and Linktober Shadow 2020 (right)

When it came to October 2021, I had stopped playing Smash Bros, and had been waiting for new Zelda content for a while. I told myself I would restrict myself to a simpler art and colouring style, so that I would be able to complete the challenge with less prep time. As a result, I was almost always preparing art on the day it was due. And the most unfortunate part was that I didnt enjoy Zelda as much as i used to. It was the most stressed I'd ever been about art. Linktober had become a job, and nothing kills creativity more than making it work.

I usually post updates during Linktober on my Instagram story. For Day 27 in 2021, I did not finish in time, and posted it a couple days later. It made me very upset.

So the point I made earlier about a schedule being good had it in fact killed the fun of art in 2021. I was creatively drained and didn't enjoy it.

Linktober 2022

This year, I made Linktober more enjoyable by removing any restrictions I had on myself. No uniting artstyle, no expectation that I finish the 31st piece by October 31st, and since the last week of September fell during School Break, I had a solid week of preparation time. And once I hit my stride, I actually got way ahead of schedule. Finishing 30 pieces before October 1st. That final piece stumped me for the same reason I had been stumped for art the rest of the year. The final prompt for Linktober is always Free For All; artist's choice.

Usually this is my Smash Bros Day, but I had left the Smash competitive scene on a bitter note. And the bigger problem I had the previous year was still present. The lack of new Zelda content meant that I didn't enjoy Zelda as much as I used to. My new main "fandom" was D&D. So although I am happy with my art for October this year, it may be my last Linktober.

Free For All this year I ended up making it about Mario Kart, since I play MK8 regularly with family.

Even if I fixed the Deadline issue, the original draw of Linktober, that it's all Zelda, became a restriction. Why all Zelda if I don't enjoy Zelda as much as I used to?

What to learn from this?

Direction and Quota can be great for art motivation. Having that push to tell you what art to do and when to finish it is great. But don't let that become the only time you do art. If you don't have the time to do art every day, weekly challenges are just as valid. And if the subject matter of a prompt list doesn't appeal to you anymore, feel free to change it up every once in a while. For October 2023, I think I might do a different iteration of Inktober that better reflects my current interests.

Have fun and do art.

[flyingwargle]

mid-year reflection

now that we're more than halfway through the year, just wanted to make a small post about how things have been and will go for the rest of the year (since tumblr is a blog site-ish and i can write blog-ish posts haha)

burnout is real, let me tell you. after the genshin content creator program died back in february, i, along with many other creators, stopped creating regularly. the monthly rewards were a great incentive and the amount received was generous (it was more than one 10-pull, and that's all i can say). i also got tired of genshin but still play regularly out of habit, but when it comes to writing new content or posting a new fic every month, i haven't been able to keep up.

another factor that comes into play is zine participation. i was accepted into seven different zines in the first half of the year and writing for all of them took a lot of time and energy. i decided to retire from zines because i'd rather work on my own writing. all of the zines are at varying stages of creation, preorders, or production, and so far, only one (ad oblivione) has reached me physically.

something else is also my participation in my writing program. it's broadened my perspectives and allowed me to play with different genres and forms that would not be popular in fanfiction, and i'd rather devote more time toward my dream of publication than write fanfic. this is why i've posted more drabbles lately - small, bite-sized ideas that are quick to write. since we have the summer off, i hope to finish off 1 or 2 drafts sitting in my files to post, but it won't be until after the program is finished, along with my zine deadlines, that i can focus on my own writing again.

finally, it's my declining interest in pairings, xiaobedo especially. there was petty drama in the community, which led me to block a bunch of people and mute others. i still love their aesthetic and truly appreciate their parallels (i bought matching prints of them at a convention recently!) but when it comes to writing new content, i don't feel the spark anymore. the ao3 tag was also filled with explicit fics at a time so i stopped checking it regularly. i have an idea for them that i plan to be my last piece of xiaobedo content. it was going to be a fic with art, as part of the rarepair big bang, but my artist partner dropped out and i followed suit. i'll keep the outline, just in case.

come september, i'm starting my librarian program. it's a two-year intensive program so i'll be back to part-time work and full-time school. i'm not sure how much time i'll have to write, but i hope i'll be able to do so during my commutes, mostly drabbles. i'm excited to learn more about lyney, lynette, and freminet and continue writing wanderer and scarameow. i also hope to write more star rail in the future, too. maybe some pokemon, since i was accepted into two pokemon zines.

overall, i've been pulled in many different directions when it comes to my writing and ideas, which often leads me to do write nothing. i haven't had a proper writing break since 2020 after finishing my novel, where i forced myself to not write and do something else (i.e. watch anime and play octopath during the pandemic). maybe i'll do that once my program is over. we'll have to see what the rest of the year will bring <3

[thereasonsimbroke]

TMNT Shredder's Revenge DLC Unveiled

In Ep. 567, Macio and I discuss the Fortnite crossover survey, Usagi Yojimbo joining TMNT: Shredder's Revenge, James Wan on the challenges of Aquaman 2, and more!

Full Topics:

Fortnite survey hints at potential crossovers with Pokemon, GTA, and Metal Gear

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge DLC "Dimension Shellshock" introduces Usagi Yojimbo and inter-dimensional battles

Pixar cuts around 75 jobs as part of Disney layoffs, affecting director Angus MacLane and producer Galyn Susman

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse Pt 1 breaks box office records with $120.5 million opening

Chris Hemsworth reflects on Thor: Love and Thunder, admits it became "too silly" Sir Anthony Hopkins calls working on Thor films "pointless acting" due to heavy use of green screens

Live-Action Miles Morales and animated Spider-Woman in development, expanding Sony Marvel universe

James Wan discusses challenges of working on Aquaman 2 during changes at Warner Bros. Discovery and DC

Michael Keaton and Ben Affleck's involvement in final cut of Aquaman 2 uncertain under James Gunn's direction

FOLLOW/SUPPORT MACIO: @macdamurderer (Macio's Twitter) As always, we appreciate your constructive Feedback, Suggestions, and Questions. You can also leave us an audio question on SpeakPipe. Thank you for the continued love and support! Enjoy the show. Daniel Podcast Awards 2019 || Games & Hobbies (Winner) Podcast Awards 2017 - 2018, 2020 - 2022 || Games & Hobbies (Nominated) Official Site FOLLOW US: - Twitter | @ReasonsImBroke and @TRIBPod - Instagram - Pinterest - Tumblr - Discord Lounge - YouTube Channel SUBSCRIBE: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / iHeartRadio / TuneIn / Overcast SUPPORT THE POD: Getting $1's worth of entertainment and information each month? Support us on Patreon or visit our TeePublic storefront! SPREAD THE WORD: If you're enjoying the show, please head over to iTunes and leave us a rating and a review! Each one helps new Brokettes discover the podcast. Contribute to the Hero Initiative to offer assistance to comic creators facing difficulties. Show your support for the AFSP's efforts by donating to the Autumn Snyder Tribute Fund. CREDITS: Opening/Closing Jingles - Alex Scott Show Logo By - Opanaldiova

The latest episode of The Reasons I'm Broke Podcast!

[bleedingmyway-blog]

am i a reluctant pokemon fan ?

so far, both of the posts i've made here touch the subjects of pokemon/nintendo. it would be sort of stupid to make the third post ever say "i actually hate pokemon". so instead, i'll borrow the words a youtuber used to describe his relationship with kingdom hearts and call myself a "reluctant pokefan". why reluctant, and not ex you ask ?

for the simple fact that i still massively enjoy past episodes. in my life, there has not been a year where i haven't played an older pokemon game on a mobile emulator or dusted off the old 3ds to play some 4th/5th gen pokemon. while i've grown bored of a number of games that i have played too much during a period of time (dark souls 1 comes to mind), pokemon is really the only franchise i go back to; serving both purposes of being somewhat of a comfort game and genuine entertainment.

my latest emerald run, i had to grind like a mad dog to get my hands on a feebas

the reason i mention "genuine entertainment" like an android awkwardly trying to describe human feelings is because i know a lot of pokemon fans outgrew the franchise after discovering more complicated rpg/mon sagas like shin megami tensei, romancing saga, digimon and thus no longer draw an actual feeling of satisfaction and entertainment from the games. but to me, despite playing more rpgs over the years, i've never really stopped having fun playing the games. i will fully admit nostalgia plays into it, but it is definitely not enough to make me sink 40-50 hours into a given pokemon game (that i've most likely already played) every 6 months. the older games, while not being necessarily complicated gameplay wise (i remind myself sometimes that for the longest time the game was aimed at children) all have their own brand of uniqueness, which in my opinion, stretches further than gimmicks each game has. atmosphere, characters, the general artistic direction for the pokemons and the folklore for each generation makes each game worth playing for me. regardless of whether you think the battle system has not evolved at all in more than 20 years, that there the dressing aspect of pokemon has not gained any depth whatsoever, that the lore sometimes fails to stick together, that the game retain too much of their linear modus operandi over each opus, the pokemon experience offered by the older games couldn't be find anywhere else. all these examples of critics i quoted happen to be a few of the gripes i have against the entire franchise, which have amplified over the years.

Hence, my being a reluctant fan.

while what you've read so far has been almost like a letter to a long lost lover, what you're going to read is an aveu of hatred and disgust towards the direction taken by the games after the 7th generation (i personally judge pokemon sun/moon to be the last good games). don't expect an objective argumentary about why it's bad, cold hard facts or post ironic memes : i simply am going to express my hate for the mediocrity game freak subjects itself to.

i am not going to go into details about how vomit inducing the textures look (hint : i think it looks like actual gameplay from one of those crappy chinese mmorpgs that you see advertised on shady torrenting websites). how, in 2020, pokemon makes its first mainline entry onto a TV system which such godawful graphics, lackluster characters that somehow look inferior to the avatars from a prior mobile game (pokemon go) is beyond me.

lacking 3d animations, battles still load up in an enclosed area where the trainer is nowhere to be seen, pokemons remain static, simple looped animations with not even a god damn idle animation, something that mid 90s point n click games had for chrissake. it is unbelievable game freak went on about the pokedex not including enough pokemons as to concentrate on the ones they're going to be using when truthfully, you couldn't put less work into what's already in the game if you wanted. "it could be worse" yeah, sure, if they didn't just lazily re-use the animations from the 3ds

and you may argue that this had always been the case, to which i'll answer that the only example of gf being this lazy was the shameless copy/paste of the post-league house of battles (whatever its name was) in ORAS; considering the original one in XY was already incredibly lackluster. i actually suspect gamefreak started getting real lazy around that time the way, providing players with the bare bones minimum of pokemon games : expect that's the thing, it's no more interesting than a plain bowl of white rice with nothing on it. pokemon, at its base form, is rpg so behind and archaic that it could be called backwards. features that have existed for 2 decades in mainstream jrpgs such as wild life encounters and beast riding are seen as good additions, while the series was conditionned to smaller machines with weak technical capabilities, the limitations were excusable, but i refuse to ever pay for the undercooked pieces of garbage that nintendo has somehow been able to churn out at a faster rythm than back when the games were made for smaller formats; and on top of that, pouring a thick greasy nasty sauce of dlcs on top.

legendaries that no longer have any connection to existing folklore/mythical symbolism, flagship legendary pokemons being just recolors of each other. jesus christ, scarlet and violet were centered around the gimmick of motorcycle dragons being ridable and somehow nintendo manages to flip the middle finger by making said pokemons CRAWL on top of being extremely buggy

let us ignore, once again, the awful graphics (final fantasy XII on ps2 somehow looked better in its pixelated glory)

the problem is not the choice of gimmicks or pokemons whatsoever, that's up do debate, we've had for each ds game a gimmick to act as a placeholder of the lower screen, but there's no soul left, and as to define this vague concept; not spontaneity from the devs, no extra-work to make the player smile as he thinks "they didn't have to do this but i like it", like getting something on the house from a burger joint you already love. no, you can truly feel that even though nintendo has always been multi billion dollar company, they now decide to make money on unfinished games, capitalizing on a new demographic of older players who won't mind spending 50, 60 bucks on the lastest pokemon game no matter how shamefully mediocre it is.

i think i'll stop here as i would have to go deeper into detail, but frankly, i feel like i could go on forever, with more structure, and yet, it feels childish because this is ultimately the result of disappointment at the downhill slope a loved franchise that occupied a big role when i was younger is taking.

thanks for reading once again, and do tell if you've any objections or remark concerning something i said

[almostjollyprince]

100ish Days of Productivity: I fell behind

I uh... fell behind on this. Not because I wanted to, but I'm being pulled in a number of directions and just not finding the time for this like I would have liked.

Day 12 - Jan 15 2024 This was a holiday. I studied a bit for my certification and then spent the rest of the day jumping between other games (Final Fantasy 14 was down for a day-long maintenance for the upcoming patch and infrastructure expansions) and planning out my D&D campaigns. I got an update from the artist I'm commissioning regarding the token I need for my Saturday campaign, and the work so far looks great. I'm excited to see the end result. There's a lot I want to talk about regarding games. Like how one of my friends reminded me that Palworld was finally entering early access later this week (he's super excited for it because he's one of the many people who are disappointed with the direction Game Freak has been going with Pokemon) or how Enshrouded was coming out next week. I'm hesitant on Palworld if only because PocketPair has a habit of making games but not finishing the polish on them. Like, excluding Palworld, they have 3 other games that have been in early access since 2020 (one game per year or something) and they still haven't fulfilled their promises for any of those games. For a game with a lot of promises and expectations, it'd be a real shame if Palworld fell to the wayside. Enshrouded on the other hand I'm neutral on what I'm hoping to expect from it. I dabbled a bit in their playtest but I didn't put in the full 8 hours available for the demo. Sure there's plenty to see, but... it felt empty? Not on the same scope as Pokemon Scarlet/Violet or Breath of the Wild. All their scenic environments are gorgeous, but I was hoping to find something interesting for going in some direction. Enshrouded has a lot of what I call "mountains and valleys". Your mountains are your safe points because the valley is where the shroud is and that's full of danger. But if you wanted to go to the mountain that's across the way from your current location in the hopes of finding something (didn't have to be lore-related), when you did finally make the journey to get there, there was nothing of interest. There's a healthy balance game devs need to find between oversaturating the overworld with points of interest (and handholding the players to get there) and just... not having anything of interest in that general direction. I guess I'm hoping Enshrouded will be closer to that ideal balance than say, Horizon: Zero Dawn and Breath of the Wild.

Day 13 - Jan 16 2024 I was reminded today at work that we have a new employee starting next week and that one of the other people we were hiring wasn't going to be able to start anytime soon for reasons I'm not allowed to discuss. Updated the work schedule to adjust for that information and just worked with the junior devs to get the project going. After work was... Final Fantasy 14's latest patch. The wife and I were talking about running the last bit of the Main Story Quest together, and we very much enjoyed the new character they introduced that'll be integral to the next expansion. I also wrapped up the new quests that dropped, collected the rewards, and... hm. I guess aside from gathering the currency for various things all that's left is achievement hunting. Not really looking forward to that. There's raiding, I suppose, but I don't have the time to commit several hours a night for multiple days of the week trying to face Savage or Ultimate content (both of which are among the hardest tiers of difficulty for various raids). The D&D campaign that I play in on Tuesdays was supposed to start today, but the DM pushed it back another two weeks. The DM that runs that campaign happens to be a player in my other campaigns and she looks up to me for DMing D&D games, so I'll have to do my best to meet and exceed her (and the other players) expectations.

Day 14 - Jan 17 2024 It is Wednesday my dudes. Work ended up being a lot planning, and the bossman who was supposed to come out this week to talk to the team in person couldn't make it, so there'll be a different meeting later in the week in regards to that. There's also talks of my project getting started up again, but we'll see where that goes. I honestly don't think I'll hear anything regarding it until later next month. After work, I played Monster Hunter World to get caught up to the wife who's already in Iceborne content. I'm... not particularly thrilled about rerunning this unskippable content again, and my thoughts on it can be found in a previous post. The big thing I'm concerned about regarding Monster Hunter has been Capcom's attitude towards their player base ever since a certain event happened involving a Street Fighter tournament a while back. I'll skip the details of what happened, but essentially their view is 'any modification to our games is a bad modification' and they've been installing anti-cheat software in all their games that have been released in the past couple of years or are still available on various platforms. This particular anti-cheat software is apparently causing significant performance issues, and when the issue was brought up, the response from the people who owned that particular anti-cheat software was... not that great. I didn't like the direction most AAA game companies have been going in for a while, but we've pretty much reached the point where those companies are now like "you don't own the games you buy" as a means of trying to stop people from developing mods for those games. I don't use mods for most games (at best I have a couple of mods for Lethal Company), but I get why mods exist as well as why companies are turning against the modding community. If you honestly need a hot take from me in regards to my opinion on modding, it's "don't change the rating of the game with your mods. *cough cough NSFW mods cough cough*."

Day 15 - Jan 18 2024 The team had a meeting with the bossman. He has high hopes for the team and is trying to get us more work. It'd be cool if we had more stuff to work on, but he also put a hiring freeze on the team. It was a weird choice and I'm wondering if there's corporate politics going on, but that's above my paygrade and not really my problem at the moment. Aside from the meeting, it was mostly working on setting up validation checks on our input boxes. There were some issues which I think I've managed to narrow down to it being that one of our component libraries isn't playing nice with the others. I have brought this up to the senior devs but I don't know if it'll get addressed or if we'll get direction on what to do regarding it. It would be nice if we had some sort of document that kept track of known issues (not necessarily bugs, but like... technical difficulties), but I guess the only way one will exist is if I make it. After work I played Among Us with some friends. For the uninitiated, you and a bunch of other players have to complete a bunch of objectives while also trying to identify who the killer is. There's a bunch of games out there with similar concepts (Town of Salem comes to mind), but this one is probably the best known one. I didn't have a particularly good time playing this last time (public servers are rampant with cheating that just leaves you in a bad mood at the end of the game), but I figured a private server with friends would be better. And to be honest, it was. It's not the usual friends I game with, but I've acknowledged that if I wanna play games that my usual friends won't play I'll have to seek out those friends that do want to play it. I had a blast playing with them, and I'm hoping we'll get to play again soon. If they're not going to be playing Palworld non-stop, that is...

Day 16 - Jan 19 2024 We got some unfortunate news regarding one of our juniors. The team's already pretty small but with their upcoming departure it'll be even smaller. It didn't seem like they had much of a plan about what they'd do or what living arrangements they had made since they were going out of state, however. I'm sure they'll be fine. The senior devs aren't particularly thrilled about it, but they have my blessing to go seek out what will make them happy. And hey, they can always come back if things don't work out for them. Our Hardware guy is also going overseas for some company work starting sometime next week, so the team had a breakfast together to get together one more time for the hardware guy. It snowed the night before so the roads were particularly tough to navigate getting to the diner. But everyone made it despite the challenges. The rest of the day was pretty slow and the team ended up playing Jackbox.tv games the rest of the afternoon. We're ahead of schedule and we haven't received any sort of direction for the project yet (they pushed the demo day back a few weeks), so this is mostly to break up the drudgery of not having much to do. Palworld entered early access today, and unsurprisingly it's the only thing being talked about in a lot of a lot of my usual hangout places. The game was surprisingly well-put together for a game in early access (minus the clipping and out-of-bounds issues that they're going to address. Definitely a better Day 1 than what Pokemon Scarlet/Violet had with the multiplayer bugs and glitches) based on some of the gameplay I've seen, but there's... a lot of drama for it as well. People are going after it for "ripping off Nintendo's IP" in regards to how some of the Pals look, but the reality of the matter was how game journalists spun the game. Since its announcement a couple of years ago, game journalists have been calling it "Pokemon with Guns" (they do this with a lot of games - Enshrouded is "Valheim with Dark Souls combat", for instance, as a means of trying to market what a game is to people who aren't following it), but the game itself is more than just violating the Geneva Convention against fantasy creatures. PocketPair never described their game as "Pokemon with Guns". The two big issues people had with the game was 1) 'Was it made using AI assets based off of a couple of messages on X that the CEO made some time back?' and 2) 'Did they rip off Pokemon?' Jury's still out on those answers. My take, however, is 'no' to the first, and 'undecided' on the second. For the 'no' to the first question, it looked like someone twisted the words of the CEO. I don't have the messages in front of me at the moment, but when I saw those messages circulating around, it sounded more like the CEO was interested in the direction games could go with AI (I'll talk more about AI later, but let's not forget that AI is more than just asking a computer to generate art using whatever teaching materials you give it). As for the second question... Original ideas don't really exist anymore. Just because some concepts look similar to another game's concepts doesn't mean they're stealing them. Some of Gen 1's Pokemon look similar to some of the monsters from Dragon Quest (and some ideas from later Pokemon generations seemed to be taking ideas from Digimon, but that's neither here nor there). Is using Elves and Dwarves as your fantasy races ripping off Lord of the Rings? Is using dragons and dungeons ripping off Dungeons & Dragons? All of these examples fall under the "Medieval Fantasy" category. Most of the content you consume in media has existed in some form or another for centuries or millennia. Everything draws on inspiration from somewhere.

Day 17 - Jan 20 2024 It's the weekend, but not just any weekend. It's D&D weekend. I had to finish some prepwork for the session (getting my notes up regarding the temple they raided last session, writing out some concepts that have been introduced previously but finally giving the players the necessary information they need for it now that they're encountering it, finalizing some ideas, etc), but I woke up too early and ended up with some free time between when I finished the prepwork and before the session started. So I picked up Palworld. The game plays more like Ark: Survival Evolved than Pokemon. Instead of dinosaurs that you capture and use for various purposes in the game, you capture these creatures called "Pals" and use them for various purposes in the game. You're less of a Pal Trainer and more of a Monster Tamer or Beastmaster since the only time you'll properly encounter humans in the game using Pals against you is in the various towers. Otherwise, you just have various factions wielding firearms and other weapons to combat the people and Pals in the game that you yourself can fight against or sic your creatures of mass destruction upon them. And I suppose the various Pals you can fight either by yourself or with your monster buddy in the overworld and in caves. I didn't get too far in the game since I only had an hour, but I had fun with the hour I did have. D&D went pretty well. Since the players had taken care of all the major events I had planned for them in that region in the previous session, today's session was mostly figuring out where to go next. It wasn't a particularly long session, but I set up enough to leave them with a cliffhanger for the next arc. I am... intentionally leaving my individual players with bits and pieces of relevant information based on where their characters came from. It's fun to see them come together and discuss between sessions what the hell they think I have planned for them. The artist I commissioned finished the piece I requested, and I paid them for their services with an extra bonus. I think I definitely made the right call sending them information about the character for the piece to look this amazing. I'll be sure to request them again when they have an opening and commission another piece. If you take care of your artists, they will take care of you in return. I won't get the same level of care from an AI model that generates art, and that's part of the reason why I'm against the current training materials that are being used to train AI. There's a reason why Public Domain exists. You don't need to steal other people's work to generate something just because you're not creative enough or don't put in the time to make something of your own. Use the Public Domain to train your models. Don't rob someone of their hard work.

Rest Day - Jan 21 2024 Played some more Palworld. Hung out with some friends and ran some content in Final Fantasy 14. Watched a couple episodes of wrestling with some buddies as a distraction (I think it was the qualifiers for the mens and womens' Royal Rumble from last year?). The Wednesday crew plays this week so I'll need to start finalizing some things for the session coming up.

Day 18 - Jan 22 2024 The new guy started today, but he was going to be coming in a little late. The team sat in on a demo at the recommendation of the bossman. We got the new guy up to speed pretty quickly to the point where he was like "Man I didn't think I'd be able to put my hands on code on the same day I start". Normally you'd be in processing hell for a couple of weeks in this industry, but our team's pretty good about getting new employees access to what they need if not the same day they start then the day after. I had plans for him to work with one of the senior developers all week so that he could understand all the processes but unsurprisingly the senior devs got dragged into doing other stuff. It's fine. He can sit with me and my buddy for the day. After work I did some work on finalizing some details for the Wednesday D&D session. I'm not sure what it is regarding some people and their original characters but I'm always reminded of the meme with the used car salesman. "This OC can hold so much trauma and emotional baggage". I don't usually talk about my plans for either of my campaigns, but the Saturday campaign was always a story of redemption. The Wednesday campaign was something I threw together in some of my spare time so while it doesn't have the level of polish that my Saturday game has, I do try to find something that appeals to each of the players and that's a character arc for each of them. Each of the characters has some sort of emotional trauma they carry with them that the players came up with when they made their characters. One character lost the love of her life, her crew and her ship to a rival pirate. She had since gotten revenge against the pirate and reclaimed her ship, but she had once again lost the love of her life. Another character had a bitter dispute with their father about their career choices and left to become a clergyman before entering piracy. They ran into their father again by chance and had to put aside their differences to work with him to save their family and their village from being sacrificed to a great leviathan. A character currently going through their arc was neglected by their family as the runt of the litter and was picked up by their mentor to commit criminal activities before being betrayed by him. Now, an opportunity has presented itself for them to get their revenge. Will they be able to do so? We shall see~

Day 19 - Jan 23 2024 I ended up having to write up more stories for the project to give to the other developers so they could have something to work on because the senior developer who is the project lead for it was working on other stuff. The other one is stuck writing up an article for a magazine as a means of advertising the company and the team. We're short-staffed, but man, I sure wish we had some more hands to free our senior developers. Work-wise we had to figure out some issues with input validation, so we wrote some tests first to figure out how to design the code. The team doesn't usually work with Test Driven Development (everything we do is dependent on the project), but at least we can say we have some experience with it. There's still a couple of issues we need to work out, but that's a problem for another day and another pair. After work, I realized I hadn't actually created a character sheet for the mentor that the players would be fighting against, so I spent my evening working on that. It was my first time building a Sorcerer, so I can only hope that it doesn't end up being too unbalanced of a fight. After that I did some cert studying and replaced some lights that had burned out over the weekend.

Day 20 - Jan 24 2024 I can't believe we're already a fifth of the way through this challenge that I'm having regrets about. The new guy was with me again today but he had to deal with some project-related stuff so he was out for the morning. I ended up creating the front end of a couple of pages on my own (having my buddy for the day the senior developer in charge of the project look over the visuals to see if everything lines up with how the original project looked and if the modernization matched our prototype Figmas even though he had to work on something else). When the new guy got back in the afternoon I worked with him to finish the design and layout of the other page I was working on. We realized pretty quick that the library component we were having issues with last week was causing problems displaying the data we want to display in our tables, so we'll work out something for that another day. After work, I did some final prepwork for the D&D session. Some people forgot we played today despite my reminders (I now have a general idea of who mutes the server and who doesn't) but everyone showed up on time. The session itself went pretty well. Granted, I had to improvise some ideas because the characters all split off to do their own thing in different groups, but I was told I did a good job balancing the seriousness nature of some scenes and the lightheartedness of other scenes. Next session, the character this arc is for will face the source of his trauma, his mentor. I also did a reveal regarding the NPC companion that was with the party for this arc that caught everyone off guard, but once they started putting the pieces together, everything was making sense for them. I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out, and it sounded like some of the players are ready for the emotional damage to hit them next time.

Day 21 - Jan 25 2024 The bossman is asking us for logos for the team so that they can get some corporate swag made, so guess who had to go help with that? That's right, not me and my buddy for the day because we lost the rock-paper-scissors game to decide who worked on what. Which, granted, was mostly because we only have 7 people on the team and our senior devs are doing things outside of their job scope due to a lack of personnel and we still needed someone to work on the projects we currently have. We rewired some pathing on some of the pages and reworked the placeholder visuals. We had a team lunch so it was nice to get away and enjoy a good burger. I was also asked to give some feedback regarding some of the designs that the other pair was generating for the logo (using Midjourney as a baseline to generate concepts that they would rework later) and after I gave some input it seemed like we would have something by tomorrow to give to the bossman. The 24th happened to be the day Enshrouded released into early access on some platforms, so I picked that up to play with friends. We got a server going for the usual crew and got into shenanigans for a couple of hours. Overall a good time.

Day 22 - Jan 26 2024 It snowed a good couple of inches in my area so myself and another person on the team weren't able to go into the office today, so we worked from home. My buddy for the day requested the day off so I mostly focused on certification study. I took a practice test to see where I was at, but the questions were... really vague. Somehow only got one question wrong, but I'm not going to complain. The logo designs were posted so we placed our votes on our top choices, and I think whichever ones everyone agreed on were gonna be sent to the bossman for swag. The evening was a mix of Final Fantasy 14 and Enshrouded. I think my biggest complaint regarding Enshrouded is that for a survival game, your only real danger is in the shroud. The game has a food buff system much like Valheim, but there's no worry of death if you run out of food/water like with other survival games that have a food and thirst meter. If the camp had to deal with random enemy raids I could see more of the survival genre aspect the game's being marketed for, but again, your only real danger is the shroud. We have removed the doors to our camp because everyone's struggling with the doors, but there's no serious danger in the mountains outside of the shrouded areas. At least tomorrow is the weekend.

[sylviegunpla]

Plamo: Pokémon Select 005: Ho-Oh

This is so majestic.... this was actually the first PokePla kit i did, all the way back in 2020. I had just found out about "gold paint pens"... and i didn't yet know how shitty they were (not related to pictures above... just hang with me while i tell this story). So you see the white tips of Ho-Oh's tail feathers? You can see in some of the pictures, that color is accomplished with a sticker. Well, for the past 3 years those tips were actually painted gold with one of the first gold paint pens i got. And lemme tell you, i was disappointed back then with how shitty it turned out. it was dull, not shiny like i was hoping for. Still, i decided to render those tips in gold. This year i have my fancy EX Gundam Marker Gold... and i wanna redo it. One of the first problems i encountered with that old paint pen was that unlock most of the materials i'd been using til then, isopropyl alcohol was not a solvent for it. Well this year i figured out that aqueous color thinner was "good enough" to get the job done. I wound up rendering that uhhh "Upper feather cover" in gold. ANd then those tail feather tips, i applied the stickers as per the kit's directions while also highlighting the sides of the plastic (still exposed by the stickers) with the EX gundam marker, and i was so impressed with how the pictures came out... it looks beautiful IRL. You can also see the plumage on its head is also covered in the EX Gundam Marker gold. Also i used white gundam paint pen for the talons, instead of the ridiculous stickers they wanted you to use. But the inside of Ho-Oh's beak and also it's tongue are colored using stickers. and you can also see the green stripe on its neck is coming loose, that's also a sticker. Maybe one day i'll try to fix that with paint, but for now this is what i got and i think it looks pretty decent for what it is. Pokemon relies too much on stickers, especially for the inner mouths of its model kits. But this is fine for now. Any skilled modeler could do it up more than i did and completely eliminate stickers if they wanted. Unlike the Arceus kit, i didn't seal the EX Gundam Marker with a topcoat, so we'll see how the look keeps with time! Stats for nerds:

The waste weight of this model kit is about equal to the weight of plastic you use. UPDATE: Found a picture from before i redid it this year.

[megagallade]

I'm beyond jealous that you have people to bitch about palworld with I Cannot for the life of me understand what people see in it

it's quite sad because like! why couldn't this Pokemon malaise be directed to a monster collection series that actually cares about what it puts out like Cassette Beasts or Yokai Watch instead of a series that feels like it was made by someone who thought Happy Tree Friends is radical and cool in the 2020s

[stifledlaughterao3]

End of Year Fic Writing Bingo

This year was a pretty good one for fic! I think a key element of 2023 for writing was that I dug back into some WIPs that had been languishing and just sort of forced myself to finish them, even if they weren’t as perfect as I imagined they would be, or went in a different direction than I had originally intended. A lot of these, looking at the list, were gifts or inspired by prompts, which helps in having a firm deadline. I didn’t do my ‘write daily’ thing I did in 2020 and 2021, but I still wrote a lot, and initiated WIP hours with friends so that I would have a dedicated time to write. 

Fannishly I did a lot of other things this year too: 3 Fic Clique Ficlet episodes and a handful of podfics! They were really fun and I hope to do similar things next year. 

As you can see, I sadly did NOT make bingo (despite being so close SO many times) but hey, I tried! 

(Individual fic commentary below the cut)

something else entirely holds me in thrall (Pokemon)

“Everyone lives and nothing hurts” – I had started this fic due to re-playing Pokemon games from my childhood (Pokemon Crystal my beloved). It’s just my friends and I in the Pokemon world having idealized jobs with our Pokemon. I was encouraged internally to finish it so I could give it to one of the friends who had a character in the fic to help them through a hard time. So less “everyone lives” (all friends in it are alive!!) but “nothing hurts” definitely hits in this self-indulgent, really happy AU of our lives. 

shorn-off children like them (Call Me Chihiro (2023))

“If no one else will write it, I will” – so I watched the movie on a whim and it REALLY hit me where it hurts. So few movies get the ‘estranged child’ feelings well, and I saw a lot of myself in my mid-twenties with this character. So I wrote this because I just don’t see analysis of people in my situation in media, and I wanted to give her the character development I went through to end up in a happier place. 

The Archon is Too Sublime (原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game))

“Thought of a great line” – I really liked the summary line of this fic, it sets the tone for the whole thing. I just honestly love writing irreverent, silly but sincere fics like this. 

beloved gem, plucked rose (原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game))

“I was joking with my friend and then it happened” – shoutout to Purple for fucking around with “haha what if Tighnari accidentally became a cult leader and Cyno loved the idea of being a beautiful cult leader’s beloved” and it spiraled into one of my most popular fics of the year. 

it flows as the breaths inside the lungs (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters)

“This is going to be SO hot” – My first fic in a new fandom is giving pharaohs heat cycles based on the Nile flooding?? Sure!! It was definitely one of my horniest fics I wrote this year, and I was very pleased by the result. 

ex situ by stifledlaughter (Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters)

“But what happens AFTER canon?” I quite liked Marik’s character when I first watched YGO– I related a ton to the ‘very bitter after religious abuse’ backstory he had, and I wanted to explore how he seemingly mellowed out a ton in the last season. 

Dragon-In-Wait (BNHA)

“Thought of a great scene” – so this was the prequel to one of my favorite fics I’ve ever written, Last Out the Winter. I started it in 2020 and sometime in early 2023 I was like “I have 40k down. I just need to slam out 10-20k more to finish it.” 40k later, I had finished it, and, amusingly, the “great scene” I had in mind from the beginning was slightly changed! But that’s what happens when you let a fic languish for 3 years. 

(space) riot when I'm with you (IT - Stephen King & Pride and Prejudice)

“It came to me in a dream” – While this was indeed a prompt from the Fic Clique podcast, the plot to it was a hazy contrivance of having read a LOT of Yu-Gi-Oh fanfic and wanting to explore the horror genre a bit more. It just sort of coalesced in my brain to the surprisingly coherent fic it turned out to be. 

A Timely Convergence of Melodies (new chapter) (Kuroko no Basuke)

“I just want them to kiss” – Ahhh, my fic that is the slowest to update of all time. I went 3 years in between updating this chapter and the last. Since each chapter focuses on a different couple reliving the same 5 or so hours, I do consider this mentally a ‘one shot’. This was another “omg just FINISH IT” fic I yanked out of my drafts and slammed out. It wasn’t what I originally wanted for it, but I’m glad it’s done all the same. 

A Handmade Scrapbook (new one-shot) ("Designation: Miracle" fandom, a Kuroko no Basuke AU)

“Fuck this character in particular” – I love Masaomi from Designation: Miracle with all of my heart but boy is it fun to Put That Man In Situations. Doing a SVSSS crossover with the OT4 appeals to the nichest audience of like 4 people on the planet who have read D:M and understand SVSSS but it was fun for ME to write and that’s what matters. 

deep in the night, I am looking for some(one) (2 new chapters) (Fanfic of the "Letter to the Headitor" AU for BNHA)

“I want this universe and those characters” – As always, my fanfics of the LTTH AU are my little bouncy house of humor and fun to roll around in. I went a little more serious with the most recent chapter, but it felt very earned after the other more lighthearted ones. LTTH will always be a fic that, in watching it update in real time, helped me through some real bad stuff and I will always write about it with joy in my heart. 

Untitled Fic Clique Episode (Fandom RPF & Untitled Goose Game (Video Game))

“Just to see if I could” – The SECOND I got the idea for this I yanked out my computer and slammed this out in approximately two hours. I was losing my gourd, possessed, feral with my goose teeth and wings. It is possibly the funniest thing I’ll ever write and I may have peaked but that’s okay. 

Game of the Scene by stifledlaughter (原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game))

“This idea won’t shut up until I write it” – I’ve been noodling on this Razor/Fischl/Bennett future fic for a while now, and part of my “just write it!!” mentality this year involved me taking the noodling thoughts and stir-frying them into something edible. I was pretty pleased with it in the end, especially the female OC, who is definitely one of my favorites I’ve written. 

adularescence (new one-shot) (原神 | Genshin Impact (Video Game))

“Gift fic” – my yearly solstice gift for my metamour! She let me write Zhongli with two dicks this year, I was really excited about that. 

the skin you're in (Wizard of Oz) 

“Found a prompt list” – more specifically, a Yuletide recipient’s list! What’s funny about this one is that originally, I had been assigned to them for a different fandom (Neopets) only to read the rest of their prompts and read their cool prompt for a genderqueer Ozma. It prompted me to re-read select books from the Wizard of Oz series so I could better write this fic, which was pretty fun. 

more mundane and magical (Love and Leashes (2022))

“I saw the plot and needed it for my OTP” – So I have been really really wanting to write a fic set in the modern day kink community/scene, even though I left my in-person kink community several years ago due to burnout. I still have many fond memories of it, and truly wanted to write a fic that reflects the good parts of the community with rose-colored glasses, so I no longer felt as bitter about the bad parts. When I saw this movie requested for Yuletide, I knew that I had to write for it, and that finally, I could marry this plot idea (“put those characters in the kink scene”) with this fantastic movie that lends itself so well to that idea. Writing it was joyful, cathartic, and a little melancholy, which I feel really enhanced the fic. 

Clean bingo card: